When I got home this evening, Alex was in the shower and Cassie was getting some dinner ready for them, and I had a few minutes to myself because I’m feeling pretty sick.

I logged in for my nightly chance at the Ahune staff on my Priest… nope. As usual, year after year.

I logged over onto my Druid to exchange more Justice for Honor, got myself a new PvP mount, and then checked the LFD box.

Satchel of Exotic Mysteries up?

Why, yes it is!

Shifty-eyes back and forth. I gots a few minutes, nobody is looking for me, let’s sneak one in.

I get End Time.

The group starts out a little inauspiciously, one of the players doesn’t react as we kill the first couple of packs of trash in the Ruby, but you know, things happen. I ask if everything is okay, and one of the other players says that person is just lagging back and is trying to reset their computer.

Okay, no problem, we hang out, do some Bear dances. A few minutes later they log back in, and from that moment on…

It’s a perfect run.

We had bosses go down with perfect smoothness. Everyone did their role, moved in concert, happiness and joy in abundance.

We had a few moments waiting for one of the other players in Obsidian, so we engaged in even more Bear dancing. More Druids! We want More!

It was everything a run should be. Fast, steady, smooth, people typed in complete words, there was even punctuation a time or two!

Nobody was rude to anyone, nobody complained about waiting for a few secs, and you know what?

Even with the waiting, things died faster than in most “go go go” groups I’ve been in, and dear lord I’ve tanked a lot of runs this week.

When the final boss died, I was sad to end out the run. I didn’t have time for another, but that was a group that simply all played well and made me happy to be a tank and do a random PUGged LFD.

It was the kind of run that reminds you how enjoyable the game can be when you have a team of people all working together towards a common goal instead of out for themselves or at cross-purposes.

If you happen to be running in LFD, and you see Aggressiøn-Dentarg, or Treetard-Dentarg (yes, I know, I know), or Dariusboo-Dalaren or Abw-Dalaran in your group…

Wave hello, and relax, because despite a certain wince-inducing name, these are all good players and I’d welcome them back in my groups any time. Damn it, I wish they all could be like these people. I really do.

When the run was over and we’d said our farewells, I zoned back into Stormwind, and opened my Satchel of Exotic Mysteries to see what flavor flask I got this time.

Behold, for the first time, something other than a Flask;

I’m telling you right here, right now, getting rewarded for a run like that seems like theft. It’s stealing, plain and simple.

Ah well. I may not have earned it, and I certainly don’t deserve it, but I’m a gonna ride it JUST like I stole it!

I guess it’s just a week for mounts, isn’t it?

I just got the word from The Godmother, and I am zerg rushing the presses on this one.

The most important news to come out of the Beta is here.

MOUNTS ARE ACCOUNT WIDE AFTER ALL!!!!!

Mumper commented on this thread an update, and it’s pretty specific;

This is truly liberating news. I know, I know, most people probably read my earlier post about this issue and thought I’d gone batshit crazy. This is probably one of the most trivial issues you could find in the game, and here I am bemoaning some mounts not being shared.

Heck, Druid Tanks are facing some serious issues in MoP right now, and instead of talking about any of that I spend time whining about mounts.

The thing is, this isn’t trivial to me, because a large part of the fun I and Alex are getting from the game come from the aesthetics of characters, costumes, mounts and pets.

Those of you who have known me through my writing for a while probably know what I’m about to say.

Despite my grumpiness in my prior post…

I went ahead and already got a motorcycle mount. I farmed the materials, acquired the gold, and had my good friend Melpo craft it for me. I learned it on my Hunter, fulfilling my own long held desire, and then we spent an evening going for a ride.

I may bitch, piss and moan about how much better something could be, but in the end I said to hell with it and got me mah choppa!

Now I get to enjoy the fruits of my labors in MoP ANYWAY!

Oh, and I was already working, slowly, on gathering the mats for Alex to fulfill what he has wanted to a long time, to be able to become a Sandstone Drake. To transform into a dragon!

How much cooler that, once that is complete, he’ll know that it will be shared by all the other characters he ever has that rises high enough to do it. And if that has a level 85 restriction on it someday, so be it.

Rejoice! Rejoice my fellow bikers, and go forth to conquer those damn mounts!

I haven’t said anything. I haven’t even whispered it, even to myself. Saying it may jinx it.

But Blizzard had suggested, along with account shared Achievement and Pets for Pet Battle, they were thinking, possibly, maybe, probably not but could be, that they would make Mounts be shared across accounts as well.

I kept that on the down low. Some things are just too sweet to believe until it happens.

According to MMO Champion (and WoW Insider, of course) the latest Beta build saw Mounts go shared account wide (at least, server wide).

It may be buggy, it may have gaps or quirks, but it’s playable. The time is now. The Mounts have come upon us.

Oh dear lord, yes.

You know, Pets are awesome. My main, Bigbearbutt the Feral Druid, has over 150 pets. I think I’m at 158 now, and I’ve got room to grow. Haven’t gotten any Darkmoon pets yet, for example. I could, conceivably, reach 175 pets before Mists is launched.

But Mounts… ah yes, mounts.

I love mounts. But my Druid is also my main for reputation, for doing stuff, for being there when really cool shit drops… and I only ever use the same three mounts.

I ride along the ground on my Sethekk Halls chicken mount, an iconic mount once requiring a Druid just to activate the boss encounter, thus coming to be thought of as “that damn Druid mount that never drops”.

I fly through the sky snatching Herbs in my Epic Flight Form. Damn, I love my flight form. Always have, always will. Did you know that in the last Beta build I played, you could choose either the Epic OR the normal appearance of Flight Form? Pretty cool, huh?

And then, of course, I have my Epic Dragon Form. It’s mine, and it’s exclusive to Druids. Druids only.

Oh, shush.

This… this changes everything. Now, I actually have a REASON to go out on my Druid and hunt for moar mounts. I have an excuse to go run through old instances, farm rep, and do all the things that I like doing anyway.

But now, instead of being asked what I’m doing, and saying “Oh, just running through some stuffs looking for transmog gear”, I can say, “Farming mounts, of course.”

Or better yes, “Farming mounts for my Priest. Of Course.”

Oh, it’s going to be so much fun!

And so painful, running stuff and not seeing things drop for the 3,000th time trying!

I know there are some folks that will find reasons to complain, but I can assure you, I am nothing but 100% delighted. Those characters that earned multiple reps that other characters already had, just to get mounts, were not time wasted… because I have enjoyed those mounts for all the time since I earned them. There was no waste involved. I enjoyed playing the game to get them, and I enjoyed playing the game with the mounts. Now, even more characters can have the same opportunity.

Yummy!