How to easily unlock riding in World of Warcraft patch 10.1.5

In the earliest days of World of Warcraft, unlocking riding was a major chore, but 10.1.5 is changing that. Players will have to do far less work to unlock mounts, which is a major boon for new players and returning veterans of Blizzard’s hit MMO. Users won’t have to shuffle money around on their alts to ensure they get the fastest-possible speeds as they cruise around Azeroth.

What has changed for riding in World of Warcraft patch 10.1.5? We’ve got you covered on the important levels of note and what has exactly changed for this useful feature in WoW’s latest major update.

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Unlocking riding in World of Warcraft patch 10.1.5

In Vanilla WoW, players had to cough up some serious gold to get their first major mount upgrade. Even the first mount was fairly expensive, at a total of 100 gold. However, the 900 gold you needed for the improved riding was frustrating for many players. There were no daily quests/world quests in those days, so money was harder to come by.

That said, the retail version of World of Warcraft has changed that for the better in patch 10.1.5. You don’t have to visit the stables anymore and show up with bags of gold to unlock each tier of riding. If you want the race-specific mounts, you still have to visit the appropriate stables, but the actual unlock has changed.

As you level up in World of Warcraft, you’ll periodically unlock the various tiers at specific level gates. This even includes the epic flight that used to cost 5,000 gold. That’s not a big ask in the current WoW, but new players could sometimes struggle to come up with that gold.

Now, instead of going back to Orgrimmar or Stormwind and unlocking riding, it will simply trigger as you go. For players with mounts, you can begin exploring the world on horseback as soon as the unlock happens. Those newer players might have to go farm mounts or buy them.

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When do riding levels unlock in World of Warcraft?

Thankfully, by the time you’re ready to head into the Dragonflight expansion content for World of Warcraft, you’ll have Master Flying. Admittedly, you won’t spend as much time flying on your mounts there, as you’ll have a Dragonriding mount instead.

However, as you explore other parts of the world, farming rare mounts or unlocking cosmetics, you’ll want to have a mount that is as fast as possible. By the time you’re level 40, you’ll have all the unlocks you need and will have saved a decent chunk of gold.

• Level 10: Apprentice (60% ground mount speed)
• Level 20: Journeyman (100% ground mount speed)
• Level 30: Expert (150% flying mount speed)
• Level 40: Master (310% flying mount speed)

This is an important change for World of Warcraft, just in general. It streamlines the process of unlocking mount speed, and for players that didn’t understand how it all worked, now they don’t have to stress about it. You’ll be able to upgrade your mount as you go and not have to think about it.

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WoW has several updates coming this year, including the fall update 10.1.7. This will add new Heritage Armor sets, changes to Dawn of the Infinite, and more.