Did you get your Brewfest ram yet? I have to say, ashamedly, that I haven't-- I moved to a new apartment last week and was without internet long enough that I wasn't able to start Brewfest right away, and now I fear I'm too far behind to even get started. You need 600 Brewfest tickets to get the ram, and with all the quests (despite the bugs), you are supposed to be able to pick up around 100 tickets a day (30, if you're good, from the two keg runs you can do every 12 hours, and 40 from the Bark for the brewery quests). Add the tickets from the one-time quests for that, and you're looking at just under a week of grinding to get the Racing Ram for yourself.

Unfortunately, Brewfest is shutting down on Tuesday, which means even if I worked like mad until then, odds are I wouldn't be able to get 600 tickets in time (not to mention I need some training-- I just did another keg delivery run, and only picked up a little over 20 tickets). So if, like me, you're starting late, you're probably out of luck this year.

However, Aeus has good news-- Brewfest (and the ram racing) will be back again next year, and you can save all your tickets until then. Of course, next year, considering the popularity, they'll probably have even cooler prizes to spend tickets on, but still-- if you're left in the lurch with Brewfest tickets, stick 'em in your bank and wait until next Brewfest. Hallow's End is next!

As David mentioned a few days ago, we will get the chance to purchase an epic Hippogryph flying mount when Patch 2.3 err, lands. But Bornakk has let us know that this baby won't be as easy to get as the Skyguard nether ray mount for instance. When asked about the mounts that will be added into the game when Wrath launches, he had this to say:

We do plan to continue adding new mounts to the game, but we aren't ready to go into details on Wrath of the Lich King specific mounts yet. Keep in mind we are adding the Hippogryph mount as a Cenarion Expedition purchasable item in patch 2.3 along with the Engineering only flying mount...The Cenarion Expedition Hippogryph mount is a 280% epic flying mount that requires exalted status and will cost 2000 gold

We talked about this a little bit on the podcast the other day while speaking about the mail delay now built into the game. I asked what goldsellers were even selling gold for anymore (because there's so much of it to be found in Azeroth, and both Turpster and Robin answered me with: "epic mount."

Yes, there is no bigger drain on the funds than the epic mount price of a whopping 5,000g, and Bornakk says that isn't changing any time soon. I completely agree that having an epic flying mount is definitely an epic achievement, and if Blizzard doesn't want to lower the price, that's their business. But as Captnclaw notes, the refusal to change the way epic flying mounts are obtained is almost singlehandedly keeping goldsellers alive.

There are lots of ways to give out epic mounts and keep them epic-- one we mentioned on the show was daily quests (which is what you're doing anyway, if you're trying to raise 5k gold legally), but anything in that vein would work-- a reputation grind, an item turn-in, an epic questline, or a combination of all of these. Making one of the best, most wanted items in the game simply cost a chunk of gold is more or less creating a market for goldsellers. And refusing to lower the price (or, better yet, take the whole process out of the gold market entirely) is leaving the door wide open for gold sellers to continue hawking their wares.

More good news for engineers everywhere! Those clever gnomes over at Dark Legacy have figured out what the engineering mount should look like, and they've told us the whole story about how they came up with the idea for designing it. Next, they should really design some more trinkets and bombs and other gadgety items for us to use!... or should they?

Click here to read their comic, then come back and tell us what you think of their design.

As Blizzard hotfixes the broken Brewfest quests (Pink Elekks is hotfixed already), Community Manager Drysc has been posting with helpful information for holiday participants. Player Rizz wanted to know how many tickets she could acquire in one day. Drysc's estimate:

15 tickets from "Bark for the Barleybrews!"
Twice a day (every twelve hours) you can do the "There and Back again" repeatable quest, 2 tickets each barrel, you might average 20 tickets? I'm not sure if there's an actual maximum but I do know you can't go forever.
Then every hour on the half hour you can get up to 25 tickets with the Dark Iron attacks.

So theoretically if you do everything you possibly could in a day and got the ticket amounts listed above: 355

This of course doesn't count any of the one-off quests.

Then Drysc responded in a separate thread with some helpful tips on finishing certain Brewfest quests:

Player Mennonite of Aman'Thul is a warlock with a burning desire. He wants a warlock-only summonable flying mount. Druids get one, why not warlocks? Warlocks already have a class-specific land mount. Is it such a stretch to extend that idea to a flying mount?

Community Manager Bornakk replied to Mennonite that Blizzard has plans for more flying mounts like the upcoming Engineering and Cenarion Expedition faction ones coming in Patch 2.3. However, he added, none of the future ones planned are class specific.

But what if Warlocks did get one? Then, why not every class? Why not a Pegasus for Paladins, clouds of magic for Mages or shimmering angel wings for Priests? What do you think? Should every class get their own flying mount or is that just a perk for the Druids?

Before we get into this week's KYL, we have a little bit of business to take care of. Some of you may have noticed that this feature has been rather inconsistently published in the past month. This is due to my beginning a new job and classes at the same time. So to keep up our publishing schedule, and to bring a fresh face to the column, Matthew Rossi will be taking over KYL every other week, beginning next week. Please do not throw eggs at him.

And, now, on with the show! It's pretty much a given that in any fantasy game, you're going to have to kill a dragon or two, and WoW is no exception. There are tons of dragons hanging around, so much so that it becomes a problem to tell exactly what they're doing. Because of this, a concerned (and confused) reader wrote in a few weeks ago asking us to do a piece on the different dragonflights that were sent by the Titans to guard the world of Azeroth. As you wish, reader. As you wish. However, there are a LOT of dragons, so today we'll cover the "good" dragonflights: Red, Bronze, Green, and Nether. Next time we'll get the "Bad Dragons": Black, Blue, Chromatic, and Infinite.

Gyrocopter pilots of Azeroth, your day is coming. So says CM Bornakk today in the official forums. He mentioned both normal and epic mounts arriving in Test Patch 2.3. He went on to clarify where Blizzard is on the development of these:

The specifics of the mounts, such as skill and materials, isn't finalized yet, but we really want to get this mount/machine/gizmo into the game for engineers to enjoy. Whether it is easy or a challenge, the road to it will begin in 2.3, keep an eye out for when it hits the PTRs. ;-)

This news is so cool, makes me want to go out and level up engineering. But the question now is: what form will this mechanized flying mount take? WoW Wiki has an entry on gnomish flying machines from Warcraft 2 and their evolution into dwarven gyrocoptors and then gnomish biplanes.

But where's the line between fantasy and science fiction in Azeroth? Is Engineering just another kind of "magic"? What form would you like to see the engineered flying mount?

Last week, Blizzard released a new machinima movie called Lament of the Highbourne, featuring Sylvana's performance of the old Quel'dorei song and a retelling of what went down between her and Arthas Menethil, now known as the Lich King. WoW Insider, being the extreme lore geeks that we are, has put together a video analysis of the movie that Blizzard released, featuring an almost frame-by-frame commentary about Sylvanas' story. You can see the finished product above-- prepare to be lore-geeked out.

Two things that didn't make it into the commentary above in time: reader Lift sent us a bit of insight about Arthas riding an Undead mount-- does that mean, he asks, that Death Knights will get their own Warlock/Paladin-esque mount? And one more thing we noticed-- the spectre behind Arthas as he resurrects Sylvanas may well be the Lich King himself. By all means: discuss.

The Fires of Outland booster set for the TCG is now available which means we all have a shot at getting a pack that includes the Spectral Tiger Mount. This highly sought after loot card attracted almost 6000 entries for the WoW Insider contest where we gave one away. It also garnered $2000 on eBay.

So for the 5919 of you who didn't win one from us and for all of us who are not able or willing to pay thousands of dollars for one, all you have to do is buy Fires of Outland booster packs until you get your very own Spectral Tiger Mount.

Of course, some of you actually play the TCG for fun and Upper Deck Entertainment provides a handy tournament search tool for you to find a tournament near you.

Unfortunately, the Buy Now link on the Upper Deck Fires of Outland TCG page goes to a "not a valid item number" error page, but hopefully you'll be able to buy packs at the normal outlets soon. (Update: The Buy Now Link goes to a 24 pack.) Or you could increase your chances at getting a Spectral Tiger Mount by buying the packs 24 at a time from Amazon.

Will you be trying for a Spectral Tiger Mount? If so, do you want it to use or sell?

Many players were unhappy to hear that their hard earned flying mounts aren't usable in the early parts of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Every player has to beg, borrow and steal to scrape together the 5,000g for their epic flying mount. Or in this case: grind, loot and mine. Why should they have to put aside their hard earned and beloved mount?

Recently, CM Bornakk explained the reasoning behind that unpopular decision. Essentially, they don't want players flying over the early content. The entire expansion is designed with a certain progression in mind from zone to zone. Flying would make that irrelevant.

There will be a point in the expansion where flight will be enabled in Northrend. Blizzard is currently considering level 78, but hasn't made a concrete decision.

What do you guys think? Should flight be enabled immediately or should you enjoy the early zones flightless?

Blizzard Blues have been active on the official forums. With rampant speculation about the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion, they've mostly had to give the standard variation of the "no comment" reply. But on two expansion mount issues they were able to give a small bit on insight.

• Player Serpentis requested a windserpent mount in WotLK. New Blizzard poster Bornakk reported that new flying mounts are being considered, but nothing will be revealed until they are closer to releasing the new expansion.

• Player Knightxl wanted to know if the cost to train for epic flying mounts will get a reduction with the expansion the way epic land mount training costs were lowered. This rumor has been floating around for the last month or so. Drysc gave us a little more clarification than last time. He responded that the epic land mount training costs only got a reduction because the mount training skill was getting extended with the Burning Crusade expansion. No new mount skill increase is planned in WotLK, so no reduction in price is planned for the epic flight mount training cost.

If Blizzard were to incorporate new flying mounts in Northrend, what would you like to see?

In Patch 2.1, Blizzard introduced daily quests, the Netherwing faction and nether drake mounts. Through a combination of solo and group daily and one-time quests, players can grind their faction from Hatred to Exalted in as little as 14 days. At Exalted, players can then buy an epic flying mount, the nether drake.

This has been well documented since the patch, but now Blizzard has added their own guide to grinding out the Netherwing faction. Their guide gives a nice overview of the quests involved without too much extra detail. It also links to their Burning Crusade page that covers the origins of the nether drake as well as a trailer.

If you're new to flying mounts, check out Blizzard's guide first. If you like what you see, try WoW Wiki's guide (linked in the paragraph above) for a more detailed look at the quests involved as well as a list of bugs. As for me, I'll stick with druid flight form. And trying to scrape together that 5000 for the riding skill.

Long, long ago, when dinosaurs roamed Azeroth and barely anyone I knew had their epic mount, we used to argue about what would happen if the tiger mount dropped in ZG. This was back when the epic mounts themselves were the expensive part, not the training. There were two different schools of thought on the subject. There were some who thought that people without an epic mount should get first dibs, as it would essentially be only a cosmetic upgrade for people who had their epics. The other people thought that epic mount-holders shouldn't be prevented from rolling on a rare, awesome thing just because they had taken the time to farm for their epic. This argument largely died when the cost of mount training became the expensive thing. Or did it?

Recently, a guild on my server killed Kael'thas and received the Ashes of Al'ar, also known as the phoenix mount. The guild leader/master looter linked all the loot, said that they would discuss the phoenix mount later ... and after the rest of the loot was handed out, proceeded to masterloot it to himself. A few officers of the guild defended his actions by saying that some officers had encouraged him to take it, which somewhat neglects the fact that this guild runs on DKP instead of officer loot, and that running a guild is a tough job that deserves some extra recognition.

This has prompted a spirited discussion about what to do when ultra-rare mounts drop. There seems to be five options here: masterlooting it to yourself, having everyone roll, having everyone with 300 skill roll, bidding DKP, or having everyone with 300 skill bid DKP. Most people I've talked to seem to think that masterlooting it to yourself is a cheap option, but are undecided as to whether you should have to have 300 riding skill to roll.

Personally, I think that this would be an excellent opportunity to use a bidding DKP system, even if you have fixed DKP values (like my guild does) because it's hard to assign worth to a cosmetic upgrade. That way, people who really, really want a phoenix mount can blow all their DKP to get it. What do you think guilds should do about rare mount drops? Is it really a ninja if the masterlooter takes something? Should guild/raid leaders get some sort of bonus when it comes to loot distribution?

Edited to add: Uxorious and Chad are not the same person.The GM of this guild is a good person, and I personally do not believe he's a "ninja" in the classic definition, of maliciously taking an item. Officers from the guild in question have said in the comments that they were unprepared for the mount to drop and, in the confusion, they encouraged the leader to take it.

Yesterday afternoon, a copy of the Spectral Tiger card from the WoW TCG sold on eBay for the astonishing price of $2000 (the starting bid was $100). Why so much? Well, for one thing, it's a loot card -- it gives you access, via a scratch-off code, to an in-game mount that you can't get any other way, called (surprise) the Spectral Tiger. It's available in both normal (60%) and epic (100%) speed, and it looks pretty sweet.

Furthermore, the TCG set of which it is a part, Fires of Outland, has not been released yet; it debuts on August 22nd. This card was apparently obtained at pre-release event. Still, two grand is a lot of money; that would buy you over 11 years of game time, or (in my preferred money visualization scheme) 150 pounds of really good coffee.

We gave away this very same mount not long ago (don't say WoW Insider never gave you anything) -- a $2000 value, apparently! But if you're not our lucky winner, and you simply must have a translucent cat to ride on, there are still a few more going on eBay.

[thanks, Jacckk of Perenolde]