Mammoth, FTW

The Mini-Van is one of the funnier parts of WotLK for me. Everybody's got an opinion on whether its a waste, a good idea, or simply another form of ego stroking.

I dunno where I stand on it. Largely a novelty, I suppose. If I were hurting for gold as a result of the purchase, I'd probably regret it, but since there's no interest-bearing savings accounts in WoW to justify massive gold pile, and I don't really care for playing the true goblin game of flipping AH items or buying mats to sell end products, I'm pretty happy with the Mini-Van.

But since its soulbound, its kind of a moot point anyway, isnt it?

Features

For a hefty price tag, she provides:

- Room for two other riders. Mildly fun for other actual people. Very helpful for multi-boxing.

- Vendors. They provide the basic foods, drinks, reagents, ammos, and what not. Great for when there's no mage biscuits available or you run out of arrows. Also great for saving a flight to a town to dispose of revenue-generating bag-filling grey trash items.

- Repairs. Perfect for those wipey progression nights, especially in mount-able instances like Malygos or Obsidian Sanctum.

- Down Elevator. Jump off of a cliff of any height. Mammoth dies. You don't. Just mount back up for a brand spanking new ground level mammoth.

- Speed. Aspect of the Pack affects the mini-van, making it as fast as a Paladin with Crusader Aura. But it does get dazed if it gets hit, which makes for fun when exploring low-level Horde territory. Sorry, but this one is exclusive to Hunters.

- Endless Conversation. No, not the obvious "oh look at that guy, he must be compensating for a tiny little..." kind of conversation, but rather a whole spectrum of opinions regarding whether the mammoth owner should get a discount, or a cut of the profits, or free repairs, or so on and so forth. Good clean fun.

- Adorable jumping animation. Awww, isn't she cute?

Tips for people who raid with a Mammoth rider

Between wipe attempts, the mini-van can provide a handy service. Lets promote some general awareness:

1) To the left - Repair guy is on the left butt cheek.

2) Run away - Since we're getting ready for another attempt, the mammoth rider wants to dismount as soon as possible to start preparing. He cannot eat the feast, drink the elixirs, feed the pet, or cast any spells while mounted. Once you're done with the vendor, please run away.

3) Buff the Pet - Tied in with #2, Hunters really really want to dismount as soon as possible, because while mounted, our pets do not get any buffs. When the whole raid is casting their wonderful buffs, our pets miss out if we're mounted. So buffers, wait till the mammoth guy is dismounted, or please give spot buffs to the pet after the fact.

Tips for people who want to ride on the Mammoth

Mammoth owners love to take people for a ride. Here's some tips:

1) Party Only - Anyone of the same faction can use the vendors, however you need to be in the mammoth rider's party to get on.

2) Vendors - The rider needs to kick off a vendor for each passenger. If you see both seats occupied by players or vendors, that means you can't get on yet.

3) Damage - Yes, you can take damage while riding. Hell, each passenger can be in combat independently of one another, such as when taking baby alts for a ride and running past mobs. The babies aggro nearby mobs while the level 80 driver does not. Confusing. Funny when you run past Fel Reaver in Hellfire Peninsula and see your baby get one-shot since the aggro range is different by about 10 miles for a level 58 and a level 80.

4) Glitchy - The passenger part glitches out all the f'ing time. Most commonly manifesting itself in not being able to get onto what appears to be an empty seat. Annoying, I know. You think they'd test this crap out before charging us an arm and a leg for it.

5) Phasing - This is the weirdest. When two players are Phased to dramatically different views of the same landscape, you get confused and crosseyed. Had an alt riding on the mini-van, running through Dragonblight. All of a sudden, the alt gets knocked off and killed instantly, while on Amava's screen there was nothing but snow. Glance over at the alts screen and see masses and masses of plague-infested ghouls. Phasing, FTW!

Whaddya Think?

What's your experience been with the Traveller's Tundra Mammoth?

Like the Greedy Goblin, do you think it's the stupidest thing you've ever seen?

Did you want one when you first heard about them, but change your mind once you saw them in action?

Do you wish there were interest-bearing savings accounts in WoW so you'd have somewhere useful to dump 20k?