Face it, walking everywhere is boring! Sometimes we have a need for speed, and because of this World of Warcraft provides a variety of transportation methods. For certain, we know that there will be mounts, gryphons, zepplins, swimming, portals, and ships. Below we will go into more detail on the many different forms of transportation.

Ah yes mounts, those kind animals that allow you to sit on their back as you roam across the plains. Players in World of Warcraft will be able to acquire a skill to ride on such animals. However, the race you choose will effect which mount you may ride at the beginning. For example, Humans ride horses and Orcs ride wolves. Only those with a high mount riding skill will be able to ride mounts outside of their racial restriction.

Humans	Humans ride horses . They have since Warcraft: Orcs and Humans and probably will until the end of time. Get used to it.
Dwarves	Dwarves with their small stature and love for engineering prefer to ride on the trustworthy battle rams .
Night Elves	The Night Elves ride nightsaber tigers , which was the preferred mount of the Priestess of the Moon in Warcraft III.
Gnomes	The Gnome's mount is unknown.
Trolls
Orcs	Orcs ride on their trusty wolves . Orc Raiders and the Far Seer preferred wolves as a mount in Warcraft III. The Far Seer also summoned wolves to help fight for the Orc's cause.
Tauren	Taurens are very large creatures of bull-like origins. Since they are practically the size of a mount themselves and don't approve of riding fellow hooved animals, the Taurens do not use mounts . Instead they have mastered the skill of Plains Running, which allows the Tauren to run at the speed of a mount for a period of time.
Undead	The Undead ride the dark demonic horses called nightmares .

World of Warcraft will also feature numerous vehicles to assist you in traveling. So far Blizzard has announced the dwarven steam engine, which can be seen in screenshots roaming around outside the dwarven capital Ironforge.

Portals have played a large role in the history of Warcraft. A portal was the means in which the Orcs first invaded Azeroth. In fact, the Orc's home world of Draenor was destroyed by its power. Since then portals have been improved so it can be a useful method of movement over large distances.

Players will also be able to use ships to travel around the world. Although they won't be player controlled, ships will be able to transport you from destination to destination (for a fee of course). The ships travel in real time allowing you to see the scenery as you go by. On board entertainment will be provided via some sort of mini-game such as monster slaying, chess, poker, or slot machines :P. The Humans, Orcs, Blood Elves, Night Elves, and Goblins are all experienced ship builders.

YES! YOU CAN RIDE A GRYPHON! Gryphon transport services are available in all large cities and regions in Azeroth. Run by the famed Gryphon Aviators (Dwarves), they will transport you around Azeroth for a fee. The gryphons fly in real time, which allows you to watch people fighting below. Although you have no actual control of the gryphon in flight, you can swivel all the way around and see scenery 360 degrees around you. All members of the Alliance can make use of the gryphons, but Night Elves prefer to use their own hippogryph transport service.

The Horde not wanting to feel left out has started up a wind runner transport service in Kalimdor. These are only available to the Horde faction members. Undead use their own transport service like Night Elves, but their bat-like air mount has yet to be released. World of Warcraft will also feature zepplins, which are run by the business-minded Goblins, and like the gryphons will assist in travel between Azeroth and Kalimdor. Gnomish flying machines have been rumored as well.

Unfortunately, we don't know much about the magical abilities that may aid transportation. The following are some speculated spells and items that may assist you:

• Scrolls of Teleportation
• Potions of Speed
• Mass Teleport (Humans)
• Blink (Night Elves)
• Bloodlust (Orcs)
• Endurance Aura (Orcs)
• Unholy Aura (Undead)