Removing this item would indeed make many people annoyed, because it does make a significant difference in travel time if you are going long distances, but apparently Blizzard is having problems with converting the item from its current method of use to another. So, there must be some sort of compromise to address the issue.

My first thought is to make the riding crop, carrot on a stick, etc. into "enchantments" for mounts. Obtaining the items would happen in the same way, however, instead of using up a trinket slot, they would become attached to your mount, in the same way an armor kit is applied to various items.

Doing this would accomplish two major things:
1. Users that currently have one of the speed enhancing items, would not have a useless (and somewhat expensive) item when the expansion comes out.
2. Sale of speed enhancing items may increase, because they would have to be applied to individual mounts.
3. Remove the item from your trinket slot, which would mean you don't have to equip it all the time.

The largest drawback to doing it this way is that it would require individuals to purchase multiple riding crops, which could get expensive if you have a large number of mounts.

My other thought is to make it so there is a slot on your mount, like a kind of hybrid between a bag slot and gem slot, where shift-right-clicking on the item would open the window where you would place the item (like the gem slots), but it would not become bound to that mount (unlike gems), making it possible to manually move the item from one mount to another (though if the item became bound to the mount, it wouldn't be the end of the world, it would just be similar to my first thought).

The positives here are:
1. Users that currently have one of the speed enhancing items, would not have a useless (and somewhat expensive) item when the expansion comes out.
2. The item would be removed from the trinket slot, which would mean that you don't have to equip it all the time.
3. The slot would be accessible so that manually moving the item to a different mount would still be possible.
4. It could increase the sales of riding crops, because people could place a riding crop on each mount in order to minimize the need to manually move the item from one mount to another (for instance moving the item from a ground to a flying mount).

Anywho, I don't think that either of these changes would be that incredibly difficult for Blizzard to make, as there are similar examples that exist in the game already, though I would personally prefer the second one, because it would make things a tad less expensive.

I'd still buy them, the speed boost is worthwhile to me, as long as its a month or more away. What else IS there to buy? Gear? Replaced too. Save gold? Even if they say not, it'll surely be less valuable in the expansion, just with that many more people leveling, which is never a negative-gold-flow into the economy event.

Why not just leave it like it is till you find a fix? People have been 'dealing' with that trinket issue for years now, a few more months won't kill anyone (with mods, it's not really a problem if you ask me).



Edited, Sep 14th 2008 9:56am by Woolyworm

from blizzard...not fix the issue...just do away with it.

Sounds like a nerf but I guess I don't really care since I never did bother to get one. Now I have even less a reason to bother to get one I suppose.