In search of the perfect mount mod.

ETA: Added notes on GoGoMount, Pokedex, and Yay Mounts.

This week I tried out ~~five~~ eight mount randomizer mods in search of the perfect one. With the perfect mount mod, I press one button on all of my characters and the Right Thing(tm) happens. The right thing depends on where the character is and which class it is:

If in zone where flying is allowed, a flying mount is summoned.
If a druid in a flying zone, flight form is shifted to.
If in a zone where flying is not allowed but ground mounts are, a ground mount is summoned.
If swimming and in Vash’jir, the seahorse is summoned.
If swimming and a druid, water form is shifted to.
If swimming at the surface and not in Vash’jir, a flying mount is summoned.

I also wanted a mod with the following features:

Some control over mount randomization: the mod allows me to remove mounts from the random list or to prefer certain mounts.
The mod has been updated for patch 4.2 or recently enough that it’s clearly not an abandoned project.

There are lots and lots of mount mods out there. I picked the first ones I found that seemed popular and likely to meet my needs. Here are my notes on the ~~five~~ eight I tried.

Coconuts

Fails the Abyssal Seahorse test: It attempts to summon a seahorse when you’re swimming but not in Vash’jir.
Updates its button/databroker display to show next mount or action.
Allows you to set zone favorites & control mount frequency.
Can prefer druid flight form over summonable mounts.
Doesn’t handle druid seal form when swimming.
Triggers: Button, keybind.

GoGoMount

Partially fails the Abyssal Seahorse test: summons the seahorse in Vash’jir, but outside of Vash’jir summons only ground mounts when swimming.
Partially fails the druid water form test: does not summon flight form or flying mount when druid is at the water surface. Continues to shift to seal form.
Configured through slash commands.
Triggers: Macro.

GupPet

Fails the Abyssal Seahorse test: doesn’t summon the seahorse when in Vash’jir.
Summons random minipets as well.
Insane amount of configuration for mount/pet randomization.
Triggers: Macro, keybind, or button.

Livestock

Passes the Abyssal Seahorse test.
Passes the druid flight form & swimming form tests.
Summons random minipets as well.
Triggers: Macro, keybind, button.
Uses 1 macro slot per character by default, but this macro can be moved to your general macros.

Pokedex

Passes the Abyssal Seahorse test.
Auto-summons random minipets as well. Adds a chat log message for the chosen pet.
Randomizes titles as well.
Has a “hotness” concept for choosing favorite mounts or automatically making your newest mount the favorite.
Has insane amount of control over randomization (like GupPet).
Triggers: Macro, keybind.

Random Mount Continued

Fails the Abyssal Seahorse test: doesn’t summon the seahorse when in Vash’jir.
Passes the druid flight form & swimming form tests.
Can use patterns to filter out mounts from the randomization, but this left me puzzled trying to find a way to allow “Turbo-Charged Flying Machine” while filtering out “Flying Machine”. (Full regular expression support could have done it.)
Updates macro icon to show mount.
Configured through slash commands.
Triggers: Macro.

Sally Forth

Passes the Abyssal Seahorse test.
Uses the Blizzard mount display panel to toggle mounts on/off.
Can’t be set to always prefer flight form for druids, though it includes it as an option for the random list.
Doesn’t use druid swimming form automatically.
Triggers: Keybind only.

Yay Mounts

Passes the Abyssal Seahorse test.
Passes the druid flight form & swimming form tests.
Summons random minipets as well.
Selects mounts/pets with checkboxes.
Triggers: Macro, keybind.

Livestock, Pokedex, and YayMounts pass all my tests. The mod I chose to use was Livestock. It does the right thing with the seahorse and the right thing with druid forms. If you don’t have a druid to worry about, Sally Forth is an excellent and easy-to-configure mod. I like the clever way it uses the existing Blizzard interface to choose mounts, which was much easier to understand and use than all of the others.