Crimson and Azure Deathchargers: where do they come from?
by Michael Sacco 
Feb 9th 2010 at 9:00PM
There's little information on where these come from, and judging from the state of the various spells involved, it's likely that they're simply not fully implemented yet. We can speculate, though! BB notes that Blizzard has said that there'll be at least one more patch before 4.0, and these could be a faction- or quest-based reward involving Icecrown or the Ashen Verdict.
I got a little antsy about making the iconic death knight amount available to the general public, if that's even happening, but then my brain turned on and I remembered that the forsaken, human, dwarf, tauren, night elf, blood elf, and troll mounts have been available to other races in one way for a very long time. Of course, no other class can get the paladin charger model, for example, so maybe I'm approaching it all wrong.
Either way. We'll likely see these bony ponies pop up again at a later date, and we'll keep you posted.
Filed under: News items, Death Knight
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
ROB13 Feb 9th 2010 8:01PM
Ghost Crawler promised, and he delivered....again.
People are asking for too many ponies!
reswab Feb 9th 2010 8:04PM
Or what if they're adding these as alternatives for deathknights. ? But they may be faction specific because . . .well, come on., blue and red only? sounds an awful lot like the war mammoth mounts.
And you forget about warlock's specific mounts! Can't forget us!
onetrueping Feb 10th 2010 4:52AM
If I remember correctly, there are not one but TWO Warlock-style mount variants available through drops (counting the seasonal Hallow's Eve mount from the Headless Horseman). Which lines up with the availability of tigers, raptors, kodos, rams, and the Baron's mount for the Undead horses (though his is ALSO slightly model-changed).
Mattimus Feb 10th 2010 6:29AM
@onetruepig
The only thing those mounts really have in common with Dreadsteeds are the flaming hooves, but otherwise they stand apart.
That said, it would be cool if they tossed in some alternatives for Warlocks -- Death Knights may be getting new choices sometime soon, and Paladins already have three different epic mount styles, including the Blood Elf mount and the Alliance mount. It remains to be seen if Tauren Paladins will use Blood Elf mounts or not, though...
Deadly. Off. Topic. Feb 10th 2010 9:04AM
If dwarves and draeneis can ride the human horse mount, it would make sense that they'd give tauren paladins the same thing as blood elves.
But considering the tauren's size they might not... though if they don't, I'd like to see paladin mounts at least change for the race that rides them. As in give a paladin draenei a holy elephant instead, dwarf a holy ram, blood elves, a holy chocobo...etc.
Eddy Feb 10th 2010 9:26AM
I would be so sad to see the Blood Knight mount change. I feel its really iconic for the Blood Knight theme- that they're stealing from the light, stealing from the traditions of the humans, forcing things to their will. This involves adopting other human traditions, including proper horses.
I wouldn't be so bothered if Tauren were special and got their own mount. Their order is a late order of paladins, after all. They figured things out for themselves. They broke the code of sun magic, and they should be able to figure out holy Kodo or whatever. The three Alliance races with paladins seem to share an order, while I'm certain Tauren and Blood Elves have a totally different philosophy towards... well, everything, except perhaps the Alliance.
Phaye Feb 9th 2010 9:05PM
I don't know if this is new today or if it's always been like this, but Highlord Darion Morgraine's Deathcharger in ICC, is the red version shown above.
Scunosi Feb 9th 2010 9:50PM
That's why I'm not getting too excited about this, at least one of them has already been used since early Northrend for various Death Knight NPC's (Thassarian, Darion). Just trying to figure out if the blue one matches up to anyone.
Of course I'd gladly welcome more mounts though. :D
Tamednan Feb 10th 2010 2:09AM
It's always been red, even in the DK starting area it's red. I remember drooling over it the first time I played a DK through that zone. I also clearly remember it running in to help with trash mobs in ICC one night a few weeks back.
Shadowwind Feb 10th 2010 12:12PM
Icefury , is the horse add for Sapph in Icecrown. http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=31224#. Matches the 'new' blue deathcharger image quite nicely, I'm afraid. Other blue deathchargers are Dusk, who belongs to Thassarian; the Deathcharger Steeds in Naxxramas, Deathknight quarter; and something called Spectral Horses, also in Naxx and (if memory serves) appears when you pull certain mounted packs in the Deathknight Quarter.
For the other model, Plaguehoof and Bloodsunder ( and respectively) use the red deathcharger skin, which is also used by Bloodmist (Koltira's mount), and Fury and Iydallus (at least one of which belongs to Darion Mograine, but their locations make it unclear which)
TD:LR Sorry, the skins are as old as the expansion. HOWEVER, this does not mean that Blizzard may not be trying something else out with them. We'll just have to wait and see.
Shadowwind Feb 10th 2010 12:15PM
Plaguehoof and Bloodsunder ( and respectively) use the
should have read
Plaguehoof and Bloodsunder ( Rokir's and Baelok's steeds, respectively) use the
Thorzon Feb 10th 2010 7:54PM
Neither of the horse models are new. They have been in the game the whole time. The red model is the one that Fury, Darion Mograine's mount, uses. And the blue model is the one that Dusk, Thassarian's mount, uses.
loop_not_defined Feb 9th 2010 9:08PM
I'm betting on Alliance and Horde Death Knight alternatives. Not betting on these being available to anybody but Death Knights, specifically because Warlock and Paladin mounts are not.
Getting alternative class-specific mounts also has a precedence. The Argent Charger.
Royal Feb 10th 2010 1:20AM
I used the mount to visually pick out DKs in Dal from a distance for the holiday achievements. Whatever will I do now!?
Nicholas Tam Feb 10th 2010 4:11AM
I've avoided the ICC ending cinematic, but has the Knights of the Ebon Blade storyline reached its terminus? If there's any unfinished business I could see these mounts being a reward in a DK-only epilogue. We're all used to seeing DKs nowadays and it's easy to forget that they were a headline feature in the current expansion. Since Arthas is dead we could see the dissolution of the KotEB and the full reintegration of the death knights with their respective factions, hence the colour-coding of the mounts as red and blue.
This is only food for thought, of course. In the scenario I suggested, every 80 DK would wind up with one of these and they wouldn't be very special.
onetrueping Feb 10th 2010 4:57AM
"specifically because Warlock and Paladin mounts are not"
I'd like to point out that Paladin-style warhorses are available from Alliance-faction vendors, and Warlock-style mounts are available as a rare drop in Karazhan, and as a seasonal drop from the Headless Horseman.
loop_not_defined Feb 10th 2010 8:09AM
I'd like to point out that we're not talking about a Death Knight-"style" mount. This IS the Death Knight mount.
Also, I don't think you can argue that simple horse mounts are "Paladin-style", or all demon mounts are "Warlock-style".
hduckie18 Feb 9th 2010 9:11PM
It isn't a paladin charger, but there is a mount sold by the argent tournament vendor that has the strappings of a charger. My priest in shadowform gets a lot of whispers about it because it has a very similar silhouette.
Emophia Feb 9th 2010 9:27PM
That's the none epic level 20 version of the Paladin mount.
Looks ugly as all hell compared to the epic version (charger) if you ask me.
edgehead Feb 10th 2010 2:00AM
u can purchase a version of the lvl20 paladin mount called the argent warhorse which is availiable to all classes with champions seals after earning the "crusader" title at the argent tournament. this mount has a silver colour scheme.
similarily paladins can get an argent charger, which is the same as their lvl40 mount in the silver colour scheme
the reward for the 25man tribute to immortality (kill anubarak on heroic with 50 attempts left) is the white/black (alliance/horde) crusaders warhorse, which also has the paladin mount likeness. so my guess is that these mounts are the rewards for a similar achievement in heroic 25man icc (blue for alliance red for horde)