Posts with tag mount

Back in October, Blizzard teased the Swift Windsteed mount on their Facebook page. Further information on the mount trickled out via datamining patch 5.1 -- and as of this morning, it's available for purchase on the Blizzard Store for $25, though there is only one color available as opposed to the many that were datamined.

Swift Windsteed – Exclusive Mount Now Available

Take the reins of one of Pandaria's most majestic and rare beasts, the Swift Windsteed, and it is said that good fortune will follow. Dart across the heavens on a silver cloud as fast as your riding skill allows. Once purchased from the Blizzard Store, the mount will be available to all present and future characters for a single Battle.net® account.

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While exploring The Veiled Stair, I found myself on a mountain cliff overlooking the very northwestern sliver of Jade Forest, on the border of Valley of the Four Winds. Down below me was a river, the green hills of Jade Forest, and ... Ooh a gold elite!

Base jumping off the cliff, I began my merciless attack on the Sungraze Behemoth, a monstrous, sleeping Mushan. For a gold elite it didn't put up much of a fight (though it did have a lot of health) so I was quite surprised when I looted a mount from the Mushan's corpse. Wait -- no, that's not a mount. After reading the tooltip over a couple of times I realized that I had looted a curious sort of mount that could only be used in Valley of the Four Winds, and only had three charges. But it was a very, VERY fast mount, the tooltip told me. What could that mean? And only three charges? Since I hadn't finished leveling yet, I wondered if maybe I should save it for long trips between quest hubs.

Not long after finding the Oddly-Shaped Horn, I was wandering around Kun-Lai Summit, just south of Shado-Pan Monastery when I found another gold elite with a name: the mountain goat Zhing. After killing the goat, I looted Bag of Kafa Beans and at this point I was too curious to care about it being a limited use item. I clicked on the bag and woosh! Off I went! Off a cliff. Yep, that's fall damage. Ow. Ow.

A few days ago, we heard the announcement that we'd be getting a new Recruit-A-Friend mount, the Obsidian Nightwing, which gives you the ability to turn into a winged panther and carry a friend on your back. The new mount is now available and can be redeemed and used in game. Note that this means the X-53 Touring Rocket is now retired and unavailable, like the Zhevra before it.

To get the ability to turn into a flying cat, you'll need to refer a friend to WoW via the Recruit-A-Friend program, and that friend must pay for two months of game time. And yes, you can simply create your own second account and buy two months of game time to get the mount if you're impatient or all your friends already play WoW.

[Thanks for the tip, Chell!]

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Recently I've been talking quite a lot about the pros and cons of buying WoW mounts with in-game money. The recent revealing of the new Recruit-A-Friend mount leads us on to another discussion altogether: What WoW mounts can you get with real money? You know, not in-game gold -- the actual dollars or pounds or euros that you can swap for food, electricity, that sort of thing.

This might be a really excellent column to leave lying around on the computer of a loved one who is trying to work out what to buy you for a birthday or similar occasion!

Let's start with the obvious options -- the three Blizzard Pet Store mounts.

Lolegolas jumped at the squawking that suddenly erupted behind him. It sounded like someone strangling a moonkin. "What the heck?" the blood elf asked.

"This is my new phoenix," Throgg said, straddling an immense bird. "It's a Crimson Pandaren Phoenix."

"That doesn't look like a pandaren," Lolegolas countered. "In fact, I don't think there's anything terribly panda-like about it."

"It's just a name, little elf," the orc said. "Like hot dogs. There's nothing dog-like about hot dogs."

"Maybe it's just named that," Lolegolas said, "since, like, it's pandaren-raised or something. Still, that's a darn fine-looking mount."

"It's already killed a cyclops and a wolverine, too," Throgg said. "It was pretty amazing to watch."

Lolegolas cocked his head to the side and peered at the orc out of the corner of his eye. "Really? That's where we're going with this?"

"Well, it's supposed to be all crimson and red, but instead it's black and evil-looking. Seemed appropriate."

Lolegolas nodded. "Fair enough, then."

Item note: It's been a Challenge Mode reward, and now it seems like everyone on the beta has it. While the details of the mount could obviously change, it sure looks snazzy!

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Phat Loot Phriday brings you the scoop on some of the most ... interesting ... loot in the World of Warcraft, often viewed through the eyes of the stalwart Throgg and indelible Lolegolas. Suggest items you think we should feature by emailing mikeg@wowinsider.com.

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Engineers, keep getting excited for Mists of Pandaria, because we've just got even more toys to make our favorite profession unequivocally still the best profession. With the recent beta patch, we've seen some new datamined recipes for engineering goodies such as Blingtron 4000, a fabulously wealthy robot companion who gives people gifts, and the Depleted-Kyparium Rocket, a new rocket mount built by engineers.

The real treat, however, is the Thermal Anvil, a new item that drops a portable anvil and forge at the engineer's feet. Yes, you read that right -- engineers are going to be able to deploy a portable anvil.

But wait, there's more. Did you want to slap some Watergliding Jets on your shoes to make swimming a breeze? What about a brand new Wormhole Generator for the Pandaria continent? Maybe you've like to pair a gathering profession with your engineering to make the best use of some brand new Mist-Piercing Goggles? Engineers, Blizzard has heard our call for more fun stuff and it is delivering. I can't wait to see what's next. Engineering -- best profession!

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It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

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A new round of datamining has uncovered an interesting string and spell in the new code pushed with recent updates to the beta -- specifically, a reference to a placeholder for a Mists of Pandaria collector's edition mount. Here's the string/spell change, courtesy of MMO-Champion:

[PH] MoP CE Mount - [PH] Summons and dismisses a ???. This mount changes depending on your Riding skill and location.

Traditionally, collector's editions of World of Warcraft expansions included a pet, usually a whelp that resembles a key figure or theme of the expansion. The original collector's edition of WoW included three pets, the Zergling, the panda cub, and the mini Diablo. No collector's edition has ever shipped with a mount before.

Here's the kicker: There is also a string and spell in the new build for a collector's edition pet as well, which means more stuff packed in to this next release's premium package.

Does upping the ante on cool in-game stuff, from pets to mounts, put the collector's edition of Mists of Pandaria closer to your shelf? As a consummate purchaser of Blizzard collector's editions, I will be shelling out the cash notwithstanding. However, it would be nice to see a bevy of new rewards in the collector's editions other than just the whelps. They will, however, be excellent editions to my Pet Battle Army. What do you think the collector's edition mount could be?

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It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

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If you've ever wanted to get your hands on Recruit-A-Friend mount #2, the X-53 Touring Rocket two-seater, then you had better get moving. Blizzard has announced that the X-53 rocket will be retired soon to make way for the new Recruit-A-Friend mount and (presumably) program for the launch of Mists of Pandaria. One might even take this as a clue that a new Recruit-A-Friend is coming soon, which means expansion time could be right around the corner.

As for what the new mount is going to be, we have no idea just yet. However, MMO-Champion and Wowhead have datamined achievements, items, mounts, and some other clues that have shown a Recruit-A-Friend 3 mount in the files but no associated mount yet. Hit the jump for the full announcement about the X-53 rocket and speculate about what the next RAF mount is going to be.

The most recent beta patch has added a handful of new mounts -- including yak mounts, which are automatically super-awesome because they're shaggy ol' yak mounts, and that's awesome. Don't argue with me. And if for some reason you're not willing to clutch a yak mount to your bosom (perhaps you're cruel, wicked, evil and wrong as wrong can be -- I don't judge), you can content yourself with the Amber Scorpion or the Crimson Riding Crane.

The Crimson Riding Crane is going to be a frontrunner in the Mounts That Look So Wrong with a Tauren Perched on Their Back contest. I just know it. Personally, I want both the Grand Expedition Yak and the White Riding Yak, and I want to ride them by standing on their backs, one foot on each. But I'll settle for just being able to ride them -- because, yaks.

Did I mention that yaks are awesome yet? Sorry if I left that out.

Yaks.

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It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

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Yak mounts? In my Asia-inspired continent? It's more likely than you think, according to Blizzard community rep Bashiok. Today, he confirmed on Twitter that the shaggy beasts of burden we saw in Mists of Pandaria preview screenshots will be available as mounts when the expansion hits. What wasn't indicated was whether or not the yaks are the official pandaren mounts; I'm leaning toward no, but we'll see.

We were actually just discussing what the pandaren mount might be when this news came out. Blizzard joked about it at BlizzCon, with its mockup of a pandaren mount as a huge bouncy ball with a seat on top. Mat McCurley's personal opinion is (verbatim) "probably, like, a big frog maybe?" I feel it'll probably be something a little more dignified. Like a rickshaw.

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World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is the next expansion, raising the level cap to 90, introducing a brand new talent system, and bringing forth the long-lost pandaren race to both Horde and Alliance. Check out the trailer and follow us for all the latest MoP news!

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Patch 4.3 has a new mount we're all very curious about, the Heart of the Aspects. What we're curious about is how we're going to get our grubby little mitts all over it. Is it a heroic Deathwing drop? Or do we get it for completing a raid wide meta-achievement? Is it for killing Deathwing without the aid of the Aspects, the way Mimiron's Head dropped in Wrath? That last one seems unlikely to me, with the way heroic difficulty is accomplished now, but I can't rule it out.

Also interesting to note is Experiment 12-B, also new in the most recent data push. What does he look like? Where does he come from? Is it for killing Ultraxion? Another possible meta-achievement mount, as we speculated the Life-Binder's Handmaiden could be? At this time, I have no idea -- but it's new and shiny and I'm sure we'll all want one.

We've included the video from MMO-Champion behind the cut, so you can get a look at the Heart of the Aspects mount in motion.