Armored Bloodwing almost certainly a Store mount?

[SpiritBinder]

LOL, Dammit Wain, you beat me!

[Castile]

Back to the bat. The bat is awesome I feel a bit bad when cool and unique things do make it to the store, though. Because (i) I know not everyone is in a position to afford them and there are no other avenues for obtaining something similar, and (ii) I worry that it makes them less likely to appear as recolours in the game for fear of "devaluing" the store mount. And there are a lot of other awesome colours for this bat. At the very least we better see it as a tameable beast

I'm in two minds as well with store stuff. Mainly that i think its great some awesome mounts/pets are available to those who dont have time to raid etc to get other neat mounts... but then they get this stigma that it isn't so great cause ever man and his dog with $20 can have one. I hate that elitist minority making people feel bad for having them. I myself dont pay any mind to them but ive seen ppl ridiculed in trade for using the sparkle pony etc.

re: devaluing store stuff - i actuaclly think they did this to the tcg Hypo pet when they had the same item for the tsunami appeal. I have both (just cause I wanted to donate) but i feel my tcg pet has lost its sheen because theres no difference between it and the store pet. If they can do it for a battle pet then perhaps they will in future for mounts? who knows.

[cowmuflage]

Back to the bat. The bat is awesome I feel a bit bad when cool and unique things do make it to the store, though. Because (i) I know not everyone is in a position to afford them and there are no other avenues for obtaining something similar, and (ii) I worry that it makes them less likely to appear as recolours in the game for fear of "devaluing" the store mount. And there are a lot of other awesome colours for this bat. At the very least we better see it as a tameable beast

Yeah I think I'll fall into No. 1 as it all depends on how strong the US $ is as $25 AAmerican for a mount could end up costing me well over $35 NZ (that's how much one costed at a point ) Hell getting a authenticator cost me over $30 XD

[SpiritBinder]

re: devaluing store stuff - i actuaclly think they did this to the tcg Hypo pet when they had the same item for the tsunami appeal. I have both (just cause I wanted to donate) but i feel my tcg pet has lost its sheen because theres no difference between it and the store pet. If they can do it for a battle pet then perhaps they will in future for mounts? who knows.

There is the savage raptor, which to be fair, cost wise was a lot more than the Hippogriff Hatchling (Which I have no issue with, but that was mainly part of the fact that $$ was going towards an appeal) which is near identical to the the red primal, except i very small change in the brown of the saddle.



This made me pretty sad as I had just purchased the Savage Raptor this expansion. If it was a different colour, same model, I'd have no problems with it. But as it stands, I so would have purchased ANY other TCG mount over this one now....\

At least this hopfully this leaves a chance that if the mount does appear on the Bliz Store, the other colours could show up via other means.

[Castile]

re: devaluing store stuff - i actuaclly think they did this to the tcg Hypo pet when they had the same item for the tsunami appeal. I have both (just cause I wanted to donate) but i feel my tcg pet has lost its sheen because theres no difference between it and the store pet. If they can do it for a battle pet then perhaps they will in future for mounts? who knows.

There is the savage raptor, which to be fair, cost wise was a lot more than the Hippogriff Hatchling (Which I have no issue with, but that was mainly part of the fact that $$ was going towards an appeal) which is near identical to the the red primal, except i very small change in the brown of the saddle.



This made me pretty sad as I had just purchased the Savage Raptor this expansion. If it was a different colour, same model, I'd have no problems with it. But as it stands, I so would have purchased ANY other TCG mount over this one now....\

At least this hopfully this leaves a chance that if the mount does appear on the Bliz Store, the other colours could show up via other means.

Oh true! Totally forgot the savage raptor 0.o yeah i think that was lame too. It also means i wont be selling one on the AH any time soon as whos going to buy a 100k tcg mount when they can farm an egg for the same mount? They should of made it the "ZG raptor red" and not orange :/

Maybe another bat colour will be the horde rep reward for 5.3 and the faire dragon the alliance one? And the store one will be for everyone?

[Malackai]

Ok ladies and gentlemen, I'm all for a little off topic here and there (Lore can be interpreted in many different/personal ways, don’t forget to respect that) but let’s make sure we don’t forget the OP topic as well

As much as I think such a beautiful mount would have been better implemented in a "Little more difficult to acquire ingame way", but then that normally ends up being a raid drop/meta or such. But being selfish, as I'm not really raiding atm, I'm glad such a smexy mount looks destined for the blizz shop (As then I can save for one )

It would have been nice if they somehow introduced it in another way. Like how we got the Bronze Drake in the culling of stratholme? Maybe a timed run in one of the upcoming horde themed scenarios? Or even in one of the new Heroic scenarios? Or even a rare spawn (we have not had any TLPD/Aeonaxx/Poseidus/Camel Statue type mounts this exp. well, apart from Alani.. but I would not really call her a "rare spawn" to find)

Anyway, I'm very glad it's accessible none the less, and for everyone, Horde and alliance.

That fairy dragon would definitely fit as a TLPD/Aonaxx rare spawn. but for the love of god I really dont hope they add an other mysterious camel like one that was one of the most horrible camps I have ever encountered >_>

[Keilden]

Ok ladies and gentlemen, I'm all for a little off topic here and there (Lore can be interpreted in many different/personal ways, don’t forget to respect that) but let’s make sure we don’t forget the OP topic as well

As much as I think such a beautiful mount would have been better implemented in a "Little more difficult to acquire ingame way", but then that normally ends up being a raid drop/meta or such. But being selfish, as I'm not really raiding atm, I'm glad such a smexy mount looks destined for the blizz shop (As then I can save for one )

It would have been nice if they somehow introduced it in another way. Like how we got the Bronze Drake in the culling of stratholme? Maybe a timed run in one of the upcoming horde themed scenarios? Or even in one of the new Heroic scenarios? Or even a rare spawn (we have not had any TLPD/Aeonaxx/Poseidus/Camel Statue type mounts this exp. well, apart from Alani.. but I would not really call her a "rare spawn" to find)

Anyway, I'm very glad it's accessible none the less, and for everyone, Horde and alliance.

That fairy dragon would definitely fit as a TLPD/Aonaxx rare spawn. but for the love of god I really dont hope they add an other mysterious camel like one that was one of the most horrible camps I have ever encountered >_>

Camel was the best camp for me since I got it while leveling.

[Snowy]

Quite happy with this, to be honest. I know that bat would be perfect for my hunter, so I didn't want it to be tricky to obtain. And besides, I have a bit of spare money right now.

[Equeon]

I know I'm in the minority here when I say I really hope it's not a store mount.
But here are my two main reasons:

1. Yes, I have the "elitist" attitude. If Invincible or Mimiron's Head could be bought for real-life money, how many more thousands of those mounts would you see? It really cheapens a mount when it is a.) very visually interesting/striking b.) completely unique , and yet you see so many of them around. If you enjoy a mount, use it! But I personally find it harder to enjoy my own mount when I see dozens of other people with it in a city. This leads into my other reason...

2. Lore purposes. Until this point, every other store mount has had very little place in the lore. Some are not even mentioned at all, like the Swift Windsteed. Now, a major staple of Troll culture - bat-riding - is available for purchase by (presumably) all factions. Here's a comparison between what I'd want and what is most likely going to be

Purchasable from Blizzard Store
- Only those with $25 of real world money can buy it, and conversely
- anyone with $25 can buy it. Making the mount both easy and hard to get at the same time, in the wrong ways.
- Usable by anyone level 20+
- Has no real connection to lore other than a possible mailbox message

Purchasable from New Darkspear Reputation/Reward from Darkspear Questline
- Requires level 90 to buy and probably 60/70/85/90 to use on alts, so it wouldn't be that common of a mount (People will use it just as or more than the armored flyers in 5.1, but it still requires effort to get)
- Even if the rep required a month or so of casual grinding to reach exalted, or the questline took a month to complete, the $15 fee for that month would still be cheaper than a store mount. Anyone who currently has a subscription to WoW could obtain it, vs. those with a current subscription and extra money
- Lore connection would definitely be there. The trolls would have rewarded you with an elite flying beast, as a token of gratitude. Rather than "here's a cool bat, now ride it!"

To each his own, I guess, and ultimately it's Blizzard's decision. Still...

[Nachtwulf]

Urgh

Please for the love of GOD no more faction grinding. This has been the Expac of Faction Grinding and Repetitive and Punishing Dailies and I am sick unto -tears- of it already. I feel like my time in WoW is more of a soul-crushing job that I'm not actually getting paid for than a fun escape from the humdrum of RL. If I want to do chores, I'll clean out the garage. Seriously.

Please do not encourage Blizzard to make MORE horrible and infuriating dailies.

... I really should see to the garage though...

[Snowy]

I feel like my time in WoW is more of a soul-crushing job that I'm not actually getting paid for than a fun escape from the humdrum of RL.

See, this is the whole reason I play other video games a lot more these days. If all I played was WoW, all I would do is grindgrindgrind. And that would be horrible. I'm not even exalted with all the original MoP factions yet, I'm only just coming up to exalted with the Shado-Pan and I'm not minding these dailies in the slightest, but that's only because I didn't work at them like holy hell, doing nothing but dailies every day. I did what I wanted, when I wanted and I took my sweet time with them.

Also, the Order of the Cloud Serpent rep grind was awesome, I'd be quite happy with more factions like that one where you can go around collecting rare items or something if you choose to. I always think there should be a grindable way to get rep in the form of eggs or some kinda 'rare spawn' or just... something that doesn't necessarily make it easy but can be used as an alternative/extra for the people that want to/want the rep asap. I farmed those eggs like crazy! It was the first MoP faction I got exalted with and I did it in just under three days. It was fun, I'd say.

However, I do have to agree with Equeon in terms of lore. Blizz Store mounts do seem like a 'cheap' way to throw in a shiny new mount that has no lore, nothing. The bat, to me, doesn't really seem like a Blizz Store mount. There's plenty of opportunity for a story in there. I know I already said I would like it to be one, but that's just because I assumed their decision was probably final by now and that I realised I was actually kinda glad to be able to get this mount so easy. I dunno. In the end, it's Blizzard's decision and most of their decisions I can understand and accept whether I like them or not.

[Meggers]

I think it would be odd for it to be a store mount as its such a horde-esque mount. Either way, idc.

I'm just still thoroughly bitter over the red primal raptor/savage raptor deal.

[Snowy]

I'm just still thoroughly bitter over the red primal raptor/savage raptor deal.

As someone who doesn't even have the Savage Raptor TCG mount, it pissed me off a little too. I don't know how they thought they could do that without annoying a bunch of people who had paid for a mount that looks almost identical to one you can get for 'free' in the game. I'm not sure what goes through Blizzard's head sometimes, but as I said above, there must be some kinda reasoning for it...

[Silivren]

I think it would be odd for it to be a store mount as its such a horde-esque mount. Either way, idc.

I'm just still thoroughly bitter over the red primal raptor/savage raptor deal.

It's a completely unique model though, just because its a bat doesn't always make it horde. It's like I said before with the hippogryphs, just seeing them someone would think alliance because they're primarily alliance taxis but that wasn't so. The bat fits all the criteria for a store mount. It's a unique model which players will want and Blizzard knows will sell. It had multiple colors if I remember correctly which was the same thing as the Windsteed. Overall Blizzard knows if they sold it in the Blizz store that they'd make money which for any company is top priority.

[Snowy]

It's a completely unique model though, just because its a bat doesn't always make it horde.

But it *does* scream Horde. The colours, the armour, everything about it looks Horde-esque, as Meggers said. Yes, it's a new model and fits the criteria for being a store mount, etc. but that doesn't mean it has to be. I never saw the hippogryphs as Alliance-only mounts either. They always felt like druid mounts to me, considering the Cenarion Hippogryph and all.

[Silivren]

But they're Cenarion primarily because of night elves. The hippogryphs have a unique bond with night elves which is why they serve as night elf taxis. It may *scream* horde but I think both sides should be able to have it. Which is why I'm hopeing it is a store mount AND I'd HATE another faction grind. Grinding....ugh.

[Meggers]

Unique model or not, -I- still think it would be odd to have it as a store mount. Its just so horde to me.

[Silivren]

Unique model or not, -I- still think it would be odd to have it as a store mount. Its just so horde to me.

Then the same could be said "looks horde" or not it's a cool/unique model that would make them a lot of Blizz Store money and I highly doubt they'd pass that up.

[Snowy]

I really think they've already made enough money through the Blizz Store. Just sayin'.

[Silivren]

I really think they've already made enough money through the Blizz Store. Just sayin'.

True they have. But it is their company and the top priory is to make money so any chance they can take to make money they will.