Pandaren Phoenix (Warning; Large Images!)

[Meggers]

Oh. I guess I'm the only one who never saw them as pets, just mounts!

Nope, you're not.

Correct, I see them as mounts too.

[Crotalus Horridus]

Eh, I don't see why these couldn't become tamable BoP... It might actually get me to tame a BoP, seeing as I'm not a huge fan of any of the current ones.

I'm not sure how we'll get these, but I'm not sure I care, these are gorgeous.

I could see these in Birds of Prey as either Parrots, Peacocks, or Parrocks (Parrot X Peacock). Peacocks will eat snakes and other little animals in the wild, and parrots will readily accept meat (Only in a limited quantity) and bone marrows (Chicken bone marrow is good for them). However, there is a kind of parrot that will kill and eat other animals... THE KEA!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AWCvay6vj0
*Video of a Kea doing what any predator does to eat it's prey; not for the weak hearted*

[Albain]

Given they have saddles and there's four of them, I'm betting on these being the mount reward for heroic dungeon achieves/raid achieves, like the stone drakes and wind drakes and protoderps were in the last few expansions. I'd love to tame one but i'm not betting on it.

[cowmuflage]

Oh. I guess I'm the only one who never saw them as pets, just mounts!

Nope, you're not.

Correct, I see them as mounts too.

Same. I don't see them as pets and quite frankly don't think they need to be pets.

[Equeon]

I would love the first one, it's just beautiful. So much better than the current phoenixes, which are already quite attractive.
You know what this means? We asked for proper bird mounts, and we received!

[Chimera]

im pretty sure they already are wearing saddles, theres a blocky formation on their back and tassles hanging down with a cloth band wrapped around their underbelly :3 porbably will be raid and dungeon/raid acheivment mounts (same system as how we acquire red proto/volcanic for dungeon acheivs, and possibly an end-game drop off a big raid boss in 10 and 25man)

[cowmuflage]

im pretty sure they already are wearing saddles, theres a blocky formation on their back and tassles hanging down with a cloth band wrapped around their underbelly :3 porbably will be raid and dungeon/raid acheivment mounts (same system as how we acquire red proto/volcanic for dungeon acheivs, and possibly an end-game drop off a big raid boss in 10 and 25man)

You are right they do have saddles! Did not see them before you pointed them out!

[Miacoda]

I wouldn't even consider them being pets unless there was one without a saddle. And even then I don't really see it.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd love to tame one, but I'm Definately not going to get my hopes up.

[Vephriel]

I wouldn't even consider them being pets unless there was one without a saddle. And even then I don't really see it.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd love to tame one, but I'm Definately not going to get my hopes up.

Agreed. Gut feeling just says these aren't the right type of model to be a tameable pet. Not saying I wouldn't want one, but I don't think they will be.

[Kurasu]

Oh.

Oh my.

Oh my God.

Oh My Effing God.

DO WANT! SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!

These have to be some of the most glorious things I've ever seen. I hope they're a mount that's obtainable in some way, because they are *BEAUTIFUL*. Like, tears-in-eyes grabby-hands-at-screen *GORGEOUS*. If they're raid mounts', I'm going to cry my eyes out. I *pray* that they're rewards that can be gotten, purchased, or whatever. Dear *Lord*, they're all so beautiful, I don't know which color I want to get first.

[Crotalus Horridus]

Not trying to be rude or anything, but how could you not see it being a pet? We have things like giant mushroom bats and two headed flying carnivorous goat things but a large bird is not conceivable? Just wondering.

[Crotalus Horridus]

Oh, and here's a video of them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_QYG4Nz2dM
They're quite Hippogryph like, wonder if they'll have a running animation, maybe like how Crows and Ravens hop around?

[Kurasu]

Not trying to be rude or anything, but how could you not see it being a pet? We have things like giant mushroom bats and two headed flying carnivorous goat things but a large bird is not conceivable? Just wondering.

I think they 'can't see it being a pet' because it has a saddle on its back. Unless the saddle is removed, the likelihood of it being a pet is small.

Incidentally, the images are based off a bird known as the Fenghuang. The 'Chinese Phoenix'. And yes, they are described as having the tail of a peacock.

[Bulletdance]

With the different colors I could see these being rep rewards. I hope they are.

[Seilahyn]

Not sure how I feel about the tiny little legs pasted on the old phoenix model. The one thing I didn't like about the old model was the fact the body/rear just tapered off like it did into a tail. They didn't seem to thicken it at all, just pasted the legs right on there. My only other complaint would be the tail moves as one, flat, solid thing. I'd like if there were the tiniest bit of variance in the movement to make it seem a little more real? Not sure what word I want exactly.

I like the last two the most, probably the last one being my favorite.

[Equeon]

Not trying to be rude or anything, but how could you not see it being a pet? We have things like giant mushroom bats and two headed flying carnivorous goat things but a large bird is not conceivable? Just wondering.

Well, because of the saddle and shared skeleton of the phoenix, we tend to associate those things with mounts (and they are.)
The key thing that you missed is that we do not have sporebat and chimera mounts; and we certainly were not first shown sporebat mounts and then got sporebat pets alongside those mounts. It's just unlikely that they'll be hunter pets.

[Zalani]

Loving the look and the detail on these mounts, Blizzard did a good job on them.
The last 2 are especially my faves. would match my hunter so well!
They could just hover still, depending on if the legs are well long enough( hoping so lol)
... Defenitaly on the top of my fav. mount list now. Just love Pheonixes, always have. <3

[Meggers]

Oh, and here's a video of them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_QYG4Nz2dM
They're quite Hippogryph like, wonder if they'll have a running animation, maybe like how Crows and Ravens hop around?

Between the saddle and its skeleton/way it just looks overall I don't see it.

[Bulletdance]

I wonder if there is any chance these will be a new final druid flight form model. It's not likely,but they kinda remind me of epic flight form.

[Chimera]

the akward part about the bird is that it looks almost as if they took a cloak model, reskinned it to look like a tail, and stuck it on :S long cloaks dont have up and down movement higher then the bottom eighth of the piece and the tail really really makes me associate that lack of movement with a cloak+phoenix splice