Warcraft Mounts

I inadvertently went AFK for a bit there, but I am back today with actual honest-to-goodness Cataclysm mount news!

As you may or may not know, one of the level 80-82 zones in Cataclysm is Vashj’ir, and all of Vashj’ir is underwater. One of the first things you learn there (via a quest) is how to breathe and walk underwater. But the quest givers also set you off down a long quest chain on your way to catching your very own underwater mount.

Now this is all very cool. But until today, the Abyssal Manta that you eventually obtained had obvious placeholder graphics: it was a nether ray mount, just like the Sha’tari Skyguard Riding Nether Rays. The only difference was that it ‘flew’ through the water instead of through the air.

In the latest beta build (12604), however, the Abyssal Manta was replaced — right out of our mount tabs! — with the first of the new Cataclysm mount models: an Abyssal Seahorse.

The swimming animation on the seahorse is a bit jerky right now. (It makes me a little seasick after awhile.) But I’m sure Blizzard will smooth that out. And I am absolutely in love with the delicate filigree bridle and metallic tack. These mounts have a whole ocean of personality (if you’ll forgive me the terrible pun).

Incidentally I apologize that the pictures aren’t a bit better. Unfortunately upping my graphics right now causes my client to crash. This is a new bug (for me at least) that started with this beta build, so hopefully it will be fixed next build and I can get some prettier pictures.

No word yet on how we might obtain other seahorse colors, but there are several other colors in the game data files, including the purple seahorse you see here, a pretty goldish color, and two absolutely gorgeous light blue and green tones. There also seem to be a couple different colors of tack available – gold, silver, and copper — and each color has a version without the full saddle.

I’m not sure yet which models might actually make it into the game so I haven’t set them up with their own mount pages yet, but I’m linking the images below so you can check them out at your leisure.