Winged Guardian, Flying Near You!

[Dr. Doom]

Blizzard Entertainment recently released the highly anticipated Winged Guardian, and is currently flying in a Blizzard Store near you! It was released on May 31st, 2011 and has made quite a few sales on its initial release. It is currently available in the North American, European, and Korean regions.

The price they set for the mount is as follows: $25 (North America), 20€ (Europe), 17£ (United Kingdom). There have been many strong opinions on whether or not it's worth buying, but it seems to be leaning towards being worth the purchase. Here is a brief description of the mount in Blizzard's words,

When you take to the skies astride a blazing, eagle-winged lion, your comrades will know you mean business. Serious business. So saddle up, because this flying mount will travel as fast as your riding skill will take you, and it can even travel at 310% speed if you have at least one other 310% speed mount.

This mount was made along side the Celestial Steeds which will move at the same speed depending on what skill you have paid for or unlocked. This Guardian of the Titans will make you soar through the skies of Outlands, Azeroth, or Northrend! For each character you create, you will receive a Winged Guardian once you reach the minimum level of 20, since you can use it as a ground mount.

Here is a great picture of it, it was originally posted from Blizzard's World of Warcraft blog post, when they announced it being available.



That mount looks really attractive and definitely very appealing, with the trail of light as your flying through the faintly darkened sky.

Here is the image they are presenting to you when you're at the page for when you want to purchase it and get its full details.



Though this isn't a mount that is going to benefit any charities or go towards any benefits, it's still something interesting they have released to the public. The mount is definitely a real eye catcher and should keep the viewers in a daze while in-game. This mount is also only considered a digital product or download, so you won't receive any additional items aside from the mount itself. The mount can be kept for yourself or you can gift it to a friend of yours. You'll receive your codes in your e-mail that is connected to your battle.net that you used to make the purchase. Here's a quote from the support page for the Blizzard Store,

How do I redeem a Pet Store pet or mount once it's been purchased from the Blizzard Store?

After you purchase the pet or mount, you'll receive a code that can then be redeemed on any individual World of Warcraft account via Battle.net Account Management. Simply selct "Item Code Redemption" or visit this link. You don't need to redeem the code on the same Battle.net account that made the initial purchase – feel free to send the code to a friend as a gift.

Please note the that codes are specific to each region so they must be used in the region where purchased.

The way the Blizzard Store dealt with selling the mount was quite the surprise. They were using the same queue system as they use for when they sell Blizzcon tickets. When you were interested in purchasing your Winged Guardian they would put you in a queue where you would wait for others to finish their purchases and eventually reach you to make your transaction. Do you think that the Winged Guardian release was going to need a queue system?

Does this seem to be a trend with Blizzard? They originally released the Celestial Steed which made quite a few sales, but not as many as they had hoped for. This mount might be on a different level, but there are definitely going to be more sales of this mount than the Celestial Steed. Should we expect to see another pet or another mount in the Blizzard Store anytime soon?

Sources:
Blizzard Support
Blizzard Store
Winged Guardian Arrives in Pet Store - World of Warcraft

[Garneth]

Wonderful article sir!

[Dr. Doom]

Thanks Garneth needed to contribute some news, and I felt this has gotten a lot of attention, as I see a ton of them flying around!

[Stige]

Ugly as hell imo :/

[Dr. Doom]

I like the dreadlock beard thing xarper

[Stige]

Just.. nothing in my mind looks good about this mount >.<
+ everyone is now flying around in one so it doesnt really even have the "cool factor".

[Dr. Doom]

Yeah that's what I was feeling like. It's like one of those things where it's like, whoa. Everyone has one, what makes this one so special? haha.

[Succubuzz]

I for one did NOT buy the mount to "be cool" or to impress others. I dont care how many are flying around i STILL love MINE. I bought it cus i think it looks good and i try to collect mounts. I dont care what others think about it when im flying around on it. I bought for my own sake not for others.

[Confucius]

OOOOOOOh I bought this mount because i've always wanted a flying lion that can eat others for me. I also like to collect mounts on my main and this way i don't have to go around collecting cool mounts on all my alts, they'll always have one instead of that ugly wyvern

[Dr. Doom]

You 2 both bring up good points. You guys got the right mentality, doing it for yourselves, not others. I would do it simply so my alts don't have hideous mounts, like Confucius was saying. Either way, thanks for reading and commenting guys.

[Jadd]

Time it took blizzard to make the mount: 2 hours
Amount they made: $100000000
Suckers: Anyone who bought this mount
Stupid looking players: Anyone riding this mount

Good article though.

[Dr. Doom]

Time it took blizzard to make the mount: 2 hours
Amount they made: $100000000
Suckers: Anyone who bought this mount
Stupid looking players: Anyone riding this mount

Good article though.

Lol, good response Jadd. Thanks for reading

[Confucius]

Time it took blizzard to make the mount: 2 hours
Amount they made: $100000000
Suckers: Anyone who bought this mount
Stupid looking players: Anyone riding this mount

Good article though.

You just jealous because you can't do this!

[Timmid]

Cool idea, however I am really against Blizzard's micro transactions (paid transferring, rename, all that junk which might as well include buying mounts with IRL money).

Sure I want it, but not for $25. I'd rather work for it in game that way I can feel like I accomplished something. You know, like the old ZA mount and now ZG mounts.

[Dr. Doom]

Confucious, should take that same screenshot, but be closer, you need more detail!