The curse of knowledge is finally over for all the World of Warcraft players waiting for Blizzard to release a mount that was first dug up by dataminers 11 years ago. The near-legendary electrified Stormcrow flying mount will finally be attainable in patch 11.0.7 next month.
Thanks to Wowhead's extensive archive, you can travel back in time and see the first mention of the mount in 2013 during the Mists of Pandaria expansion. It wasn't just a text entry; it was a full, midnight blue bird mount covered in lightning bolts. Players fully expected it to release within a patch or two like any other datamined mount, but years went by without even a mention of it by Blizzard.
There are whole forum threads of people speculating when it would finally show up in the game. Some thought it would be a promotional reward for playing Heroes of the Storm, while others expected it to be hidden behind some obscure puzzle.
One player even asked a customer service rep about it, which only further mythologized the mount's existence:
"Cool looking mount for sure, however we are not able to give out info on where it's from. As with many things in game we leave it to our players to find where things like this are from, if they are even in the game yet! Your fellow players on fansites can help, but we will not provide hints!"
Now, six expansions later, the Stormcrow mount, Thrayir, Eyes of the Siren, will finally leave the vault. It will be one of several cosmetic items you can get by killing the powerful new enemies in WoW: The War Within's new Siren Isle zone. The preview video has a brief shot of a player flying on it, which is technically the first time Blizzard has ever officially acknowledged it.
The test version of the patch is available on a Public Test Realm and will probably hit the live servers next month. Part of me almost hopes Thrayir mysteriously doesn't show up again, allowing the legend of the Stormcrow to live on for another 11 years.
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