TYDKaWoW #016 | The Black Qiraji Battle Tank has an unused flying form

The Black Qiraj Battle Tank, the only legendary mount in the game, was a ground mount. If you were around during classic, you were able to get this one, by being the first person to ring the gong or within 10 hours of the first person. And it wasn't just any mount, it was better than the other ones. Of course there was the feature, that you could use it outside Ahn'Qiraj as well as inside, which no other mount could, but there was more.

It had two special features, that no other mount had. The first one was, that you could mount up, while falling. And the second one, that you could start the summon in combat and if you weren't any longer in combat upon finish, the cast would go through. This would allow for a tinier timeframe needed to mount up, as other mounts couldn't be cast during combat.

But apparently Blizzard had thought about adding even more features to the mount. Not only being usable inside Ahn'Qiraj and outside, but also as a flying mount once the Burning Crusade released? Maybe.

The first indication came with Patch 2.2. This patched removed the ability to cast the mount while falling. So Blizzard had changed to mount in some form and players noticed this when logging in, because somehow this lead to them being transformed into a wasp, if they were on the mount before logging out pre patch.


The second indication came with Patch 3.0.2/3.0.3. During the PTR of 3.0.2, when summoned in a flyable zone, the Black Qiraj Battle Tank turned into a wasp. This once again coincides with the removable of another mount feature, the casting during combat.

Screenshot from Intrinsic @ server unknown.

Screenshot from Curse1 on Wowpedia.

And the final indication, that Blizzard planned this flying form, is an npc in the database called Flying Black Qiraji Battle Tank. This is probably more than an indication. You can even view the model for the npc on wowhead and it is of course the wasp we already know.

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