How To Get Wandering Ancient Mount

Wandering Ancient
Wandering Ancient 1.5 sec cast Requires Apprentice Riding Summons and dismisses this mount.
Usable by
Class	All
School	N/A
Cooldown	None/Global Cooldown
Related buff
Wandering Ancient Increases ground speed by X%.

The Wandering Ancient's spring coloration.

The Wandering Ancient is an ancient mount. It was the winning candidate of the Choose the Next Shadowlands Mount community poll^[1] and was made available for free to all World of Warcraft: Shadowlands owners with the release of patch 9.0.5.

1 Source
2 Mount Journal
- 2.1 Website
3 Development
4 Notes
5 Gallery
6 Patch changes
7 References
8 External links

Source

Starting with the release of patch 9.0.5, the Wandering Ancient is automatically added to the mount collection of all accounts with the Shadowlands expansion activated, as well as those who purchase Shadowlands at a later date.^[2] ^[3]

Mount Journal

A staunch defender of the forests of Azeroth, the ancients are also known for their glorious canopies of leaves, which change color with the seasons.

Website

Not all ancients are interested in war or lore, some just want to travel the world! This arboreal nomad has traveled to many places and with each passing season embraces change, both in scenery and in the foliage atop its branches.

Development

Concept art and reference images for the Wandering Ancient.

When it became clear that the Wandering Ancient had won the Choose the Next Shadowlands Mount poll, artist Jon McConnell was tasked with bringing the mount to life. The first step was to collect a reference board with concept art, images of past iterations of ancients, and fan art by the community. McConnell figured that if the team were to introduce a new type of rideable ancient, it should line up with the pantheon of past ancients, all of whom have looks that aesthetically fit their purpose. McConnell wanted the Wandering Ancient to feel like a natural growth or root system that a player might have come across and sat down on, only to then suddenly find themselves atop an uprooted creature.

Once the concept was finished and McConnell began modelling the mount, he ended up keeping a lot of the foliage from World of Warcraft's original ancient protector model. Some other major parts of the mount had to be created from scratch, namely the main torso and head. The mount's animation rig was built by Waleed Boghosian, after which it was passed over to the animators, who used the animations of the the original ancient models as a foundation to build upon. A lot of animation work is based on the movement of animals in the real world, but in the case of fictional creatures that only exist in WoW, the animators like to film themselves for reference, which helps them get a feel for the mindset and personality of the creature. In the case of the Wandering Ancient's animations, animator Corin McCrate acted as the stand-in.

The mount's vocalizations were provided by longtime Warcraft composer Glenn Stafford, who has previously contributed his voice to previous iterations of ancients. The Wandering Ancient's voice was intended to match the fact that it's a little smaller, friendlier, and more inquisitive than others of its kind.

The mount features an easter egg in the form of a small caterpillar sticking out of the tree on the ancient's back, as a nod to the Curious Caterpillar, one of the mount concepts that did not win the poll. This idea was suggested by Kelvin Tan and added by Jon McConnell.^[4]

Notes

The mount changes color with each season, much like the [Blossoming Ancient] pet.^[4]
The ancient's /mountspecial animation depicts it reaching up to scratch one of its branches, before shaking its body to remove loose leaves and pinecones. The animation has a small chance of including alternate objects among those that get shaken off, differing based on the season:
- Winter: Chunks of ice or a Greatfather Winter Pepe.
- Spring: A red apple or a normal Pepe.
- Summer: A Toy Siege Tower, a leather ball, or a Traveller Pepe.
- Fall: A jack-o'-lantern and/or Candy Bucket, or a Spooky Pepe.
The Wandering Forest Walker and/or Wandering Protector may have inspired the name.

Gallery

Winter coloration.
Summer coloration.
Fall coloration.
The caterpillar easter egg.

Patch changes

Patch 9.0.5 (2021-03-09): Added.

References

External links

Wowhead
WoWDB

Mounts

Mount family

Dragonkin	Cloud serpents Dragonhawks Drakes Elemental drakes Nether drakes Undead dragons Proto-drakes

Feathermane	Gryphons Hippogryphs Larions Wolfhawks Wyverns

Invertebrate	Aqir Ardenmoths Blood ticks Corpseflies Gorm Jellyfish Krolusks Scorpions Silithid Spiders Water striders

Mammal	Alpacas Bats Bears Boars Camels Cats Saber cats Clefthooves Elekks Foxes Goats Horses Skeletal horses Unicorns Hounds Hyenas Mammoths Moose Rams Rats Riverbeasts Runestags Talbuks Tauralus Wolves Yaks

Reptile	Basilisks Direhorns Falcosaurs Kodos Mushan Pterrordaxes Raptors Snapdragons Turtles

Other	Amphibians Crawgs Birds Cranes Hawkstriders Tallstriders Crawling hands Demons Devourers Elementals Core hounds Fish Fathom rays Seahorses Flayedwings Flying carpets Flying discs Gargons Gravewings Humanoids Kites Mana rays Mechanical Aquilon Mechacycle Mechanostriders Phalynx Rockets Necrorays Nether rays Phoenix Quilens Razorwings Rylaks Serpents of N'Zoth Shadow serpents Shardhides Soul eaters Wilderlings

Specific types

Arena
Aquatic
Class
Crafted
Store
Unique
Removed

Unique mounts

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Dragonkin	Enchanted Fey Dragon Ensorcelled Everwyrm Sylverian Dreamer

Magical	Archmage's Prismatic Disc The Dreadwake The Hivemind Magic Broom Swift Flying Broom Flying Broom Swift Magic Broom Old Magic Broom Rickety Magic Broom Red Flying Cloud Wildseed Cradle