Does anyone find Eltharion's Stormwing mount to be really bad?

[Vyss A'lare]

Playing as Eltharion and I actually chose to downgrade him to an armored horse because Stormwing was just flat out terrible. Trying to chase down enemy lords and he couldn't manage to land a single blow before they were off the field due to the very clunky animations. It is slightly better for infantry killing but at the cost of being way way squishier. Overall I don't see why you would use it over forming a noble gank squad on horses.

[THEDOSSBOSS]

So the only deciding factor you presented was that he has issues chasing down lords? I personally find horses worse because there is about a 5% chance that they get stuck in a perpetual charge animation in which you deal continuous damage, which frankly is the best outcome, a 75% chance that your lord gets stuck in a perpetual charge animation and DOESN'T attack, so just speeds up the enemy lord's departure from the battle, or your lord just rides alongside their routing lord, as if escorting them off, to eventually circle around to get into the pushing position to help them out a bit more. The remaining 10% is when you constantly knock them over, slowly dealing damage, but you have to constantly babysit the engagement so that your lord doesn't decide to get stuck in the charge animation. Now with flying mounts (that are larger than pegasi), this animation doesn't happen. Sure, they are more than likely going to miss the initial charge, but then they spin around, get a hit in (a strong hit mind you since damage is increased on most flying mounts) and fly up for another go. They are far more likely to kill the lord than a horse mount would if you just disable guard mode, right click, and forget about it.

As for the other benefits of having stormwing. First off: mobility. You can get anywhere in the battlefield regardless of how many enemy (or friendly, since they slow you down immensely as well) units are between you and your target. Secondly: terror. You can route entire lines that you can then chase down and finish off with your infantry or cav. Thridly: mass. You can disengage from combat a lot quicker, especially when surrounded, actually decreasing your likelihood of losing your lord if he happens to route. Fourthly: splash damage, as you mentioned, whilst also maintaining their dueling capabilities against single entities.

There is no reason to keep your lord on a land-based mount when they have anything better than a great eagle to ride

[Vyss A'lare]

See I have found it to be to opposite. It takes so long for the griffon to turn that you are spending 10s+ of free hits vs him to even start to pull out. If the turning was a bit better it might be useful but by the time he comes around for a second attack the enemy lord is long gone. I don't remember having these issued with karl on deathwing but damn Stormwing handles the worst of any mount I've seen yet.

My gank squad is immeasurably better at staying alive in 3v300 fights and killing the lords as well. The benefits don't outweigh the 3-4x bigger entity and defensive debuffs to me

[funkmonster7]

Mod it to be a Terrorgheist, named Batwing.