8.2 Mount Equipment and Possible Water Strider Mount nerf

[Magnakilro]

In patch 8.2, one of the new features being implemented is Mount Equipment. Its an equipment slot in your mount journal that you put an item in to buff all of your mounts in some way. It works like a gem socket...if you put an item in while you already have one equipped, you'll destroy the old one.

Possible buffs shown were: Water walking, Daze immunity, and a parachute if you dismount in the air. Note that the Sky Golem/Mechanized Lumber Extractor is unable to use any of these as it has built in herb gathering.

Among the proposed possible buffs is an item that grants Water Walking benefits to ALL mounts. But....this item comes at a bit of a price. The two existing Water Strider mounts are seemingly being nerfed to no longer innately have the ability to Water walk by default. Instead, anyone who has a Water strider will be mailed the water walking mount equip for free.

What do you all think? I'm on the boat that while its nice EVERYTHING can waterwalk now if desired, it does stink that the bugs we worked hard on lose their unique trait.

Few other things to keep in mind: You need 1 lvl 100+ character to unlock the Mount equipment feature. The equipment themselves can be used starting at lvl 20. A BoA version of the Water Walking equipment is being added to the Anglers rep quartermaster in Pandaria.

https://www.mmo-champion.com/content/84 ... t-Creators

[GormanGhaste]

I think the water striders should be like the Sky Golem etc--they keep their previous ability and can't benefit from new ones.

...I want to keep water walking and get a parachute

[Vephriel]

I don't understand why they feel the need to remove the base ability from water striders altogether. If they're concerned about perk stacking, just make it so that they can't benefit from the equipment or something. Still, with the proposed plan of letting all characters of 20+ utilize the stuff, I'm not too upset about it since I'm certain I'll be equipping the water walking item almost all the time anyways.

Overall I'm really excited about this though. I think it's a great way to 'fix' the problem of unique mount behaviours, because I was getting real tired of being forced to use that water strider all the time. Glad we can customize our mounts now and use whatever ones we like.

[cowmuflage]

It does feel a bit like taking flying off a flying mount in a way XD

[WerebearGuy]

I think the water striders should be like the Sky Golem etc--they keep their previous ability and can't benefit from new ones.

This is the only CORRECT option. This is objectively true. There is absolutely no reason to punish players for having earned something years ago, and yes; it IS punishment. There is no acceptable reason for the strider to lose its water walking. Don't mail a freebie. Don't take away. Leave the striders alone and prevent the use of equipment on them. This is 100% optimal.

With every patch, they do something pants on head stupid for no reason. They need to cut that out.

[Valnaaros]

I don’t find it a big deal. I’ve earned the water strider but don’t mind it losing its ability since I can now use water walking on any mount. Besides, like Veph said, we can now use whatever mount we want for water walking. It really isn’t a big deal.

I don’t think they really care about stacking since Blood DKs can technically have all three known equipment effects. They can walk on water no matter as a class ability, and cannot be dazed due to being a tank. So they can use the parachute equipment and have all three benefits.

[Bowno]

TBH, I think they should let them keep water walking.
If stacking is such a huge issue, then have the ones like the Water Strider move across water at a normal mount speed while it has another 'buff' active on it.
That way, it still retains its original purpose and no one can get pissy over it being "too op" Which, SPOILER ALERT, ....People have already been saying about it since it came out :O Amazing! And those people just like to bitch and moan about anything so IDK why any one would listen to those people anyways.

[cowmuflage]

I think I'll still use my crimson water strider because I worked my butt off for that one XD

[Shinryu Masaki]

I'm fine either way, as I don't see myself using anything other than the Water Walking effect in the first place.

[Wain]

I definitely think the water striders should keep their native effect. I think it would be better than they don't work with mount gear than to remove water walking from them.

Firstly, for Blizzard it's a terribly small hill to die on, it's something they could work around. But for players, it's another incident that will be added to a pile of things that they haven't been happy with this expansion. Just one small addition, but the pile is teetering.

Secondly, I would be interested in seeing mount equipment extended to flying at some point. I.e. use the equipment slot to give your ground horse a pair of wings. If that ever happens, it can't be at the expense of removing native flying ability from all existing mounts and I think they should come up with a better solution now. I haven't thought this through heavily, but maybe having a dedicated travel mode slot that is separate from the other-effects slot, is a solution. Gain one at level <x> and one at level <y>.

Finally, I think the nerf shows a rigid mindset in how game systems are structured which detracts from the world feeling organic and real. Player classes have already been through that (everything having to be neat and symmetrical), but at least in that case I understood that the game is now so complex that it's hard to balance classes without doing that. Portal systems have recently undergone a similar methodical restructuring, which has already been received very poorly.

I feel that highly ordered systems may be really necessary in some cases, but as a player I also feel that it feels unnatural for a living game world, and more appropriate for a lower level game, like HotS.

[Qraljar]

I also care about the mount's integrity and not gutting one of its main appeals that people farmed it for, and I've given my opinion that Water Striders should keep their baseline water walking, but be locked out of using other mount equipment.

However, I've given up on trying to fight it, because Blizzard has been trying to stealth-gut the Water Strider since, what? WoD? And they're just gonna keep trying to do so, in which case, we may as well just relent and save ourselves the trouble of protesting a change that will happen eventually anyway.

It's definitely one of those things that is piling up for me, though. I dislike that it's always two steps forward, one step back, or getting something new at the loss of another thing. I'd like to just be excited about a new feature without having to fear that another, older feature gets removed. The portal room was another recent case like that.

Lastly, it's worth mentioning that the future of the mount equipment system isn't even certain. Are they gonna honor its existence next expansion? The expansion after that? The one after that? What if they remove that too, or require you to unlock it later in a future expansion?

[Valnaaros]

Agreed. Blizz has made it clear almost since the Water Strider was added that they regret giving it the ability to water walk and have been wanting to remove that ability ever since. And seeing as Blizz was largely unwilling to budge regarding Portals in 8.1.5, I don't see them changing their mind with the Water Strider. Definitely possible, but I find it rather unlikely.

Continueing what Wain said, this isn't that big of a deal, and wouldn't be getting that much attention were it not for the many unpopular decisions this Xpac. If this had happened back in Legion, I don't think that there would be a big stink being made.

[Castile]

I know it's not a "big deal" overall but I am abit miffed that I farmed for both variants of waterstrider and now they really have no purpose other than another mount in my collection. It felt like a nice reward for those that worked for those mounts and now its just nothing. Like a further dumbing down of the game. Oh you can't be bothered to farm this? Here you go.

And what about warlocks and deathknights? A cool 'perk' of their class was that they could have their mounts (all for DK - dreadsteed for warlocks) was that they can run on water. It's a somewhat nerf to them as well.

And I agree with cow - it's like taking flying away from flying mounts. Lame. It's just another poor decision in an expansion of nothing but poor decisions. And soon we'll have flying back anyway so why do this now? meh.

[Valnaaros]

And what about warlocks and deathknights? A cool 'perk' of their class was that they could have their mounts (all for DK - dreadsteed for warlocks) was that they can run on water. It's a somewhat nerf to them as well.

As far as I know, they still will be able to run on water. Same for Shamans.

[Castile]

And what about warlocks and deathknights? A cool 'perk' of their class was that they could have their mounts (all for DK - dreadsteed for warlocks) was that they can run on water. It's a somewhat nerf to them as well.

As far as I know, they still will be able to run on water. Same for Shamans.

That's not what I mean. Its a nerf because that was something unique to that class. Now everyone can do it so...meh.

[Valnaaros]

And what about warlocks and deathknights? A cool 'perk' of their class was that they could have their mounts (all for DK - dreadsteed for warlocks) was that they can run on water. It's a somewhat nerf to them as well.

As far as I know, they still will be able to run on water. Same for Shamans.

That's not what I mean. Its a nerf because that was something unique to that class. Now everyone can do it so...meh.

Ah, I get what you're saying. My bad. Yeah, it is somewhat of a nerf to those classes.