OP, it will still be able to walk on water. You just have to go out of your way to equip the water walking ability, and you only have to do that once. And that might take two mouse clicks?
I still think this issue is the dumbest issue that I’ve ever seen on the forums.
You kinda actually missed the point though.
Water walking Best choice for nobody except Protection Paladins because they already have everything else mount equipment offers.
Safe fall Best choice for Blood-DKs unless they have [rocket jump] from being a goblin.
No-Daze or Speed will be the big decision for everyone else, they have more utility more of the time.
I’ve given up. From now on, if I come back, it’ll be the Angler’s Raft.
I’m probably just going to throw away the water walking equipment we get in the mail so I don’t accidentally kill myself by forgetting to look down when I jump into water.
No, you should be able to get them on any toon that is above 100 since the strider is account bound. Also, any toon above 100 will get their free pair of consumable shoes to replace a non-consumable trait.
I haven’t seen tears shed over this issue, I have seen people angry that we are losing a mount ability that we earned. There is a big difference.
As someone else mentioned, we are expressing our displeasure over this and we are trying to educate people about the downside of this change.
I have not seen anyone who is pro-waterstrider state they have an issue with the idea of mount equipment. As you stated, it could bring some interesting abilities into the game.
What we are protesting is the change to the water-strider. We do not want it stripped of its special ability for two main reasons:
On top of this, it must be noted that the Angler’s water-walking shoes are Unique equip, meaning you can only carry one of these. This means that if you are questing in a zone like Nazmir (Tons of mobs that daze you and tons of water) you cannot swap out your equipment as needed without traveling all the way back to Krasarang Wilds to buy another pair of shoes.
The reality is, the fact that blizzard made this “inexpensive” item Unique equip was done to wean those who worked to earn that mount off of water-walking.
To elaborate on this.
If you like needless and unending gold sinks that replace existing one and done functionality then I guess you’ll be happy.
https://www.wowhead.com/news=291909.6/mount-equipment-coming-in-patch-8-2
That’s odd then. Because I copied my Shaman and my Lock over to the PTR, and didn’t get the free mount equipment, not even in the mail as well, and there both level 120. But at the moment, PTR stuff. And I maybe doing something wrong ![:woman_shrugging:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/woman_shrugging.png?v=6" ":woman_shrugging:")
But in order to get the ones for below level 100, says gotta have the Anglers Reputation on WoWHead, but uncertain if needing to be exalted or something and be level 100 and over to purchase it.
Isn’t this the nature of the game though? Most items from previous x-pacs become useless in the following ones.
All gear, the Farm, the Garrison, the Order Hall, Avianna’s Feather, etc, etc. I was always surprised Blizz didn’t can the Strider already.
it is my belief that this is PTR specific, aka not going to be in the live 8.2 build.
They are mailing all strider owning level 100s the BoA water walking boots for players to test the system. Makes it easier for them to get it tested since A, those characters will have the required slot unlocked, and B, those players character(s) who acquired the Anglers rep needed to purchase said water walking item may not be leveled up to run through current expansion PTR content. Also makes it easier for players by mailing it to all level 100 alts with strider ownership because it doesn’t require the player to go through and find whichever alt has the rep and copy it over to the PTR.
Man Blizzard really really really hates mounts with water walking I guess.
They are only mount # increases at this point, kind of sad.
My BM Hunter got both of them, finally, in Legion. She did BOTH at the same time. The Panda one was gained about a week and a half earlier than the WoD one.
So to me, it almost feels like a “double slap in the face”, having received both moderately recently.
Again, I don’t blame Blizzard as much as the players making threads on the issue. This suggestion has been kicking around since water striders arrived. None of the suggestion threads, for making it a “piece of equipment” ever said to remove the ability FROM the water striders. However, these people have heard of Blizzard?
The trade skill tie in was mentioned above, meaning come the new expansion you might have to make ones for the new area.
However, aren’t the water walking ones just sold by Pagle? So would that even affect that?
I’m not blaming the players making threads. Blizzard is supposed to be professional enough to take feedback and act on it constructively. Not twist into some messy lazy hack.
This whole thing stinks of ‘diablo seasonal reset’ mentality.
It’s spilled over into a game that’s SUPPOSED TO BE A PERSISTENT WORLD, not a “New season, blank slate, start over from scratch and grind grind grind for all the stuff you already had, again.”
Taking away the water strider is a slap in the face.
Blizzard stop taking away things.
Current Status - Live
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Current Status - PTR
One each free BoA water walking item mailed to players copying level 100+ characters over to the PTR. (This is currently one each per character @ 100+, but I suspect it will change to only being mailed to characters with the Angler rep requirement once it hits live).
Alts that require/desire water walking will be charged additional gold.
Waterstrider has no water walking ability until equipped with the water walking equipment mount item.
The BoA Anglers water walking item is unique, so you can only purchase and carry a single one at any given time. (This needs to be revert back to stacking as it was originally introduced, or the item be converted into a toy or an heirloom item).
You may consider it dumb, but it is the beginning of more to come in the way of removing content and then re-introducing it with a price tag attached.
I don’t mind the mount equipment system idea, allowing functionality to more mounts overall, but all of the mounts with inherent abilities should be excluded from the list and retain their abilities, not just the Sky Golem and all of the swimming mounts. And now that Blizzard has redesigned the PTR BoA water walking item to not break on fall damage, I don’t see why the waterstriders need to be nerfed. It’s the exact same ability, but now it costs you extra per alt.
i guess the Mount Equipment is more to push for people to spend more time played.
hm, maybe the exalted one has to be 120? That would be terrible! You’d lose your waterwalking ability and you would not be able to replace it with the consumable.
You might want to put a bug report in just so it is on record.
They tried to take the strider’s ability away in legion, however, there was a huge player protest about it, so they went to work to find a way to do it without people realizing what they are doing. Your comments about “Isn’t this the nature of the game” demonstrates that they will be able to manipulate players into believing that it is always done this way.
No, blizzard has specifically said that anyone who has earned exalted with the Anglers will receive 1 pair of boots on each toon 100 or above and that additional shoes would be purchased (article on wowhead)
When I was rereading the article I noticed that the picture showing the item in Nat’s vendor book does not have Unique added to it, so this is a change they made after they published that article. I find that to be very interesting.
What is displayed on Wowhead
What the actual vendor has now
There is no other reason to make the Angler equipment unique equip. They want you going back and forth to that vendor as you change out equipment 
Or they want you to pick one and stick with it, instead of swapping it out situationallly. Like with reforging azerite traits, they want to make adapting so inconvenient that people will give up and just stick a build that mostly works for most encounters.
I am sure that you are correct. This makes it easier for them to remove the water-walking shoes as I am sure they have buffed the mobs that daze in the new zones just so people choose that piece of equipment.
Then they can justify the removal by saying, “no one ever used it”
I dunno, at the moment, as I am learning more of mount equipment, my mind is now thinking, the Mount Equipment is becoming one of the worse mistakes the devs have ever thought off in this game.
Meh. At least you can water walk with other mounts now. Bardings are still a thing so you can have water walking and anti daze if you don’t have passive shields.
This, yes, it is one positive thing.
But the negatives, there is more that over shadows it.
Honestly, Blizzard should’ve left our Water Strider alone. It has done nothing wrong.