After Waterstrider will Blizzard nerf all older mount functions?

[Lorsaire-earthen-ring (Lorsaire)]

So you haven’t been around here long enough to see all the complaints that water striders and sky golems were all they saw, huh?

Pretty much this. These two were legit the only mounts I ever saw out in the wild. That and Druids.

Waterstriders were hardly used all that frequently

What game have you been playing because clearly it hasn’t been this one…

Then you guys must be on weird servers.

On the servers I frequent, I only ever see water striders if someone is actively crossing water and isn’t a DK or Shaman. People pretty much never use the mount otherwise when they don’t have an active reason to cross water.

Seeing what they did to the water strider

Nothing? Literally nothing? They send you an item in the mail, you click on it, and your life is restored to exactly how it was pre-8.2. What did they do? Please? Please tell me?

You are late to the game. My original post was prior to that really becoming common knowledge with that Blue post (see below):

Appreciate this. I hadn’t seen this yet. This is not as bad as some of what I picked up off Wowhead.

I came at it with skepticism because of the history of what Blizzard has done when it comes to player QoL concerns.

But… this actually doesn’t seem too bad.

[Xintao-tichondrius]

Don’t trust them. They lie all the time.

They have been trying to nerf waterstrider for three straight expansions. That shows their priority list when they have known bugs from BFA alpha still on live.

[Phaylanxx-dalaran (Phaylanxx)]

Don’t trust them. They lie all the time.

Nerfs are what they focus on/excel at. It will not change anytime soon.

[Warpstone-norgannon (Warpstone)]

Mounts have expiration dates now. We just don’t know when they are, a list would be nice but we will never get one. So I am just going to act like all mounts added in the future have a expiration date and not bother grinding them or buying them, whats the point now.

[Zeropointt-dalaran (Zeropointt)]

Seeing what they did to the water strider makes it feel like a test case on whether they can get the player base to accept them destroying all old mount functions, as a means of reducing player QoL functionality to make them have to spend more time doing things they’ve previously earned in order to artificially inflate their MAU metrics.

This is exactly what they’re doing. They’re slowly removing things, just a little here and there, because if they did it all at once people would revolt.

In this case not everyone HAS the Strider so there are plenty of apologists willing to argue that it’s a good thing because they either think they’re going to be getting it easier (not going to happen) or they’re just tired of seeing people who do have it and want to see them lose theirs.

Since I’m too lazy to go grind the rep for the mount, I don’t want anyone to have it

But I promise, this is just the beginning. And by the time all the apologists realize what’s actually happening, it’ll be too late.

[Rhielle-sentinels (Rhielle)]

Old thread, but still relevant.

I love how people don’t think mount equipment is an issue or think that a mount losing its base ability is somehow okay.

And why people are okay with this part, is beyond me:

@Kaivax

Hitting level 100 on one character will unlock this system.

So all new players are just screwed unless they use a boost, eh? Good to know. Especially when the water strider was available before level 100.

Mount classes would’ve been a better solution if they didn’t think about the fact that they could take this equipment off of us later. But since it’s something they could easily take away and gate if they wanted… don’t be surprised if they do.

This game keeps taking steps backwards instead of forward. It’s tiresome.

[Zeropointt-dalaran (Zeropointt)]

This is something I didn’t know. So what you’re saying is…

Your low-level alts won’t be able to use water walking at all, because the system doesn’t even unlock on a character until level 100?

Do I have that right?

[Rhielle-sentinels (Rhielle)]

You have to unlock it on one character. Then all alts will have it. That’s why I mentioned new players getting screwed.

[Zeropointt-dalaran (Zeropointt)]

Thanks for lowering my blood pressure a tad.

But just a tad.

[Rhielle-sentinels (Rhielle)]

LOL you’re welcome.

[Misu-earthen-ring]

Not going to be a bit surprised, if they eventually nerf, or remove the transmog npc off the grand expedition mount, and replace it with some irrelevant npc, and make everyone go to Sw, or org to mog gear lol. Oh no’s not everyone likes the the ge yak, so we better add a transmog equipment piece so every mount can have a transmog npc lol.

[Urrik-moon-guard]

This is one of a couple of ways they could go. It’s not a stretch at all to imagine them nerfing all the special utility mounts (yaks, golem, swimming mounts, etc.), so they all lose their specials and players have to rely on clunky and expensive mount equipment to get their functions back.

Another route they could take would be to just abandon the mount equipment concept altogether when the next expac hits. They would most likely provide some kind of “streamlining the game” or “we’re looking into new ways to do this” spin, but it would really just be a prune.

The end result? They’d finally be rid of players’ ability to skip annoying content by water walking altogether. I expect they will nerf/eliminate all water walking potions as well.

Since the strider mounts have been their nemesis for so long, I believe the second option is the more likely one, but time will tell.

[Holyfaptism-draktharon]

I thought each mount would have an ability of the player’s choice, so you might choose waterwalking for the strider or maybe try something different. This would be the classical RPG approach to a mount equipment system.

But instead, all of your mounts get one consumable ability? Why not do it my way?

[Urrik-moon-guard]

I thought each mount would have an ability of the player’s choice, so you might choose waterwalking for the strider or maybe try something different. This would be the classical RPG approach to a mount equipment system.

But instead, all of your mounts get one consumable ability? Why not do it my way?

Nope. When you apply mount equipment, all your mounts get it. When you decide you want different mount equipment, you have to apply the new one, destroying the old one in the process, and now all your mounts get the new one.

It’s cumbersome, expensive, and limits player choice. Not to mention, for those of us who did the work to get striders, it’s a slap in the face.

It’s a bad change. I predict that it will be pretty much despised, even by players that were excitedly looking forward to it.

[Zycci-whisperwind]

As long as they can sell stuff back to you, they’ll continue taking things away.

[Klowdywilde-area-52 (Klowdywilde)]

Skinning might not make much sense, just because you can’t fight on a mount, and you need dead things to skin. You may run across some dead mobs someone else didn’t skin, but that’s not very often that I’ve seen. Not often enough, anyway, but i wouldn’t be against it at all.

[Hazzulu-wyrmrest-accord (Hazzulu)]

Waterstriders were hardly used all that frequently

Lol where have you been?

[Rheda-ysera]

What they did is force me to have ALL my mounts walk on water. I only use my Water Strider to cross large bodies of water. Only time I use it. It was always MY option to use it for the purpose it was made. Now Blizz introduces an item that forces me to make all my mounts walk on water. I do not want them all to be water walkers. The option for me to choose has been taken away from me and I do not appreciate it!

[Carrol-amanthul]

I suspect the motivation behind mount equipment is to create a continual need for players to engage in micro-transactions, (spending gold for each change of equipment,) so players will get used to continually needing extra gold and buying tokens so we can still get around Blizzard’s new obstacle courses in a reasonable amount of time.

It’s Blizzard’s current modus operandi. Players put in the regular hours to up their MAUs, WAUs and DAUs, or payers continually pour extra dollars into the system.

This is what classes these days as a “Meaningful Choice”.

[Margirita-perenolde (Margirita)]

Ohh in that case…I have a bridge for sale.