Strider and Mount Equipment - Quick Summary

[Crîmsonrayne-proudmoore]

Also the equipment item doesn’t last through falls. If you jump off something and hit the water, the water walking goes off and you have to remount. That is a major issue for me. Currently the strider can jump off a ledge/bridge rock and remain on the water.

Whoa! I didn’t realize this - I’ll make note of it.

Do you have any reference to someone on the PTR posting this effect?

[Thorhammerr-ghostlands]

Pros

• Makes water walking easier to obtain for players without the Anglers Rep.
• You get a Mount Equipment slot on each character.
• You get one free water walking equipment item on each character that is exalted with The Angler’s.
• You have the ability to change the equipment across all mounts, by character - allowing players to always use their favorite mount and benefit from the various equipment available.
• Allows for expansion/zone specific abilities that tie into the story; e.g. grappling hooks from legion type effects/abilities.

Cons

• Water walking is being “nerfed” with this change (awaiting confirmation) - on the PTR it is breaking with fall damage, where currently it does not.
• Players have to pay 40 gold per character that does not have the exalted reputation to get back water walking. Players with more characters get punished and charged the most to regain what they currently have.
• The Water Strider is losing it’s passive water walking ability so that it can use Mount Equipment. (Many players would prefer if their Water Strider was left untouched instead)
• It breaks the fundamental nature of a water strider bug (to stride across water), which kills immersion and kills the motivation of players to work for new items that are released in the game for fear that they’ll be taken away whenever Blizzard feels there’s a “problem” that needs to be fixed.
• This sets a precedent for Blizzard to remove existing account-wide functionality; e.g. if looted mounts were restricted to only being used on the character that looted the mount, or if heirloom gear was only usable on the character that purchased the items.
• This, unfortunately, supports “accusations” of Blizzard being greedy and not being in touch with it’s player base by forcing their customers to pay for a feature they already earned and have been using for years.
• Blizzard’s inability to answer direct questions about the system and other options that would meet the goals intended while alleviating the concerns voiced by the players continues to build distrust in the true intentions behind the changes.
• The change will allow Blizzard to restrict water walking in the future by making the equipment “unusable” in selected zones/expansions going forward - further removing the functionality that players earned when they got the Strider.
• Players that currently have the Water Strider will have to travel to the MoP vendor each time they need to buy more of the equipment and ship it to their alts - adding time (in addition to cost) to regain what they currently have.

In the end - the con’s outweigh the pro’s from a raw numerical stand point - and there have been various options suggested that would still accomplish providing diversity to mounts used while giving players more choice and options in regards to mounts:

1 - Treat the Strider like the Sky Golem and have it retain it’s ability while NOT benefiting from the new equipment slot.

2 - Treat the equipment on a by account basis, by mount - which would mean players would have to buy multiple pieces of the same equipment to get the benefit across multiple mounts - but affords the players more choice and options.

3 - If players have the Anglers rep, allow the water walking equipment to be created like an heirloom to remove the cost and travel components of regaining what has already been earned.

4 - Make the new mount abilities specific to mount classes - providing more options of water walking, herb picking, etc., mounts for players to choose from.

If there are any additional pro’s or con’s that you see from the changes on the PTR - please share and I will update the OP.

Thanks in advance for your time and feedback!

Thanks for the summary - this is much more digestable than thousands of other posts littered with negativity on both sides.

[Führioùs-korgath]

Blizzards motto is “if it ain’t broke, we’ll fix that!”

[Normercy-aggramar (Normercy)]

This sets a precedent for Blizzard to remove existing account-wide functionality; e.g. if looted mounts were restricted to only being used on the character that looted the mount,

Oh you mean like how it used to be until the “evil overlords” allowed mounts to be account wide.

Your “pros” are facts. Your “cons” are opinion or conjecture.

[Eilykin-dalaran (Eilykin)]

This sums it up quite nicely. I don’t care if everyone can walk on water, it is NEVER a good idea to remove something from the game. Especially something that causes no problems or drama.

[Normercy-aggramar (Normercy)]

The problem is that “The TinFoils” think evil Blizz is setting them up for a whammy. Because you know… Evil Blizz hates everyone that plays. (yet they keep playing a game designed by maniacal despots)

[Crîmsonrayne-proudmoore]

Nope, just saw a new thread pop up about water stride mount. I did not read the OP, as his argument is one of 1000000x on the forum that have flooded it in the last few days. We get it, you’re all upset about losing your water mount privileges. Wahhh.

It’s not an argument - it’s a summary of the pros/cons.

I’ve already added an item to both lists.

[Lissysi-stormrage]

It seems like they want to see some mount diversity with players but I’m sure there is a group of people (myself included) that will never use the water strider ever again if any mount can have water walking. Especially since I only got this mount for my characters that don’t have water walking/water form built into the class.

Also everyone could have the water strider since during the timewalking event you can get rep tokens for the Anglers which if I remember correctly are BoA (that is how I got mine).

Closing statement:
Taking away its water walking is rewarding lazy players who don’t want to do the content even when its been made easier.

[Simplify-icecrown]

God forbid there be an advantage for players that go back to old content/participated in the content when it was current. Fake MMO.

[Carmageddon-hyjal (Carmageddon)]

These threads make the player base look like idiots.

[Goblinoffyre-zuljin (Goblinoffyre)]

They “could” do a lot of things. But will they?

These threads about upcoming nerfs are always full of optimistic possibilities for which we have zero evidence will happen, yet are somehow given as reasons players should support changes like these.

And in fact, the sort of changes you are telling us would be great don’t happen. They never have.

Removal of flight prior to later patches and earning pathfinder didn’t make the world more immersive or engaging.

Implementation of level scaling didn’t make leveling more interesting. It certainly didn’t bring in all the players Ion claimed it would whose only reason for not playing wow was that leveling wasn’t hard enough.

Implementation of ilvl scaling just annoyed people, many of whom have stopped playing rather than put up with an implementation apparently intended to make people feel really bad about the game on reaching 120.

[Adonralayia-sargeras]

Absolutely plan to but now I have to spend gold across my characters to make my bug do what it naturally does now.

[Easyroad-sargeras]

No you don’t the item is free and boa.

[Adonralayia-sargeras]

It’s 40 gold and consumed on use is what I just read.

They have a write up on the front page of MMO champion about it. You get one in the mail and after that you have to buy it.

[Easyroad-sargeras]

For all toons that are exalted with anglers you get one free boa item.

More proof of the outrage with out knowing the facts or doing a few moments of reading.

[Qaletaqqa-fizzcrank (Qaletaqqa)]

And the solution is staring right in the face, let it keep waterwalking and get no equipment slot. But alas, out of touch and tonedeaf Bli$$ard must stic k to its guns, all ahead flank, damn the torpedoes, instead of a simple compromise that would keep fans happy.

[Adonralayia-sargeras]

I’m not raging but it clearly says it’s consumed on use and after that you have to buy more. Plus only the character that has the rep gets a free one. The other alts you have must have one purchased for them. I would link the article I am reading on MMO. Again I’m not raging and haven’t raged in any of my post.

Patch 8.2 PTR - Anglers’ Water Striders
For those of you who own a water strider mount, you will receive an **[Anglers’ Water Striders] from Nat Pagle in the mail upon logging in after Patch 8.2 goes live.

• This new mount equipment can be slotted into your mount equipment slot to let all your mounts walk on water.
• Your water strider will no longer be able to walk on water without this slotted.
• This item is consumed when you replace it with a new piece of equipment in the mount equipment slot and needs to be purchased and slotted again to gain the effect.
• If you own a water strider, you can head to The Anglers in Krasarang Wilds and purchase a new one from Nat Pagle for 40 gold.
• Currently, there is no option to purchase this from Nat Pagle in your garrison.

[Crîmsonrayne-proudmoore]

And the solution is staring right in the face, let it keep waterwalking and get no equipment slot.

That does seem to be the most common suggestion and simplest adjustment to the current system.

[Àryã-proudmoore]

For all toons that are exalted with anglers you get one free boa item.

More proof of the outrage with out knowing the facts or doing a few moments of reading.

Correct - right now it works account-wide. This makes it so that players with more time invested across characters get hit the hardest with the change.

[Ruddypiper-sargeras (Ruddypiper)]

They aren’t mad about that; they are mad about losing exclusivity. There is a class of people out there who -hate it- when something they “earned” is given out to other people for what they perceive as free.

I don’t have it now, probably won’t buy it after and yet still can see the flaws in the system and how easily it can be used to further restrict players.

You can already do everything and more that the equipment system proposes in the Live game including stack effects.

You get slightly worse functionality, with additional cost and hoops, for the sake of immersion breaking cosmetics.