Water Strider Discussion

[Taivora-dark-iron]

Bornakk, I just was to preface what I’m going to say with: I do not envy you for stepping into this discussion.

There won’t be a “wrong” choice because others can still apply water walking to their mounts even if the water strider maintains its water walking ability.

Also, this class fantasy and feeling “special” for playing a certain class shows up for the weirdest things. I play a shaman (two, actually) and a DK and I don’t need the water strider to be broken for everyone for me to feel special on those two classes. I play those two classes because I enjoy them, and water walking abilities are just perks of the class, just like how flight form and instant travel form are perks for a Druid.

Here is what I think:

Either:
A) Leave the water strider alone and treat it like the Sky Golem (no, I do NOT find a water walking mount to be OP). OR

B) Make the equipment ACCOUNT bound per mount where we get the free if we already have the strider and can apply it to whatever mount we want. OR

C) Make the equipment per mount BUT character specific WITH the water walking already applied to the strider for ALL characters (including future ones) — if people want to replace it with something else, then they can do that. (This would be the most flexible option, imo. And it would still be that gold sink I’m sure you’re wanting this system to be.)

I feel like the mount equipment gives the illusion of choice more than it actually gives us a choice. It’s an all or nothing approach. Honestly, I only care about water walking. It makes traveling around weird obstacles that I am sure were put in purposely to make it not take forever to get where I want to go. Traveling is not content for me. It is a means to an end.

Just STOP taking things away from the players. We earned this mount. I know the devs wanted to nerf the strider in the past and this is a way to do it while giving the illusion that they aren’t actually getting rid of anything when they really are. And you’re screwing over alts with this change, by the way. I shouldn’t have to pay for something I already have for free for ALL of my characters. This system is taking more from me than it’s actually giving me.

Also, if you’re tired of everyone using just the bug, make more mounts with this specific ability.

I know this was all over the place, but these are my chaotic thoughts on this subject that is irritating me more by the day.

[Tanegashima-dawnbringer]

I’m just going to copy paste what I said earlier to someone else. The point is- having the water strider keep its water walking while also being able to use more equipment causes an imbalance, which is exactly what Blizzard is trying to fix…

Which nobody has asked for. Most of us have said ‘treat it like the golem’. It’s already possible to have anti daze, water walking and slow fall on any mount right now.

[Jops-zuljin]

Pretty sure there is more people happy about being able to WW on something that’s not a strider than there is complaining about having to use a piece of equipment.

That’s nice.

I, and a lot of others like the new portal room too.

They didn’t have to break things to make either happen.

[Talas-madoran (Talas)]

I’m just going to copy paste what I said earlier to someone else. The point is- having the water strider keep its water walking while also being able to use more equipment causes an imbalance, which is exactly what Blizzard is trying to fix…

I never suggested that the strider be able to double-dip. Here is what I suggested earlier in the thread:

At the very least, the water strider should continue to walk on water if you don’t apply any equipment at all.

For example, one could at least make the argument that the “weight” of the non-daze equipment makes it so the strider can’t walk on water anymore.

This would keep some element of choice in the system, would prevent anyone from having their cake and eating it too, but would do so without removing anything from the players who simply choose to not use equipment at all.

It also solves the issue of having to buy the water walking equipment on all a player’s alts when they previously had water walking for free.

TLDR: Water Strider keeps water walking ability unless non-water walking equipment is applied.

[Jops-zuljin]

They will be happy until they figure out how much it’ll cost to buy those things at a non-discounted price.

And when they start accumulating a repair bill from dying on water impact every time they forget they can’t leap into lakes safely anymore ever.

[Fnor-wyrmrest-accord (Fnor)]

I worked long and hard getting my Water Strider on several characters (before sharing started) and now, that doesn’t mean a damned thing. I worked long and hard on characters to get the gold for flying and hitting cap, paying the gold and enjoying it - now, in WoD, it was decided that we needed to do Pathfinder to get flying on any future expansions - well, guess what, WoD is the last expansion I got flying because I don’t raid and I don’t do dungeons anymore.

What compromises are the Devs going to offer for us to continue playing the game? We already give them a monthly fee and they “allow” us to play the game - while the Devs are busy time-gating, extending their “pathfinder” to the point that I just don’t care anymore. Instead of taking away things, how about adding some fun and I’ll keep paying for the privilege of playing the game.

[Sabine-dawnbringer (Sabine)]

This whole “The water strider is OP” started in Legion, because if they thought that in WoD, where there was a lot of water, why did they make another one available through the garrison.

Also, given how the Ah usually works when new things come out. I doubt very much this will be 1k gold from there. I also think that the PTR will not accurately convey this point either.

[Sephiriani-malganis]

This just shows once more how blizzard isnt giving a single f*** about its player base, and how disconected with them they are.

After 3 expansions playing WoW(yes im relatively new) i finally decided to farm the rep for the water strider for this one, and i feel like being slaped in the face for losing my time like that…dissapointing

[Pattyz-area-52]

I saw that, and that’s a great suggestion in my honest opinion. However, by the looks of the thread- most people will not be happy with it because they want their ‘hard earned’ strider to be able to equip something while keeping its innate ability, thus having 2 abilities.

[Absentiá-maelstrom]

Very very few people have suggested that. The water strider should not be able to equip any mount equipment while maintaining its ability to walk on water.

[Voomboompow-stormreaver]

Could the strider just keep it’s ability and be treated like the sky golem where the equipment doesn’t effect it?

[Skamora-silvermoon]

Do you have anti-dazing now? No. Do you have a slow fall mount? No.

Actually, if you’re a tank class you have free anti-daze. Otherwise you can get an existing crafted item for temporary anti-daze.

Goblin gliders still work for slow fall. As most of my characters are engineers I put it on my capes.

And as others have stated water walking is a potion away for everyone who hasn’t put the work in to get the mount. Why reinvent the wheel with a less inspired system?

Is a semi-permanent option desireable? Sure, but not at the expense of devaluing what we already have and not as a one-size-fits-all plan… because one size never fits all. (Nobody is asking for the water strider to have two abilities. What is being asked for is the ability to have situationally beneficial mounts. If I’m near water use any mount equipped with water walking, if I’m likely to pull agro while taking a shortcut use an anti-daze equipped mount, if I’m in the mountains use a mount equipped with the parachute. It would give us choices that the one-for-all per character socket lacks. We could then equip individual mounts with gear that improves their individual utility and benefits immersion. That’s the system they should have built; the mount equipment sockets should be per mount, account wide, and the Water Strider should be excluded like the same way the Sky Golem is.)

Nerfing the water strider and making almost all mounts the same ruins that ever so precious immersion Blizzard supposedly removed all the portals from Dalaran for. Now they want us to accept that water striders can’t stride water on their own and something like the 5mil gold brontosaurus can walk on water with little more than inflatable floaties? Really?

[Starlagosa-dentarg (Starlagosa)]

I saw that, and that’s a great suggestion in my honest opinion. However, by the looks of the thread- most people will not be happy with it because they want their ‘hard earned’ strider to be able to equip something while keeping its innate ability, thus having 2 abilities.

No one asked for this. Stop.

[Taivora-dark-iron]

This is false. I every post I’ve seen that is against the strider nerf wants the strider to have one ability — water walking.

[Ciarnat-earthen-ring]

Nice job, you figured out how the mount equipment works. Yes, when you equip water walking, you can’t have anti-dazing. Do you have anti-dazing now? No. Do you have a slow fall mount? No. Guess what- this will be all NEW content for you! If you want to walk on water with your water strider- just equip the shoes and viola you have it now.

But wait, you are not satisfied with just the water walking, you want it to be an exclusive mount where you can have multiple abilities whereas all other mounts only get one ability. In essence, this will make the water strider the most powerful mount in the game utility wise (kind of how it is now, since its the only water walking mount). So why would I even entertain the idea of using a different mount other than water strider, if I can have not 1 but 2 abilities on it. Moving forward, everyone will just use a water strider mount and take advantage of its 2 abilities while all other mounts suffer and only get 1. This is why you are not a game developer.

You completely missed the point. Where exactly did I say I want all three enhancements (or however many Blizzard adds in the future) on one mount?

My first reaction to the idea of water walking equipment for other mounts was to be happy, because I hate being forced to choose between efficiency (water walking) and slower movement (swimming speed). Yes, I know there are alternatives (water walking potions, class-specific abilities) but it was easy and convenient to have that hideous bug hotbarred as my primary mount for no-fly zones.

And yes, I even use the water strider on my druid, because 1. it’s faster than swim form and 2. it’s not prone to dropping whenever you cross an invisible phase line. There are some areas, like the water southwest of Boralus, where you get force-shifted out of swim form multiple times in a row, but you don’t get dismounted on the bug.

I would love to have my paladin get water walking on her class hall mount. To simulate the old warlock water walking glyph on my warlock’s felsteed. It’s a cosmetic enhancement, like transmog.

And it would be nice to have anti-daze available. Same with slow-fall. Not necessarily on the same mount, but available to the same character.

But now the way it seems, you choose one mount enhancement and it’s applied to all mounts a character summons. So if you pick water walking, that’s it. You don’t get slow fall or anti daze on any of that character’s mounts, no matter what mount they summon.

I’d like the opportunity to have access to all of them, based on which mount I summon.

[Minionzz-aggramar]

I think this is one of those frustrating , stupid, needless changes that causes more people to leave the game… What on earth were those lugheads at Acti-Blizzard thinking? that taking away something we worked hard to get will improve the game? that giving players even MORE to grind for will improve player experience and gameplay? I scratch my head at this one and hope I dont lose more guild-mates over this incredible stupidity. I absolutely hate this and wonder about the team who thought this was a good idea… jeezz blizz fix the problems you DO have instead of making more.

[Pattyz-area-52]

sigh

Alright- maybe I should have spelled it out. I meant for MOUNTS. Gliders and temporary potions don’t count as anti-daze/slowfall MOUNTS.

[Deflux-uldaman (Deflux)]

I saw that, and that’s a great suggestion in my honest opinion. However, by the looks of the thread- most people will not be happy with it because they want their ‘hard earned’ strider to be able to equip something while keeping its innate ability, thus having 2 abilities.

lol, how wrong can you be… “most” want it treated like the sky golem

[Talas-madoran (Talas)]

However, by the looks of the thread- most people will not be happy with it because they want their ‘hard earned’ strider to be able to equip something while keeping its innate ability, thus having 2 abilities.

I don’t think most people are asking for that, I think most just think it should work like the herbing mount, where it doesn’t benefit from mount equipment at all. Personally I doubt Blizzard will go with this approach, but it’s not anyone asking for water walking AND something else on the strider.

Edit: Before you go quoting the one post demanding double dipping, I’m sure there are a minority who do want that, that doesn’t mean most do or that most support it.

[Jalen-emerald-dream (Jalën)]

Gliders and temporary potions don’t count as anti-daze/slowfall MOUNTS.

I mean it’s not that different with Glider. In fact the glider is better because you can determine how you want to navigate as your falling. And if there’s a potion that does the exact same thing where you can’t get dazed, it’s pretty much the same thing. This equipment is very bland and doesn’t feel like they put in much thought.