A lot, and I mean A LOT of the complaints would be fixed if the equipment was simply per mount instead of across all mounts. We are then given more choice, more personal control, and more reason to encourage the system economically.
People that earned the Water Strider can simply get a free water walking equipment for that mount alone on all alts. You still can choose any mount you want to use any other equipment including water walking. The idea of one equipment per character seems the most limiting factor to all of this. If this system is really intended for us the players then giving more freedom should be the goal.
All alts current and future should get the water walking shoes for free, because currently they all get the water walking mount for free by default.
The idea is to keep the status quo - donāt remove things I already have. Nobody enjoys that. Right now, the Water Walking mount is account bound, so every character I have can use it and every new one I make can use it.
This should be the case going forward as well. Itās quite simple.
Edit: And to answer your question, since I got the mount I use it a lot. In BfA content where I canāt fly yet, itās invaluable. I also have a lot of alts I enjoy and itās very valuable to them below level 60 when they canāt fly yet. The mount is so valuable that every character I have has two mounts on their bar - the primary mount for ground/flying, and the Water Strider.
I donāt mean this in an unkind fashion: your personal opinion is irrelevant to my play style. I appreciate that youāre relating to all of us as a fellow WoW player. I think mount equipment is an intriguing idea & my guess is that the reality is that the devs are trading off one apple for another apple, so to speak. Not much gained really, just a different view of the same thing.
If the data currently shows that the player base heavily uses the Water Strider mount while grounded, my expectation is that the most popular mount equipment used going forward (while grounded) will be the one that allows water walking.
Learn from the portal mess (really, would it have been skin off of anyoneās nose to include a portal to Caverns of Time from the get-go???). Leave the usefulness of the Water Strider & Sky Golem alone & build up some positive PR for a change. I use my Water Strider as a ground mount every time I play, until Iām able to fly & leave the annoyance of being grounded behind me.
Itās this or releasing a bunch of reskin mounts and since people were complaining about too many horses and the fact that Blizzard would literally have to release 100 new mounts to give people varietyā¦
Omg, for the first time ever, Iām out of ālikesā. Dang Iām spending way too much time on the forums. Thereās water that needs to be strided, while I still can for free on my alts.
One parting comment before I go grab my weekly disappointment from my Mythic+ chestā¦
Designing zones canāt be easy. Iām sure thereās a thousand things to consider when creating terrain that ranges from passable to impassable.
The Wilds of Suramar was -FANTASTIC- ā¦ a Gordian Knot of bridges and levels that was able to string several questlines along in the same area, and yet keep them visually/contextually apart. Brilliant design, some of my favorite in the game.
And none of it required ābreaking water stridersā in order to guide players along the paths to their objectives.
If breaking perks we like is necessary for zone designs to work, the designers ARENāT DOING THEIR JOB RIGHT.
Unfortunately, I am beginning to side with those that are calling for Ionās jobā¦ If he is changing things he doesnāt like or making changes for change sakeā¦ bad!
Yes. You can apply the Water Walking potion, Barding, and/or Stirrup to a normal mount or the Water Walking mount right now on the Live Client.
Mount Equipment will very likely replace the crafted consumables completely limiting you to 1 effect per mount. Otherwise whatās the point over simply adding fitting abilities to mounts by type?
So apparently neither are the guys in the chairs at Irvine CA who developed the Account Bound Water Strider and the Bardings (Legion and BFA) and Stirrups (Legion and BFA).
They wanted to nerf water strider late WoD. Three expansion in a row crusading against the water strider because they canāt control how players approach world quest objectives.
āā¦start actually listening to the customers.ā??? Iāve not seen that in a long time from Bliz. I only started playing Wow 2007 with a few monthsā hiatus over the years, but it seems to me that they NO LONGER listen to their customersā concerns or suggestions.
What I keep thinking is this: āsome suit up the food chain has figured out that in order to please the share holders, the game needs to cater to those share holders who do not play the game, only reap the $$ from the shares they own.ā
Itās too late for you guys to worry about how powerful the water walking mount is. Thatās the sort of conversation you have in development and testing. But itās been out now for years, weāve been playing with it for years, and at this point you canāt take it back. You made your bed and now you have to lie in it, unless of course you want a revolt and a playerbase to even more unhappy and unsatisfied than they already are with BfA.
You keep saying āWe want thisā in this and so many other posts. This is why BfA has been a disaster. You are thinking about what you, the developers want from the game. Your focus should be on what the players want - what we enjoy, and balancing that with whatās healthy for the game long term. Stop thinking about you and start thinking about us.
You know why Classic is so popular right now? Because youāve continually given players things they want - an official Vanilla server, constant communication and updates, confirmation via said updates that ongoing development is aligning with player desires. Itās all about the players.
What comments have you been reading. Right now Iām using the Water Strider maybe 10% of my play time if thatā¦ I donāt mount up on the Water Strider unless I want/need to. At all other times I use an add on that works so much better than Blizzardās āFavoriteā system to randomly select a mount from per character conditional lists (grounded/flying/swimming).
If people are going around on the Water Strider all the time they are making a choice to be lazy and only put one mount on their hotbar. Why should we be forced to suffer a severely limited and frankly boring āsolutionā to the problem of some players being lazy? This system could have been much better. If it were per mount it could have given us meaningful choices of which mounts we equip abilities onā¦ Instead they planned and announced a bland one-size-fits-all system and nerfed the water strider. Hereās nanny Blizzard again nerfing things that didnāt need to be nerfed and protecting us from making any meaningful choices.
Easy does not always equal better. I would also hardly call creating a new equipment system and pissing people off by taking things from them as the easy route. Putting the ability on new mounts would actually be easier.
I am guessing the reason Blizzard doesnāt want the Water Strider to keep its passive water walking ability is this would give all characters a water walking mount in addition to being able to choose a second non-water walking ability on other mounts. I have no problem with treating the strider like the golem.
This water strider stuff is literally getting out of hand.
People are literally overreacting.
In 8.2 you will have flying anyways so first off what is the point here?
Also I donāt have the water strider because of the lack of motivation to farm the reputation, but yet i am very succesful in doing things i am always doing. Rarely there are situations where i think āman i need this water strider mount as soon as possible it pisses me offā so it is literally not needed for normal gameplay. And even the removal wonāt harm anyone.
Well the limitation is that you have to dismount to mount another mount. So how is this unbalanced in Blizzardās eyes? It isnāt but apparently they think it is āgame breakingāā¦whatever that means.
So, I wonder if once they break water walking on the Strider, if they will go back to all the areas with water strider mobs and take water walking away from them rendering them just āwater bugsā. You know, for immersion! (pun intended)