Water Strider Discussion

[Jops-zuljin]

Me too, I love their silly mount special. Scree!

[Polarbears-gorgonnash]

I see no reason why Blizzard would just straight out remove an equipment slot ability.

Past behavior predicts future behavior aka, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

Again…this is complete speculation and sounds like it’s coming from a place of bitterness. Just because they remove something in the past means nothing. They add and iterate on a bunch of stuff too so why not assume they will expand on this feature?

Why do you think they’ll just keep 3 items

Because they like to gate everything. Why put 5 things in play when you can change out 3 and entice people into playing so they can try one of those “new” abilities out. Again, look at their past behavior and you’ll see how they will do stuff in the future.

Again…this is not a con of them adding this feature. Just pure speculation on what they MIGHT do in the future. My speculation is complete opposite. I think this adds a brand new feature to the game that they can expand on in the future.

[Polarbears-gorgonnash]

Maybe there were items I could use in game but why would I use those? I’m assuming I’d have to spend money at AH to get them or level alchemy?. Not really something I’d do when I can just use my water strider.

Then why complain about the bug, you made the choice to use it when there were other avenues available to you.

Nope…didn’t complain about bug. Not sure where you got that idea. I enjoy using it and like it. But I also like this feature too.

[Alael-madoran (Alael)]

Hitting level 100 on one character will unlock this system

If this actually goes through, unlocking it at level 100 isn’t right. The mount was introduced in MoP . Translation: level 90 (maximum) should be the requirement to unlock the system.

[Brahmina-khadgar (Brahmina)]

Allowing a single mount to have innate water walking was the bad precedent. That mount was never sought after for anything but, and that made some players feel obligated to get the mount for ease of travel.

I will agree that some players may have felt they needed the mount for ease of travel. Many others, like myself, went after it purely because it was a cool-looking mount and unlike anything else in the game. The water walking part was a bonus with which I see absolutely nothing wrong. Complaining about it having a special ability is like complaining some mounts fly and others don’t.

The only thing Blizzard did wrong was not make any other water walking mounts. The pirate ship is a perfect example of a mount that should have come with water walking. It would have been a plus for those who had it for these first many months of BfA, but then easily obtainable by anyone now that it’s on the store. No one would have worried about the strider’s abilities if they had another mount choice.

But, of course, Blizzard couldn’t do that because they don’t want anyone to have a dedicated water walking mount. That allows players to take shortcuts and not follow the mob-dense pathing the devs laid out for us. How dare we try to get from point “a” to “b” faster than intended!

And so, we have the mount equipment, which is in every way inferior to a dedicated water walking mount. This change was never about player choice. It’s always been about forcing players to play the way the devs want us to. And more and more of us aren’t being fooled by the Emporor’s lack of clothing.

[Righteous-garrosh (Righteous)]

FTR, so far on the PTR, water strider hunter pets retain their exotic ability of surface trot, which, like the DK Path of Frost and the shaman water walking, is a spell that has to be cast.

EDIT - actually, it doesn’t have to be cast, unless you take damage and need it back.
Second correction - if the pet is out, and you take damage, it doesn’t need to be recast, you just break surface tension. You can simply hop back up on top.

[Zibaa-dathremar (Zibaa)]

I read a few of your posts Tanehashima, and I agree with you 100%. No doubt many others do as well.

This reminds me of a blue we had in vanilla. I think it was the rogue class forum. You only had to mention the name of a particular weapon (I think it was) to get a forum vacation.

We can only hope someone with a little forth sight will understand that all the negative posts on this joke of a mount system, equate to a truckload of players being unhappy. It needs to be fixed or removed.

[Kiwì-dentarg (Kiwì)]

Again…this is complete speculation and sounds like it’s coming from a place of bitterness. J

Not at all. I just have a very clear understanding on how the the game maker has operating and as customers, we can sit on our hands and wait, or we can be proactive and let them know that we do not want them to do these things. The choice is ours…

Just pure speculation on what they MIGHT do in the future. My speculation is complete opposite.

Timing is everything and we as customers should ask the question, why did they decide to add this feature right before we start flying. Does it really make sense? or are they doing it for another reason.

The portal room is a perfect example of this. They did not create the new portal room on a whim. They wanted to get people out of old content and into new content because they need to show that all the work they have put into designing an xpac is paying off. People were hanging out in New Dal vs the new bases because of the portal system in that city. By removing the system and putting in a portal room, even if people afk in the portal room, they can say it is new content, thus making the measurement look good.

I have been working in a fortune 400 company for over 40 years. I have seen this strategy often.

[Jops-zuljin]

But, of course, Blizzard couldn’t do that because they don’t want anyone to have a dedicated water walking mount. That allows players to take shortcuts and not follow the mob-dense pathing the devs laid out for us. How dare we try to get from point “a” to “b” faster than intended!

I’m sure part of it is also the attitude of: “the vast majority of our players are too dumb to handle more than a few action bar buttons, and macros are totally unfair to 99% of the non-technical players. Find ways to simplify the action bars as much as possible.”

[Dathrel-malfurion (Dathrel)]

This would be addressed with assigning the mount equipment to specific mounts instead of assigning one piece of equipment to all mounts.

Been mentioned a few times in this thread as a better alternative. This also would make having the water strider be unable to benefit from equipment an easier thing to accomplish, since it would just lack a slot.

I appreciate why the devs want to even things out, but empowering the other mounts rather than depowering one seems like the better option to me. Also, as I’ve said many times, a water strider should be innately capable of walking on water as that is part of its nature.

What we have at the moment is an “all or nothing” approach, which isn’t a very good method for a dynamic population (players).

[Megascope-echo-isles]

I’m still thinking that maybe the one free waterwalking item that you receive because you have the strider/rep from Anglers (why not the Nat Pagle red-butted version from Wod as well?) and is BoA, will be in each of your characters mailboxes when you log in, even on brand new alts, or at least be mailed to characters that are level 20 or higher. That solves one issue, but doesn’t solve this problem of losing that perk whenever you swap to another one. Unless those BoA items are unlimited use versions.

If that were the case, why would they have the Nat Pagle rep version that you can buy (at a “greatly reduced” price)? It would be a completely useless item. No, this is Blizzard. Expect the worst possible version and then be surprised when they make it worse than you thought was possible.

[Megascope-echo-isles]

And, I’m betting (because I am a cynical jerk) that that is another reason why they are implementing a change like this. They hate it when players find an obvious way around a problem they weren’t supposed to be able to avoid.

Man, this design team really bugs me some times. Players should ALWAYS be able to “break” the game. They’re going to try, they’re going to succeed. The trick is to make the most of those breaks part of your design plan. For a large portion of your audience, that’s their main source of fun! The devs trip over backwards to cater to Spike and Timmy’s every whim, but they seem to utterly despise Johnny.

[Polarbears-gorgonnash]

Not at all. I just have a very clear understanding on how the the game maker has operating and as customers, we can sit on our hands and wait, or we can be proactive and let them know that we do not want them to do these things. The choice is ours…

I agree…now is the time to bring up your concerns for the feature in hopes they get answered or alleviated. I’m sure Blizzard will have more info on the feature and what they envision the future to look like. I, too, want your questions answered but I also like this feature as it is now on paper.

Timing is everything and we as customers should ask the question, why did they decide to add this feature right before we start flying. Does it really make sense? or are they doing it for another reason.

Like above…I agree and hope Blizzards gives us some info.

The portal room is a perfect example of this. They did not create the new portal room on a whim. They wanted to get people out of old content and into new content because they need to show that all the work they have put into designing an xpac is paying off. People were hanging out in New Dal vs the new bases because of the portal system in that city. By removing the system and putting in a portal room, even if people afk in the portal room, they can say it is new content, thus making the measurement look good.

I can see that as being one reason as to why they made this change. It seems better to have people centralized for the expansion and not spread out. This kind of goes with these community posts or even people’s complaints about Garrison’s. WoW has a ton of cities and to have people so spread out kind of goes against their vision.

Also, it got way too bloated. Every expansion had it’s set of portals. But each city did not have a portal to all the various locations. It even confused me a few times if the city I was near could port me to where I wanted. We’ll see if this change becomes a problem later but right now I’m fine with it.

[Kiwì-dentarg (Kiwì)]

I can see that as being one reason as to why they made this change. It seems better to have people centralized for the expansion and not spread out.

Well, there is more to it than that. You see, in WOD, we didn’t notice all the people who left because we were in our garrisons so we never saw anyone. Now, it is obvious that people are not playing, so if they have people in New Dal vs the new cities, then it looks worse because there are even less people hanging out in the new cities. The horde base is worse than the alliance base because of its setup. While it is a pretty city, it is horrible to navigate, so people don’t want to be there. The alliance city has everything within easy reach so people are more likely to hang out there.

What Blizzard should have done was to move everything in the Horde base down to the docks or put portals in for ease of use. This way people would be more likely to afk there.

But this topic gets away from the discussion on water-striders, even it the problem is similar.

[Vertigineux-thrall (Vertigineux)]

Then the suggestion of the water walking pot wasn’t aimed at you. It was aimed at people who complained their only option was a mount they hated. Because it WASN’T their only option.
Edit; I have the mounts, and still opt for pots on some characters.

Edit 2; If they’re gonna take that “I shouldn’t have to BUY or FARM pots!” stance on top of saying they shouldn’t HAVE TO use the bug, I have 0 sympathy for them. They want a feature, they can go get it. Or cry until it changes, but I genuinely never saw anyone cry about the bug or flying until the devs stepped in and said it was a QQ worthy thing.

[Megascope-echo-isles]

If they’re gonna take that “I shouldn’t have to BUY or FARM pots!” stance on top of saying they shouldn’t HAVE TO use the bug

“… but this new system is great and easy, because you only have to BUY or FARM mount equipment now!”

How you can tell those people are just being contrarian: they contradict their own arguments.

[Kasim-hyjal]

Why do you think they’ll just keep 3 items and not just add more items to collect? Would be very strange to have a rotating door of mount slot abilities.

Mount equipment is not items you collect.

Each character will have one equipment slot on their mount journal - note it’s character, not account, so you will have to buy equipment separately for each alt.
Some of us here have 50 - 100 alts.

Equipment works like gems. Each time you use a new equipment the previous one is destroyed. You don’t get a re-usable collection.

At the moment water walking equipment on the PTR if you have exalted rep with Nat Pagle is 40 gold. That doesn’t sound too bad, until you realise 8.2 areas will be very wet, necessitating water walking. And there’s sure to be a need for the parachute and anti daze equipment, so you will need to be popping new equipment in continually - and the anti-daze and parachute are predicted by Blizzard to cost 1000 gold each. So you’ll possibly be changing 2 or 3 times a day, which would cost thousands.

Being crafted, the anti daze and parachute may cost far more than 1000 gold, crafters will charge whatever they can get, and there’s not even a sign of the recipes yet in the PTR.

And - water walking with the equipment is inferior to strider water walking. It breaks on falling damage, even from quite low places, and it’s harder to get back to the surface after remounting - impossible on the larger mounts.

You can applaud water walking being nerfed and turned into an easily removable gold sink, but don’t expect players who can see what’s going on to feel likewise.

[Taienna-aerie-peak (Taienna)]

But hey, this must be the year for changes for me. I’m leaving California, where I’m born and raised, for the first time in my life. After all these years, the policies, taxes and ridiculous high cost of living and crowding has finally convinced me it’s time to #Calexit.

I know you’re not comparing the two, but I wanted to point out that CA can afford to lose people to other states… Because, unlike wow, the population is still growing in spite of people leaving.

Id be interested in knowing what demographic is causing the growth.

[Taienna-aerie-peak (Taienna)]

. It was aimed at people who complained their only option was a mount they hated.

Which is why they COULD have fixed that without screwing with a single thing.
A toy would have sufficed. Apply the toy, get water walking on your current mount until the mount is changed.
But then, theyd be out a gold sink and lot of player irritation, and we cant have that.

[Moonstriken-lightbringer]

Id be interested in knowing what demographic is causing the growth.

I could easily and quickly answer your question, but I’ve never been silenced or kicked out of forums… and I don’t want to start now.