…in a gimped, neutered and near useless form. I went through the questline to get Hati back… but now he’ll sit in my stable forever because spirit beasts are almost worthless pets. I want him back as he was, a second pet.
But hey, at least he has a fez.
Maybe not all of them. Things like the proto-drakes run on the ground, but the Eastern style snake-dragons hover, as do the various phoenixes, the boat, Mimiron’s Head. Those it would make reasonable sense to make inherently water walking.
For slow-fall / glide, the various winged mounts would make sense, like the walking type birds (Anzu, Raven Lord, the 69,105 ‘different’ colors of firehawk) or the four legged drakes.
For no-daze ones (I yiffin’ hate daze… some of the most annoying things ever put in the game. Trip over a passing rabbit? Walk slower than an arthritic snail for the next twenty minutes…) stuff like the water hippo or the fuglyphants that have the howdas, since it covers the rider, or thematically, the turtle mounts.
There’s a bunch of ways this could have been done without pissing so many people off, but apparently the entire point of this is someone doesn’t like the water bug.
On the WoWhead website it stated:
The ones revealed so far can cause most of your mounts of level 20+ characters to be unable to be dazed, have waterwalking, have a parachute when flying from high places.
Which tells me it would have always been available since level 20, I honestly never got why players were upset about it until now when I realised some of you did not understand the system would still be available for lower level characters.
Not really. The Water Striders require reputation levels to purchase, one at Honored and one at Exalted. The “reward” for players who did the Angler’s rep grind is set to be “reduced cost equipment”. Clearly, the intention is that the inflatable mount shoes will still be rep gated while also having a prohibitively high cost to discourage whimsical changes (like Azerite reforging).
That way Blizzard can say that players who did the grind still have a reward and players that want the same level of reward have to do the grind in the future.
It wasn’t on Wowhead when this was first stated and the information we had from other sources said differently.
I’m not even sure why this is even being brought up now that it’s a moot point. That was three days ago and it’s meaningless now.
Simply remove daze completely. Honestly, it’s a non issue for me since I typically don’t run smack down the middle of mob packs and zigzag when I do but the point still stands.
Conversely return and re-add meaningful, worthwhile drops to mobs to add incentive for killing them.
But no, that would be fun! Blizzard hates fun!
You can get the chauffeured chopper which has built in no daze and is available at level 1 across your account for purchasing X number of heirlooms. Granted its a bit slower but it’s still an account bound mount.
The Water Strider is currently also an account bound 1 time purchase mount that can be used by every current and future character at level 20. Suddenly adding a purchase price for every character isn’t a worthwhile bonus.
Suddenly needing to purchase a 1 time use consumable to give a mount back it’s innate ability isn’t progress, it’s regression.
Losing the ability to stack current consumable mount effects on the mounts with special abilities or mounts in general and being stuck with 1 single effect for all mounts per character again isn’t progress but regression.
If too many players are using the water striding make the flying boat float, the hovering mounts water walk, the spider water walk, the semi aquatic mounts maintain mount speed in the water and problem solved.
They don’t respect player time and effort in this game anymore so that is your answer. They are chasing new players which are not coming in droves while chasing veteran players away.
Of course they could technically do it. That’s not why they can’t though. Just think about it for a moment.
Everything this dev team does is regression, and nothing we do is going to change that, and especially since BfA started it is all about spending money, keeping us grounded and slowing us down with a veil to make it look better than it was before.
We can either keep complaining and get nowhere or just accept it and play the game how it is developing. I mean just look at the HoA stuff, it took us from PTR until 8.2 to get changes made, is it really at the end of the day worth complaining all that much for a change that, by the time it comes out, may not even be any better than it currently is?
If we don’t complain it certainly won’t come out any better than the current plan already is.
Will people with just the red water strider get a discount? Or are they going to have to farm rep to be able to purchase the item and pay full price?
I would be delighted to see daze burn in hell. Strafing / running sideways doesn’t work for me, and passing butterflies seem to be able to daze me for a week.
Verily.
I tried, but I apparently didn’t eat enough paint chips as a kid to see why it’s a ‘good’ idea. There is no ‘can’t’. It’s exactly the same thing as the sky golem’s ability to herb while mounted on it. There’s no reason the water strider can’t be left as it is.
Well, being moderately OP also mitigates those instances where you do get dismounted. Daze without dismount is merely a setback.
And look what happened to the LAST guy who said that. 
Yes, I can kill a bunch of crap if I have to. I’m a tank (in at least one of my schizophrenic alt collection). But they drop somewhere between jack and crap, so it’s not worth the time to fight the random BS…which is why I was trying to ride past it.
My take on this feature. it’s ok… that’s it.
The problem was started when Blizzard forgot to limit the strider’s water walking ability to Pandaria. Furthermore, adding zones that have water 40yrds across to have to go past or around. The Strider made this easier, and became the go-to mount for whoever did that. I’ll even switch to that when I want to get somewhere quickly.
Adding in equipment for mounts helps alleviate this some by allowing you no restrictions on which mount you want to use. Though, while I also agree they should leave the strider alone, but not let it be affected by equipment.
I never said it was a good idea.
They can’t because then it keeps the “problem” they’re trying to fix. The Strider would then be the free water walking option for everyone’s Alts and would be all you’d see while leveling.
I’m sure Blizz wants new players seeing all the cool mount models while leveling and not just the ugly old strider everywhere.
People seem to forget about this. The Strider was on the chopping Block and was saved at the last minute. Every new x-pac since I’ve been expecting it to be nerfed.
Depends on the Expansion actually. Cataclysm through WoD mobs drop a variety of items including a high rate of green gear and mats. Legion and BFA have this bipolar approach towards gaming where things cost a lot and Blizzard wants you to be broke all the time.
I’m stubborn. I jump swam across that big bay in Kul Tiras on my Tauren monk, even though it was slow, rather than run through all the Alliance forces when I just wanted to look around and get to the next base.
If travel is easier, it lends itself to exploration. Water Walking mount boots being located on the rep vendor screams rep requirement still in effect therefore doesn’t add functionality to any that don’t already have the Strider, it just annoys those that do by making them purchase WW for every alt that already has it default.
Which I am fine with. I already have it on my DK and Shaman so they get to have undazability.
The only major difference that has come is the HoA change, and that is nothing more than a “Let’s get the players to continue farming past level 50, but make it look different”.