What if the equipment system was 1 slot per mount, and that was spread across your entire account?
As though an account was a Mercenary Camp - with the player as the Merc Leader - and all the “soldiers” within the Merc Camp had the same access to all of it’s resources; in this case, the mounts.
For one thing, it’s about immersion. I would rather have mounts that can perform functions that they should be able to do, see gryphons gliding when in no fly zones, over someone putting inflatable boots on the chopper.
Mounts that perform as they should actually reward you for collecting various mounts. External equipment just makes them all the same and open to unneeded sillyness.
I really can’t argue with you - that makes total sense, and I can’t see how that wouldn’t make the game more fun and provide more of an incentive to collect more mounts.
I was just curious if it would be a compromise to the way the system is currently being proposed that would still provide some of the differentiation between mounts.
A lot of us have pointed that out, but there are multiple threads on this.
But, it’s a very important point, for multiple reasons. The main being: why did they move player character abilities to equipment? In order to more easily remove those abilities and make us earn them back.
There’s also the fact that Blizzard does NOT like old crafted items to be relevant in current content. What happens to the crafted mount equipment once 9.0 hits and we move into new zones? Do we suddenly get a new tool tip “Does not work above level 120” or “Only works in X zone”, like we’ve gotten on items in the past? Do they “forget” the tooltip and we just mount up and sink one day early next expac?
Blizzard likes to treat each expac as a standalone game these days, so yes, there is a very good chance that they’ll abandon the mount equipment idea entirely before long. Or use the same argument they’re using against the strider and decided that water walking is the “only” thing people equip, it limits choices and the only way to save us from being “forced” to choose water walking is to remove water walking. Because Blizzard somehow has the idea that removing choices somehow leads to more choices.
So, should we limit every mount to the content it comes from, then?
They tried and changed it back once they received a ton of negative feedback.
But there is also the Crimson Water Strider added in WoD from the garrison. Now limiting it to Pandaria would be a little silly since it was introduced in WoD.
Just leave the water strider alone and exempt as the golem is and let people have the equipment for the other mounts. I have both water striders and I have no problem with it being the same exemption as the golem.
Oh, I know: I was one of the people offering that negative feedback. But the “just nerf it” crowd only ever seems to consider the water strider, not what kind of precedent locking the strider to Pandaria - or stripping a mount of its inherent abilities - sets in regards to other mounts.
Heirloom, so we can grab another whenever we need, without wasting bag space. Better yet, make the other basic equipment available as heirlooms to, but at a higher cost/unlock-requirement, so we can switch from time to time, as needed.
Now that it’s “just another mount” they should go back and slip in a different color water strider in each expansion, and a meta “big black bug” strider for getting them all. 
anilla=yellow
Bc=fel green
Wrath=icy/deathly white
Cata=smouldering orange
…
…
Legion=suramar lavender strider
BFA=corrupted tidesage be-tentacled strider…
Now if they want to improve something… It would be awesome if You didn’t have to change a water walking mount because it lost the ability - by getting hit. I guess the Barding must help this too, but I would just not have to keep applying something every time I ride a mount. I get tired of having to switch between things because Im getting Hit by a mob. Like my Druid for instance, I don’t like that most of the Healing puts my low level into Her Human Form, and I have to keep switching it back and forth. Unless I use those VERY expensive healing potions. Which I make and Use also.
Barding doesn’t keep water walking from being disabled on hit, it just means you don’t get dismounted. And the entire point of water walking breaking on any hit is supposedly balance, because then you can’t just outrun the mobs attacking you and dash off across the water. You have to stop and remount, or swim like you would on a non-water walking mount. Which is why I have serious doubts about all these people who claim they’re forced to ride the water strider everywhere, and never have to dismount and resummon.
Yeah I agree with you on this one… People are not forced to ride the water strider. there are other means of water walking too… So Saying they are forced to use the Strider’s just shows how much they know about the actual game period.
On this one issue they might have gotten the clue, enough that they won’t try to remove water walking entirely…
Their next attempt, already obvious in this implementation, is that they will present an even more difficult “Sophie’s choice” … Between hanging on to water walking or choosing something even more essential. Like improved jump distance after adding a zone filled with bottomless chasms and streams of instead kill lava.
That way it’s not them removing water walking, it’s us choosing to disable it ourselves or of necessity.
I will now entertain bets on Blizzard messing with such capabilities for ALL water travelling types!
Flips hair and sips tea
This is a BRILLIANT IDEA - I like it!
I bloody hope when we get flying again in BfA that Blizzard does the same thing too flying and take it away flying ability from all flying mounts and make you idiot complainers about the WW mount have to pay over and over to use flying on all your flying mounts…and I hope it smacks you right in the face…and cost 5,000 gold for each flying mount you have you want to use…guess what I can afford that but many of you complainers can’t.
That’s exactly what’s concerning several folks in these threads. It’s not the fact Blizzard wants more mounts to be able to water walk so folks don’t feel obligated to use the water strider; it’s why they chose this particular way to mitigate that situation when there are so many other ways they could have that wouldn’t require taking anything away from anyone.
Equipment systems have a way of getting nerfed or ditched entirely, like artifact weapons and like heart of azeroth that’s getting a total rehaul in 8.2. Sure, Blizzard can change or get rid of any feature at any time, but making it a system like this makes it seem like it would be even easier than usual for them to do so should they decide that they don’t want us to have even that much freedom of choice with regards to mount effects.
It also means that going forward, when stirrups and bardings no longer work because they’re limited to BfA zones, Blizzard can easily not give us replacements since we’ll have a barding mount equipment item now and we still have the Sky Golem for herbalism at least.
Right now, we can stack water walking, anti daze, interact with objects while mounted AND use a goblin glider all at the same time. I’m not even remotely confident that will be the case after this new system is implemented.
If you like to play this game, which I think it seems as though you do, you should be careful about encouraging Blizzard to implement features that could cause a large number of people to no longer enjoy playing enough to unsub. An MMORPG needs people. A business needs customers to stay in business. The more people leave, the fewer resources Blizzard has to keep making this game that you seem to want to keep playing.
Why should I be careful its this complainers that are making the game bad …so why shouldn’t I make it bad for them too…many of these players have no idea what this game was like years back when if you wanted a mount you paid though the nose to get it and you had to get that mount on each character too …as mounts were kept in your bags way back…its about time normal players push these complainers back and fight for our rights too keep what we worked hard for.
Wait, what? Keeping what I worked hard for is exactly what I’m advocating. I don’t want to lose the water walking ability that my strider currently has. What are you talking about?