Water Strider nerf IS bad. Here's why

[Roran-stormrage (Roran)]

Water walking breaks on damage, and that river is shallow enough to run across in most areas, or to be jumped most of the way across. I farm there a lot, too, and with all of the hostile mobs along it the water walking mount is all but useless if you’re using stirrups.

If you take the same route as me you will save about a min each round trip with WW, it’s not as good as a DK that can recast it over and over but the time saved adds up and time is our most valuable resource.

[Marthul-zuljin (Marthul)]

There probably will be. You can already get yourself three items to not get dazed speed up the mount and interact with objects.

[Adalia-moon-guard (Adalia)]

Then people would equip the anti daze one, and when they got near a river they would switch mounts and than switch back. There would be no need to buy new pieces and switch between them, you would just switch mounts at will.

So what? There’s no indication that there’s any intention of people swapping equipment frequently. What little indication we have, in fact, suggests that people aren’t meant to switch back and forth. You keep complaining that the water striders are broken, but the ability you think is a problem is getting made available to every mount.

If the problem is that water striders can walk on water, that’s going to still exist regardless. I don’t understand why you’re defending this when you think the whole thing is destroying class balance in the first place.

[Pocketmage-ghostlands]

Liveblog of the Patch 8.2 Rise of Azshara Content Preview Stream At about 00:58:00 he talks about the mount equipment.

This Equipment slot is on your character and once you apply a piece of mount equipment to it all your mounts will receive this benefit.

[Ironnic-cenarius (Ironnic)]

Yet we still have to buy it the equipment.
The water strider is nered for no reason.
The people that had to work for the water strider, paying 3,500 gold for it have to pay more gold.
This game is suppose to be a MMORPG, so there should be stuff that should stay.

[Aureton-moon-guard (Aureton)]

@Pocketmage-ghostlands

Liveblog of the Patch 8.2 Rise of Azshara Content Preview Stream At about 00:58:00 he talks about the mount equipment.

This Equipment slot is on your character and once you apply a piece of mount equipment to it all your mounts will receive this benefit.

That’s… what I said? I think?

[Ðirespirit-goldrinn]

Can you link me to where it says this? this is not the info I got from the presentation.

[Mokrawr-area-52 (Mokrawr)]

You are not having anything taken away, you are getting more than others.

You sure about all that champ? Looks like 1 equipment slot per character to me, and we get 1 free water walking per character who already has the rep which for me is 1 character.
From what I’ve seen so far I’ll have to buy it for every single alt to get back what I already have, even if it is “discounted”, for a cost.

So to sum up:
Now WW = free on all my characters, 8.2 WW = not free on all my characters

[Airc-shattered-hand (Airc)]

So, you use your free “Mount can Water Walk” item on your Water Strider, and boom; nothing has changed. So, it’s not really a nerf.

In fact, you now get access to cheaper “Mount can Water Walk” items to make more of your mounts water walk. Not a nerf at all. It’s not like your Water Strider had the other abilities (no dazing, no parachute-which you’d never use on your Water Strider anyhow-) so nothing has really changed.

Edit: I have misread, and thought the items were on a mount by mount basis. It is a “one item for all mounts” thing apparently. Not really ideal, but not as bad as people are making it out to be. Still, what they should do is make the Water Strider still walk on water all the time, but not inherit the bonus from the item instead. That way it remains exactly as it is.

[Pocketmage-ghostlands]

You said that there are multiple slots and equipment is on a per mount basis. I think he said that you have one slot per character.

[Adalia-moon-guard (Adalia)]

• People who have the mount will get one free water walking piece that can be sent to any of their toons, and can buy others at a cheaper price. You’re not losing anything.
• There are clearly multiple equipment slots, they even show this in the screenshot. You can have water walking and anti-daze at the same time.
• The equipment is on a per mount basis, meaning that it’s shared for that mount across all your characters.

People with the mount lose absolutely nothing, and if the water strider is so important to them, they can now have a water strider that can walk on water, and no longer be dazed, and still used at level 20, in addition to being able to buy more water walking stuff cheaper than other players.

If you are raging about this change you are literally doing so in blatant ignorance of the actual facts, for the sake of false outrage. You are not having anything taken away, you are getting more than others.

You are quite simply mistaken. There are not multiple equipment slots or different equipment slots per mount. They quite clearly show one equipment shot for the character in the screenshot. You pick on a per-character basis.

So anyone who currently has a strider is losing the ability to have both water walking and barding. You also have to keep heading out to the middle of nowhere in Pandaria and buy the equipment over and over for different characters. This is clearly a nerf.

[Adalia-moon-guard (Adalia)]

So, you use your free “Mount can Water Walk” item on your Water Strider, and boom; nothing has changed. So, it’s not really a nerf.

In fact, you now get access to cheaper “Mount can Water Walk” items to make more of your mounts water walk. Not a nerf at all. It’s not like your Water Strider had the other abilities (no dazing, no parachute-which you’d never use on your Water Strider anyhow-) so nothing has really changed .

It is a nerf, because currently, you can use your water strider /and/ you can use barding that keeps you from getting dazed (and while it hasn’t been brought up, I bet the item that lets you interact while mounted is going away too).

[Amandiel-nesingwary (Amandiel)]

Go outside the city and the only two mounts you see are the herb mount and water strider.

Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal. I hardly ever see either when doing quests or levelling.

[Adalia-moon-guard (Adalia)]

Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal. I hardly ever see either when doing quests or levelling.

That certainly matches with my experience. On the other hand, I frequently see people do exactly what I do-run up to a body of water on whatever mount they like, swap the water strider, ride across the water, then back to the first mount.

[Amine-blackwater-raiders (Amine)]

This is exactly what you said, no paraphrase or twisting.

Go outside the city and the only two mounts you see are the herb mount and water strider.

[Airc-shattered-hand (Airc)]

It is a nerf, because currently, you can use your water strider /and/ you can use barding that keeps you from getting dazed (and while it hasn’t been brought up, I bet the item that lets you interact while mounted is going away too).

So, you’re operating under the assumption that the temporary buffs granted by profession items are going away?

[Ðirespirit-goldrinn]

I think someone does not understand hyperbole.

[Amandiel-nesingwary (Amandiel)]

Yeah that’s usually what I do. Except I’ll often stay on the water strider mount once I’ve crossed water until I dismount.

But I really don’t see as many of them as others do or Blizzard says they see.

[Amine-blackwater-raiders (Amine)]

Is that another world for lying ?

This whole issue started with people claiming they were being FORCED to use that water strider all the time because it was too good. Yet, it is rarely being used.

[Xintao-tichondrius]

Agreed. Is WoW an MMORPG? Not sure anymore.

Scaling, pruning, and resets of gear every patch is dulling the game fast when you can’t work or earn anything of lasting value.