wow Water Strider Nerf Discussion: April 16th

[Stan 5,240]

With the introduction of mount equipment in Rise of Azshara, Water Striders will lose their innate passive ability to walk on water. What exactly does that entail?

If you haven't been following the official Patch 8.2 content preview, each mount is getting an equipment slot in Patch 8.2 which grants the mount perks, such as water walking, parachute, and daze prevention.

The item which grants water walking is called Inflatable Mount Shoes. As a result, all Water Striders will lose their innate ability to walk on water, but Blizzard will be mailing Inflatable Mount Shoes to every player who unlocked the mount through the Anglers reputation. Additional Inflatable Mount Shoes should be affordable on the Anglers vendor for 40 Gold right now.

Death Knights (Path of Frost) and Shamans (Water Walking) both have water walking, so they don't need the item at all.

They're comparing Water Striders to Sky Golem's innate herbing passive, and some ask the Water Strider's ability to be designed in a way to ignore mount equipment, but the Engineering mount won't be losing its passive, because it's apparently not as powerful as water walking itself.

TL;DR

• Water Striders will no longer be able to walk on water in Patch 8.2.
• The water walking ability is transferred to an item which can be applied to mounts of your choice, resulting in more variety.
• If you earned a Water Strider and farmed the Anglers rep, the item will be mailed to you at no charge. Additional items can be purchased from the Anglers vendor.

What's your opinion about Water Striders in general? Do you think they should keep their ability to walk on water, or do you not mind the nerf at all? Let us know in the comments!

Blizzard (Source)

Yeah, but now you’d have the ability to use a mount, besides the Water Strider. I dunno about you, but being stuck using only one mount forever sounds absolutely boring as hell

That’s one of the goals here. There are a lot of mounts out there and it’s strange to have a “wrong choice” when out running around. You’ll easily be able to keep the ability just as you have it now but there will be other options that you (the player) can make if you prefer something else. How you about the world, where you often go, and how fast you like to escape from things could all contribute to what works best for your playstyle.

There are a few extra notes so like Death Knights can do waterwalking via Path of Frost (and Shaman with Water Walking). That should help empower these classes a bit and help make them feel a bit more unique.

I’m not sure what the price of the waterwalking shoes will be offhand, but it should be pretty affordable on the Anglers vendor. We’ll have the PTR up soon™ and look forward to hearing your feedback on that.

Would it be possible to have the water strider be like the sky golem. It can have innate water walking but is not effected by mount equipment?

I will check but my personal opinion from my play experience is that the water strider ability is just much stronger than the sky golem herbing. We nerfed the water strider once and if we leave it with the ability there then it’s more in the line of getting everything and less of making a choice for what you want. We want there to be a choice based on your play and interests. If herbing on the run provides too strong of a benefit then there might need to be changes there but currently I don’t think that’s the case.

Brave soul.
I commend you for stepping into this thread on the Monday evening preceding the drop of 8.2 on the PTR. However, this price you speak of not knowing offhand is what will be a determining factor in many players decisions. Personally, I’ve stuck by/accepted/dealt with the changes made over the years to keep the gameplay from just becoming a static habit. But having spent my money and time acquiring the rep required to gain the reward, only to have it removed and then require it to be re-purchased…no. That’s the line. I’m sorry to sound like I’m giving an ultimatum because it’s not. It’s a decision made based on honor, or the lack thereof.

EDIT - and to be perfectly fair, yes, I agree and have so for many years that Blizzard has the right to change content at their discretion at any time. But this is one of those times I won’t be agreeing with it.

Just something I’d like to get your perspective on, if the character who earned the Anglers reputation along with the mount gets the water walking item for free, what would a fair price be for the alts to get it? If that character who earned the reputation and mount has the option to water walk (but might choose something else), do you feel that alts should have every single thing that the other characters have?

Also, just out of curiosity, how often would you estimate that you have you used the water strider mount in the 6+ years it’s been available?

Thanks folks for chatting!

[Saphiri 1]

I honestly dont't understand why i still play this game.. i disagree with so many of blizzards decisions..  why nerf water strider? now i can't just switch to that if i want to ride across water, so now i HAVE to use the water walking equipment?? i hope you can quick swap those equipments.. 

[Koxsos 38]

As for me, I accidentaly used up all my timewalking currency on a celestial being as it was a faction right next to the anglers and I got it confused, used it all up, and realized my error a lot later. So this is kinda ok for me. But then you will have the usual:
Person with water strider forever ago: "Well I grinded my bottoms off for this back in forever ago and reaped the benefits thousand times over. So whatever."
Person with waterstrider during last MoP timewalking "Well I grinded ... but month later I know that was not as meaningful as I hoped it would be, so naturally I am kinda pissed. But generally ok with it."
Person without waterstrider: "Yey".
Overentitled people screaming for attetion: *Screams for attention*.
So yeeey! I guess?
Comes down to what it really looks like on release and later.

Edited April 16, 2019 by Koxsos

[Aernath 173]

8.2 Mount Changes and What-to-do Over-simplified:

You worked "hard" for Water Strider(s) and you're now sad that they are nerfed?
Then, use the damn free Water Walking Equipment that got sent on your mail on one of your Water Striders and voila! Nothing has changed for you! Stay happy and stop whining.

OR

Take advantage of this change and use the same free Water Walking Equipment on ANY of the mounts you want and keep walking on water with ANY of the mounts of your choosing.

AND

Go buy EXTRA Water Walking Equipments from the Anglers vendor, have MORE Water Walking Mounts.

HAPPY?

Personally, I am ^^

Edited April 16, 2019 by Aernath
(format)

[Sintharis 3]

The thing is, this is actually not a choice. If you had (and still want to have) water walking, you're stuck with it on all mounts. So the parachute/anti-daze is kind of not available to you. I don't mind having the WW only on one mount tbh..

[Odi 10]

I like this change. It is good that now sky golem will be able to walk on the water or not be dazed on land. Good, that i will control that. 

Maybe there will be a + 10-20 percent extra speed boost as a selectable item for that slot.

According my understanding who didn't grind the reputation won't have the water walking skill as default. 

 

[dsc 18]

if they add "balloons" so I use more than my strider?  cool.

 

Make my water strider not water walk?  asinine,

 

Treat it like the golem, leave it unaffected.  I'm not so irked they gave away extra free water walking, besides to the wrath babies who rolled DKs years before the abominations that were MOP and WOD, but I am pissed they stripped an ability from a wide, useless besides WATER WALKING mount, good for only that.  

It shows yet again the current dev team and Ion are trash and need to go, including Ion, Mr. ZA mount video, Mr. EJ ( btw I miss EJ, another thing he wrecked.)

[Grungy 2]

There is really no point in removing water walking.  Ok they are going to give you an item that allows the mount to water walk now and everyone can choose to use a different mount then the strider.  So why not just leave the strider with water walking?  They are trying to change it so people don't feel they have to use 1 mount to water walk, done.  Just leave the strider alone and don't give it a mount equipment slot.

[Ramautso 0]

1 hour ago, Aernath said:

8.2 Mount Changes and What-to-do Over-simplified:

You worked "hard" for Water Strider(s) and you're now sad that they are nerfed?
Then, use the damn free Water Walking Equipment that got sent on your mail on one of your Water Striders and voila! Nothing has changed for you! Stay happy and stop whining.

OR

Take advantage of this change and use the same free Water Walking Equipment on ANY of the mounts you want and keep walking on water with ANY of the mounts of your choosing.

AND

Go buy EXTRA Water Walking Equipments from the Anglers vendor, have MORE Water Walking Mounts.

HAPPY?

Personally, I am ^^

To me that's not the point. People worked hard to get the water strider for something that would be 'exclusive' to only those who spent the time to farm it. So it's unfair that everyone suddenly has the ability to water walk, regardless of whether they spent the time 'rep grinding' or not

[ThomasC 65]

1 hour ago, Saphiri said:

I honestly dont't understand why i still play this game.. i disagree with so many of blizzards decisions..  why nerf water strider? now i can't just switch to that if i want to ride across water, so now i HAVE to use the water walking equipment?? i hope you can quick swap those equipments.. 

They are giving you water walking mount equipment for free if you have the water strider - theres literally no change to your game experience. 

[Bobbis 208]

As someone who grinded the rep in MoP, not fussed. They're ugly mounts and only used when levelling in an area with lots of lakes / sea. Otherwise never touch it. 

 

Also coming in 8.2, FLYING,...

[ThomasC 65]

Honestly, this is a ridiculous thing to be upset about. Letting players customize their mounts is a cool feature. End of story. 

Water Striders are from MoP and WoD. Blizz shouldnt develop a new system and then apply it to everything BUT a mount from 2 and 3 expansions ago. The sky golem is dfferent because herbing is not replicated in the mount gear system

People are upset because they think the work they put into an expansion from 7 years ago either1) entitles them to a super mount that lets them water walk and a mount equipment slot or 2) they simply dont want other people who didnt put in work for anglers rep to water walk. (if you fall into the second category, then you are  a dbag)

If you want your water strider to keep on water walking, then put in the effing gear token blizz is giving you FOR FREE and there is literally no change to your game. 

Lets focus our energy on getting pumped for 8.2 and stop complaining about every little thing.

[Seksi 208]

Now my Mythic Jaina mount will finally be able to water walk on my non-shaman characters! ?

[Allseye 96]

Do you ask me what i think aout water strider in general? - Ugly, usefull mount. 

Do you ask me what i think about the nerf? - It's none.

If you would ask what i think about mount equipment: i thought its an april fool. Wtf, shoes for my mount...srsly? What an unnecessary feature, this is what i think. Honestly, i dont know what backlog priorisation Ion is doing...

To sum it up: i dont care. Give our mounts boots, jackets, hats, girdles, gloves, pipes, jumpsuits...

Edited April 16, 2019 by Allseye

[Tarazet 144]

50 minutes ago, Ramautso said:

To me that's not the point. People worked hard to get the water strider for something that would be 'exclusive' to only those who spent the time to farm it. So it's unfair that everyone suddenly has the ability to water walk, regardless of whether they spent the time 'rep grinding' or not

Name another old world/old expansion faction that you can grind to get a leg up in current expansion content. I can't think of one.

[jinsu2301 273]

the reason they have to remove waterwalking from striders is because otherwise people will still just use the water strider with anti-daze or whatever else they might come up with. it wouldn't solve the issue of people feeling compelled to using one mount and one mount only.

2 minutes ago, Allseye said:

Wtf, shoes for my mount...srsly? What an unnecessary feature

No, it's not. There is a reason everyone and their mom uses striders. Waterwalking is extremely convenient.

57 minutes ago, Ramautso said:

People worked hard to get the water strider for something that would be 'exclusive' to only those who spent the time to farm it.

First, people didn't "work hard". It's either a bunch of dailies, a few TW runs, or fishing in Draenor for a couple hours. Second, you still get an exclusive mount. So, how is this any different from any other mount you have to grind for?

[Acidfrost59 0]

I have used my water strider for so many watery areas I have a hotkey for when I need it. I think it is silly to nerf something called "Water Strider" so that it can no longer stride on water. Then again, I think it is silly that the Dreadwake doesn't glide over the top of the water. I know, it flies like the original. But it shouldn't sink when it hits the water.
I was hoping that my raft and my iceberg would become mounts at some time, but that looks unlikely now. Looks like they may become my new hotkey, though, for water, freeing up the slot for one of the other choices.
Do you think they will add another item that allows you to shoot from a mount? I would imagine it would need to decrease your hit chance. But I digress.
Nerfing Water Strider? I am against it.
 

[PatrickHenry 293]

Theyre giving free eqpt to let it do what it did before, no harm no foul.

Will it diminish its usefulness since the mount equipment slot is taken already to get it back to normal?  yes.  Does it make a lot of sense to take the 'water striding' away from a water strider?  not to me, but i get their reasoning, otherwise.  

[Ragingwolf 310]

I'm indifferent with this change it's not like the current BFA maps 'require' specific types of mounts (Like in GW2) to excess certain areas of the map.  But I do find it odd they would want players to go to Pandaria to buy these items instead of allowing crafting professions craft them or allow The Honorbound/The 7th Legion NPC at the docks sell the items instead.

Edited April 16, 2019 by Ragingwolf

[Badadada 184]

I was always too lazy to grind this mount - since I absolutely despise any activity in or around the garrison. I never cared about having disadvantage in the open world, but it sucked heavily in M+ Tol Dagor when you have to skip the first few trash packs on water, so I'm somewhat happy. I guess water will play a massive role in the zones launching with 8.2, so I'm looking forward to see players being more equal in terms of terrain usage.

[jinsu2301 273]

12 minutes ago, Badadada said:

I was always too lazy to grind this mount - since I absolutely despise any activity in or around the garrison.

you can get the blue water strider at exalted with The Anglers in MoP, which is really easy with Timewalking rep tokens.

[Korvin 30]

Finally I can slap the water walking equipment on a two seater mount just as I dreamed for years !

Or maybe I could equip it on my.....*looks at his pirate ship mount* Drink up me 'earties ! Yo ho !

 

Edited April 18, 2019 by Korvin

[multiboxing 71]

LOL! there's soooooooooo many more important things messed up in the game and all you wanna do is cry about water walking !

 

 

 

[Allseye 96]

3 hours ago, jinsu2301 said:

No, it's not. There is a reason everyone and their mom uses striders. Waterwalking is extremely convenient.

I mean it's an unnecessary feature because we have a water strider. Everyone who like to waterwalk can "buy" it in one tw-week. If think i dont care other equipments. It's awkward to put shoes on my mount. It's like People dress their animals ? .  This is what i meant...it's just strange. But as i said, for me it doesn't matter. There is no downside on this. It's just something….yeah have no other words for it, it's "something" ? 

Edited April 16, 2019 by Allseye

[Migol 433]

So what I'm getting here is the winning strategy will be waterwalking equipment on the sky golem so you can also herb.   Got it!