Based on my experiences on the PTR, all Blizzard has done by implementing this change is create a new breed of ' Water Walking Super Mount' that can do multiple things which goes against their originally stated intention of equalizing the mounts and preventing the dominance of the Water Striders. I am seeing lots of the Yaks and AH Dino's being enhanced with Water Walking so you boost their already additional utility even further.To be honest, I think there is an element laziness on Blizzard's behalf here. The mount system needs to be addressed in the same way that the Hunter pet system was a while back. Different classes of mounts get different additional attributes, giving the player much more choice as to what they want to use in different situations. The 8.2 system isn't a good one, and I am hoping that its temporary.
Why not make an equipment that allows to instant mount, like druids ?
Yes I'm displeased by this... I spent a couple of months fishing... fishing, the worst, least fun profession ever, even more than First aid... For the mount that walks on water. If it's losing its ability, I want my time back, not even the 4k gold I needed to earn back when I could barely keep 500g on my character, not a freebee that only costs 40g for everyone else... My pain and suffering is worth at least fixing fishing to be more fun or at least interesting. Blizz needs to either do that, or let them keep the ability without benefit of equipment.
Gonna put waterwalking on water strider and everything will stay the same
This would be way less convoluted if they just let mounts transmog into other mounts. Or let the water walker randomly appear like one of your favorited mounts every time you used it.
Can I still switch to the Sea Turtle and move quickly underwater?
Glad I don't have to ride that ugly mount anymore! Would be nice to receive a free Mount Shoes or Water Striders though.
My main issue is tying the items to professions, and how that will affect future expansions. The system seems cyclical, in that over the life of an expansion (leveling phase, grinding phase, flying phase) you'll find different equipment to be the most useful, but even if each piece is modestly cheap right now when you have a bunch of alts and want to replace gear every expansion - often on the same cycle of equipment - it could get quite costly in terms of materials.As for what new equipment I would want, one to let us interact with objects while mounted, including profession nodes, would be great. Letting the 20% speed boost stack with other mount movement effects would be great, but I suppose that's not gonna happen. Perhaps one that reduces fall damage, or lets you mount up faster? Not instant, but maybe half the normal mount cast time.