Skyscale Mechanic Change Suggestion

[Taril.8619]

So, I recently got my Skyscale and its masteries and it's a very nice mount. Very versatile and quite good for traversing the map.

 

However, the mechanics of the mount feel not very fun, being clunky at best and outright detrimental at worst (I.e. Trying to maneuver near an object and grabbing onto the wall)

 

As such, I thought I'd suggest a couple of changes that might make it feel more fun and interesting to use while traversing a map:

 

1) Grabbing onto a wall recharges the green bar the same as landing on solid ground as a baseline effect (Without masteries)

 

2) Wall Launch Mastery altered to no longer charge the green bar. Instead it charges up a jump that provides a speed boost for a few seconds (Depending on charge length). In addition, when reaching full charge, it will automatically jump off the wall (To give some better fluidity to the process)

 

I think these changes would make the Skyscale more interesting to use, being able to maintain momentum by jumping off of walls and other objects as you glide through a map (As opposed to other mounts such as Griffon where you fly across a map with its flaps or Roller Beetle where you try to avoid objects to maintain speed and do tricks to recharge energy for more boosts or Raptor/Jackal where you utilize their mobility skills for speed or to bypass terrain)

 

While retaining the theme and limitations of relying on having objects to grab onto in order to utilize its mobility potential.

[Kunzaito.8169]

I agree that the skyscale is clunkier than the griffon, but I understand the design reasons why. It's already the closest thing to being "BiS" for all mount situations. They want to provide some incentive, however small, to still use other mounts sometimes.

 

Something that may help you to know is that the skyscale DOES have a skill that does sort of a spinning forward burst of speed and eats up 1 segment of endurance per use. It's not associated with a mastery and not bound by default so I didn't even realize it until working on the skyscale course in Grothmar where it's required for gold. It really makes movement while in flight feel much smoother and more agile (as well as faster).

[Taril.8619]

> @"Kunzaito.8169" said:

> I agree that the skyscale is clunkier than the griffon, but I understand the design reasons why. It's already the closest thing to being "BiS" for all mount situations. They want to provide some incentive, however small, to still use other mounts sometimes.

>

> Something that may help you to know is that the skyscale DOES have a skill that does sort of a spinning forward burst of speed and eats up 1 segment of endurance per use. It's not associated with a mastery and not bound by default so I didn't even realize it until working on the skyscale course in Grothmar where it's required for gold. It really makes movement while in flight feel much smoother and more agile (as well as faster).

 

Yeah, I already know the dash. It is bound by default, to V same as other mounts mobility skills.

 

The fact that it is like 100x more useful than the final mastery for Skyscale speaks a lot about it...

 

I just feel that it would be more interesting if the unique mechanic of grabbing onto stuff and the mastery were less clunky and more competitive than just dashing between landing (Thus making the Skyscale feel less like "Raptor 2.0" that's just effectively leaping across the map and more like a unique mount)

 

Hence why I also try and keep that grabbing onto stuff as a mechanic to play around, meaning that you'll want to use Skyscale more when there's walls/trees to grab onto while other mounts like Raptor/Jackal/Beetle/Skimmer will work better when there isn't objects to grab as well as in situations like tunnels and caves where there's too many walls to actually move with Skyscale. With Skipper already having an advantage with climbing by the nature of ascending much faster than the Skyscale (Even if this particular suggestion would allow Skyscale to climb higher than the Skipper, the usefulness of that particular trait is limited)

[kharmin.7683]

Although the skyscale is very useful throughout Tyria, I don't believe that it was designed with the entire world in mind; rather, it was designed for Dragonfall where it is obtained and maps that follow. At least, that's my take on it.

[Ayrilana.1396]

Something could be done about it latching onto everything but the suggested changes are the wrong direction and do not even address it. They’re essentially the mount version of a power creep.

[Manasa Devi.7958]

The one change I would cheer for would be a way to control the clinging. Either a "always cling / never cling" toggle or only clinging when you collide while having a skill key pressed. Accidental clings are so annoying.

[mizaru.1385]

should just make clinging a toggle ability.....really really annoying

[Atomos.7593]

A wall clinging enable/disable toggle would be great. Right now I haven't found much use for wall clinging other than for using the wall launch mastery or when you need to go afk lol.

 

The skyscale to me basically feels like a glider with a slight jump and pause in midair abilities. This makes it useful in maps that have a lot of verticality and climbing like dragonfall but not so much in others. It doesn't really feel like a true flying mount to me, but that's fine since gliding is a pretty unique thing to GW2.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

How does one wall-cling whilst AFK? You must be moving forward to cling to anything.

[Atomos.7593]

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> How does one wall-cling whilst AFK? You must be moving forward to cling to anything.

 

I meant that I cling to a wall first out of sight of any enemies and then go afk.

 

The automatic wall-clinging is pretty annoying when you want to increase altitude quickly and land on a ledge or something like that to recharge your flight meter. It's probably made worse by the fact that the skyscale moves so slowly.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Again, you can't cling to a wall while being AFK. You must either land, or hover in air.

[Atomos.7593]

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> Again, you can't cling to a wall while being AFK. You must either land, or hover in air.

 

I don't know what you're taking about. I'm clinging to a wall on my skyscale right now in dragonfall while posting on the forum. You can press the autorun key to cling to the wall forever until you move again.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Ahh, well, you didn't mention that before.

[Atomos.7593]

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> Ahh, well, you didn't mention that before.

 

Oh I thought it was obvious and everybody knew about that "trick" already lol. Guess that's what happens when you have been using the skyscale too much hehe. xD

[Astyrah.4015]

> @"Atomos.7593" said:

> > @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> > Ahh, well, you didn't mention that before.

>

> Oh I thought it was obvious and everybody knew about that "trick" already lol. Guess that's what happens when you have been using the skyscale too much hehe. xD

 

back then i accidentally discovered how to afk while wall clinging when i alt-tabbed while auto-running (was flying around in TD), took longer than usual and was surprised when i came back and my skyscale was just sticking to the wall on his own lol..

 

i mostly afk hovering in midair though than wall-clinging and i use skyscale a lot too (like half the time.. the other half being raptor)

[Atomos.7593]

> @"Astyrah.4015" said:

> > @"Atomos.7593" said:

> > > @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> > > Ahh, well, you didn't mention that before.

> >

> > Oh I thought it was obvious and everybody knew about that "trick" already lol. Guess that's what happens when you have been using the skyscale too much hehe. xD

>

> back then i accidentally discovered how to afk while wall clinging when i alt-tabbed while auto-running (was flying around in TD), took longer than usual and was surprised when i came back and my skyscale was just sticking to the wall on his own lol..

>

> i mostly afk hovering in midair though than wall-clinging and i use skyscale a lot too (like half the time.. the other half being raptor)

 

Haha. Yeah hovering/wall-clinging is very useful for pausing to navigate the map too. That's usually what I do and it's nice to be able to read the map for a while anywhere without having to worry about mobs of enemies jumping you. The other mount I use a lot too is the roller beetle. Skyscale is very useful but I find the roller beetle much more fun and it's great for doing map completions or reaching events quickly. Wish there was a button for the roller beetle to slow down or return to default speed sometimes, but it's not a big issue since you can dismount and re-mount to make the roller beetle go back to default speed.

[kharmin.7683]

Who wall-clings while AFK anyway? I thought you were supposed to be [farming in Drizzlewood](https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/109838/people-are-afk-botting-at-drizzlewood-to-get-unfair-map-participation-event-rewards-merged#latest) when you go AFK? Isn't that what everyone is doing?

[Atomos.7593]

> @"kharmin.7683" said:

> Who wall-clings while AFK anyway? I thought you were supposed to be [farming in Drizzlewood](https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/109838/people-are-afk-botting-at-drizzlewood-to-get-unfair-map-participation-event-rewards-merged#latest) when you go AFK? Isn't that what everyone is doing?

 

Is wall-clinging while AFK forbidden for some reason now lol? No, everyone is too busy reporting all day all of the afk players in drizzlewood because we all know that by doing this Arenanet will take action...

[Blocki.4931]

You get used to this very quickly. I never latch onto anything anymore unless I want to or it's a tiny object that I didn't see, like a root sticking out.

[Atomos.7593]

> @"Blocki.4931" said:

> You get used to this very quickly. I never latch onto anything anymore unless I want to or it's a tiny object that I didn't see, like a root sticking out.

 

Yeah you get used to it after a while but a toggle option would be nice although not necessary. I agree with the OP's suggestion that wall-clinging should recharge the altitude meter without having to unlock the mastery, and this would make the accidental wall-clinging less annoying sometimes since it would fill your altitude meter.

[Astyrah.4015]

> @"Atomos.7593" said:

> > @"Blocki.4931" said:

> > You get used to this very quickly. I never latch onto anything anymore unless I want to or it's a tiny object that I didn't see, like a root sticking out.

>

> Yeah you get used to it after a while but a toggle option would be nice although not necessary. I agree with the OP's suggestion that wall-clinging should recharge the altitude meter without having to unlock the mastery, and this would make the accidental wall-clinging less annoying sometimes since it would fill your altitude meter.

 

i think they wont do this because it makes breaking out of bounds (maps/zones/etc.) easier like you'll be able to get over those super tall invisible walls easier... but people still find ways to do it and doing it doesn't even harm the playerbase/game in any way, anyway (only harms the one who did it if they get stuck for example) .. so i can't see why they can't just let us have it =)

[Atomos.7593]

> @"Astyrah.4015" said:

> > @"Atomos.7593" said:

> > > @"Blocki.4931" said:

> > > You get used to this very quickly. I never latch onto anything anymore unless I want to or it's a tiny object that I didn't see, like a root sticking out.

> >

> > Yeah you get used to it after a while but a toggle option would be nice although not necessary. I agree with the OP's suggestion that wall-clinging should recharge the altitude meter without having to unlock the mastery, and this would make the accidental wall-clinging less annoying sometimes since it would fill your altitude meter.

>

> i think they wont do this because it makes breaking out of bounds (maps/zones/etc.) easier like you'll be able to get over those super tall invisible walls easier... but people still find ways to do it and doing it doesn't even harm the playerbase/game in any way, anyway (only harms the one who did it if they get stuck for example) .. so i can't see why they can't just let us have it =)

 

Yeah, I suspect this is part of the reason why the skyscale is designed as it is with significant movement of it reducing the maximum obtainable altitude (effectively making it a glider) and forcing you to land sometimes. It might be too time consuming or difficult for the devs to adjust all the pre-PoF maps to have very tall invisible barriers or other mechanisms to prevent going out of bounds.

[Taril.8619]

> @"Astyrah.4015" said:

> > @"Atomos.7593" said:

> > > @"Blocki.4931" said:

> > > You get used to this very quickly. I never latch onto anything anymore unless I want to or it's a tiny object that I didn't see, like a root sticking out.

> >

> > Yeah you get used to it after a while but a toggle option would be nice although not necessary. I agree with the OP's suggestion that wall-clinging should recharge the altitude meter without having to unlock the mastery, and this would make the accidental wall-clinging less annoying sometimes since it would fill your altitude meter.

>

> i think they wont do this because it makes breaking out of bounds (maps/zones/etc.) easier like you'll be able to get over those super tall invisible walls easier... but people still find ways to do it and doing it doesn't even harm the playerbase/game in any way, anyway (only harms the one who did it if they get stuck for example) .. so i can't see why they can't just let us have it =)

 

It's nothing that isn't already possible. With the current jump and the fact that you can hover in place forever to regain endurance. Meaning you can literally just hop onto something, jump to regain green bar, fly higher and then just hover while waiting for endurance.

 

Throw in Bond of Vigor for additional green bar recharge and instant endurance gain and you can literally scale up whatever objects.

 

Meaning that it's not a particularly good reason to make the Skyscale's unique mechanic kind of terrible for normal use (Thus, often would be better served by having the ability to toggle off wall grabs so you don't have to deal with them)

 

Not to mention, there is an incredibly easy way to prevent any and all exploits of those invisible walls. Which is cap altitudes with no mount zones (Given that Skyscale's first mastery allows you to remount in the air means that even people without Gliding from HoT would be safe after hitting such zone and being dismounted)

[Atomos.7593]

> @"Taril.8619" said:

> > @"Astyrah.4015" said:

> > > @"Atomos.7593" said:

> > > > @"Blocki.4931" said:

> > > > You get used to this very quickly. I never latch onto anything anymore unless I want to or it's a tiny object that I didn't see, like a root sticking out.

> > >

> > > Yeah you get used to it after a while but a toggle option would be nice although not necessary. I agree with the OP's suggestion that wall-clinging should recharge the altitude meter without having to unlock the mastery, and this would make the accidental wall-clinging less annoying sometimes since it would fill your altitude meter.

> >

> > i think they wont do this because it makes breaking out of bounds (maps/zones/etc.) easier like you'll be able to get over those super tall invisible walls easier... but people still find ways to do it and doing it doesn't even harm the playerbase/game in any way, anyway (only harms the one who did it if they get stuck for example) .. so i can't see why they can't just let us have it =)

>

> It's nothing that isn't already possible. With the current jump and the fact that you can hover in place forever to regain endurance. Meaning you can literally just hop onto something, jump to regain green bar, fly higher and then just hover while waiting for endurance.

>

> Throw in Bond of Vigor for additional green bar recharge and instant endurance gain and you can literally scale up whatever objects.

>

> Meaning that it's not a particularly good reason to make the Skyscale's unique mechanic kind of terrible for normal use (Thus, often would be better served by having the ability to toggle off wall grabs so you don't have to deal with them)

>

> Not to mention, there is an incredibly easy way to prevent any and all exploits of those invisible walls. Which is cap altitudes with no mount zones (Given that Skyscale's first mastery allows you to remount in the air means that even people without Gliding from HoT would be safe after hitting such zone and being dismounted)

 

Also dragonfall does have the mechanic that if you try to leave the island on a skyscale the game says there are strong winds which will push you back (like how strong currents push back the skimmer if you try to go out into the ocean too far). They could add these strong winds or something similar push-back type of barriers to prevent out of bounds.

[Ototo.3214]

All I'd really like to see is more control over the clinging, that's it. They did make it so if you are holding the descend keybind it won't wall cling, which helps in many cases compared to when it was first released, but I'd still like to just outright have control of when I cling. I think just adding a keybind for "cling" could work, so you have to hold a key in order to cling or something. At this point it's really only a nuisance when you're trying to fly past something that doesn't look like it has collision, or you are in a situation where you don't want to hit the descend key, accidentally cling and release abruptly, and waste endurance for basically nothing.