[merged] About the Skyscale Timegate...

[ZeroTheCat.2684]

The problem isn't the timegate. The problem is running around pressing F on 20 + items.. Times 3!

[AmadeoKristoff.5493]

> @"Kilamanjaro.2705" said:

> I finished Tuesday night, 1 week from release, and can say that I still feel it was too much for too little. Usually after an exceptionally long quest the feeling of accomplishment takes away the bitterness of too much of a sink achievement, but after having the masteries maxed and playing a few days my conclusion is that the mount is nice, but not worth a week of the worst collection and gold sink I've seen short of legendaries.

> Hope Anet chalks this up as a bad move and refrains from it in the future (Am I missing the ability to descend rapidly without dismounting or did Anet really miss that crucial function?)

 

that too it is ONLY a week IF and ONLY IF you have 22 charged quartz crystals ready, or the gold for the items. lol. other wise its a month.

[JustTrogdor.7892]

Given the complexity of the collection, it would have been nice if the default mount had two dye channels. It would have been a nice little perk. But I understand gems store skins are probably coming soon so... :sunglasses:

[voltaicbore.8012]

> @"AmadeoKristoff.5493" said:

 

> ANet really screwed this one up. I hope they actually make it useful. If after they tweak it, they force to use it, i don't mind. But if they keep it as is but force us to use it, I am done. I am already very close to quitting, and as I said, I have been telling my friends to not come back, and preventing other friends who never touched GW2 from either not getting PoF or not playing it at all. I been recommending FFXIV and the likes instead.

 

I'm a bit comforted that I'm not the only one feeling this way. I used to sell this game so hard to friends, had a number join in after PoF launched and mounts were a thing. I'm very concerned that this awfully designed Skyscale collection is the direction the game will continue to move, and I can't suggest this to anyone anymore - it's all I can do to avoid quitting myself.

 

I really, really, really hope that even if they never admit it to us, someone who matters at Anet realizes that the skyscale shouldn't have been done this way.

 

 

[AmadeoKristoff.5493]

> @"JustTrogdor.7892" said:

> Given the complexity of the collection, it would have been nice if the default mount had two dye channels. It would have been a nice little perk. But I understand gems store skins are probably coming soon so... :sunglasses:

 

will not be buying them seeing as how they fucked it up. why support something that was fucked up? this is coming from someone who buys a lot from Gem store. supporting ANet by buying this only allows them to get away with it.

[AmadeoKristoff.5493]

> @"voltaicbore.8012" said:

> > @"AmadeoKristoff.5493" said:

>

> > ANet really screwed this one up. I hope they actually make it useful. If after they tweak it, they force to use it, i don't mind. But if they keep it as is but force us to use it, I am done. I am already very close to quitting, and as I said, I have been telling my friends to not come back, and preventing other friends who never touched GW2 from either not getting PoF or not playing it at all. I been recommending FFXIV and the likes instead.

>

> I'm a bit comforted that I'm not the only one feeling this way. I used to sell this game so hard to friends, had a number join in after PoF launched and mounts were a thing. I'm very concerned that this awfully designed Skyscale collection is the direction the game will continue to move, and I can't suggest this to anyone anymore - it's all I can do to avoid quitting myself.

>

> I really, really, really hope that even if they never admit it to us, someone who matters at Anet realizes that the skyscale shouldn't have been done this way.

>

>

 

A lot of my friends quit because of the direction ANet took. A lot of my friends were asking me if the game is any good and i told them the truth, and they decided to play other games. Some of them left and followed me onto FFXIV. I may soon be one of those leaving. The skyscale is underwhelming. The lack of communication from ANet is saddening, especially for someone who has played and supported ANet since their first game. The collection is just ridiculous. All of this makes me wanna scream in their face "what were you thinking?!"

 

And I know and bet that despite all this outcry, ANet is not going to do anything about it.

[yann.1946]

> @"AmadeoKristoff.5493" said:

> > @"XYLO.7031" said:

> > After acquiring it at 10:30 PM EST Wednesday evening, I passed out. When I came to, I decided to max out the mastery at Dragonfall. That meta was awesome! The optional bosses are also great and made it a huge loot farm. If I did the meta on an alt, I would not have enough space for all the loot.

> >

> > The meta and bosses afterwards are best done with Griffon and Springer for sure. How could the Skyscale even keep up? I honestly thought this would be THE map for it.

> >

> > My only hope now is that they don't force its usage.

> >

> > I really fooled around with the thing but so far I think it would be best for: recording beetle races from a set point and slow exploration of maps. It has that great fire blast thing upon dismount, but I don't see the practicality in it if you're moving slow enough for ranged enemies to abuse you from the ground. By the time you reach your attack point for your skyscale to fly by, you may have already been dismounted by mobs who aggro from Lake Doric no matter where you are: Cantha, Elona, the unending sea, etc.

> >

> > Going back to the entire collection and process to get the mount again, I will reiterate that it isn't really worth it (meaning the mount should be much more than what it is to justify the process). I had to make it fun for myself. For me, I used my beetle to make it enjoyable. Unlike people who had stockpiled all the materials and map currencies, I didn't have much. I only have one absolute advantage: many many many alts (and tenacity). I use this game to test design looks I want to implement for other things so it just turned out that way. All but 2 of my characters are max level. So I spammed hearts.

> >

> > In the Domain of Kourna, I spammed the supply transport heart from Faren's position to the camp. With Roller Beetle, you can make the round trip in less than a minute, 40 secs or less if you take an ideal line.

> >

> > In Jahai Bluffs, I spammed the southern heart where you chuck a shard at the dummies. My characters all weren't positioned there so I used the Sun's Refuge portal and stepped out into Jahai. From there? Roller beetle to the heart avoiding brand storms and branded all over the place. Fun racing.

> >

> > In Thunderhead, I spammed two hearts. One to rally troops where I used roller beetle through that narrow corridor from the forge. Then the most fun heart I did was the fishing (reminded me of SAB w2z2, lol). The fishing itself wasn't the treat though, it was getting there from the top of the mountain. Of course the Roller beetle is the fastest way down since I found several routes which were intended by the designers that were full of magic to collect between ramps and jumps as well as an achievement where after the downhill run you hit a specific ramp to splash into the ice fishing hole. That was a nice surprise. I started picking out landing points after that for my beetle lol.

> >

> > One of the worst things that happened as a result of the collection are the no effort, almost entirely afk commanded Dragonfall maps who are only doing it for the minimum requirements for the skyscale. Please just run the full meta, people will be in and out regardless.

> >

> > To those who are wondering about mounts, it would serve you best to go after the griffon over the skyscale since it is useful in many more situations than the skyscale, even on the Skyscale's home map for the awesome meta they have there. For me, it really is a vanity mount and people are already using it afk in town.

> >

> > #donewiththis

>

> The mount was over-hyped, but from what I feel, it is nothing more than aesthetics. The idea of "who doesn't want to ride a dragon?" idea. Nothing more. ANet really screwed this one up. I hope they actually make it useful. If after they tweak it, they force to use it, i don't mind. But if they keep it as is but force us to use it, I am done. I am already very close to quitting, and as I said, I have been telling my friends to not come back, and preventing other friends who never touched GW2 from either not getting PoF or not playing it at all. I been recommending FFXIV and the likes instead.

 

Why are you stopping people who have never played gw2 from playing? That seems a little weird to me.

[LucianDK.8615]

Id wait and see what they say about the skyscale in the devstream tomorrow before throwing a tantrum. They were clearly too conservative with its mechanics because they were afraid it might displace the griffon. But im sure they have room for improvements given the feedback over the week.

[AmadeoKristoff.5493]

> @"yann.1946" said:

> > @"AmadeoKristoff.5493" said:

> > > @"XYLO.7031" said:

> > > After acquiring it at 10:30 PM EST Wednesday evening, I passed out. When I came to, I decided to max out the mastery at Dragonfall. That meta was awesome! The optional bosses are also great and made it a huge loot farm. If I did the meta on an alt, I would not have enough space for all the loot.

> > >

> > > The meta and bosses afterwards are best done with Griffon and Springer for sure. How could the Skyscale even keep up? I honestly thought this would be THE map for it.

> > >

> > > My only hope now is that they don't force its usage.

> > >

> > > I really fooled around with the thing but so far I think it would be best for: recording beetle races from a set point and slow exploration of maps. It has that great fire blast thing upon dismount, but I don't see the practicality in it if you're moving slow enough for ranged enemies to abuse you from the ground. By the time you reach your attack point for your skyscale to fly by, you may have already been dismounted by mobs who aggro from Lake Doric no matter where you are: Cantha, Elona, the unending sea, etc.

> > >

> > > Going back to the entire collection and process to get the mount again, I will reiterate that it isn't really worth it (meaning the mount should be much more than what it is to justify the process). I had to make it fun for myself. For me, I used my beetle to make it enjoyable. Unlike people who had stockpiled all the materials and map currencies, I didn't have much. I only have one absolute advantage: many many many alts (and tenacity). I use this game to test design looks I want to implement for other things so it just turned out that way. All but 2 of my characters are max level. So I spammed hearts.

> > >

> > > In the Domain of Kourna, I spammed the supply transport heart from Faren's position to the camp. With Roller Beetle, you can make the round trip in less than a minute, 40 secs or less if you take an ideal line.

> > >

> > > In Jahai Bluffs, I spammed the southern heart where you chuck a shard at the dummies. My characters all weren't positioned there so I used the Sun's Refuge portal and stepped out into Jahai. From there? Roller beetle to the heart avoiding brand storms and branded all over the place. Fun racing.

> > >

> > > In Thunderhead, I spammed two hearts. One to rally troops where I used roller beetle through that narrow corridor from the forge. Then the most fun heart I did was the fishing (reminded me of SAB w2z2, lol). The fishing itself wasn't the treat though, it was getting there from the top of the mountain. Of course the Roller beetle is the fastest way down since I found several routes which were intended by the designers that were full of magic to collect between ramps and jumps as well as an achievement where after the downhill run you hit a specific ramp to splash into the ice fishing hole. That was a nice surprise. I started picking out landing points after that for my beetle lol.

> > >

> > > One of the worst things that happened as a result of the collection are the no effort, almost entirely afk commanded Dragonfall maps who are only doing it for the minimum requirements for the skyscale. Please just run the full meta, people will be in and out regardless.

> > >

> > > To those who are wondering about mounts, it would serve you best to go after the griffon over the skyscale since it is useful in many more situations than the skyscale, even on the Skyscale's home map for the awesome meta they have there. For me, it really is a vanity mount and people are already using it afk in town.

> > >

> > > #donewiththis

> >

> > The mount was over-hyped, but from what I feel, it is nothing more than aesthetics. The idea of "who doesn't want to ride a dragon?" idea. Nothing more. ANet really screwed this one up. I hope they actually make it useful. If after they tweak it, they force to use it, i don't mind. But if they keep it as is but force us to use it, I am done. I am already very close to quitting, and as I said, I have been telling my friends to not come back, and preventing other friends who never touched GW2 from either not getting PoF or not playing it at all. I been recommending FFXIV and the likes instead.

>

> Why are you stopping people who have never played gw2 from playing? That seems a little weird to me.

 

If a friend of mine asks which MMO is good right now, I direct them to FFXIV rather than GW2. I already explained in my previous post why I am doing this lol. Most of my friends played GW1. I also advise them if they really want to try GW2, try the free version first instead of investing in an expansion and regretting it. I am not telling them "No dont touch the game." at all. I cant stop someone if they really want to. But I can tell someone what has become of the game, they judge and decide for themselves lol. To put it as "stopping" is a bit far-fetched, buddy.

[Stryker.8572]

This is the first time I have posted something and I hope it is received proper. I love the Skyscale it is a lot of fun and I have worked my but off every day to get it. But now I see that you in all your wisdom are reducing some of the time gated items and to make it easier and that's all fine and good for those that cant get on as much as the rest of us. But it is a insult to all of us that busted our ass to get it so far. I have spent a lot of money in and on this game as well as GW1 and fell like I just got passed over for a promotion after all my hard work to get the job done and I AM PISSED. ANET needs to reward us that have done the work and waited our time to get the Skyscale other than just screwing us over. My Question is will they?

[tekhiun.8653]

> @"Stryker.8572" said:

> This is the first time I have posted something and I hope it is received proper. I love the Skyscale it is a lot of fun and I have worked my but off every day to get it. But now I see that you in all your wisdom are reducing some of the time gated items and to make it easier and that's all fine and good for those that cant get on as much as the rest of us. But it is a insult to all of us that busted our kitten to get it so far. I have spent a lot of money in and on this game as well as GW1 and fell like I just got passed over for a promotion after all my hard work to get the job done and I AM PISSED. ANET needs to reward us that have done the work and waited our time to get the Skyscale other than just screwing us over. My Question is will they?

 

Well the moment I saw they were blocking me from a whole day of progression due to 10 minutes, i decided to stop playing. If you enjoy your mount I think you already got your reward no ? Waiting for a time irl to reset is hardly work tbh, actually that is the reason many of us didn't enjoy this system to begin with, it blocked us from content we wanted to play for no reason at all.

[Crab Fear.1624]

It's a dragon. It's not meant to replace anything in terms of mechanics.

 

What is so legendary about it?

 

Your character sits on a dragon.

 

Yep, you finally got a dragon mount.

 

No you wont get to fly around like you do it wow.

[sCORps.6835]

The collection IMHO is far too long; far too much bS'ing around for a slow, mainly useless mount, wow it can hover BIG DEAL, seriously STOP TALKING YOUR GARBAGE IT TAKES 5 DAYS, that's a crock and you know it, I'm on my 5th day and just got troublesome skyscale collection to do, so then I have to wait another day for another BS COLLECTION GARBAGE then another day after that for it to what GIVE ME MORE GARBAGE TO DO FOR A WEAK MOUNT (that they haven't even released skins with POOR FORM) takes longer specially if you haven't refined your crystals that's 20 days alone 10 for the special feed achievement & 10 for the lamp; if your not swimming in gold to spend nearly 75G+ just to get them 2 parts done. So yeah 5 days to obtain BS it doesn't! The time gate waiting for it to reset alone each time you complete a full collection will MAKE YOU SEE A RESET OVER 5 times if not 6, taking the total of nearly 3 weeks without buying the food and the lamp and having to do that part manually.

[DarkForcE.9210]

Who force u guys to get it if timegate threatens your life... (I'm not 24/7 gamers like u guys, I got full-time job to do)

 

Looks like you all want to go back same lifecycle (carebears still exist)...

 

*new maps release > get stuff, unlock mandatory > leave map, let it died...who cares*

 

Until now, I have no idea what's so special on this mount from the crapload of timegate complains beside able to cling walls (cool?), up and down like elevators (awesome?), or to show off to other people that... *YEAH!!! I RIDE THE DRAGONS!!* or *I'm the first group to get it woohoo!!*

[AmadeoKristoff.5493]

The #1 skill of the skyscale and the idea of flying on a skyscale and the idea of it clinging to walls and stuff... ANet tried real hard to fan service Game of Thrones lol. But the collection and time gating all back fired. xD

[Ashantara.8731]

I wonder, what did we get the saddle for when we are not actually sitting in it on this mount?

[Ayrilana.1396]

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> I wonder, what did we get the saddle for when we are not actually sitting in it on this mount?

 

My character is sitting on the saddle. Maybe it's different depending on the race?

[Ototo.3214]

> @"Stryker.8572" said:

> This is the first time I have posted something and I hope it is received proper. I love the Skyscale it is a lot of fun and I have worked my but off every day to get it. But now I see that you in all your wisdom are reducing some of the time gated items and to make it easier and that's all fine and good for those that cant get on as much as the rest of us. But it is a insult to all of us that busted our kitten to get it so far. I have spent a lot of money in and on this game as well as GW1 and fell like I just got passed over for a promotion after all my hard work to get the job done and I AM PISSED. ANET needs to reward us that have done the work and waited our time to get the Skyscale other than just screwing us over. My Question is will they?

 

That's probably why they're waiting a week to even change the time gate, it's still not being changed until next Tuesday. Technically, everyone else that's waiting for the change had to wait on a time gate longer than you did to get it. You get to have it before many. I have my mount and I'm happy that my friends, guildies, or anyone else that had difficulty working toward it with the time gate won't have to go through it.

[Teefy.5016]

so i just found out about the grow lamp. AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH !!!!!! more quartz !!!

 

guess who started this adventure with 1 quartz in their bank.

 

i sincerely hope we never have to deal with this again.

[CJtheBigBear.9610]

Alright, it's 3 AM EST now, and after a week and a half, I've just finished both unlocking, and fully training my Skyscale. Now that I've experienced every single part of the journey from start to finish, I figure I can give a final weigh in on the situation. Spoiler; this post is gonna be _long,_ since it's gonna be the culmination of my experiences from the last 11 days.

 

----

So, starting off; **the good.** Collections 2 and 4, as well as the non-feeding parts of 3, I thought were genuinely fun and interesting. It was nice to return to the older S4/PoF and even Core Tyria maps, if only for a moment. Those bits, as well as with the second half of Collection 5, actually made me feel happy that I took the time all that while ago to do 100% map completion, because it made facilitating these trips all the more easier. It also made me do some content that I had neglected in the past, most notably the Augury Rock meta in the Riverlands, and I ended up enjoying that as well, despite never doing it.

 

For all its issues, the Collections did what I'd imagine one of their primary focuses was to do; bring players back to older maps. People were all over, doing metas, helping others with ports to difficult collection spots, and the like. It's the first time in a while that I've felt a connection to the community like that, knowing that we were all working towards a common goal. _However,_ this is also with the caveat that a good majority of map chat most of the time was also filled with people talking about the negative sides of the Collections, which leads me to; **the bad.**

 

----

For as many highs as the aforementioned parts of the gave me, the other parts, gave me equally harsh lows. There's a few things I'd want to mention, and even though I'm typing _more_ about these, doesn't mean I want to discredit the fun that the stuff before gave me. I just want to devote more words to the stuff that needs talking about, y'know?

 

So, keeping things organized;

 

----

**Firstly, Collection 1.** Just gonna say, I didn't _hate_ it, but I don't necessarily wanna do it _again,_ y'know? The scales were fine, and I didn't really mind doing the events for the medicine. The main issue started right after, where Gorrik has you go give the Sick Skyscales medicine. Already, that step was a bit difficult for me, because unlike the Scales and Eggs, the Sick Skyscales didn't have a nameplate when I tried to look for one, so I had to spot them manually [since there was no guide at the time I was doing this part], which made things take quite a bit longer. The part that really got me riled though, was when I spent all that time doing that, only to go back to Gorrik to have him tell me, "Whoops! I was wrong and you just did that for nothing! :D Now go back to the same places you got the scales and get me some eggs!" It was at that moment that the collection turned from a scavenger hunt, to a slog. And that didn't feel good.

 

I understand it would be difficult to rework it since there's voice-lines from Gorrik's VA tied into the whole thing, but I'd personally think it best to let players pick up the Eggs at the same time as the Scales and Medicine, so that once you administer the medicine and find out the "truth", you can immediately move to incubating the Eggs. Again, not expecting it, but would be nice.

 

----

**Secondly, Collection 3.** Now, for reference, any statements made about this part are with the assumption that you didn't have any your bank upon starting this collection, as myself and many others did, but boy... those Charged Quartz Crystals, huh? I get the general idea of _why_ but, to have _two_ of the items in the Collection require a once-a-day gated material just seems... way too much. Maybe the 10 for the Grow Lamp, I could understand, but when you already have a time-gate on how many times you can feed your Skyscale per day, I don't really see why the food itself requires a time-gated material in its recipe. So it's no wonder that everyone decided to buy them off the trading post instead.

 

Now, people can argue and say that we don't _have_ to buy the items, and they're right, we _don't._ But given the choice between 0 gold and 22 days of wait time, or 100g and 4 days of wait time, it seems like there's a clear winner if you have the gold at your disposal. I know that prices for the Food and Lamp have significantly dropped due to the increase in people crafting and selling away their stock of CQCs, but whether you pay 200g or 100g for the items, it seems a bit ironic that any gold would need to be spent at all. Seeing as how its been mentioned that one of the time-gate's goals was to replace the Griffon's gold sink, its odd to include such a long time-gate that you _know_ people are gonna wanna skip with the gold anyhow.

 

I know you've already stated that you'll be dropping the day requirements for feeding it from 4 to 3, but that doesn't really address the issue of the people without enough gold to skip the 22 days worth of crafting.

 

----

**Thirdly, Collection 5.** Hoo boy, how to put this...? If we again assume that you're going into this with little to none of them, 250 of each LWS4 map currency is the kind of idea that sounds good on paper, but in practice, is a bit flimsy. See, myself and others have a habit of using spare map currency before a Living World episode to gain some bonus volatile magic, to purchase the new goodies the new map brings. Imagine our surprise when it turned out that we needed it this time, badly.

 

While I don't mind revisiting the maps, as most of them are quite beautiful [my favorites being Sandswept Isles and Thunderhead Peaks], there's still such a thing as map fatigue. When you spend enough time on a single map, you tend to... get a bit bored of the scenery after a while. And when you have to bring all your alts onto a map to 100% it 9 or so times in a single night, that fatigue shows up pretty quickly.

 

Like I said before, this _did_ bring people back to the older LWS4 maps, and it was nice to see them full of activity again. But I think in the process of coercing players back, it kinda ended up backfiring, and making people not want to revisit the maps _after_ they'd finished collecting their currency. I can't even say how many times I saw people in map-chat saying stuff like "Goodbye forever, [mapname]." or "Never coming back to [mapname] again.", which is a shame, because I think those maps' metas are still fun to do from time to time. This could've been a chance to remind people what was waiting for them in those maps, but instead, pushed them away.

 

I don't mind the currency being part of the collection items, I do think it should be lowered a tad bit, maybe somewhere in the 150/175/200 range, rather than 250, since that would still encourage play, but also let players get what they need before they get hit by that map fatigue.

 

----

And lastly, the biggest error in my opinion, as it ties into my previous points: __**communication.**__ If there were proper communication and clarity about exactly what we'd need to to before the the Skyscale launch, we could have prepared ourselves accordingly, dodging some of the issues I mentioned above.

 

Had we known that we'd need 22 Charged Quartz for Collection 3, we could've spent the time between the release of that info, and the release of the Skyscale, farming and charging the crystals instead of just waiting. It also would've given the in-game market time to compensate for demand _before_ launch, so the prices wouldn't have spiked and dropped as drastically as they did. And the same goes for the currency. We could've been farming that in the mean-time too, or at the very least, known not to do anything with the currency we'd already had saved up.

 

I've been stating this since the beginning; we know that this amount of effort and time isn't new to Guild Wars 2, I've personally done stuff like this plenty of times already. But the _main difference_ between those times and now, is that I _knew_ what I would need to do _before_ I did it. If I didn't know what I had to do, _how could I have known I wanted to do it?_

 

Personally, ANet, while I do still think you're a huge cut above the sleazy, unfriendly devs of games I've played before, I'm honestly disappointed with how this launch was handled. I know you can do better, because I've _seen_ you do better across the rest of the game. I fell in love with your game for a reason, and I still am in love with it. That's why it hurts so much to see something like this. I'd not be here if I didn't care for this game, or you all, as its dedicated devs. I truly do hope this is a moment of learning, and in the future, we have much better communication when it comes to big, upcoming content updates.

 

----

So, closing out, I just realized it's almost 5 AM now, and I've just spent the 2 hours typing all this out, so I should probably cut this off, since it's already miles long as it is. To all the ANet devs or fellow players, thank you for taking the time to read my rambling, and I hope I did a good job explaining my issues with the whole situation. And to those who couldn't be bothered to read the whole thing; honestly? I don't blame you. It's looooooooooooooong. So to simplify things waaaaaay down, I'll leave it off with this summary:

 

_TL;DR: The Skyscale launch had many high points as well as low points, and while I don't think that the low points are enough to ruin the high points, I also don't think the high points are enough to justify the low points. The main issue in this all was lack of communication, as I believe that alone spurred into a lot of separate issues, dampening the experience of what could have been. I personally think that if we want to avoid another incident like this, clearer communication is required next time around._

 

----

G'night everyone. See you all in Tyria.

[Irreverent.3594]

...but in the end it was all **worth it**. I got it day later than people who didn't wait for reddit guides and boy do this mount delivers.

Now this is my main and only mount i use/will use. Bye bye rage inducing springer, bye bye constantly falling down like sack of potatoes griffon.

Skyscale is by far best and a must have mount for explorers/map completion. With griffon it was much faster than back in the days on foot, with Skyscale it's 2-3x faster than with griffon with its obligatory support springer and at same time with no rush.

I love how now i can check map while in the air without being kamikaze like while doing it on griffon...

I love how she can just hover anywhere and i can look around and enjoy scenery...

I love how she can land anywhere it's possible. Like i move her closer to some edge/branch which looks that it's not possible to land and but she auto lands...

I love how i can get up/over any vertical obstacles without mess which is first trying to jump with griffon than failing and switching to springer (and half the time failing again and even falling more down) and then back...

I love how her feet sounds, not like griffons weird hooves sound (like what's up with that, it doesn't have horse legs??)

I love her idles (FIREEEE! and fish :3)

Engage skill <3. Love newbies going woah in Queensdale when i come to rescue out of nowhere and dragon just sets whole pack of Tamini on fire!

Her sounds are badass, everyone knows master of skies is here when she jets by.

Btw love overtaking unsuspecting griffons on low level flight or from the ground start. She can even keep up/overtake raptors and jackals. Evasion skill <3

Etc etc...

 

In short comparing to griffon: Skyscale luxury private jet, Griffon barebones fighter jet.

 

Can't wait until achiev for **Ruler of the Skies** title is fixed.

 

Sorry griffon, Skyscale is now true ruler of the Tyria skies.

 

 

[Teefy.5016]

@"CJtheBigBear.9610"

 

big thumbs up for taking to the time to word what is wrong with this whole mess, much more elegant than i ever could.

 

[Gop.8713]

Finally finished mine today and it's great and all, but at the same time I'm sad the journey is over, was a fun trip . . .

[Inoki.6048]

Communication is just one part of the big problem we have with ANet since forever. Another one is openness, and being able to get directly involved.

 

The reason behind most other successful titles is that they draw (feedback, not just money) from the community greatly. They have PTS, they announce in advance, they allow their users be part of what's coming next and since the users get to test expansions in advance a fiasco like this can be averted.

 

But they can't be arsed, all they see is money. I don't know how much more will it take for people to see this.

[CJH.2879]

I just finished the collections/achievements for skyscale last night & feel I can finally put forwards my thoughts on it. I too apologize for the lengthy post but if you put the effort in to read it, I guarantee some of it will probably make you laugh or at the very least you'll find it constructive criticism & some.... some positive feedback too. Ok so..... starting off... collecting the scales wasn't too bad, finding the sick skyscales & the eggs was also ok (but by then I'd felt that was already more then enough of collecting things on this new map)... moving on..... Navigating the new map Dragon Fall was a challenge, but it definitely helped me to learn it by doing these collections along the way.

 

Then things started to nose dive, bringing the eggs to different parts of tyria was both (in my opinion) good and bad.... you essentially had to of completed previous areas/achievements such as access to the dwarven chambers (Desert Highlands map) which I believe it was x 3 of the eggs had to be brought there (Fire/Ice/Water). I truly feel sorry for anyone whom hasn't already completed this because I am sure they didn't take this into consideration when starting the skyscale collections/achievements. Access to these areas is restricted until you've completed the dwarven achievements for accessing them. (This unfortunately adds alot of extra time into an already lengthy collection/achievement). As for most of the other saving skyscale egg achievements.... not so bad & made alot of sense.

 

Moving on, from here things did get easier in some ways, but way worse in others..... not only did I find out that I needed charged quartz for a grow lamp (and if you didn't have any or very little in the bank.... ouch!), but many more for the food that needed to be fed to the baby skyscale for 4 days in a row. The time gate that was in place for this (not only the feeding but for charging quartz daily>> (24 hours ouch!) this was definitely a tad excessive. A total of around 5 days (for feeding) in total if you take into account that the previous achievement doesn't unlock this 1 until reset & a further 22 charged quartz (for both the grow lamp & x 12 feeds for your baby dragonscale). Thats 22 days in total to charge all the quartz you need.... this is crazy.... seriously!

 

Moving on, after finally feeding the skycale so it was all grown up & playing ball (which I will admit that was fun + the hide and seek was also fun) I then had to find the skyscale in all of the listed jump puzzles, most of these I will admit were pretty easy, with around 4-5 of them that were much more difficult (which I admittedly skipped with the pungent skyscale meat. And I will also admit there was a couple times that were quite funny, from falling out of the sky and going splat directly onto the skyscale in hirathi hinterlands after realizing (too late) that both my griffon and glider wouldnt work when approaching the skyscale just outside the JP (and then getting rezzed by someone whom actually went through the JP, whom found my predicament quite hilarious!) to trying to go through the timberline falls JP only to fall to the ground around 20 x or so..... only to see someone from anet along with a few others get a mesmer portal to the skyscale after i had just already completed it.... I was ready to scream/cry as up to that point I was clearly struggling.

 

After finally finishing that up I was finally onto the skyscale saddle.... I was thinking yay the end is finally in sight..... until my jaw dropped as I saw the 250 map currency requirement from each of the new living world maps.... a total of 1500..... I started to cry at this point.... "Why ANET..... WHYYYYY?", anyone seen "First Knight Movie", the bit where Sean Connery is shouting that out.... that was pretty much me at that point (yes I know its funny right? but at the time.... not so funny!). I had just spent most of my map currency on ascended trinkets before skyscale mount release date (not realizing i needed them for it) so for alot of them I started out with next to zero. And what began was the boring, long.... drawn out grinding for these map currencys.... this in no way shape or form was fun.... let me repeat that.... grinding map currencys is not fun ANET!!! Not even close to fun. Personally I would of gone a different route alotgether such as participating in the metas on these maps, but no.... what we got was 1 alternative character after another repeating boring heart after boring heart and buying x 5.... x5.... x5.... over and over and over again..... I was wanting to bang my head against the door/wall at this point.

 

3 days later...... after finally collecting the 250 of each map currency I was now in the state of mind of "Lord of the Rings", the bit where Froddo says at the end, "Its finally over.... its done!", only to see.......... wait for it....... ANOTHER COLLECTION..... "AGHHHH". I was breaking down in tears again..... my head down on the table, my fist almost pounding down on it in utter frusteration/despair..... I finally sat back up and proceeded to finish this damn collection off.... at this point (yes I was full of rage & was actively raging at this point), I was going to finish this off come hell or high water!!!, after chatting with other players along the way (whom felt my pain and also emphasized....... at long last.... it was done.... and then came the mastery achievements..... all that xp I got beforehand essentially meant nothing..... now I gotta go through and level up the mastery..... (LONG SIGH)..... what can I say at this point ANET..... I mean..... come on.... really? After alllll that your gonna make us grind that little bit more to finish everything off...... after all that.... was it worth it? Was it really worth it?? All I can say is..... SIGH.... what a nightmare it was....... I want to enjoy the fruits of my labor but...... right now..... its difficult to bring myself into that frame of mind. I just hope if any future mounts are released that ANET seriously re-thinks how its done. Overall the bad outweighed the good. I hope others had a more positive experience then I.... Happy gaming all.