ZDragon.3046 Posted May 23, 2019 Share Posted May 23, 2019 So as of yesterday I has Dragon. ~~(finally)~~ Dragon is nice, Dragon likes fish. Anyways I want to say from here that my opinions are not everyones opinions here and that within reason i was more or less right that the mount did not change very much from the rentable ones in the new map to the fully unlocked one with masteries. So with that out of the way lets get on to it. ## The collection ~~(oh boy)~~ **The good** To start off by saying the collection was not bad from a technical perspective I see what anet was going for and what the task were trying to do. At some points its bluntly clear how they are trying to make you feel as if making a connection to the skyscale. By far the best part was gathering magic for the eggs as it took me to some places in the game I had never been before and a few places I had not been in a very very long time. It was in this step that I thought to myself "What if anet allows people to hatch different types of skyscales" based on these eggs. I do realize that 12 base skins for the skyscale would be over kill but hey the collection work would have made it a proper fit imo. The idea of having a "Aggressive Blood born skyscale or a bold Courage themed skyscale B) **The bad** This is a no brainer obviously I was not a fan of the time gate. At least not a 24 hour time gate. To be clear I'm not opposed to gates they are there for a reason, usually make sense based on the item in question as a standard, and are tied to some other mechanic (in game days, boss events etc) however taking a gate to the extreme on a main base feature of your content update is not ideal to me. I have the mount now and I still would have rather had it 5 days ago or 6 days ago. This is being changed and I'm not even upset about it I'm glad that more people will have the option to work on their mount progress on a more fair and better time scale. How ever it should also be clear that I don't think the amount of work required should be reduced at this point in time. That should stay for a while if map population drops in the future then anet should consider reducing the amount of some things required at a much later date. As a player can control how much they work within a certain reason but cannot control a 24 hour reset. **Personal Thoughts** I would have liked to see this long collection used for something more unique though and not just the base unlock for the mount. For example. Collection 2 consist of gathering different types of magic into the eggs. The be all end all of this collection could have been 12 different skins that are slightly, some more than others, different looks for the base skyscale. The collection quest becomes repeatable 12 times for 12 different types of skins that gives players the ability to rase several different skyscales. over a period of time while also rewarding them for their hard work and dedication to raising several skyscales one at a time. # The Skyscale itself **Design** 4/5 its pretty good, Im curious if this was actually just going to be another 2k gem griffon skin at some point though and then some one thought "we could make this its own mount" Even at its base and single dye channel most colors look pretty good on the mount itself and its animations are very high quality on almost all regards. It does not seem to currently have its own clear cut purpose and mostly feels like an extra mount and maybe that was the intent. Perhaps its the last mount being added to the game. (hopefully season 5 moves away from mounts.) **Functionality** At the moment it looks like this mount will not replace any other mount including Griffon itself. Its functionality seems super limited for the amount of work required to unlock it at its base and I feel like the best thing about it is that it can hover endlessly for now its a show off mount. (being bluntly honest) Its best feature is an alliterative way to travel in style. Yes it can hover and even stop mid flight and remain in the air but thats about its best notable feature at the current time. Not a bad feature either but not a dominate one with practical use for anything other than rifts or being idle Its air speed is slower than griffons air speed without the griffon having dived (Tested it with a friend), The griffon will get farther than the skyscale without having dived as the skyscale stamina use and restoration ratio is sub par. Even when almost flying dead even it will still slowly drop lowering your altitude. Currently there is no horizontal flight path in which you can conserve or stop stamina loss while holding altitude. Turns out in long distance flying partway through a map or across the map the griffon even without having dived will maintain a higher altitude as opposed to the skyscale as well as being faster. The skyscale's ability to climb could be improved considerably with just a few tweaks and It will not be replacing springier at all in my book. Even for short climbs, which a large majority of them griffon can often get you there with a flap of its wings anything more springer all the way. Considering even skimmer into the equation it wont replace that for water travel either as skimmer is much faster over water. Bond of Vigor could have been done better for this mount. # Personal Suggestions Im sure everyone has their own personal suggestions for improvements on this mount right now so take mine with a grain of salt please. I do think based on the amount of work required for this mount even at a base level many improvements need to be made so that its even more enjoyable so that some of its combined function between flight and climbing stand out a bit more more so than its "appearance appeal." After all its all about having different ways to enjoy movement while keeping it fun and creative it does not need to be the best it just needs to be fun. While it currently is fun i think helping it just a bit more is proper for the work required to earn it. - **Flight speed** The mount simply needs to be faster in the air, I feel it should be faster than the griffon without it having dived at all by a good amount. But should not be as fast as dived or boosted dived griffon for obvious reasons. But even as a low to ground flying mount Griffon can still out perform it in many common situations. I'm not suggesting the thing be mad fast but most defiantly faster than a base gliding griffon. - **Improving Stamina Restoration and Sustain** Stamina restoration is not where it needs to be and while I do get the idea that a dragon may not be able to fly endlessly the conversions could certainly be better when it comes to stamina loss and stamina return. Another idea here is that possibly when a dodge is used to ascend in altitude it does not consume stamina for the for that brief time. **Bond of Vigor** should not only restore full stamina but also keep it full for its duration instead of giving you like 50% which is gone in about 2 seconds. Its just not designed well mechanically for the way the mount works in its current method of giving 50 stamina 50 endurance on activation and nothing more for the rest of its duration. - **Indication of Horizontal Sweet Spot** This may go slightly in hand with the previous subject so ill talk about this next. As I noted before there is no real indication of where the sweet spot is (there likely is not one built in to the code) While have been able to get far distances from high up by riding something close to what looks like a sweet spot in most situations its not a spot that griffon couldnt reach and or go farther. The stamina bar could change color and freeze when flying on the sweet spot no stamina loss or gain while flying on a sweet spot, possibly stamina slowly returns without losing altitude. Its currently very hard to find that sweet pot and when I'm close to that spot I'm still losing stamina and altitude. - **Climbing and Wall Jump Mastery** While the endurance to stamina conversion is not a bad problem, immediately losing almost 50% of your previously converted stamina upon releasing from the wall almost if not does defeat the purpose of converting endurance to stamina in the first place. The mount boost form the wall does not get you significantly higher than where you were. Either remove the stamina use on boosting form the wall or considerably improve the boosted jump from the wall cling. - **Landing** The game can be very picky about what is and is not a proper landing surface when it comes to the skyscale which in some cases is a good thing but its also a bad thing in some spots when you see something you think you can land on to normally gain stamina back only to keep clinging to it over and over. I also suggest that the engage skill descending speed be bumped up or increases more and more the longer you hold it as some times it can take me longer than i would like to land and get into the action. The engage skill itself is fine and if not one of the more proper things done what could arguably be called perfect for the mount itself. **Final thoughts** I would have loved to see masteries focus a bit more of some of the above things more so than something like a wall cling boost jump. Just having a base wall cling as a default feature and masteries that focused on things like Raw Stamina Return Free stamina return while clinging (even if its slower) Flight speed and/or Better altitude sustain Better stamina ratios for less use on ascending or return descending Sweet spot flight Over all the mount is solid and something I can enjoy having and and floating around on and has a good base foundation to improve on but is still slightly clunky at the moment. Maybe some mastery or base mechanics are being considered for reworks, additions or tweaks for this mount. I am very happy now that I have my own dragon but also very tired and will be taking a break from season 4 living world maps to play core areas, fractals and such also pvp. As I had altered my general play habits for the better part of the previous week to obtain this mount. (I really wanted it) I Will continue to ride the dragon and update this post if any other details or reveals come to mind. Thanks for reading Let me know your thoughts on the mount if you have it or even just road around on the rentals. **no story spoilers please** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LucianDK.8615 Posted May 23, 2019 Share Posted May 23, 2019 I think anet was very conservative with designing the mount, afraid it might push out the griffon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blockhead Magee.3092 Posted May 23, 2019 Share Posted May 23, 2019 Thoughtful piece. I still don't plan on jumping through the hoops for this mount. But, more power to those of you who had a good time doing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZDragon.3046 Posted May 23, 2019 Author Share Posted May 23, 2019 > @"LucianDK.8615" said: > I think anet was very conservative with designing the mount, afraid it might push out the griffon. I personally wouldn't mind if it was = to the griffon just not in the same ways if that makes any sense. Griffon excelling far better at crossing vast distance with incredible air speed Dragon faster at base gliding while being able to climb better than Griffon be it against a wall or just out in the open air. Both get you from A to B if you jump from the same spot ( which is kind of true now) one just does it faster while the other gives more control to your landing spot and can recover from bad landing spots or hitting a wall by mistake etc. But yes skyscale feels a tad bit to conserved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZDragon.3046 Posted May 23, 2019 Author Share Posted May 23, 2019 > @"Blockhead Magee.3092" said: > Thoughtful piece. > > I still don't plan on jumping through the hoops for this mount. But, more power to those of you who had a good time doing it. I normally would tell people to "GO DO IT!" in the case of roller and war claw i dont think they were so bad and are totally both worth doing warclaw even if you are not a wvw main. But in the case Skyscale I make the exception. I don't suggest doing this collection unless you really are prepared to invest in a good chunk of work from all the collections. Some parts of the collection are enjoyable but this is a subjective feeling to each person. I did not enjoy the jumping puzzle part, nor the first part. If I would have slowed my roll for the last part going to some of the old season 4 maps would have been ok but i was full speed mode and burt myself out a bit, particularly in Jahai Bluffs hahah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fundor.2098 Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 A good piece! I definitely agree with you on most things. However, I think it's ok to severely limit Skyscale's traveling speed (as it pretty much is at the moment), if it gains more freedom of flight (which it really doesn't have at the moment, excluding hovering. Hovering though, as you mentioned, isn't that useful an ability considering active gameplay). That way it would clearly have it's own function but it definitely wouldn't step on any other mount's toes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fengzhou.9853 Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 Pretty much everything in the OP are exactly how I feel about the skyscale and I really hope Anet takes into consideration adjusting some of how this mount functions. This seems to be some of the most common complaints/frustrations with the mount that I've seen so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZDragon.3046 Posted May 24, 2019 Author Share Posted May 24, 2019 > @"Fundor.2098" said: > A good piece! I definitely agree with you on most things. > However, I think it's ok to severely limit Skyscale's traveling speed (as it pretty much is at the moment), if it gains more freedom of flight (which it really doesn't have at the moment, excluding hovering. Hovering though, as you mentioned, isn't that useful an ability considering active gameplay). That way it would clearly have it's own function but it definitely wouldn't step on any other mount's toes. I feel what you mean. Although the balance here is also in question work required for an extra mount that you don't have to get should it or should it not be stepping on other mounts toes and realistically how bad would that be. Just because it can do something close to as good as one mount or another does not mean people will never use those mounts. Most importantly is this part of the reward for the extra work required to obtain this optional mount. If its never as good as griffons speed in after a dive im ok with that if its not as good as scaling walks as quick as springier im ok with that. But i do feel like its unique way of flying could be improved. even something as simple as improving bond of vigor with this mounts stamina give you unlimited stamina for a few seconds would make this mounts unique way of flying go a LONG way in my personal opinion. Thats probably one of the first changes they should make. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Etria.3642 Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 If it would just go UP faster that would be good and also maybe have a circle or color of some sort to indicate safe to land slot s opposed to going to cling spot. I'm already tired of cling cling cling cling cling out of energy forget this I'm springering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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