Thoughts on Skimmer Diving

I finished maxing the mastery 10 mins ago, and Ive been toying with it. It feels -awesome- to use underwater! The boost it uses above water that is stamina limited, is unlimited underwater, and looks awesome if you have a skimmer skin with a large trail such as the Dajkah Lantern, Umbral Demon, Volcanic Ray (yes, its on fire underwater) or Stardrift.

I like it, but I am not utterly impressed by it. The animations are exactly the same as above water, which is fine, but I am diving just as fast with my +20 Swim Infusion as I do with the Skimmer now, so hmm.

I think I'll stick to swimming, it is more fun and you are always ready to fight or harvest while you're exploring.

its a nice QOL feature .. but Hummingbird underwater.. feels really off.. (give it a helmet when it dives)

@Ashantara.8731 said:I like it, but I am not utterly impressed by it. The animations are exactly the same as above water, which is fine, but I am diving just as fast with my +20 Swim Infusion as I do with the Skimmer now, so hmm.

I think I'll stick to swimming, it is more fun and you are always ready to fight or harvest while you're exploring.

Did you hold down the boost? It is a lot faster with it underwater. Unlimited boost time.

@LucianDK.8615 said:Did you hold down the boost? It is a lot faster with it underwater. Unlimited boost time.

Oh? Thanks, I will have to try that! :)

That changes everything, of course! =)

@LucianDK.8615 said:Did you hold down the boost?

I can't find a Boost option. :/ Space just lifts me up towards the surface. What am I missing?

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@LucianDK.8615 said:Did you hold down the boost?

Move forward and hold space. Sure it goes upwards a bit, but its still fast ahead and you can course correct for a moment by ceasing to boost and going down.

I can't even dive during the race in Lion's Arch at the moment. The indicated key does nothing.Edit: Remapping and holding the key down from the start of the race actually gets it working..but then you're much to slow to finish within the time limit.

It feels very nice and I think I'll go underwater a bit more often next time. The new update made traversal in the water more bearable.Also you can mount up on your skimmer while underwater which means you aren't reliant on the dive ability in that case.The only con is the "collection" achievement and the fact that a few things are horribly bugged.

@LucianDK.8615 said:Move forward and hold space.

Are you certain that's a speed boost? It feels like the same function as above water, and that isn't a speed boost but a way to hop over obstacles, no? I don't feel a difference in speed when using it.

@Harak.8397 said:I can't even dive during the race in Lion's Arch at the moment. The indicated key does nothing.Edit: Remapping and holding the key down from the start of the race actually gets it working..but then you're much to slow to finish within the time limit.

Gave up with the race, many are stuck there now because of the bugs (already suffered through the other bug in the collection). Tried a few of the suggested workarounds with no success. Putting the game to bed for the night and hope I can race tomorrow.

Yeah, that's what I did too.

What are the best ways to farm those 2 million exp required?

@Zaraki.5784 said:What are the best ways to farm those 2 million exp required?

Bounty trains

@LucianDK.8615 said:

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@LucianDK.8615 said:Did you hold down the boost?

Here's the trick, very helpful for all mounts (especially beetle). Go into Options > General and scroll to the bottom. You want to check the box to Disable Conditional Mount Movement Ability Input. What that does is take your mount's special move off the space bar. Then go to Keybinds, scroll down midway to Mounts. Set Mount Ability 1 to the same key as your Dodge key -- they will not conflict, you can't dodge on a mount or use a mount skill while unmounted. Now when you want a long raptor leap or bunny charge up, or as per this thread, a skimmer hover, holding down your dodge key does it for you.

The reason this is good is then you can jump with the space bar without firing off an endurance skill. Sucks in beetle races to just want to hop over an obstacle and burn your rocket boost at the wrong time, right? With this keybind setup you can hop up small ledges on your raptor while saving the big leaps for gaps or distance.

You should probably then set your Mount Ability 2 (which will be your skimmer dive) to a key next to your dodge key, and probably both should be near the space bar, as you sometimes need all those actions very close together, eg in griffon races. I dodge on B, special 2 on V, and jump on space. But everyone has their own comfortable keys to use, so that's just a suggestion.

@Donari.5237 said:

Here's the trick, very helpful for all mounts (especially beetle). Go into Options > General and scroll to the bottom. You want to check the box to Disable Conditional Mount Movement Ability Input. What that does is take your mount's special move off the space bar. Then go to Keybinds, scroll down midway to Mounts. Set Mount Ability 1 to the same key as your Dodge key -- they will not conflict, you can't dodge on a mount or use a mount skill while unmounted. Now when you want a long raptor leap or bunny charge up, or as per this thread, a skimmer hover, holding down your dodge key does it for you.

The reason this is good is then you can jump with the space bar without firing off an endurance skill. Sucks in beetle races to just want to hop over an obstacle and burn your rocket boost at the wrong time, right? With this keybind setup you can hop up small ledges on your raptor while saving the big leaps for gaps or distance.

You should probably then set your Mount Ability 2 (which will be your skimmer dive) to a key next to your dodge key, and probably both should be near the space bar, as you sometimes need all those actions very close together, eg in griffon races. I dodge on B, special 2 on V, and jump on space. But everyone has their own comfortable keys to use, so that's just a suggestion.

This is the most useful bit of information I've read about mounts since they came out. How have I never learned this before? LOL. Well, in any case -- thank you for sharing this tidbit. I have just followed your suggestion to remap my keys and look forward to driving that rollerball a little better now without accidentally boosting it by spacebar. Many thanks!

@Donari.5237 said:Here's the trick, very helpful for all mounts (especially beetle). Go into Options > General and scroll to the bottom. You want to check the box to Disable Conditional Mount Movement Ability Input. What that does is take your mount's special move off the space bar. Then go to Keybinds, scroll down midway to Mounts. Set Mount Ability 1 to the same key as your Dodge key -- they will not conflict, you can't dodge on a mount or use a mount skill while unmounted. Now when you want a long raptor leap or bunny charge up, or as per this thread, a skimmer hover, holding down your dodge key does it for you.

The reason this is good is then you can jump with the space bar without firing off an endurance skill. Sucks in beetle races to just want to hop over an obstacle and burn your rocket boost at the wrong time, right? With this keybind setup you can hop up small ledges on your raptor while saving the big leaps for gaps or distance.

You should probably then set your Mount Ability 2 (which will be your skimmer dive) to a key next to your dodge key, and probably both should be near the space bar, as you sometimes need all those actions very close together, eg in griffon races. I dodge on B, special 2 on V, and jump on space. But everyone has their own comfortable keys to use, so that's just a suggestion.

I just use Q for Mount Ability 1 and E for Mount Ability 2. That way it's close to the movement keys! But this is a great setup too!

Well done ANet, you lie to WvW players for years about Alliances, and now you release yet another thing tied to kitten fetch quests and races that no one likes that you can't even do right because it's bugged.

And you want my money for more of this kitten?

@Kylden Ar.3724 said:Well done ANet, you lie to WvW players for years about Alliances, and now you release yet another thing tied to kitten fetch quests and races that no one likes that you can't even do right because it's bugged.

And you want my money for more of this kitten?

Probably saving alliances for EOD. You can still complete the race if your quick enough. Was able to finish it this afternoon.

@Zaraki.5784 said:What are the best ways to farm those 2 million exp required?

I did it by doing events in Dragonfall. Not even the meta event needed to be completed and I had it. With a few boosters this goes very quick.

i really like it, 9/10. Would give it 10/10 if it was a bit faster.

@starhunter.6015 said:

@Zaraki.5784 said:What are the best ways to farm those 2 million exp required?

Need 31?? casino coins

Anyone notice that PCs aren't wearing underwater masks, basically drowning on the back of their humming birds skimmers.Okay, my bad~~

@Donari.5237 said:Here's the trick, very helpful for all mounts (especially beetle). Go into Options > General and scroll to the bottom. You want to check the box to Disable Conditional Mount Movement Ability Input. [...]

I have had it set that way for years now, Space will still not speed up my Skimmer as @LucianDK.8615 claims it does - it is not as speed boost, the Skimmer has none, neither above nor under water.

The underwater mount looks ok to me, I do question why we would need it as the majority of players seem to not want any underwater content to begin with, to the point of Anet removing some underwater content in the past.