What is the hardest? (JP, griffon adventure or a beetle adventure?)

We have threads about the jumping puzzles. And threads about the different type of adventures (time trials) - there mostly with people asking for help if I remember correctly. (Some are complaining about them being too hard.)

So ... I wanted a thread about all those three - to compare.

Personally I did most stuff in release order and I'm doing the beetle races now. After the JPs where most where not too hard (some even without guide, some with guide done) I did the griffon adventures and noticed they really were a lot harder than JPs. (With the exception of maybe timed JPs like the clocktower. That one might be on the level of a medium griffon adventure.)

The advantage of the griffon adventures though is that they are short. (Easy to reset after a mistake and not losing too much time.) The one in Istan probably was one of the hardest for me. Desolation also took a lot of training. (Vabbi - I think on gw2efficiency it also seems a bit less people completed it - was easy on the other hand.)

Now the beetle ... different story: I think they are the hardest of that content. Drifting is a bit harder to manage then the griffons diving. Especially when you need to do it already a bit before the corner (needs a bit more learning to find the exact spots). The adventures tend to be a bit longer. (Except the one in Snowden Drifts. Which is hard but you can retry it a lot. I'd put it on the same level as the griffon stuff.)

Mount Maelstrom was annoying and now I am at Brisban Wildlands. Probably the hardest (unless stuff later after S4 is even harder ... I saw in Grothmar valley is one as well) ... since you need to use (and time them well) the tricks/stunts as well. (According to videos.) Trained a few hours yesterday. A few hours today ... now taking a break. This one probably is one that only a few players complete ... with tons of training for a few days. (And the ones that claim they only needed 1-2 hours must by a handful only.) Main annoying thing is that it takes long - for a high speed race. And you can lose the whole 2 invested minuts by 1 minor mistake in the end part. Therefor training takes a lot longer and feels more exhausting.

Interesting fact: I think on gw2efficiency the griffon adventures show less people having them completed. Must be because the griffon costs more gold. (Not everyone getting it and just going straight for skyscale.) Or because there probably is a more dedicated community for racing the beetle race. (Where top players compete with each other for fun.)

Have not gotten skyscale yet. I think there are adventures as well? (But probably not that hard then. From what I have heard the skyscale is supposed to move slower than griffon and therefore easier to handle.)

Beetle Races took me some practise to get Gold and the Golden Scarf on those, but once you have it under control, it's fun to do. I'd say medium hard.

Griffon, people really need to learn how the griffon works. Once you master that, and figure out that the Griffon is a true flying mount, those adventures are a lot easier. I'd say medium hard, but by FAR the most fun mount

Jump Puzzles I do enjoy them, but as for content I do consider those the hardest of the 3.

For Skyscale you have first off all the achievement that gives you "Ruler of the Skies" Look up Skyscale Rider (requires a fully trained skyscale) not hard, just time consumingThere is a Skyscale Adventure in Grothmar. South-east of the map you see that water part called "Kralkatorrik's Emergence Zone" Right on a cliff on the north end of that lake is the Skyscale Adventure.

Few notes:

• Although it helps, it is not required for any beetle race to do the air stunts to make gold. Quicker recharge just makes them easier in some cases.
• To get the gold time for the Golden Scarf, that can also be done during a race. The one in Snowden being tight to get the gold time might be the prime example of where a race can help (round 2 and 3 are a flying start lol)
• Speaking of a Flying start (Both Griffon and Beetle races are perfect for this) You can have a "rolling" start. You know when you roll up to the adventure, the window pops up right? You can then quickly hit enter and off you go. Some people are so good in timing that, that they actually come in full speed, precious time won on the start makes your life a lot easier.

You can get gold on all of them without doing perfect runs.I recorded all beetle tracks and all griffon tracks and specially in the beetle one, where I do Maelstrom, I got seriously stuck twice, and still got gold.Use Bond of Faith when you have it... helps a lot (I save it for when I run into problems mostly)

I really dig Beetle races but think they are the easiest of the group. When you realize that you only need to power slide the smallest amount in most races and it is all about the correct lines everything gets a bit faster. I also like the collected rewards for racing Beetles.

Griffon Adventures are fine, I find them harder than Beetle for the 3D aspect of it. However most of the courses are just easy, while others are way tighter than expected. I have only done these for the achievements and never gone back.

JP have the most variety of difficulty, which is why they are my preferred of this group. I like that some of the newer JP like Draconis Mons or Sirens Landing are quite creative and have checkpoints to help along the way. I will hop into a JP for giggles whenever the mood strikes.

The griffon ones are more intense, but they are generally very short and you can restart easily and keep at it. Beetle adventures are a lot longer and can be more tedious to repeat if going for gold.

I find drifting to be nigh on impossible (for me) to achieve in a race whereas I'm a bit more comfortable with griffon dives and super speeds. I do find a greater sense of accomplishment getting a gold on a griffon race though.

Ultimately, I'd say the hardest beetle race is roughly on par with the hardest griffon adventure.

I think which is hardest will depend on the player, and what kinds of things they are good at. I think races and JP are different skills. One is platforming, the other two are racing. The difficulty is going to be measured differently by people with different skill levels at the activity. Being good at jumping doesn’t make you good at drifting and vice versa.

Personally, I suck at all of them. 3-D platforming/racing is just not my strong suit. That doesn’t make the content too hard, it just makes it something I’m not going to do. I can only fall so many times in a jumping puzzle before I get the urge to toss my computer at a wall. Other people are good at it, enjoy it, and play them a lot. It’s way to difficult for me, because my skill level runs in the negative numbers. I don’t want them changed to suit my level of ability, though, as that would ruin them for all the people who like doing them.

All have a variety of difficulty. For me, the Griffon are the easiest but because I like them the most, are fast and easy to repeat. JPs, the hardest for me are not those with hard jumps, but those that are hard to figure out where to go. Ember bay for example. It's frustrating when you just don't know where to go and you miss the way and have to redo it all again just to try to guess the way again. Not that I want to change that, it's part of the challenge.You can also put adventures with these. A fungus among us is challenging for example.

On average, I'd vote for the beetle races as toughest because there's the steepest learning curve for them (I still struggle to control them). And that applies to all the races.But in terms of peaks, not really. Not So Secret is far more difficult (and, for most people, frustrating) than any of the rest... and then you have Chalice of Tears and whatever the Draconis Mons puzzle was called, that are just obtuse and go on forever. No beetle race holds a candle to those. :)Toughest griffon course would have to be the master course in Labyrinthine Cliffs, when it's open. I recommend making sure you have a steady, high framerate for that one - adjust graphics settings if needed - makes it far easier to thread the needle at the end there. It's probably more technically challenging than the beetle races, but it's also shorter so it may take less time overall to get gold... but your mileage may vary.I do wish they'd bring those back. Wasn't such a big fan of beetle racing but it's also been a while since they added one of those...

Yeah. It probably is different for each player. Still nice to read the different answers. I think when I made the thread I thought about the "technical" difficulty and not about "finding the way". And I had the JP as playing as a mesmer yourself (or using the teleporter item from the renown heard in Sandswept Isles) in mind.

Meaning: The time you lose can get shortened a bit by being able to port to the previous location.

The one in LA that got added later ... where you needed to get keys ... probably would be the hardest if you do not use your own mesmer. (Considering playing without help from others. At it's release probably a lot of people helped each other with a lot of other mesmer chars around.) Even when using a mesmer or the teleporter item it will take a lot of time where you have to play careafully.

Jumps itself are not too hard though. (It is mainly cause you need to find the way first.)

For the Beetle and Griffon ... even if you know the way ... it still needs a lot of training.

For the Chalice of tears I heard it varies a lot per player. Some do not find the jumps itself ot be that hard. (Well actually they are not but to "see" the position where you have to jump to is considered hard and I heard it also depends on the graphic settings the players have set. And probably on computer power where older computer only allows for less good settings.)

Beetle races are the toughest of those 3 for me, simply because you often can't see where you're going until it's too late. You have to memorize what's coming up. With the longer, harder tracks, I tend to get bored before I get the course down to pat, and I never complete those.

Funny story. Twice I did the second part of Grothmar JP (if you consider the first part, the short few intro jumps) and twice I forgot to light the torch at the start. I got frustrated and just decided to take the portal that a friendly mesmer just opened. I never do that, try to do it by myself the first time. Well, guess what? I still forgot to light the torch the third time :)Did it after a few weeks.

@Cuks.8241 said:Funny story. Twice I did the second part of Grothmar JP (if you consider the first part, the short few intro jumps) and twice I forgot to light the torch at the start. I got frustrated and just decided to take the portal that a friendly mesmer just opened. I never do that, try to do it by myself the first time. Well, guess what? I still forgot to light the torch the third time :)Did it after a few weeks.

Reminds me of the time I made it alllllll the way to the diving goggles in Not So Secret and then accidentally dodge-rolled off the platform before I could grab the goggles... :'D