New guy with some basic questions

[acctingman.1420]

Hello

I'm a returning player and have a couple 80's and mid level 40's. Just 1 question I had.

1) mounts...I do not have the new expansion. With it how hard is it to acquire the mounts? Is there question involved? Vendor purchase?

Thanks

[acctingman.1420]

I get that. I don't have the expansion yet. Just wondering if by buying the expansion do you get a free mount or is there some questing/purchasing required?

[acctingman.1420]

Thanks Jayden

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

First, a bit of context: Unlike a lot of other games, each mount is primarily a different way of moving trough the landscape - they are a lot more than just the standard speed boost.

The first mount, which is also the most basic in its movement, is the Raptor. It's meant for quick movement over medium distances and leaping above gorges and canyons. You get it during the first proper instance of PoF. Most later mounts are purchased from a vendor after a Renown Heart.

As a second mount you can go for either of two mounts. No matter which you choose, it requires to have ranked up the Raptor Mastery to 3.

The mount usually aquired second is the Springer. It's a lot slower over ground but can instead leap vertically. The basic movement of the Springer is easily enough to jump onto roofs in Divinity's Reach.

The (usually) third mount is the Skimmer, a Stingray-like mount that hovers over the ground and moves faster above water. It's meant to traverse water (duh) and certain dangerous terrain like quicksand, sulfur etc.

Quick recap of the rest:Jackal - teleporter, bough in a later map.Griffon - glider/fast flier, but requires height. Semi-long, expensive collection that requires finishin PoF story.Rollerbeetle - very fast but hard to steer. Requires episode 3 of season 4. Medium length collection.Skyscale - Flier, slower than griffon but can gain height from starting point. Can hover in the air.Warclaw - WvW mount, the only one useable in WvW. Similar to Raptor in movement but slower and much shorter leaps. Short-ish collection in WvW.

[Danikat.8537]

Each mount is unlocked differently.

• The raptor is the easiest, it's unlocked for free by completing the first part of the PoF story.

• The springer and skimmer each require completing a heart and buying it from the vendor - 1g and 50 trade contracts for the springer, 2g and 50 contracts for the skimmer. Most importantly both require you to train the raptor mastery to level 3 to reach the heart vendor.

• The jackal also comes from a heart vendor and costs 20g and 50 trade contracts, and requires either the skimmer or Springer mastery trained to level 3 to reach.

• The griffon is the hardest PoF mount to unlock, requiring you to complete the story and then complete a series of collections which require using rental griffons to reach high places around the map and spend 250g (10 items at 25g each) among other things.

• The roller beetle requires you to own Episode 3 of Season 4 as well as PoF and then you have to complete a series of collections to unlock it.

• The warclaw is obtained entirely in WvW through a reward track and a series of collections which involved playing all aspects of WvW. If you play WvW anyway it's the easiest mount to unlock besides the raptor but if you hate PvP it's probably one of the hardest.

• The skyscale is the hardest. As well as PoF you need to own ALL of Season 4 and you need to play enough to gain access to each map, and finish War Eternal (the last episode) just to start the collections. Some parts are time gated so it will take you a minimum of 5 days, but there's also a lot to collect, including 250 of each Season 4 map currency, so it will probably take much longer, several weeks for many people. It's definitely a long-term goal rather than a quick way to gain some manuverability.

[acctingman.1420]

So.....how does one get the quest for this? I'm assuming I have to finish my main story quest first?

NVM...figured it out :)

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

@acctingman.1420 said:So.....how does one get the quest for this? I'm assuming I have to finish my main story quest first?

NVM...figured it out :)

No, the Personal Story, Living World stories and expansion stories are all in separate chapters. They do follow a linear narrative but they are not played linearly except within their own chapter of the story, you can skip around freely outside of it.

Just keep in mind you'll get spoilers if you do so.

Also keep in mind mounts can't be used in combat, if you want to escape enemies in combat you need gliding too.

[Trise.2865]

It's not strictly required to complete the main story in order to progress into expansion content (such as Gliding and Mounts). Though it is recommended, at least once. There's nothing like the first-time experience.

One more note: the Masteries tied to these abilities are account-wide, Meaning any character on that account can use any Mastery ability you unlock. In fact, multiple characters can progress a Mastery, provided they can access the relevant areas.