Why I LOVE my Skyscale.

[Jagblade.4627]

When I first obtained the skyscale, I was kind of disappointed. It's slower than the Griffon, doesn't get much higher than creative use of a springer will (unless you master its wall jumping and well timed used of Bond of Vigor / faith,) and it's dismount attack isn't nearly as useful as virtually any other mount. However, I am a person who absolutely loves trying to break out of the map to find weird and interesting places, secrets, or things the devs accidentally leave behind (like NPCs, buildings, or objects.) When I realized just how much the Skyscale was benefitting me in furthering my explorations into areas we're not normally meant to access I completely fell in love.

Running around the courtyard of Cadecus' Manor in Queensdale, finding my way into the golden ruins in the cave in the Far Silverwastes outside of a LWS2 instance. There is so much to see beyond the invisible walls the devs have thrown up all over the place and I'd never be able to explore any of it without the Skyscale.

[AliamRationem.5172]

@Jagblade.4627 said:When I first obtained the skyscale, I was kind of disappointed. It's slower than the Griffon, doesn't get much higher than creative use of a springer will (unless you master its wall jumping and well timed used of Bond of Vigor / faith,) and it's dismount attack isn't nearly as useful as virtually any other mount. However, I am a person who absolutely loves trying to break out of the map to find weird and interesting places, secrets, or things the devs accidentally leave behind (like NPCs, buildings, or objects.) When I realized just how much the Skyscale was benefitting me in furthering my explorations into areas we're not normally meant to access I completely fell in love.

Running around the courtyard of Cadecus' Manor in Queensdale, finding my way into the golden ruins in the cave in the Far Silverwastes outside of a LWS2 instance. There is so much to see beyond the invisible walls the devs have thrown up all over the place and I'd never be able to explore any of it without the Skyscale.

You should take your skyscale to Tangled Depths some time. It's pretty weird in the empty spaces between that you never knew were there!

[AliamRationem.5172]

@Jagblade.4627 said:When I first obtained the skyscale, I was kind of disappointed. It's slower than the Griffon, doesn't get much higher than creative use of a springer will (unless you master its wall jumping and well timed used of Bond of Vigor / faith,) and it's dismount attack isn't nearly as useful as virtually any other mount. However, I am a person who absolutely loves trying to break out of the map to find weird and interesting places, secrets, or things the devs accidentally leave behind (like NPCs, buildings, or objects.) When I realized just how much the Skyscale was benefitting me in furthering my explorations into areas we're not normally meant to access I completely fell in love.

Running around the courtyard of Cadecus' Manor in Queensdale, finding my way into the golden ruins in the cave in the Far Silverwastes outside of a LWS2 instance. There is so much to see beyond the invisible walls the devs have thrown up all over the place and I'd never be able to explore any of it without the Skyscale.

Bond of vigor is key because you often use the skyscale over medium distances with difficult terrain. With the ability to reset your endurance bar, you can use that zoom maneuver 5 times in a row to rapidly cover ground. Longer distances usually involve switching to beetle/griffon/raptor. Leap of faith is great when you need to swap to griffon mid-air or when you're cliff jumping and need to get up onto a ledge.

I imagine if all you've done is use the skyscale with no zoom, no cliff jump, no bond of vigor or leap of faith, it must seem like garbage. But with all of those things it's easily the most versatile mount available. Maybe that's why some people seem to not see the point in it?

[Dante.1508]

Skyscale is not worth it after getting the griffon.. Griffon is far superior to Skyscale to me. The grind required to get such a lackluster mount was insanely over the top so i gave up.

[LucianDK.8615]

@Dante.1508 said:Skyscale is not worth it after getting the griffon.. Griffon is far superior to Skyscale to me. The grind required to get such a lackluster mount was insanely over the top so i gave up.

The skyscale dramatically outclasses the griffon, which I almost never use anymore. Why you ask? Unlike the griffon, the skyscale does not have forward momentum, plus it doesnt need you to constantly hit space to keep flapping. And you can cover a lot of ground with 4x dash with the skyscale if having bond of vigor, letting you hit ledges that the griffon never could reach.

You dont know what you are missing. Just farm eternal ice in bjora marches and exchange it for the currencies. I farmed x250 of each in a single day, from early morning to past midnight. And that was before bjora marches.

And do not judge the skyscale on the rent-a-scale. It gets much better with the masteries. Plus theres MANY volatile magic trails in the air of ls4, as well working with the karma trails in IBS. Keep taking volatile magic and your stamina meter refills, letting you have unlimited flight while you have VM to munch.

It does however not work with unbound magic from ls3.

[AliamRationem.5172]

@Dante.1508 said:Skyscale is not worth it after getting the griffon.. Griffon is far superior to Skyscale to me. The grind required to get such a lackluster mount was insanely over the top so i gave up.

You never unlocked the skyscale. How would you know whether or not the griffon is superior to it? Rent-a-skyscale is not the same thing as fully unlocked skyscale with bond of vigor and leap of faith. The skyscale is better in virtually every way as a multi-purpose mount. It completely replaces the griffon in this role. However, the griffon is still useful for its dive maneuver and the skyscale makes it easier to gain sufficient altitude to use it.

[Tyncale.1629]

I have a load of Alt accounts and already have a skyscale on 5 of them. I love the Quest for it (or "grind" as others put it), you get to play in a lot of maps, do events, do Bosses, gather stuff, mix it up with mini games, it is almost as if I am playing the game....... Looking forward to doing it a lot more often, no joke. I really do not get the complaint of it being a grind.

I guess if you are strictly PvP or WvW then such a PvE heavy quest would be a nuisance, then again why bother with a Mount that you will barely be using? And if you are PvX then just see it as playing the game.

I agree with above posters that you need to do the Masteries for the Skyscale and the general Mount masteries for it to really shine. Which is more playing the game (not grind).

PS: I have Alt account just for that reason: I miss real progress in my Main account, Masteries all done, most stuff that I deem important done. With an Alt account I get to do the PoF and HoT masteries again and do Quests like the Skyscale and Griffon, grow my Characters again that way, big satisfying chunks of progress. I also love Open World play, and Alt accounts make me go back to all that wonderful content.

[Dante.1508]

@AliamRationem.5172 said:

@Dante.1508 said:Skyscale is not worth it after getting the griffon.. Griffon is far superior to Skyscale to me. The grind required to get such a lackluster mount was insanely over the top so i gave up.

You never unlocked the skyscale. How would you know whether or not the griffon is superior to it? Rent-a-skyscale is not the same thing as fully unlocked skyscale with bond of vigor and leap of faith. The skyscale is better in virtually every way as a multi-purpose mount. It completely replaces the griffon in this role. However, the griffon is still useful for its dive maneuver and the skyscale makes it easier to gain sufficient altitude to use it.

I used the testers, they were atrocious even max tier they'd not be as good as griffon speed and maneuverability, to me. I am glad the op got theirs though it was a crazy challenge to me but to them i congratulate their work.

@LucianDK.8615 said:

@Dante.1508 said:Skyscale is not worth it after getting the griffon.. Griffon is far superior to Skyscale to me. The grind required to get such a lackluster mount was insanely over the top so i gave up.

The skyscale dramatically outclasses the griffon, which I almost never use anymore. Why you ask? Unlike the griffon, the skyscale does not have forward momentum, plus it doesnt need you to constantly hit space to keep flapping. And you can cover a lot of ground with 4x dash with the skyscale if having bond of vigor, letting you hit ledges that the griffon never could reach.

You dont know what you are missing. Just farm eternal ice in bjora marches and exchange it for the currencies. I farmed x250 of each in a single day, from early morning to past midnight. And that was before bjora marches.

And do not judge the skyscale on the rent-a-scale. It gets much better with the masteries. Plus theres MANY volatile magic trails in the air of ls4, as well working with the karma trails in IBS. Keep taking volatile magic and your stamina meter refills, letting you have unlimited flight while you have VM to munch.

It does however not work with unbound magic from ls3.

I have more than 250 of everything already the mats aren't the issue its the stupid fetch quest after fetch quest..

@naiasonod.9265 said:I'm still plinking away at it, but I feel almost zero motivation to get there. It isn't a true flying mount, and I don't need it for anything...at all. It would make life easier when I'm chasing DF pre and meta zergs around, but...not gonna lie; I keep up just fine anyway, and I don't really care otherwise.

Skyscale is just another almost-but-not-quite-actually-flying mount. My enthusiasm, and my concern to work hard and focus like I'm crafting another legendary, will be held in reserve for if/when we ever get the chance to get a real flying mount.

And if we never do, I'll probably get the skyscale someday. I do pick at it here and there when I go 'meh, lets poke this a little bit' right up until I go 'well this is boring, time to go do something fun'.

Worst mistake Anet made on selling me on the skyscale was letting me preview it by flying the borrowed ones. People tell me the one you can get is a bit better, but honestly, I still don't care. It doesn't really fly in anything but the most resource-restricted of fashions, and I don't really care about hovering.

I got the griffon. The griffon is all the fake flying mount I had enthusiasm for. I've got none left for the other fake flying mount.

Thats exactly my take but i don't even bother anymore its just way to much work for such a small gain.

[Atomos.7593]

@Dante.1508 said:

@LucianDK.8615 said:

@Dante.1508 said:Skyscale is not worth it after getting the griffon.. Griffon is far superior to Skyscale to me. The grind required to get such a lackluster mount was insanely over the top so i gave up.

The skyscale dramatically outclasses the griffon, which I almost never use anymore. Why you ask? Unlike the griffon, the skyscale does not have forward momentum, plus it doesnt need you to constantly hit space to keep flapping. And you can cover a lot of ground with 4x dash with the skyscale if having bond of vigor, letting you hit ledges that the griffon never could reach.

You dont know what you are missing. Just farm eternal ice in bjora marches and exchange it for the currencies. I farmed x250 of each in a single day, from early morning to past midnight. And that was before bjora marches.

And do not judge the skyscale on the rent-a-scale. It gets much better with the masteries. Plus theres MANY volatile magic trails in the air of ls4, as well working with the karma trails in IBS. Keep taking volatile magic and your stamina meter refills, letting you have unlimited flight while you have VM to munch.

It does however not work with unbound magic from ls3.

I have more than 250 of everything already the mats aren't the issue its the stupid fetch quest after fetch quest..

Yeah, for me this was the "hardest" part. Just when you think it's over, the next step requires you to do another one. You can probably get it all done in a couple of days but for me this would be mindlessly boring. I had to do it over a few months.

[Dante.1508]

@Atomos.7593 said:

@Dante.1508 said:

@LucianDK.8615 said:

@Dante.1508 said:Skyscale is not worth it after getting the griffon.. Griffon is far superior to Skyscale to me. The grind required to get such a lackluster mount was insanely over the top so i gave up.

The skyscale dramatically outclasses the griffon, which I almost never use anymore. Why you ask? Unlike the griffon, the skyscale does not have forward momentum, plus it doesnt need you to constantly hit space to keep flapping. And you can cover a lot of ground with 4x dash with the skyscale if having bond of vigor, letting you hit ledges that the griffon never could reach.

You dont know what you are missing. Just farm eternal ice in bjora marches and exchange it for the currencies. I farmed x250 of each in a single day, from early morning to past midnight. And that was before bjora marches.

And do not judge the skyscale on the rent-a-scale. It gets much better with the masteries. Plus theres MANY volatile magic trails in the air of ls4, as well working with the karma trails in IBS. Keep taking volatile magic and your stamina meter refills, letting you have unlimited flight while you have VM to munch.

It does however not work with unbound magic from ls3.

I have more than 250 of everything already the mats aren't the issue its the stupid fetch quest after fetch quest..

Yeah, for me this was the "hardest" part. Just when you think it's over, the next step requires you to do another one. You can probably get it all done in a couple of days but for me this would be mindlessly boring. I had to do it over a few months.

The mindlessly boring part is 100% accurate, and for the record i hated the Griffon one as well.

[Croc.1978]

To all the people who think that Skyscale is not worth the effort:

Get it! It really is a perfect complement to your Raptor for moving around in the maps:

• Raptor for easy terrain (speed & precision) and for combat (tail-spin faceroll)
• Skyscale for difficult terrain, for flying over mobs when you don't want to aggro them and for safely AFKing mid-air

Once you got accustomed to it, you will love it!

Remember that you have to do the unlock crap only once and remember that you can take all the time you want.

[Sticky.2653]

I love my Skyscale. Do not use the Rentascale in Dragonfall as the true representative of the Skyscale. The Rentascale is the stripped down econobox version of the Skyscale.

When I finally got my Skyscale, I too was not very impressed with its' performance.

Once I unlocked all of the Skyscale and Crystal Champion masteries the Skyscale took on an all new and drastically improved profile. This is the reason you see so many of them. Sure it is not the fastest mount, have Roller Beetle and Griffon for that. The pure utility and usefulness of the Skyscale is why so many players use it. This utility is why I am on my Skyscale more than any of the other mounts..

[castlemanic.3198]

the skyscale is my go to mount, it's an all terrain mount (except water, that goes to skimmer now), can help you climb pretty much any height, especially with the use of bond of vigor and the wall jumps. Plus, dragons are my favourite, so i am biased towards this mount, but it is the coolest mount they've released so far, my poor springer doesn't get much use these days.

[coso.9173]

it's my most used mount. it's really versatile.i do miss the griffon's speed though.

[Makion.3457]

Wait, Skyscale in not the only mount ingame? jk I love the skyscale, use it all the time except when i have to run small distances, thats when the raptor comes in.

[Tekoneiric.6817]

@LucianDK.8615 said:

It does however not work with unbound magic from ls3.

I wish they would change it to work with unbound magic. It works with the floating karma on Drizzlewood Coast already.

[LucianDK.8615]

@Altion.9576 said:Wait, Skyscale in not the only mount ingame? jk I love the skyscale, use it all the time except when i have to run small distances, thats when the raptor comes in.

I personally prefer the jackal for short distance. Feels easier to turn with, and its sand jumps is available more often than raptor leap.You can negate fall damage completely with a jackal. Sand jump before hitting ground.And if you rapidly sand jump x3 through a group of foes, they never activate, unlike raptor leap.

[JUN YANG.4328]

springer i only used on pinata since i got skyscale. that is the only mount can be replaced.i still use griffon regularly. specially for fast travel ( from one end to another) and unlocked map i dont like, =) skyscale just too slow

[Makion.3457]

@LucianDK.8615 said:

@Altion.9576 said:Wait, Skyscale in not the only mount ingame? jk I love the skyscale, use it all the time except when i have to run small distances, thats when the raptor comes in.

I personally prefer the jackal for short distance. Feels easier to turn with, and its sand jumps is available more often than raptor leap.You can negate fall damage completely with a jackal. Sand jump before hitting ground.And if you rapidly sand jump x3 through a group of foes, they never activate, unlike raptor leap.

Someday Ill buy a nice skin for the Jackal and start using it more, to be honest thats the only reason I dont use it more often.