Skyscale is Bugged/Underwhelming, Or Both

[Poseidon.3261]

After using the Skyscale a bit to try and find a use for it (which was harder than you would think, I will get to that in a bit) I noticed something that is either a bug or a VERY large issue with the Skyscale. Whenever you are maneuvering mid-air, hear meaning using a combination of griffon, dismount, gliding, and mounting on the skyscale mid-air (not necessarily all or in that order), the Skyscale tends to run out of endurance instantaneously upon being mounted.

As far as being underwhelming, it is sometimes better than the bunny for climbing but not always because of the incredibly awkward wall holding. On top of that, the bunny still has more momentum, meaning it can utilize the dismount (8 skill) better. The best use for it seems to be that it give you the ability to afk almost anywhere in any map.

[Tails.9372]

It's definitely underwhelming, it's too limited for no good reason and the constant need to holding on to a wall (and the fact that it does it at all) is just an annoying pace breaker. I'd take a griffon without masteries in low gravity over this any day of the week. I wish they would have given us the spider at this point.

[Ayrilana.1396]

I've personally been enjoying it and have been using it primarily when doing my dailies as well as the Dragonfall meta.

[Bobzitto.8571]

@"Poseidon.3261" said:After using the Skyscale a bit to try and find a use for it (which was harder than you would think, I will get to that in a bit) I noticed something that is either a bug or a VERY large issue with the Skyscale. Whenever you are maneuvering mid-air, hear meaning using a combination of griffon, dismount, gliding, and mounting on the skyscale mid-air (not necessarily all or in that order), the Skyscale tends to run out of endurance instantaneously upon being mounted.

As far as being underwhelming, it is sometimes better than the bunny for climbing but not always because of the incredibly awkward wall holding. On top of that, the bunny still has more momentum, meaning it can utilize the dismount (8 skill) better. The best use for it seems to be that it give you the ability to afk almost anywhere in any map.

Whenever you take flight, the last place you landed is what the skyscale considerers "ground zero" for the endurance. So if you do the shenanigans to swap mid-air, you'll instantly lose all endurance because youre way above ground zero.

[Faaris.8013]

I spent a few hours using the Skyscale yesterday and it did feel awkward, especially at walls. I don't always want to cling to it, but you have no control over it. And then you suddenly jump and lose endurance. Or you know there is a spot where your bunny would be able to sit and recharge, but the Skyscale clings to it. And then you cannot even move a bit to the site to get to the spot, it feels like having magnets stuck at the claws and flying close to an iron wall.

I found myself regularly having to walk a bit to recharge the blue bar, which is mediocre compared to the much quicker recharging the griffon has. Both feel like a duck that had flight bred out of them over generations, but the Skyscale even more than the griffon. It's also more dangerous with the Skyscale because it's slower and mobs have a better change of dismounting you.

While I'm at it: Speed. As someone who loved playing Sonic the Hedgehog (28 years before the movie and that trailer), for me there is one rule for movement in games. The faster the better. And I'm not alone with this and the creators know. They created the Roller Beetle and the Warclaw. And this works similarily to computer screens and size. Once you upgrade to a bigger screen, there is simply no way back to a smaller one. You cannot keep up with players who use the Griffon in the new map meta, and this map has been created with the Skyscale in mind.

I have yet to play a bit more with those rifts. I was able to easily get to the wing in the East of Dragonfall using one. I wait for the patch to fix the rift achievements before playing more with them, no idea what I would use them for on other maps.

So far the mount feels underwhelming if you consider all the things you had to do to get it. I am not disappointed or disillusioned, simply because I had no illusions before. The only useful situation for the new mount so far is being afk in mid-air and showing off. I regularly saw people in map chat mentioning that the only reason they do the collections is to keep their masteries at max, and that's the reason I did it too. Imagine the mount was not connected to masteries, how many players would actually get it?

I hope the creators find ways to improve the new mount.

[Cekay.2614]

@"Bobzitto.8571" said:

Whenever you take flight, the last place you landed is what the skyscale considerers "ground zero" for the endurance. So if you do the shenanigans to swap mid-air, you'll instantly lose all endurance because youre way above ground zero.

Well, defeating one of Kralks Weakpoints summons those Ley lines that will catapult you into the air to fly to the next Weakpoint.Guess not on the Skyscale, when you mount it after using the ley line it will instantly lose all Endurance and pummel to the ground.

I dont think that was intended...

[Vavume.8065]

@Faaris.8013 said:The only useful situation for the new mount so far is being afk in mid-air

You are right, now we can afk without getting aggro, the timegates, gold and effort was soooo worth it...

[zealex.9410]

@Poseidon.3261 said:As far as being underwhelming, it is sometimes better than the bunny for climbing but not always

Thats a good thing

[Ashantara.8731]

@Ayrilana.1396 said:I've personally been enjoying it and have been using it primarily when doing my dailies as well as the Dragonfall meta.

I've been enjoying it, too, but agree that the mount could use some tweaks or upgrades. How about adding two more Mastery Tracks that will enhance its flight speed a bit and/or make it ascend/descend faster?

[Aeon.4583]

For such a premium mount ( it is dragon hybrid! ) i would suggest removing altitude loss during in air movement. To reach maps sky limit you need to use Wall Launch or wait alot of Bound of Vigor cooldowns, means adding little bit effort to it, if you want Skyfly over map.

Ok player spent altitude bar. But thats it. In maps with no mountains, will be hard to reach Sky limits, and there is no practical use to go that far anyway.

[Faaris.8013]

I farmed Volatile Magic for the feed your dragon achievement and noticed that the slowness makes you a much easier target for the wurms to range you. I got dropped from the sky by shots, which never happens when you fly by with the Griffon. Also, landing is sometimes about micro movements, when you hover very close above the ground. You tilt your view to see the bottom and move, but then the damn thing clinges to the cliff instead of simply landing. And gathering a magic ball below you means flying a circle, there is no way to decent like you ascent, straight. When gathering them, you better start at the bottom.

I wonder if these things never came up when the mount was tested.

[JustTrogdor.7892]

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@Ayrilana.1396 said:I've personally been enjoying it and have been using it primarily when doing my dailies as well as the Dragonfall meta.

I've been enjoying it, too, but agree that the mount could use some tweaks or upgrades. How about adding two more Mastery Tracks that will enhance its flight speed a bit and/or make it ascend/descend faster?

I'd prefer they just tweak it a bit instead of adding more masteries. Of course I'm a bit biased because I only have 1 extra mastery point after maxing out all masteries including the Sckyscale and the ones I have left to earn are the more grindy/difficult ones. :sunglasses:

[SaferMurderweapon.7143]

As of now, it's just a glorified glider with a dash and wall-climbing that can be used to AFK safely without having to go into character select.. I'll stick to my Springer+Griffon combo with Crystal Champion masteries which do everything Skyscale does currently, but without screwing you over.

On that note, a lot of shilling WoW junkies keep coming in here and into the subreddit comparing this and the timegate to WoW. This isn't WoW. Nobody is asking for infinite flight. We don't want boring mounts. We just want this one to work properly with the others as the other mounts do with eachother and various non-mount masteries already.

[ChronoPinoyX.7923]

I don't have it yet but judging from the borrowed version, I don't see the one we get as being any better than the ones we borrow in Dragonfall outside of the wall jump.

The Griffon still meets most of what Skyscale offers so that's been my goal at this point (been holding off the Griffon just cuz I wanna get ascended equips out the way first).

[Blocki.4931]

Give it a fair chance. Using the rentals I felt very disappointed, but after a couple hours of using it I never switch from it anymore. Unless I want to get from one end to the other I don't need to use the Griffon anymore, because the Skyscale does the ground movement better. (Run on ground, jump, flap, land. Skyscale flaps and flies for a bit, making movement a lot smoother, especially on a slope.)

[Vision.7265]

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/77557/dragonfall-map-completion-8-26-forums-told-me-skyscale-was-bad-edition#latest

Map Completion video of Dragonfall shows strengths and weaknesses of the mounts. The Griffon and Roller beetle were used most for speed around the map. Bunny and skyscale were only used in very specific situations.

After playing the Meta with its bosses and timer at the end, there is no way a skyscale can compare to griffon on the Dragonfall map in simply making it to each boss and beating each boss. It's too slow. The video clearly shows the griffon's speed supremacy in the air.

[Artits.2795]

I'm also very disappointed by it. I only completed the collection because I thought that when you unlock it and the mastery track, the skill that makes you jump walls could make it so that you fly > cling to a wall to recharge your blue meter > resume flying. Which would still be far from perfect considering it is a dragon so realistically there shouldn't be a limit to how much it can fly to begin with, but it would be a nice compromise between players and Anet's disturbing obsession with forcing players to play the game a certain way. Imagine my disappointment when I found out that not only is the climb/ recharge limited by stamina bars, it also builds the red meter the more you use it. I had to deal with limitations (timegates), limitations within limitations (the charged crystal parts) and so many collections to be able to own the most limited mount in the game?

[Voltekka.2375]

Its clunky at best. Maybe i need more practice, for sure, but it IS clunky. I still find myself using bunny more than Skyscale in Dragonfall (i love the map btw).Edit : typo

[Blocki.4931]

@Artits.2795 said:I'm also very disappointed by it. I only completed the collection because I thought that when you unlock it and the mastery track, the skill that makes you jump walls could make it so that you fly > cling to a wall to recharge your blue meter > resume flying. Which would still be far from perfect considering it is a dragon so realistically there shouldn't be a limit to how much it can fly to begin with, but it would be a nice compromise between players and Anet's disturbing obsession with forcing players to play the game a certain way. Imagine my disappointment when I found out that not only is the climb/ recharge limited by stamina bars, it also builds the red meter the more you use it. I had to deal with limitations (timegates), limitations within limitations (the charged crystal parts) and so many collections to be able to own the most limited mount in the game?

You regain endurance while flying, you gain flight juice while charging at a wall.. It's not that hard. Learn to use it, it allows you to make jumps and scale walls you wouldn't be able to before.

[Klipso.8653]

I really dont see any use out of it besides a novelty item to afk with.

[Neeja.4579]

This thread is very similar.

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/76867/skyscale-mount-mechanics-not-about-timegate

To me now the biggest issue is that Skyscale starts with full red endurance when you use Air Rescue from a big altitude, which is way worse than gliding. Makes no sense.

I see that OP also mentioned it

[LucianDK.8615]

The broken air rescue is just BAD. And makes it inferior to the Griffon.

[JustTrogdor.7892]

@Blocki.4931 said:

@Artits.2795 said:I'm also very disappointed by it. I only completed the collection because I thought that when you unlock it and the mastery track, the skill that makes you jump walls could make it so that you fly > cling to a wall to recharge your blue meter > resume flying. Which would still be far from perfect considering it is a dragon so realistically there shouldn't be a limit to how much it can fly to begin with, but it would be a nice compromise between players and Anet's disturbing obsession with forcing players to play the game a certain way. Imagine my disappointment when I found out that not only is the climb/ recharge limited by stamina bars, it also builds the red meter the more you use it. I had to deal with limitations (timegates), limitations within limitations (the charged crystal parts) and so many collections to be able to own the most limited mount in the game?

You regain endurance while flying...

That's the part I'm still trying to figure out. Sometimes when I fly forward it regains endurance and sometimes it doesn't. I'm not talking about when it hits volatile magic and gains endurance. Sometimes going forward it slowly gains endurance, sometimes faster and sometimes not at all. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong or what triggers it.

[Gambino.2109]

Or how about gaining the flight bar at an equal pace when you descend so you can at least fly keep flying at the same height..

[Grim West.3194]

It's just a vanity mount. Basically useless.