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Skyscale is a pleasure to fly!


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Hey devs!

I just wanted to let you know you did a great job on the mounts and the new one is no different! After getting the hang of it (and unlocking its masteries) I'm having a ball!

I just returned from another harvesting round and it's a great companion on those: While you can't necessarily fly far with it, it's easier to cover obstacles with the skyscale than it is with the raptor. The special ability speed boost helps in a bit of extra horizontal speed. I also noticed that while it can't fly FAR like the griffon, when you're at ground level, the Skyscale can stay aloft a WHOLE lot longer than the griffon. This combined with it's precision flying makes it great for 'short ranged' trips with obstacles on the way. Also, if ground based anyway, a simple touch down (or rather, 'touch and go') is all you need to extend the trip.

It's really a pleasure to fly. Thanks for making this awesome addition - and I think it really does rival the Griffin when it comes to "elite mount". It was worth all the time and effort to get it!

Keep up the good work!

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@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:If the Skyscale can regen stamina while grabbing on a ledge, sure it's better than the Griffin.If the Skyscale can crawl up the ledge to gain more height, then sure it's better than the Grifffin.Unfortunately, it can do neither.

Skyscale is a helicopter compared to a jet plane, the Griffin.

Skyscale can regen stamina by moving or idling around in the sky. It doesn't need to regen stamina on a ledge.Skyscale can use wall launch to regain flight juice so it can gain more height.

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Yes Skyscale is amazing. All these little moments:Soaring up from the ground and flying low over terrain with dust kicking off...The feeling of her weight when huge wings push air down and raise dust and water...The moment when she slows down with wings spread after doing evasion roll... it feels like spaceship jumping out of hyperspace :DGathering volatile magic circles while doing sideways dance...All those little griffons down below jumping and gliding 10 meters until back on ground while you go higher and higher in full HoT HP train zerg...

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@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:If the Skyscale can regen stamina while grabbing on a ledge, sure it's better than the Griffin.If the Skyscale can crawl up the ledge to gain more height, then sure it's better than the Grifffin.Unfortunately, it can do neither.

Skyscale is a helicopter compared to a jet plane, the Griffin.

In honestly doesn't need those abilities..Skyscale is already capable of breaking out of just about every map the way it is now which really makes me beg the question why they just don't give it free flying.It can already do all the things it's lack of free flying was meant to avoid so yeah.. kinda pointless restrictions that don't work lol

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@Teratus.2859 said:

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:If the Skyscale can regen stamina while grabbing on a ledge, sure it's better than the Griffin.If the Skyscale can crawl up the ledge to gain more height, then sure it's better than the Grifffin.Unfortunately, it can do neither.

Skyscale is a helicopter compared to a jet plane, the Griffin.

In honestly doesn't need those abilities..Skyscale is already capable of breaking out of just about every map the way it is now which really makes me beg the question why they just don't give it free flying.It can already do all the things it's lack of free flying was meant to avoid so yeah.. kinda pointless restrictions that don't work lol

While it may seem that way, I'd argue that you still need to interact with each map in order to gain such heights, similar to the griffon. Players fear the free flight would negate any need to interact with the maps which can lead to many players just flying by alot of content.

That being said, I personally don't think free flight would be that big of a map killer, but I do think the extra amount of thought you have to put into flying ATM makes it more fun than just pressing space bar and forward like in many other games.

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@Katastroff.1045 said:It became my default mount the moment i had it unlocked, and doing the casino blitz with it is a charm. I love all the mounts, they all have their own usage, but the skyscale is just awsome.

I took a character round a city-map completion in the Grove on it yesterday. Oh, man, that was easy. Yes, I know that map-completing the Grove isn't exactly hard, but the speed at which the Dragocopter can do it is amazing. The only thing to watch out for is that the map layers extend downwards into the layer that's apparently below, and that can make tracking not-yet-seen PoIs in them a bit hard when you're flying.

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@Steve The Cynic.3217 said:

@Katastroff.1045 said:It became my default mount the moment i had it unlocked, and doing the casino blitz with it is a charm. I love all the mounts, they all have their own usage, but the skyscale is just awsome.

I took a character round a city-map completion in the Grove on it yesterday. Oh, man, that was easy. Yes, I know that map-completing the Grove isn't exactly hard, but the speed at which the Dragocopter can do it is amazing. The only thing to watch out for is that the map layers extend downwards into the layer that's apparently below, and that can make tracking not-yet-seen PoIs in them a bit hard when you're flying.

That's it's strength. If all you want is to go from A->B in a straight line, you're better off on the Griffon, Beetle or Raptor. But if you need to explore, or land or specific spots, the Skyscale is way better equipped.

I confess, at the start I thought this mount wouldn't be worth the work to get it. While I still think the collection was kitten (a topic for different thread), I am so very glad I got it.

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Been doing map completion in Verdant Brink on the Skyscale. I can go from bottom level to the canopy with just waypoints and maxed mastery Skyscale. It does take some skill knowing how far you can travel ascend/descend with the 2 little bumps of extra energy. I agree it was worth the grind to acquire.

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Used it in the Silverwastes labyrinth yesterday--so satisfying to hover over the heads of the TRON-wolves and be able to look around for loot instead of just blindly running. (Still died a couple of times.)

The Skyscale also eliminates my recurrent PoF peeve, that you can't ever stop and check the map because something always jumps out to try and kill you. Now I can read the map at my leisure while the sand eels throw tantrums below.

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@drmambo.7620 said:

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:If the Skyscale can regen stamina while grabbing on a ledge, sure it's better than the Griffin.If the Skyscale can crawl up the ledge to gain more height, then sure it's better than the Grifffin.Unfortunately, it can do neither.

Skyscale is a helicopter compared to a jet plane, the Griffin.

In honestly doesn't need those abilities..Skyscale is already capable of breaking out of just about every map the way it is now which really makes me beg the question why they just don't give it free flying.It can already do all the things it's lack of free flying was meant to avoid so yeah.. kinda pointless restrictions that don't work lol

While it may seem that way, I'd argue that you still need to interact with each map in order to gain such heights, similar to the griffon. Players fear the free flight would negate any need to interact with the maps which can lead to many players just flying by alot of content.

Yeah that's the argument I see mostly against it..Although in all honesty you can already do that with most of the mounts anyway, skipping content you don't want to bother with is like a default function of mounts in Gw2 lolWhether you're zoming past on a beetle or soaring past on the griffon it really doesnt matter, the result is the same.Free flying on the Skyscale would change absolutely nothing except making the mount more convinient to use.It'll always be the slowest way to cross a map though, but it would also be the most relaxing and enjoyable.

That being said, I personally don't think free flight would be that big of a map killer, but I do think the extra amount of thought you have to put into flying ATM makes it more fun than just pressing space bar and forward like in many other games.

I dunno I find that Mounts in Gw2 take very little of my concentration to use, exception to the Beetle which is the only one I feel needs attention to use properly.Griffon can require attention and skill if you're trying to fly it though the terrain avoiding things like a madman which is a lot of fun ^^ but usually when above it and nothing will get in the way it takes no effort to fly :)I've been pretty good with the Raptor for a long time and have gotten a good sense of jump timing and distance control, often finding myself landing akward jumps onto very small platforms or tree branches and jumping again which is fun.That translates over to the Skyscale pretty well too as many have pointed out how quickly they can blitz through the Casino Blitz event with them and i've seen a lot of people (myself included) collecting the Sulfer in Junundu rising with them.I can get down and grab a node then get back up very quickly with the dash rolls which is significantly faster than using the Skimmer which is limited by the terrain design.You can dash from a jump as well which can also be used to decend into the sulfer pit faster than decending while flying as you have a faster fall speed than decending speed, so that makes the Skyscale pretty nimble.

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@"Eloc Freidon.5692" said:Its like swimming in the air at Skimmer speed! The only problem is the Jackal Mastery doesn't work and let you evade while draining the ascension bar.

I've tested that it also doesn't work while draining endurance while wall clinging.

Regardless, I almost entirely stopped using Springer.

Jackal mastery works while spending endurance on the other mounts - while

  • leaping on raptor
  • charging the jump on springer
  • hovering on the skimmer
  • flapping the griffon's wings

Based on that, I'd expect the Skyscale to evade while

  • doing its barrel roll dash
  • charging its "flight juice" while wall clinging
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It really isn't.When it first came out, you could go up and down and pretty much permanently fly. Now, if you don't have volatile, you're gonna get back on the ground. I don't know if they made borrowed ones better or they changed them with patch after.Also, you can't go up high using walls because your endurance bar gets locked by red bar and it won't recharge fully. So springer is much better and faster.

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@MetalGirl.2370 said:It really isn't.When it first came out, you could go up and down and pretty much permanently fly.

You could never permanently fly (only permanently hover up to the canopy height). It hasn’t been changed since it was added to the game.

Now, if you don't have volatile, you're gonna get back on the ground. I don't know if they made borrowed ones better or they changed them with patch after.

You’ll go back to whatever the canopy height happens to be and then continue to glide downward as you move. If you glide down at an angle, you’ll recover some of the flight meter.

Also, you can't go up high using walls because your endurance bar gets locked by red bar and it won't recharge fully. So springer is much better and faster.

You can climb up further than the springer and don’t require as many ledges. You can use the bond of faith ability to give you even more of a boost.

The skyscale is best at times where you need to do both horizontal and vertical movement. It’s better than springer when the ledges are beyond the springer’s jump reach which the skyscale is able to reach.

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@MetalGirl.2370 said:It really isn't.When it first came out, you could go up and down and pretty much permanently fly. Now, if you don't have volatile, you're gonna get back on the ground. I don't know if they made borrowed ones better or they changed them with patch after.Also, you can't go up high using walls because your endurance bar gets locked by red bar and it won't recharge fully. So springer is much better and faster.

The camera angle matters. If you have it centered you won't lose much. If you look slightly up or down you lose a lot more juice.

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