Skyscale Collection Within Collection Within Collection

[Tashigi.3159]

Hello,

Please, the next time you think of adding a function to the game (in this case a mount), don't wall it behind a time gate and a dozen collections, within other collections.The Rollerbeetle collection seemed like a fair enough number of things to gather/do. The griffon was straight up gold, but still reasonable.Don't go overboard again in the future.

Thank you.

[Blocki.4931]

It's just the right amount of work for what you're getting.

[Danikat.8537]

@Tashigi.3159 said:The griffon was straight up gold, but still reasonable.

No it isn't. Unlocking the griffon requires you to complete 8 different collections, each of which involves finding griffon eggs in difficult to reach places, defeating bounties and buying items from NPCs (25g each, for a total cost of 250g), then doing a solo instance where you have to fight veteran monsters for keys, find the chests and bring the items inside back to the Sunspear Sanctuary. So not that different to the skyscale collections, although there are more for the skyscale.

A lot of players focus on the gold cost as that's the biggest barrier to some people. (Although I've found the fact that it's broken down helps a lot. Many people who feel they could never get 250g can manage 25g, so they just buy 1 item at a time when they have enough.)

If you remember it as purely a gold cost then I'd suggest you've forgotten the actual process and it's only the most difficult/frustrating part which stuck with you. In which case it's highly likely the same will happen with the skyscale - some time after you've unlocked it you'll probably remember it as 'purely a time gate' or some such thing and it won't seem so bad.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I've finished acquiring the Skyscale, and am now working on acquiring the Griffon. I find the Griffon acquisition a lot more difficult than the Skyscale. Plus, I'm now down to 20 Gold. =(

[Taygus.4571]

Now that I have the skyscale, I have to agree, its worth the work. I use it all the time and it makes mapping a breeze.

[Cyninja.2954]

Right before episode 6 there was episode 5 with the requiem armor collection. People complained a lot about the necessity of the Superior Sigil of Nullification and how they were not able to farm for the collection (and lo and behold SSoN has dropped to almost below 2 gold and continues to fall, as predicted) constantly claiming that it was not the cost and effort but the reliance on other players which upset them (and the evil TP barons who are behind everyting which happens on the TP, just as with the treats this time around).

As such, Arenanet added a combination of both for the Skyscale, with the Skyscale being a lot more important than some armor skins. Players can now grind at their own leisure to acquire the necessary materials, as requested. Yet once again, the crowd goes wild because now they CAN'T buy their way past the grind of the collection.

It's a textbook example of an entitled players base and a developer stuck in a: damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

[Dawdler.8521]

Skyscale is PvE. Its content. Its as simple as that. If it takes 1 week, 3 weeks or 2 months is irrelevant.

[LucianDK.8615]

Skyscale was quite fine, it was only the map resource collection that was a problem due to lack of warning about it.

[RoterFuchs.9216]

@LucianDK.8615 said:Skyscale was quite fine, it was only the map resource collection that was a problem due to lack of warning about it.

Eh, personally I didn't mind the map resource collection. It was just farming hearts and nodes/caches with different characters. I hated collections that relied on specific events or bosses because I had no idea when either would spawn, so I had to wait around in the area being bored waiting for the spawn. With the actual time gates, I at least had a timer which told me when I could proceed, so I could do other stuff in the meantime.

[Holykitten.3064]

I feel like the collections themselves were ok, on par with the Griffon. But the the first couple of collections were tedious and could have been better if overlapped rather than sequential (You currently Go round the map once, then again, then again for other things, then one last time for good measure).

[Danikat.8537]

@Haleydawn.3764 said:I feel like the collections themselves were ok, on par with the Griffon. But the the first couple of collections were tedious and could have been better if overlapped rather than sequential (You currently Go round the map once, then again, then again for other things, then one last time for good measure).

That would have been an improvement.

I'd also have liked better clues for the sick skyscales and the eggs. The scales had good clues - it didn't tell you exactly where to look but narrowed it down a lot (for example 'on a branch along the coast' or 'along the main road'). But these two just gave you the section of the map, which meant a lot of searching for a relatively small object or resorting to a guide. (I tried to do DIY clues by just looking at the first line of the directions for each one in the Wiki.

Overall though I think the main reason so many people complained about the skyscale collections is that at first no one was prepared for it. The announcement gave players the impression that they'd be able to get their skyscale on the first day, or at least fairly quickly, and there's no indication in-game of how long the total process is or how far through you are so it came as a nasty surprise to some people that there was so much to do and some of it is time-gated.

The griffon was a bit difference because it was a complete surprise to the first people to unlock it so there was no expectation of how long it would take, and you unlocked the majority of the collections in one go so you could see most of what you had to do. It was just the library collection (which is relatively short and free) which you don't see at the point you're told you could get a griffon mount.

[Perihen the Thawk.9527]

I'm working through the Skyscale collection and really enjoying it. So far the only part I think is too much is all the charged quartz. A handful would have been okay, but 22 is really a lot for a once-a-day item.

I know you can buy the food and the grow lamp, but I really pride myself on gathering everything for collections myself, and I didn't have any charged quartz to start with, so it's kind of a bummer.

But all of the other collections within collections are totally fine, I've enjoyed doing the giant scavenger hunt.

[Ygdrasill.9135]

@Perihen the Thawk.9527 said:I'm working through the Skyscale collection and really enjoying it. So far the only part I think is too much is all the charged quartz. A handful would have been okay, but 22 is really a lot for a once-a-day item.

I know you can buy the food and the grow lamp, but I really pride myself on gathering everything for collections myself, and I didn't have any charged quartz to start with, so it's kind of a bummer.

But all of the other collections within collections are totally fine, I've enjoyed doing the giant scavenger hunt.

You only really need it for the food and the Grow Lamp. You could do 20 of the 21 'Finding the Skyscale' activities and not have to craft any pungent treats. I just bought what I needed because farming gold was easier than crafting Charged Quartz.

[Loboling.5293]

I just want to mention that between the gryphon and skyscale, I enjoyed the gryphon collections more.

The skyscale somehow felt very draining. Although I was happy when I finished, but it just didn't feel as fun.

[Danikat.8537]

Hopefully we'll get the return of the Festival of the Four Winds soon, which should make charged quartz easier to get. I realise that doesn't help people currently working on the skyscale because "wait a few weeks" isn't a good alternative to a time gated item, but for people who know they will do it sooner or later but haven't started yet it might be an option.

For that matter it might be a good idea for everyone to stock up on some charged quartz, so you've got it if you ever do need it later.

[Dawdler.8521]

@"Perihen the Thawk.9527" said:I'm working through the Skyscale collection and really enjoying it. So far the only part I think is too much is all the charged quartz. A handful would have been okay, but 22 is really a lot for a once-a-day item.

Is it really? I dont think so. Quartz have been a known thing for ages, given celestial. if you dont make it a little now and then... You dont have it. Then it takes time.

Its the same with ascended. Oh I want to craft a full set but have none of the timegated mats? Why didnt I craft that before?

Or the warclaw, people cry and and cry over the time it takes to do a reward track. Why didnt you save up some daily potions before?

This timegated argument would only be a "problem" if its something completely new that didnt exist before. And even then... Its minor.

Personally, as a WvW player, it took me a week to even begin doing the skyscale collection. But I started making new quartz from day 1 because it take like 1 minute to do one and I read about what was needed. By the time I got to the stage I needed it several weeks later, I had way more than enough and passed that stage quickly.

[Perihen the Thawk.9527]

@Dawdler.8521 said:

@"Perihen the Thawk.9527" said:I'm working through the Skyscale collection and really enjoying it. So far the only part I think is too much is all the charged quartz. A handful would have been okay, but 22 is really a lot for a once-a-day item.

Is it really? I dont think so. Quartz have been a known thing for ages, given celestial. if you dont make it a little now and then... You dont have it. Then it takes time.

Its the same with ascended. Oh I want to craft a full set but have none of the timegated mats?

Why didnt I craft that before?

Or the warclaw, people cry and and cry over the time it takes to do a reward track.

Why didnt you save up some daily potions before?

This timegated argument would only be a "problem" if its something completely new that didnt exist before. And even then... Its minor.

Personally, as a WvW player, it took me a week to even

begin

doing the skyscale collection. But I started making new quartz from day 1 because it take like 1 minute to do one and I read about what was needed. By the time I got to the stage I needed it several weeks later, I had way more than enough and passed that stage quickly.

Well, I didn't have any reason to be making charged quartz until the Skyscale was released. Also, most people don't play every day, so 22 days of time-gated crafting can easily be months of time-gated crafting.

[Turkeyspit.3965]

@Cyninja.2954 said:Right before episode 6 there was episode 5 with the requiem armor collection. People complained a lot about the necessity of the Superior Sigil of Nullification and how they were not able to farm for the collection (and lo and behold SSoN has dropped to almost below 2 gold and continues to fall, as predicted) constantly claiming that it was not the cost and effort but the reliance on other players which upset them (and the evil TP barons who are behind everyting which happens on the TP, just as with the treats this time around).

As such, Arenanet added a combination of both for the Skyscale, with the Skyscale being a lot more important than some armor skins. Players can now grind at their own leisure to acquire the necessary materials, as requested. Yet once again, the crowd goes wild because now they CAN'T buy their way past the grind of the collection.

It's a textbook example of an entitled players base and a developer stuck in a: damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

Of course it was the cost. If you had to buy 25 sigils for 25c each off the TP, who in their mind would complain? But tell them they are 10g each, and there is no other way to acquire them, and you have a different story. Toss in a subtitle that they used to sell for copper, but now you are going to pay someone else 10g because they got to the TP before you, and that was salt in the wound. That generated a lot of justifiable bitterness. It was terribly short sighted (but not unusual) of ANET.

For the Skyscale collection, I've talked about this over and over again, but to me the issue was it was just too long. Hide and seek was fun...but after the 5th time, it was just a chore. Same with playing catch. Same with opening rifts (27 of them!!).

All of the talk was about how they wanted this to be an experience, getting to know your skyscale, immersion, etc, and I'm fine with that. But they went and just made many of the steps overtly tedious, which sucked out some of the fun.

I didn't work on it right away, so the time gating didn't effect me, I had all the resources I needed so nothing was purchased from the TP, and I was able to use the wiki as a guide for all the collection parts, but I wouldn't consider the collection to have been fun. I could have been....but it rapidly just became a chore that I wanted to finish.

[Hyper Cutter.9376]

Honestly, I think the biggest issue with the skyscale is that Dulfy's gone AWOL, so we've got no source for comprehensive guides to collections and achievements anymore.

[user does exist.6483]

@Hyper Cutter.9376 said:Honestly, I think the biggest issue with the skyscale is that Dulfy's gone AWOL, so we've got no source for comprehensive guides to collections and achievements anymore.

The wiki has everything.

[user does exist.6483]

@Perihen the Thawk.9527 said:

@Dawdler.8521 said:

@Perihen the Thawk.9527 said:I'm working through the Skyscale collection and really enjoying it. So far the only part I think is too much is all the charged quartz. A handful would have been okay, but 22 is really a lot for a once-a-day item.

Is it really? I dont think so. Quartz have been a known thing for ages, given celestial. if you dont make it a little now and then... You dont have it. Then it takes time.

Its the same with ascended. Oh I want to craft a full set but have none of the timegated mats?

Why didnt I craft that before?

Or the warclaw, people cry and and cry over the time it takes to do a reward track.

Why didnt you save up some daily potions before?

This timegated argument would only be a "problem" if its something completely new that didnt exist before. And even then... Its minor.

Personally, as a WvW player, it took me a week to even

begin

doing the skyscale collection. But I started making new quartz from day 1 because it take like 1 minute to do one and I read about what was needed. By the time I got to the stage I needed it several weeks later, I had way more than enough and passed that stage quickly.

Well, I didn't have any reason to be making charged quartz until the Skyscale was released. Also, most people don't play

every

day, so 22 days of time-gated crafting can easily be

months

of time-gated crafting.

I have the home instance node and have not actively made quartz crystals, had more than enough to make everything in the collection.

[LucianDK.8615]

@user does exist.6483 said:

@"Hyper Cutter.9376" said:Honestly, I think the biggest issue with the skyscale is that Dulfy's gone AWOL, so we've got no source for comprehensive guides to collections and achievements anymore.

The wiki has everything.

Untrue about lack of guides. People took it onto themselves to make one rather fast.https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/brs41g/complete_skyscale_unlock_guide/https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/boq5pf/the_ultimate_skyscale_collection_hunt_thread/

[kharmin.7683]

@LucianDK.8615 said:

@user does exist.6483 said:

@"Hyper Cutter.9376" said:Honestly, I think the biggest issue with the skyscale is that Dulfy's gone AWOL, so we've got no source for comprehensive guides to collections and achievements anymore.

The wiki has everything.

Untrue about lack of guides. People took it onto themselves to make one rather fast.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/brs41g/complete_skyscale_unlock_guide/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/boq5pf/the_ultimate_skyscale_collection_hunt_thread/

Page not found?

[Kaliwenda.3428]

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:I've finished acquiring the Skyscale, and am now working on acquiring the Griffon. I find the Griffon acquisition a lot more difficult than the Skyscale. Plus, I'm now down to 20 Gold. =(

I wasn't even able to complete the Griffon stuff until after I got my Skyscale. I finally got my gold back up to pre-griffon levels yesterday.

[Kaliwenda.3428]

@Hyper Cutter.9376 said:Honestly, I think the biggest issue with the skyscale is that Dulfy's gone AWOL, so we've got no source for comprehensive guides to collections and achievements anymore.

I found a really good guide on reddit, along with several videos.