Old Roy.5924

I've done this re-play twice now, and both times it ends with a whimper (no reward pop-up, just an exit icon); then I am back to "Travel to the mysterious charr's village. / Join your companions on the beach." I submitted a bug ticket (for what that's worth), came here only to find a couple of threads about this. Guess I am one of the lucky few who cannot progress this.

Came back to the game in November 2020; playing all through Nov and Dec and never had this issue. Then today, I get this odd behavior on my skyscale only. It spawns invisibly and/or in the ground. I do not move, but I can't dismount until I hold "C" long enough to "land" (even though I'm ½ in the ground). I tried on multiple characters, after using a waypoint, etc. and still get it. So I exited to desktop (client didn't close after a long while, so I had to kill it via Task Manager); ran my repair shortcut (executable with -repair appended) and it seemed to fix it... we'll see if it "holds" and I get my skyscale to load in properly.

I am recently returning after a long hiatus (4 years?) from the game. I'm not a young, twitchy type player, so I just enjoy the open world content as best I can. I recently boosted an Asura Mesmer (I've been through all the story content, so I felt OK doing this). I do not have ANY ascended or raid gear, etc. I only have what's available on the Trading Post. With that in mind, I've re-created my current setup on GW2Skills.net (great site, btw, just discovered it!) and have THIS BUILD going. With my 80-boosted Mesmer, I do not have Mirage/Chronomancer unlocked, so I am doing the main story arc and will likely just progress through the various chapters up to Path of Fire and enjoy the game that way. That all said, I'm wondering if my choice of 6xVampirism on Diviner gear is best for my Domination (1 2 1) + Illusions (2 2 1) + Dualing (1 3 1) setup. Heal is sigil, Utils are: Mirror Image + Phantasmal Disenchanter + Signet of Inspiration, and Epic is Time Warp (though I'm not really using it). Again, I've been away a long time; am not a serious gear-grinding type, and just enjoy open world content with gear available for purchase on Trading Post. Are there any helpful suggestions or comments? I'd love to hear them. Thank you for your time.