How to get a mount without spoilering story?

[Luky.9578]

I am at the beginning of first expansion and still no mount,I know I can skip everything and start second expansion but I dont want spoilers, but still I need to complete first expansion and LW3 to get there and it really become irritating to run everywhere by foot while everyone around me using mounts. Is there any way how to get at least basic mount without spoilers?

[yoni.7015]

No there isn’t and there shouldn’t, mounts are a PoF feature. But to get the first mount you only have to play one short episode. 

[Luky.9578]

Ok, I suppose I have to start it with my secondary character I dont really care about and close my eyes/ears during the story. Then get a mount and I should be able to use it with my main character somehow?

[yoni.7015]

Yes. You will have it account wide 

[Blude.6812]

2 minutes ago, Sherlock.1607 said:

Ok, I suppose I have to start it with my secondary character I dont really care about and close my eyes/ears during the story. Then get a mount and I should be able to use it with my main character somehow?

They are account bound. Unlock on one toon, and they are available for all.

 

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

Note, you do not even have to be level 80 to do this.  If someone takes you along to their story mission, as long as you complete the heart in the first instance and purchase the saddle from the heart vendor in the instance, you get the raptor too.  So turn off audio, turn off subtitles, and try not to pay attention to the names of your enemies, and I think you can miss out on just about all the spoilers.

[Ashantara.8731]

15 minutes ago, Sherlock.1607 said:

Ok, I suppose I have to start it with my secondary character I dont really care about and close my eyes/ears during the story. Then get a mount and I should be able to use it with my main character somehow?

Not sure it'll be worth the effort. It will be like a basic horse, without any special abilities, which you can only level in PoF. It won't be helping you much in HoT, which has tons of verticality that your Raptor won't be able to overcome. Leveling your Gliding mastery and the other means of HoT travel will be of more use to you for now.

[Luky.9578]

I just want to be faster, I play as dragonhunter and I have to use "advance" skill to get swiftness, I would like to change this skill but I dont want to be slow af.

[Mungo Zen.9364]

I’d strongly suggest that if you wish to complete the story in its intended order, wait for the mount. 

By skipping ahead you may as well just go the distance and play PoF.  Getting the Raptor mount may be a start, but can you wait for the tail swipe and longer range jump?  Will you be okay waiting for the Springer to jump up and down the HoT maps?

my thought is, if you want a simple convenience item, why stop there?  You already want to skip ahead to make the current content ‘easier’ without knowing if it will help,  if it doesn’t give you what you want, will you keep going back to PoF?

You can always get Runes with run speed to increase your movement.  You don’t need a mount by any stretch in HoT.  At least for the story, which skips through a large portion of the actual HoT open world content.   Once you have completed the story for HoT, LW3 and started PoF you can come back for the grinding of HoT masteries and open world content. 

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

36 minutes ago, Sherlock.1607 said:

I just want to be faster, I play as dragonhunter and I have to use "advance" skill to get swiftness, I would like to change this skill but I dont want to be slow af.

Dragonhunter has 25% passive movement speed right in the first set of traits. You can also get a variety of 25% movement speed runes, as well as gain Swiftness on heal skill from Centaur runes, or in combat from Pack runes or even Fireworks runes (although they're for yourself only while Pack is for the entire group).

 

If you're feeling especially creative you can take Rune of the Trapper and get stealth and Superspeed every time you lay a trap down, although it sees more use in competitive modes.

 

On top of this if you equip a Staff you'll be able to stand in your Symbol of Swiftness, and if you put a Sigil of Speed on it you'll have permanent 24/7 Swiftness as long as you defeat an enemy every now and then. Then there's the #3 leap on Greatsword, the F2 leap always available to Dragonhunter, and so on.

 

Heart of Thorns came before Path of Fire and having the Raptor won't help you much there. Plus its better that you learn how the game works somewhat before continuing on. The expansions have a steep rise in difficulty and you'll get chewed through if you don't understand basics like this.

Edited November 12, 2021 by Hannelore.8153

[Handsel.2891]

I understand the frustration of seeing players whizzing by on mounts while you are bound by the speed of your character. Weirdly enough, I sense some of it, too, when I'm playing on a secondary account that has no access to mounts...

But, the maps prior to PoF were not designed with mount use in mind. In fact, they take away from the original intended gameplay. For example, levelling my masteries to be able to use the different mushrooms, especially the jumping one was a fun experience that I remember fondly. Now I never use them, because mounts made them obsolete. If you can somehow ignore the mounts of other players, don't rob yourself of the experience of playing content as it was meant to be played. You'll feel all the more rewarded for it when you actually get to the point of acquiring your mounts.

[Randulf.7614]

What about the Warclaw? I mean I think you just need PoF for that and then some wvw stuff

[Farohna.6247]

Thw mounts are attached to storyline, as is gliding, but more so.  Also as mentioned, you would have a very base mount without any special skills.  Yes it can be frustrating to be slower, but it's honestly fun to take the time and fulfill the story the first time as intended.  A lot of people did it before 😉

[Kaliwenda.3428]

3 hours ago, Sherlock.1607 said:

I am at the beginning of first expansion and still no mount,I know I can skip everything and start second expansion but I dont want spoilers, but still I need to complete first expansion and LW3 to get there and it really become irritating to run everywhere by foot while everyone around me using mounts. Is there any way how to get at least basic mount without spoilers?

If you're anything like me, you won't really understand what's happening in the story at that point anyways, you'll do the one quest and go back to HoT, and by the time you work your way back up to that point in the story again, you'll have forgotten all about it. 

So I don't think you need to be too worried about spoilers in this one case.

Edited November 12, 2021 by Kaliwenda.3428

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Alright OP, I'm going to parrot the others here but it'll be a nice summary for you.

• Do the story in the intended order for maximum enjoyment
• Use your staff, runes of speed, and a superior sigil of speed to run around like you're on speed (because you will be)
• If you MUST have a mount, then to avoid POF spoilers, go into WvW and get a warclaw. Just follow a tag and cap everything with them.

There, please enjoy yourself and use speed responsibly.

[ShadowCatz.8437]

3 hours ago, Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294 said:

Note, you do not even have to be level 80 to do this.  If someone takes you along to their story mission, as long as you complete the heart in the first instance and purchase the saddle from the heart vendor in the instance, you get the raptor too.  So turn off audio, turn off subtitles, and try not to pay attention to the names of your enemies, and I think you can miss out on just about all the spoilers.

@Sherlock.1607

There is a setting in Option where you can control name tag on yourself, on objects/items that you can interact with or target, neutral NPC (yellow bar and tag), Friendly NPC and Allies (players) - green name tag - and Hostile NPCs or Enemy players (for WvW and PvP). There are keybind that you can set up to show either all (including UI elements if you have enabled to hide them) or just that type of name tag  you want to see.

You also have a radio button where you can disable/enable to "Show Ally Names" (use search from web browser  [control + F] on web page linked here).

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Options
 

Now you seem to only want to get your mount fast, but I would recommend to at least get your Gliding in HoT, so you can combine it with Bond of Faith (Mastery from PoF) (use link to read more of those Mastery that are shared across your mounts). Before we had Gliding we had traits to reduce fall damage, but with Gliding it where changed and removed to a large degree and today we are better off  with the use of Gliding to reduce danger of getting killed from falling. That is why I recommend to get Gliding as fast as possible.

With BoF and Gliding you also make it easier to get higher up as with Springer you can jump/eject off mount when it at its highest peak to get to places (before you get flying mounts).

It is also useful later when you are in air with Griffon/Skyscale and want to change mount or before your health pool on mount gets too low and reset its health pool (as long you haven't used your Bond of Life skill that is your mounts heals, but this skill have a rather long cooldown for 180 seconds until you can use it next time. Later when you unlock stealth for Gliding and for mount you will notice that this long CD on heals on mount is to balance it out so you can avoid danger, combine Gliding and mounts and even change mounts without the need to heal when you are mounted.

It will be a struggle when you start your journey to unlock Mastery for both, but when you have finished you will also understand why Gliding is so important and why it is essential for mounts.

 

Don't forget that if you do Jumping Puzzle that sometime you only have access to Gliding (no mount) and that helps a lot do these JP. Other times you can even get around No Mount restriction where there is JP, by combining Mount skills and then use Gliding to get to the final chest or check point for getting your JP.

Volatile Magic (ability you unlock from start) is also very useful as it creates paths in air that you can later use to gain higher up with Skyscale, so it is long road ahead for you, but it will also change how you play.

 

Here is a starting point for mounts on GW2 wiki:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mount

As for story content I would recommend to still follow story as it provides you with hints on what to do next (have seen too many posts where people where stuck on what to do next on their chase for unlocking mount as fast as possible and missed hints from NPCs that are related to story).

You will also progress achievement that are related to mounts and story mode (very much of PoF story mode for mounts are in open world and not as much in instanced content; it will be hard to avoid spoilers related to story), so you will probably have to go back and re-do story content to finish it up. Not to forget that you also get Achievement Points that are directly related to mounts and those AP will unlock on your account for more Gold gain and other items at certain points etc.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Achievement_point_rewards

Link above is meant to show you progress you also gain more easier Gold and certain items that you only can get from AP. If you skip story content you will also miss out of that part of progression.

 

FYI if you plan to be ready for EoD in Feb, it is not necessary to unlock mounts for those maps as far as Devs have informed about their plans for the next expansion. Player that lack Gliding or Mounts there will have them unlocked, but it is unclear how mounts/gliding unlocked for other maps then EoD will work and if you will have access to abilities that are shared across mounts.

Use your web browser search to find "unlock"  [control + F] where they discuss how player will be able to unlock Gliding and mounts in EoD from transcripted Guild Chat linked here: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Chat_-_Episode_111

You should be able find the video where this transcript is from on from under "Shing Jea Island" on Twitch or on YT. Jump to around 30 min in video find that part where they talk about this.
 

 

[ShadowCatz.8437]

4 hours ago, Sherlock.1607 said:

I just want to be faster, I play as dragonhunter and I have to use "advance" skill to get swiftness, I would like to change this skill but I dont want to be slow af.

Dragonhunter have a permanent 25% movement increase with Soaring Devastation trait, but only when you don't use your F1 skill. You can use Runes that give you a permanent 25% movement like Traveller Runes, if you only want have faster base speed. It isn't optimal for max out your damage (condi damge or power/strike damage), but it does give you all + on attributes. There three runes that you can use to get +25% movement speed.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rune

Use button to filter Runes for only +25% movement speed and you will see your options.

Engineer (and its Elites) have also skills that can teleport for 1200 range, access to Superspeed and swiftness from combo fields (AoE), so there is other options if you only want to get around faster without mounts. Join up with somebody else that have Swiftness/Superspeed (from skills, combo fields, runes or from sharing boons). Don't forget that you can get faster movement if you have a Guild that have Guild Banners and from getting Glyphs or Gathering Tools (Karma vendor - check wiki for LA Gathering tools vendor).

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Glyph_of_Flight

[Gibson.4036]

That first PoF mission doesn’t have that much by way of spoilers, that I remember. It’s the first mission of the first chapter of the expansion.

And you can go on to get all the other mounts except skyscale and griffon without any other spoilers. Once you’re in the desert you can get to the rest of the zones, and each mount just requires doing a heart. You can also get mastery points and level up the mounts spoiler free by just running around the desert doing events and the map mastery points.

Edited November 13, 2021 by Gibson.4036

[Gibson.4036]

To note, unless you find a hero point train in the jungle, it is way easier to get one of your elite specs by doing hero points in the desert. On most professions the elite specs are stronger than core. Another reason you might want to go ahead and do the first PoF mission to get into the desert.

Some people like HoT as originally designed. I enjoyed it a lot more with Springer and an elite spec.

[Ryou.2398]

7 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

Not sure it'll be worth the effort. It will be like a basic horse, without any special abilities, which you can only level in PoF. It won't be helping you much in HoT, which has tons of verticality that your Raptor won't be able to overcome. Leveling your Gliding mastery and the other means of HoT travel will be of more use to you for now.

Actually this is completely off, I did the exact same thing and it made it far easier for me yes there is allot of getting on and off but obviously that is why it is hot keyed, it certainly helps skipping a bit of content even on the raptor with basic abilities.

Edited November 13, 2021 by Ryou.2398

[Pirogen.9561]

Just do the story. And only story. Story only.

Yes, navigating around Hot maps is very hard without mounts. Farming map metas is even harder. But thats "maps". You can't use mounts inside Hot story instances.

So do just story.

And the same with LWS3. Do just basic story.

[Gibson.4036]

Story does require map navigation, though. Especially in HoT where the next story mission is sometimes gated behind “level mastery x to continue”.

[Pirogen.9561]

T2 gliding (glide + updraft use), T1 Itzel (bonucing mushrooms), T1 Exalted, T1 Nanuch. You get Mastery points from story. XP is not hard to get.

Key is to remember to select mastery track(to fill XP bar) and not to waste mastery points of stuff you don't need just right now.. Ain't perfect, but its doable.

Small note: raptor is nice, but not that nice in HoT. Bunny at tier 3 is where fun starts. And that means even more PoF spoilers.

Anyway, if you really care about "no spoilers", then you can do HoT story without mounts. Its OK(ish) as long as you focus on story only.

Edited November 13, 2021 by Pirogen.9561

[Gibson.4036]

1 hour ago, Pirogen.9561 said:

 

Small note: raptor is nice, but not that nice in HoT. Bunny at tier 3 is where fun starts. And that means even more PoF spoilers.

Can you explain this. What additional spoilers? 
 

Once you’re in the desert, get canyon jumping, run up to Highlands and find carrots and kill harpies and you’ve got Springer. No more story required for the bunny nor canyon jumping nor high jump.

[Mungo Zen.9364]

1 hour ago, Gibson.4036 said:

Can you explain this. What additional spoilers? 
 

Once you’re in the desert, get canyon jumping, run up to Highlands and find carrots and kill harpies and you’ve got Springer. No more story required for the bunny nor canyon jumping nor high jump.

Most people are going to get to Desert Highlands via the story.  Even just navigating across 2 of the PoF maps is opportunity to ‘spoil’ the story and/or lore. 

This goes back to my first post, why bother doing the story in order if the convenience item is more important than the story and playing content as designed without the mounts?