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Skyscale Quest Fix Request


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Hello All, 

 

I've returned to GW2 recently, after having played a month or two around the HoT Launch, and been progressing through the story slowly but surely, grabbing some map completions here and some side-adventuring there. The game's great, with a beautiful aesthetic, intimidating monsters and honorable fights. I just made it through Living World Season 4, and while the dialogue was middle-school levels of cringe, the scenery, enemies and encounters were glorious. Excited to mount one of those cool Dragons, I started the Skyscale Quest...

Step 1. Go to 20 random locations in the map 'Dragonfall' and press 'Interact'

Uh, okay. Not my cup of tea but if it has to happen, I'll do it. 

Step 2. Go to 20 random locations in the map 'Dragonfall' and press 'Interact'

Wait, didn't I just do this? It's roughly the same locations too... and all I have to... kitten, I guess I'll roll with it.

Step 3. Go to 20 random locations in the map 'Dragonfall' and press 'Interact'

There is no excuse. Who designed this? Who thought of this? Why was there not one veteran interjecting and correcting this? How'd it get greenlit for launch? This isn't some silly hidden side-quest, this is the most popular mount in the game, and you're going with this? 

 

After taking a little break I, feeling like I was being clowned while doing it, went around Dragonfall to once again press Interact at 20 random locations. Now I've just received a list of another 20 or so quests, which'll be followed by another 20 or so quests, and the first one is:

Step 4. Go to the map 'Dragonfall' and kill 150 random enemies

 

Yeah, this needs to desperately be reworked, top to bottom. I'm convinced not even those silly P2W Grind-Fest games have quest-lines this blatantly low quality. If you asked me "Make an absolutely terrible questline", the purposefully terrible nonsense I'd come up with would be more engaging and fun than this. A game that asks you to kill 20 wolves north of town, wouldn't then ask you to kill 20 wolves north of town, and wouldn't then ask you to kill 20 wolves north of town, and wouldn't then ask you to kill 150 wolves north of town. Can anyone explain this? 

 

Now when I bring this up in-game, I am faced with the collective trauma of gamers that slogged through honest to God the single dumbest quest-design I've ever seen in my life. "If they change it, people would be furious!". That's bad reasoning, and is forcing newcomers / returning players obviously looking to get the kitten Dragon mount to engage with Game Design that wouldn't be acceptable in the Alpha Demo Version of the first Runescape. This can not be good for the game, and the idea that you've already had half the player-base tortured, so up-on-the-rack go the other half should be wholly ignored. If you have a Skyscale today, in your heart of hearts, do you honestly not want the people coming in now not to have to do this? 

 

While I'd love an explanation for the philosophy of this questline... I mean, I can't rhyme the quality of the rest of the game with the literal-zero-braincell-design of this... Is the philosophy of this questline literally "Make it as bad as humanly possible"? Anyway, I feel fully justified in asking for a fix, not just for me but for every other player that's looking to get the Dragon mount, the main mount. This is a stunning stain on a game that doesn't seem to have that hardcore 'grind, grind, grind' mindset anywhere else... 

 

TL;DR The Skyscale Questline is the dumbest thing I've seen for as long as I've been playing games, and needs to be fixed. Back me up here... 

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If you read it carefully, its not about making it easier (less effort), but adding more logic to it and that it is less confusing.

In my opinion i dont mind the way it is, but i need to admit when i made it, it was a bit confusing to go to the same place 3 times.

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1 hour ago, Epilogue.4735 said:

if I went to my local hospital's kitten ward..

Look man, I was willing to agree with your OP that the Skyscale quest is tedious and a big uptick in effort and annoyance from all the other mount journeys, but I really don't like this analogy you used. I don't think it helps the point you're trying to make in any way.

Apart from that, yes: The Skyscale process was boring, needlessly timegated, and didn't endear me to the mount (you raise it from an egg, so I'm assuming they intended for players to feel invested - it just didn't happen with me). I enjoy working on collections and pursuing long goals, but running to the same location over and over doesn't feel good in games, and it didn't feel good in this one either.

I'm hoping the upcoming Siege Turtle won't be done the same way, but I'd put at least $5 and a slice of pizza on it being executed identically. However, if they've looked at the many feedback threads regarding the Skyscale, maybe they'll shock us all and shake things up next time.

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1 hour ago, Freya.9075 said:

I enjoyed the collection so I don’t agree. If you find it that tedious you can use tacO. It’ll take you way less time that way

I enjoyed it as well.  Accustomed to time gates and repetitive tasks in other games, so really not bothered by any of it.  I had fun collecting and following the story with the skyscales. 

So what would OP do to make it anymore interesting experience for them, since apparently it's too repetitive, too grindy, and too mundane for them to continue?  What would make it appeal to you, since going to locations, raising the egg, etc.  just don't do it for you?

 

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20 minutes ago, Alcatraznc.3869 said:

The only part where I agree with OP is the "go to X location" 3 times. While it makes sense lorewise, it is repetitive and boring for the player. 

 

But the rest is pretty good.   

I agree. Going around Dragonfall 3 times was annoying but the worldwide quests was better. Maybe more of a pacing issue.

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18 hours ago, Freya.9075 said:

I enjoyed the collection so I don’t agree. If you find it that tedious you can use tacO. It’ll take you way less time that way

Same here. I love these kind of scavenger hunts that really make you explore the map all over, and find lots of hidden places 🙂 .

 

If this isn't the kind of gameplay you enjoy, OP, there are plenty of tools around to help you through it, be it the wiki, different guides, or even taco, but if you absolutely can't stand it, you can play the game just as well (some would argue even better) while using other mounts.

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It  does  make sense if you follow the story.

Spoiler

From getting he egg to hatching, raising, training, manufacturing the saddle.

Then you've got your own Skyscale to fly. After part 1 you get quest markers. One thing I'll say, if you are doing Return to Dragonsfall achievements you'll likely get a lot of that done. Before I  realised how far through it I was I had my plasma weapon for Dragonfall. And enjoyed doing it anyway, got to learn a bit about Dragonfall, the meta and so on. I don't remember the kill 150 enemies in Dragonfall. I remember needing to kill a lot of enemies as part of infusing the egg with magic, and also reviving allies.

I think if it was changed  drastically there are three groups of people. People who already have the Skyscale. I got mine on Christmas Day 2021, felt a sense of accomplishment. The Youtuber AyinMaiden was a god send for some of it. Hey, I did it, I'll admit, in Overwatch I did the Heroes of the Storm event to unlock Officer D.Va. Then they made it a loot box costume. Nothing special to get it. I'd have been all for doing more events where it could be unlocked so that it wouldn't have been a one time chance and never available again, but it felt a lot less special when it was just added along with the B.Va and Junebug skins.

Then there are people who are in the middle of it. There is the time gated feeding bit, but there are pauses we make. I for example took a while on the saddle part. What happens if you are in the middle of it and the quest changes? That's why I think it would be hard to change drastically without making it easier. Even if it was part 1, "Oh, you don't need to do that anymore, you need to do this." "But I'm already three quarters of the way through that."

Then the third group is the ones who haven't started yet. It is an optional mount.

 

Edited by Sinmir.6504
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21 hours ago, Epilogue.4735 said:

While I'd love an explanation for the philosophy of this questline... I mean, I can't rhyme the quality of the rest of the game with the literal-zero-braincell-design of this... Is the philosophy of this questline literally "Make it as bad as humanly possible"? Anyway, I feel fully justified in asking for a fix, not just for me but for every other player that's looking to get the Dragon mount, the main mount. This is a stunning stain on a game that doesn't seem to have that hardcore 'grind, grind, grind' mindset anywhere else... 

 

TL;DR The Skyscale Questline is the dumbest thing I've seen for as long as I've been playing games, and needs to be fixed. Back me up here... 

 

Sorry bud, i can't back you up here.

The Skyscale is optional and the legendary of the mounts.

If you want it, you have to suffer and self hate as all of us did.

It's like the festival winter shoulders. After you are finally got them, you hate yourself and A-Net so much that put down the game for a while.

But everything is getting better after. You will truly enjoy having those items if you really desired them

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On 1/2/2022 at 6:44 PM, sorudo.9054 said:

when the beetle has a better quality acquire quest than the skyscale grind fest it makes me wonder how many of blizzard made this grind fest.

no, forget that, even WoW isn't THAT grindy

WoW also doesn't have mounts that do anything like GW2 mounts do afaik. And there you are kept busy with level cap raises and new gear tiers, which is something this game specifically doesn't do. I mean Blizzard had to reduce the number of levels in WoW at some point because it was getting out of hand. In essence that's an entirely different kind of grind. So really, you can't compare the two just like that.

Edited by Gehenna.3625
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This collection almost made me quit the game. The legendary neck, while better, left me feeling raw too. I think it would have been fine not forcing us to replay all that story and letting us pick fewer objectives from each episode, kind of how they let us beat strike missions to avoid some ib saga objectives. This dragon. I dunno. I can't even begin to fix it. It's totally worth it if you like the game, my only recommendation is to spread it out more and do other things you actually enjoy in between. 

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8 hours ago, Firebeard.1746 said:

Just season 4 material grind. What else have they dumbed down?

And you can easy and elegantly cruise over the season 4 grind with the Return to ls4. As each part gives you 500 of the related map currency.

Edited by LucianDK.8615
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7 hours ago, Firebeard.1746 said:

This collection almost made me quit the game. The legendary neck, while better, left me feeling raw too.

It's a Legendary. There are/were numerous threads about how easy it is to obtain compared to other Legendaries, specifically Transcendence. Where is the middle ground here?

The Skyscale is considered the Legendary of the mounts. Many who have it rarely, if ever, use anything else. It is also entirely optional, much like the amulet.

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