Why I've enjoyed Guild Wars 2 more than any other MMORPG and why I hate the Griffon and Skyscale quests more than any quests in any MMORPG.

[Bronze Centipede.5230]

This is a rant, but it isn't a complaint. It isn't a complaint because ArenaNet doesn't owe me anything they haven't given me. Besides, I gotten a lot of pleasure out of GW2 and it's easily been worth the money I spent on it. If I've stuck with the game to the point of frustration, that's just me chasing the good times I once had.

 

What I loved about GW2 is that it gave me unprecedented freedom to do my own thing. I could advance through open world PvE, story modes, gathering, crafting, exploring, running dungeons, completing puzzles, and doing team-based or world PvP. I loved roaming from place to place, finding new areas, gathering, completing hearts and participating in PvE events. While there was a lot on offer that didn't interest me, the great thing was, I didn't have to do it. It didn't matter that I, for instance, hated jumping puzzles with a burning passion. I could run right on past and go fight the next monster! I raised eight characters to level 80 and enjoyed making gold to equip them.

 

When there were no more levels to get, there were Mastery Points and Hero Points to chase, to give me a reason to keep racking up experience. But the problem was, a lot of these were locked behind jumping puzzles. I've always been very, very bad at judging distances. I never could hit a ball as a kid, and as for playing precision puzzle games, forget about it! Chasing the points became frustrating. I adored the springer mount, which helped some.

 

I was delighted when I learned that GW2 had added a griffon and a scyscale mount. At last, I thought, with the power of flight, I could bypass jumping-puzzles! But they were both gated behind jumping puzzles. Lots of jumping puzzles. I spent a lot of time working on this, an exercise in sheer frustration. I eventually got the griffon, but without the power to lift, there was only so much it could do. Only by being helped by strangers willing to teleport me was I able to get as far as the Skyscale Lost set of quests, the hardest set of jumping puzzles yet. And, while I haven't yet quite given up, I'm increasingly thinking that they are just not steps I can complete.

 

My experience might be unusual. GW2 is an extremely successful game with many players, so maybe ArenaNet has it set up just right for the majority. But I wanted to share some feedback and I think this is the only venue for that.

[Linken.6345]

Then simply use these to bypass the jumping puzzles

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Extra-Pungent_Skyscale_Treat

The game even nod you to it giving 1 for free and the ability to craft or buy the rest on the trading post.

[Danikat.8537]

You don't have to complete any of the steps in Skyscale Lost. You can use Extra-Pungent Skyscale Treats to get credit on any step in the collection without actually doing it. Those can either be crafted or bought from the Trading Post. Although I recommend reading the requirements and maybe looking it up on the Wiki first because they don't all require jumping. 3 are world bosses, the City Above the Flats can be reached with the jackals sand portal ability and the Spider King one is a mini dungeon that doesn't require jumping.

Also I understand your frustration, but I think to some extent this is a perception problem; I don't think Anet made the griffon and skyscale to help people who can't do jumping puzzles, like the other mounts they're additional options, not a replacement. Especially considering many jumping puzzles don't allow you to do use any mounts. They definitely can help in some situations, but I don't think Anet see them more as advanced movement options, which is why they require you to use all the previous ones first.

[Randulf.7614]

You can skip steps as it tells you when you hit that step

[Mungrul.9358]

Also, hate to break it to you, but once you've unlocked the Griffon and Skyscale, they still won't allow you to skip jumping puzzles (if you want the rewards from said puzzles).

They'll help you cheese a few, but most jumping puzzles in the game have "No Fly" zones around them.

 

Sorry!

[Einsof.1457]

I disagree. I really enjoyed the griffon and skyscale journey. 

[Tyncale.1629]

Griffon and Skyscale Quest are the best, Already completed them on 7 accounts. I love playing in the open world and these quests give you a great reason to revisit zones, do some jumping puzzles, team up for some Bosses, gather stuff. I hope they will never change them.  There is a lot of stuff I can not do either  in this game and that's fine.  At least the OP did not ask to nerf the quest or something.  🙂 

[Ultramex.1506]

5 hours ago, Bronze Centipede.5230 said:

If the thread doesn't interest you, why not just ignore it instead of posting something unpleasant?

Quite the opposite, i'm interested in the replies whenever these threads come up, don't have much else to say when everyone already said it for you

And really sorry but i can't guaranteed i won't react the same to another griffson/skyscale *sigh* thread, though i prepared for worst reaction

[Sobx.1758]

6 hours ago, Bronze Centipede.5230 said:

What I loved about GW2 is that it gave me unprecedented freedom to do my own thing. I could advance through open world PvE, story modes, gathering, crafting, exploring, running dungeons, completing puzzles, and doing team-based or world PvP. I loved roaming from place to place, finding new areas, gathering, completing hearts and participating in PvE events. While there was a lot on offer that didn't interest me, the great thing was, I didn't have to do it. It didn't matter that I, for instance, hated jumping puzzles with a burning passion. I could run right on past and go fight the next monster! I raised eight characters to level 80 and enjoyed making gold to equip them.

And nothing about that changed, you can still not play what you don't want to play. You know what apparently changed here though? This:

6 hours ago, Bronze Centipede.5230 said:

I was delighted when I learned that GW2 had added a griffon and a scyscale mount. At last, I thought, with the power of flight, I could bypass jumping-puzzles!

You still want to skip the content you dislike, but now you want to get rewarded for skipping it 🙄 

[SinisterSlay.6973]

I didn't even remember jumping puzzles for sky scale. I guess I just did the treats without thinking about it.

But after years of playing, I had the gold to take shortcuts like that. And then I made all of it and more back crafting those and the food for the skyscale since they all had time gates on them.

[captrowdy.9561]

I enjoyed the skyscale quest. I skipped the part at the end and just purchased the treats. 

[Ashen.2907]

9 hours ago, Bronze Centipede.5230 said:

While there was a lot on offer that didn't interest me, the great thing was, I didn't have to do it. It didn't matter that I, for instance, hated jumping puzzles with a burning passion. I could run right on past and go fight the next monster!

Is there a particular reason for you to have abandoned this philosophy?

Edited July 26, 2022 by Ashen.2907

[Gibson.4036]

You can cheese almost all the skyscale JPs with the griffon.

https://doncpauli.com/skyscale-lost/ 

[ShadowCatz.8437]

On 7/26/2022 at 1:01 PM, Mungrul.9358 said:

Also, hate to break it to you, but once you've unlocked the Griffon and Skyscale, they still won't allow you to skip jumping puzzles (if you want the rewards from said puzzles).

They'll help you cheese a few, but most jumping puzzles in the game have "No Fly" zones around them.

 

Sorry!

"No fly" (or no gliding) zone is for JP where gliding will be disabled. I would think it is called "No mount" (and a blue icon above weapon bar will indicate which kind of restriction that is active when you get close enough to JP in that part of map zone).

In most cases Mounts will be disabled around JP and you can still use gliding, so it is important to keep that in mind. In some places you can use different mounts to get high enough up in air and from there glide down to area around JP, so it matters how different JP will disable what which also often is mentioned in GW2 wiki for each JP.

[Dante.1508]

I hated doing both, i just really hate collection BS.. I did them because you have no choice if you want the mounts.

[Einsof.1457]

47 minutes ago, Dante.1508 said:

I hated doing both, i just really hate collection BS.. I did them because you have no choice if you want the mounts.

Imagine choosing to live a life where you do things you hate. Sounds awful. 

[Dante.1508]

On 7/31/2022 at 3:07 AM, Einsof.1457 said:

Imagine choosing to live a life where you do things you hate. Sounds awful. 

I started GW2 and got invested before all this collection BS got added.. I kinda still play because i've spend a substantial sum on this game.

[Einsof.1457]

11 hours ago, Dante.1508 said:

I started GW2 and got invested before all this collection BS got added.. I kinda still play because i've spend a substantial sum on this game.

That's a terrible reason to do something. If you are not having fun, stop. It's not healthy. Also, collections have been in gw2 since the beginning.

Edited August 2, 2022 by Einsof.1457

[Sirius.4510]

On 7/26/2022 at 4:01 AM, Mungrul.9358 said:

Also, hate to break it to you, but once you've unlocked the Griffon and Skyscale, they still won't allow you to skip jumping puzzles (if you want the rewards from said puzzles).

They'll help you cheese a few, but most jumping puzzles in the game have "No Fly" zones around them.

 

Sorry!

You might be surprised - Bond of Faith is not cancelled by no-fly zones, so as long as you can find somewhere to fire it off from, and have good enough aim to hit the end of the jumping puzzle, you can cheese almost all of them. Including the Aetherblade one (though that has a special level of trickiness because the top of the airship is obscured by a no-collide wall!).

[Squeesidhe.4761]

I also hate jumping puzzles. But someone on the Anet design team loves them more than his dog or his mother. Just wants to marry jumping puzzles, honeymoon in Hawaii with jumping puzzles, and make little jumping puzzle babies with his jumping puzzles. 

[Valisha.8650]

I agree, jumping puzzles should never be mandatory for any unlock. Sorry, but this game is not some super mario platformer.

[Einsof.1457]

1 hour ago, Valisha.8650 said:

I agree, jumping puzzles should never be mandatory for any unlock. Sorry, but this game is not some super mario platformer.

It actually is apparently. And it's AWESOME. 

[itspomf.9523]

While I didn't mind the griffon stuff (going back to the library was kind of a highlight for me), hunting the eggs was definitely a part I celebrated being done with.

When that kind of nonsense came back with a vengeance in working toward skyscale, I just ... stopped.  It was a slog and I hated every minute of it, and I still haven't finished it, 3+ years later.

And I actually like most of the jumping puzzles.

[Dante.1508]

11 hours ago, Einsof.1457 said:

That's a terrible reason to do something. If you are not having fun, stop. It's not healthy. Also, collections have been in gw2 since the beginning.

I enjoy some of the other aspects of the game. I have taken a break for now Guilds are to busy using discord these days and ignore guild chat.. makes guilds feel dead..

[Kori Jenkins.9017]

15 hours ago, Einsof.1457 said:

That's a terrible reason to do something. If you are not having fun, stop. It's not healthy. Also, collections have been in gw2 since the beginning.

Collections have been in the game, this is true, but I've been playing this game since nearly the beginning and there were absolutely not multi-staged tedious collections like this one when I started. They were mainly item collections, many of which vendors just straight up sold or you could buy in one go on the TP. 

 

The skyscale collection is a special kind of bad. Sure, it sorta breaks the game; the reward is great, but should great rewards mean great suffering? Is that really a smart strategy as developers of a game? To torment your players with a collection quest that is both boring and takes hours? 

 

In hindsight I think it might have been worse than I remember it being. Now I'll say something like "flying around Dragonfall is easy, collection not hard" but I didn't have the skyscale when I did it (nor did anyone who did it for the first time). You sorta forget how annoying it is trying not to accidentally walk off tree branches with the springer. 

4 hours ago, Dante.1508 said:

I enjoy some of the other aspects of the game. I have taken a break for now Guilds are to busy using discord these days and ignore guild chat.. makes guilds feel dead..

My experience with guilds is pretty lame as well. Most are just those massive guilds with hundreds of members, mostly noobs or inexperienced solo players that never talk, who demand you rep them 100% on all accounts under threat of being kicked, or discord guilds that never talk at all in-game. Discord really damaged in-game elements of the community across all games. =