What are the rarest skins in the free mount license?

[HowlKamui.5120]

Hey, I'm not really into collecting skins for the mounts, so I'm not super in the know here. Browsing at the selection, some of them look basic compared to the others, which implies that some of them were harder to get when they were available. 

Wanted to ask if any of you know which ones in the selection are particularly rare since I might go for them. Right now I'm prioritizing the warclaw as I like to WvW a lot and still have a basic mount skin, but I'm open to choose a different one. 

 

Thanks, fam!

[Bakeneko.5826]

1 hour ago, HowlKamui.5120 said:

Hey, I'm not really into collecting skins for the mounts, so I'm not super in the know here. Browsing at the selection, some of them look basic compared to the others, which implies that some of them were harder to get when they were available. 

Wanted to ask if any of you know which ones in the selection are particularly rare since I might go for them. Right now I'm prioritizing the warclaw as I like to WvW a lot and still have a basic mount skin, but I'm open to choose a different one. 

 

Thanks, fam!

Since all mounts are from licenses and packs, i wouldn't say there is "rare" skin in there. Pick what you want.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I guess you could look in the Wiki and see which set/bundle/back was offered the least amount of time (days)/least amount of times (how many times over the year[s]), and that would make that set/bundle/pack the rarest? 

It's really just your choice.

[Kalocin.5982]

Rarest ones will be the least flashy looking ones lol

[Danikat.8537]

They're all the same.

The RNG licences aren't weighted towards particular skins or types of skins, you've got an equal chance at any of them on your first try and you're guaranteed not to get a duplicate so the chance of getting any of remaining ones increases (by an equal amount for each skin) as you use more.

On top of that the original Adoption Licence pack had an option to buy all 30 together when it first came out and the later ones all have Select Licences which let you choose the skin you want instead of getting a random one (it's the same price for each skin), and there's now a Select Licence for the original pack too.

The nearest you'll get to one being rarer than the others is if one licence has been offered for less time in total, or less frequently, and one skin in there isn't as popular as the others. But there's no way to know for sure which are less popular.

If you want a skin which other players will pay attention to then IMO the best approach is to get one which will suit your character or you can dye really nicely (you can find examples of them dyed on youtube or various fan sites).

[Ashantara.8731]

1 hour ago, Kalocin.5982 said:

Rarest ones will be the least flashy looking ones lol

You nailed it! 😂

[Danikat.8537]

1 hour ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

You nailed it! 😂

I know a lot of people like flashy things in general, but I'm surprised by how dismissive some players are of those.

When we first started getting mount skins top of my list was (at least) one skin for each mount which looks just like the original but with 4 dye slots so I can better customise it to my characters. For example having a green raptor for a character who always wears green or a darker one for my thief. The shape may be the same but being able to have a mount that's the right colours to match a theme makes a big difference.

That's why I was disappointed when the first adoption licence was RNG-only. If I wanted a novelty mount I could buy one of the 5-packs (we'd had at least one of those by that point) but if I wanted something 'normal' looking my only option was RNG. The first mount pack I bought was the branded ones, partially because I could dye them to look like spikier version of the normal mounts and then I got the whole Istani Isles pack when that was released because it finally included 'normal' mounts, and spent a very long time trying to find a suitable jackal.

[HowlKamui.5120]

Gotcha, thanks everyone for the replies! Ill probably get the Tundra Grimalkin

[Gibson.4036]

I’m totally paralyzed between flashy/not flashy. My freebie contract is sitting in inventory.

I don’t have any mount skins, and will likely never buy one, so this is my one time to choose.

I like the flashy. Stargaze and Frostsoul are a lot of fun. Stormscale is also great.

On the other hand, as the only non-basic skin I’ll ever have, will it be too much to have flashy (and the same flashy) on every character? Maybe I should go with more sedate, purely to have the play of four due channels. That might be the better long term choice. 

My characters themselves tend toward not flashy. Only one is on fire, for ironic reasons. Only two of them have the prismatic BO. I’ve got a few weapons with glows, but their among the gentler.

But that could mean there’s room for a flashy mount.

So hard to decide!

[Garrison Storm.3046]

13 minutes ago, Gibson.4036 said:

I’m totally paralyzed between flashy/not flashy. My freebie contract is sitting in inventory.

I don’t have any mount skins, and will likely never buy one, so this is my one time to choose.

I like the flashy. Stargaze and Frostsoul are a lot of fun. Stormscale is also great.

On the other hand, as the only non-basic skin I’ll ever have, will it be too much to have flashy (and the same flashy) on every character? Maybe I should go with more sedate, purely to have the play of four due channels. That might be the better long term choice. 

My characters themselves tend toward not flashy. Only one is on fire, for ironic reasons. Only two of them have the prismatic BO. I’ve got a few weapons with glows, but their among the gentler.

But that could mean there’s room for a flashy mount.

So hard to decide!

 

Same boat for me!  I'm also leaning towards flashy despite a very lowkey main character, as I figure that the base mounts are already pretty mundane; it's an opportunity to add rather than duplicate.

 

I do have one flashy alt, a Revenant, equipped with the Lunatic's Guard outfit and wielding two flaming swords.  That toon is just screaming for the Incarnate Flame skyscale, is it not?  But I play that character so infrequently... I have a feeling my voucher will sit there a little longer.... 

[Danikat.8537]

33 minutes ago, Gibson.4036 said:

I’m totally paralyzed between flashy/not flashy. My freebie contract is sitting in inventory.

I don’t have any mount skins, and will likely never buy one, so this is my one time to choose.

I like the flashy. Stargaze and Frostsoul are a lot of fun. Stormscale is also great.

On the other hand, as the only non-basic skin I’ll ever have, will it be too much to have flashy (and the same flashy) on every character? Maybe I should go with more sedate, purely to have the play of four due channels. That might be the better long term choice. 

My characters themselves tend toward not flashy. Only one is on fire, for ironic reasons. Only two of them have the prismatic BO. I’ve got a few weapons with glows, but their among the gentler.

But that could mean there’s room for a flashy mount.

So hard to decide!

In that situation I suggest going for something flashy.

You don't have to use it when it doesn't fit, but it will give you the option if you want, which you don't currently have. Also dyes can make a huge difference to how the mount looks. For example on both the Frostsoul and Stormscale if you dye the effects around the mount a dark or dull colour they can be almost invisible. Or you can dye them a brighter colour and make them stand out.

In your situation I'd probably go for the Stargaze, on the basis that it's quite versatile. If you dye it all dark or dull colours it won't look much different to a normal skyscale but with a space effect, or you could dye it very bright, or a mix. But I might be biased because I really like the space mounts generally.

[Ashen.2907]

As soon as they were offered as a free option the word "rare" no longer applied.

[Batel.9206]

2 hours ago, Gibson.4036 said:

I’m totally paralyzed between flashy/not flashy. My freebie contract is sitting in inventory.

I don’t have any mount skins, and will likely never buy one, so this is my one time to choose.

I like the flashy. Stargaze and Frostsoul are a lot of fun. Stormscale is also great.

On the other hand, as the only non-basic skin I’ll ever have, will it be too much to have flashy (and the same flashy) on every character? Maybe I should go with more sedate, purely to have the play of four due channels. That might be the better long term choice. 

My characters themselves tend toward not flashy. Only one is on fire, for ironic reasons. Only two of them have the prismatic BO. I’ve got a few weapons with glows, but their among the gentler.

But that could mean there’s room for a flashy mount.

So hard to decide!

The only flashy mount skin I have is the Pyroclast jackal skin. Got that one from the original RNG skin pack when it first came out. At first I was kind of disappointed with it, because none of my characters are fire/lava-themed and it's hard to justify any of them having such a loud, shiny, flashy thing...

...but then I realized the fun things you can do with dyes.

So now my necromancer, mesmer, and one of my rangers all ride this thing. My necromancer has it dyed deep green and dark purple, similar to his coloration (sylvari), and someone recently commented it looked a bit like a weed - which was my intention, especially since the necro himself looks a bit like a tangled weed. They match, yay! My mesmer dyed hers varying shades of purple and pink, just like her mesmer magic, so it looks like one of her illusions. My ranger has his dyed in soft blues and greens to look like water and mossy rocks - fitting, since he wields nature magic as a Druid (and he's a sylvari who was designed to look like a water lily).

Point of all that is that dyeing something creatively can tone down the flashiness and make it more appropriate for that particular character. 😄 I love the skin now.

Edited August 31, 2022 by Batel.9206
Pyroclast, not Pyroclastic. Whoops

[Gibson.4036]

2 minutes ago, Batel.9206 said:

 

...but then I realized the fun things you can do with dyes.

 

I was noticing that as I was watching videos. Someone dyed the Frost Soul in a bunch of fiery colors, and the snowflakes even started to look like embers and the frost in the air like smoke.

[Danikat.8537]

40 minutes ago, Batel.9206 said:

The only flashy mount skin I have is the Pyroclast jackal skin. Got that one from the original RNG skin pack when it first came out. At first I was kind of disappointed with it, because none of my characters are fire/lava-themed and it's hard to justify any of them having such a loud, shiny, flashy thing...

...but then I realized the fun things you can do with dyes.

So now my necromancer, mesmer, and one of my rangers all ride this thing. My necromancer has it dyed deep green and dark purple, similar to his coloration (sylvari), and someone recently commented it looked a bit like a weed - which was my intention, especially since the necro himself looks a bit like a tangled weed. They match, yay! My mesmer dyed hers varying shades of purple and pink, just like her mesmer magic, so it looks like one of her illusions. My ranger has his dyed in soft blues and greens to look like water and mossy rocks - fitting, since he wields nature magic as a Druid (and he's a sylvari who was designed to look like a water lily).

Point of all that is that dyeing something creatively can tone down the flashiness and make it more appropriate for that particular character. 😄 I love the skin now.

I did the opposite. I got the Iceflow jackal from the Istani Isles pack and dyed it to look like lava for my elementalist. It took a long time to find the right dye for the body, but once I got there (I think I'm using Pyre now) it worked really well and now I don't think I'd swap it for the Pyroclast, even now there's a select licence for the original set.

[Silent.6137]

Although it probably won't be very accurate, but looking at GW2efficiency, the top 20 rarest from the selections are (rarest to most common) :

1. Renegade Warclaw
2. Sunrise Macaw (Griffon)
3. Taiga Lupine (Jackal)
4. Nautiloid (Roller Beetle)
5. Sleek Dunerunner (Roller Beetle)
6. Exalted Way Seeker (Roller Beetle)
7. Elonian Waverider (Skimmer)
8. Alluring Devilfish (Skimmer)
9. Spotted Springtail (Springer)
10. Crested Plainsrunner (Raptor)
11. Gendarran Hawkeye (Griffon)
12. Kintsugi Raptor
13. Stripe-Winged Skyscale
14. Bighorn Charger (Warclaw)
15. Caledon Short-Tail (Springer)
16. Ntouka Snakeshell (Roller Beetle)
17. Kournan Bright-Tail (Griffon)
18. Shattered Nightscale (Skyscale)
19. Spotted Orchid (Skimmer)
20. Exo-Suit Warclaw

All the skins offered in the selections: Black Lion Special Mount Selection License

Edited August 31, 2022 by Silent.6137

[Garrison Storm.3046]

1 hour ago, Silent.6137 said:

Although it probably won't be very accurate, but looking at GW2efficiency, the top 20 rarest from the selections are

 

Nice... it would be interesting to understand how many of the free vouchers have been claimed, and in proportion to what had already been claimed through the gem store... would give you a 'least desirable' list (excluding those who may have a more limited selection as a result of already having some of the selections).

[Xanadrine.4352]

Im tempted to get another skyscale skin,but i have enough really. So I will prob get a skimmer or bunny because those are the ones i only 1 skin of

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I'm surprised Kintsugi Raptor is so unpopular.  It really looks cool and so different from others.  I really like it.

 

[Vayne.8563]

11 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

I know a lot of people like flashy things in general, but I'm surprised by how dismissive some players are of those.

When we first started getting mount skins top of my list was (at least) one skin for each mount which looks just like the original but with 4 dye slots so I can better customise it to my characters. For example having a green raptor for a character who always wears green or a darker one for my thief. The shape may be the same but being able to have a mount that's the right colours to match a theme makes a big difference.

That's why I was disappointed when the first adoption licence was RNG-only. If I wanted a novelty mount I could buy one of the 5-packs (we'd had at least one of those by that point) but if I wanted something 'normal' looking my only option was RNG. The first mount pack I bought was the branded ones, partially because I could dye them to look like spikier version of the normal mounts and then I got the whole Istani Isles pack when that was released because it finally included 'normal' mounts, and spent a very long time trying to find a suitable jackal.

I think you might be in a minority here. There were a handful of people I knew that wanted less ostentatious mounts, including me, but the vast majority of people I play with wanted something "cool". It might not be the brightest, but it had some sort of particle effect. The game itself sort of pushes you to particle effects are more expensive stuff mentality.

 

I like having a variety both natural and over-stated mounts, but in the beginning I was just going for dye slots. As time went on however, almost every mount I ended up being interested in had some special effect.

 

It certainly seemed there was a lot of glowing flashy stuff around every time a new mount pack came out to me.

[Doggie.3184]

I'm torn between the GR8 Horned Skyscale and the Big Chungus Skyscale~ but then again if they add a Saltspray Skyscale (especially with water breath) one day that isn't RNG'd to hell I'd want to buy that and wish I'd of gotten the Striped Grimalkin. :u

Also considered Frostsoul Skyscale till I saw it breath fire instead of ice which is too ackward. 😶

Edited August 31, 2022 by Doggie.3184

[Danikat.8537]

16 minutes ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

I'm surprised Kintsugi Raptor is so unpopular.  It really looks cool and so different from others.  I really like it.

 

My guess is it falls into that awakward space where it doesn't appear to be distinct enough for the people who want something flashy and is too different (or not enough of a pattern) for people who want a non-flashy mount. I have to admit it's one I've never really considered and I'm not sure what I'd do with it. Although I once saw one dyed entirely grey which looks surreal.

I'm surprised by a few in that list, although I suspect release order is a factor. For example I like the renegade warclaw more than the vanguard one, but I'd already bought the 5-pack when it was released, and I don't think it makes enough of a difference to be worth buying when I've already got one that's good enough.

I think the Taiga Lupine jackal might be in a similar position, it's the same shape as the Desert Shiba but with a different pattern so a lot of people who like it will already have that one and may not want another.

[Fenom.9457]

Objectively speaking all of the have the exact same monetary value and rarity: they all come from various licenses that cost the exact same price. Furthermore you have an equal chance to get any of them from the random version or can buy a more expensive license to pick outright which skin you get. Therefore making the RNG version entirely balanced while also negating any form of coincidental rarity from them (like it many players just so happened to not get a certain skin) by offering a controllable version.

 

The only way in which they are uneven might be how many players happen to own them. I’m not sure if they have this information, but if anyone does it’ll be GW2 Efficiency. There you might be able to see the skins least owned by all players registered there

[Silent.6137]

48 minutes ago, Fenom.9457 said:

 I’m not sure if they have this information, but if anyone does it’ll be GW2 Efficiency. There you might be able to see the skins least owned by all players registered there

GW2efficiency does although not complete. Still missing some of the more recent skins. Scroll up for a small list on the rarest.

[Shadowmoon.7986]

Technically the best bet would be a pick your favorite skin from the first mount pack. This is the only way to 100% get the mount skin you want from that pack because every other pack has select option. The first mount pack was rng only.