Accepting the fact that I will never obtain a skyscale.

[Sobx.1758]

7 minutes ago, SlayerXX.7138 said:

Why not? You sound a little paranoid. Why shouldn't they announce in guildchat or discord that they take a break or quit the game?
There are a lot of reason to not do skyscale together. Less play time? To far behind on the progress of the collection? Collecting scales and producing treats isn't a group activity?

Why not? Because of what I wrote in my post, including how reliable was what he said in the very same post about eve timegates. I also never said they somehow shouldn't say they're taking a break or quit the game.

Edited May 26, 2023 by Sobx.1758

[Cyninja.2954]

Any argument made with:"you will lose players because this is to grindy" automatically loses to the amount of players this game loses constantly which require a clear carrot to work towards.

The skyscale (and a lot of recent achievements, especially since Icebrood Saga) has been made intentionally with grind in mind because that's what keeps players around longer. It's that simple.

The entire addition of the legendary armory was nothing more than adding a huge longterm grind for a lot of players in the gear department (without making it necessary but upping the convenience tremendously).

The entire rehashing and addition of the "Return to" achievements was the same.

Sorry to point out the obvious: grind for player retention IS part of MMOs. 

The goal should be, and which GW2 strives for in most areas, to not lock players out entirely if they haven't put in the grind. This is achieved for the skyscale, for gear, for story, etc.

TL;DR:

The skyscale is very effective the way it is implemented. Every player gets to chose if they want to get one or not (unlike the Turtle, where the goal was to get players to join strikes and not grind).

Edited May 26, 2023 by Cyninja.2954

[Khisanth.2948]

2 hours ago, SlayerXX.7138 said:

GW 2 Efficiency says 41% have skyscale, but that is a sub section of the player base that has an average of 2000+ game hours

The correct percent for GW2Efficiency's stat is around 75%. It has to be adjusted to the number of people can even start the collection which requires completing the War Eternal episode.

Two other things to consider.

1. GW2E stat probably over represent completion rate

2. Impossible to account for people who are simply working on it slowly

~85% who completed the first collection unlocked the mount.

~90% who completed the boring Newborn Skyscales collections unlocked the mount

Edit: Actually the percents should be higher because it also requires owning PoF but I can't be bothered to do more math ....

Edited May 26, 2023 by Khisanth.2948

[Ashantara.8731]

5 hours ago, OldManWhat.5083 said:

@Randulf.7614this is what I mean. There is nothing natural about getting the Sky Scale we have to go out of our way to get it. I understand that you may feel like it's a legendary equivalent to a mount but it's not.

But that's exactly what the Griffon and the Skyscale are: prestige mounts.

[voltaicbore.8012]

1 hour ago, Super Hayes.6890 said:

"Daddy why is there another collection? We just want to play with the dragon!" 

If you're lucky, this will be a formative experience for them, and you don't even have to be the bad guy!

I also did the skyscale collection at release, and I fully agree that even the current watered down version isn't fun. That said, I think it's still quite attainable in comparison to many other in-game goals, and OP's posts seem to be a series of "well other people have it, it makes me feel bad to see that and not have it myself... Anet should just give it to me during the natural course of how I play this game."

I'm not one of those people who insist that everyone suffer through a suboptimal process just because I did so, but I also can't agree with OP's "it should just happen" perspective.

[Khisanth.2948]

58 minutes ago, Cyninja.2954 said:

Any argument made with:"you will lose players because this is to grindy" automatically loses to the amount of players this game loses constantly which require a clear carrot to work towards.

and if they were really worried about that they should be more consistent with content release

Ideally high quality content but with the original LS1 releases we can see that you can make up for lack of quality with quantity

[Sugar Min.5834]

I have played this game since launch. Although I took around 2.5 years break in-between, I came back about 3 months after HoT launch.

A few times I tried going through the super grindy and time-gated (ANet changed some of that time-gated requirements later) achievements to get the dragon but I stopped halfway through each time and telling myself this a waste of time. I could be doing something way more fun, something I actually enjoyed.

Yep, today I am still without the skyscale. My griffon can fly way faster than the skyscale, my springer can scale much higher heights than the skyscale and on the ground when moving to point A to point B, my beetle and raptor is way faster than the Skyscale. And if I want to afk in OW maps and be safe from mobs, I always go to my GH and go back to the exact same spot anytime.

Yes, the dragon may be the go to mount for most players, you can still enjoy and play the game efficiently without it. The dragon is just a convenience for height climbing, it is definitely not indispensable.

And also, I saved money from not buying the dragon skins 🙂

Edited May 27, 2023 by Min Min.9368

[Omega.6801]

It's a mid to long term goal, which is perfedctly fine for the convenience it brings. Gotta do the thing if you want the thing.

[loregnum.3619]

Getting the skyscale is not difficult nor is it as big a time taker as some make it out to be. Outside of the early collections in dragonfall, you can incorporate the other steps with simply just playing the game, like how one acquires the map currencies. Just play the darn game in those maps and you'll get the currencies from the return to... achievements. If one only looks at everything they are doing as a skyscale step then they're doing it wrong and will probably get annoyed.

If someone is getting burnt out then don't try and get it within a week or ONLY do stuff that is based around it. In dragonfall during the start of it and don't want to put in the couple hours to collect all the stuff? Get some of the items and take part in some of the map meta while getting loot. Repeat the next day. Now of course this would require one to show some self control and common sense and we can't have that in today's world. Better people choose to jerk themselves over and then complain after the fact. 

I also have to "lol" at the person that keeps calling the turtle useless/pointless. Turtle is great, especially with the pilot booster jade bot component that makes the slam skill fun to use. Turtle isn't at the level of skyscale (no mount is, IMO) but it's my second favourite mount and I do own all of the pve mounts fully maxed out. 

[loregnum.3619]

38 minutes ago, Min Min.9368 said:

I have played this game since launch. Although I took around 2.5 years break in-between, I came back about 3 months after HoT launch.

A few times I tried going through the super grindy and time-gated (ANet changed some of that time-gated requirements later) achievements to get the dragon but I stopped halfway through each time and telling myself this a waste of time. I could be doing something way more fun, something I actually enjoyed.

Yep, today I am still without the skyscale. My griffon can fly faster than the skyscale, my springer can jump higher than the skyscale and on the ground my beetle and raptor is way faster than the Skyscale. And if I want to afk in OW maps and be safe from mobs, I always go to my GH and go back to the exact same spot anytime.

Yes, the dragon may be the go to mount for most players, you can still enjoy and play the game efficiently without it. The Skyscale is not indispensable.

And also, I saved money from not buying the dragon skins 🙂

The bunny does not jump higher than the skyscale. That's crazy talk, not to mention the bunny is an absolute pain at times to land on certain ledges. Anyone that has all the mounts fully mastered knows how amazing the skyscale is and like me, would probably shake their head at your comment thinking the bunny is a good substitute for the skyscale. If you ever change your mind and get it, chances are you'll see the same thing we all do and you'll shake your head at your comment here and realize how silly you were being. 

I'll add that before I got the skyscale almost a year ago (I started playing the game in April 2022 and got the skyscale last summer), I tried out the freebie one in dragonfall and I thought it was pretty lousy and decided I was not going to bother getting it and then like you, I tried to rationalize my decision in a similar way you stated here with the bunny and raptor and even the griffon, which I didn't yet have. I was all set to get the griffon first and do the annoying bunny jump to griffon trick to get decent starting height. I then started to change my mind and got more used to how the bare bones skyscale flies after spending more time in dragonfall and read up on how much better the masteries make it and decided that I would indeed go back to getting it and trust what people said about how it is fully mastered. Did that and I am so glad I changed my mind and just shake my head at the sheer silliness of my very first impression using it. It's the best thing I have ever got in the game and I'd quit playing if I ever had to give it up. It's that good. 

I actually unlocked mine sometime during the Four Winds festival and the difference in using the bunny vs skyscale for the coin event was laughable. I think I tripled my total with the skyscale and didn't feel borderline rage at how imprecise the bunny was doing that. Where I was about ready to not even do that each day with the bunny after experiencing the annoyance a few times, I ended up looking forward to doing that event with the skyscale. It's completely night and day between the two when it comes to their ability and usefulness in going vertical.  

Of all the mounts I have, griffon is the least useful and most niche. I don't regret getting it since it is fun to use when a map is open for it and it has its moments of being quite useful, but it sure as heck isn't worth the 250 gold it costs. 

[Sugar Min.5834]

24 minutes ago, loregnum.3619 said:

The bunny does not jump higher than the skyscale. That's crazy talk, not to mention the bunny is an absolute pain at times to land on certain ledges. Anyone that has all the mounts fully mastered knows how amazing the skyscale is and like me, would probably shake their head at your comment thinking the bunny is a good substitute for the skyscale. If you ever change your mind and get it, chances are you'll see the same thing we all do and you'll shake your head at your comment here and realize how silly you were being. 

I'll add that before I got the skyscale almost a year ago (I started playing the game in April 2022 and got the skyscale last summer), I tried out the freebie one in dragonfall and I thought it was pretty lousy and decided I was not going to bother getting it and then like you, I tried to rationalize my decision in a similar way you stated here with the bunny and raptor and even the griffon, which I didn't yet have. I was all set to get the griffon first and do the annoying bunny jump to griffon trick to get decent starting height. I then started to change my mind and got more used to how the bare bones skyscale flies after spending more time in dragonfall and read up on how much better the masteries make it and decided that I would indeed go back to getting it and trust what people said about how it is fully mastered. Did that and I am so glad I changed my mind and just shake my head at the sheer silliness of my very first impression using it. It's the best thing I have ever got in the game and I'd quit playing if I ever had to give it up. It's that good. 

I actually unlocked mine sometime during the Four Winds festival and the difference in using the bunny vs skyscale for the coin event was laughable. I think I tripled my total with the skyscale and didn't feel borderline rage at how imprecise the bunny was doing that. Where I was about ready to not even do that each day with the bunny after experiencing the annoyance a few times, I ended up looking forward to doing that event with the skyscale. It's completely night and day between the two when it comes to their ability and usefulness in going vertical.  

Of all the mounts I have, griffon is the least useful and most niche. I don't regret getting it since it is fun to use when a map is open for it and it has its moments of being quite useful, but it sure as heck isn't worth the 250 gold it costs. 

Bold text : I guess you will need to run more metas in Dragonfall and Drizzlewood to find out yourself and come back here to correct what you said... The rest, TLDR.

Edited May 27, 2023 by Min Min.9368

[Einsof.1457]

I got my skyscale just doing a little bit every day. Don't burn yourself out. It comes in time. 

[Darkspyro.4028]

Fact for me I will never be able to get a legendary 

[Gibson.4036]

7 minutes ago, Darkspyro.4028 said:

Fact for me I will never be able to get a legendary 

The Aurene amulet isn’t difficult, and often breaks the barrier that then makes others seem doable. I played this game for years thinking I would never get a legendary, then the Return event came along, and shortly after I went on to do Vision, Aurora, then Ascension.

Worked the same for my son. After he got the Amulet, he’s now steadily working on Vision.

Edited May 27, 2023 by Gibson.4036

[babak.3654]

My approach to GW2 has been very casual for years but I didn’t have any difficulty unlocking the Skyscale. The Return to … events in particular made getting the LW4 currencies straightforward, the rest is a bit time gated and repetitive that’s all. 
 

Treat it as a longer term goal and try and clear just one bit at a time. You’ll have it eventually. 

[Nate Anabe.6091]

To Bad

 

[Dayra.7405]

Spend 5min to do 1 task occasionally and you’ll have it long before never 😄

Should you do, I have 2 tips:

• Do Acrophobia short before shatterer event and ask in map chat for a friendly portal-owner with skyscale to help you
• Use your Extra-Pungent Skyscale Treat to complete the last step, the Champion Branded Ley-Line Anomaly

These are the only 2 steps with some difficulty.

Edited May 28, 2023 by Dayra.7405

[Parasite.5389]

14 hours ago, OldManWhat.5083 said:

 I just got The Ascension wings after playing on and off since launch and I'm happy with them. The sky scale looks really cool, but I'd rather spend my time playing guild wars 2 instead of grinding for a new way to move around the world.

i'm sorry, you're comparing the Skyescale to The Ascension, the PVP Legendary backpack.. and you think the Skyscale is a grind?!

[Jukhy.2431]

8 hours ago, Einsof.1457 said:

I got my skyscale just doing a little bit every day. Don't burn yourself out. It comes in time. 

This would be my advice too. Think it as a long term goal and don't rush it.
I did it as a side project - something I was casually going for but it wasn't my main activity. In the end took me over a month to get, maybe closer to month and a half.

[Gehenna.3625]

15 hours ago, OldManWhat.5083 said:

Let me first start this off by saying if you have a sky scale you are really cool, and good job! But do you think the developers overestimated how much time and effort a player would want to put in before getting completely burned out and/or frustrated with the game entirely?

No they didn't. Most people get it and are a bit put off by the amount of requirements but got it anyway. It makes me wonder if you ever got any legendary weapons.

15 hours ago, OldManWhat.5083 said:

One look at the requirements and it makes me not only never want a sky scale but makes me want to quit the game altogether thinking to myself "This is what I have to do to unlock flying a dragon?".

This is your mistake. Don't look at the total. Just look at the next step and complete it. By completing just one step at a time you'll get there. Look at it like a massive plate of food that just feels like you're never going to be able to finish that in one sitting and so you won't even start eating. It already makes you feel sick just thinking about it. But wait...you don't have to eat it all in one sitting. You can eat it one portion at a time and within a week or two it's done. 

So why do people want to do this in one sitting? 

What I will say is that you want to get some charged quartz crystals, so be prepared for that. Though you can circumvent that by buying the food off the TP as well.

15 hours ago, OldManWhat.5083 said:

I know 3 people (including my guild leader) who just recently got their sky scale but are now playing other games because right after getting their dragon they needed a break from guild wars 2.

This is what happens when you want to do it all in one go. Really, you DON'T need to do that. Just break it up. Even if you just do one step per week, you will get there. They just didn't know how to pace themselves.

15 hours ago, OldManWhat.5083 said:

I just got The Ascension wings after playing on and off since launch and I'm happy with them.

That's something I will never get. Go figure. 

15 hours ago, OldManWhat.5083 said:

The sky scale looks really cool, but I'd rather spend my time playing guild wars 2 instead of grinding for a new way to move around the world.

Like I said, you don't have to grind, you just need to break it up in pieces. What your main problem is, is that you want it now and all this requires is just patience and pacing yourself.

15 hours ago, OldManWhat.5083 said:

To be honest not having one makes me not want to PvE at all in the open world.

If your envy of others stops you from enjoying PvE then that's on you. . Combined with impatience and not being able to pace yourself this is entirely a "you problem" if you're honest.

15 hours ago, OldManWhat.5083 said:

I hope I don't get flamed for my opinion because I really love GW2 more than any other MMO. I just wish getting a sky scale flowed naturally within gameplay progression. 

Some do and some don't. The skyscale is considered a legendary mount and as such, when compared to other legendary items, it's really a lot less work than say a 2nd gen legendary weapon.

But really, just pace yourself. Every step you take will be saved forever and you'll be able to take the next step whenever you're ready. You don't need to grind if you pace yourself.

[LeCreaux.3087]

19 hours ago, Super Hayes.6890 said:

you would sing a different tune if you had to explain it to your 10 year old who, after a week of gaming, still can't have daddy's cool mount

I've got grandkids, one will be a teenager next year, and that right there is a teaching opportunity.  One of the hard things we have to learn ourselves, and everyone does, is that few things are easy to get.  Some are hard to keep.  And some are impossible to obtain even though you see other people with them.  I think it's fine to have such things in the game.

Example, my father wanted a very specific sports car his entire life but never obtained it.  He had little models of it and talked about it since I was a kid.  He had friends with them.  But it wasn't to be.  In contrast I also wanted a very specific six-figure, twin-turbo, high performance vehicle my whole life.  I'd see teenagers driving them to high school, their parents just gave them one as a toy.  Finally in my late 50s I justified buying one myself.  My son now wants it from me badly, as does my son-in-law, and I'm sure my grandson will also.  But I won't even let them drive it.  They haven't put in the life points yet to buy their own and that's how life works.

[MercurialKuroSludge.8974]

I mean, the Skyscale is long yes...objectively speaking it does take a considerable amount of time.

If we were to modify anything about the Skyscale collection, I wud vote to remove the 2 hr timegate, and the "4 food per day" limitation of Collection 3, since biologically speaking, these are magical baby dragons, I really don't see why they wouldn't keep eating.

But other than that, it should stay as is.
Literally everything else merely takes time, and even the "difficult" things, you can ask for help and reliably get it, like the Champion Ley Line, it doesn't even do real dmg, its just tanky and has a time limit, you ask in map chat on a Vabbi bounty/event day, watch a least 2/3 ppl just pop up to help.

 

Spoiler

Ive seen some people beg for help on random things, like getting into the NW pond in Domain of Kourna, screaming to anyone who just tells them to Springer over the wall, claiming "I can't make this impossible jump, someone come beetle for me".
Like...ofc these people call the Skyscale collection hard, becuz they suck at basic things in the game that are not difficult to a majority of players.

The Djinn elemental bit for Collection 2, there are people who have completed the Skyscale yet never understood how the event works, they just start the dialogue to fight the final boss instead of talking to the 4 elemental Djinn masters, which lets u skip the final fight and still obtain the Skyscale elements.
Ive even spoken in map chat encouraging people to wait before starting the Djinn boss, so the Skyscale people can talk to the npcs first, and of course somebody starts it claiming that you can't get the elements from the 4 Djinn and it has to be from final Djinn boss.

Sometimes, these collections are only hard because players' keep sabotaging themselves, not thinking ahead, or worse, letting their egos get in the way of listening to advice that completely removes the obstacle they were dealing with.

 

Edited May 27, 2023 by MercurialKuroSludge.8974

[Fueki.4753]

The Skyscale is supposed to be a long term goal that you do bit by bit.

It's not something that you are supposed to burn through in a week.

[Endaris.1452]

16 hours ago, Min Min.9368 said:

Bold text : I guess you will need to run more metas in Dragonfall and Drizzlewood to find out yourself and come back here to correct what you said... The rest, TLDR.

The bunny does jump higher than the default rise altitude of the skyscale but once you add the skyscales wall climb and fuel refill, skyscale goes higher than bunny.

Personally I'm a huge fan of the bunny too and for the longest time I preferred using a mix of bunny, jackal, beetle and griffon to move around.

In EoD specifically though it feels like anet especially tried to make navigation miserable if you don't have a skyscale.

All the pagoda style buildings make it very hard to ascend with the bunny and NKC seems to be just made to devalue the bunny as much as possible, having pretty much no ledges to lend on in any location. It's really unfortunate imo that anet became super lazy in making terrain navigable without skyscale.

[Super Hayes.6890]

2 hours ago, LeCreaux.3087 said:

I've got grandkids, one will be a teenager next year, and that right there is a teaching opportunity.  One of the hard things we have to learn ourselves, and everyone does, is that few things are easy to get.  Some are hard to keep.  And some are impossible to obtain even though you see other people with them.  I think it's fine to have such things in the game.

Example, my father wanted a very specific sports car his entire life but never obtained it.  He had little models of it and talked about it since I was a kid.  He had friends with them.  But it wasn't to be.  In contrast I also wanted a very specific six-figure, twin-turbo, high performance vehicle my whole life.  I'd see teenagers driving them to high school, their parents just gave them one as a toy.  Finally in my late 50s I justified buying one myself.  My son now wants it from me badly, as does my son-in-law, and I'm sure my grandson will also.  But I won't even let them drive it.  They haven't put in the life points yet to buy their own and that's how life works.

While I agree on the life lessons, they are also homeschooled. I prefer our game time together to be strictly about fun and escape, not preparing to have fun. The skyscale collection leans too much towards the latter in its overall setup. I do not use this game for teaching honestly. That's not the purpose for us. They have soooo much of that already. This game is our fantasy time cause we finished our responsibilities for the day or week or whatever.