Good griffon practice maps?

[Teknomancer.4895]

I finally unlocked the griffon, got 2/3 of the masteries done and already love it, but I'm still having trouble getting used to how it works.

What are some good "practice" maps for getting used to how to get it up to height and speed, pilot it and use the skills? SotO would be a great place once I'm better with it I think, but I got the skyscale via the expansion so the ley line mastery is in play. I don't want to try and deal with those on a griffon while I'm still practicing basic flight. 😬 That probably cuts out some HoT areas too. Otoh, updrafts are fine, and fun!

Recommendations?

[Marikus.1875]

hi, how would you compare it to the WoW dragonflying mounts? I haven't unlocked the griffon or skyscale yet so wondering what excitement I can expect.

[Teknomancer.4895]

I can't really answer that since I never really played WoW, so I know nothing about the mounts there.

What I can tell you is that if the skyscale is a work truck, the griffon is a sports car. 🤩

Skyscale will provide a lot of utility and let you do what you need to do. The griffon is pure flying fun. High speed, much more responsive in the air than the skyscale, it's really much more fun to fly than I expected it to be.

Which is why I really want to practice with it, some of those flight-path videos on YT look like loads of fun to try.

[Gop.8713]

I'm probably not the best person to answer this but I'm going to anyway. If you just want to practice flying around, you need a place that starts you at altitude since that's griffon's weakness. If you have the captain's airship pass that's a great map, if not drizzlewood would be my second choice, tho you do have to pay a little war supplies to get altitude . . .

If you want to practice maneuvering, pick any griffon course. It gives you the option to restart every time you finish or fail, can just run them over and over again . . .

[Marikus.1875]

1 hour ago, Gop.8713 said:

I'm probably not the best person to answer this

and why would you not be the "best person to answer this"?

[Gop.8713]

BC while I can use the griffon, I generally don't. At least not for fun the way the OP seems to want to do. I use it on the very rare occasions when I'm already at altitude and am going somewhere in a straight line and don't want to wp, or to do the adventures. And that's it. So there should be much more qualified ppls who could offer advice, but they hadn't so I did . . .

[Danikat.8537]

11 hours ago, Teknomancer.4895 said:

I finally unlocked the griffon, got 2/3 of the masteries done and already love it, but I'm still having trouble getting used to how it works.

What are some good "practice" maps for getting used to how to get it up to height and speed, pilot it and use the skills? SotO would be a great place once I'm better with it I think, but I got the skyscale via the expansion so the ley line mastery is in play. I don't want to try and deal with those on a griffon while I'm still practicing basic flight. 😬 That probably cuts out some HoT areas too. Otoh, updrafts are fine, and fun!

Recommendations?

I recommend doing some of the griffon races. You don't need to worry about your time, it's just a way of getting a feel for when to use the different mechanics and what you can achieve with them. My personal favourite is the Master course in Desert Highlands (it starts up in the snowy area), but try a few and see which one/s work for you.

I think the main thing to get the hang of is the dive > flap > dive routine to build up speed, and also the fact that when you're built up enough speed climbing out of a dive can allow you to go higher than you were when you started.

[fatihso.7258]

Rata Sum, Kormir shrine bridge/canyon in Crystal Oasis, Soto maps. 

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

This is the training-procedure, I run with people who do not consider themselves experts once they have unlocked the griffon. It takes some time, but in the end you are more than capable of getting the adventures done. Most people i run into nowadays do not want to bother with it. They get a skyscale, which is easier to handle, and neglect the griffon or only use flap.

1.) Seesaw cycle
Make sure your Dive and your backward key (S) are nearby so you can use them with a single hand, preferably two fingers. For a start, go to an open wide area with plenty of space to try. The outer area of Rata Sum works prefect. What you are going to do is use Dive for ~ 2 seconds, then swap to backward/upward (S). The goal is to make it fluently. So you have a constant wave. This is basically the first task. This is not about how to press those buttons. Rather to understand how the dive mechanic works and learning how much time and distance changing from one mode to another takes. If you feel good with that task, we can go on to the next level. 

Head to Magustan Court waypoint and drop down to the glass-bridge. Then head north to the 2nd glass bridge. Position yourself and aim south. Then jump down and dive. Do the wave-flying again. You will have trouble with the 2 seconds, probably have to start with shorter diving times at first. Fly along the canyons and turn around over and over. You are still 'slow', which means you can avoid the big obstacle in the middle easier. You also have a ground-level this time. Which means you can learn how deep you can go safely and when you are too deep.

What is the point with the two seconds? Descending is inevitable when flying with the griffon. But when you do the dive for two seconds, you end up almost at the same height you have started.

If you feel comfortable flying in the canyons and fly safely, you can go for the final task. Do a flap (spacebar) at the very end of upward flying. You will quickly notice that this helps you getting back to a higher point. Practice it a few times. If you are good enough, you might be able to reach the bridge again - but that is not necessary. Just know how it works and use it easily.

2.) Steering
We go to the Gallowfields Waypoint in Brisban Wildlands. Go to the Skritt with the heart, mount your griffon and dive down. Avoid the rift! You want to stop diving a few meters above the ground. You can test how deep you can go. Just stop holding dive-key and you will move forward with moderate speed. Now fly along the canyons. Use upward(S) and flap to play with height and focus on not hitting any walls. This canyon is narrow, but still manageable at your current level of speed. You can also try starting from another point of the canyon. 

You can also try the canyons in Thunderhead Peaks. Instead of the ground, you have branded corruption to deal with. But I prefer the Gallowfields canyon, because of the easy restart with the waypoint.

3.) Boost Dive
This requires the final mastery to be unlocked. Return to Rata Sum and go to the outer area again. Use the dive and hold spacebar. You will notice some yellow bolts around you and your endurance bar depletes while diving down fast.

First of all, wait 1 endurance bar, then release your diving key. You will move forward with high speed. This dash helps you to travel long distances quickly. The speed will decrease over time. You can however maintain it when you flap (spacebar). In addition you will descent much slower.

Second, you dive down with one endurance-bar and do the seesaw-training again. Just with the boost. Down-Up-Down-Up ... . If that works properly. Dive down with one endurance bar, fly foward for some time and then go upward. You will notice, as long as you maintain your momentum, it does not matter if you go upward directly after the dive or after some forward flying. However if the momentum decreases, you cannot get as high as before. 

Third, the limit. Dive down with the spacebar, but do two endurance bars now. This is the maximum you can squeeze out of the griffon and the maximum height difference you can reach. Out in the open space, this does not look like much. But when you do it with ground, you will notice how insanely high that is. It is needed for most of the Griffon Adventures. 

Can you use more endurance bars? Yes. But you can only go upward the distance of two and your speed will not increase any further.

How about Swoop? Works like diving, but if you touch the ground or certain walls, you instantly dismount. It can be used for emergency landings, but you should rely on dive most of the time. 

4.) Polishing
At first we go back to Gallowfields Waypoint to the canyon again. Use the dive with the spacebar and stop before the ground. This is why we have trained the canyon before. Maneuvering it in slow speed is a walk in the park. But you need the basic knowledge of the area to manage the higher speed. Else you constantly crash into walls and objects. I normally fly the canyon to the end, rise upwards, turn around and dive down again and fly it back near the ground. It will be tricky at first, but you will get the hang of it quickly.

Verdant Brink is one massive Griffon Flight fun-park, especially the canyons. They have obstacles, updrafts and even enemies that shoot at you.
Bloodstone Fen is very good for vertical training and (if leyline mount mastery was learned) to get along with the leylines. There are tons of them. It is also good to fly on highspeed while trying to avoid them.
Thunderhead Peaks works good for canyon training and if you dive down all the way to the ice water, you can fly near the ground and avoid obstacles.

[jokke.6239]

Amnytas (allthough ley lines can be annoying if u have bonus masteries)

Edited October 8, 2023 by jokke.6239

[AliamRationem.5172]

12 hours ago, Teknomancer.4895 said:

I finally unlocked the griffon, got 2/3 of the masteries done and already love it, but I'm still having trouble getting used to how it works.

What are some good "practice" maps for getting used to how to get it up to height and speed, pilot it and use the skills? SotO would be a great place once I'm better with it I think, but I got the skyscale via the expansion so the ley line mastery is in play. I don't want to try and deal with those on a griffon while I'm still practicing basic flight. 😬 That probably cuts out some HoT areas too. Otoh, updrafts are fine, and fun!

Recommendations?

If you just need easy access to a high point to dive from, the SotO map Amnytas is great.  The map does have ley lines, but it's not like they're everywhere.  If you want something that lets you practice with some structure, the griffon mastery courses are a good option.  Check your achievement panel and you can find which maps have them. 

You might also consider switching your control scheme.  For example, I have the skills to dive and pull up bound to thumb keys on my mouse.

[Cuks.8241]

Just do the Griffon races/adventures. Each Pof and LS4 map has 2. There is also one during the festival of four winds. You will need all the masteries though to get gold in all.

It will give you a clear goal and you will have to learn all the basics to be able to complete them. Also you can reset back to start with a press of a button so no need to look for high cliffs once you get to the starting point. You also get some rewards.

I wish they added more for Soto, maps are definitely suitable.

edit: also a tip. To dive, use the dedicated ability, not the attack button ("1" by default). Dive has shorter animations and is more responsive. I made the mistake to  use "attack" for diving and it's just subpar. Took me a while to unlearn the habit and relearn properly. 

 

Edited October 8, 2023 by Cuks.8241

[Teknomancer.4895]

Thanks for the map suggestions everyone! I would have never thought of Rata Sum, for example. The races/adventures are also a good idea, probably for after the final mastery is done so I'm not limited on the available skills.

I have done some flying around in the Crystal Oasis brand scar around the temple of Kormir and that's a good spot with lots of land height variance to practice both avoiding collisions and taking off from various heights.

SotO maps are near-irresistible since they're so aerial, but OMG the ley lines are even worse than I thought they would be. The first time I hit a surprise ley line I actually got dragged backwards, which looked hilarious despite how disruptive and annoying it was. Then I found out it's near-impossible to break free unless you're at a bend in the line (usually at places where a skyscale can get thrown off the line by its own momentum). Diving practice was frustrating there too, since there's no way to read where the "floor" is on those maps I would suddenly get a zone-load screen and find myself on the ground somewhere. Many four-letter words were emitted on SotO maps, so I think I'll wait until I'm more practiced.

@HnRkLnXqZ.1870, that's a lot more info than I expected and a lot to take in. Thanks, those all look like good tips and I'll be sure to give them a workout. I've already caught onto the difference between the flight dive and the attack dive, but when on the griffon the one thing I miss about the skyscale is the controlled descent and landing. Are the dive skills really the only way to land the griffon in a specific spot short of just coasting it down to the ground, spiraling if needed to get to the wanted location? I realize that the skyscale is more of a helicopter where the griffon is a plane, but does the griffon pretty much always need a runway to land on instead of just descending to a helipad?

Edited October 8, 2023 by Teknomancer.4895

[Taclism.2406]

Just for flight practice with no leyline : 
Either Bloodstone fen, under the map (go the the lowest cave > fly up and check inside the "tube shapes" on that cave ceiling > congrats you're oob)
Or Verdant brink which has (I think?) the most verticality of all maps

In you wanna try something more ellaborate, races like others said are a nice starter. I find it teaches you what to look for as you fly, so you can re-apply those reflexes anywhere

Edited October 8, 2023 by Taclism.2406

[Funky.4861]

No-one has mentioned Draconis Mons...

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

3 hours ago, Teknomancer.4895 said:

@HnRkLnXqZ.1870, that's a lot more info than I expected and a lot to take in. Thanks, those all look like good tips and I'll be sure to give them a workout. I've already caught onto the difference between the flight dive and the attack dive, but when on the griffon the one thing I miss about the skyscale is the controlled descent and landing. Are the dive skills really the only way to land the griffon in a specific spot short of just coasting it down to the ground, spiraling if needed to get to the wanted location? I realize that the skyscale is more of a helicopter where the griffon is a plane, but does the griffon pretty much always need a runway to land on instead of just descending to a helipad?

I got a little carried away ^^. To answer your question: Yes. For vertical descending on a specific spot, you have to use dive or swoop. You do not need to use the booster, which helps aiming. The runway landing is more comfortable, but requires proper planning and space.

Or you take the emergency exit ^^. Dismounting in mid-air and gliding to your spot. That even works while diving with the boost. When you realize you will miss the target location, just dismount and glide the rest. 

[Teknomancer.4895]

3 minutes ago, HnRkLnXqZ.1870 said:

[IHI] Auroras Refuge - Convenience Guild for players who enjoy playing on their own

Lol I just now noticed this. I'm in that guild. 🤣

[Omega.6801]

PoF maps don't have Ley-lines or updrafts.
The Griffon Adventures are good places to train.
Other than that, every map with some verticality will do. Desolation f.e. from the WP in the SW corner you can get to the Djinn place, where you get the Jackal, that's pretty high up.

[Ashantara.8731]

19 hours ago, Teknomancer.4895 said:

Recommendations?

Skywatch Archipelago

[Alaia Skyhawk.5064]

Best place I know with a nice freebie way back up high is the Djinn stronghold at Jackal Run in Desolation (aka the Jackal mount heart). So long as you have the sand portal mastery, getting back up there is very easy. I also recommend doing the griffon races daily (not to mention this is an awesome way to get experience to level other PoF/Season 4 masteries). Also you don't have to follow the race route when doing one. You can fly wherever you want while the timer is running, and you'll teleport back to the start/can end the adventure and teleport back any time you want!

Lastly whether you are on NA or EU, there's a great griffon flying community that runs regular workshops. The Griffon Academy [Wing]. We currently stand at 3 guilds since we ran out of room with 2! 😄

I can message with the discord link if you'd like it 🙂

Edited to add: if you search "gw2 griffon kindergarten" on youtube, look for the vid by Kat DreXed. Her basics tutorial vid is great!

Edited October 8, 2023 by Alaia Skyhawk.5064
added info

[Randulf.7614]

Verdant Brink is one of the best practice maps for the griffon in the game. I often go there to zoom around

[Tuna Bandit.3786]

Thunderhead peaks is also a good map to play around, since it goes down in steps. From History's end Waypoint, go south towards the higher airship. From there you have enough space to dive, flap and fly all the way south from that airship

Domain of Istan: Go to the Astralareum, get on top and good height to start.

New Kaineng: From the Garden Heights waypoint, you can dive over the edge and have wonderful space to fly. 
Also a perfect map for training how to steer

- Small tip on most of those maps, for example Kaineng: When you hit the map border, you will be put back where you took off, Very handy to know when you are practising

[illuminati.8453]

Despite your comment about SoTo, I would say it is the best place to learn griffon.  It has a lot of open space to make mistakes and still recover.  

[Bandini.6185]

21 hours ago, HnRkLnXqZ.1870 said:

This is the training-procedure, I run with people who do not consider themselves experts once they have unlocked the griffon. It takes some time, but in the end you are more than capable of getting the adventures done.

Thank you for this very detailled answer. It makes me want to give the griffon another try.

[Buran.3796]

On 10/8/2023 at 3:46 PM, Funky.4861 said:

No-one has mentioned Draconis Mons...

  Was the first thing that came to my mind.

  The best way to train is using free dive in a map with large vertical paths, great open spaces and a teleport waypoint high enough to take advantage of the orography. Draconis Mons has all of that. 

  Now, once you master the griffon Entangled Depths is phenomenal since the starting waypoint is several tiers higher than the last waypoint to Dragon Stand, and albeit the path is sometimes narrow you can effectively go from the start to the end flying in griffon in a single take...