Skyscale mount mechanics (not about timegate)

[CETheLucid.3964]

Reporting back having earned the mount a couple nights ago and having acquired the masteries; it's pretty great.

I still stand by the camera steering being a tad bit too sensitive and sky juice stamina could use a small buff, but given some time to play with it/freely master the controls outside of rentals I'm enjoying the Skyscale and I can respect why sky juice is a thing.

If they made it any faster or did away with the sky juice mechanic entirely it would replace every other mount.

With the mastery I don't have any troubles getting where I want to go and using the mount control key (C default) to descend I can reasonably place myself in most places a Springer can land to refill if I can't simply just boost off the wall and/or Bond of Vigor over it.

A good buff would probably be to slightly lower the CD of Bond of Vigor IMO.

This would buff all the mounts but in particular help the Skyscale without messing with it too much. From what I've read they're aware of the Air Rescue bug. That's probably going to be fixed later with today's update.

Say what you will about timegates, Anet did good with the Skyscale quest. It was a fun journey.

!

[Ashantara.8731]

Okay, I have to admit: although I still consider the speed of ascending/descending to be way too slow (especially dives feel like I was riding a granny mount) and the exhaustion feature (red bar) badly implemented, the basic mechanics are absolut fun and the mount proved invaluable on the HoT maps (for map exploration), especially in Auric Basin (never thought I would get to see this map from up above some day, with its huge vines that I could land on and everything; and cheesing all the POIs was nice, too).

[LucianDK.8615]

@Ashantara.8731 said:Okay, I have to admit: although I still consider the speed of ascending/descending to be way too slow (especially dives feel like I was riding a granny mount) and the exhaustion feature (red bar) badly implemented, the basic mechanics are absolut fun and the mount proved invaluable on the HoT maps (for map exploration), especially in Auric Basin (never thought I would get to see this map from up above some day, with its huge vines that I could land on and everything; and cheesing all the POIs was nice, too).

You are clearly meant to use griffon when descending, the skyscale is just too slow for that.

[Ashantara.8731]

@LucianDK.8615 said:

@Ashantara.8731 said:Okay, I have to admit: although I still consider the speed of ascending/descending to be way too slow (especially dives feel like I was riding a granny mount) and the exhaustion feature (red bar) badly implemented, the basic mechanics are absolut fun and the mount proved invaluable on the HoT maps (for map exploration), especially in Auric Basin (never thought I would get to see this map from up above some day, with its huge vines that I could land on and everything; and cheesing all the POIs was nice, too).

You are clearly meant to use griffon when descending, the skyscale is just too slow for that.

Sure, because mid air I can easily switch between the two mounts... not. ;)

[Adrianna.3092]

@Zok.4956 said:

@"crazyhusky.2985" said:I'm taking about better in terms of speed. Generally people want to get up a cliff ASAP and the springer gets up most ledges quickly.For example lets say there is rare foe above you on a cliff and you need to defeat it for something, but there is large group attacking the foe, so you need to quickly get up there to hit it.The springer can easily vault up there no problem. It may take 2 jumps, you get up there quickly.The skyscale however acsends rather slow in comparison to the springer and can only go far up before you need to cling to a wall or land to recharge flight meter.

There is a legendary boss (after the meta in Dragonfall is completed, I dont care about its name) high up on an cliff. It is too high for the springer and there are no ledges. But everytime I do the boss there are around 5-10 players trying to jump up the cliff with the Springer but without success (no one succeeds there with the Springer).

Without the Skyscale you have to find a nearby wall, that you can break through with the roller beetle to get to the other side and on the other side are several "steps" for the springer. But with the Skyscale I can just fly directly the cliff/wall up and I reach the boss much faster.

or you could do what sane people do... and use the jackal sand portal just below that cliff that teleports you to the top right next to the boss.

[Adrianna.3092]

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@LucianDK.8615 said:

@Ashantara.8731 said:Okay, I have to admit: although I still consider the speed of ascending/descending to be way too slow (especially dives feel like I was riding a granny mount) and the exhaustion feature (red bar) badly implemented, the basic mechanics are absolut fun and the mount proved invaluable on the HoT maps (for map exploration), especially in Auric Basin (never thought I would get to see this map from up above some day, with its huge vines that I could land on and everything; and cheesing all the POIs was nice, too).

You are clearly meant to use griffon when descending, the skyscale is just too slow for that.

Sure, because mid air I can easily switch between the two mounts... not. ;)

um... yeah actually you can... bond of faith allows you to jump off your mount mid-air and since you can mount griffon in mid-air there you go... you could alternatively just allow bond of faith to take you to the ground as you receive no fall damage when jumping off a mount with bond of faith.

[Ototo.3214]

@"Tails.9372" said:So here are some points to note after watching the devstream:

• it was designed to move along walls
• the "wall jump" is supposed to be the "defining aspect of the mount"
• sticking to the wall is cool (??? the constant need to do that is the most anyong part of the whole thing)

Like seriously, they should have gone with the spider mount they initially wanted to make.

Also their reasoning as for why they didn't want to give it free flight is really lacking:

• then you wouldn't need all the other mounts anymore

Like how? Most of the other mounts are still significantly faster or more maneuverable so there would clearly be a trade-off here. The main application of a slow free flying mount (aside from enjoying the view and taking screenshots) would be to search an area for stuff like collectables without using an online guide and not to get from A to B.

• free flight is boring

This one is right out condescension, fun is subjective and no one would be forced to use it. They're not the arbiter of what's fun or not.

Pretty sure the main reason was that they wanted you to interact with the terrain. Free flight bypasses it. The skyscale is extremely maneuverable, it really would be the go to mount in most situations if the terrain isn't completely flat because of how lazily you could just fly up and over everything. I completely agree with the devs on this point.

[Ashantara.8731]

@Adrianna.3092 said:

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@LucianDK.8615 said:You are clearly meant to use griffon when descending, the skyscale is just too slow for that.

Sure, because mid air I can easily switch between the two mounts... not. ;)

um... yeah actually you can...

I was referring to usual heights, not great heights. By the time you are done with what you suggest, in 99% of the cases you would have already landed with either the Skyscale or via gliding. ;)

[Mrs Lana.2506]

@Blocki.4931 said:

@Kidel.2057 said:I agree. In my opinion the skyscale is too weak in horizontal movement to be in any way better compared to a springer (or springer+griffon).

Also I find odd that it auto sticks to wall if you press forward (that is also the only button to go down if you're close to a step).

Also if you're very close to the top of a cliff, the skyscale just sticks to it instead of going above.

It should have 3 dashes and a different key to stick to walls.

You can press 1 to descend easily. When I did the story for the first time and had to fly around I was getting really mad because I got stuck everywhere. After using it a bit more I don't get stuck nearly as much & finally learning that just pressing S got me unstuck was a huge part of that too. With the masteries unlocked it should be a perfectly usable mount that I will definitely prefer over swapping to Springer constantly just because I don't have to mind what is directly above me.

You can also descend without dismounting by using the key that is bound to the second mount skill. I don't know what the default is because I've rebound mine, but it's either Z x or c.