The High Points of Guild Wars 2!

[Hamfast.8719]

You can now get higher up than ever with the addition of the Skyscale mount. When I first managed to get aboard the moving Airship in Dragonfall, I knew right away that I had to get up on the very top of the airbag. (You can do it with a "borrowed" Skyscale). The view up there makes you feel like you're on top of the world! (It's pretty breezy, too, if you'll notice the windblown hair and billowing shirt sleeves). Now all they need to do is add working seats to the airship, a dining/bar area, and a casino for some really snazzy aerial role-playing parties! (And maybe trapshooting off the bow?)

I also felt pretty high up while questing to acquire my Skyscale. I used my bunny to reach the highest point above the shattered wall in Blazeridge Steppes. It's pretty startling the first time the Shatterer swoops down and does a flyby!

Join the mile-high club! If you've reached some really high-up places (by any means), let's see some vertigo-inducing pictures!

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

Been at the Shatterer spot a couple of times. It is really nice up there. When flying up there, the clouds look like an ocean.

Let me see, high places I have reached ...

PRE-POF

Getting up there took us almost an hour. It was during LS3, around the Release of Ember Bay. Sadly no longer accessible. A few weeks later, they fixed the "path" with plenty of invisible walls. Have not tried with the Griffon yet.[EDIT] Just tested. Works good with Springer.

 

With Griffon

Bloodstone Fen, above the Airship.Dark Library part I.Same spot, a few meters higher.

 

This community has some very skilled pilots. I am sure we can collect a few more screenshots with ease.

[Random Wax Orc.7695]

Getting to the highest point in the original two Guild Halls is something everyone should try. Lost Precipice's heights actually gave me vertigo, and Gilded Hollow just has some amazing hidden areas up top.

[TarkaTarquol.4856]

Even before the Skyscale, I was messing around with that launch bug in Stronghold of the Faithful, managed to somehow get sent to Narnia and ended up with this glorious picture of the Stronghold.

[Hamfast.8719]

Ooooh! I've never been to that part of the game! Looks like some of those "roosts" could give a colonoscopy to a negligent Skyscale!

[Danikat.8537]

The other day I was flying across Desert Highlands, comparing the griffon and skyscale's flight abilities and discovered I could get into the illusionary djinn palace in the sky.

Incidentally this is exactly what I mean when I say the skyscale being better for exploration that the griffon. There's no where to land up there - the palace has no floors and no collision (at least not on any part I could get to) so with the griffon I'd have been snapping a few screenshots as I zoomed past. With the skyscale I could take my time to look around.

(It's also possible to reach the physical part at the end of the jackal path with either the griffon or the skyscale, but you can get there anyway using a jackal.)

[Tukaram.8256]

What program do y'all use for screen caps? All of them I have tried will not get the game window - the capture is always the layer below the game...

[DarkNighT.7319]

Just Printscreen key and use Ctrl + Shift + H to hide the hud or set it to a different key in the options.

@Hamfast.8719 That Griffon Picture is really nice!

[Hamfast.8719]

@Tukaram.8256 said:What program do y'all use for screen caps? All of them I have tried will not get the game window - the capture is always the layer below the game...

@DarkNighT.7319 said:Just Printscreen key and use Ctrl + Shift + H to hide the hud or set it to a different key in the options.

I have a buncha mouse buttons, so one is set to hide the HUD (I do a lot of screen caps). Then when you PrintScreen, your capture goes into a folder called SCREENS in your game folder. It holds 999 pictures. (Then I rename it SCREENS 2, and create a new SCREENS folder).

[Donari.5237]

@Hamfast.8719 said:

I have a buncha mouse buttons, so one is set to hide the HUD (I do a lot of screen caps). Then when you PrintScreen, your capture goes into a folder called SCREENS in your game folder. It holds 999 pictures. (Then I rename it SCREENS 2, and create a new SCREENS folder).

I have a suggestion, this has worked for me over the years:Set up a folder that is not in your GW2 game folder. Call it something like GW2Screens. Then set up sub folders. I have them arranged as 2012, 2013, 2014, etc. In each of those more folders: Jan2013, Feb2013, etc. I periodically go into my game folder screenshots file and highlight all the shots from a month and use the Move feature to shove them in the dated file.

Then if a long time later someone asks for, say, pics of the LA invasion, you can check on the wiki for the calendar date(s) that was active and zero in on that set of shots.(I also have other sub files such as reference shots of various alts, shots of visual bugs, mounts, armors/outfits, and so forth, but the raw screenshots are all sorted by date).

For quick shots I tap F11 which I have bound to Hide UI, PrtScr to get the shot, then F11 again to restore my UI. Takes only a moment and can be done during combat. I run the game Windowed Fullscreen, that might be a factor for you, Tukaram.

[Tukaram.8256]

@Hamfast.8719 said:

@Tukaram.8256 said:What program do y'all use for screen caps? All of them I have tried will not get the game window - the capture is always the layer below the game...

@DarkNighT.7319 said:Just Printscreen key and use Ctrl + Shift + H to hide the hud or set it to a different key in the options.

I have a buncha mouse buttons, so one is set to hide the HUD (I do a lot of screen caps). Then when you PrintScreen, your capture goes into a folder called SCREENS in your game folder. It holds 999 pictures. (Then I rename it SCREENS 2, and create a new SCREENS folder).

That took me way too long to find out ha ha... Google had it, but not easily... Been playing for 6 years and I kept trying to take pics... the folder is full ha ha!

[Danikat.8537]

@Donari.5237 said:

@Hamfast.8719 said:

I have a buncha mouse buttons, so one is set to hide the HUD (I do a lot of screen caps). Then when you PrintScreen, your capture goes into a folder called SCREENS in your game folder. It holds 999 pictures. (Then I rename it SCREENS 2, and create a new SCREENS folder).

I have a suggestion, this has worked for me over the years:Set up a folder that is not in your GW2 game folder. Call it something like GW2Screens. Then set up sub folders. I have them arranged as 2012, 2013, 2014, etc. In each of those more folders: Jan2013, Feb2013, etc. I periodically go into my game folder screenshots file and highlight all the shots from a month and use the Move feature to shove them in the dated file.

Then if a long time later someone asks for, say, pics of the LA invasion, you can check on the wiki for the calendar date(s) that was active and zero in on that set of shots.(I also have other sub files such as reference shots of various alts, shots of visual bugs, mounts, armors/outfits, and so forth, but the raw screenshots are all sorted by date).

For quick shots I tap F11 which I have bound to Hide UI, PrtScr to get the shot, then F11 again to restore my UI. Takes only a moment and can be done during combat. I run the game Windowed Fullscreen, that might be a factor for you, Tukaram.

I do something similar but I keep them inside the screenshots folder. I created a sub folder called 'saved' which then has other sub-folders sorted by subject - because I find it easier to track down a specific screenshot that way. But I'm very behind on sorting out screenshots because for a lot of things I'll take multiple screenshots and then pick the best one.

It's even worse with the skyscale because I want to make sure the wings are in a good position so they don't obstruct too much or look weird. (That one above for example was one of about 15 screenshots taken at the same location, with different camera angles and the wings in different positions.)

[Hamfast.8719]

@"Danikat.8537" said:It's even worse with the skyscale because I want to make sure the wings are in a good position so they don't obstruct too much or look weird.

You're hitting close to one of my pet peeves. I hate the decision to add "trails" to the wing flapping. It looks so ridiculous and fake. These are animals, not silly Legendary weapons! It's darned near impossible to get a good in-flight picture where those particle effect swooshes aren't obscuring the shot. (Don't even get me started on those whoosh! "strings" that trail my character when I run at +33% speed!) We REALLY need more graphics options to NOT display certain cartoon-like effects.

[Danikat.8537]

The Festival of the Four Winds returned today. Labyrinthine Cliffs has always been a great map for verticality, and I couldn't wait to try it out with the skyscale, so of course the first thing I did on arrival was this:

I was pleased to find that the smaller Zephyrite ships in the distance do have collision and can be climbed. Although I haven't yet found a way up to the two little platforms above them.

@Hamfast.8719 said:

@"Danikat.8537" said:It's even worse with the skyscale because I want to make sure the wings are in a good position so they don't obstruct too much or look weird.

You're hitting close to one of my pet peeves. I

hate

the decision to add "trails" to the wing flapping. It looks so ridiculous and fake. These are

animals

, not silly Legendary weapons!

It only happens with certain skins though, on the skyscale it's the bioluminescent, branded and shimmerwing, all ones which look like magical creatures rather than normal animals. You can get rid of it by using another skin, although of course that depends on the screenshot you want to take.

[Donari.5237]

@Danikat.8537 said:I do something similar but I keep them inside the screenshots folder. I created a sub folder called 'saved' which then has other sub-folders sorted by subject - because I find it easier to track down a specific screenshot that way. But I'm very behind on sorting out screenshots because for a lot of things I'll take multiple screenshots and then pick the best one.

The reason I don't do it that way is I want to make very sure I never lose them. I had over seven years of WoW screenshots that just vanished despite my care in backing up all my files when swapping computers and my best guess is that when I uninstalled the game the whole WoW folder tree went poof. So my GW2 shots get moved to an entirely different holding area.

For the skyscale swooshes, those don't bother me so much. They're dyeable, and it's just become the game aesthetic that stuff glows ... must be all that magic flowing around in volatile fashion! Once I accept the aesthetic as internally consistent, my eyes can edit it out and I can just enjoy your way-high pics :)

[Hamfast.8719]

You beat me to it, Danikat! Now I have to find someplace higher. (A lot of the cliff face has invisible walls).

[Hamfast.8719]

I went to the other end of the Festival, and checked out the Queen's Pavillion. Unfortunately, they put and invisible ceiling on Thunderdome, barely higher than the tallest tower. (Oop! Ack! Thpppt!!)

And to add insult to injury, there are birds... NORMAL BIRDS flying higher than me! ME! A Skyscale rider!What arrogance! What shame ANet forces upon me! I curse their cowardly barrier and will surely trounce any birds beyond these unsportsmanlike walls in proof of my superiority!

[Ashantara.8731]

I only have one screenshot to contribute: