the grind for mounts needs to be toned down

[Redfeather.6401]

29 minutes ago, Vayne.8563 said:

Confusion on this forums is usually used as a downvote. They don't agree with you, they don't have access to a downvote button so they use confused...which can be confusing for sure.

 

I understand what you're saying, but it wouldn't be that good for me.  I don't care about just leveling something to get it stronger. I care about some sort of story.  The idea that we have a sick skyscale and have to collect scales to analyze, and then get the ingredients for the medicine and then get the eggs was a bit over tuned, but I'd still enjoy that more than just endlessly eating energy to get more powerful. That does nothing for me.

I did not literally mean collecting orbs. I didn't mean there would be no story. I am really struggling to communicate a process of acquisition. Where you get a weak mount and get to do things that make it stronger.... instead of checking off things in a collection so that one day a mount will be added.

[Cyninja.2954]

28 minutes ago, Redfeather.6401 said:

I did not literally mean collecting orbs. I didn't mean there would be no story. I am really struggling to communicate a process of acquisition. Where you get a weak mount and get to do things that make it stronger.... instead of checking off things in a collection so that one day a mount will be added.

 

Isn't that what the mastery system does though? A skyscale without masteries and one with has a very different feel to it and the later is far more useful and borderline game braking movement wise.

 

Most conventional mounts are just this way. You acquire/unlock the mount near immediately, then proceed to power it/them up via the mastery system.

 

The only exceptions in acquisition are the griffon, beetle and skyscale which were added both with specific stories in mind as well as as time sinks so players don't blow through the content in less than a day.

 

As to players "catching up": if you are so focused on "catching up" in GW2 with a similar approach to other MMORPGS, you'll be soon left with nothing to do. This games upgrades are designed to take a certain amount of time because of the lack of gear grind and gear depreciation which other MMORPGs force on their players (that's what the mastery system is: a progression system intended to replace the gear grind from other games in a limited way). That "catching up" you do, that's the majority of power increase you will ever experience and it is account bound on top of that.

Edited January 31, 2022 by Cyninja.2954

[Vayne.8563]

44 minutes ago, Redfeather.6401 said:

I did not literally mean collecting orbs. I didn't mean there would be no story. I am really struggling to communicate a process of acquisition. Where you get a weak mount and get to do things that make it stronger.... instead of checking off things in a collection so that one day a mount will be added.

I liked the story, raising a mount from a baby isn't worse to me than making it stronger, that's all.

[Lottie.5370]

I found the first three collections for the Skyscale very tedious (the three that require you doing things all in Dragonfall) because it kept sending me back to the same places in the same map, but otherwise enjoyed unlocking it - especially liked that it made me travel to lots of different maps and places, and unlocking it felt like a real achievement. It feels like the right length for a legendary.

 

Also did not find the beetle or griffon grindy to unlock - they are quick collections and there's nothing really hard in there. The worst thing is the 250g, and I understand that can be grindy for some players, but griffon also really isn't necessary even from a QoL standpoint - Skyscale does everything better except for speed.

[ProtoGunner.4953]

There are two sides. While I though it takes too much time to just get the skyscale (and please stop with 'you don't need it'-BS). The rest is fine.

On the other hand it's an MMO and MMOs needs a constant player base hooked on the game. Otherwise sales goes down etc. you know the drill. 

My solution would be the following: make getting some mounts easier, but give us questline like skyscale unique mounts, similar to the nether dragons in WoW. Better approach. 

[LucianDK.8615]

You can do just fine with the 4 basic mounts. You dont need the griffon, rollerbeetle or the skyscale. They are optional mounts and thusly needs to take some effort if you want them.

 

[kharmin.7683]

The grind for legendary armor needs to be toned down.  I want some, but don't feel like putting in the work.  Please fix.

 

/sarcasm

[Gibson.4036]

NVM

I failed at reading comprehension

Edited February 3, 2022 by Gibson.4036

[Nate Anabe.6091]

What grind?

[jokke.6239]

The only thing I found that felt very grindy about the skyscale was getting the season 4 mats.

That has never been easier now with the "seasons of the dragons" collection.

You don't even have to do that whole collection (allthough rewards are crazy), you can just get to tier 3 on all the season 4 maps.

[Makaloff.7912]

now im fairly new to the game but as far as my experience have gone:

raptor: piece of cake, do the intro and you get it
Springer: easy to aquire once you get the long jump mastery on the raptor (which takes no time, just do events and youll lvl in no time)
skimmer: easy to get aswell
jackal: also very easy to aquire
so for the 4 base mounts, all you need to do is do some events and lvl your masteries which honestly isnt a grind, even if you only play a hour per day.
Beetle: this one takes a bit more time but definetly isnt anything bad in terms of grinding.
Gryphon: havent unlocked it yet so cant comment on it, only roadblock on that one is the 250g cost but then again, doing daily fractals should net you some nice gold so its more a question of patience really. Besides, you are doing fine with just the 4 base mounts.
Skyscale: This one is a long road yes, it takes time and its best done with doing a part at a time, its not suppsoed to be aquired easily, however, just doing some stuff every day and you most likely have the mount after a month.

[Jianyu.7065]

Sorry, but I highly disagree. As a returning player myself, I just got my skyscale about 3 weeks ago, and it took me about 3 weeks to get it and I didnt obsess about getting it. I spent my time in game doing other things if I didnt feel like grinding for the mount. In the end, there were some frustrations, BUT it wasn't,  and isnt nearly as terrible as you and others are making it out to be. Your perspective is your perspective, and it isnt fair to other players that you feel the need to be negative about something they may have a lot of fun doing. I would feel differently if this was criticism rather than complaint. Maybe if you just gave it an honest effort, you would see things differently. I can only play this game one or two days a week, and in this case, while I loathe the saying - if I can do it, you can do it.

[ProtoGunner.4953]

I still think it's problematic. The Skyscale is such a huge addition and so many casual players will miss that out. I used to be an intensive player but not anymore turning 30+ and having a good job etc. Hence why not make special/legendary/exotic skins behind such a questline and give us the mount more easily.

Oh, I have the Skyscale mount already, but I though it's a bit too much just for getting a flying mount 🙂

[Rasimir.6239]

20 minutes ago, ProtoGunner.4953 said:

The Skyscale is such a huge addition and so many casual players will miss that out.

Honestly I think the Skyscale is overrated. Out of 6 active GW2 accounts in our household, only two have the Skyscale unlocked, and the other accounts get along fine without. Personally I have max mastery (including Skyscale) on my main account, but can play just as well on the alt account with neither Skyscale nor Griffon. Occasionally I find myself thinking that one of those would be convenient, but usually I can handle the situation just as well with other mounts and gliding. I have yet to find a situation where I would actually need one of the flying mounts.

[Gibson.4036]

1 hour ago, ProtoGunner.4953 said:

I still think it's problematic. The Skyscale is such a huge addition and so many casual players will miss that out. 

With patience, no casual player needs to miss out. My son plays 2-4 hours a week, and completed it just fine.

1 hour ago, Rasimir.6239 said:

 I have yet to find a situation where I would actually need one of the flying mounts.

There are two situations.

The champion run after the completion of Dragonfall meta. I’m told it’s possible to keep up using the camp teleports, but with how fast the champs get killed, I’m skeptical. Dragonfall is the skyscale map, though, and the champs feel secondary to the meta.

The other is the cache keepers after Drizzlewood south. With paradrops and gliding one should be able to get all the chests, but can you actually make it to all the keeper fights before they are killed?

These are two small parts of the game, though, and don’t make the flying mounts “necessary”.

[Rasimir.6239]

15 minutes ago, Gibson.4036 said:

There are two situations.

To be honest, I avoid both of those situations even on my main account, because the whole thing is just way too hectic for this old lady, even with a fully mastered skyscale 🤣.

[Gibson.4036]

17 minutes ago, Rasimir.6239 said:

To be honest, I avoid both of those situations even on my main account, because the whole thing is just way too hectic for this old lady, even with a fully mastered skyscale 🤣.

I hear you. The first time I tried to do the cache keepers left me bewildered and frustrated. I ran out of keys part way through and had the hardest time keeping up. 
 

Even now that I’ve built up my key stock and use griffon, it’s still a very hectic race of figuring out where the next one has shown up and getting there in time to participate.

[Sobx.1758]

7 hours ago, ProtoGunner.4953 said:

I still think it's problematic. The Skyscale is such a huge addition and so many casual players will miss that out. I used to be an intensive player but not anymore turning 30+ and having a good job etc. Hence why not make special/legendary/exotic skins behind such a questline and give us the mount more easily.

Oh, I have the Skyscale mount already, but I though it's a bit too much just for getting a flying mount 🙂

What does playing casually have to do with being able to get a skyscale? I could see it as an issue if you had some time limit from start to finish before it resets, but as it is, you can just easly complete the collections partially at your own pace.

Edited February 7, 2022 by Sobx.1758

[Sobx.1758]

4 hours ago, Gibson.4036 said:

The other is the cache keepers after Drizzlewood south. With paradrops and gliding one should be able to get all the chests, but can you actually make it to all the keeper fights before they are killed?

Griffon > skyscale for that anyways though, exactly because you can just keep dropping from above.

[Gibson.4036]

1 hour ago, Sobx.1758 said:

Griffon > skyscale for that anyways though, exactly because you can just keep dropping from above.

Totally. Though skyscale will still get you there as a second best option.

[jokke.6239]

I take Skyscale any day. 

Beeing able to mount up, fly up and then be free from getting attacked by mobs is an underrated QoL feature of the skyscale. Makes the game so much less frustrating 🙂

I automatically do it just before I use the map, chat, trading post, inventory etc without thinking about it at this point.

Everything that takes me away from the gameplay, I mount up on skyscale ^^

Think of all the time I've saved running away or getting into fights I would rather not do.

So yeah, Skyscale's AFK feature is amazing

Edit: I'm afk browsing the forums as we speak hovering above an event destination that i'm waiting for to begin, without worrying about getting attacked or dying, having to run all the way to the event again ^^

Edited February 7, 2022 by jokke.6239

[Vayne.8563]

17 hours ago, ProtoGunner.4953 said:

I still think it's problematic. The Skyscale is such a huge addition and so many casual players will miss that out. I used to be an intensive player but not anymore turning 30+ and having a good job etc. Hence why not make special/legendary/exotic skins behind such a questline and give us the mount more easily.

Oh, I have the Skyscale mount already, but I though it's a bit too much just for getting a flying mount 🙂

I have a guild full of casual players who have a skyscale. It took them longer than it took me, they chipped away at it a bit at a time when they felt like it and got it. What's the problem exactly?

[Seneca.6319]

Personally, as a player who joined GW 2 months ago I find that there is a grind, and not the enjoyable one, it's the farming boring robotic one. All 4 basic mounts are easy, I agree. However, the Skyscale is a total boring grind. All achievements for it are like "fetch this", "seek this" repeated 15-30 times. I find this repeated stuff to be lack of quality content. In all honesty I feel like the whole Skyscale mount could have been an expansion with a story of its own and after completing it you'd be rewarded with the saddle. I would have paid for that, really! And it would have been a better experience than making me run around hundreds of times to collect stuff, not to mention, the cherry on the cake, gathering 250 map currencies...i mean c'mon dude! After spending days running around you want me to keep doing this stuff again???? Total lack of creativity.

I haven't even gotten into the legendary crafting thing but most likely I won't lose my time with it since I can already anticipate it's going to be worse than Skyscale. As a new player I started thinking about quitting shortly after starting the Skyscale masteries. 

People mentioned that Anet was asked to make use of Achievements and quests. I don't think they did a good job at it. Keep achievements as grinds and offer rewards but the better stuff, like mounts, make them quests with a story or make them be part of a reward for completing a LWS episode. Something more interesting and with less of a farming feeling.

Edited April 24, 2022 by Seneca.6319