About getting the Skyscale

[jaman25]

Let me start by saying there is so much I love about this game. I wouldn't bother saying anything if I didn't. Also, not looking for fight or flame war. I genuinely hope to get a real answer to this.
Could there not be a more reasonable way to acquire skyscale and/or griffon? I realize everyone is paranoid, not entirely unwarranted, about the pay to win trap. I'm not saying you should be able to buy mount, though I admittedly wouldn't say no after how I've dropped more than I care to admit. But missions requiring time gates? Large scale fetch quests and back track? RNG? Worse, all of the above!?!?
The skimmer and jackal were unlocked via optional missions. Said missions forced you to try out and learn them and earn them from the various areas. It essentially ticks off boxes for learning and earning I would need in a game. I don't feel they are any less valuable than griffon or SS for lacking the above mentioned gimmicks or time sinks.
Look at the springer and raptor. Of all the mounts I'v unlocked, I would rank them toward bottom 2 ingame but top outside of it. They can unlock with purchase of associated expansion but are extremely limited without finishing mastery or heart missions. My springer was unlocked but I never unlocked the masteries from heart mission it came from. Yet, I absolutely love the little guy as it feels more honest as I have it available for certain segments needing high jump, yet don't have all the won't have the full perks without putting out the effort. It feels like the best middle ground between newbies and vets.
Now before anyone shouts 'foul' over speaking for the 'filthy casuals' I'd like to point out that some of us can't afford to be more than somewhat casual. Between work and personal problems not everyone can put in the grueling time for these collection missions. Does that mean they should barred from best, or any, part of the game? I play this game for fantasy fun to get away from the work grind and daily frustrations. Is it too much just want to fly around on a dragon without dedicating myself to a second career? One that's entirely voluntary and possibly about to end with release of Guildwars 3? Heck, part of the draw is you don't have to go on grand adventures if you don't feel the mood. You can just fish, race, or work on tradecraft and see how you fare in TadePost negotiating. Yet, I see the requirement list in wiki and walkthroughs and it makes me want to cry before I ever start.
Now as for the question I have for devs and community. Is there not some way to appeal directly to devs for this or start petition, anything, to consider some of the changes I mentioned? Preferably without fear of being ignored, flamed into the void, or banned. Even the 250 gold price, I could live with as I can grind that easily enough as I play through story and multiple characters.
Failing that, how hard would it be to find a group willing to work with you to help with the grind. I know most, if not all, of the required resources can't be traded. I still feel it would help to have someone willing to work with, show you what you need to do. Even just removing some of the frustration with teleport to friend while checking different nest locations for eggs with help from more experienced, travel skilled players would help take some of the sting of the RNG wasting time.

EDIT: Well finally found an egg and managed most of the infusions. Mostly looking for someone to help tele me to spot for air infusion. I noticed some accusing laziness for asking help on the nests. To be clear, I wasn't doing this to skip the work. My problem with it was the frustration from skipping across the map for a handful of RNG nests that only replenished once a week. Just wanted someone to help take the sting out of failed attempts by helping me save some time on search and maybe providing some friendly convo. And before someone criticizes asking about infusion, even the guides encouraged saving time this way, just maybe tip some gold as thanks. Now I just need to know how to do that as I haven't done a lot of parties on this game.

Some of these replies have been understanding and patient. Enough so that I believe it shouldn't be too hard to find someone to help and even enjoy joining parties a bit more. Thank you.

To those of you who only had time to criticize and snark, I sincerely hope everyone you meet from this day forward is as helpful to you as you have been.

[cannabis]

Which collection for the Skyscale are you doing ? Because the collection of SoTo is easy enough (and you have access to the Skyscale in SoTo map regardless of the collection)

Griffon collection was fun to do, what wrong it ? the 250 gold or the collection itself ?

Farm silverwaste or drizzlewood 1 or 2 hours a day, you will have enough gold in few days for it.

Regarding the collection, and this is valid for any of them (Legendary, Title, Mount, Mastery...), you have to actually play to game and grind for those, this an MMORPG and I don't known what you really except from it...

The game wouldn't be interesting at all if it was too easy with 0 grind to acquire anything you want from it (not to mention the satisfaction to finish long and hard collection...)

Are MMORPG game's for you ?

Between work and personal problems not everyone can put in the grueling time for these collection missions. Does that mean they should barred from best, or any, part of the game?

The game doesn't restrict you from any area or content if you don't have the skyscale, The skyscale offer an incredible convenience of traveling yes and to optain it, you must work for it, this is a reward not a due.

[jaman25]

Ursprungligen skrivet av cannabis:

Which collection for the Skyscale you are doing ? Because the collection of SoTo is easy enough (and you have access to the Skyscale in SoTo map regardless of the collection)

Griffon collection was fun to do, what wrong it ? the 250 gold or the collection itself ?

Farm silverwaste or drizzlewood 1 or 2 hours a day, you will have enough gold in few days for it.

Regarding the collection, and this is valid for any of them (Legendary, Title, Mount, Mastery...), you have to actually play to game and grind for those, this an MMORPG and I don't known what you really except from it...

The game wouldn't be interesting at all if it was too easy with 0 grind to acquire anything you want from it (not to mention the satisfaction to finish long and hard collection...)

Are MMORPG game's for you ?

Admittedly, I'm here more for the RPG solo elements with the occasional partner up with friendly players. Most of my Online gaming nowadays is usually Warframe.

To the first question: I'm trying the SoTO path as I hear it is a somewhat simpler version. Haven't even started the collection as looking for the egg has nearly burned me out. What's getting me there is all the time trying to navigate the map trying to find locations that may or may not spawn nests that may or may not, usually not, give the egg. Add the fact I looked up nest respawn and the most definite answer I found was that they respawn each Sunday!? Unless maybe that's changed and I haven't heard?

The gold I could deal with but when I try to look up the collections, the shear walls of text, listed backtracking, hundreds of multiple in game currency, and especially time gating tend to send me nearly to tears. Kind of frustrating when you go from jackal, skimmer, springer etc systems straight into...that. On a good day (and I really haven't had one of those in a while won't bore you with details) so much time taken from RNG and backtracking would have had me hesitant.

Again, not trying to be hateful or discredit the other methods, glad everyone who enjoys them enjoys them, but some of us dealing with stressful jobs and depression can't really work ourselves up that. It's just, with this SoTO expansion, is it too much to want to unlocking it automatically as I go through the story mish and unlock the other stuff in mastery as with the other mounts instead of a slight variation on the collection method on top of the story?

I understand the necessity of grind mechanics, I do, but this just seemed like a bit much to me. Especially compared to other mounts.

[cannabis]

Ursprungligen skrivet av jaman25:

Ursprungligen skrivet av cannabis:

Which collection for the Skyscale you are doing ? Because the collection of SoTo is easy enough (and you have access to the Skyscale in SoTo map regardless of the collection)

Griffon collection was fun to do, what wrong it ? the 250 gold or the collection itself ?

Farm silverwaste or drizzlewood 1 or 2 hours a day, you will have enough gold in few days for it.

Regarding the collection, and this is valid for any of them (Legendary, Title, Mount, Mastery...), you have to actually play to game and grind for those, this an MMORPG and I don't known what you really except from it...

The game wouldn't be interesting at all if it was too easy with 0 grind to acquire anything you want from it (not to mention the satisfaction to finish long and hard collection...)

Are MMORPG game's for you ?

Admittedly, I'm here more for the RPG solo elements with the occasional partner up with friendly players. Most of my Online gaming nowadays is usually Warframe.

To the first question: I'm trying the SoTO path as I hear it is a somewhat simpler version. Haven't even started the collection as looking for the egg has nearly burned me out. What's getting me there is all the time trying to navigate the map trying to find locations that may or may not spawn nests that may or may not, usually not, give the egg. Add the fact I looked up nest respawn and the most definite answer I found was that they respawn each Sunday!? Unless maybe that's changed and I haven't heard?

The gold I could deal with but when I try to look up the collections, the shear walls of text, listed backtracking, hundreds of multiple in game currency, and especially time gating tend to send me nearly to tears. Kind of frustrating when you go from jackal, skimmer, springer etc systems straight into...that. On a good day (and I really haven't had one of those in a while won't bore you with details) so much time taken from RNG and backtracking would have had me hesitant.

Again, not trying to be hateful or discredit the other methods, glad everyone who enjoys them enjoys them, but some of us dealing with stressful jobs and depression can't really work ourselves up that. It's just, with this SoTO expansion, is it too much to want to unlocking it automatically as I go through the story mish and unlock the other stuff in mastery as with the other mounts instead of a slight variation on the collection method on top of the story?

I understand the necessity of grind mechanics, I do, but this just seemed like a bit much to me. Especially compared to other mounts.

Ok you are the doing the Soto collection, it's fairly easy (LWS4 collection is way harder), I used the following video for the egg collection :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYLZXWv8xHI

You should find enough (or all of them) using this video guide, I hope you have enough provisioner token which is the only part that can take you days for the Skyscale, if not, start by getting the cheap and easy on a daily basis (it take 10 seconds to go to the merchands and get them)

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Provisioner_Token

Now I known how badly the Skyscale is a game changer, but we all did go trough it, you will have too, as for anything awesome you want in Guild Wars 2, playing and griding is the way !

[Nico]

The reason why there is such a huge difference between unlocking the first 4 monts and the last few is because the first 4 are required for basic map exploration while the others are optional. Ad while the skyscale might be required for SotO, it is also already unlocked for SotO. But the general idea for those optional mounts is that they'r really valuable and special, so you also need to work hard to unlock them. And this extra work you need to invest is also part why they feel so special, since you aren't just given them for free

And to be honest, this is just the basic idea how MMO's work. To get the strongest and or most shiny objects or things you also need to work/grind for them. It would greatly diminish their worth if they would just be handed out for free to everyone. An MMO always needs some kind of chase items players can work towards and in this case here we have those few fancy but optional mounts. When they first released PoF they didn't even tell us that the Griffon exists, it was just randomly discovered by the players as they played the game, which just shows how optional and prestigeous the Griffon is.

So in short: If you think it's too much work, just don't get them. There is no need to get them, so don't force yourself to do somethign you don't want to do. Unlocking them might be fun for many players, but certainly not for everyone.

[pruitcake]

tfw i have to grind to get something in an mmo

I think the huge QoL boost you get from having it warrants the grind. It's not particularly hard or complex either, just takes a while. Just follow the wiki guide, it gives you step by step instructions so idk why you're afraid of it. If you have limited time to play then just do a little bit each session.

If its too much then just don't do it. It's not like its mandatory for progression anyway (SotO maps need it but the game gives you a free skyscale during your time there). The core mounts are all you need to get around maps, things like Skyscale and Griffon just makes things faster/easier.

[RotherHans]

filthy casual
if you cannot MMO then stay at your mobile gachas

getting the Skyscale in Amnytas is literally already "P2W" easy mode

[Spirit]

you have the choice :
easy scale (soto)
long and grindy way (season 4)
for the griffon : find feathers all over the zones from pof after finishing the main story (there is a map in the wiki what you have to do) and fight of a mummy to unlock the bird (took me around 2 weeks)

[skaarf]

find aNOther game if u want free mounts.

[SinisterSlay]

I thought Griffon was fun to get

[C4RNIVOR3]

I'm going to preface this by saying that I am a casual gamer and I avoid most group content out of anxiety and tend to play online games largely solo for that reason, including mmos. Which seems silly to the average gamer I suppose, playing multiplayer games solo, but there is a chunk of people out there that do prefer a solo experience for a variety of reasons. That said, I did ask for help for griffon quests, because some of them were beyond my scope, such as the legendary facet bounty. I put out a post about it and got a few responses, and when I caught someone online and messaged them, they came out and patiently stuck with me for the two hours or however long finishing up my remaining quests took for griffon unlock.

If you feel overwhelmed as a casual player at the amount of things you need to do then just ask for help. It is literally okay and a lot of people ingame would love to chip in because they want you to enjoy the experience as much as they do. Posting here on the forum can be a coin flip because you will get some people that are genuinely trying to help, and a bunch of people that have nothing better going on in their lives than to be mean-spirited to make themselves feel good.

[dunnothisguy]

Would it be entirely my choice, I would put both griffon and skyscale behind a massive grind wall only veteran players can overcome, same as legendaries. This flying ♥♥♥♥♥ is killing the game, it's supposed to be disability chair for senile GW2 pensioners who only play raids and have no interest in the rest of the game. It's not your go-to content skipper. It was a big mistake to make it so available to new players (via SoTo) on par of Anet, I wonder if it's a sign they just lose interest in the future of the game?

[SinisterSlay]

Ursprungligen skrivet av dunnothisguy:

Would it be entirely my choice, I would put both griffon and skyscale behind a massive grind wall only veteran players can overcome, same as legendaries. This flying ♥♥♥♥♥ is killing the game, it's supposed to be disability chair for senile GW2 pensioners who only play raids and have no interest in the rest of the game. It's not your go-to content skipper. It was a big mistake to make it so available to new players (via SoTo) on par of Anet, I wonder if it's a sign they just lose interest in the future of the game?

Giving everyone Raptor was pretty mean too. That probably cost them players.

Skyscale would still be easy to fix. Just have it "Scared" to fly in any location you haven't 100% completed. Once you have completed a zone once, the skyscale unlocks for your alt characters.
Super simple solution that anet will never walk back and apply. Instead we just get boring maps now. I was actually amazed lowland shore had things to see on the ground. Because Cantha had almost nothing, SoTO had nothing.
Note how they don't even bother with jumping puzzles anymore. The closest we got was the bee puzzle, and its barely any jumping at all.

[Hefutoxin]

Ursprungligen skrivet av C4RNIVOR3:

I'm going to preface this by saying that I am a casual gamer and I avoid most group content out of anxiety and tend to play online games largely solo for that reason, including mmos. Which seems silly to the average gamer I suppose, playing multiplayer games solo, but there is a chunk of people out there that do prefer a solo experience for a variety of reasons. That said, I did ask for help for griffon quests, because some of them were beyond my scope, such as the legendary facet bounty. I put out a post about it and got a few responses, and when I caught someone online and messaged them, they came out and patiently stuck with me for the two hours or however long finishing up my remaining quests took for griffon unlock.

If you feel overwhelmed as a casual player at the amount of things you need to do then just ask for help. It is literally okay and a lot of people ingame would love to chip in because they want you to enjoy the experience as much as they do. Posting here on the forum can be a coin flip because you will get some people that are genuinely trying to help, and a bunch of people that have nothing better going on in their lives than to be mean-spirited to make themselves feel good.

People would help you because you are trying.

OP unlocked Raptor through buying any expansion. He unlocked Springer by talking to an NPC in EoD. Skimmer and Jackal are the only ones he actually put forth any effort to unlock normally.

He's not stuck because he needs help finishing a group event. He just doesn't want to spend time finding the egg to START the SotO version of Skyscale. He wants someone else to do the leg work, so he can just use "teleport to a friend" to check. Do you think he has the gold, provisioner tokens, or skyscale food to finish it?

He's blaming stressful work, personal problems, and depression for this. Those excuses won't fly with most of us.

If you think I am too harsh, feel free to help him.

[Pip]

I still don't have skyscale. Well, I have the egg and 1/3 of the items. It's a lot of collecting (insert the "i DiD iT iN 45 mInuTes" comments here)
So bc of that I went on to Janthir and upgraded the warclaw. Now I use that jumping of cliffs (no fall dmg, with air jump and sprint)

I'm not bitter about it. The game is very generous in other areas. I like that ppl can't just show up and fly thru the game.
I plan on playing more and more, this game still has a few years of life left easy. I'll believe GW3 when I see it.

[cLoWnHaTe]

Yeah, that Skyscale grind is rough, isn't it? Feels like they designed it to test our sanity. You've got options though: you can suffer through it, buy your way out, or just decide it's not worth it. Maybe Secrets of the Obscure helps a bit, but who knows? If it's not fun anymore, just move on to something else. There's tons to do in Tyria besides chasing that flying lizard. And honestly, every MMO has its crazy grinds. Do what makes you happy. If the Skyscale isn't your thing, that's cool. But hey, if you're thinking about starting a petition to make it less of a nightmare, count me in! I did it the hard way, and the feeling of finally getting it was awesome... but man, the grind was brutal. Let me know where to sign – I'm all for making it easier for others.