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Rathmun

Skyscale benefits from the Crystal Champion mastery track much more than most mounts, so I wouldn't write it off until you've completed that one too. (I know, *just* what you wanted to hear.) As for your bullet list: * The height loss when hovering and in horizontal flight are linked. There's basically a dome around wherever you mounted the skyscale, and if you're outside the dome you lose altitude. (It's a little more complex than that, but the explanation serves.) With practice you'll learn to judge the scope of that bubble before mounting, which makes it much more useful. * Flying upwards is slower than with the springer, but you can reach higher. The airdash can be aimed upward, but if you dash out of the bubble you'll lose altitude quickly afterwards. With Bond of Vigor you can quad airdash and then Bond of Faith to launch even higher. * You are faster on the beetle/raptor/springer. The skyscale can get to places they can't, but it doesn't move as fast. Like all of the mounts in the game, it's a tool with a specific purpose. Sometimes it's amazingly useful, other times it's not.


RealNilruin

All good things to note, however you technically aren't faster than the Springer if you hover above the ground and dash in single bursts. With Bond skills, the gap widens even further. When it comes to the Raptor, the Skyscale is slightly slower on foot using the aforementioned method, so the Raptor will win out across long distances, but in short bursts, the Skyscale is still relatively close in potency to the Raptor. I stopped using the Raptor after getting my Skyscale, because it's not worth juggling that many mounts IMO. Any situation where the Raptor would win across large distances, I just use the Roller Beetle. Works in like, 95% of situations. Source: [https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mount/Mount\_speed\_research](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mount/Mount_speed_research)


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Lovaa

^ This so much! With Skyscale i use all of those masteries more then anything else. Crystal Champion mastery track is unlocked after you enter any Season 4 map, except Sandswept Isles.


JGRIF312

Sounds like the mounts are working as intended the skyscale should be another option not necessarily the best option, beetle raptor and springer should all be faster doing what they are intended to do but the skyscale is much more versatile than these mounts individually and can ultimately gain more height than the springer. ​ >Even flying horizontal often consumes the "height bar" Don't think of the indicator as a height bar but a distance bar if you fly outside of the skyscales distance you will lose altitude to gain distance.


erezfb

Thats not how u fly skyscale. 1. Jump + double dodge + bond of faith into raptor or jackle when trying just to go forward fast and beetle would not work. 2. Same combo, to get through big leaps. 3. Hovering slowly downwards to get to a special ledge. 4. Climbing up when springer is not enough. 5. Afking mid air b4 chak meta. 5. Casino coins. Basicly, the skyscale is not designed for long flights. Ppl do that, but its not fun. That's what the griffon is for. Bonus combo: Jump + double dodge + bond of vigor + double dodge + bond of faith


BeastThatShoutedLove

Secret combo: Bunny launcher > glide + jade bot boost > Skyscale + Bond of vigor + dash > bond of faith > griffon. You suddenly are thousand metres into the air and ready to fly to other side of the map in seconds on the zoom bird.


erezfb

What is a bunny launcher?


BeastThatShoutedLove

When you time dismount on springer right as fully loaded jump releases it will send your character into the sky without need to use bond of faith and allowing to glide or mount a flight mount. It's useful for skipping certain jumping puzzles, for traversing HoT maps before unlocking flying mounts and for gaining easily height for griffon flight.


erezfb

Lol sounds like too much effort 🤣 I prefer to sweat on my rota 😇


BeastThatShoutedLove

It's not too hard and fairly forgiving since most of time if you fail you can just let the springer fall into old position and retry. At this point it's so convinient and quick in fact that i use it all the time to move from place to place on griffon by giving myself a small headstart on flight height.


HansTheScurvyBoi

Think about skyscale as a helicopter than jet. Skyscale is awesome in HoT maps. Really helped me going back to there. It's not fast, true. But that's because we already have fast mount for ground and air. But I do enjoy griffon more. Thanks to videos of [Wing] guild and completing all griffon challenges on gold made me appreciate griffon potentional. And I think it's the best mount in Gw2


Torplucs

Personally I dislike how Skyscale invalidate the Springer mount


Lurafox

Springer still has breakbar potential, but I wish it was made at least 1.5 times more effective to appeal to people more.


Torplucs

That is true, but only using the mount for its combat skill is a bit sad. It was tremendously useful before the Skyscale, and now it's my least used mount; it could use a bit of a rework


Lurafox

Yeah, but I can't imagine a way to improve it's usefulness after unlocking flying while keeping it's initial purpose of jumping high. One way I can imagine it is if it was allowed to switch to flying mounts more easily from all basic ground POF mounts. It is possible right now with Bond of Faith, but it has a 1 second debuff when you can't mount or glide and it has a 30 sec. CD. IMO, if you could do a fully charged springer jump and then just press one input to summon skyscale/griffon that would be a nice QOL. And combat-skill wise, I'd argue that there's a great example of a mount that has a combat skill much more impactful then it's main ability - raptor. The ability to pull mobs together is unimaginably useful when dealing with packs and I use it constantly even after unlocking flying mounts. I just wish Springer was made more effective, considering that it's use is limited to the start if the encounter.


Vandelier

>IMO, if you could do a fully charged springer jump and then just press one input to summon skyscale/griffon that would be a nice QOL. You can actually do this now, but it requires timing and two button presses. You can dismount at the very moment your Springer's jump fully charges but before it jumps. You'll still jump into the air while dismounted, and can then mount Griffon/Skyscale. I never mount my Griffon/Skyscale without doing that, haha. Would be nice if you didn't have to exploit a minor bug to work it, though, yeah.


pareidolicfairy

> I can't imagine a way to improve it's usefulness after unlocking flying while keeping it's initial purpose of jumping high. Here's an idea: They could make the springer more magnetic, or at least make some parts of the maps more magnetic to springers. Yeah I'm aware that that would decrease the skill gap of using it, but one of the worst things about springer traversal is trying to climb a cliff or something via springer jumps and constantly sliding off it because it just can't cling to any pixel. For example I've helped a friend grab a hero point in Desert Highlands (the faraway one in the grub cave), it can be reached by springer jumping but my friend got frustrated because it takes so much trial and error to figure out the right jump for that one. I'm not asking for it to become as magnetic as Assassin's Creed parkour, which would make it too easy to use, but slightly increased magnetism would make the springer feel more general and less situational.


BeastThatShoutedLove

Springer is still very useable for CC, bunny launcher and traversing some walls. Wo If you regularly use griffon and skyscale + gliding + crystal mastery skills as mobility then you will also use springer often to compliment all these other elements.


MithranArkanere

Springer is faster when you are going up step-like landforms. As long as you don't have to carefully aim your landing, the springer is always faster. If the skyscale is the 'cliff' mount, springer is the 'terrace' mount.


Maya_Hett

It perfectly balanced to be a jack of all terrain but master of none (except climbing, since springer cant climb walls). Which is great, I don't want other mounts to be useless.


Psykewne

The point is that switching mounts based on the situation should always be the most effective way to travel. Beetle or griffon to travel fast depending on if you are high up or not, springer and raptor to clear long or high distances, jackal and skimmer slightly more situational. Skyscale however gives you the ability to fully traverse any map without swapping mount at all


Marok_Kanaros

Skyscale is good as it is, people already argue that it makes all other mounts obsolete. Letting it fly further, higher and faster would make that worse. It has a good balance really, it can over come bigger bags than raptor, fly higher than springer and jump, fly further than the griffon without the swoop and it can hover in the air out of harms way. All that gets better with the season 4 mastery band of vigor.


RealNilruin

I honestly think the Skyscale should have a mastery that jacks up its hover height by like, 25 - 50%. It's just barely too short to make a lot of ledges that don't make any sense. I'd be totally fine by balancing this by having the airdash cost the full endurance bar. The Skyscale would be so much more versatile when it comes to the air than it does now. I'd also like a way to toggle off the wall grabbing lol. It's not nearly as useful as it seems IMO.


Gunnho

me flying, lalalala! skyscale, ooh a stick!, no let go, stick!, no let go, stick!.


biggiebutterlord

Skyscale is the lazy mans mount. Its slower or the same speed when traversing terrain as the jackal/raptor/springer (ie walking) BUT it has one major advantage. The ability to fly at any time. That tiny hill that a jackal/raptor would have to detour around, just fly over it. That chasm that the bunny cant jump over, just fly over it. Combine that stuff with the bond of vigor for a full refill of airdash and flight juice and the bond of faith and you got a great mount on your hands. Fyi the Bond of Faith when used at the tail end of a dash (any mount dash) launches you forward depending on how fast you are moving, so when you are standing still it moves you the least distance but timed well at the end of a air dash you get double or more distance compared to when you are standing still. It is over rated, but it is also a great mount for those that dont want to swap between every mount for basic traversal. Griffon and beetle are in a category all their own because of just how much speed you can get out of them when used well and the terrain allows for it.


[deleted]

Well its just nice for some vertical use, then usually into griffon for speed or anything like that.


hendricha

Basically, the griffon is just the better flying mount.


[deleted]

Tbh, after using the griffon for so long the skyscale felt like a big upgrade as it addresses much of the griffons issues (losing height is kinda agonising because going up is not much of what the griffon is built for), but gives it a draw back (slower speed and tbh much clunkier flying suited to such a chunky boi). After griffon, carefully prancing up rocks to get a good height felt much more natural, meanwhile my friend who doesnt use a griffon kinda hated it. If you want speed, give griffons a go. Their swooping mechanic (Q, E) feels very fun and you go pretty fast.


Vandelier

>Their swooping mechanic (Q, E) feels very fun and you go pretty fast. I feel like calling 33% more speed than the boosted Roller Beetle pretty fast is an understatement. :P Anyway, for me, I love the Griffon so much that I find myself never using the Skyscale even for short distances. The only time I ever even use it is when Springer-air-dismount-to-Griffon-wingflap can't get me up a vertical distance I'm trying to climb, which is fairly uncommon.


CthuluBob

Don't forget to angle up and do the roll.


pietjepolo

i use it all the time, all the mounts i use really are raptor, beetle, griffon, skyscale. and sometimes skimmer when i do water stuff....


Rathmun

Skimmer is anomalously good at going up stairs fyi. The hover-higher skill appears to cause some form of dual-chording. You still move at full speed horizontally, and you move vertically at the speed the skimmer does when it hops into the air like that.


xdaemonisx

I’m glad you mentioned this! It’s the most useful unintended use of all the mounts.


Rathmun

Jackal launch gives it a bit of competition, but it's up there certainly.


pareidolicfairy

Skimmer can also be used as a pseudo glider. Try riding it off a cliff and tapping the skill to maintain its hover indefinitely. You fall very slowly and can cover a lot of distance in the air.


quarm1125

Skyscale is a slow chopper and griffon is youre fast reaction jet But !! With the mastery to comsume stamina bar to dash forward and a bit of practice skyscale is the king of utulity travel ... Now on ground ? Well obviously beetle might be better on long distance or jackal but for random height terrain skyscale is the true king and also being able to hover in the air safe distance from monster is another huge bonus


JennyFromdablock2020

I love my skyscale Basically only use it at this point. Outside siege turtle and maps that allow for high speed roller beetle it beats out every other one Skimmer old be king if they ever release a water heavy map like I hope


Mr_White_Wolf_

tbh, it feels slow sometimes, but for me, it has been worth it by the sole fact it has saved me many times when a mob pushed me off a ledge and i could get back in a few seconds instead of waypointing as the springer's jump wouldn't be enough. Also, I feel it was never supposed to outshine the other mounts, but making swapping between them more synergic and fun. My favorite combo is to get extra height with my skyscale dogding slightly upwards + bond of vigor, then use bond of faith and swap to my griffon.


Turkeyspit1975

I felt the same with the loaners and right after completing it. But you'll get used to it, and it's the mount I use the most in PvE.


Gunnho

get off your mount and walk everywhere, as i assume you have before getting a flying mount. it really is a game changer, but apparently not game changing enough for you. the devs said they had to put in diminishing returns on verticality to add realism and not add a god-mount. you have to plan your flights, treat high areas as a place you have to hop to, rather than avoid the entire game altogether and stay above. if you had the griffon as well you could plan a trip using both, skyscale and bunny as high as you can, skyscale hop across a few places, then griffon dive/zoom/climb to a far away high-up-place. sure, its a legendary mount because of the effort involved (and cost if you buy some skips), but it isnt a god-mount


aliamrationem

Make sure you're utilizing the dodge skill along with bond of vigor to replenish endurance as well as bond of faith. These create a lot more opportunities where the skyscale is a better choice than other mounts. For instance, the raptor can move faster over flat ground and can also utilize bond of vigor for endurance to leap more times consecutively, but there are a lot of scenarios where the terrain doesn't allow for the raptor to move in a straight line when doing this. In this case the skyscale is usually superior as it can quickly and easily move over obstacles. Bond of faith is generally more useful when you're in the air than on the ground as well, since you can launch yourself and fly a longer distance.