Well, it was due to Jovan, the Guild Wars 2 expert in Team Spode. It’s due to him and Clever Clara that we’re playing the game at all, and it’s due to him that we haven’t really looked at any other MMO since we moved back to GW2 from DCUO.
Skyscales are one of the late-game mounts in GW2. They are one of the only flying mounts, which is kind of a thing you want — flying — in a game that hides so much content behind (or, I guess, above) sheer verticality. Unlike Griffons, the other flying mount, Skyscales can fly up. Griffons excel at level flight only.
The little dragons were introduced in Living World, Season 4. There was some expectation, perhaps, that you would gather the stuff you needed to unlock the mount permanently as you played through the content. I didn’t; I think I wasn’t even playing at that time, but those that did the content tell me that finishing the many, many, many separate steps to unlock it took a very long amount of time and a lot of effort.
The Secrets of the Obscure expansion offered a new, fun-sized, shorter quest. I happily started in on this, eager to finally get my skyscale. And… I gave up. While the rest of Team Spode were zooming around above me, I ran beneath with my Springer, Warclaw and Raptor.
I didn’t beg, or whine (much?), but eventually Jovan just said, “let’s get Tipa her skyscale.”
My job: Log in.
Jovan’s job: Tell me what to do, give me all the necessary resources, and group with me for all the xp grinding missions.
Some people might say “I couldn’t have done it without you!” but still secretly thinking to themselves, “nah, I coulda done it myself, but I’m trying to be nice“.
Not so, here. Without Team Spode and especially Jovan, I would not have my Skyscale today.
After work, I logged into GW2 and went exploring, capping mastery points, finding vistas and points of interest…. I never log in outside of our weekly games. But I did today.
Who knows? Maybe I’ll start working on all the other mounts I am missing.
GW2 is one of those games I really WANT to like, and I try it over and over, but honestly the horizontal progression aspect, which is one of the big sellers, kind of leaves me cold. I think I’m too addicted to seeing numbers go up or something!!
TBH I don’t think I have upgraded any gear in like ten years. Just side grades. The mods are where things happen for GW2.
I never bothered with the skyscale, even after they added the faster quest. I absolutely adore gliding in GW2 and I never felt the lack of a flight option until they started fixing the content to all-but require one. That royally pissed me off but fortunately it co-incided with my departure from the game for largely unrelated reasons so it didn’t matter much in the end.
Of all the MMORPGs I’ve played, I think GW2 is the one I found hardest to see the flaws from within. I know Stockholm Syndrome isn’t a real thing but if it was I might have had it while I was playing GW2. I can’t think of any MMO I ever played for an appreciable amount of time that, having stopped, I’ve ever felt less desire to return to, not for nostalgia or curiosity and most certainly not because I was missing it. I haven’t missed it a day since I stopped playing although just recently, after three years away, I am finally starting to consider the possibility of logging in again one day. Not yet, though.
Grats on getting the Skyscale. I think so long as you did nothing that could be called work to get it you should be okay. It’s when you find yourself looking at those insane grinds and thinking “Hmm. Doesn’t sound so bad” that you need to worry.
GW2 isn’t my favorite MMO by itself, but I play MMOs these days to hang with my friends. My friends play GW2, therefore I play GW2. If they played WoW or ESO or any other one, I’d be there too, just to hang around in chat and catch up.
Probably the MMO in which I’ve had the most fun with Team Spode was Dungeons & Dragons Online, but DCUO was pretty cool for awhile.
Re: Skyscale, I started on the Living World S4 stuff intending to get it but I just couldn’t make myself go through all that content. No room for adventure, just plodding from grind to cutscene to grind to cutscene. I cringed whenever they called me Commander or Warmaster or whatever else they were saying, because, sure, me and thousands of other people.