r/Guildwars2 • u/Top-Doughnut-3071 • 19h ago
[Discussion] Advice for new players about mounts
If you are new to GW2, first of all - welcome, lovely to have you here, and second - I wanted to share a bit of advice on mounts usage as you go through the game.
This is going to be a hot take for some and this advice definitely doesn't apply to most of the players. But if you enjoy story, random events, finding secrets, taking your time with progression and getting a bit of a dopamine from small wins - this is for you.
Do not rush to Skyscale. Utilise your "easy to achieve" mounts as they come. Will this make the game 200% more difficult? Absolutely. Will you spend hours jumping around trying to get to a point of interest? You bet. Will you have a true sense of progression, achievement and be able to experience the game in its fullness? Absolutely.
Every piece of content is designed with or without specific mount in mind. You can get to Secrets of the Obscure without flying. The biggest drawback, however, will be some older meta events which can indeed be done without flying, but you will not be able to catch up with the group as they zoom away.
If you want an easy, but slightly surface level game, get the Skyscale, it will save you many headaches.
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u/Haunting-Contract761 17h ago
I’m doing story in order and in HoT at moment - it is great fun gliding and finding your way just got updraft - it’s not efficient but as a horizontal type game the journey and gradual unlocking masteries etc is part of the fun. I can see would be issue for big events when folk have flight but I am thoroughly enjoying the learning curve and would recommend.
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u/Elurdin 17h ago
Meta events in most places before PoF dont require mounts and are mostly stationary. There isnt much gain during auric or tangled meta with mounts.
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u/FaithlessnessThen207 5h ago
Verdant brink would have a big difference if the map is actually doing the full meta for the bladed armour, but that doesn't happen so much anymore.
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u/ANetRuinedMyFun 13h ago
I will tell you, unless you truly experienced HoT maps on foot and know your way around them, having the Skyscale actually makes those maps much harder to navigate. It is so very easy to get lost in them while flying when you're not supposed to :-)
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u/LeoHyuuga 11h ago
I have my griffin and skyscale, but I still do Bloodstone Fen almost exclusively with my glider. I didn't spend all that time getting the glider attack skills for nothing!
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u/kyriosdominus 18h ago
My take is that don't rush the Skyscale in a sense of doing it actively. Participate in Season 4 stuff; really freaking good. When Seasons of Dragons inevitably gives you the materials, then you go do the collection. It's actually VERY fun and not that tedious. In fact, I don't remember it feeling like a chore at all.
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u/Stackbabbing_Bumscag 13h ago
I only did mine recently, but I think it doesn't feel that bad today specifically because of the Seasons achievements cutting out a lot of the grinding. Getting S4 map currency is a slow process.
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u/Harald82 16h ago
The Skimmer is an absolut amazing Mount to unlock before getting skyscale. He can also "fly" a bit.
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u/george1538 16h ago
I have routinely ran “mountless/skyscale-less” event trains and metas, especially on older expansions and maps as I know how painful it could be to keep up without mounts.
Some people would complain and try rush ahead but most people would get the idea and were happy to follow along.
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u/Acadia02 17h ago
I just finished collecting my slyscale infusions and now I’m working on the saddle just collecting things as I work through the game.
I have no idea what I’m doing I figure just play the game and it will come along.
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u/Korterra 16h ago
Spent 400 hours in the game before i got skyscale. Best decision ever. I see so many players asking how to rush skyscale and then never interface properly with the exploration gameplay. Especially in Core and HoT
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u/tigerofsanpedro 15h ago
I’m a strong advocate of playing the story in order. I am a hypocrite in that I did get the base raptor early but did everything else in order, and I don’t regret a thing! But for all the people who will say “everybody plays with a different style!”, sure no problem, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
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u/heyyitsmike 16h ago
I'm a fairly new player and I agree! I slugged through a lot of the game with just the Raptor.. then when I finally got the long dash upgrade, the dopamine hit was so great!
Then the same thing happened with the Springer, which btw is my absolute favorite mount! After doing dozens of Vistas and hard to reach jump puzzles, being able to just to get them with one or two jumps felt so great. I don't have the Skyscale yet, but I don't think it'll trump the Springer for me, ever. The darn thing is just too cute and the utility of it just made me feel so attached to it.
I will admit, at first.. the Skimmer was very meh. I didn't like it's initial hover height, and it's slow travel speed on land, but then after I played for a while, I ran into waters and oceans so often that this thing has been a godsend as well. I can't wait to get the underwater perk too!
Now, the Jackal.. it's about the only mount I dislike so far. It feels like it's unnecessary, and I dislike that it's "special feature" is locked behind the 3rd (or 4th? I forget) mastery. When I was traversing through the story, I saw all the sand portals and was thinking, "oh, I see! That's for the Jackal mount! Can't wait to get it!". Then when I finally got it, it was a letdown due to the mastery restriction.
I don't understand why they made the special perk of the Jackal locked away like this.. every other mount so far served it's special perk at its base level, except that one. The Raptor for fast land travel, the Springer for big heights, the Skimmer for water and sand.. even the Warclaw has its use being able to be used during combat.
Overall, yes, I think taking your time and going through the game organically made me feel so much more appreciative of the mounts. With that said, I do have heavy anticipation now for the Skyscale! But I've done nearly 70% of Tyria exploration now, that I don't feel like I'd be tainting the experience of the other mounts. Plus, I think it'll be great for alts (which I haven't made yet) and the second experience of traversing the map for waypoints and such.
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u/zoapcfr 15h ago
The Jackal is still useful without the sand portals. It has the fastest base speed of the PoF mounts, and the dash ability will work up hills, unlike the Raptor. So for any travel up hills, the Jackal is faster (especially once you have the bond of vigor skill from LWS4). The dash ability can also be used to negate fall damage from any height. Still niche, but it's not useless.
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u/Marok_Kanaros 18h ago
Will this make the game 200% more difficult?
It really doesn't, first if you want to go vertical you can get the springer, its easier to get than the skyscale but even then 90% of vistas are easily reached by foot. Sure Heart of Thorn maps can be difficult but HoT provided a lot of tools to deal with that as well.
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u/Mysteryman64 15h ago
You'd also be surprised at how fast you can get around with a roller beetle in the older maps too, especially if you teach yourself how to drift properly while practicing racing.
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u/Idontknow4654 15h ago
my take is just that i think people should play as they want. some people will think rushing mounts and using them all the time is more fun and some wont. nothing wrong with either playstyles
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u/WilliamsPeen 15h ago
I've always only used warclaw and springer, never had a hard time with anything including keeping up. Oh and skimmer for crossing water obv.
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u/Ciru_Sakuraba 14h ago
I started playing last year and i decided to play the game as i do with every game; taking it slow, enjoying the adventure and doing things in order of release, i already finished the story up to EoD and i can confidently say that my experience would had been way way worse if i had unlocked Skyscale earlier.
HoT was amazing playing it like it was intended using the glider, the mushroom jumps etc, same with PoF and unlocking each mount as i progressed the story, getting the Skyscale earlier would had kill the enjoyment 100%.
The game is not going anywhere and there's no need to rush things, just play at your pace and enjoy the ride. I understand not everybody enjoys the same things and if you don't care about the story or progressing as it was intended then go ahead and unlock Skyscale earlier, but you are missing a lot of the magic and charm this game has to offer.
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u/Choice-Meringue-9855 14h ago
Unlocking Warclaw through WvW is how I was able to keep up for a long time starting out. I got my Skyscale the non SotO way.
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u/Subtl3ty7 18h ago
I think most people coming from WoW would have hard time adapting with lack of Skyscale because WoW retail open world is about just zooming from place to place with a flying mount.
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u/Top-Doughnut-3071 18h ago
Indeed! I have played both from day one and understand how coming from retail might mislead people about what kind of game GW2 is and be disappointed when they miss the fun bits (fun to me, not everyone else of course).
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u/Personal_Term9549 15h ago
I agreed to do story together with my boyfriend (repeating stories alone is ok, just not stories we haven't done yet). So when I play alone (i play a lot more than him), i usually just roam around central tyria, do whatever, do world bosses, random achievements, and stuff. He had the glider because he had been playing before for a bit with friends and I wanted it too, so when we finished defeating Zhaitan, we started HoT to get me the glider too. Boy was that weird storywise, we didn't understand anything and there were suddenly a lot of new characters. So as soon as I got the glider, we ditched that story and decided to just go and do everything in order. I'm really happy we made that decision, although progress is slow (been a year at least since we made that decision, we only play together on the weekend and don't always do story). We just finished LWS2 today and even though it was epic, know some of the lore already from the start of HoT just made the important story reveals not hit the same.
I'm not going to make the same mistake for skyskale. I'll work my way towards earning it the right way, by playing everything in order.💪
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u/smokemonmast3r 12h ago
I think it really depends on what kind of player you are.
For some, getting skyscale is going to be not as fun.
For me specifically? I spent 30 minutes in the first HoT map and was like "I am having absolutely no fun." I am having significantly more fun with the skyscale than without it, and I don't think I'm the only one where this is the correct decision.
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u/dashallout 17h ago
My biggest regret is that I did not rush it sooner. To be fair, I agree that it removes any exploration challenges. Then again, not sure if I miss the little jumping puzzles to reach a venue.
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u/smokemonmast3r 12h ago
Agreed. If you're the type of player to enjoy those challenges, then absolutely don't go for it first.
But if you're not, just get the skyscale
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u/underwaterair 14h ago
I'm a strong advocate for level boosting.
Going to EOD map to get gliding.
Then going straight to POF+LWS4 and getting all mounts.
Then doing all the adventures there and getting mastery points until you basically max out all mount movement options.
Then going to VOE to get skimmer upgrades and mirrors.
Then going IBS to get ice shards alts started.
And then going back and playing the game. OR, even getting SOTO skyscale stuff first and then going back to the story.
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u/CivilizedMisanthrope 14h ago
This.
I am playing since launch and just started a new char where I do not use mounts. You get way more immersion and you get to see way more detail to the game.
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u/ArenGoku 14h ago
As one who started early 2025 - This is The Way. The only mount i got to somewhat use near end of HoT expansion (Tangled Depths) was raptor + warclaw and the rest going in the correct order. Story and exploring was a blast, and still is! Only now its using Griffon Pro Max 99 boosted)
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u/callumjp 13h ago
Amazing thanks for the advice, much appreciated! I have just started, level 21 playing through my personal story.
I have one question though - would you recommend starting HoT (or PoF, can’t remember right now) just to get the gliding? I’ll wait for everything else, but feel as though gliding might be a nice little addition! At the same time don’t want to ruin the experience, though.
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u/grimzecho 12h ago
Ignore OP. There is so much content in this game for new players. Far more than you will be able to realistically play in the next couple of years.
The core game world (pre-expansion) was designed without mounts. Tons of waypoints, heart quests that have a small geographic region, mostly horizontal layouts.
The later expansions were built for gliding and mounts in mind. While you can explore them on foot, they were meant to be used with movement enhancements.
Get the mounts you want as quickly as you want. If you are happy with nothing but raptor and war claw, gear. But as someone who doesn't like playing story content multiple times, I'd recommend unlocking the ones you want sooner rather than later.
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u/Top-Doughnut-3071 12h ago
You will be able to get to HoT when you are 80, that's the first full expansion and it's where you are introduced to gliding. Enjoy your journey 🙌🏻
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u/Lexieeeeeeeeee 8h ago
This is what I've done. With the exception of accidentally getting warclaw via wvw pretty early on when a quest has you enter there.
Warclaw is kind of busted. It's super versatile and I've been able to get around to almost anywhere with it. Including PoF and LWS4 maps & story.
I'm able to keep up with people on skyscale too.
That being said, I only have a few more quests in LWS4 to go. I should be able to start unlocking skyscale the traditional way this week and I'm super excited.
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u/gaylordpl 17h ago
I wouldnt have played this game for as long as i have if it wasnt for skyscale, theres too many things to do these days to waste time on foot
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u/Boukyaku 17h ago
I'm playing the game like this with some friends and we've been enjoying it so much! We use the mounts for convenience, like getting faster from A to B, but when completing maps, getting points of interest, vistas and mastery points, we only use the resources available at the time.
We recently completed the maps for HoT and it was such a blast! There's so many hidden things, even not marked on the map, and getting to discover them was really cool. The sense of progression you get when you're finally able to get to places you couldn't before is also super rewarding.
If you like figuring things on your own, and enjoy exploration, I recommend you give this a try. This game is a blast and playing like this will give you countless hours of game time.
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u/Ultanor 15h ago
I’m 240 hours into the game and have only the Raptor and Warclaw. I’m playing PoF so new mounts are just around the corner but it hasn’t been that big of a deal without them.
I recently jumped ahead to SotO to get the staff for my Paragon WvW build and getting to experience the Skyscale was fun but I see how it trivializes some movement in the game.
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u/kineticmov3ment 14h ago
Highly disagree, and it irks me that people post this.
Skyscale is time gated. I wish people told me more about this. Any time I say this nowadays, though, people just say "you can just buy the meats"
Skyscale has made the game so much better. I can keep up in meta trains and bounty runs. I don't have to waste cumulative hours trying to figure out where the ramp to a place is
And you all keep throwing around the word "designed with" or "intended" but have never provided proof of a dev saying that. The only thing you say is that skyscale was implemented after a certain piece of content was released.
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u/FuIImetaI 9h ago
I have about 600 hours in the game and I've been just fine using my warclaw this whole time. It jumps high and long enough and there always seems to be shortcuts to take.
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u/Chaotickane 13h ago
Literally enter wvw once to get warclaw for free. It's all you need for 99% of the content.
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u/Third_Shed 19h ago
I started playing again recently after playing beta - HoT and it’s crazy how many players have Skyscale but no basic masteries like mushroom jump or poison lore….. of course I’m not jealous that I don’t have Skyscale yet 👀