#gw2 skimmer

[praise-joko]

Skimmers come in a variety of different patterns, but no two look exactly the same. They can shift colors like a chameleon. In the wild, they do this to camouflage with their environment, but domesticated skimmers will also shift to match riders they’ve formed a strong bond with.

[commander-gloryforge]

im not talking most useful/most used in general but your personal fave for whatever reason, be it most fun, because it has a cool design/lore/concept, because there's a skin youre particularly attached to, etc.

no nuance. choose one.

[valiant-portabella-pirkko]

Alright know what here's a little Guild Wars 2 reblog game for everybody; what mounts (if any) do your characters have in their canon, do they have names? Personalities? How'd they meet??

Spill it all below, tell me about all your creatures!!

[therealpactcommander]

my other mounts: beautiful! majestic! stunning!

my springer:

[kilobytten]

Process wips so far of the Nadia and Blueberry piece!

Pose/Picture I used for reference by @adorkastock ! I also used a variety of google search images for the right foot.

[choose-your-own-dentistry]

[konig-varorson]

An old fun bug that occurred. My charr catfish, everyone.

[manasurge]

Me rn

[biomagitech]

Phyy, with Bubbles and Charcoal! Sometimes you make science happen, sometimes science happens to you, yaknow?

[scrumpygoat]

in the new map, trying to get to the Littoral Cave point of interest, I get eaten by piranhas in 0.3 seconds every time 😭 all the tutorial vids seem to use the skimmer underwater, is that the only way to get through??

[bluebudgie]

Ever since the "which mount do you primarily use to travel" poll I've been hyper conscious about it in game and man. I have to say. I did not realize before how often I actually use the skimmer on land.

It's just perfect for when you wanna sit your character's butt on a mount but don't actually want to nyooom through the landscape.

[littlefoxgw2]

I've been playing my EU account a little more often recently and everyone in EU map chat is so much nicer than on NA :) Maybe I will move my main account to EU as well? I saw all of these names waiting for Tequatl on Saturday when it was finally normal people waking hours in Europe so I could do group events for weeklies. 😅

[orrianreaper]

GW2 people - Pitch me YOUR idea for an Expansion!

What's the theme, where are we going, what lore threads are we picking up on, what's the story premise, what mechanics do you think it could have.

I love spitballing ideas when I'm talking with friends so I'm posing the question To Everyone because I know everyone has some pet concepts floating around. As self-indulgent as you'd like, as unrealistic as you like, just throw ideas around, I wanna hear them!

The One I think I have the most rounded ideas for would be an Underwater Expansion. Picking up on the threat of whatever is terrorising the deep oceans, having some exploration of the Largos and bringing back in the Quaggan and the Krait maybe!

I love the sort of depths we get in maps like Frostgorge sound, and underwater combat has badly needed a rework and a tune up - there's loads of skills which straight up don't work and break entire builds underwater, and this would be a perfect excuse to try bring it up to speed. Maybe even make the underwater weapon sets function on land, to satisfy those who're after more weapons. You could make the maps a mix of true underwater and perhaps giant air bubble caves so you still had some land exploration even in maps otherwise set deep under the ocean. A map meta split with land phases and water phases. Additionally as personal bias wish, I'd love map event/meta design more like HoT. A map-wide Story with a few chains with specifically Build into the actual true Meta. I also simply love the idea of having a bunch of enemy designs based of the ocean and the abyss, there's so much incredible inspiration and interesting marine life. and biomes too! Give me a hydrothermal vent section in one of the maps, hell underwater 'water' in the form of brine pool 'quicksand'.

The Turtle might get some more use out of it's underwater, and skimmer would absolutely get spotlight as a skyscale isn't going to get you too far here - hell maybe even some speedy new underwater mount could be a fun addition to the roster.

I can see a plot being around trying to work with the Largos, The 'Terror of the Deep' being a danger and learning from them about how to survive the hostile environment and also convince them work with you to Hunt the 'Terror'. Maybe you come to the area of the ocean with the Quaggans and it's convincing the Largos to take them seriously as allies against whatever you're fighting? A quaggan companion character would be really fun, and you could easily bring back Sayeh al' Rajihd from the personal story given Largos involvement. I think not only would it be something very different in terms of the maps, which granted quite a few people might not like (thalassophobia reasons, or general Dislike of Water Gameplay reasons), but I think a rework of the underwater mechanics would benefit a bunch of places and it's something that really doesn't get touched outside of base game and maybe like, the Leviathans in EoD. There's so much neat creature design inspiriation swimming around out there, and I know so many people love the largos and even if not playable getting to see more of them could be neat! Also - it'd finally make all those legendary full people happy. A Legendary Aquabreather :P.

And a new suite of legendary underwater weapons since the G1 set. (and not themed pretty please make them all Unique.)

[valiant-portabella-pirkko]

Windshear - Northern Featherwing Griffon

Thunderclap - Fulgurite Ridgeback Jackal

Blitz - Lepidote Brute Skyscale

Presenting: 3 of Ruju's menagerie of mounts, all gradually gathered and tamed over the course of his journey as the Commander. each is just as stubborn as he is-- for better and DEFINITELY for worse.

Windshear

- an early encounter; Ruju met her in Lornar's Pass on a diplomacy mission for the Vigil, and was consequently carried off by the bird

- fortunately it turned out she was more interested in having a playmate to fly with than actually harming him

- the most dramatic of creatures. she takes him on the wildest and steepest possible routes entirely on purpose

- also the most likely to let you pet her. she loves being scritched right behind the ears and will lean her FULL weight into it

- (Ruju has been flattened by this on multiple occasions)

Thunderclap

- the djinn of the Desolation were tracking this runaway jackal when Ruju came into the area, so he decided to help them out

- turned out the jackal had a prideful nature; he expected any tamer to match his ferocity and prove their worth

- Ruju ultimately accomplished this by facing the jackal 1v1 with his air element, wrestling among the toxic sands

- his violet air element blended with the djinn's taming magic, producing his unique coloration and electrical current

- unlike Windshear he does NOT like being petted. however... he does enjoy a good game of tug-o-war, but will NOT hold back

Blitz

- Gorrik initially joked that the hatchling was so fiercely rebellious because Ruju was the one to retrieve his egg

- this stopped being funny after getting bitten like 15 times

- absolutely VORACIOUS eater when it comes to magic... but also notoriously picky. tends towards crystallized energy

- particular favorite is bloodstone, which caused his eventual bright red coloration. his scales glitter with crimson gems

- somewhat vain. he's very proud of his spiky crimson look and tends to preen and show off when other skyscales are around

- they all just think he's weird though (because he is)

[astralarias]

Skyscale Essay aka man I kinda miss the pre-skyscale days

Disclaimer that this is just my personal opinion and I don't hate the skyscale!! I think it's definitely a good mount for ease of access and is my second most used after the griffon! However, I've always felt it does take away from the other mounts quite a bit, so I wanted to go into that a little bit!

After mounts released with Path of Fire, the maps of that expansion and the following Living World 4 were built, in no small part, around the mounts themselves. Considering each mount’s unique ability and movement set led to what I feel was a very fun map design that almost was like a puzzle, and the mounts the missing pieces.

I could jump vast distances on raptor, then see a tall cliff and switch to springer to get up. At the top I might see a sand portal, and use jackal for a shortcut. At the other side of the portal, I could come across quicksand — the skimmer would fit this piece of the puzzle. Even with the griffon, the “prestige” mount, I would use a variety of mounts to get myself to a suitable launching point — and from there, a game with gravity and momentum began.

Although I can understand it may be frustrating to some to have to swap mounts often, I found that to be part of the immersion and fun. It felt like these mounts were not just transport but animals who filled different niches and belonged in the world, had adapted to it. It was engaging to me to look at where I wanted to go and consider not only the best but the most fun way to get there.

Then skyscale released. The change was felt, I believe, in the map that came with it. A lot of the map was just plain awkward and frustrating to navigate without the skyscale. You could get around it without the skyscale, sure, but it was a much less pleasant experience than before.

Ever since this mount was added, I feel the maps have been forced to cater to it, instead of the maps lending themselves to fun use of all mounts. Everything has to be designed with where the skyscale can go in mind. The puzzle-piece feeling of older maps is just gone for me.

Riding your raptor and see a tall cliff where springer would be ideal? Not any more. You’ll likely already be on skyscale, stay on skyscale, which is decently fast on land, and fly up the cliff. It’s efficient, but to me lacks so much of the spirit of GW2’s original mounts. Whilst you could still play this way — and I often do when solo — it’s become inconvenient to use other mounts when doing anything on a timer. Trying to get to an event, bounty, rift, etc? A flock of skyscales gets there first, bypassing any creative level design, and — oh, the event is over.

It just feels to me that skyscales, presumably intended to represent the freedom of flight, are just a roadblock in the way of more fun map design nowadays. The way new players whose only expansion is SotO are given an entire new way to unlock the skyscale, and given a permanent (to the SotO maps) rental skyscale — because the expansion is built around one mount, maybe two if you count the griffon at a stretch, and playing without it would be utter misery. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to give new players easier ways to get stuff at all, I really like it and it's something I'm always happy to see!! My concern is, when you’re fast-tracked to one specific mount, or else the expansion is blatantly unfun…that feels like such a reversal of the philosophy behind the original mounts — doing something new and unique, the idea of joy of movement. What’s joyous about the skyscale’s movement, that you couldn’t find in other games? It is wonderfully animated, but it has none of skimmer’s smooth grace or griffon’s dance with gravity. It just feels so bland, and brings down the map exploration aspect with it.