I couldn’t just leave it with getting the Skyscale mount in Guild Wars. And on the other hand, I’d feel guilty forcing Team Spode to help me out with every little thing as if I needed to be given anything.
The Skyscale was tough. I wasn’t doing that on my own.
The others, though?
The Raptor was my first mount. I got that one on my own. It’s given to you at the beginning of the Path of Fire storyline; I think you get it just after the opening. So no big deal. But it was my mount, so I brought her everywhere. No matter what mounts everyone else brought – I had the raptor.
We got the Warclaw when we were doing a lot of WvWvW. Getting it was just a matter of doing a lot of it, and we did a lot of it. Then when the Janthir Wilds expansion came out, the bears there also used Warclaws, so I got the cat skin to not seem so much like a n00b with the default WvWvW skin.
The Springer, Team Spode member Jovan got for me when I need a little more spring in my step. I could have gotten it on my own, but it was just a matter of teleporting to the spot and doing a couple quick tasks and then I could just buy it. Or maybe we just bought it – not sure. I went back there after, and did the tasks, but the mastery track is still locked for some reason.
The Skyscale brings us to pretty much the present. I said all along that if I could have just paid $20 and skipped the Skyscale quest, I would have. But since I did not spend that money, when a good Skyscale skin came up in the RMT store, I didn’t hesitate. It’s just perfect for an Asura’s mount. Kinda pricey, and I haven’t spent any money on skins for any other mount, but this was a way of thanking the guild for all their help.
I guess I could just have sent them checks.
The skimmer is another of the three Path of Fire mounts you’re really supposed to have. The Springer is for solving jumping puzzles. The Skimmer is for riding safely through the dangerous sand seas; it’s also super useful for water fights, like the Leviathan I fought this morning in the End of Dragons expansion.
This mount has some cool skins; the future tech hoverbike skin is very cool, but I’ve spent my money. I do tend to use the Skimmer more than I thought I might; the Skyscale is usually better, but not always. If you have to cross long distances without setting down, it’s not going to be good for you.
On the other hand, the Jackal is already cool; it doesn’t need another skin. This is the third mount you really have to have in Path of Fire, if only because there’s a bunch of jumping puzzles you just can’t solve without it. Unless you have a Skyscale. Jackal is faster; it can blink short distances and use sand portals to teleport around the Path of Fire desert.
For the Skimmer, I had to have the Raptor trained up, so that was good because it was already all set. For the Jackal, I had to have either the Springer or the Skimmer trained up. Since I’d just barely gotten the Skimmer, that meant doing a lot of Path of Fire content. Getting the Jackal trained up to use the sand portals was another whole deal, but it’s done now. I did it.
There are a few other mounts I don’t yet have. The Roller Beetle, the Glider, and the Turtle. They’re on the list. The Skiff, however, isn’t technically a mount. You can, of course, buy expensive skins for it, but you can have a mount selected and still use the Skiff, no problem, as it is more of an ability, like placing a door to your homestead. Exactly like that, actually – same menu.
You can take yourself and four other people around, anchor it and go fishing. It’s my first multi-person mount.
I remember back when End of Dragons came out. I was so discouraged about all these grindy quests that when someone said “…..quest……”, I just tuned out. Static. Hit pause on the brain machine.
It was just – go over there, kill a few things, save a villager or two, and you get a skiff. I really should have been more curious about these quests back in the day.
So, plans for the next mounts:
Turtle – I think you can buy this once you have done more End of Dragons content. I don’t know why everyone doesn’t have one, so maybe it’s tougher than that.
Roller Beetle – probably do some tasks and then get it. I think this one will be easy.
Griffon – the fastest mount in the game.
Well, let’s talk about the Griffon. It’s another frickin’ collection quest. It looks marginally better than Skyscale. Jovan cautioned me against getting my hopes up.
Step one is finishing the Path of Fire storyline. That gets you permission to accept the three collection quests for the chance to grind all these things in order to get a mount that is more or less worse than the Skyscale that I already have.
So I guess in the end, we’ll see.