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I got a Griffon instead
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And it took half the effort, and 1/4 the time required to get it compared to the Skyscale. It only took two days.. and 250 Gold. There was still some effort involved, but it was seriously half the effort.
All it requires is to complete two Renowned Heart quests, 1-2 open world (Group Events/Bounties), and gathering 3-4 Griffon Eggs. The only thing that took the most time for me, was trying to get help with the open world events. See, I picked the worst possible time to do this, as it’s Wintersday in Guild Wars 2. Everyone (even their Grandma) is
in Lion’s Arch right now, finding ways to get rich quick with the events there.
I don’t give a fuck. If I need gold.. I be ANet’s bitch and bend over, and take it up the ass while they take $20 from my bank for 1,600 Gems, then convert said Gems to 250 gold. Actually had to do it, to buy the rest of the components needed for the mount. But I
got Trade Contracts in exchange, so at least I got something out of that 250 gold.
–
It felt good to hear “the final” when watching the video, and knowing I was nearly done. All I had to do was fight a final boss to get my hands on the mount. His mechanics have you master the Griffon’s attack button to take down the boss’s shield. Though once again in the game’s ‘grand splendor’, it completely fails to explain this during the fight. Your only hint is the Griffons that are around the boss, have a halo glow around them. This is supposed to hint to use them… but never explaining how to use them. 🤦♂️
Ohhhh ArenaNet. Do you ever test your shit before you release it?
Oh wait, that reminds me. There was a Renowned Heart quest I needed to do in The Desolation, and one is getting a lost ghost to follow you to their resting place. This thing has a 10% chance of a success. I lead them to where the minimap tells me where to go, and they respond saying “I remember this place! We’re close!”
I stand, right on top of where the ghost’s AI is supposed to trigger and say “finally I can rest!” or something like that… but most of the time the ghost will just stand there and
do NOTHING!! I back away from the spot and approach again. I have approached from multiple angles.. and the ghost refuses to ‘see’ they’re at the spot!
“YOU’RE STANDING RIGHT ON FUCKING TOP OF IT, JACKASS!!!!!” – Me
There’s an option to tell the ghost to not follow me. When I click this special button, the ghost then ‘triggers’ its success state.. but I don’t get credit. OH my GOD ANet!! 🤬
But I got it. Finally have a flying mount. It’s not what I wanted, but it’s better than
being SCREWED by ridiculous requirements for the Skyscale saddle and getting nothing.
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‘More’ ArenaNet scummy practices (and why I’m done with the GW2 Discord)
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So I got my Griffon, and I saw how much Gems I had after re-converting half of the gold back to gems and said “maybe I should get a skin for it”.
On to the BLTC I looked, going over the various skins. And there’s something I kept noticing: a ‘Mount Select License’ and a ‘Mount Adoption License’. I didn’t see the point of having both there, when one is 400 Gems each and you can buy more (a pack of 5 or a pack of 20), or the more expensive Mount Select License which is 1,200 Gems.
I decided to ask the GW2 Discord to explain the purpose of these, as it seemed both do the same thing (you can pick which skin you want).
…I was wrong. So wrong. So the Mount Adoption License, that’s 400 Gems each? Think of these, as a fucking LOTTERY TICKET!!!! Yes. Gambling your Gems, for a completely random mount skin. And I just love the tone of that “yep” from the one that confirmed this completely unbelievable bullshit.
So, I wanted to say: “How, and most importantly Why, do you guys feel this is an acceptable business practice?” But I wanted to say a more than that, for this is gambling. Predatory gambling. And you guys.. are ok with this? Please, someone give me whatever drug you guys take, to erase your common sense. As it’s clearly not being used at all.
But instead of waiting for the flood of ‘Many people are typing…’, I bailed out of my argument by leaving the server. For I have heard all I wanted to know. And I rather not see everyone trying to defend these actions. ..Save their souls for being brainwashed
by ANet.
Later, in the call, Vale explained this in a way that actually made sense to me. He didn’t see this as ‘gambling’ at all. He said the more expensive ones are the ones that ANet put a lot of effort into. He reminded me what NapPie told me, that they aren’t trying to scam anyone (when it comes to the BLTC).
Sorry you too, but you can really fool me. If they truly didn’t want people to
feel scammed, then why not have entire mount collections be for sale (at a reasonable price)? And no I’m not talking about the ones with four or so skins for one specific mount. Those can kindly fuck off as that’s a scam all by itself.
I’ll just stick with the base skins. Thanks anyway. This feels too much like an alternate reality if noone cared when Bethesda made skins in Skyrim behind a paywall, to ‘support’ creators. A very dark time in gaming history.
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Adventures are (a required) part of The Icebrood Saga story…
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One of the required things I need to get 75% into a ‘Return to X’ achievement just to acquire the currency, to buy one of the parts needed for the Skyscale mount, are Adventures. These are timed events that absolutely require perfection. This was one of the reasons why I said “no” to the Skyscale.
And now, I’ve recently discovered while getting back where I started in The Icebrood
Saga.. these things are part of the story. I would rather do another event grind run than these. I would rather do jumping puzzles or wait for a World Boss, than these.
And what’s worse, you have to do THREE of them! The first one, you only assume (as once again the game gives absolutely NO FUCKS if you’re confused on what to do) you have to gather all of these red energy orbs, in 3 minutes.. while trying to dodge these white orbs that move the speed of light.
Here I thought, the Sous Chef in Path of Fire was the most hated NPC I’ve ever come across. No. It’s this bitch, that literally DEMANDS PERFECTION from you if you fail!! I swear this is the voice of ArenaNet, telling me I cannot escape from doing these fucking things.
So I watched a video, begging it to BS me that I only had to get the big orbs and that’s it. No.. I had to get, all of them. And so I decided to say “fuck you” to the season, that I don’t give a fuck that Jormag wakes up. It isn’t going to matter anyway, as history has already been written (its dead, and so is Primordus). So there’s no point to even do it now, as it was spoiled by that time glitch. Though it makes me wonder if said time glitch ‘saved’ me from the season.
Didn’t really like The Icebrood Saga anyway. Sort of reminded me of WoD. Too
much Charr.
End of Dragons is better.. so far.