I don’t even understand why so many players wanted them, are they suppose to compensate for something? But anyway here are the reasons why they are useless:
1) Waypoints are faster.
Which I point out with insufferable smugness is something I said since the leaks came out and for a fact even ANET agrees with me here. How do I know that? Simple the Crystal Oasis is only about 33-50% bigger than Frostgorge Sound, however Frostgorge Sound has 16 waypoints while Crystal Oasis has only 3. So it’s obvious you need a source of fast transportation when you have so few waypoints in such a big area, but it doesn’t really give much use in the old areas as they have a high concentration of waypoints. So in other words it’s a forced necessity.
Now someone is going to pull out this BS argument that there can’t be so many waypoints in the Crystal Desert because the Asura didn’t have time to set the WP network there properly. Well ok but what about the newly discovered places in Heart of Maguuma like Tarir or Rata Novus? They obviously had no link before their discovery either yet they have their own waypoints.
Still regardless of the argument on the lack of waypoints their lack is the main reason the mounts get their use from.
2) They do nothing new.
Honestly we already have lots of masteries that do exactly the same stuff as them i.e. jumping over gaps, reaching high places: Updrafts, Leylines, Bouncing Mushrooms, Nuhoch Wallows, Rift Traveler, Explosive Launch, Thermal Propulsion, Oakheart’s Reach. We can already do all that the mounts can do ok? Heck even normal Gliding would work if this was for real, because how often do you see gaps which have edges on both sides that are level? But if they were not the Raptor could only jump over them from the higher edge, while from lower it wouldn’t make it just as Gliding can’t.
The only reason we need them is because HoT masteries are useless in the Crystal Desert.
And I find it a real lack of creativity that all 4 mounts will have separate masteries.
Why couldnt we instead have a mastery that is focused on the magic portals from GW1?
I mean even one of the mastery points requires solving one of these nostalgia puzzles. These portals however would work in a way that they have many different exit points and our mastery rank would decide which exits we can and cannot use and be required to solve higher tier puzzles for the portals.
Which would also be a good replacement for the waypoints as it would work kinda like the temple waypoints in Siren’s Landing.
3) It’s not a realistic approach.
If there is one thing that the battle with Zhaitan taught me is that thechnology is the answer. And I know for a fact that mobile vehicles do exist in this universe – there is a mission in Orr where you guard tanks and the HoT adventure Drone Race is where we drive vehicles.
So if this was for real I would ask the Pact to get me a Desert Buggy or something like that for my upcoming trip to the Crystal Desert.
4) They don’t fly.
Really if we got a mount that flies that would not only be far more exciting, but that mount would be able to get around all the obstacles the other ones can.
So no I’m not excited for the mounts, I’m just really curious why would ANET give in and listen to the community on this one? Because there is really no point in this game for them.