Skyriding was better when it was Dragonriding functionally prior to 11.0 and I may have the solution!
I love that we can have all our mounts fly with Skyriding but being able to pick a steady flying mount or a Dragonriding mount was much better for function. Many of us were under the impression that some mounts would be steady flying only and we could use them without any switching/casting. However, we went from simply the cast time on a mount of 1.5 seconds to now not only having that cast but plus a whopping 5 second cast time on the switch. The change most likely takes 10+ seconds when everything is factored in. Not immersive gameplay at all. Aesthetically it is better now being able to use many mounts but function had a major step or steps backwards.
I have yet to find anyone I know who is happy with the changes function and why would they be. Again, it is worse than it was. Also having Druid flight form as steady riding at the ready when need be could get you out of a pinch when you ran out of vigor midflight. Now you are stuck with whichever you pick. I’d be willing to bet nearly 100% of us players would prefer one of the following solutions or a combination listed below. My pick is the first thing I list. Why bother with two styles when one could cover everything. We are overcomplicating something that could have been simpler in my opinion or at least more streamlined into one system.
Remove the different flight styles completely. Why have two flight styles separated when you could simply combine them together for the truly ultimate flight style. Why not just have it so when you run out of vigor, you fly at steady speed. When you want to hover and still have vigor, you can use the aerial halt button that most players never use now to stop and hover. Skyriding resumes when you use your next vigor. This way, there is no switching, everyone is happy and we stop trying to solve problems that we created in the first place. Need to hover for some quest objectives, no problem - simply press halt, hover and steady fly about until you’re ready. Gotta turn the quest in now way across the zone, no problem - just press that vigor flight button(s) and zoom off. At the moment, trying to quest with Skyriding can feel so clunky sometimes. Many of us do objective, fly, loot item, hit node, this and that very quickly and in short bursts which doesn’t lend well to Skyriding.
My less favorable solutions:
Allow Druid flight form to be glyphed or button changed to either Skyriding or Steady Flight independent of regular fly capable mounts.
Allow a player to glyph or button change a mount to be steady flying. I thought I could use a steady flying only mount but those mounts (Otterworldly Ottuk looking at you) are grounded which is sad. I liked it better before 11.0 for that kind of function.
Remove the cast time to switch or make it like 1 second. We already have to recast the mount since we are auto dismounted. Feels like a step backwards functionally. Maybe explain the technical issue with needing a 5 second cast so we as players can understand a bit more.
Give us an area to drag some mounts into like warbands login screen that can be used for steady flying only.
Allow us to have two favorite buttons one being skyriding and one being steady flying that cover whichever favorite mounts we want with the same mounts allowed in both. The only difference is clicking or pressing skyriding favorites gives that style of flying while clicking or pressing steady flying gives use that style of flight. No need to cast to change or anything - the only cast time you have is the typical 1.5 to summon the mount.
If anyone has any other ideas or feedback, I’d be curious to hear them.
… that’ll give them some more time to iron out these ongoing bugs/glitches
