After banging my head against this for a while, I finally managed to complete the Kalimdor Reverse achieve and am now working my way through the advanced achieve. Here are the tips I have learnt along the way that may help you:
Hug the ground to take advantage of that skill that generates vigor. And by hug the ground, I mean hug the ground. Sometimes I would even aggro some mobs I was that close the ground.
Do not aim for the centre of the rings unless they have a vigor charge in them. You waste huge amounts of time doing this. Instead, aim for clipping just the edge of the ring with the aim to already moving in the direction of the next ring.
Never use the whirly surge ability (the one that uses 3 vigor). Only ever use Surge forward with one exception, those instances where you should instead use Skyward ascent.
Use Skyward ascent. This is the biggest tip I can give you. Skyward ascent is the ability that is the difference between a silver time and a gold time. You must use the Skyward ascent trick as shown in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uZGJUo5t4M
Basically you will:
Point the camera up.
Quickly point the camera back down.
Then hit Skyward ascent.
Using the above method, you will conserve the vigor and gain the speed you need in critical parts of the races. Using Skyward ascent where you wouldn’t ordinarly think to use it is crucial to making some of these timers.
Good luck out there. Some of these times are ridiculous. I often got into a position where I would repeatedly miss the timer by 1 second or less. So it definitely feels like if they upped the timers on the advanced and reverse races by 1 second or so, it would go a long way to helping the completion rate.
As good as this is, and it is the fastest way to navigate the tracks, it isn’t necesary at all. All you need to time gold advanced / reverse courses is some patience and a good sense of when / where you’re losing momentum. You’ll use ascent in places where it makes sense as a way to travel upwards, but you can time everything on gold with surge forward and normal movement mechanics.
Well that certainly hasn’t been my experience at all. Even without using the trick in the video, I still had to use skyward ascent in areas that you wouldn’t ordinarily have thought to use it to get anywhere near to timing some of the races. Which I suppose is as you say using the abilities normally. But it was definitely a case of “it doesn’t make sense to use skyward ascent at this point in the race, but lets try it and see what happens…oh hey look at that, it made all the difference”.
I think the only place I had that vaguely qualifies as that was up the staircase on reverse AQ. Even then that’s still “going upwards” even if it’s a little bit shallow.
Oh that part on reverse AQ race was really tricky. But its certainly not the only place. The reverse Ashenvale race also needed it for me to time that one. Also reverse Uldum. Probs a couple others I’m forgetting.
Reverse uldum I think I pressed it once and it was to go up into the cave thing in the cliff, reverse ashenvale I can;t remmeber but I can go do it again now and check.
I’m just kinda tired of seeing people perpetuating the idea that this clearly unintended dexterity trick is necessary to time gold races because it gives the impression that this activity is far more inaccessible than it is.
Oh, how could I forget. Un’goro was a nightmare. There’s a reason why the video shows the Un’goro one. That first dip he does plus there’s 2 or 3 other skyward ascents and the last skyward ascent right before the final circle. So about 4-5 skyward ascents minimum to time it.
Went back and did it. 56 seconds just pressing surge forward. Timer for gold is 59.
Un’goro has some vertical climbs it makes sense to use ascent but I’m gonna go see if it’s doable without them. Will report back.
EDIT: 89.7 Tight but definitely doable with just surge forward. Didn’t even press ascent at the end where it is 200% obvious you should be.
Ascent flicking is absolutely the fastest way to travel when dragon riding, but it’s not a skill you need and being bad at / not wanting to learn it does not exclude you from timing races on gold.