Flameseeker Chronicles: A visual guide to gliding in Guild Wars 2

I’ve had plenty of Central Tyrian airtime at this point and could ramble on for hours about it, so for this edition of Flameseeker Chronicles I thought I’d do just that. I’m going to preface some beautiful in-flight screenies of my favourite places to glide in Central Tyria with a little bit of background information about verticality and no-fly zones in the form of a Central Tyria gliding FAQ.

Bringing gliding to old zones: FAQ

How do I glide in Central Tyria?

You glide in Central Tyria in exactly the same way you do in the Heart of Maguuma: Simply unlock the Glider Basics mastery and jump off high things in any open-world map!

I heard that gliding is pay-gated: Is this true?

I don’t consider it a deliberate pay-gate at all, no. Yes, you do need to have purchased HoT in order to glide in Central Tyria, but that shouldn’t be too much of a shocker considering the mechanics are tied into the expansion, folks. It’s not as though ArenaNet has deliberately removed or locked a feature from the free version of the game and popped it behind a mean old paywall: The expansion mechanic has simply been expanded to incorporate a wider area.

Which gliding features work in Central Tyria?

Gliding is kept fairly vanilla in Central Tyria because this was the easiest way for the team to grant our wish for CT gliding without breaking anything. You won’t find any leylines or updrafts here, but you can use the advanced gliding techniques such as Lean Techniques and Advanced Gliding.

Does gliding break jumping puzzles?

The short answer here is no: I was pretty worried that CT gliding would be the beginning of the end for jumping puzzles myself, but this is not the case. There are a couple of clever ways in which the ArenaNet team has managed to keep our jump puzzles challenging while bringing us gliding, the most important of which is the implementation of no-fly zones. Add to this the fact that gliding is limited to its most basic form with no updrafts or ley lines and you have some rather safely hemmed in jumping zones!

Where are these no-fly zones?

There are no-fly zones dotted around Ascalon, Kryta, Shiverpeak Mountains, and the Ruins of Orr. Most of these zones are simply jumping puzzle protection as described above, but others exist to prevent unexpected alternate access to certain areas. You’ll be pleased to know that the Diving Goggles platform has also been protected with a no-fly zone too. You can find more specific details on the GW2 Wiki if you’re curious, but you shouldn’t find the no-fly zones to be terribly restrictive.

What happens if I glide into a no-fly zone?

You’ll have a short amount of time to correct your course, and if you don’t turn around your wings will fold up and your character will begin to fall, just the same as when you run out of stamina mid-air. The no-fly zones don’t extend the whole way to the floor, so remember to open your glider at the end of your plummet and you’ll avoid that nasty fall damage.

Is there anywhere else I can’t glide?

You can’t glide in any of the old instanced content because it simply wasn’t designed with gliding in mind. Story instances, dungeons, fractals, and PvP zones all disable your glider. They’re not strictly no-fly zones as described above; gliding is entirely disabled here, just as it used to be for all of Central Tyria.

How have zones changed for gliding?

They really haven’t changed much at all! ArenaNet has granted us the ability to glide, but the whole of Central Tyria hasn’t been remodelled to make it any more accessible or prettier by air. If a zone was flat as a pancake before the Winter 2016 patch, it still is now; likewise, places you’d always wanted to jump off with a glider remain intact. You might stumble across some places you couldn’t reach before, or perhaps you’ll land somewhere a little too rocky and unnavigable, but that’s all part of the fun!

My favourite Central Tyrian gliding spots

Rata Sum

Ain’t no bookah can tell me that Rata Sum wasn’t made to be jumped off of! Just look at how stunning the quaintly cloudy floating city is with a pair of wings strapped to your back! I featured Rata Sum in a previous article in which I discussed my favourite vistas, so I feel a teensy bit bad mentioning it here again, but I just can’t apologise when the view is just that breathtaking.

Bloodtide Coast

Jump around the Stormbluff waypoint and you won’t be disappointed: Gliding your way between the islands with all that jaunty pirate goodness all around is some of the most fun you can have while sightseeing. Gliding really makes me appreciate the gorgeous texturing and lighting in GW2, especially those delightful water effects!

Straits of Devastation

The Cathedral of Glorious Victory is a vision at the best of times with all its spooky decor and rainbow oil spill goodness, but with a whole theme park worth of rocky cliffs and outcrops that just beg to be jumped off, this zone is an ariel delight too. This area feels as though it was built with verticality in mind, so it’s a great happy accident to stumble across.

Mount Maelstrom

Swoon, swoon, swoon! This place always does look epic, but now it feels as though I could be on a dragon’s back as the beast makes a rare excursion out of its great lair when I use the first-person camera. I just adore it all: rising into the smoke plain and seeing what’s above, checking out the cracks and magma flow hidden below, and sweeping through the alien-looking pyroclastic formations.

Shiverpeak Mountains

Just go to the Dredgehaunt Cliffs and just leap off something right now… I promise you’ll want to thank me later for the visual treat! To be fair to the rest of the zone, you’d be hard pressed to be anywhere within the mountain range and not find somewhere fun to jump from. Jagged cliffs and elevated Jotun lands overlook massive vales, just begging for me to unfurl that glider and get exploring.

Over to you!

I hope you’re loving this new way of exploring Central Tyria as much as I am! I feel as though ArenaNet have given me a portable vista stick with the gift of Central Tyria gliding. Don’t forget to share your favourite aerial screenshots in the comments if your favourite spots didn’t make my list.