When Fish Fly
Among the mounts introduced with Guild Wars 2’s Path of Fire expansion, the Skimmer has always felt more like a tool than a trophy. It is shaped like a manta ray and hovers just above the ground or water, and while it does not rival the Raptor’s sprint or the Springer’s leap, it changes how you move through certain parts of the Crystal Desert and beyond in ways the others cannot. The mount’s design is built around that low, even glide rather than outright speed.
The Skimmer’s core trick is that it never quite touches what is underneath it. That slight lift lets it glide over quicksand, branded ground, toxic pools and patches of lava that would slow or kill you on foot or on most other mounts, as long as the damaging volume sits low enough beneath the hover height. In practice, that turns stretches of map that used to be dead zones into routes, opening up shortcuts, safer paths and access to tucked-away chests or events without constant chip damage. It is one of those abilities that you only miss once you mount something else and try to cross the same ground.
Out on open water, the Skimmer comes into its own again. Skimming across a lake or river is noticeably faster than swimming, and the mount’s drifting, banking turn feels more fluid than kicking along at character swim speed, especially on longer crossings. For a while, that was where its aquatic role ended: it stayed on the surface, and anything that required diving still meant swapping back to standard underwater combat.
That changed with the addition of the Skimming the Depths mastery in 2020. Unlocked via the “Finding Sibaha” collection and then trained with Path of Fire mastery points, this final tier allows the Skimmer to slip below the waterline and function as a full underwater mount, letting you dive and swim through three-dimensional space while still using the same familiar controls. It turned the Skimmer into the game’s answer to long-distance underwater travel, particularly useful in maps where underwater combat and exploration are still woven into events and story steps.
In group content, the Skimmer has a small but useful support role through its Barrel Roll ability and associated masteries. A quick double-tap sends the mount surging forward in a spin that not only gives a slight movement boost but, with the right traits trained, can heal and revive downed allies you pass through. Combined with the combat dismount bonuses from the later Skimmer masteries, this makes it a convenient way to reposition and pick people up in areas where the ground itself is doing as much damage as the enemies.
The Skimmer still has clear limits. It will not match a Raptor’s long horizontal leaps, a Springer’s vertical climbs or a Jackal’s sand portal tricks, and it can feel sluggish if you try to use it in tight, obstacle-heavy terrain meant for other mounts. Even so, the combination of hazard-skipping, surface speed and underwater movement keeps it relevant long after you have unlocked the rest of the stable, particularly in the Crystal Desert, season four maps and older zones with awkward water or branded patches.
Visions of Eternity has nudged the Skimmer a little further again. As part of that expansion’s wider mount updates, Skimmer riders can work through a short collection on Castora to unlock a new wavehawk-style skin and a fresh mastery line tied to its handling and utility. The new tiers add touches such as an Aetherlocation pulse to ping nearby enemies and hidden chests while submerged, a short Slipstream boost that lifts movement speed and hover height, and Water Jets that fire brief bursts of projectiles to harry foes and top up allies’ health. A later mastery, Riptide Rider, lets the Skimmer hook into ley lines and updrafts both above and below the surface, and baseline tweaks like in-combat mounting and mid-air dismounts make it easier to fold into moment-to-moment play. None of this turns it into the fastest mount in Tyria, but it does reinforce the same quiet brief it has had since Path of Fire: smoothing out the awkward bits of terrain so you can focus on where you are going rather than what you are crossing.
