Guild Wars 2

I am back into game after more than a year away. Bought both expansions and have boosted a new toon to 80. I want to take them through the regular story content, because I am a loser and a completionist. However, I understand I need to go to HoT territory to unlock my elite spec.

I am looking for suggestions about how to unlock and progress through my elite specs (and get gliders, etc) without having to do all the HoT content first. Is the “unlocking” just a matter of talking to a guy, unlocking the path, and then you can do other content as normal? If so, that would be fine. But if I have to do all the HoT content first, out of order of the rest of the story content, that will annoy the kitten out of me.

Feel free to set me straight if I have that all wrong!

Gliding, et al, will take going to HoT and doing the Masteries for them.

If you want the bulk of your elite spec before going into HoT, do world completion and finish the extra hero challenges. That should give enough to give you almost everything but the final elite skill.
You can also do WvW and use Proof of Heroics currency to buy completion for random Tyria / HoT hero challenges, and the HoT ones give 10 points.

If you purchased HoT, its already available to you, all you need is HPs to spend. However it takes 250 HPs so you’ll have to do 25 hero challenges from the HoT zones or complete most of Central Tyria in order to fill the entire spec.

If you want to stay spoiler-free then you’ll have to go through everything up to HoT on core specs , and that also means no gliding unfortunately. Because while there are no story missions required, alot of the story is in open world and you’ll be spoiled on one really, really, really big reveal from LS2.

Just a note, the optimal race for the story is either Human or Sylvari. They meet the most characters who appear in later storylines, and have the most plot threads. You can play as other races but you might feel like a fish out of water.

For the same reason, make sure you play through the story dungeons.

You do not have to do the HoT story to progress your masteries, but you do need to do the very first bit of it to unlock them and start training them. You then have to get xp in HoT maps (Bloodstone Fen counts, and has an xp boost available iirc) to progress them, and you have to get HoT mastery points (many just from the first time you open lockboxes) to buy them once you have the xp. The xp comes from exploration and events.

To get to Bloodstone Fen you have to do the first part of the first LS3 story, just enough to get to the first waypoint. So there will be some spoilers involved. Once in, you can get a pass that gets all your alts in without them doing the story as well.

For progressing your elite specs you need to get HP from either Pact Tyria (1 hp per location) or from the HoT maps (10 hp each). You need 250 HP for a full unlock, so 25 HoT HP does that. Keep in mind that the events in the maps are twined with the HoT Story, but I think having done them will just enhance your understanding of the instanced parts and you can save Story for later without detriment.

If you want the various mobility masteries you will need to at least poke your head into several HoT maps to unlock them. But then you can just stick to Verdant Brink (and Bloodstone Fen, if you go there too) for your xp. For the HP you will need to venture into Auric Basin and Tangled Depths, or grind the heck out of core map HP. Since you get enough HP for a full base spec unlock just by being 80, however, all the core HP will go to your elites.

Hopefully PoF will contain enough further HP for a second full elite unlock.

Short form: Do the barest bit of story needed to unlock things, then get as many Mastery Points as you can while gaining XP in the HoT maps so you can buy masteries as you go.

Or do as one of my friends has done and put off gliding et cetera until you’ve finished PS and LS2. He’s super close to enough xp for his first glider now, and while it’s taken a lot of calendar time due to his RL conflicts, actual play time has not been huge (I’ve been partnering with him to help him with the instances and watch his gleeful reactions). I did take him to a bunch of HP so he could unlock Berserker and that hasn’t seemed to affect his enjoyment of the story parts even though he’s been absolutely adamant about not skipping ahead in the story for any reason.

Thanks for the advice everyone, very helpful.