Guild Wars 2

So, approximately 3 weeks ago I realized the reason I wasn’t getting spirit shards on a maxed out Mastery character in Hearts of Maguuma (like I do in Tyria), was because it wasn’t maxed out (and not because as I originally thought, that ArenaNet just decided not to add that functionality to the Hearts of Maguuma zone for some reason). Of course, as I now realize, what I was missing is the raid mastery’s that do literally nothing outside the raids. I’m not a raider, like, at all, so I never bothered to try and find a raid prior in order to unlock useless Mastery’s. One can imagine the level of annoyance I had (have) on realizing this mistake.

None the less, for 3 weeks I’ve been looking to do a single, just one incy little raid that would qualify me to unlock the mastery chain (I have more then enough left over mastery points to unlock them all and have had enough for months and months). And for 3 weeks I have found ziltch. The only people who raid are hardcore raiders, and they have 0 room nor desire for somebody looking to just do one stupid raid one stupid freaken time since ArenaNet forces us Non-Raiders to go this route.

So instead, I beg of you, please remove this ridiculous requirement necessary to level for Spirits shards in the Hearts of Maguuma. It’s not like spirit shards are super duper, gotta have them all important. It’s just something to look forward to and use. Instead the “XP” I get in the various new zones ArenaNet is kind enough to add via LW3 have all gone to waste because they are classified as Maguuma, even though 3 out of the 4 I believe are in Tyria (logic?).

In conclusion…….pretty please?

I was a bit disappointed once I found out I had to do the raid track to get back my repeatable xp bar as well. I wouldn’t mind getting into raids, it’s just I hate to think how much xp has gone to waste by me not having completed one.

There are sometimes raid groups on the lfg that do say ‘all welcome’ or ‘raid training’ (I noticed more on Sundays), I’ve tried a couple but none of the groups successfully cleared one But they were at least friendly, so I did learn some of the mechanics etc. I think there are also some guilds out there who specialise in helping people new to raids, I’ll probably just wait until my guild runs a training session.

Like you I’m not actually bothered about the spirit I shards, I just like seeing the xp bar go up and something happen at the end of it, I just don’t like the thought of wasted / meaningless xp while it’s locked.

The topic has come up before and the consensus seems to be that nearly everyone would be fine if raid masteries were split off into another ‘tree’. There’s a split between those who think that has to happen ASAP, those who think it should happen whenever it does, and those who think it’s a waste of ANet resources to do so.

It doesn’t seem to have been intended by ANet:

• Originally, XP went nowhere in both core and HoT Tyria. People complained and ANet added in spirit shards for “leveling” past L80.
• When they did that, they either couldn’t or forgot to think about how to split raid masteries.
• As a result, we’re in this situation in which folks who never wanted to consider raids are wondering why they are locked out of a reward for casual play.

The vast majority of veterans have more spirit shards than they can ever spend. The vast majority of new players (with level 80 characters) have too few. Changing the system isn’t going to affect either group much.

I think ANet should fix it eventually even though it won’t matter in the long run; the principle is probably important enough to make it worth their time. (My guess is that — if they plan on doing so — it will happen when the next expac releases and they add more masteries to the game.)

killermanjaro.5670:

I was a bit disappointed once I found out I had to do the raid track to get back my repeatable xp bar as well. I wouldn’t mind getting into raids, it’s just I hate to think how much xp has gone to waste by me not having completed one.

There are sometimes raid groups on the lfg that do say ‘all welcome’ or ‘raid training’ (I noticed more on Sundays), I’ve tried a couple but none of the groups successfully cleared one But they were at least friendly, so I did learn some of the mechanics etc. I think there are also some guilds out there who specialise in helping people new to raids, I’ll probably just wait until my guild runs a training session.

Like you I’m not actually bothered about the spirit I shards, I just like seeing the xp bar go up and something happen at the end of it, I just don’t like the thought of wasted / meaningless xp while it’s locked.

Yes, exactly this. The amount of xp and spirit shards I would have now….I have just over 1600 spirit shards right now. If I had access to Maguuma, it would easily be over 5k. Sigh….

I must be checking at the wrong times for LFG, usually when I check there is 0 out there and the few people I find that are in a raiding guild try their best not to laugh at my request to join them for 1 raid.

I can’t raid either, not because of skill but because of people. I’m not getting into this now, but try the prison camp. Should be easier. Or Vale guardian

@Multigun: Really, you’ve leveled up 3000+ times in this year and change? Impressive!

I’m not sure I’ve leveled up that many times since I started playing on all my characters.

I bought my wife a raid run from a reputable guild for our anniversary. That unlocks the track and you can level it anywhere. Terrible solution but it’s there if anyone has lots of gold.

I suppose someone could always get an alt access to the prison camp encounter and then spend a weekend opening it up for people as that’s arguably the easiest way to unlock the mastery line.

The chests in the Auric Basin meta has given me them recently.

The rewards for raids could be changed to something that’s not a terrible deal per unit time and maybe more people would raid.

Fractals are not that much easier than raids but offer far better rewards, but it’s super easy to find pug groups for T4 fractals.

Raids? It takes weeks to build up enough currency for items easier to get elsewhere in the game. RNG on drops only works when you can clear a lot of things, one or two bosses doesn’t cut it.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

@Multigun: Really, you’ve leveled up 3000+ times in this year and change? Impressive!

I’m not sure I’ve leveled up that many times since I started playing on all my characters.

Sigh, fine, it was an exaggeration. It’s at least more then double that of what I could do in Tyria alone since the vast majority of the end game content is focused in Maguuma.

Okay. Still, 1 Spirit Shard per level-up isn’t a lot. Hardly worth the effort, at least for me. I get plenty of Spirit Shards from every other source. One more a week or so means little. /shrug