Guild Wars 2

So. Here we go with expansion two.

But let’s talk about a way to tie it with HoT. Specifically, combining the primary feature of HoT (the glider) with the primary feature of PoF (mounts) in a way that uses both.

First, some bullet points.
-There are more Maguuma Mastery Points in HoT and the Living World Season 3 than there are things to spend them on.
-There is unlikely to be more HoT content.
-Mounts are divisive, but necessary to reach places.
-Mounts are going to be in the game- for better or worse.
-Chances are, heavy modification to anything in PoF is unlikely at this point, so additions have to be easily accomplished on top of the current set-up, without unbalancing the content/exploration.

My suggestion is that there be added a fourth mastery category in addition to core, HoT, and PoF. In that mastery category should be masteries that can only be unlocked and learned by combining masteries from multiple expansions.

For HoT/PoF, this would be glide mimics. Adding skills to the glider is doable- we’ve seen it in game. We’ve seen that the selling point of mounts is that they have special abilities. Gliders already come with a built in stamina bar.

So you have it so the player can learn, with masteries, to do lesser versions of mount abilities. Key word here is lesser – they should not be able to do a forward lunge as well as the raptor, they should not be able to go up as high as a springer, or hover as long as a skimmer. Further, these skills should be tied to the stamina bar, so they can’t just spam them in sequence. However, it would still give the glider something to look forward to in PoF, add a second way of getting to some places in the expansion, and be relatively easy to add. Most of the glider’s motions and animations include things that already would have the proper movements for this, so it is a matter of coding the actual effects. Not a small feat, but recycling fitting animations means it is much smaller than some. More, this doesn’t impinge on the mounts’ utility – they remain better at their signature abilities, and retain their passive movement advantages over gliders. Gliders just become a, for lack of a better term, short range jack-of-all-stats of movement. They won’t get you as far, or do as well, but they do combine multiple functions and can get a job done.

However, these masteries should be locked until players have, at minimum, a high progression in both the glider and the mount masteries. Perhaps not the whole mastery line, but a significant percentage or a threshold of mastery points spent.

This is an additive solution that makes use of everything present and incoming, and not only could help make everyone happy(er) but also tie the expansions together more mechanically, giving replay value and a reason for players who join GW2 going forward a motive to have both expansions, not decide on just one.

They have every reason not to do this as a general unlock. The problem is mobility and combat skills that are built into the player essentially break places not designed to support them. This happened with Tyrian Gliding, and took a concerted effort to integrate it in a way that made sense (Shatterer revamp).

But theres a big reason they never allowed global gliding skills outside of Bloodstone Fen….. they lose control of what players can do with it. And players will make an effort to break the game when given those types of tools.

Look at where they implemented gliding skills. Note how very specific to the event or environment they’re designed to be used. Consider the Dwayna artifact skills, and how quickly it opens up huge portions of the Siren’s landing map that are supposed to be hidden behind minor jumping puzzles, event chains, or story interactions. Now imagine maps that came about before its design. Particularly Ember bay, which isn’t even that old. Look at how gliding changed Drytop.

The fact that HOT is obtained separately is a strong indicator that they’re design for Mobility masteries are specific to the terrain in question. Even just Gliding can easily circumvent a lot of new locations if they’re built to be vertical. So considering we’re now in the desert, they have to exclude gliding from prerequisites, and mounts are the focus of mobility in this new region, and the large world space of PoF maps….all indications point to the majority of the maps being mostly horizontal, with only certain areas dedicated to vertical climbing, that are massively spaced out to prevent players from using gliding to get around the puzzle. What will probably end up happening is most gaps will be even height, or advances to higher ground; and regulate gliding to simply being a faster, safer way to get to the bottom of the puzzle.

starlinvf.1358:

They have every reason not to do this as a general unlock. The problem is mobility and combat skills that are built into the player essentially break places not designed to support them. This happened with Tyrian Gliding, and took a concerted effort to integrate it in a way that made sense (Shatterer revamp).

But theres a big reason they never allowed global gliding skills outside of Bloodstone Fen….. they lose control of what players can do with it. And players will make an effort to break the game when given those types of tools.

Look at where they implemented gliding skills. Note how very specific to the event or environment they’re designed to be used. Consider the Dwayna artifact skills, and how quickly it opens up huge portions of the Siren’s landing map that are supposed to be hidden behind minor jumping puzzles, event chains, or story interactions. Now imagine maps that came about before its design. Particularly Ember bay, which isn’t even that old. Look at how gliding changed Drytop.

The fact that HOT is obtained separately is a strong indicator that they’re design for Mobility masteries are specific to the terrain in question. Even just Gliding can easily circumvent a lot of new locations if they’re built to be vertical. So considering we’re now in the desert, they have to exclude gliding from prerequisites, and mounts are the focus of mobility in this new region, and the large world space of PoF maps….all indications point to the majority of the maps being mostly horizontal, with only certain areas dedicated to vertical climbing, that are massively spaced out to prevent players from using gliding to get around the puzzle. What will probably end up happening is most gaps will be even height, or advances to higher ground; and regulate gliding to simply being a faster, safer way to get to the bottom of the puzzle.

Except the hybrid skillset would only be working off what you are getting in PoF. If you are already getting higher with the Springer than you ever would with a hybrid glide mastery, saying that the one breaks the other doesn’t work. The maps were designed with the tolerances of the mounts in mind, and thus they wouldn’t break any easier with these masteries than they would with the mounts themselves. You can argue that the utility might make breaking them slightly easier if they are mastered, but the limits would make that a difficult challenge.

Plus, this adds very little to the map breaking curve. If those mounts are going to go everywhere (and apparently they are) then the map breaking is already happening. Its here, we are stuck with it already. Having these masteries wouldn’t make it any worse. The skillsets are already in the wild. It would just give a secondary method of getting around – which is what we are told is the point of these masteries – while at the same time not being any worse for the problem you are citing.