Guild Wars 2

I am returning to GW2 as one of my main games and, since I had to cut way back on playtime shortly after HoT launched, I am still a fair distance behind in progress.

My main character had already been at 80 for a long time, but had not yet gotten to the HoT content story-wise. As I went through the remaining story bits and did daily achievements, events, festivals, etc, I realized I was essentially losing all the experience I would have been putting toward mastery tracks since unlocking those required completing the opening of the expansion story.

That would probably have been a smart thing to do, but since story is one of the big reasons I play (grr, raids), I decided I’d just have to take the hit and deal with the lost xp while I worked my way forward. No regrets on that part.

Now, though, I have made it to HoT, I have unlocked and started working on masteries, my level 80 xp is useful once more. Except when I am playing characters that have not yet reached 80, I wonder if that experience is essentially wasted. I have somewhere just north of 150 tomes of knowledge I could use to bump a handful the rest of the way, then they can start helping on the mastery tracks, too. Is that the best move? I know they give spirit shards to characters at 80, but which is worth more when it comes to playtime?

tl;dr – Is there any reason to NOT use tomes of knowledge to boost as many characters as I can to 80 as soon as possible?

Thank you for any tips or advice.

well…….
Personally I get rather lost when just lvling a profession instantly to 80, but different between people I guess, some will keep playing it, and learn all the rotations etc. I just wont

Beside that reason, then only story, but even then it is just a story you have most likely been through

If you are playing a character that have not yet got to level 80, your XP is not wasted. It is used on levelling that character up.

zengara.8301:

well…….
Personally I get rather lost when just lvling a profession instantly to 80, but different between people I guess, some will keep playing it, and learn all the rotations etc. I just wont

Beside that reason, then only story, but even then it is just a story you have most likely been through

Even if I get to 80 using tomes, those characters will still be playing through the maps and story. It is just that the experience they gain will be going to the account wide mastery track rather than just the specific character level.

So I will still have time to try out and learn the skills as I go. Dungeons and story instances may be a bit tricky since they will be scaled up well before I am necessarily ready for it, but maybe that will just be encouragement to learn faster.

Astralporing.1957:

If you are playing a character that have not yet got to level 80, your XP is not wasted. It is used on levelling that character up.

When I said essentially wasted, I meant it with respect toward overall progression. I have options when it comes to gaining character levels, but not so much when it comes to gaining mastery xp. So I wonder if it would not be better to have as many characters as possible contributing to the account progression.

If you have a character at max level, it’s pretty much just deciding if you want to do map completion after you get to 80, or while you get to 80.

I did my most recent character with tomes, and it’s been vaguely annoying not to have much of the world unlocked when I wanna do 80-ish things, but not really more than it was wanting to do world bosses while being under-level.

SlippyCheeze.5483:

If you have a character at max level, it’s pretty much just deciding if you want to do map completion after you get to 80, or while you get to 80.

I did my most recent character with tomes, and it’s been vaguely annoying not to have much of the world unlocked when I wanna do 80-ish things, but not really more than it was wanting to do world bosses while being under-level.

Good point about the map still being covered. I do plan to still do the map completions, though, so it may not matter too much overall. And, as I am running those maps, I’ll be advancing a mastery track at the same time.

Tomes all the way, grinding pve maps to learn a class is a waste of time.

Aitadis.8269:

Tomes all the way, grinding pve maps to learn a class is a waste of time.

Not the first time, and definitely not for people who have never played an MMO before. Not everyone is you (or me) with enough experience that instant 80 is trivial enough to just drop right into…

SlippyCheeze.5483:

Aitadis.8269:

Tomes all the way, grinding pve maps to learn a class is a waste of time.

Not the first time, and definitely not for people who have never played an MMO before. Not everyone is you (or me) with enough experience that instant 80 is trivial enough to just drop right into…

Agreed.

That does make me wonder, though, if a new player starts the game, chances are he or she will reach 80 by following the story long before getting to Heart of Thorns. With masteries locked behind that story mission, that would mean jumping ahead for a bit, or choosing to lose the xp like I did.

I saved my tomes until I had a stack of 250. I keep the stack, and burn all the new ones I get for Spirit Shards.

SRoode.7318:

I saved my tomes until I had a stack of 250. I keep the stack, and burn all the new ones I get for Spirit Shards.

And what is your plan for the 250?

I hate leveling in most games, in that I feel that most games lock content until you are maxed.

I don’t regret leveling 8 toons in the traditional way in this game, because: (a) it doesn’t take long and (b) it gave me time to ‘practice’ the profession.

So I recommend leveling the usual way, until you feel you’ve mastered everything you need. You miss out on very little in the way of spirit shards by doing so (and you can have those ‘back’ if you want by using the tomes after 80).

everytime i make a new character i think i want to level him up to 80, than i realize i am to impatient to do that so i tome up to 80, than i realize i know nothing on that class and go explore maps so i can learn and read traits lines for ours before i can even play. but never the less i’ve tome up all my remainng characters. i feel like this game it’s not punishing if you skip the learning curve of leveling.
eventually you’ll have all your mastery maxed anyway, but you know… autoloot and gliding make the game so much more fun

Depends on whether you’re more of a “journey” or an “end” player. Experience comes plentyful in this game, and you’ll have most likely filled out the experience bar long before you’ll aquire the mastery points to unlock the masteries.

If gradual advancement is something you enjoy, don’t use the tomes. That way you’ll prolong the time before you’re at the cap again. If you prefer to have every number capped as soon as possible then use as many tomes as you like, but expect to run into situations where your experience is again “useless” (or at best gives you more spirit shards than you could ever need, once you have finished all masteries) a lot faster this way.

By the way, new players that buy the game get a free boost to level 80 for one of their characters. I’ve met those that have used that quickly to at least unlock basic gliding, then go back to learning and leveling the old way, and I’ve met others who prefer to play classic Tyria and the whole personal story before they start the HoT story and unlock masteries. It’s a choice for everybody.

Rasimir.6239:

Depends on whether you’re more of a “journey” or an “end” player. Experience comes plentyful in this game, and you’ll have most likely filled out the experience bar long before you’ll aquire the mastery points to unlock the masteries.

If gradual advancement is something you enjoy, don’t use the tomes. That way you’ll prolong the time before you’re at the cap again. If you prefer to have every number capped as soon as possible then use as many tomes as you like, but expect to run into situations where your experience is again “useless” (or at best gives you more spirit shards than you could ever need, once you have finished all masteries) a lot faster this way.

Good to know that experience gain once masteries are complete still gets something, even if it is just spirit shards. They could potentially have more use down the line whereas just having the xp vanish seems a waste.

I think I’ll end up using the tomes on a couple of characters this weekend.

Rasimir.6239:

By the way, new players that buy the game get a free boost to level 80 for one of their characters. I’ve met those that have used that quickly to at least unlock basic gliding, then go back to learning and leveling the old way, and I’ve met others who prefer to play classic Tyria and the whole personal story before they start the HoT story and unlock masteries. It’s a choice for everybody.

The Level 80 boost is a whole other kettle of skelk. At least if your intent is to use it and unlock masteries, you are getting something for the experience.

(Side question: Do people who get to 80 and do not have HoT on their accounts gain anything for experience?)