Guild Wars 2

I couldn’t be more disappointed with what has happened to the expansion content. I’m referring to the changes to hero points and to the way we experience masteries.

October 25th:
Bug Fixes

• Itzel Poison Lore is no longer a Mastery requirement for story.

October 28th
General

• Changed the total cost to fully unlock elite specializations from 400 to 250.

Verdant Brink

• Turned the Mordrem Flamerider hero challenge into a commune point and moved it to the old location of the Coztic Itzel hero challenge.
• Updated the hero challenge near Itzel Village in Verdant Brink so that earning it is more clearly understood.

Auric Basin

• Updated the Toxic Bacon hero challenge in Auric Basin so that earning it is more clearly understood.

This is an excerpt from the Game Release Notes forum for HoT. The Verdant brink update to make the hero challenge near Itzel Village “more clearly understood” was the removal of the mastery requirement. the same goes for the Toxic Bacon hero challenge in Auric Basin. There was yet another instance of this in Verdant Brink for the hero challenge that required poison lore in the Itzel mastery track (I couldn’t find this in the patch notes, but it can now be accessed without poison lore).

These changes are removing a feature of the game that ANet developers talked about with excitement and enthusiasm before launch. The explained to us that they want players to experience moments when they discover a piece of content that they are unable to access because they don’t have a certain set of abilities. Then the player has an incentive to gain experience in the jungle and master the techniques and skills that will get them to that content they encountered before. That is what masteries are supposed to be about. But that experience was taken away. Probably because of community complaining that It was taking too much time or that they had to grind for masteries. Players want instant gratification.

But I can say that I got to experience that feeling of achievement before the mastery requirements were taken away and the content was nerfed. I spent loads of time exploring the jungle and participating in events to train poison lore because I knew I needed it for the hero point in verdant brink. And to be completely honest, I completely forgot about that mastery and about that hero point (for a good reason). There are so many events and so many event chains that while I was training my Itzel mastery I was more focused on the events and the stories they told than anything else. Then all of a sudden the bar at the bottom of the screen lit up, allowing me to unlock the mastery. I was excited! I remembered the hero point and went after it, gliding down into that tree and fighting off the Coztic on the way. Then stepping into those poison brambles and watching them retract with my presence… It was an incredible experience that left me laughing with excitement and delight. That is the experience that ANet developers wanted to create, and they succeeded. But now they are destroying it.

I’m grateful that I got to experience that bit of content when I did… But what does that mean for the rest of the game. Getting the adrenal mushroom mastery doesn’t mean anything for the Toxic Bacon hero point anymore. That element of achievement and excitement is gone. The reputation the developers have built up for pandering to an audience who wants easier content is just being strengthened, and it’s sad and frustrating to me and other players like me. I’m so excited for raids… but now I’m questioning how long their difficulty will last before they just become really long dungeons.

My opinions towards these changes are based on my own experience so far. I’d like to see further discussion on this topic and read other people’s opinions.

This is also something worth checking out if you’re interested in this topic.

I look at it as, your never going to please everyone. Sometimes feedback is strong, and thing change, but that still wont make everyone happy. I not spent a lot of time in the jungle cause of Halloween, so I can’t say how good or bad most of these things are.
The lowering to 250, I felt the 400 was fair, but I can see why it was done too. Though the exp lowering and hp lowering, not really changed the difficulty of the content, just that it not a chore to reach I guess.
I can’t say I can speak so well about the other, but just reading them, do not feel like they were making something easier, just different.

I agree with you on this OP. Before HoT came out, I had everything planned for the build i would use, regarding the Revenant I was going to make. Then, when I heard it would cost 400 HP to complete the Elite Spec, I was bummed…for all of 30 seconds. Then it hit me, I already had other characters that I could use to start my masteries, or I could just map complete on my Rev, regarding the tyrian HP’s, and then start on HoT, or I could take the short, but difficult route, and jump right in. I didn’t cry, shake my fist, or jump on the bandwagon, though I can understand the cry from those that just recently purchased the game in the last month, those others, that have had plenty of time with the game, were in the same boat as me. I now had options! I chose the harder of the three, and jumped right into Maguuma with my fresh Revenant, and proudly can say that I was able to get all but 1 HP from Verdant Brink prior to the update (that being the one that needed Nuhock Lore). Now, the only thing I hope they fix is all the dang Precursor crafting bugs, and any other bugs related to events and story that pop up. Please, no more updates that make everything easier. Let the jungle be a true preparation for the raids to come. Let us work for our abilities so that once we have them, we’ll appreciate them far more.