What isn’t wasted is doing achieves. A good number of them will grant mastery points (not mastery skill, which is a separate thing, the points are what you spend once you’ve xp’d up the tier). Matter of fact, at HoT launch I somehow had exactly the number of MP needed to unlock every core mastery, just from old achievements. All I had to do was spend time in the core maps getting xp. (Since yes, you do have to gain the xp in the relevant maps in order to move the xp bar for the mastery you’re working on there).
So check the wiki for which achieves give mastery points and work on those. Then once you have a mastery-granting expansion, you’ll be ready to skill up the core ones. Since PoF is supposed to be independently playable from HoT, it stands to reason that it will offer its own unlock of the system.
Ah, rechecking your initial post, let me give you a step by step so you can understand the above replies and information:
1 – Unlock mastery via the initial entry story to the expansion
2 – Select a mastery track to work on by clicking to the left of the track (in HoT, it’s a no brainer, you start with Gliding and in fact that is the default track; you cannot select a track until you have completed the earlier ones in that mastery, so no hopping straight to ley gliding from basic gliding)
3 – Gain XP in that expansion’s map(s). Simultaneously gather mastery points in the map, you’re going to need most all of what’s available.
4 – When the XP bar is full, return to the Mastery Panel (icon at the far right of the xp bar is a shortcut). Look to the right of it and click there to spend the points to actually learn that mastery.
5 – select your next track to work on.
So you see, mastery points and mastery xp are two different things, you must gain the xp to be allowed to spend the points.
XP will sometimes overflow to the next track the game thinks you’ll be working on, if you don’t spend the points as soon as you can. It’s best to monitor and choose, so pay heed when your xp bar is nearly full.
