Guild Wars 2

…But I Would Like To See My XP Bar Move

“Added back the ability to receive Spirit Shards once all the Masteries in a given region (Central Tyria or the Heart of Maguuma) have been earned. Players will continue to earn experience, and with every 254,000 experience points gained, players will earn a handful of Spirit Shards, which are useful to spend in the Mystic Forge or with the Mystic Forge attendant Miyani.”

From Patch Notes

My problem is this:

I haven’t finished either the Heart of Maguuma or Central Tyria Masteries and I have no interest in doing so. I have everything I want filled out and none of the remaining ones are of any interest whatsoever. I would rather have Spirit Shards from now on but because I am not taking the remaining Masteries my XP bar is empty and doesn’t register anything at all no matter what I do.

Actually, I would be perfectly happy just to have the bar fill and refill without giving any reward at all just so long as I can see it move because as it is now the XP keeps coming, the big yellow numbers flash up on the screen and all those autoconsumed tomes just vanish into thin air. It’s very irritating. I don’t need either the masteries or the Spirit Shards but I used to love seeing the bar tick over.

I really hope I’ve missed some toggle or option that would let me just consume xp normally but I’ve looked everywhere and I haven’t found one. Is there really no way to cancel or opt out of further Mastery acquisition? If not, why not? It seems ridiculous to have to acquire more than forty more Mastery Points and spend them on abilities I will never use just to get the bar to move again.

Seems fair to me, once you’re done with masteries there’s pretty much nothing left to it so a small reward isn’t that bad imo

I agree with the OP – I am stuck with only MP that I am not interested in getting and all current Mastery bars full. Don’t punish us by forcing us to finish all Masteries before we can get XP again. If trying to force players to play in certain ways is the way it will be going forward I will leave the game.

I just wish I didnt need to kill a raid boss to unlock the last ones Ive needed forever. I gave up even trying to find a group when my only options were pay a bunch of gold or link insights which I obviously dont have.

I am a big fan of reward for playing the game, and playing it my way. XP as the end-game reward track is brilliant at achieving this and I really wish they would have gone this route. Masteries are fine as a tool to provide some variety of things sought for and is not incompatible with actually using XP as the main track of progression.

While I appreciate the change, I might wish I could toggle to Spirit Shard mode rather than remaining in Mastery Mode if there are lines, or points within lines, I either have no interest in or prefer to do without rather than do the peripheral stuff it takes to get Mastery Points.

Xevv.9175:

I just wish I didnt need to kill a raid boss to unlock the last ones Ive needed forever. I gave up even trying to find a group when my only options were pay a bunch of gold or link insights which I obviously dont have.

You also have the option of joining a guild which will teach raids as you have 5 guild slots

The new map has an open world boss which is essentially Vale Guardian – it won’t unlock the mastery track or give the same rewards, but it’ll let you experience some of the mechanics of the first boss of the first wing in a setting that won’t be elitist. Just don’t take any of the raid related comments by players during the fight to heart – we’re just messing around.

Solution: add a repeatable Spirit Shards mastery track you can switch to.

Or just get the rest of the masteries, completion is fun and it’s the closest to single player end-game GW2 has

I’d like to see this too. I’ve been saving my mastery points instead of spending them on the legendary crafting masteries because screw legendary crafting, on the other hand, I’m in constant shortage of spirit shards.

Additionally, it’s not XP that’s gating my Heart of Thorns masteries, it’s Heart of Thorns mastery points. XP is just as useless to me as it is to the people with full masteries. I’m fairly sure that I’m not the only person in this same situation.

In fact, if I recall correctly, some people mentioned that they actively disliked the untoggleable speed boost in cities that the pact commander masteries caused. It seems silly to punish these people for not actively making the game worse for themselves.

Mal.1670:

Solution: add a repeatable Spirit Shards mastery track you can switch to.

This makes so much sense

Some experienced players could lead inexperienced players through the escort of wing 3. That or open up the raid to trio. This way players can get this initial boss kill and progress the raid mastery line.

Mal.1670:

Solution: add a repeatable Spirit Shards mastery track you can switch to.

Or just get the rest of the masteries, completion is fun and it’s the closest to single player end-game GW2 has

I’m trying to think of things that sound like less fun than completing my masteries. It’s tough.

Actually I can confirm you still get the shards without completing all of your masteries. My core tyria ones are finished, and i was getting spirit shards while doing map completion the other night.

FrostDraco.8306:

Actually I can confirm you still get the shards without completing all of your masteries. My core tyria ones are finished, and i was getting spirit shards while doing map completion the other night.

That only works for completed areas. If you don’t have the raid mastery unlocked (because you don’t raid for whatever reason), no matter if you’ve finished every unlocked track in HoT, you won’t gain spirit shards while in that area. Quite a few of my guildies and friends are in that boat, since raiding just isn’t their cup of tea.

Personally, I’m only missing out on HoT spirit shards because I’m lousy at adventures (high ping, old age, and lousy reflexes to begin with) to the point where I have every other mastery point (except raids, I rarely get dragged into them by friends, but at least I’ve got those tracks unlocked and filled) and still don’t have enough to finally unlock my adrenal mushroom mastery (xp for that one has long since been collected).

Rasimir.6239:

FrostDraco.8306:

Actually I can confirm you still get the shards without completing all of your masteries. My core tyria ones are finished, and i was getting spirit shards while doing map completion the other night.

That only works for completed areas. If you don’t have the raid mastery unlocked (because you don’t raid for whatever reason), no matter if you’ve finished every unlocked track in HoT, you won’t gain spirit shards while in that area. Quite a few of my guildies and friends are in that boat, since raiding just isn’t their cup of tea.

Personally, I’m only missing out on HoT spirit shards because I’m lousy at adventures (high ping, old age, and lousy reflexes to begin with) to the point where I have every other mastery point (except raids, I rarely get dragged into them by friends, but at least I’ve got those tracks unlocked and filled) and still don’t have enough to finally unlock my adrenal mushroom mastery (xp for that one has long since been collected).

Get 10 of your guildies together and go do the first encounter of wing 3. It unlocks the raid track upon completion. It’s stupidly easy….

So you think ArenaNet owes you anything? That they will build the game around you? Game has rules. Stop crying and get those masteries if you really want those shards.

Just give us a repeatable XP “mastery” track for HoT and core that we can select as a destination for our XP, like we select the existing tracks.
Like others, I am not maxed out but have no real need for the remaining ones. I’m never going to craft a legendary weapon so that whole track is no use to me.

Count me in the category of players who has no interest in completing all of the masteries (dislike adventures). I wouldn’t mind if the spirit shards were rewarded for experience at level 80 regardless of mastery status.