Guild Wars 2

Let me start with a disclaimer: This thread will be entirely focused on mastery discussion for the Maguuma Wastes. With that out of the way, I have a few questions about masteries.

Let’s start with what we know first though. We know the mastery system will be required to progress through the new map. See that ledge and that mushroom there? You need to spend a mastery point to use that mushroom as a springboard to get up there. See that cliff over there with the thing that resembles a skill point? That’s a mastery point. You commune at it, but first you need to spend a mastery point on gliding so that you can glide far enough to reach it.

Those things are where my questions come in. Do we have real choice in how we progress through these new map(s)? For instance, can I choose to fight my way through everything with my Warrior instead of platforming through it? With my Mesmer, could I then choose to platform my way through it to have a different “map experience” than the one I just had with my Warrior? Is the progression linear or are those choices viable?

Is real choice about how we want to progress through the maps part of the replayability that was talked about at the PAX announcement?

I would be loathe to see mastery points have to be spent on specific things throughout the entirety of the expansion. For example: I could see my character be up really high on a ledge with a mastery point and a cliff off in the distance. I can tell it’s just out of the reach of the distance my glider can go. The game is basically telling me, “The only agency you have right now is spending that mastery point on your glider and hitting the accept button.”

Is it like that or am I way off base? For example, would there never be a place that was like that. Instead there would be the option of jumping on a mushroom, getting in a fight, and a ledge to glide off of? If it’s more decision based than I am thinking it is, then please clarify!

Thanks.

You are given the option to choose the path of your journey. Eventually you will have all the masteries and you will be able to get anywhere.

I certainly hope there are such options. I’d rather fight through the hordes than fly over them honestly.

There will probably be areas that we can’t access without certain items though. They did say something about their progression being similar to Zelda or Metroid with the mastery system.

Like how you need the hookshot from OOT to enter the forest temple? Maybe? If you’ve played that…

Templar.3418:

I certainly hope there are such options. I’d rather fight through the hordes than fly over them honestly.

There will probably be areas that we can’t access without certain items though. They did say something about their progression being similar to Zelda or Metroid with the mastery system.

Like how you need the hookshot from OOT to enter the forest temple? Maybe? If you’ve played that…

Yeah I get that. I don’t mind a few points here and there being required. It makes sense. I am just hoping that it is not a linear thing throughout the entirety of the experience. My hope is that once we reach a place where it looks like you need to spend a mastery point to progress, there are multiple paths you can take to spend your points toward progressing through the map. With Zelda and Metroid etc. The path was exactly that: a single path. A single path would mean all subsequent playthroughs ended up being the same experience. IF that’s the case, I would rather of had more maps with as much to do in them as in the original game.

Platforming is great in the base game when it’s optional. One of the things I truly love about the base game is that you can level up in a ton of different ways and that type of variety is what lends itself to replayability. I hope this new mastery system and the new map(s) lend themselves to the same myriad options in the base game.

Well, even looking at the small section of the map they unveiled, and I already saw a variation in path. I have no idea how hard it’d be to get “thick wings” if that is what is needed to get that first mastery point demonstrated, but on that mesa next to the bouncing mushroom was a place of mastery power that looked identical, so it would offer a different path. I feel confident people will start coming out with an “optimal path” to unlock masteries, but hopefully, whether you unlock wings first or mushrooms first, they should both get you progressed as much in the new content.

My guess is that, since there will be tiers associated with the different masteries, the first thing we will need to do is unlock each one to provide base functionality (glide, shroom out, talk to the natives, peel the mordrem, etc). That should allow us to experience the basic gameplay options and choose the paths that best fit our playstyles and that lead to the places we want to go first.

Eventually, we will max them all out, which will be the equivalent of hitting level 80 in the core GW2 game – meaning we have access to everything (just as hitting level 80 lets us go anywhere and attempt anything in the core world).

So, think of attempting a boss without the proper combat mastery as the equivalent of attempting a lvl 80 mob while your character is still at lvl 30 – only now that same concept applies to advancing vertically through the map, exploring lore with the natives, etc.

The big differences are we should have a lot more flexibility in how we choose to master tracks (ie, level up) in Heart of Thorns – and it will be easier for Anet to add new masteries/tracks/progression to the game through the living story (as they add new maps/bosses/etc).

Of course this is all pure speculation on my part.

I feel like masteries are like in wow before you pick a talent tree.

The difference is that you have three choices in wow, and in gw2 you have 1 or you can simply just stick with baseline abilities and never pick up your one talent spec…

Not exactly exciting.

I was envisioning them making eight or five specializations that you could pick from with any profession. This is not so much a nod at gw1 as it is 1/3 of what wow offers.

I hope the rest of the xpac is good…

petespri.6548:

I feel like masteries are like in wow before you pick a talent tree.

The difference is that you have three choices in wow, and in gw2 you have 1 or you can simply just stick with baseline abilities and never pick up your one talent spec…

Not exactly exciting.

I was envisioning them making eight or five specializations that you could pick from with any profession. This is not so much a nod at gw1 as it is 1/3 of what wow offers.

I hope the rest of the xpac is good…

I think you’re lost. Mastery is the thing that all classes will get in equal measure. The thread talking about specialization, which changes the mechanic or professions, is over there.

I assume that masteries are just a content gater and you will unlock them at roughly the same speed as you progress trough the map. They are shown to be linear and i would presume there were different path’s to the map maxing different masteries first (gliding to jumping to or mastering languages to open up paths?).

I don’t really know how i feel about this content gating, i gues they just want eveyone to participate in events, outposts and advantures to unlock their masteries and progress further into the map. Is this really different then just raising the level cap and make precursor hunting and jungle combat a seperate mechanic?

I can see your worry, but I don’t think it will be linear.
In my opinion it will be more like “See that ledge and that mushroom there? You need to spend a mastery point to use that mushroom as a springboard to get up there , but you can spend in the lore mastery instead and talk to that other guy to go to that other place and later you can go to that ledge.”.

I hope they do it like that instead of gating content with all masteries that end up in the same place.

The question is, will it be possible to “lock out” yourself from mastery points by spending them the “wrong” way. So, for example, getting to the situation where we’ve already spent all our available mastery points, and the only ones left are in areas we would need new mastery unlocks to access.

Astralporing.1957:

The question is, will it be possible to “lock out” yourself from mastery points by spending them the “wrong” way. So, for example, getting to the situation where we’ve already spent all our available mastery points, and the only ones left are in areas we would need new mastery unlocks to access.

That was part of my concern as well. Do we know if masteries are a flat progression or do they take more and more time to earn like levels in other MMOs?

My other concern is playing with other people. If they want to spend their mastery points in a totally different way, do our paths have to diverge because I may be spending more points on gliding while my friend is spending them on combat and another in our group was spending them on something else? Even if we get an “All masteries lead to the same destination but there are multiple paths” that is definitely something that could split parties up.

My other hope is that both masteries for the new legendaries and old ones are in the “Original Tyria” mastery track. Content is gated in the x-pac. It isn’t in the base game. IDK, maybe I am wrong and new content int he base game will be gated. Maybe we aren’t getting new content in the base game outside masteries though.

Its a good way of describing a pitfall. But it’s a fairly obvious pitfall and good design will avoid it.

Rather than indulging in hand-wringing speculative concern, let’s just stand by for a clearer picture where we can frame those concerns with actual knowledge.

Iason Evan.3806:

That was part of my concern as well. Do we know if masteries are a flat progression or do they take more and more time to earn like levels in other MMOs?

My other concern is playing with other people. If they want to spend their mastery points in a totally different way, do our paths have to diverge because I may be spending more points on gliding while my friend is spending them on combat and another in our group was spending them on something else? Even if we get an “All masteries lead to the same destination but there are multiple paths” that is definitely something that could split parties up.

My other hope is that both masteries for the new legendaries and old ones are in the “Original Tyria” mastery track. Content is gated in the x-pac. It isn’t in the base game. IDK, maybe I am wrong and new content int he base game will be gated. Maybe we aren’t getting new content in the base game outside masteries though.

1. Leveling has always been “flat”. Masteries are just a new leveling reward. Don’t see why that would change.
2. Unlocking the masteries might be linear, just to be more metroidvania like, or might be totally separate from necessary story progression. Relax, Chicken Little. It was an acorn, not the sky falling.
3. I’m still holding hope against hope that mastery isn’t expansion locked, If the masteries had only affected HoT, I wouldn’t say boo, But since Mastery points are being added to core maps, it feels like taunting a puppy, I also feel like they haven’t quite committed to saying “no masteries for core-only players.” Maybe I’m deluding myself,