Guild Wars 2

So, I just spent the last half hour in Verdent Brink trying to do a single hero point. The one with the three frogs in the tree hallow.
It took me MANY tries to kill the three frogs, but with some assistance we managed to struggle through it. And when that last frog died, I felt a sense of accomplishment, like we had just downed the final tier raid boss of the hallow tree.

Then we tried to figure out what to do with the vines…until we found that that one hero point was gated by Itzel lore mastery.

I am okay with spending a lot of time trying to get past a certain area, and I understand gating content behind masteries. BUT. I want those gates to be linear. The first level zone shouldn’t have the fourth level Itzel mastery. I quite honestly don’t know how I’m supposed to progress through the mastery tree. I -want- to just hit all of the gliding stuff, and then maybe do the exalted, becus that race is cool as Faren. (Kinda reminds me of protoss, actually. They look like Archons).

Masteries were designed to be the “end game progression” of HoT. But just like you wouldn’t put a bunch of high level enemies in guarding a low level quest objective in a low level zone (in an mmo without scaling), make sure that the progression transitions smoothly. Let Map 1 be about tier one masteries, let map 2 be about tier 2 masteries, and how they might synergize together.

I know it’s far too late to change anything about this expansion. I just hope that perhaps

BUT. I feel obligated to spend my points in places I don’t care about. Like the Itzel tree. just because there’s always some high level poison field gating my content out. Most of my complaints come from the poision field, but I haven’t explored all of the maps yet.

Conclusion: I feel like Masteries should make us feel empowered. BUT. they should not hinder us from other empowering items, such as hero points. And, I feel that higher tier masteries should be less common in lower tier maps.
I also would like a bit more direction with the masteries. As it stands, I feel more frustrated then anything. the only purpose behind high level masteries in low level zones is for alts who want to grind the elite specialization for. But, I don’t feel like alts should be the target design. It should be the first timers, and let the alts have a bit more fun.

Overall, I like this expansion, and all the challenge that many of the mobs bring. And I love the idea behind the mastery system. I just wish it was implemented a little better.