Guild Wars 2

Ok, to give some background I have finished all maps in HoT, Story is also complete, all basic HoT zone achievement points for MP’s done. Now i am at a loss for both ideas and direction.

I need 23 more MP to finish off my HoT masteries, have tried a few of these challenges and do not like either the mechanics and/or being forced to do them, and some of these are definitely in a sad state to begin with.

My question is, I am getting frustrated by not being able to find an alternative to getting these remaining MP and do not see where that could be accomplished. Am i missing something here or should i just resign myself to never finishing them if i don’t do these challenges?

I’m currently 21 short but I haven’t really done much DS, TD, or even finished the story so I’m pretty close to where you are right now. There are definitely an excess of mastery points allowing you to skip a good number of them. I’ve reviewed each available mastery point and figured which ones were easiest and did those first. I think I completed the insights and strongboxes first and went down the list from there. I’ve found the challenges to be hit or miss. Some I just settled for silver and moved on. I feel no rush to get all 166 right now because I know there will be more available once living story continues. If you’re completely against all challenges I guess you’ll have to wait. However, some of them are definitely more fun than others. Give them all a shot.

There are more mastery points in the game than you actually need. Personally, it’s completely fair for you to say “I don’t want to do adventures in these zones.” But, then, on the other hand, you can’t make a post being frustrated because you’re short on mastery points. You completely chose to not do the content.

Nemisis.4690:

Ok, to give some background I have finished all maps in HoT, Story is also complete, all basic HoT zone achievement points for MP’s done. Now i am at a loss for both ideas and direction.

I need 23 more MP to finish off my HoT masteries, have tried a few of these challenges and do not like either the mechanics and/or being forced to do them, and some of these are definitely in a sad state to begin with.

My question is, I am getting frustrated by not being able to find an alternative to getting these remaining MP and do not see where that could be accomplished. Am i missing something here or should i just resign myself to never finishing them if i don’t do these challenges?

You technically only need 5 MP from adventures if you get them from everywhere else in HoT.

Here are some adventures that I suggest you give another try as I feel that they would be the easiest to get gold in without too much invested time. Just watch videos to see how people did them.

• Salvage Pit
• Flying Circus
• On Wings of Gold
• Ley-Line Run
• Drone Race
• Beetle Feast
• Haywire Punch o Matic

The Haywire one used to be very difficult, if not impossible, but now you can barely get gold by simply spamming the #2 skill and repositioning your direction every now and then.

Future living story updates should provide you with more mastery point options. If you’re in no rush, you can try to hold out until then.

Thanks everyone for the thoughtful suggestions, really too frustrated to burn through them like i was earlier. Have done a few challenges so far, and had to draw the line after just being stressed out trying to find ones i could get silver in so i could move on to better things.

There’s a few that are so badly done it’s really gotten me to the point of taking a break.

Someone has to say it…

THIS IS NOT MADNESS

THIS IS MAGUUMA!!

Dont forget mayatl the fierce who gives a hidden mastery point not listed in your panel. Located in verdant brink. You or someone with you will need the relevant mastery line to access the fight.

Maguuma Mastery points need to be more diverse and plentiful, or repeatable (at least some of them – maybe one per character). I am in a small guild – 95 members… and the overwhelming complaint/discussion is mastery points, or trying to get them. Working on a legendary and I am running out of points that I can get, even with help. Some of them do not spawn with any regularity (yes I know about the timers), and require a mob to complete. At least 1 of the bosses, I’ve helped kill 3 times and haven’t gotten credit yet and this event need 20-30 people to “win”. Frustrating. Of the ones still on my list (seems a small list for how many we need to get) maybe I can complete 4-5 if i can time it right (keeping in mind I do have a job, and a life… sorta), it still leaves me 30 short… with a even smaller pool of options. Granted I am bad at jumping puzzles and jumping through hoops events… but I don’t buy those games, nor invest money in them… if i know that’s what i’m buying. Even the jumping puzzle nuts in the Guild (they actually build puzzles in the guild hall to see how tough they can make them) are short on points…
My suggestion would be to make at least some of them repeatable… on a different character… or offer a wider variety… and for Tryia masteries… give users who already did the event (doing map competition…) the point.

There are much more options than points needed and I think with LS3 there will be even more.

The mastery points are already pretty diverse and plentiful.

EDIT: You need 112 MP to unlock the four HoT mastery tracks and another 5 for the raid track. There are 142 MP available. These numbers are subject to change today.

• Adventures award 30 MP which consists of 21% of the available MP.
• Raids award 10 MP which consists of 7% of the available MP.
• HoT story (and achievements) award 17 MP which consists of 12% of the available MP.
• Mastery Insights award 22 MP which consists of 15% of the available MP.
• Strongboxes award 20 MP which consists of 14% of the available MP.

The other 43 MP can be earned by doing events and other things. These are the remaining 30% of available MP.

I actually think that they are in a good spot. You don’t need to do all of them, just most of them. You have almost 30 that you can skip for whatever reason (too difficult, can’t get to it at the right time etc…). I don’t think that it should be too easy to finish your mastery tracks, I do think that you should have to work for it

OriOri.8724:

I actually think that they are in a good spot. You don’t need to do all of them, just most of them. You have almost 30 that you can skip for whatever reason (too difficult, can’t get to it at the right time etc…). I don’t think that it should be too easy to finish your mastery tracks, I do think that you should have to work for it

The number of times this topic comes up suggests otherwise, imo.

The effort:reward ratio for mastery points is a bit too high. Of course we don’t need everything handed to us for just showing up, but content shouldn’t be more frustrating than fun.

Jahroots.6791:

OriOri.8724:

I actually think that they are in a good spot. You don’t need to do all of them, just most of them. You have almost 30 that you can skip for whatever reason (too difficult, can’t get to it at the right time etc…). I don’t think that it should be too easy to finish your mastery tracks, I do think that you should have to work for it

The number of times this topic comes up suggests otherwise, imo.

The effort:reward ratio for mastery points is a bit too high. Of course we don’t need everything handed to us for just showing up, but content shouldn’t be more frustrating than fun.

“shouldn’t be more frustrating than fun…” is partially my point…
I’ve spent days running around trying to catch this one or do that one… swearing, thrown headsets and so on… and milling over the list trying to figure out one to do… and I’m 30 short… and really not like the idea of spend 3-4 more days trying to get one of the remaining… the “fun” ones i’ve done…

• Salvage Pit
• Flying Circus
• On Wings of Gold
• Ley-Line Run
• Drone Race
• Beetle Feast
• Haywire Punch o Matic

Of these… only one i have been able to get gold one so far is the salvage pit… not even silver one these and other adventures… and the super-mario effect isn’t my idea of fun… to began with

Payne.3184:

• Salvage Pit
• Flying Circus
• On Wings of Gold
• Ley-Line Run
• Drone Race
• Beetle Feast
• Haywire Punch o Matic

Of these… only one i have been able to get gold one so far is the salvage pit… not even silver one these and other adventures… and the super-mario effect isn’t my idea of fun… to began with

You essentially listed off the easiest ones. You can get silver, and possibly gold, in Haywire by spamming one skill the entire time.

Jahroots.6791:

OriOri.8724:

I actually think that they are in a good spot. You don’t need to do all of them, just most of them. You have almost 30 that you can skip for whatever reason (too difficult, can’t get to it at the right time etc…). I don’t think that it should be too easy to finish your mastery tracks, I do think that you should have to work for it

The number of times this topic comes up suggests otherwise, imo.

The effort:reward ratio for mastery points is a bit too high. Of course we don’t need everything handed to us for just showing up, but content shouldn’t be more frustrating than fun.

The topic comes up often yea. So does other stuff like always nerf mesmer, conditions are too powerful etc… but that doesn’t mean that following those suggestions is a good idea. For everyone who thinks the mastery points are too hard to get there are more players who think its fine and just don’t bother making a forum topic because there isn’t any need for one.

It would be nice especially for some of the more difficult adventures if you could get silver by getting bronze 50 times or something. The range of difficulty is really diverse even in just one map. For example the first person shooter one in VB seems way more difficult than every other mini-game in VB?

Here’s the problem. If you don’t raid, then you need at least 10 MP from adventures. The ones from events aren’t easy to find and some of them require a huge time commitment that working people might find hard to do.

You end up just being frustrated and ‘taking a break’ from the game.

Too many of the points aren’t connected to the maps but are hidden behind various gates or gimmicks that a lot of people don’t like (yes, some do like JPs and turning into a mushroom, but that’s SM8.., not GW2). That’s the issue.

I’d like to see more options to get the MPs rather than pigeon holing into things people would rather shove their arm in a mincer than do.

Mini-games. Some love ’em, some hate ’em.

For me, they have no place in an RPG, especially if they gate precious mastery points.

Are you serious?

You liked all the superficial event chains in maps but you can’t stand the short and sweet adventures?

Gated mastery points are ones where you have to spend sodding hours on content that is not fun or enjoyable, like all dynamic open-world events per se.

Just do them. Watch a video. They take 5 minutes. If Anet remove any gates to mastery points it better be the ridiculous amount of repeats we are forced to do on events which are utterly disinteresting.

I loathe these comments going against adventures. What a fallacy.

I think some people forget you can get some fairly easy mastery points from living story season two, for 12 bucks to buy the entire thing is worth it.

Payne.3184:

• Salvage Pit
• Flying Circus
• On Wings of Gold
• Ley-Line Run
• Drone Race
• Beetle Feast
• Haywire Punch o Matic

Of these… only one i have been able to get gold one so far is the salvage pit… not even silver one these and other adventures… and the super-mario effect isn’t my idea of fun… to began with

I found Salvage Pit, On Wings of Gold, Drone Race and Beetle Feast particularly easier than the rest. Haywire I managed to get silver, then moved on.

I’m just glad it’s a one time deal with the mini games though after getting gold.

mXz.4512:

I’m just glad it’s a one time deal with the mini games though after getting gold.

Just to point out to the forum scouts reporting to the dev team:

This is not how valuable content should be viewed by your players.
Especially for something that is used as a progression mechanism.

Animism.9803:

Are you serious?

You liked all the superficial event chains in maps but you can’t stand the short and sweet adventures?

I don’t know about anyone else, but for me… at least with event chains I’m playing the character I leveled, geared up and created a build for. This is not true in adventures. I don’t mind timed stuff. I don’t mind hard stuff. I do mind the XPac’s progression system being dependent to some degree on playing a different game than the one I bought and enjoy.

Rauderi.8706:

mXz.4512:

I’m just glad it’s a one time deal with the mini games though after getting gold.

Just to point out to the forum scouts reporting to the dev team:

This is not how valuable content should be viewed by your players.
Especially for something that is used as a progression mechanism.

^This is a very good point.^

First off, I’d like to say that putting half the points behind a buggy story (my friend cannot advance past Roots of Terror after repeated tries because that moron brahmn cannot be talked to, and yes I felt like ranting about it here), adventures, and raids doesn’t make for a good experience. The strongboxes and insights I felt we needed more because those were actually good, and most of the event ones were decent if not tedious.

Payne.3184:

• Salvage Pit
• Flying Circus
• On Wings of Gold
• Ley-Line Run
• Drone Race
• Beetle Feast
• Haywire Punch o Matic

Of these… only one i have been able to get gold one so far is the salvage pit… not even silver one these and other adventures… and the super-mario effect isn’t my idea of fun… to began with

Wings of Gold should be easy as long as you have the gliding mastery. You have way more than enough time to get them, so just glide a bit higher than you need to. Remember that there’s ones at the very top. Remember you have to return those gold things to that collection spot though.

Drone Race is faceroll if you have poison mastery. (Personally, I think they shouldn’t have had bothered with the poison vines at all) This is one I always do if I’m in TD if it’s available and it’s great if it’s a daily. You don’t have to be anywhere near precise. Just keep hitting swiftness and pause for a second or two when you try to speed up those ramps to make sure you point it right.

Ley Line Run is hard, though silver isn’t hard as long as you just jump carefully. You can almost limp to the finish line if you choose. I recently got gold when I gave it a serious try though it was only half a second from not getting gold. Just look up youtube on where to blast ahead.

I’ve only managed a silver on the rest, so not qualified to make any comments about getting gold on them. Flying Circus was pretty tough.

The ones that make me upset are Tendril Torchers (barely got a silver, can’t even imagine getting a gold because I can’t even find enough tendrils), Scrap Rifle Field Test (barely silver), A Fungus whatever (can’t get anything), Sanctum Scramble (the thing is too kitten ed long and one mistake ruins the whole thing— I’ve never finished it), and Shooting Gallery (the worst)

A special mention goes to fallen masks, an another terrible adventure due to that RNG, but thanks to that RNG you can also get silver sometimes even without trying.

In the end, I got enough mastery points to fill out everything besides raids and had 1 extra to get the first Raid one. The raids themselves give MPs, so that problem would solve itself eventually though until then I’ll be bothered with that flashing xp bar.

i dont like the mastery system at all to begin with, i’d rather take out the points and just make it an xp leveling device

The problem with masteries is that ArenaNet presented them in place of leveling. People expect to be able to easily reach the level cap, as that’s the standard in nearly every game. If you ignore all that however and simply unlock what you actually need or the ones you actually want, it can be a very casual experience, as simple as naturally playing through the game. The only reason to unlock everything is for legendaries, but legendaries were meant to show dedication to the entire game.

For starters, they need to drop the mastery level as it’s as useless as achievement points and only encourages rushing it. The other problem is that you’re given no direction, which with a few mistakes, can permanently ruin your experience. One of the original reasons for the trait simplification for example, back when traits were 5 points each, was that some people were randomly spending points, rather than going for the actual traits. Likewise, some have done the same with masteries, only to find that it’s nearly impossible to get those last few points and what makes it worse, there’s no way to undo it.

They should have just increased the level cap. Much like masteries, you’d still be level 80, but within HoT, you could reach level 80 + HoT level 60 (say 15 per zone). Furthermore, enemies should have also had these levels so that it would actually feel like you’re progressing/leveling. Masteries on the other hand should have been treated like traits, where you could swap them in and out at will. They would still cost points, but rather than being used to permanently unlock them, they would be the cost to equip them. The only purpose of collecting more points would simply be to equip more masteries at a time. Even the simple change of allowing you to reset your points would make it a far more friendly experience.

Healix.5819:

The problem with masteries is that ArenaNet presented them in place of leveling. People expect to be able to easily reach the level cap, as that’s the standard in nearly every game. If you ignore all that however and simply unlock what you actually need or the ones you actually want, it can be a very casual experience, as simple as naturally playing through the game. The only reason to unlock everything is for legendaries, but legendaries were meant to show dedication to the entire game.

For starters, they need to drop the mastery level as it’s as useless as achievement points and only encourages rushing it. The other problem is that you’re given no direction, which with a few mistakes, can permanently ruin your experience. One of the original reasons for the trait simplification for example, back when traits were 5 points each, was that some people were randomly spending points, rather than going for the actual traits. Likewise, some have done the same with masteries, only to find that it’s nearly impossible to get those last few points and what makes it worse, there’s no way to undo it.

They should have just increased the level cap. Much like masteries, you’d still be level 80, but within HoT, you could reach level 80 + HoT level 60 (say 15 per zone). Furthermore, enemies should have also had these levels so that it would actually feel like you’re progressing/leveling. Masteries on the other hand should have been treated like traits, where you could swap them in and out at will. They would still cost points, but rather than being used to permanently unlock them, they would be the cost to equip them. The only purpose of collecting more points would simply be to equip more masteries at a time. Even the simple change of allowing you to reset your points would make it a far more friendly experience.

Masteries have their issues, which I’ve discussed elsewhere, but I find your idea has even more issues.. at least for me. I finished all my masteries in central and hot, excluding raiding. It took time, patience and sometimes a little frustration, but it’s satisfying to have them all done. I feel like I’ve gained a bunch of abilities. Traits don’t give that satisfaction, and your idea of masteries-as-traits wouldn’t either. I like having all my masteries being permanent. I can go anywhere in HOT and not think about whether I have poison enabled or ley line gliding enabled. They’re just there. I worked hard for those abilities. I feel improved for my efforts. It’s a better system than raising level cap, the best we have until something even better comes along.

A straight XP grind was never the point. You were supposed to do multiple forms of content instead of just farming whatever spot gives the most XP.

ArchonWing.9480:

A straight XP grind was never the point. You were supposed to do multiple forms of content instead of just farming whatever spot gives the most XP.

To be honest, XP was never my problem with the Mastery system. I’d go do exploration or map metas, and suddenly “oh, my bar capped, better do something about it.”

I don’t mind having to explore and poke at the zones to get the points, either. It’s driving me into content I might not have made time for otherwise. I even got a Triple Trouble kill out of it, and I finally got motivated to do the Sunbringer title.

I do mind the following:

1. Buggy, non-optimized minigames.
2. Minigames with long iteration times and poor quality control. (Sanctum Scramble could have been so much fun…)
3. RNG in timed, record-bearing events.
4. Needing masteries from deep within a tree to accomplish other mastery points (Leyline Gliding, kindasorta Poison mastery)
5. Masteries that are purely filler (Poison mastery)
6. Requiring group participation for my solo character progression. I only hear urban rumors of players taking on the cheesy kittens that are Balthazar and Axemaster…
7. “Perfect” performance as a required achievement. While this is inherent in the minigames, it’s also irritatingly present in story achievements, and those don’t have quick restarts. Seriously, ANet, we’ve been asking for retry nodes and such since Season 2…
8. Yegods, combining #6 and #7. Why, ANet, why? This has little to do with masteries and more with the Shatterer achievement list, but I’m sure it’s present somewhere in HoT content, somewhere.

I think that covered it all?

i’ve got all the Tyrian masteries done, and maybe half the points in HoT, but I am bored of chasing the HoT masteries down. And honestly I don’t feel like doing any more. I have been away from the game for a month now and havent missed it. If I return it’s prolly only to finish the 7 leggies that I have precursors for, or if somewhere down the line Anet sells an instant booster to 160

GW2 is one of the best lvling experiences in an MMO. You can do anything, ANYTHING you like and lvl from it. Its great!

HoTs new ‘lvling’ system is mastery pts. By contrast its the WORST lvling experience Ive ever had in an MMO. Id pay thousands and thousands of fractal / arah tokens / even mag shards at this pt, for even 1 mastery pt. I hate the nuances of layered HoT maps and all these nonsense RNGriddled minigames. That stuff should award chievo pts only, not be required to bloody lvl up.

I also want to add, its not even remotely fun to have to watch videos on another screen in order to know how to lvl up. Like.. why is that a thing? It should not be a thing.

Videos save you time if you don’t want to spend it learning how to do a particular adventure.

Cbomb.4310:

I also want to add, its not even remotely fun to have to watch videos on another screen in order to know how to lvl up. Like.. why is that a thing? It should not be a thing.

I have noticed that ANet has been rather poor on conveyance in the game overall. If information were sufficiently arrayed and made suitably visible, we could clip a fair amount of video dependency from things like adventures and Tangled Depths.

I think Anet did really well with the mastery system, and I believe most players agree with me.

1. Having horizontal progression depend on completing various achievements is better than just pure xp grind.
2. If you automatically get enough points without even trying to do these objectives, then the mastery points have no purpose.
3. Hence, mastery points are fine as is.

Rauderi.8706:

Cbomb.4310:

I also want to add, its not even remotely fun to have to watch videos on another screen in order to know how to lvl up. Like.. why is that a thing? It should not be a thing.

I have noticed that ANet has been rather poor on conveyance in the game overall. If information were sufficiently arrayed and made suitably visible, we could clip a fair amount of video dependency from things like adventures and Tangled Depths.

That is very true. A lot of the adventures just feel tacked onto the map and that gets pretty disorienting.

Fergus.4208:

I think Anet did really well with the mastery system, and I believe most players agree with me.

1. Having vertical progression depend on completing various achievements is better than just pure xp grind.
2. If you automatically get enough points without even trying to do these objectives, then the mastery points have no purpose.
3. Hence, mastery points are fine as is.

Vertical progression is one where the power level of the game increases. The mastery system is an attempt at horizontal progression. And, I’m wondering how you know most players agree with you. The forums present one population of players, chat another. The fact is, we don’t know what most players believe. I don’t agree with you. I believe the attempt at horizontal progression was brilliant, the implementation, not so much.

Cbomb.4310:

I also want to add, its not even remotely fun to have to watch videos on another screen in order to know how to lvl up. Like.. why is that a thing? It should not be a thing.

Films release trailers, I often watch those to find out what the film might be like. In work I often do video courses on new software or features in existing software. Not making excuses for some adventures “needing” videos or how to get across a map “needing” a video because I don’t think they do. I’m happy to explore and find things out. If you’re not then the videos are there to help you, if you choose not to use them it’s like not using the forward key and arguing you should be able to get around with just the three other movement keys.
And why make this about videos? When I was studying at school we had coursebooks, why should I have to have those? Nothing remotely fun about reading about rivers and hills in a book! Or those Shakespeare in a nutshell type books, reading critical assessment of a play I have to write an essay on isn’t remotely fun.
Shakespeare should have written better!

Raine.1394:

Vertical progression is one where the power level of the game increases. The mastery system is an attempt at horizontal progression.

I corrected my post. I obviously meant horizontal progression.

Raine.1394:

And, I’m wondering how you know most players agree with you.

I specifically used the word ‘believe’. I believe most players agree with me that the mastery system is good.

• I believe most players agree that the expansion should not add vertical progression, but it should add some form of horizontal progression.
• I also believe most players prefer the current system over a pure xp grind.

The mastery system is far from the de facto progression for MMO expansions. Therefore, I say Anet did really well on the mastery system.

Raine.1394:

The forums present one population of players, chat another. The fact is, we don’t know what most players believe. I don’t agree with you. I believe the attempt at horizontal progression was brilliant, the implementation, not so much.

I haven’t heard about the “impossible-to-obtain” mastery points neither in guild chat nor map chat. I have heard other complaints though.