Guild Wars 2

Ok, so lets say i have all the legendaries i desire and i don’t care about gliding. Now what? I’m just not seeing the massive amount of entertainment and horizontal progression this system is going to produce.

The Legendary grind is still gonna be a big effort and require wealth. Because if it suddenly becomes a lot easier, it will create a lot of unhappy existing owners, following the same principal by which the GWAMM HoM bug did. So Anet won’t do that.

What about the Lore tracks?

Not to mention the gliding – and mushroom jumping – all give access to areas of the map inaccessible without them, so why would you not want them?

TheDaiBish.9735:

What about the Lore tracks?

Not to mention the gliding – and mushroom jumping – all give access to areas of the map inaccessible without them, so why would you not want them?

Because they’re only useful in a few maps that will come with HoT?

How much time and effort would you spend grinding out abilities that you could only use in Orr? And were required to get to all the points in Orr, including the end of the personal story? That’s pretty much what HoT is.

Palador.2170:

TheDaiBish.9735:

What about the Lore tracks?

Not to mention the gliding – and mushroom jumping – all give access to areas of the map inaccessible without them, so why would you not want them?

Because they’re only useful in a few maps that will come with HoT?

How much time and effort would you spend grinding out abilities that you could only use in Orr? And were required to get to all the points in Orr, including the end of the personal story? That’s pretty much what HoT is.

Maybe because you will probably be most of the time in the Heart of Maguuma which should have a decent amount of content? Or do you still want to play the same old maps?

Even if you don’t care about gliding, it seems like it (and the mushrooms) will basically be required to get the most out of the maguuma content

along with that, there are other masteries than just that and legendaries, such as the person said about, lore tracks. they could also introduce more overtime, akin to pvp reward tracks

Neox.3497:

Palador.2170:

TheDaiBish.9735:

What about the Lore tracks?

Not to mention the gliding – and mushroom jumping – all give access to areas of the map inaccessible without them, so why would you not want them?

Because they’re only useful in a few maps that will come with HoT?

How much time and effort would you spend grinding out abilities that you could only use in Orr? And were required to get to all the points in Orr, including the end of the personal story? That’s pretty much what HoT is.

Maybe because you will probably be most of the time in the Heart of Maguuma which should have a decent amount of content? Or do you still want to play the same old maps?

Unless you take a Rev straight to level 80 with Tomes, you WILL be playing them on the same old maps until they’re 80. So…. yes? Or better yet, both?

And what about the next expansion? Do you think the masteries from HoT will apply to future expansions? Of course not, or we’d have people half done with an expansion the moment it goes live. The mastery system is being presented as horizontal progression, and yes it is. But it’s progression as busy work when it comes to HoT, being used to slow down progress.

I think it is way to premature to judge HoT when we still know so little. A little patience would serve the op well I think.

“What should I do with new content if I don’t care to utilize new content?!”

This is indeed a question for the ages.

Palador.2170:

TheDaiBish.9735:

What about the Lore tracks?

Not to mention the gliding – and mushroom jumping – all give access to areas of the map inaccessible without them, so why would you not want them?

Because they’re only useful in a few maps that will come with HoT?

How much time and effort would you spend grinding out abilities that you could only use in Orr? And were required to get to all the points in Orr, including the end of the personal story? That’s pretty much what HoT is.

As far as I understand how Masteries work:

a) There are Mastery points to be found in the Core maps
b) You level them masteries by gaining XP, instead of gaining skill points.

This means that you’re able to level these Masteries while playing the core content, and then making use of them when you play in the new content.

It’s not something where you’re confined to the new maps in order to progress.

Not only that, but we don’t have the full list of Masteries currently. For example, we know we’re getting a Fractal Mastery track, and that’s not part of the new maps.

TheDaiBish.9735:

As far as I understand how Masteries work:

a) There are Mastery points to be found in the Core maps
b) You level them masteries by gaining XP, instead of gaining skill points.

This means that you’re able to level these Masteries while playing the core content, and then making use of them when you play in the new content.

It’s not something where you’re confined to the new maps in order to progress.

Not quite. According to the masteries article on the HoT page, you can only unlock and train HoT masteries while playing the new content:

Each Mastery track is tied to a region of Tyria—they must be unlocked with Mastery points gained in that region and can only be trained in that region. With the launch of Heart of Thorns, there will be two Mastery regions: the Heart of Maguuma, encompassing all PvE zones that are part of the Heart of Thorns expansion, and the core Guild Wars 2 world, encompassing all PvE zones currently available in the game today

Thus all the mastery point unlocks and experience for training masteries aquired in the core maps will go into masteries like the fractal ones, while you specifically need to unlock and train (gain experience) your HoT masteries in HoT maps.

Rasimir.6239:

Not quite. According to the masteries article on the HoT page, you can only unlock and train HoT masteries while playing the new content:

Each Mastery track is tied to a region of Tyria—they must be unlocked with Mastery points gained in that region and can only be trained in that region. With the launch of Heart of Thorns, there will be two Mastery regions: the Heart of Maguuma, encompassing all PvE zones that are part of the Heart of Thorns expansion, and the core Guild Wars 2 world, encompassing all PvE zones currently available in the game today

Thus all the mastery point unlocks and experience for training masteries aquired in the core maps will go into masteries like the fractal ones, while you specifically need to unlock and train (gain experience) your HoT masteries in HoT maps.

Ahh, thanks for the correction.

I know people say that masteries will require normal character XP to level up (together with a mastery points to unlock new level of mastery), but I haven’t seen it in an official statement, I already saw that mastery bar will replace XP bar on lvl 80, but I don’t remember anything about masteries using normal XP, everyone just saying it as a fact, could someone point me to the source of this information?

because it quite doesn’t make sense to level up a gliding mastery by fighting mordrem or level up fractal mastery while not in fractal for example

The official statement says we will no longer gain XP, as our XP bar will be replaced by Mastery Tracks. We will ‘train’ these tracks by completing content such as: completing a chapter in your personal story, completing certain achievements, reaching hard-to-find locations, overcoming challenging encounters, excelling at adventures found within the Heart of Maguuma, or earning 100% completion for a map.

Now, whether one can ‘train’ the Gliding Mastery track by fighting Mordrem (for example) is unclear.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/reimagining-progression-the-mastery-system/

Windsagio.1340:

“What should I do with new content if I don’t care to utilize new content?!”

This is indeed a question for the ages.

Simply don’t use it and move on would be my answer.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Mastery-Choices-Illusion-or-Reality/first#post4793666

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Masteries-Gating-content/first

My thoughts from the second link:
“I am not against gating. I would just rather the gating be about cosmetics. Gated glider skins that we earn through the mastery system versus the gem shop because the gliders are a system of the x-pac which we already paid for. Gating armor skins, weapons skins that we earn and for the very same reasons I just mentioned.
Gating certain enemies is not my cup of tea. I want my enemies to be based on my skill as a player, not based on my gear or in GW2’s case how many mastery points I have earned and which places I have placed them. Same goes for exploring.”

In old MMOs you had gear gating for raids. You couldn’t do a new raid without certain gear. In this game you will not be doing specific content without a specific mastery. It’s gear gating with a different name.

Like the OP, I would love the new content to be horizontal. We would use mastery points to unlock glider skins. That isn’t how ArenaNet works anymore. HoT’s mastery system is vertical progression and the horizontal reward they will offer you? Take your gold, convert it to gems and buy glider skins. But hey! It’s way easier if you just buy gems with cash and get those skins and still play through the vertical progression. It’s not gear gating! It’s got a different name. So they are totally not the same thing. They basically stuck raid mechanics in the open world and slapped a new name on them.

Revolutionary design ideas!

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

The official statement says we will no longer gain XP, as our XP bar will be replaced by Mastery Tracks. We will ‘train’ these tracks by completing content such as: completing a chapter in your personal story, completing certain achievements, reaching hard-to-find locations, overcoming challenging encounters, excelling at adventures found within the Heart of Maguuma, or earning 100% completion for a map.

Now, whether one can ‘train’ the Gliding Mastery track by fighting Mordrem (for example) is unclear.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/reimagining-progression-the-mastery-system/

“Once you’ve unlocked a Mastery track tier with Mastery points, you can begin training that Mastery. Mastery tracks are trained by gaining experience while the Mastery track is slotted on the Mastery training bar. Higher tiers in Mastery tracks require progressively more Mastery points and more experience to fully train.” (from article linked several times on this site.)

So basically, by accomplishing special acheivements (with personal story, map exploration, etc..) you gain Mastery points to unlock Mastery tiers. You can then slot a tier that will level up as you gain XP in the associated region. So when you are in the Heart of Maguma, you will level up Mastery tiers specifically for the new maps. When you are in the core game regions you will level up Mastery tiers for there (if you have unlocked them.)

You can earn mastery points before hitting level 80, but you cannot spend them to unlock the tiers until you hit 80.

So to answer the last point of the quoted poster, you can level up gliding by fighting Mordrem…if the Mordrem are located in the new maps and not the core maps.

I think anyone asking these questions needs to wait until HoT comes out, see what actually purchasing the expansion offers them and then make a decision. I doubt even whatever detailed info Anet releases prior to the HoT release is going to properly describe the details of what IS and IS NOT available to those that purchase HoT and those that choose not to buy it.

TLDR: Nobody knows….if you have doubts, just wait. You don’t have to buy the Expansion day 1 if you don’t want to.

TheDaiBish.9735:

Palador.2170:

TheDaiBish.9735:

What about the Lore tracks?

Not to mention the gliding – and mushroom jumping – all give access to areas of the map inaccessible without them, so why would you not want them?

Because they’re only useful in a few maps that will come with HoT?

How much time and effort would you spend grinding out abilities that you could only use in Orr? And were required to get to all the points in Orr, including the end of the personal story? That’s pretty much what HoT is.

As far as I understand how Masteries work:

a) There are Mastery points to be found in the Core maps
b) You level them masteries by gaining XP, instead of gaining skill points.

This means that you’re able to level these Masteries while playing the core content, and then making use of them when you play in the new content.

It’s not something where you’re confined to the new maps in order to progress.

Not only that, but we don’t have the full list of Masteries currently. For example, we know we’re getting a Fractal Mastery track, and that’s not part of the new maps.

each area has its own masteries, that only can be leveled in that area.
and the effects are available only in that area.
pact tyria has its own masteries
hot has its own
new expansions will have their own.

it could be fairly creative, but looking at the type of progression they have presented so far, its a pretty thin veneer of a gate to content.
Its fine for it to be a gate, but many of the gates are uninteresting, as compared to how it would be done in a say symphony of the night, or zelda.