Guild Wars 2

Pyriel.4370:

Did Anet REALLY have to gate story behind hours and hours of grind?

The point I am at requires lvl 4 Itzel Mastery…..it’s taking forever to get level 3 gliding, been at it for about 3/4 hours (events are sluggish with exp etc) and I’m only half way…half way to gaining an ability to LEAN when I glide.

So you are telling me I cannot access the story because you want me to further grind?

If mastery points/exp was fun and not repetitive to get then yeh, fair enough, but you have made it necessary to zerg about with a commander (yet again), to equip my lootstick (yet again) and mindlessly follow a crowd because;

1. The events are far from soloable.

2. Only so many hero points are doable without grinding mastery and many you need a grp for.

3. Exp trickles into mastery bars. I get you want to make certain stuff ‘hard to get’ but GRINDING ISN’T DIFFICULT, IT IS BORING, A POOR MAN’S ‘INVESTMENT’.

I seriously feel like I grind less in wow compared to this game.

You should probably sort it Anet, cus if my memory serves, during the PAX announcement this came up about the mastery system;

“You do it once, this is all part of our no-grind philosophy for Guild Wars 2.”

Sheesh ONCE is enough and that still feels like a grind.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2tjxe8/pax_announcement_wordforword_transcription_of/

^ this is a link to a transcript of the PAX announcement.

Mastery does not feel like progression, it feels like another layer of grind that is in the way of me enjoying the game.

Just encountered this “we don’t make grindy games” part of the story… Seems to permeate into everything. Grind of Thorns is kittening off a lot of people with the gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate within a gate.

The least they could do is ease up on elite unlock and play. There are many options they could use for that…

Pyriel.4370:

To clarify, level 1 masteries = fair enough, they don’t take too long.

Level 4 mastery? Hell naw. I’ve played a full 10 hours today by doing some hero points, adventures, events, map completion (as much as I can), a guild hall capture etc and I have pushed my Itzel mastery to just over half way to the 3rd level.

Level 4 is just going to take too kitten long for me to enjoy ANY continuity with the story. I would probably have to play the previous episode again to remember what exactly has gone on -.-

Like wdf I had to level from 70 to level80 to unlock personal story and that was like 2m exp.. How dare they do that back in the days and kept doing for 3 years…

Ohoni.6057:

I have no problem with them gating story behind mastery POINTS, but I do have a huge problem with them gating them behind the XP grind. It’s just awful. We should be able to instantly unlock any abilities so long as we have the points to do so.

I agree completely. Spent more then two hours in the jungle, only got basic gliding and then 60% to the next level. This is starting to get very repetitive and not that much fun. I also think that locking the mastery behind fake levels is not in the spirit of GW2.

IEatCabbage.1907:

Pyriel.4370:

To clarify, level 1 masteries = fair enough, they don’t take too long.

Level 4 mastery? Hell naw. I’ve played a full 10 hours today by doing some hero points, adventures, events, map completion (as much as I can), a guild hall capture etc and I have pushed my Itzel mastery to just over half way to the 3rd level.

Level 4 is just going to take too kitten long for me to enjoy ANY continuity with the story. I would probably have to play the previous episode again to remember what exactly has gone on -.-

Like wdf I had to level from 70 to level80 to unlock personal story and that was like 2m exp.. How dare they do that back in the days and kept doing for 3 years…

Please see my reply to your other post.

For that particular reply of yours;

70 to 80 isn’t that hard with crafting, hearts, event chains, dungeons, hero points, vistas, etc. There are tons of ways to get there that don’t take more than perhaps a day or two if done properly and you can take your time IF YOU WISH.

What can you do to advance mastery bars in a meaningful way? Meta events that nudge it slightly, hero points (the ones that aren’t gated) and mapping (the points that aren’t gated), adventures that nudge it and that’s about it.

I am not talking about the level 1 mastery gates, that’s whatever cus they are generally at the start of a new area and makes you go explore the area for a somewhat easy experience. My issue is with them expecting you to grind further past that, WAY past that to get to the next stage of personal story.

All in all it sounds like you haven’t even got to the part where you are required to farm lvl 4 itzel.

Edited OP with added maths. Please read for full context.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Change-to-HoT-Story-Gating/first#post5651404

Then my complaint has been addressed. I am happy with that. Thanks for linking in the thread.

OK I’ve been GRINDING updraft training since the start of the game, what am I missing what story line or event do I have to complete to get it? Lil help?

Feels to me like they just wanted to have a gimmick for slowing down consumption of the storyline itself. Make it last longer and seem like “more.”

Came back to GW2 to finally play the HoT storyline and… holy crap, is this thing grindy.

Having to replay the same metaevent multiple times just to fill an arbitrary bar is not what I wanted from Guild Wars 2. This wasn’t supposed to be a game about repetitive grind.

Why can’t I just advance to the next story chapter already? The things gated behind masteries are extremely silly and are only there to artificially pad the content. Pad it with grind, grind, grind. Exactly what GW2 wasn’t supposed to be about.

I see it used to be even worse at release. It’s still bad.

Why bring back a 9 month old thread?
There are more then enough ways to get the experience needed to fill up your masteries. Especially after all the patches that have gone throughout the months. I’m currently sitting at 170 mastery. The highest mastery you can get as of july/27/2016.

For one thing, you have to realize that gaining mastery is a one time thing. You don’t have to gain it ever again unless you plan on creating another account.

Along side doing the story, try your best to complete the map. As you roam about you’ll be gaining exp, getting loot, finding new events to do, and getting hero points for your character. This all contributes; especially since pretty much everything you do in this game rewards you with experience.

You’ll also get to a point where you’ll have sooo much experience, but not enough mastery points. So you’ll need to hunt down the mastery points regardless. You can also gain mastery points by completing many of the achievements that reward you with mastery points.

Doing adventures, which are mini games placed all throughout the map also reward you with lots of experience. And if you manage to get silver or gold, you’ll be rewarded with mastery points for the completing the achievement thats tied with it.

Also, if im not mistaken, because its been a while; doesn’t the story journal already tell you which mastery you’ll need next? I mean, i remember it blankly telling you which mastery is needed to progress in the story in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Just select that mastery, explore the world, complete the map, complete the mastery achievements, do events, do adventures, and if you have them pop some of those experience boosters that the game pretty much freely gives out. Even guilds have potions you can drink that reward you with extra experience for pretty much just playing the game.

Once you have all the mastery like I do, getting any more experience to finish any new mastery is a breeze. Like, i don’t even have to think about it.

I just came back from not playing for years and got HoT on sale. I did always want to try HoT out but not at full price. As a side note I can say that the game has changed enough for me to find the game enjoyable.

Now on topic, I do feel a bit annoyed at this gating concept but it’s really just because you can only gain xp for this in the HoT areas and the xp doesn’t come so quickly so it does take hours of gameplay which does sort of stop you in your steps as far as progression is concerned.

A few thoughts:

1) Sorry to say but the story was never a really great thing in GW2 for me. Personally I care more about the mastery points than the story so for me the perspective is reversed. I need xp to get my masteries and I can’t continue the story for xp to get my masteries.
2) On the other hand, once you have gotten the masteries your alts do not have to do this anymore because the masteries are account wide. So really it’s just a bit tedious for the first character.
3) Linked to point 2 is that it is a shame that you can only get the xp for this in the HoT areas. This makes gaining xp for the masteries more repetitious because you are very limited in what you can do to gain the needed xp.

Don’t know why all the sudden you guys hate the gating. Gating content has been there since the first time-gate was installed. Content has to be artificially lengthened so you, the average player, doesn’t get through it too quickly then start asking, “Ok. What next?” It’s literally made to keep you doing it to keep you occupied so you don’t complete the content too quickly. It’s the same reason they just made the swamp fractal much much much longer by having to defeat both Mossman & Bloom.

The only thing that has surprised me is that they haven’t put in ways to get around the gating with a credit card.

Dragon.8762:

Also, if im not mistaken, because its been a while; doesn’t the story journal already tell you which mastery you’ll need next? I mean, i remember it blankly telling you which mastery is needed to progress in the story in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Just select that mastery, explore the world, complete the map, complete the mastery achievements, do events, do adventures, and if you have them pop some of those experience boosters that the game pretty much freely gives out. Even guilds have potions you can drink that reward you with extra experience for pretty much just playing the game.

It gets mentioned somewhere but I don’t remember if that is on the story journal or in the mastery UI. Maybe both.

Also in the case of the Itzel Poison requirement the story step UI is a bit buggy. It will tell you to go get the mastery even if you already have the mastery. It doesn’t update until you go into character and log back in.

I know Guild Wars has a particular target audience, but I play other MMOs and in comparison, there’s nothing grindy about GW2.

It is gated because it is short, if there was no mastery gate, you could play the story in about 6 hours and people probably wouldn’t even bother to stop in the maps on the way.

I don’t disagree with the OP, but the story would be rather short if you could just blow through it. And considering the cost (relative-wise) of the expansion to the main game…its raises some eyebrows. Quality of life and the living world was paid through that money though so its you know…not a bad deal, but people would complain regardless if it wasn’t gated.

Gating also gets players to play content on the maps rather than blow through the story and be done with it.

eldrin.6471:

I was ok with the mastery grind till i hit the train the itzel poison lore to continue your story.Now im done with HOT until the xp grind is toned down significantly.

The HoT grind was not fun when it came out. There has been an update or two since launch regarding it, but you still need to run the same content many times over before you can continue. That’s a design flaw.

Didn’t this particular time-gated part of the story get addressed anyway, so you didn’t need the Tier 4 part for the next step?

Vix.6730:

eldrin.6471:

I was ok with the mastery grind till i hit the train the itzel poison lore to continue your story.Now im done with HOT until the xp grind is toned down significantly.

The HoT grind was not fun when it came out. There has been an update or two since launch regarding it, but you still need to run the same content many times over before you can continue. That’s a design flaw.

This is not true, for the story at least. You never need to run the same content to level up your masteries to get the story done.

If you do every event chain during the day in VB just once, with a few boosters, you’ll have enough points to train everything you need to get through the story. The only exception is exalted lore, which you need to enter the second zone to unlock, at which point you have an entire zone to level 1 mastery.

Maybe true in the past . But with the April patch thing should change.
No more DR in hot. Adventure give a lot more exp

Locking this up to avoid further necroposting