Guild Wars 2

There has been a question about how Tomes of Knowledge will work in conjunction with Masteries. Will ToK fill up a Mastery Track?

The answer is, it will not. I still don’t know why I acquired it, but during the demo at PAX I got a reward chest and inside was a ToK. When I used it with the Glider track unlocked and active all it did was fill it a 5th or less.

As far as Mastery Tracks are concerned ToK are just big xp, so those of you that have a bunch of them will still be able to fill tracks fast, but it will still require a set of them.

Honestly, that’s not so bad. The masteries really should be earned some.

I didnt expect it would max a track but earn you a mastery point. It seems you need x amount of points to fill a track.

The way I have interpreted information was.

We will be earning mastery points instead of skill points when we fill the exp bar. So one tome will be one mastery point, not an entire track.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

What about the experience boosters? The ones that give you a level? Will these work toward masteries?

If they do, they will probably be worth 1/20th of what the ToK are worth, since that’s what they are now. That would mean 100 exp boosts for 1 mastery point. I don’t have anywhere near that many sitting around, and I anticipate most people don’t bother stockpiling those like the ToKs.

Interesting. Thank you for the information.

Edit: Sigh. Deleted question by accident. . . .

Mireles Lore.5942:

I didnt expect it would max a track but earn you a mastery point. It seems you need x amount of points to fill a track.

The way I have interpreted information was.

We will be earning mastery points instead of skill points when we fill the exp bar. So one tome will be one mastery point, not an entire track.

Bog Otter did a sequel video to his demo playthrough where he explained that Anet told him that earning Mastery experience was highly condensed for the demo, so that people could see it in action. In it, he said they stated that, if mastery earning in the demo were the way it would be in the actual release, nobody would be able to get anything in the mastery bar filled. Also, it seems that you spend mastery points in order to learn a mastery; you don’t get it right away.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Interesting. Thank you for the information.

Edit: Sigh. Deleted question by accident. . . .

Don’t worry, I immortalized it for you

Mireles Lore.5942:

I didnt expect it would max a track but earn you a mastery point. It seems you need x amount of points to fill a track.

The way I have interpreted information was.

We will be earning mastery points instead of skill points when we fill the exp bar. So one tome will be one mastery point, not an entire track.

Mastery Points are not gained by “leveling” a mastery track. Mastery Points are gained like achievement points.

During the demo we gained our first Mastery Point by completing the initial story mission at the beginning of the expansion.

We MAY, however, be acquiring Mastery Points the way we would acquire skill points within the world. Just outside the starter area, and too high to reach with the initial glider, there was a Mastery Point waiting to be channeled, just like skill points around the map now.

What leveling the track does is allow you to unlock higher level abilities to spend Mastery Points on. The first ability in each track starts out unlocked, it just needs to be bought. Once purchased you can slot that track and all xp goes toward unlocking the next power in the track. Once unlocked you can spend more MP to purchase it, allowing you to work toward the next unlock.

Mireles Lore.5942:

I didnt expect it would max a track but earn you a mastery point. It seems you need x amount of points to fill a track.

The way I have interpreted information was.

We will be earning mastery points instead of skill points when we fill the exp bar. So one tome will be one mastery point, not an entire track.

I’m almost positive that’s completely wrong.

You will get mastery points from doing things in the world:

EX:
Channel it like a skill point
From completing story parts
Possibly tied to achievements (both future and present)
Other options I’m sure have been mentioned but I can’t remember
——————————-

Once you have a mastery point you decide where to spend it (similarly to a WvW mastery point, only whatever you unlocked is unlocked on your entire account, it is not character bound.)

Once you spend a mastery point to unlock a Mastery Trait line you can choose a line that has been unlocked to start “earning it”. You earn it by getting EXP. Once the bar fills, all characters on your account now have access to whatever you just got, be it lvl 1 Precursor crafting, hang gliding, mushroom jumping, etc.

If you have multiple Trait lines unlocked you can only work on 1 at a time. If you have no Trait lines left to earn then presumably exp gained serves no purpose whatsoever.

There are a limited number of Mastery Points to get. I believe Colin said in an interview somewhere, that there would be enough to learn every trait line (still don’t know if that means exactly equal or some surplus to pick and choose). So they are very different from skill points.

The more I read about this the more confusing everything is getting…

Have any of you played WvW At all?

In WvW, you level your WXP rank just like you would level from 1-80. Once you level you’re given a point to invest. You need say 5 of these points to unlock a mastery line and get the first tier. The second tier may cost 20. The third 50, the fourth 100 and so on.

Has anyone who is familiar with the way WvW works actually played the demo and can compare the 2 systems?

Atherakhia.4086:

The more I read about this the more confusing everything is getting…

Have any of you played WvW At all?

In WvW, you level your WXP rank just like you would level from 1-80. Once you level you’re given a point to invest. You need say 5 of these points to unlock a mastery line and get the first tier. The second tier may cost 20. The third 50, the fourth 100 and so on.

Has anyone who is familiar with the way WvW works actually played the demo and can compare the 2 systems?

Just watch Bogotter’s video mentioned above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlBFoHs_siY

It doesn’t quite work like WvW abilities. There are two aspects of masteries:
1) Mastery points which are used to unlock a tier, these mastery points do not come from leveling but instead come from performing specific actions.
2) Exp which is gained from the usual ways through which you gain exp and which go towards whichever mastery line is set to ‘active’ at a given time, this is used for getting from one tier of a mastery line to the next tier.

Atherakhia.4086:

The more I read about this the more confusing everything is getting…

Have any of you played WvW At all?

In WvW, you level your WXP rank just like you would level from 1-80. Once you level you’re given a point to invest. You need say 5 of these points to unlock a mastery line and get the first tier. The second tier may cost 20. The third 50, the fourth 100 and so on.

Has anyone who is familiar with the way WvW works actually played the demo and can compare the 2 systems?

Based on your description, that is not how Masteries work.

Imagine if the only way to gain skill points was from the skill point markers on the world map. Either by channeling a location, or doing an activity of some sort, usually beating someone up. This is a much more relatable description of how Mastery Points are acquired.

Mastery Points have nothing to do, in any way, with anything related to xp. They are separate entirely. The purpose of XP in relation to Masteries is to unlock the tracks that you intend to spend MP on. Once a track is unlocked, by filling its proceeding bar with XP, you are then able to purchase the unlocked ability with MP.

I’m pretty sure I’m repeating myself at this point, but that’s the best I’ve got.

I wonder what happens now when you gain a level but ont have a mastery track, now that skill points from leveling are gone.

I think that’s reasonable, considering the Masteries are account-bound. No need to be able to beef them up instantly if you only have to do the work one time.

nekretaal.6485:

I wonder what happens now when you gain a level but ont have a mastery track, now that skill points from leveling are gone.

I’m guessing that you simply don’t gain levels after you hit 80 in HoT. If you choose a mastery track, you can start getting XP towards the next tier, but it’s going to have its own XP requirements that are different from your levels (i.e. the amount of XP required to fill a mastery track is probably entirely independent of the XP required to gain a level right now).

If you’re 80 and kill a monster or complete an event without a mastery track chosen, I would assume the XP is simply lost.