That’s one of the issues that some players have is that by the time you max them, they’re irrelevant. That’s assuming they were relevant in the first place.
Many other games have this same issue where they have you jump through hoops to get things where by the time you get them, you have no use for them.
Mastery itself is brilliant. It is an attempt to introduce a key aspect of horizontal progression and, as such, is a laudable goal and great direction for the game. Sadly, they’ve done it in a most unhelpful way. Yes, the end of mastery here is largely the ability to function in the maps that really require it. It should be more about bringing interesting build diversity options and general QoL enhancements . The requirement for the results of mastery acquisition to make play in HoT viable is a problem in itself. The mastery idea itself is great, the implementation unfortunate.
For what it’s worth, I believe the central Tyria Masteries are examples of what Masteries ought to be than the HoT ones. They’re nice to have, but unlike some HoT Masteries, not having them does not hinder getting around.
For what it’s worth, I believe the central Tyria Masteries are examples of what Masteries ought to be than the HoT ones. They’re nice to have, but unlike some HoT Masteries, not having them does not hinder getting around.
I think the worst masteries are the ones that unlock vendors. HoT locked vendors just to make people farm xp to unlock them. Gating stuff that way, like with the karma vendors was as far I would have ever gone.
If you are finished with HoT maps why are you worried about masteries? Basic gliding is the only thing used outside of those maps and you get that very, very quickly. I don’t see the problem.
The order of several masteries is what was bugging me, the masteries themselves are a good idea IMO.
e.g. Nuoch Alchemy – This was my last mastery to unlock and Chak goo drove me crazy until then. Potoni (Nuoch Proving is pretty useless though and unlocked before the Alchemy. Stealth detection could be higher up too, because it is not required to kill Mordrem Snipers and the Treasure Mushroom is just optional. The only problem with moving it to the 5th slot would be that in the first weeks after launch the stealth night boss in VB would have been a mess.
Exalted Purification could have been the last spot too and Exalted Gathering is so random, I think I got like two Auric Slivers so far (in weeks). Almost everything I nagged about can be applied to Itzl lore too.
Gliding seems to be pretty balanced to me.
Member of The Guildwars Online Guild [GWO]
Still keeps a volume of Kurzick poems ;)
Gliding: I really grew to appreciate the upgrades as I got them and I likely would not have done so if I had been granted unlimited updrafts/endurance/etc right away.
Pact Mastery: ditto. ‘Earning’ the speed boost and autolooting seemed fair and extremely beneficial.
Legendary Mastery: I like the idea of learning the tools need to work on legendaries. (The details are less impressive.)
Fractal Mastery: I like that the all the mastery points you need to master this can be obtained within Fractals and that all the benefits are things that are beneficial for fractals (better rewards, cheaper upgrades).
I wish that the other masteries were better aligned the game, with the maps, and with their own acquisition/rewards. As the OP suggest, a lot of them feel like “make work”.
Don’t put mastery points in Adventures if there’s no benefit to doing adventures with masteries. (Right now, there’s just gating.)
Don’t put mastery points in the HoT story if there’s no benefit to the story (again, currently, it’s just gating).
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
If you are finished with HoT maps why are you worried about masteries? Basic gliding is the only thing used outside of those maps and you get that very, very quickly. I don’t see the problem.
Not that I’m finished with HoT, but there are some really high places in central Tyria and endurance free gliding would allow me to enjoy jumping off them more. I’ll get the points eventually, but I am most definitely not enjoying the process. I’ve plenty of patience for the process, I just don’t like adventures and story achieves.
Because it gives the illusion of content when there isn’t any.
They introduced it as horizontal progression — it’s no more valid/invalid as content than introducing 80 levels for GW2 compared to 20 levels for GW1. For me, the value in the progression is that I actually have ended up appreciating the progression more because it couldn’t be done instantaneously.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
The only mastery line that feels like character progression is gliding. The mushrooms aren’t terrible, but they’re not great either. Everything else feels like a gate.
Because it gives the illusion of content when there isn’t any.
They introduced it as horizontal progression — it’s no more valid/invalid as content than introducing 80 levels for GW2 compared to 20 levels for GW1. For me, the value in the progression is that I actually have ended up appreciating the progression more because it couldn’t be done instantaneously.
Gee, I never thought to look at it this way. I suppose we should be grateful that ANet took the trouble to boost all those numbers up kittening sky-high in order to make the elite specializations. That alone is so worth $50. But let’s not forget all the rest of the “content”. There’s… err… something, oh, gliders! …err, some shiny weapons… uh, hmm… well never mind, just buy the """expansion""".
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According to my immature name I seem not a big loss for the community.
So you can finally use them when you already completed the maps like 10 times??!!!
Why do i need stuff like mushrooms, or so you can read there words when i already done HOT and completed the maps and events??
Sorry but the more i play HOT stuff the more i HATE this game!! what a terrible way to create grind stuff.
Lets be honest here, if there was no mastery people would complain there is no other sense of progression. I prefer progression because it will get stale without it.
