Guild Wars 2

It seems like Counter Magic is all but essential to succeed in Lake Doric and particularly last chapter of the personal story in Episode 4. In particular the conditions applied by various enemies are nearly impossible to cleanse by normal meas.

I don’t have episode 1 open. Is there a way to learn Counter Magic without it. If not, do I just need to learn to play better? Should I suck it up and buy the episode?

Counter Magic should be a skill that is unlocked with the first tier of the Ancient Magicks mastery line. I don’t think that you need LWS3E1 to get access to it, but I may be wrong

It’s been reported that you can unlock that line in both episode 1 and 2, but not 3 or 4 for some reason. It’s possible this was an oversight and will soon be fixed.

That’s the boat I’m in. According to the Wiki, you have to enter Bloodstone Fen to unlock the Ancient Magics mastery, XP it up, then to get Counter Magic ability by engaging in combat with certain mobs. I’m off to do all that soon.

Not sure what you guys are talking about but I have counter magic and only have eps 3 and 4… I trained it from the masteries menu

TorsoReaper.8530:

Not sure what you guys are talking about but I have counter magic and only have eps 3 and 4… I trained it from the masteries menu

I wasn’t saying which episode you had to play . You just had to enter BF to unlock the mastery track, then train up.

And, BTW, that’s what I did, going back to the first episode. I enjoyed it so much I played in there long after getting CM. Maybe that’s some of their logic behind this, getting people into content they might not otherwise try out.

While we’re on the topic – for the benefit of new players – do you have to unlock the Heart of Thorns maps in order to get to Bloodstone Fen?

If it’s just entering Bloodstone Fen that opens the track, you could use a teleport to friend to access the map and first waypoint. Wouldn’t have to buy the episode then.

I think. If someone can confirm, that’d be great.

I’ve only owned HoT since November 2016. I have all of Season 3 chapters available banked away.

Irensaga.6935:

While we’re on the topic – for the benefit of new players – do you have to unlock the Heart of Thorns maps in order to get to Bloodstone Fen?

You need to own Heart of Thorns to do any of the Season 3 stuff. For most of it, you’ll want to have gliding anyway, as it’d be near impossible otherwise, but you don’t have to complete any of the story (to my knowledge), but beware of spoilers if you don’t play through to at least Act 3 of HoT.

Rauderi.8706:

If it’s just entering Bloodstone Fen that opens the track, you could use a teleport to friend to access the map and first waypoint. Wouldn’t have to buy the episode then.

I think. If someone can confirm, that’d be great.

You can’t enter the map without owning the corresponding episode. But the mastery line should unlock if you start any of the season 3 episodes. If not contact support.

If you hover over Ancient Magics in your Mastery Tab it says “Travel to Bloodstone Fen or Ember Bay to unlock”