Guild Wars 2

The new map is great for EXP rewards (you can even buy map specific EXP upgrades!) and to slowly but surely farm spirit shards making EXP useful again.
Sad part is that if you have not complete any raid encounter to unlock the Raid Mastery tracks the EXP stays useless. And given that only a small portion of the community raids only those get the EXP rewards.
This is the only thing that frustrates me about the map since its hard to find a group to raid with , maybe make those masteries not count towards the spirit shard unlock or just straight up give us the mastery tracks (which would make everyone mad , i know).
Just thought I’d share these thoughts!
Happy Farming.

So you do have to complete ALL the raid masteries for this spirit shard thing to work? I was hoping that wouldn’t be neccessary. I have all the masteries except raiding. :/

Yep. Raid masteries are needed too if you want to get exp towards shards in any of the HoT areas. Otherwise exp is still wasted.

And it surprises me they did that when :
-Only the “1%” raids
-The map is clearly made to farm EXP (100 orbs = 1 spirit shard)
I just find it somewhat unfair im being forced into harder content just for a common currency.

I took my semi-main to bloodstone fen on release, he doesn’t get spirit shards. then I switched toons and did dailies in Tyria, and he gets spirit shards. I’ve never been inside the raid, but have the rest of the masteries done. Either it’s a bug, or it doesn’t work on the new map, or.. something else, I guess.

Ashandar.2570:

I took my semi-main to bloodstone fen on release, he doesn’t get spirit shards. then I switched toons and did dailies in Tyria, and he gets spirit shards. I’ve never been inside the raid, but have the rest of the masteries done. Either it’s a bug, or it doesn’t work on the new map, or.. something else, I guess.

It’s that they are region-specific. Core or HoT. Raids are part of HoT.

From the Patch Notes:

Added back the ability to receive Spirit Shards once all the Masteries in a given region (Central Tyria or the Heart of Maguuma) have been earned. Players will continue to earn experience, and with every 254,000 experience points gained, players will earn a handful of Spirit Shards, which are useful to spend in the Mystic Forge or with the Mystic Forge attendant Miyani.

If (as is the case) Raid’s are designed for a very small percentage of the player base, then unlocking the mastery to allow the collection of spirit shards, should not require players to complete Raid’s.

And just how do you unlock the raid masteries? Kill any boss, or kill VG? From what I’ve heard, VG is one of the harder ones. I’ve not managed it in any of my attempts, and haven’t tried any other bosses. If any boss will do I’ll see who’s willing to teach me another boss and get me a win … I’m not unable to raid, I did it for years in WoW, I’m fine with chewing glass and following instructions. But not fine with spending hundreds of gold gearing up just to fight one boss.

I’d still love to unlock those tracks, assuming I can gather enough mastery points to advance them.

It’s nice to know I can at least get the level-ding rewards in Pact Tyria, though.

Donari.5237:

And just how do you unlock the raid masteries? Kill any boss, or kill VG? From what I’ve heard, VG is one of the harder ones. I’ve not managed it in any of my attempts, and haven’t tried any other bosses. If any boss will do I’ll see who’s willing to teach me another boss and get me a win … I’m not unable to raid, I did it for years in WoW, I’m fine with chewing glass and following instructions. But not fine with spending hundreds of gold gearing up just to fight one boss.

I’d still love to unlock those tracks, assuming I can gather enough mastery points to advance them.

It’s nice to know I can at least get the level-ding rewards in Pact Tyria, though.

Any BOSS, it has to be a boss not just any event, however they did add the wing3 Escort as a boss that will unlock the raid track. Escort is probably easiest for some, though personally if you have a good tank and half decent healer VG is not all that hard.

The hardest part of raids from what I’ve seen so far is getting 10 people together who actually want to pull their weight and do it.

You don’t need Ascended either, it helps of course, but really you don’t need it. Cash in whatever currency for some DPS gear (or healing if you want to play that role), then the biggest cost will likely be runes/sigils which can be expensive but I doubt you’d exceed 50g for most builds.

Either way this is something I’m annoyed about as well, as I don’t like being asked to do something I won’t enjoy for things like this that should just happen. Now I gotta go try to find Triple Trouble maps to get my Core tyria done, and the HoT… kitten it I’m not going through that mess more than I need to.

I think this is a really bad thing. It feels incredibly punishing towards casuals, everyone who doesn’t have gold or time to do raids. Something like that shouldn’t be exclusive.

mobocaster.3925:

I think this is a really bad thing. It feels incredibly punishing towards casuals, everyone who doesn’t have gold or time to do raids. Something like that shouldn’t be exclusive.

And if I don’t have the time to wander around HoT/Tyria to finish those out? I’m the flip side of what you’re describing. When I get on I want to do some fractals, raid if I can, and then I’m off, I don’t have time to play what I want and finish all the other stuff that I find terribly boring.

It shouldn’t be tied to masteries at all. As someone who quit right before HoT and recently came back, masteries are the worst addition to the game IMO, just a kitten ton of grind for a game that wasn’t supposed to force grind. A game that was supposed to be easy to come back to if you took a break. Masteries ruined that.

I was hoping this wasn’t the case. I don’t mind the basic HoT masteries, but I never had any plans to raid, so needing to fill out the raid masteries was never even on my to-do list. Worse, I can’t even start them without raiding, unlike the Fractal masteries on Central Tyria.

Hrm. Not great.

Jerus.4350:

mobocaster.3925:

I think this is a really bad thing. It feels incredibly punishing towards casuals, everyone who doesn’t have gold or time to do raids. Something like that shouldn’t be exclusive.

And if I don’t have the time to wander around HoT/Tyria to finish those out? I’m the flip side of what you’re describing. When I get on I want to do some fractals, raid if I can, and then I’m off, I don’t have time to play what I want and finish all the other stuff that I find terribly boring.

It shouldn’t be tied to masteries at all. As someone who quit right before HoT and recently came back, masteries are the worst addition to the game IMO, just a kitten ton of grind for a game that wasn’t supposed to force grind. A game that was supposed to be easy to come back to if you took a break. Masteries ruined that.

Regarding the system as it is, I do think they should cater to the majority, and I don’t believe raids fit in that category. However, I agree, it shouldn’t be tied to masteries. People should be able to skip masteries and still gain xp and shards.

mobocaster.3925:

Jerus.4350:

mobocaster.3925:

I think this is a really bad thing. It feels incredibly punishing towards casuals, everyone who doesn’t have gold or time to do raids. Something like that shouldn’t be exclusive.

And if I don’t have the time to wander around HoT/Tyria to finish those out? I’m the flip side of what you’re describing. When I get on I want to do some fractals, raid if I can, and then I’m off, I don’t have time to play what I want and finish all the other stuff that I find terribly boring.

It shouldn’t be tied to masteries at all. As someone who quit right before HoT and recently came back, masteries are the worst addition to the game IMO, just a kitten ton of grind for a game that wasn’t supposed to force grind. A game that was supposed to be easy to come back to if you took a break. Masteries ruined that.

Regarding the system as it is, I do think they should cater to the majority, and I don’t believe raids fit in that category. However, I agree, it shouldn’t be tied to masteries. People should be able to skip masteries and still gain xp and shards.

Why should majority/minority matter? If it’s a “completed it all” reward benefit, then it should require everything. But, that’s a pretty kittenty thing to do, leaving everyone who isn’t done with no benefit from XP until they jump through Hoop_094.

Maybe raid masteries should go into their own category.

That would mean getting increased only with exp from raiding, though.

People actually need to farm Spirit Shards?? O.o I have like almost 7k of the stuff sitting in my wallet just gathering dust. I wish gaining a level gave you a Mystic Coin rather than yet more Spirit Shards.

Zaxares.5419:

People actually need to farm Spirit Shards?? O.o I have like almost 7k of the stuff sitting in my wallet just gathering dust. I wish gaining a level gave you a Mystic Coin rather than yet more Spirit Shards.

Xactly this.
I dont have 7k, but closer to 4k if I recall, but still…
Why would anyone need so many shards?

New players who never accumulated thousands of them in the form of the old Skill Points that got changed into Spirit Shards?

I really hope this is an oversight on Anet’s part. Otherwise that just sucks. I have no intentions of doing raids, ever.