Guild Wars 2

If you’re a new player poking your nose into HoT or have limited play time and dare to think you can pop into Bloodstone fen and enjoy the story and content there without going back and slowly grinding out a large portion of essential and nonessential masteries in the base HoT areas , you’re going to be crushingly disappointed.

Season 2 grind should not prevent anyone from easily jumping into season 3 content if they want to and getting the full experience. If you won’t make all the Masteries easier to get, then the gliding ones at least should have their exp costs massively reduced as you outright need up to and including ley line gliding for a smooth experience in my opinion.

Add things like mushroom bounce, nuloch invisible seeing and other quality of life masteries and that’s a significant and daunting time investment the game demands of a player before they can even think about season 3, not to mention how much the mastery catch up game will have to be played later on the later someone joins the party and more and more tracks become neccessary.

Grab the dulfy guides for: the mastery insights ( or whatever they are called, in achievement panel, you commune with them. Do the same with strong boxes.

That’ll get you most of the mastery points you need.

Drop into tarir ( auric basin) a little before the challenges pop. You’ll get upward of 200k exp. Do the same with night time in VB.
You’ll have a couple of tiers of gliding and mushroom in no time.

Bloodstone fen literally pours exp on you once you can glide around a bit. There is also a bunch more mastery points here.

Don’t worry about maxing out the masteries. Gliding, and bouncing mushrooms are all you really need for s3.
You’ll find you get the rest without a lot of effort if you don’t try to force it.

And not having time to play somehow entitles you to have everything effortlessy handed over to you because….. ?
You are not supposed to go to Bloodstone Fen without completing HoT first, because you need the masteries to navigate the map. If you don’t have those, go back to the Jungle until you get them. You don’t need to unlock all of them. As long as you have unlocked gliding up to updrafts and Bouncing Mushrooms, you are good to go. And they are not hard to get. (Of course, having full gliding mastery makes it easier, but it’s not mandatory).

Sir Alric.5078:

And not having time to play somehow entitles you to have everything effortlessy handed over to you because….. ?
You are not supposed to go to Bloodstone Fen without completing HoT first, because you need the masteries to navigate the map. If you don’t have those, go back to the Jungle until you get them. You don’t need to unlock all of them. As long as you have unlocked gliding up to updrafts and Bouncing Mushrooms, you are good to go. And they are not hard to get. (Of course, having full gliding mastery makes it easier, but it’s not mandatory).

Then have the game tell new and time limited players that. Don’t even let them start season 3 till they have the mandatory bare minimum to navigate bloodstone fen without issue and complete all events there without issue. They did that with HoT story, why not fully gate off season 3 to prevent people who haven’t ground out the necessary masteries from wasting their time trying to have fun?

I’m just lucky I have all the masteries I need. I feel sorry for new players who need to go through that slog just to play catchup.

My 13-year old daughter almost exclusively plays WvW, with very limited playtime. She’s been actively playing since the launch of HoT, but only has a mastery count of 4, with 1 point in basic gliding and the other 3 in the pact commander line.

Nevertheless, she played the season 3 story right into the Bloodstone Fen with me last night and explored a good bit of the map. Sure, it wasn’t quite es easy for her to navigate and made her backtrack by waypoint a few times (as well as decide to spend more time in the jungle to unlock the mushrooms ), but it was perfectly doable and even enjoyable for her.

GW2 is a game that offers a lot of fredom regarding where, what, and for how long you play, but assuming you can just join any kind of content whatsoever and be at the top of the food chain instantly is just not realistic. There is content for those, who play a little, or with a very narrow focus, but there has to bee content for those who have “been there, done that”, too.

Personally I feel that opening up more movement and exploration options on the map for people with a lot of mastery (both in raw mastery track numbers and in time and effort invested in the game) is a very elegant way to offer content and is doable by everyone but still gives you a feeling of progressing and gaining more options.

Aside from the very basic gliding mastery, all masteries are optional to play the map, even though some do make it more smooth. It’s all soft barriers, not hard ones, that you can either live with, work around, or just play some more to do away with them. I myself am regularly switching with my two accounts, one in the low double digits mastery-wise (and most of that in core tyria), and the other one maxed except for itzl 6 and raid 4. My play experience isn’t drastically different, both accounts are perfectly playable and enjoyable in all of HoT as well as the new map.

Rasimir.6239:

…GW2 is a game that offers a lot of fredom regarding where, what, and for how long you play, but assuming you can just join any kind of content whatsoever and be at the top of the food chain instantly is just not realistic. There is content for those, who play a little, or with a very narrow focus, but there has to bee content for those who have “been there, done that”, too. …

This is exactly why I fell in love with this game and have continued to play, off and on since launch. The off and on part is from me wanting to test the waters with other MMOs and ultimately coming back to GW2 for exactly this reason. I can log on every day and do something different and still have a good few hours of fun.

I do understand OPs frustration at S3 starting off at a higher than “from scratch” requirement, and I agree that the in-game pop-up that recommends having at least the first level of gliding should have been mentioned out-of-game as well (maybe it was, somewhere?) But as others have posted, getting to that point is not a lot of work, and still involves doing what everyone signed up to do – play the game.

When LS2 first came out, any new players would have had to level up to 80 in order to play that content too, so I don’t see how this is any different.

TBH, a new player should play through at least some of core Tyria and HoT. Not only do you need to get used to the mechanics and obtain your elite specializations (you don’t get any hero points in BSF), but story-wise it makes very little sense to jump straight into Eir's funeral without prior context. You can argue going into LS2 without LS1 is similar, but LS2 didn’t start off with deliberately slow and emotionally charged scene. You need an existing relationship with that character for that scene to have any impact.

Guess it all depends on how you see the mastery system then. To me, masteries are not fun, they are not progression, they have zero sense of accomplishment upon completing them and no incentive to get them beyond the basics of either grind mastery points or uninstall cuz this is what Gw2 is now.

Endless Gliding is fun. The mastery grind to get there was worthy of a full page article in the watching paint dry handbook.

MasterKaon.4027:

Guess it all depends on how you see the mastery system then. To me, masteries are not fun, they are not progression, they have zero sense of accomplishment upon completing them and no incentive to get them beyond the basics of either grind mastery points or uninstall cuz this is what Gw2 is now.

Endless Gliding is fun. The mastery grind to get there was worthy of a full page article in the watching paint dry handbook.

So endless gliding is fun, but masteries have zero sense of accomplishment upon completing them. Sounds rather contradictory. Which one is it? Because if you’re having fun with a certain mastery that does imply some sense of accomplishment. No incentive to get them? How about making navigation easier, or other things you can do once you’ve gained certain masteries? Your words betray you. It’s not that you don’t like masteries, you just don’t like doing the work to get them.

It’s going to be like this for all newer players. Two years down the line there will be more masteries and new players will have to do the same amount of work us veteran players had to put into it. This is always the case when starting an MMO a few years into its existence. You will have to catch up. There’s no other way around it.

Use every kind of XP booster you have (they do stack). Use food for extra XP gain. It will all help you get there faster. No one got their masteries handed to them. Some like to grind and had them all within a week after HoT release. I took a little over 2 months to get them all, because I’m not a grinder and also not an impatient person. I don’t mind spending time on them. If I did, it would’ve taken me even longer or I wouldn’t have bothered with all of them at all. Being late to the party does not make you eligible for easier mastery levelling. You have to put in the time and work, like every single one of us had to.

You can unlock a 10% XP boost in Bloodstone Fen, up to three times for a permanent 30% boost. Since Bloodstone Fen counts as a HoT map, I can’t help but wonder if this option is meant to help people grind mastery XP. I don’t know how efficient that would be compared to doing HoT maps, but without a big map meta, Bloodstone Fen is easier to jump in and out of.

+30% towards spirit shards could be useful, but it seems much more useful for masteries.

I’m at 170 and I consider myself a pretty casual player. I’ve only completed like 2 raids bosses and rarely dip into anything competitive like wvw or pvp. My best advice is to split it up into small sections and find small things to do during the exp grind. The first mastery points I did were the strongboxes and insights as I found the gliding new and fun. This might be different for you, maybe you’ll like the small minigames better. Whatever it is, do those. During the exp grind, find something to work on so you feel more rewarded. I Mapped DS during the meta event on 5 characters trying to finish their elite specialization collections for the ascended weapons. The variety of characters prevented the DS grind from getting stale and I got ascended weapons along with the exp.

TheNecrosanct.4028:

MasterKaon.4027:

Guess it all depends on how you see the mastery system then. To me, masteries are not fun, they are not progression, they have zero sense of accomplishment upon completing them and no incentive to get them beyond the basics of either grind mastery points or uninstall cuz this is what Gw2 is now.

Endless Gliding is fun. The mastery grind to get there was worthy of a full page article in the watching paint dry handbook.

So endless gliding is fun, but masteries have zero sense of accomplishment upon completing them. Sounds rather contradictory. Which one is it? Because if you’re having fun with a certain mastery that does imply some sense of accomplishment. No incentive to get them? How about making navigation easier, or other things you can do once you’ve gained certain masteries? Your words betray you. It’s not that you don’t like masteries, you just don’t like doing the work to get them.

It’s going to be like this for all newer players. Two years down the line there will be more masteries and new players will have to do the same amount of work us veteran players had to put into it. This is always the case when starting an MMO a few years into its existence. You will have to catch up. There’s no other way around it.

Use every kind of XP booster you have (they do stack). Use food for extra XP gain. It will all help you get there faster. No one got their masteries handed to them. Some like to grind and had them all within a week after HoT release. I took a little over 2 months to get them all, because I’m not a grinder and also not an impatient person. I don’t mind spending time on them. If I did, it would’ve taken me even longer or I wouldn’t have bothered with all of them at all. Being late to the party does not make you eligible for easier mastery levelling. You have to put in the time and work, like every single one of us had to.

Now the problem here is one little word you chose to use and the entire reason why I like the mastery effects and utterly loath needing to grind them out.

That word is ‘work’. Why does it need to be ‘work’? Why is it a chore? Why do i need to repeat the same event chain for the umpteenth time for another centimetre of exp? Beyond the first experience, none of the events were interesting. None of them were challenging skill wise, beyond hoping that forty odd random people had enough common sense not to stand in fire.

There were minimal consequences for failure and until the improved loot tables were introduced, minimal rewards for success. Four maps get very old when a person’s been through them so many times.

The whole mastery system tested nothing but my patience for repetitive, menial tasks and I found it so detestable that I very nearly quit altogether during HoT’s early days, hence why I can’t take any sort of accomplishment from it. It was like chewing my way through a mountain of compost to get to the cupcake at the center. The only reason I kept playing was my love of everything else Gw2 and the knowledge that when it was done it was done and I could finally enjoy playing the game again.

Redenaz.8631:

You can unlock a 10% XP boost in Bloodstone Fen, up to three times for a permanent 30% boost. Since Bloodstone Fen counts as a HoT map, I can’t help but wonder if this option is meant to help people grind mastery XP. I don’t know how efficient that would be compared to doing HoT maps, but without a big map meta, Bloodstone Fen is easier to jump in and out of.

+30% towards spirit shards could be useful, but it seems much more useful for masteries.

Now this is interesting. If it works like that, adding in exp boosters, Masteries could be a little less tedious , especially the earlier and more essential ones.

MasterKaon.4027:

TheNecrosanct.4028:

MasterKaon.4027:

Guess it all depends on how you see the mastery system then. To me, masteries are not fun, they are not progression, they have zero sense of accomplishment upon completing them and no incentive to get them beyond the basics of either grind mastery points or uninstall cuz this is what Gw2 is now.

Endless Gliding is fun. The mastery grind to get there was worthy of a full page article in the watching paint dry handbook.

So endless gliding is fun, but masteries have zero sense of accomplishment upon completing them. Sounds rather contradictory. Which one is it? Because if you’re having fun with a certain mastery that does imply some sense of accomplishment. No incentive to get them? How about making navigation easier, or other things you can do once you’ve gained certain masteries? Your words betray you. It’s not that you don’t like masteries, you just don’t like doing the work to get them.

It’s going to be like this for all newer players. Two years down the line there will be more masteries and new players will have to do the same amount of work us veteran players had to put into it. This is always the case when starting an MMO a few years into its existence. You will have to catch up. There’s no other way around it.

Use every kind of XP booster you have (they do stack). Use food for extra XP gain. It will all help you get there faster. No one got their masteries handed to them. Some like to grind and had them all within a week after HoT release. I took a little over 2 months to get them all, because I’m not a grinder and also not an impatient person. I don’t mind spending time on them. If I did, it would’ve taken me even longer or I wouldn’t have bothered with all of them at all. Being late to the party does not make you eligible for easier mastery levelling. You have to put in the time and work, like every single one of us had to.

Now the problem here is one little word you chose to use and the entire reason why I like the mastery effects and utterly loath needing to grind them out.

That word is ‘work’. Why does it need to be ‘work’? Why is it a chore? Why do i need to repeat the same event chain for the umpteenth time for another centimetre of exp? Beyond the first experience, none of the events were interesting. None of them were challenging skill wise, beyond hoping that forty odd random people had enough common sense not to stand in fire.

There were minimal consequences for failure and until the improved loot tables were introduced, minimal rewards for success. Four maps get very old when a person’s been through them so many times.

The whole mastery system tested nothing but my patience for repetitive, menial tasks and I found it so detestable that I very nearly quit altogether during HoT’s early days, hence why I can’t take any sort of accomplishment from it. It was like chewing my way through a mountain of compost to get to the cupcake at the center. The only reason I kept playing was my love of everything else Gw2 and the knowledge that when it was done it was done and I could finally enjoy playing the game again.

Don’t take my use of the word “work” so literal. Levelling a character is work too. Getting ascended gear is work too. Levelling crafting disciplines is work too. Substitute my use of the word “work” for playing the game, because that’s all that’s needed.

I maxed out my masteries a long time ago, just by playing the game. That is not work to me, that is pastime. I was in no hurry and took over 2 months to max them out. Yes, it does require you to play HoT maps, but I like playing those maps. Not enough challenge? Sure, it’s open world. Challenge will be limited, as always. It’s still more challenging than core Tyria maps, which you can play with your eyes closed. If you want challenge, you’re doing it wrong by looking for it in open world PvE. The real challenge in this game lies in high tier Fractals and Raids. Those will test your skills. In fact, Raids will help you level up HoT masteries as well. I use the LFG for HoT metas, and the failures I’ve experienced can literally be counted on one hand, since the release of HoT.

The only problem here is being late to the party and feeling like you have to catch up. You don’t, really. You can take your sweet time. There’s nothing that forces you into Bloodstone Fen at this very moment. Besides, that map has extra XP gain possiblities. I don’t know if the usual XP boosts stack on top of it since I didn’t have to level masteries anymore. Also, if completing an event chain only gives you a centimeter of XP, I’m sorry to say but you’re doing it wrong. This makes me think you haven’t been using XP boosters, celebration boosters, etc., which do stack.

In the end it’s a matter of preference. I didn’t grind for my mastery XP, I just played the game. I play this game every day and I don’t get bored or frustrated. But catching up is always an issue when leaving a MMO for an extended period of time, or starting it when it’s already been online for years. It might seem insurmountable, but that’s only if you want it right away. That’s your own choice, not one that is forced upon you. Just like for the rest of us, it takes time. People like me, who play every day, just have the added benefit of already having spent that time in the game. If you don’t want to do it, that’s fine. That’s a choice too, and all choices have consequences.

Redenaz.8631:

You can unlock a 10% XP boost in Bloodstone Fen, up to three times for a permanent 30% boost. Since Bloodstone Fen counts as a HoT map, I can’t help but wonder if this option is meant to help people grind mastery XP. I don’t know how efficient that would be compared to doing HoT maps, but without a big map meta, Bloodstone Fen is easier to jump in and out of.

+30% towards spirit shards could be useful, but it seems much more useful for masteries.

I will have to look at this, as I am in the same boat as Kaon. HoT has been a boring drag & grind to me and I loathe about every minute I’m in one of those maps.

slashlizardy.9167:

Redenaz.8631:

You can unlock a 10% XP boost in Bloodstone Fen, up to three times for a permanent 30% boost. Since Bloodstone Fen counts as a HoT map, I can’t help but wonder if this option is meant to help people grind mastery XP. I don’t know how efficient that would be compared to doing HoT maps, but without a big map meta, Bloodstone Fen is easier to jump in and out of.

+30% towards spirit shards could be useful, but it seems much more useful for masteries.

I will have to look at this, as I am in the same boat as Kaon. HoT has been a boring drag & grind to me and I loathe about every minute I’m in one of those maps.

Yup, I simply don’t enjoy the maps. They’re beautiful and the boss fights are fun, but the sitting around and running around trying to find something worthwhile to do during the hour+ wait is just so boring.

Masteries are IMO the worst thing they’ve added to the game. It’s no different from any other MMO now where if you try to jump in you have a hell of a lot of catch up to do before you can dig into the content.

I remember on many occasions reading the ANet staff boasting about the fact that you could walk away from the game and come back and jump right in… full 180 there.

I think you are approaching the mastery system the wrong way. I remember reading reviews of HoT online and those said the same things you are saying: It takes too long and is an endless grind to max out masteries.

The thing is: You are not supposed to grind them or max them out as fast as possible. Masteries are a way to gate the content and drag it out, so you can come back to a HoT map one month later and find something new to do, because it was previously inaccessible to you. As others here pointed out, there are just a few masteries you really need like Updraft Use and (to a lesser extend) Bouncing Mushrooms. That’s pretty much it! Everything else is just a bonus and you can unlock it at you own pace. Sure things like Ley Line Gliding are useful, but they would not be accomplishments if they weren’t and the new map is completely playable without them.

I agree that the game could do a better job at telling players which masteries are baseline and which are nice-to-have, but you really don’t need to grind them if you don’t want to! I recently got Ley Line Gliding and Itzel Poison Lore and it enabled me to go to some places I couldn’t go before, but I’m still far from maxed out. I only do HoT maps when I feel like it, and I also vary metas to keep me entertained.

Also: A new addon will definitely introduce a brand new mastery category where everybody starts from 0, so there is no deadline or anything and no endless need to catch up.

So just get those baseline masteries and do what makes fun afterwards. Don’t try to farm stuff you don’t really need! Instead enjoy the fact that you just passively unlock more little things while playing the new content.

TheNecrosanct.4028:

MasterKaon.4027:

TheNecrosanct.4028:

MasterKaon.4027:

Guess it all depends on how you see the mastery system then. To me, masteries are not fun, they are not progression, they have zero sense of accomplishment upon completing them and no incentive to get them beyond the basics of either grind mastery points or uninstall cuz this is what Gw2 is now.

Endless Gliding is fun. The mastery grind to get there was worthy of a full page article in the watching paint dry handbook.

So endless gliding is fun, but masteries have zero sense of accomplishment upon completing them. Sounds rather contradictory. Which one is it? Because if you’re having fun with a certain mastery that does imply some sense of accomplishment. No incentive to get them? How about making navigation easier, or other things you can do once you’ve gained certain masteries? Your words betray you. It’s not that you don’t like masteries, you just don’t like doing the work to get them.

It’s going to be like this for all newer players. Two years down the line there will be more masteries and new players will have to do the same amount of work us veteran players had to put into it. This is always the case when starting an MMO a few years into its existence. You will have to catch up. There’s no other way around it.

Use every kind of XP booster you have (they do stack). Use food for extra XP gain. It will all help you get there faster. No one got their masteries handed to them. Some like to grind and had them all within a week after HoT release. I took a little over 2 months to get them all, because I’m not a grinder and also not an impatient person. I don’t mind spending time on them. If I did, it would’ve taken me even longer or I wouldn’t have bothered with all of them at all. Being late to the party does not make you eligible for easier mastery levelling. You have to put in the time and work, like every single one of us had to.

Now the problem here is one little word you chose to use and the entire reason why I like the mastery effects and utterly loath needing to grind them out.

That word is ‘work’. Why does it need to be ‘work’? Why is it a chore? Why do i need to repeat the same event chain for the umpteenth time for another centimetre of exp? Beyond the first experience, none of the events were interesting. None of them were challenging skill wise, beyond hoping that forty odd random people had enough common sense not to stand in fire.

There were minimal consequences for failure and until the improved loot tables were introduced, minimal rewards for success. Four maps get very old when a person’s been through them so many times.

The whole mastery system tested nothing but my patience for repetitive, menial tasks and I found it so detestable that I very nearly quit altogether during HoT’s early days, hence why I can’t take any sort of accomplishment from it. It was like chewing my way through a mountain of compost to get to the cupcake at the center. The only reason I kept playing was my love of everything else Gw2 and the knowledge that when it was done it was done and I could finally enjoy playing the game again.

Don’t take my use of the word “work” so literal. Levelling a character is work too. Getting ascended gear is work too. Levelling crafting disciplines is work too. Substitute my use of the word “work” for playing the game, because that’s all that’s needed.

I maxed out my masteries a long time ago, just by playing the game. That is not work to me, that is pastime. I was in no hurry and took over 2 months to max them out. Yes, it does require you to play HoT maps, but I like playing those maps. Not enough challenge? Sure, it’s open world. Challenge will be limited, as always. It’s still more challenging than core Tyria maps, which you can play with your eyes closed. If you want challenge, you’re doing it wrong by looking for it in open world PvE. The real challenge in this game lies in high tier Fractals and Raids. Those will test your skills. In fact, Raids will help you level up HoT masteries as well. I use the LFG for HoT metas, and the failures I’ve experienced can literally be counted on one hand, since the release of HoT.

The only problem here is being late to the party and feeling like you have to catch up. You don’t, really. You can take your sweet time. There’s nothing that forces you into Bloodstone Fen at this very moment. Besides, that map has extra XP gain possiblities. I don’t know if the usual XP boosts stack on top of it since I didn’t have to level masteries anymore. Also, if completing an event chain only gives you a centimeter of XP, I’m sorry to say but you’re doing it wrong. This makes me think you haven’t been using XP boosters, celebration boosters, etc., which do stack.

In the end it’s a matter of preference. I didn’t grind for my mastery XP, I just played the game. I play this game every day and I don’t get bored or frustrated. But catching up is always an issue when leaving a MMO for an extended period of time, or starting it when it’s already been online for years. It might seem insurmountable, but that’s only if you want it right away. That’s your own choice, not one that is forced upon you. Just like for the rest of us, it takes time. People like me, who play every day, just have the added benefit of already having spent that time in the game. If you don’t want to do it, that’s fine. That’s a choice too, and all choices have consequences.

I’ve been playing Gw2 since open beta, I had all the masteries I cared to obtain within a month of HoT release. Note, not all the masteries, just the ones I cared to get. I don’t need to play catchup. Other people will and in my opinion, the mastery system and what it did to Gw2 was the single worst MMO experience I’ve ever had even though I was using boosters and playing intelligently. It was still a soul crushing, boring, near game and deal breaking chore compared to vanilla.

That’s probably a bigger issue than grinding, how the mastery system completely changed and destroyed the fun of the basic Gw2 experience in my opinion.

MasterKaon.4027:

I’ve been playing Gw2 since open beta, I had all the masteries I cared to obtain within a month of HoT release. Note, not all the masteries, just the ones I cared to get. I don’t need to play catchup. Other people will and in my opinion, the mastery system and what it did to Gw2 was the single worst MMO experience I’ve ever had even though I was using boosters and playing intelligently. It was still a soul crushing, boring, near game and deal breaking chore compared to vanilla.

Forgive me if I’m missing the point, but are you just championing a cause which doesn’t affect you? I understand if you feel it’s unfair to new players, but I haven’t seen any new players posting around here that they had a lot of problems getting around Bloodstone Fen. I did see the odd comment of “I went in and didn’t have gliding. lol” and the like, but they didn’t seem upset, more amused that they weren’t prepared for the setting.

Should there have been a warning before starting up the season that masteries will be needed? Maybe, but perhaps that’s where needing to buy HoT comes in. What’s the big new thing that came with the expansion, besides just new maps and story? Masteries. And basic gliding is the very first one. As many people have said, short of updraft and bouncing mushrooms (which are all required unlocks in HoT story), you don’t really need the other masteries.

I get that you don’t enjoy the mastery system, but can you keep your complaints to those that are actually obstacles, rather than theoretic ones with little to no evidence? Because otherwise you’re just making a lot of noise and everyone is getting upset over something that is not going to change. Masteries are here, and we’re going to have to deal with them, like it or not.

Rognik.2579:

MasterKaon.4027:

I’ve been playing Gw2 since open beta, I had all the masteries I cared to obtain within a month of HoT release. Note, not all the masteries, just the ones I cared to get. I don’t need to play catchup. Other people will and in my opinion, the mastery system and what it did to Gw2 was the single worst MMO experience I’ve ever had even though I was using boosters and playing intelligently. It was still a soul crushing, boring, near game and deal breaking chore compared to vanilla.

Forgive me if I’m missing the point, but are you just championing a cause which doesn’t affect you? I understand if you feel it’s unfair to new players, but I haven’t seen any new players posting around here that they had a lot of problems getting around Bloodstone Fen. I did see the odd comment of “I went in and didn’t have gliding. lol” and the like, but they didn’t seem upset, more amused that they weren’t prepared for the setting.

Should there have been a warning before starting up the season that masteries will be needed? Maybe, but perhaps that’s where needing to buy HoT comes in. What’s the big new thing that came with the expansion, besides just new maps and story? Masteries. And basic gliding is the very first one. As many people have said, short of updraft and bouncing mushrooms (which are all required unlocks in HoT story), you don’t really need the other masteries.

I get that you don’t enjoy the mastery system, but can you keep your complaints to those that are actually obstacles, rather than theoretic ones with little to no evidence? Because otherwise you’re just making a lot of noise and everyone is getting upset over something that is not going to change. Masteries are here, and we’re going to have to deal with them, like it or not.

I apologise for daring to voice my opinions in the hope of making the game more accessible and less frustrating for new players. If no one else really cares then no one cares, but probability states that there will be some new HoT players who will be turned off by the mastery system and leave the game. I merely thought making the basic mobility trees less of a hassle to obtain would ease that concern. /shrug