Guild Wars 2

Good evening,

I’m returning to the game from a break I took just after the release of HoT. I main a Mesmer, and I’m having some trouble getting back into things.

I’m trying to unlock the Chronomancer specialization, but I don’t have enough hero points to even unlock the trait line, not to mention each individual trait. Is there a faster way to get the points than to slog through the HoT maps? I can’t say I’m a huge fan of verdant brink so far. I much prefer doing dungeons and fractals, but I would like to unlock the elite specialization.

Is there a way to get more transmutation shards besides the gem store? I ran out and I’m stuck with an appearance that I’m not too fond of, but the gold to gem conversation ratio is a bit too high for me to afford.

These are my primary complaints, I’m just feeling a bit lost at the moment. I’d be extremely grateful if anyone could offer some pointers!

For Hero Points, if you don’t want to do the HoT maps, there is a currency earned by ranking up in WvW (Proof of Heroics) that can be used to buy hero point. You get 5-10 proofs each rank, and can be used to unlock a random hero point in the original maps (at a cost of 1 proof) or in HoT maps (at a cost of 10 points).

Transmutation charges can be earned a few ways
– 3 charges once every 28 days from the log-in rewards
– PvP and WvW reward tracks
– map completion – you may get 1 each time you complete a map (unless you get lucky and get a black lion key instead), including the six cities which are typically the quickest to complete
– black lion chest

You might look for a “hero point train” for getting the HoT points — a group can help you not have to deal with so much actually playing the maps.

You can also get pretty close to complete just using core tyria hero points, significantly reducing the amount of HoT points you need.

Finally, there are a significant number of “commune” hero points available in HoT, enough that you never, ever need to fight a champion to fully unlock the elite spec. dulfy.net has good guides to the “soloable” hero points per map.

Otherwise, what was recommended by Stitch.

You need updrafts and bouncing mushrooms to stay on a hero train. Points no, trains will hit each waypoint as if people don’t have them unlocked. By far the best way; and also gets you through maps, not content wise, but point wise and can go back etc. You won’t unlock all waypoints OR get EVERY HP on a train, at least not usually; its aim are more the tough ones to get. You’ll get communes and stuff just not all. It does depend on the train lead.