Guild Wars 2

Returning player trying to work though HoT story.

In what order should I go about leveling masteries to complete the story. I keep getting gated by not having something leveled or unlocked.

After completion of story, what would you prioritize?

Appreciate any guidance!

All of Gliding. Mushroom jumping.

I can’t really remember any others. Maybe the Poison one.

And, of course, all of the Pact Commander one. But, that’s Core Tyria.

Good luck.

Get gliding, updrafts, and bounce mushrooms before anything else.

The entire gliding line is nice to have for getting around.

Nuhoch wallows and exalted markings are useful, but not required.

You will need Itzel poison mastery and leyline gliding for full map completion.

Unlocking the vendors is also recommended.

I recommend getting a point in each to start with, because it’s cheap and easy and allows you to use XP in some mastery line as you gather enough mastery points. After that, I strongly recommend maxing gliding (it’s a game-changing mastery in my opinion). The rest don’t matter that much; I’d level them up one notch at a time rather than focus on one over the others.

In core Tyria, Pact Mastery is the game-changing line — true autolooting makes the game much, more enjoyable. After that, I like Fractal Mastery because it offers short & long term benefits, versus Legendary Mastery (legendaries take forever anyhow).

If I remember correctly to complete the story you just need the first level of each mastery.

Some are intentionally gated to encourage map exploration – the track won’t unlock until you enter the relevant map and then it’s needed for the first step of the story in that map. But the first one is pretty fast and XP boosters will count towards it. (Also exploring each map a bit before you start doing the story is actually helpful so you know where you’re going when you start.)

After that I recommend training gliding first. At least until you have Advanced Gliding because being able to stay up indefinitely makes a huge difference. After that I think it’s really up to you. Look at the descriptions or look them up on the wiki and pick the one you think will be most useful.

A few are required for story:

• While in Verdant Brink: Basic Gliding (Gliding 1) and Bouncing Mushrooms (Itzel 1)
• In Auric Basin: Exalted Markings (Exalted 1)*
• Prior to entering Tangled Depths: Updraft Use (Gliding 2)
  * Exalted Lore is unlocked when entering Auric Basin

So total needed for HoT story: Gliding 2, Itzel 1, Exalted 1.

Other than that, I aimed for these, roughly in order.

• Gliding! Advanced Gliding (Gliding 5) is as big a game changer as Basic Gliding, if not more! Ley Line gliding isn’t as important, but still nifty, especially in the LS3 maps.
• Nuhoch Wallows (Nuhoch 2) is useful, especially in Tangled Depths.
• Opening Vendors (Itzel 2, Exalted 2, Nuhoch 3) are of course useful.
• Poison Lore (Itzel 4) is needed to reach some places, including some Mastery Points.