(edited by Vayne.8563)
Until last week I was pretty comfortable with not maxing the masteries. I have all that I need to play the game. Then the XP bar change was made. Even though I don’t really need those extra spirit shards I now feel to be wasting XP, even though I was already wasting XP before the change. It’s compounded by those new event rewards that give a whole chunk of XP instantly.
I actually like the mastery system but I dislike mini-games and now I’m feeling pressure to go and do them. So I have not lost anything but it feels like I have!
I agree with you on this. I think it’s a mistake to make people do certain games to get their spirit shards. But keep in mind, even if you do the minigames, it won’t matter if you don’t kill a raid boss too.
There should be a way to toggle experience to a track that gives you spirit shards instead of leveling masteries. That would solve the problem.
Because we didn’t want vertical progression and this is a form of horizontal progression. It’s a tried to true thing that has worked in other games, and though you may not like it, some people do. And some don’t know if they like it or not because they don’t really think about it deeply.
You take away progression from an MMO and you lose a percentage of the playerbase. But this fan base is dead set against vertical progression or at least a very verbal segment of it is (including me). This was the compromise.
Masteries were not necessary to give progression, they were chosen. And their form of implementation by forcing players to do all play modes whether they enjoy them or not (or don’t get many Masteries) is a terrible decision. Giving players choice of how they want to spend their entertainment time is always better.
Actually yes, they were put in the game to provide progression, because Anet has said they were put in the game. If they were going to force you to do everything, you wouldn’t be able to skip getting gold on most of the adventures. There’s be no extra points more than you needed. But as it stands now, there are plenty of extra points.
As an example, those who don’t raid, don’t need to raid to get the raid mastery points…because they’re just for raids and don’t affect any other area of the game.
There are no “extra points” – all points require playing specific types of content. I play GW2 for the RPG elements. I don’t want to play mini-games (Adventures). I play almost exclusively PvE, that is my chosen form of play. But to cap Masteries I must play other modes of play that I don’t enjoy. And if I don’t cap Masteries I get no more XP at all – ever.
I play games for enjoyment – why should I play modes that I don’t like? This is an on-rails gaming experience that I detest.
I like standing in Lion’s Arch. Therefore everything in the game to progress should be eligible by me standing in Lion’s Arch.
I will never again bother to respond to any of your posts. Please refrain from responding to mine in the future.
As much as I’d like to accomodate you, I seriously doubt I’ll remember your name long enough to not respond in the future.
As I said, I deliberately exaagerated that to make a point, but the core point of my post is still correct. You need about 10 mastery points in HOT and you don’t have to do specific content to get any of those.
Because we didn’t want vertical progression and this is a form of horizontal progression. It’s a tried to true thing that has worked in other games, and though you may not like it, some people do. And some don’t know if they like it or not because they don’t really think about it deeply.
You take away progression from an MMO and you lose a percentage of the playerbase. But this fan base is dead set against vertical progression or at least a very verbal segment of it is (including me). This was the compromise.
Masteries were not necessary to give progression, they were chosen. And their form of implementation by forcing players to do all play modes whether they enjoy them or not (or don’t get many Masteries) is a terrible decision. Giving players choice of how they want to spend their entertainment time is always better.
Actually yes, they were put in the game to provide progression, because Anet has said they were put in the game. If they were going to force you to do everything, you wouldn’t be able to skip getting gold on most of the adventures. There’s be no extra points more than you needed. But as it stands now, there are plenty of extra points.
As an example, those who don’t raid, don’t need to raid to get the raid mastery points…because they’re just for raids and don’t affect any other area of the game.
There are no “extra points” – all points require playing specific types of content. I play GW2 for the RPG elements. I don’t want to play mini-games (Adventures). I play almost exclusively PvE, that is my chosen form of play. But to cap Masteries I must play other modes of play that I don’t enjoy. And if I don’t cap Masteries I get no more XP at all – ever.
I play games for enjoyment – why should I play modes that I don’t like? This is an on-rails gaming experience that I detest.
I like standing in Lion’s Arch. Therefore everything in the game to progress should be eligible by me standing in Lion’s Arch. Obviously an exaagerated example. There have always been things in this game you need to do certain things to get.
You do NOT need to any content unless you want those specific masteries. If you don’t, you don’t have to do that content.
For example, the story requires only a handful of mastery points. The experience to train those mastery points can be gotten from either dynamic events or killing mobs, or just doing adventures and taking your time, or raiding. All of those things will fill your experience bar. In theory if you wanted to get it just gathering, you could, It would just take a longer time.
There are further masteries that you don’t need, but you want. Those are fair game to “charge” more for.
But looking at HoT masteries, I really only see needing gliding, updraft use, bouncing mushrooms, exalted lore, nuhoch stuff up through wallows and ancient magic. I’m counting 10 points you pretty much “need”.
It’s very very easy to get 10 easy points. It barely requires any effort at all. Almost no effort if you choose the easiest points. I mean one point you get anyway just for doing the personal story that unlocks masteries, so you need another 9 more. Several of those are just communes in the open world. You can reach at least three of them with just basic gliding, which you already have the point for.
This commentary about having to play all these things I don’t want to is just people looking for an excuse to complain.
You only have to play them if you want a very specific reward, like unlimited gliding. Do you need it to play the game? Nope, you don’t. But if you want it, you can get it.
Non Raiders blocked from XP bar spirit shards
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: Vayne.8563
Its not the end of the world but it is pretty bad design to not account for it in this type of game imo.
“I don’t like it” does not equate to “bad design”.
Its bad(or perhaps poor?) design to force people into a game mode they have no interest in when everything else can be completed in the open world. I can see it in games like WoW but It’s not needed in a more casual game like Gw2.
And I never said I don’t like, im actually pretty neutral since I don’t care about spirit shards. I’m merely making a comment on it with how I see it.
Legendary weapons have “forced” players into other game modes since launch. Achievement hunters have been “forced” to do other game modes to maximize their AP count. It is not poor design to have systems that cross over several areas in a game to encourage players to play in those areas no matter how brief it may be in comparison to their usually mode of play.
The escort event is pretty easy. We almost beat it within a couple hours with random players (most had no prior experience with it) with random builds/classes. We easily saw the progression that we were making and would have beaten it within the next few attempts. One of the key things is for players to actually pay attention and to realize that the red rings are bad since the traps kill you. You will need a Mesmer with the the raid masteries, or a few other players, as the tunnel requires a certain mastery.
Okay this is very misleading. I in order to do the escort event you need people to already have raid masteries unlocked. So it’s pretty easy, except for the fact that you have to join a raid group who has already unlocked masteries.
Of course, I didn’t find that out till I tried to do it with my guild tonight. They were not happy.
They can’t grab one thing from Guild Wars 2. Guild Wars 2 is more than a bunch of individual features. It’s how the features that are in the game interact with each other. Unless they add them all, it’ll still just be WoW with some features. It doesn’t work because this game is more than the sum of its parts.
I thought this fight was hard too until the third time I did it, and I fully understood the mechanic. It’s not that hard anymore.
Sometimes, you have to do a fight to develop the technique you need to beat the fight.
It’s entirely likely that personal story is the worst place for those types of fights, since I believe few enough people repeat personal story to make the fights worth learning.
Guild Wars 2 has always had attrition mechanics. If you don’t believe it try leveling a new character in an area 10 levels above your level. Aggro becomes much greater. Things will cross much bigger areas to attack you. So you had to level first to get to the next area.
This isn’t much different. Can you run around without updraft use? Sure. But while you’re running around, you should be doing events and leveling it. It’s not that hard. It doesn’t take that long.
I think many people are trying their hardest to level masteries with the least amount of efficiency to try to prove some kind of point.
Because we didn’t want vertical progression and this is a form of horizontal progression. It’s a tried to true thing that has worked in other games, and though you may not like it, some people do. And some don’t know if they like it or not because they don’t really think about it deeply.
You take away progression from an MMO and you lose a percentage of the playerbase. But this fan base is dead set against vertical progression or at least a very verbal segment of it is (including me). This was the compromise.
Masteries were not necessary to give progression, they were chosen. And their form of implementation by forcing players to do all play modes whether they enjoy them or not (or don’t get many Masteries) is a terrible decision. Giving players choice of how they want to spend their entertainment time is always better.
Actually yes, they were put in the game to provide progression, because Anet has said they were put in the game. If they were going to force you to do everything, you wouldn’t be able to skip getting gold on most of the adventures. There’s be no extra points more than you needed. But as it stands now, there are plenty of extra points.
As an example, those who don’t raid, don’t need to raid to get the raid mastery points…because they’re just for raids and don’t affect any other area of the game.
I can only hope the next expansion expels the current mastery system. It is not fun at all..
I doubt it will happen. There aren’t enough people who don’t like it for it to change. They may change how you get mastery points for it, but they won’t change the system.
Yes, I would like to see gaining mastery points be more doable in some way. Like buying them or having them come with xp. I have no problem with the current xp requirements (although like others have said I would like them to be more logical if possible) but a lot of people (including me) are winding up not being able to progress in masteries simply because we ran into a brick wall with getting MPs. Platformer adventures are not why I play GW2. At one point I ran into an annoyance with the story, sure I could look up how to solve the problem but that would defeat the point of being surprised by it.
I’m pretty sure there are mastery points you can get that you’re simply ignoring or don’t realize you can get.
And we’ve always had stuff in the game like Tribulation Rift and the Great Wall in Diessa with hero points on top of them. They’re jumping puzzles you need to finish zones. The Vizier’s Tower too.
How did you get them? Well, I know a lot of people that just took a portal.
There are plenty of mastery points available that you can get if you want. You might need some help with some of them. But there are people in my guild who are casual as hell who have maxed out all their mastery points. And they didn’t get them through doing any adventures that were hard.
I already said this in the german forums, but I do hope that not all future maps will have the look and feel of the latest ones. They’re really cool, but they wear on you after awhile. Especially when you glide all the way down to the ground, only to find out that the point of interest you were looking for was somewhere between where you started and the ground.
You do realize that the point of interest if you mouse over it shows you how far above or below you it is.
Yes, but sometimes you have to be flying right above the poi or the mastery point, otherwise, if it’s placed on a cliff or on a tree branch, it’s very easy to miss and fly by (for me at least). I also forgot to mention the ones that are underground and up in the canopy… those are really difficult to find and as a new player, I got completely confused.
I’ve come up with a new name for our current game genre: platformer obscura.
Edit: And I already don’t like the new genre.
If you think these maps are like platforming, you need to try some actual platforming. jumping on top of a mushroom that places you exactly where you need to be….not platforming.
When HoT first launched I thought the mastery system was a clever idea. After playing the expansion for a while, I was less than impressed with the system. It seems to me to be a cynical time waster and is really an illusion. It’s just a number by your name.
Vanilla gw2 you had access to maps as you explored. There was no mechanism to restrict you from exploration. Why did Anet waste all the time and effort on this system and not focus on more maps and encounters?
Because we didn’t want vertical progression and this is a form of horizontal progression. It’s a tried to true thing that has worked in other games, and though you may not like it, some people do. And some don’t know if they like it or not because they don’t really think about it deeply.
You take away progression from an MMO and you lose a percentage of the playerbase. But this fan base is dead set against vertical progression or at least a very verbal segment of it is (including me). This was the compromise.
Actually one of my strengths is seeing other’ points of view. They’re not always reasonable however. And the lack of comprehension here is two way.
Well I may not share your view that this is one of your strengths but I’ll be happy to call it a misunderstanding just the same because I can see a couple of points that may have caused a misunderstanding also on my side.
I was replying to the first guy when you replied to me. You’re attempting to say that I can’t see his point of view. But his point of view directly prevents him from going into the new zone and getting anything done.
Actually no, you were replying to someone else’s comment and not the op at that point. Perhaps that’s where the miscommunication started as you might’ve thought it was the op.
As for the op it’s true that his point of view might prevent him from going into the new zone but he is not required to want to do that. There is nothing wrong with him having that view nor is there anything wrong with him changing his mind at some point either.
I personally also like the masteries though I’m not entirely fond of the length of time that it takes me to get the xp for each individual mastery level. However, it hasn’t stopped me from working on it anyway as I am not afraid to put a bit of work in when I believe it’s not way out there and in this case I find it annoying at times but still reasonable.
I do understand though that if people just want to play the story through, this is just really annoying. I am just lucky I am in no hurry to complete the story.
But the person I was replying to replied to me replying to the OP’s post. WHether I was replying to him or not, that was the conversation.
What I said is factually true, if you watch videos because you dont’ want to get mastery points and you don’t get mastery points you’ll have trouble moving forward in this game. That’s what I was saying, that’s what I maintain, and it’s pretty much factual.
Let’s say you get no masteries. Then you can’t do the new zone, no matter how many videos you watch. Nor can you now do the new raids as well.
My comment was never about liking the masteries or not liking them. My comment was that watching videos because you don’t want to level masteries, doesn’t mean that you don’t have to level masteries anyway.
Find a busy server and do stuff on that server? Prosper.
Part of the problem right how is probably timing since everyone and their brother are in the new zone, but that’ll end soon enough anyway.
The problem is that from experience, even a full server (which is very unlikely pre meta leading) is likely to be split between multiple lanes, and at least one of the events needs well over 20 people to scale to champion levels.
I’ve been there. I’ve done it multiple times. It happens. Sometimes in this game you have to grab the bull by the horns and make it happen.
It helps to have a guild. It helps to have a commander tag. It helps to help organize stuff. Like I say, I’ve done it.
If you’re not going to be more proactive, you’ll have to wait.
Find a busy server and do stuff on that server? Prosper.
Part of the problem right how is probably timing since everyone and their brother are in the new zone, but that’ll end soon enough anyway.
I already said this in the german forums, but I do hope that not all future maps will have the look and feel of the latest ones. They’re really cool, but they wear on you after awhile. Especially when you glide all the way down to the ground, only to find out that the point of interest you were looking for was somewhere between where you started and the ground.
You do realize that the point of interest if you mouse over it shows you how far above or below you it is.
Yes, but sometimes you have to be flying right above the poi or the mastery point, otherwise, if it’s placed on a cliff or on a tree branch, it’s very easy to miss and fly by (for me at least). I also forgot to mention the ones that are underground and up in the canopy… those are really difficult to find and as a new player, I got completely confused.
Try going down in stages. Glide down to a shelf or a branch and check again. I can’t think of any POI this isn’t possible for. Then you won’t over shoot it.
You don’t need to get gold on most adventures there are enough other non-adventure points. Get gold on the easy ones, ignore the others.
I already said this in the german forums, but I do hope that not all future maps will have the look and feel of the latest ones. They’re really cool, but they wear on you after awhile. Especially when you glide all the way down to the ground, only to find out that the point of interest you were looking for was somewhere between where you started and the ground.
You do realize that the point of interest if you mouse over it shows you how far above or below you it is.
I do hope they will eventually expand the opportunities to play in central Tyria for those who prefer GW2 to HoT.
They won’t, but I’ll bet the next expansion will be more like core Tyria than HoT.
(edited by Vayne.8563)
I can only hope the next expansion expels the current mastery system. It is not fun at all..
I doubt it will happen. There aren’t enough people who don’t like it for it to change. They may change how you get mastery points for it, but they won’t change the system.
No, because zones are content and I can’t see being cut off from content being a good thing. What you’re essentially saying is I’m not interested in new zones at all. Maybe you’re not but then the whole mastery question is irrelevant, since masteries only affect PvE.
And if you’re not interested in new zones or raids, what are you interested in? Just dungeons and Fractals? Even Fractals benefit from masteries.
You miss my point enitrely.
If you’re talking about PvE, the only place masteries matter, and you’re saying I don’t care if I can get to new zones or do anything at all in them, I’d say this is a bigger problem for you then just watching story videos on youtube.
It means you can’t continue playing the game in PvE as it moves forward. What’s the point really?
You’re talking story, I’m talking zones. Between zones and story, this IS PvE.
I see your reading skills haven’t improved. I haven’t said what you say here and your conclusions therefore are all pointless. I said I like exploring zones and I will complete the story, though I’m not in a rush to do so. How you turn that into me saying the opposite of that, is just your reading comprehension. Please learn the difference between understanding and agreeing. I understand the other guys’ point of view, but that doesn’t mean I am exactly like him. As I said, again, I am probably closer to his ideas than you are, but I never said I am exactly the same. That is, again, your own false interpretation.
I am currently not interested in dungeons, fractals and raids. I have enough to play around with masteries, exploration and leveling alts. After masteries I will start looking at crafting. Trust me, I will not finish all of that in the next week or two.
You are just able to see your own point of view and nothing else and this inability to stand in another’s shoes, blinds you to the fact that a lot of people have different goals or needs from a game and they may be nowhere near. You seem to think that because something is logical to you that it must be the truth for everyone. If that is not the case, then perhaps you should stop acting like it because that is the message you are sending.
This whole point revolves around you not understanding that people don’t have the same goals and therefore don’t have the same needs. As soon as you understand that, you will see that your points don’t matter to others unless they have the same or at least similar goals.
Actually one of my strengths is seeing other’ points of view. They’re not always reasonable however. And the lack of comprehension here is two way.
I was replying to the first guy when you replied to me. You’re attempting to say that I can’t see his point of view. But his point of view directly prevents him from going into the new zone and getting anything done.
That’s my point. It doesn’t matter what you like or what you like, because we’re actually having a conversation about the first poster, who says he can just watch the videos of the story on youtube and thus he can avoid leveling masteries. That’s only true if he doesn’t want to play the new zone also.
If its me your talking about, I recently finished season 3. It took a lot of alcohol to stand the map design. Only up to mastering stealth gliding, bouncy mushrooms, but not sure if any other travel masteries were needed, it didn’t appear so. I still say masteries are as frustrating as texas, but mostly when they interrupt the main story.
The conversation is too fractured to understand what I was saying. Sorry you aren’t enjoying the mastery system. For some of us, it has improved the game by giving us some sort of progression.
Obviously not everyone needs it, but I’m willing to wager more people do than don’t.
I keep seeing words like jumping puzzle and platforming. I’ve done a lot of that stuff, and the new zones really have very little platforming. If anything, gliding has taken away some of the platforming aspects.
I remember some vistas that were massively hard originally that are much easier, or at least more forgiving now, due to gliding.
Gliding is not platforming and neither are jumping mushrooms. They aim for you. You’re not really doing a jumping puzzle, the mushroom is.
Non Raiders blocked from XP bar spirit shards
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: Vayne.8563
Mostly true. You have to kill at least one raid boss. Some people sell raids, or do practice teaching raids. After your first kill you unlock raid masteries and you can train them like any other.
Once all your masteries are completed you again get spirit shards for leveling.
The Prologue can’t be repeated, and must be completed as an instance owner for credit. That’s what I meant by ‘very first chapter’.
Here’s the Dev statement:
….EACH party member must complete the story step individually in order to receive credit toward unlocking the second chapter “Torn from the Sky”….
Thus, if the OP and/or friend(s) are having trouble with this step of the story, this may be the cause.
I have a lot of characters. I’ve done the prologue with guildies on just about all of them and received credit for doing it.
No, because zones are content and I can’t see being cut off from content being a good thing. What you’re essentially saying is I’m not interested in new zones at all. Maybe you’re not but then the whole mastery question is irrelevant, since masteries only affect PvE.
And if you’re not interested in new zones or raids, what are you interested in? Just dungeons and Fractals? Even Fractals benefit from masteries.
You miss my point enitrely.
If you’re talking about PvE, the only place masteries matter, and you’re saying I don’t care if I can get to new zones or do anything at all in them, I’d say this is a bigger problem for you then just watching story videos on youtube.
It means you can’t continue playing the game in PvE as it moves forward. What’s the point really?
You’re talking story, I’m talking zones. Between zones and story, this IS PvE.
I see your reading skills haven’t improved. I haven’t said what you say here and your conclusions therefore are all pointless. I said I like exploring zones and I will complete the story, though I’m not in a rush to do so. How you turn that into me saying the opposite of that, is just your reading comprehension. Please learn the difference between understanding and agreeing. I understand the other guys’ point of view, but that doesn’t mean I am exactly like him. As I said, again, I am probably closer to his ideas than you are, but I never said I am exactly the same. That is, again, your own false interpretation.
I am currently not interested in dungeons, fractals and raids. I have enough to play around with masteries, exploration and leveling alts. After masteries I will start looking at crafting. Trust me, I will not finish all of that in the next week or two.
You are just able to see your own point of view and nothing else and this inability to stand in another’s shoes, blinds you to the fact that a lot of people have different goals or needs from a game and they may be nowhere near. You seem to think that because something is logical to you that it must be the truth for everyone. If that is not the case, then perhaps you should stop acting like it because that is the message you are sending.
This whole point revolves around you not understanding that people don’t have the same goals and therefore don’t have the same needs. As soon as you understand that, you will see that your points don’t matter to others unless they have the same or at least similar goals.
Actually one of my strengths is seeing other’ points of view. They’re not always reasonable however. And the lack of comprehension here is two way.
I was replying to the first guy when you replied to me. You’re attempting to say that I can’t see his point of view. But his point of view directly prevents him from going into the new zone and getting anything done.
That’s my point. It doesn’t matter what you like or what you like, because we’re actually having a conversation about the first poster, who says he can just watch the videos of the story on youtube and thus he can avoid leveling masteries. That’s only true if he doesn’t want to play the new zone also.
I don’t know. I find the new zone quite fun actually. To each his own I guess.
For how long, even you have to admit this new map does not have the sustain that maps like SW, AB have, the only reason this map is so busy atm, is people moving threw the story, and grinding out the blood rubies for the ascended gear,
Add to the fact there is an rapidly re-spawning event that gives fairly decent look, once Anet move in with the nerf bat, this zone will die, so I can see why some people do not enjoy the new zone,
The one thing I will say about the new zone is, the Artists did a fantastic job as usual.
Not really the point. I said I find the map fun. I find a lot of maps fun. It adds to the collection of maps that I want to do.
You’re from the school that this map has to be fun for months. I’m from the school that this map has to be fun giving me yet another option when I feel like doing it. It expands the word. It gives me stuff I cant’ do anywhere else, like aerial combat.
The map is fun because I don’t farm it.
I wouldn’t buy it anyways, clipping or no clipping, it looks pretty much the same as everything else we have in the game that I don’t like xD I think people are just so starved for something " new" that they’ll just buy anything anyways so I’m sure Anet’s not worried about it. Buy away people buy away $$$$$$$$$
I guess there’s no chance people actually like some of the new stuff. It’s not like we’ve had a shortage of outfits, anyway.
I never said they don’t like it… but I’m sure they also liked all the other things we’ve had in the game since forever that look almost exactly the same as everything “new” that comes out.
You said people were starved for something new. This implied they’d buy something simply because they were starved. My argument is we get new outfits frequently. Many have complained we get them too frequently. So logically people wouldn’t be buying outfits because they’re starved. I like new stuff too, but I wouldn’t buy an outfit just because I was starved and I don’t think most other people would either. However, we’re not starving for outfits.
I wouldn’t buy it anyways, clipping or no clipping, it looks pretty much the same as everything else we have in the game that I don’t like xD I think people are just so starved for something " new" that they’ll just buy anything anyways so I’m sure Anet’s not worried about it. Buy away people buy away $$$$$$$$$
I guess there’s no chance people actually like some of the new stuff. It’s not like we’ve had a shortage of outfits, anyway.
You’re all acting like levelling masteries in the wrong order is easy to avoid. For gliding and mushrooms, sure. But for the later mastery gates (like investing in Wallows for TD), you can already be in a position of being low on MP’s, especially if you don’t use dulfy for the achievements. THIS IS NOT MY PERSONAL POSITION. But I have seen it happen to guildies and pubs.
Actually I don’t believe this is a widely spread problem. Even with minimal logic, people can see that lower level masteries take only 1 or 2 points where as higher level masteries take 8 or 12 points.
So beginners to the zone would likely get 1 point ones done first, particularly if they’re having trouble getting mastery points.
If they manage to get like unlimited gliding unlocked, without learning anything at all about the zones, I’d say they’re probably a below average player because by then they should have some idea of what’s needed.
It’s like anything else in this game. You either do research, and watch videos and go to Dulfy, or your talk to guildies who have done so, or you ask questions on forums or reddit….or you go it alone and you figure stuff out.
In this case, figuring the stuff out is pretty easy. Of course, there are people who just don’t want to care or think at all.
Somehow I’m glad the game isn’t made for those people however.
There’s plenty of indication that the lower level ones are more useful generally than the higher level ones and there’s plenty of easy to get mastery points to get them.
Anything else is just not paying attention.
If it was something other than Spirit Shards on offer, I might have an opinion, but….as it is, I have way too many now, so even if I did have all my Masteries finished, Raid or no, I won’t really miss this ‘reward’.
In other words, I wish it was something else one could acquire.
How many legendary weapons have you made? lol
Okay I had to think about this post, before I posted. First, I don’t like the word discrimination because it’s the wrong word but that’s just semantics.
Over all I agree that being able to get spirit shards at the end of masteries should not including raiding masteries. What Anet is essentially saying is you can get mastery points if you max out ALL your masteries, which includes raids, and everyone who raids and does that gets this spirit shard advantage that people who don’t raid can’t have, even if they’re never going to raid.
This will have the effect of disenfranchising the casual player base. These guys raid, so they can have more spirit shards. You don’t, so your experience will be useless forever in the HoT zones.
It’s a bad look if you ask me.
Do be aware that the very first chapter of the HoT story must be completed as instance owner. After that, one can accept another’s progress.
I’ve completed the first story with other people and accepted credit for it.
While HoT is theoretically possible to easily do without adventure HPs (I need to make some rageposts on that subject, however), if you don’t do the “ideal” progression of mastery points (and look up guides for strongboxes) you can easily find yourself in a position where traversing maps to get further mastery points becomes a nightmare. Tangled depths is the best example of this-if someone takes gliding heavily to help them with VB, then works on anything that isn’t Nuhoch, they can hit TD with no mastery points and no reliable way of getting round the map.
Perhaps allowing respec of mastery points should be allowed?
Pretty much this.
I ended up leveling up exalted all the way first, I figured mastery points would be something easy in the long run. Nope. Gated behind travel masteries and multilevel map labyrinths.
So maybe enough of that, and one day I decided to go play the story for once instead of dredging through someone’s idea of an escherian stairwell. And then just when I think I can do something fun, the game design puts me right back to the map play hunting for masteries just so I can get back to the story. Betrayal.
Put an option to respec of masteries /agree
You can’t even unlock Exalted materies utnil you enter the second zone, which means at least running through the first zone.
Gliding is automatically selected for you when you do the first two stories which unlocks masteries.
So you’re saying you did the first two stories, unlocked masteries, ran throught he first zones without looking at or doing anything, entered the second zone and leveled that mastery you unlocked, even though gliding was given to you by default.
You ran past numerous jumping mushrooms that all said you need a mastery to use them if you interacted with them.
Because you can’t even start exalted mastery until you leave VB. I’m not even sure how it happened to be honest.
The only thing I can think of is you teleported to a friend or walked out of the guild hall in AB.
But yeah, this is something that isn’t the fault of the game. The game gives plenty of indication that you need gliding and jumping mushrooms at least, even if you completely ignore the story.
All you solved was not being able to get around in the new zone.
Which might be just what he wanted. Maybe he doesn’t care about the story.
The new zone isn’t just about story though. It’s also about getting ascended accessories that you can set the stats too just by farming the zone. Pretty much the cheapest ascended back piece in the game now, for example.
The new zone is partly about story but it’s also partly about rewards and experience. Saying I don’t need any masteries because I watched it means not playing any new PvE content going forward, if they require those masteries.
Youtube doesn’t solve that problem at all, unless you’re not going going to forgo the story but the rewards for the new zones and the experience for playing those zones.
You talk a lot about what you want but I am more interested in what he wants. It’s very clear why you want these things but you don’t stop and think that maybe he’s not.
I like the masteries as vehicles for exploring the zones and just generally bumming around. Not everybody needs to have ascended gear. It depends on what you want to get out of the game.
Can you at least get that there are people that may have very different goals in this game?
I mean if the masteries are required for future content, we can rest easy because Anet are adding more places to get them than you need to complete it, so you have a choice. What else do you need ascended gear for except doing fractals and bragging rights? I wouldn’t know but then I haven’t played this game that much. What I do know is that doing fractals is not my interest and bragging rights are not that big of an issue either. There is a lot to do in this game out, so I just pick what I want.
So maybe I’m a bit more like the other guy than you are.
No, because zones are content and I can’t see being cut off from content being a good thing. What you’re essentially saying is I’m not interested in new zones at all. Maybe you’re not but then the whole mastery question is irrelevant, since masteries only affect PvE.
And if you’re not interested in new zones or raids, what are you interested in? Just dungeons and Fractals? Even Fractals benefit from masteries.
You miss my point enitrely.
If you’re talking about PvE, the only place masteries matter, and you’re saying I don’t care if I can get to new zones or do anything at all in them, I’d say this is a bigger problem for you then just watching story videos on youtube.
It means you can’t continue playing the game in PvE as it moves forward. What’s the point really?
You’re talking story, I’m talking zones. Between zones and story, this IS PvE.
If I remember correctly you get 1 free transfer if you upgrade a free account to a paid account. Which is because you don’t get to choose your server when you create a free account so you might get stuck on one you don’t like.
False, free account can choose server at start, so it isn’t the reason why they got a free transfer token.
It’s actually true. When you buy HOT, if you have a free account, you get a free server transfer.
Why do I see complaints like this still? Do a bit of calculating. You can get every single mastery point in the game, without doing most of the adventures to gold. It’s simply not necessary.
People say my masteries are gated behind shooting gallery or sanctum scramble, but this is factually wrong.
There are enough easy adventures you can get silver on, or even gold, get get all your mastery points.
I don’t have gold on most of my adventures, yet somehow I’m walking around with 170 mastery points.
I don’t know. I find the new zone quite fun actually. To each his own I guess.
I am doing it for the 3rd time and i am dying. it’s truely a torture. let people who completed it before buy it with some currency or something.
You managed to do it twice?!
It was torture doing it for the first time around for me. Never done it again since.
I’m working on my 7th world complete. lol
I don’t think buying it with karma would work. For one thing, the only reason you really need world complete after the first one is the gifts of exploration for legendaries. But legendary crafting requires a huge amount of karma anyway. It would end up being self defeating.
All you solved was not being able to get around in the new zone.
Which might be just what he wanted. Maybe he doesn’t care about the story.
The new zone isn’t just about story though. It’s also about getting ascended accessories that you can set the stats too just by farming the zone. Pretty much the cheapest ascended back piece in the game now, for example.
The new zone is partly about story but it’s also partly about rewards and experience. Saying I don’t need any masteries because I watched it means not playing any new PvE content going forward, if they require those masteries.
Youtube doesn’t solve that problem at all, unless you’re not going going to forgo the story but the rewards for the new zones and the experience for playing those zones.
I’ve been doing this story for months now. I help guildies with it quite frequently. I’ve seen very few bugs..if any over that time. The spouts might react to lag, though, and the crashes I haven’t really seen in ages. Keep in mind I’ve done this more than a dozen times without crashing, maybe as many as two dozen.
It’s entirely possible that the crashes are a new error that’s come about from the new patch, and having so many people playing at the same time.
I don’t know if you’ve tried lowering your graphic settings, but I’ve never crashed in that instance. There are, however, other bugs. Still I’ve done it on six characters so it must be doable. I’m willing to help if people need it.
Mastery system blocks progress.
Totally not playing Gw2 because of said blocked progress.
Oh Anet you want me to collect X more mastery points to level up whatever just to get through the story? Nope. lol. Story isn’t that good and there’s youtube to see what happens. You’re not making me play through the trash this time.
Edit: And done watching spoiler video. Yay. This why you bad anet, I’d rather watch someone else play the story instead playing catch up masteries to see it myself.
How is this a mastery system design issue? The underlying cause of your particular complaint is that you clearly dislike HoT gameplay.
Just to put it in perspective, to unlock the critical masteries you need to explore the jungle and complete the storyline, only 2 million experience (about the equivalent of leveling from 70-80) is required along with 4 MPs. That really isn’t a lot of time/effort. If you had any interest at all in trying the new maps you would earn that much just in the process of exploring and trying out the events for a few hours.
I know players in this game are used to doing things on their own terms, but even the core game didn’t allow you 100% freedom in this sense. You still had to put in effort to achieve objectives, frequently in game modes that might not be your cup of tea. For instance, I’m not a huge fan of JPs. I still have to do them now and then if I want the rewards. But as long as the entire game isn’t one big JP, I don’t consider that unreasonable.
I solved my issue with the mastery system. I watched a youtube to see the story this time instead of playing through the trash to get the masteries points and mastery xp required to finish it. /winning.
All you solved was not being able to get around in the new zone.
Well it’s a lot easier since April, so this post is probably several months too late. If you were starting now, it would likely be a different ball game.
Okay but, in each of those cases, you have to level each character seperately. HoT, on the other hand, you level your masteries one single time and you’re done. Once you unlock gliding on one character, all your characters have gliding.
Nor is HoT particularly linear. While you don’t have the options to have five starter zones, you don’t have to level each character differently.
I played HoT a lot like I played the core worlds. Even from the first waypoint in HoT, there are two directions you can go, leading to two different outposts, with two different event chains.
Some people just level their masteries via raids. Some people play open world stuff. If you have a lot of characters, you can even level by doing the story over and over again. Adventures give a ton of experience.
If you’re seeing HoT as linear, I assure you it’s not. It’s like anything else, you have to run through zones to get to the next zone, but even taht’s not 100%. For example if you have the AB guild hall, you can get into AB without ever setting foot into VB.
I was ok with the mastery grind till i hit the train the itzel poison lore to continue your story.Now im done with HOT until the xp grind is toned down significantly.
The HoT grind was not fun when it came out. There has been an update or two since launch regarding it, but you still need to run the same content many times over before you can continue. That’s a design flaw.
This is not true, for the story at least. You never need to run the same content to level up your masteries to get the story done.
If you do every event chain during the day in VB just once, with a few boosters, you’ll have enough points to train everything you need to get through the story. The only exception is exalted lore, which you need to enter the second zone to unlock, at which point you have an entire zone to level 1 mastery.
(edited by Vayne.8563)
Also visiting Orr last night, there really aren’t a lot of people there anymore and since those areas are still rather a pain in the butt to go through I’d say that it’s not that great to go there.
And yet the other day I was there and someone commented they hadn’t expected to see so many people and were pleasantly surprised.
So I guess it’s timing. I was there last night (about 10pm UK time) to do the daily vista and stayed to get in a giant/ooze, rotbeard, couple of hallas, half an Arah defend and then ran round gathering. Fairly busy, suspect most people are doing the LS3 story which is where I’d just come from after doing a bunch of achievements.Possibly. Of course I cannot say if I had bad luck or if you were lucky. However, for the topic this is beside the point, because it still means that the areas are not solo friendly. You need to have other people there and so you are dependent on other players being there.
For an MMO that is understandable but at the same time I do believe it’s a trend that a lot of people do like the MMO set up but prefer to play mostly solo in it. I have no idea how many people are like that in GW2 but when such a player asks if the game is solo friendly, saying that there usually are enough people around is not the point.
All in all when I am progressing story I find myself with very few people around because the story parts are instanced and people tend to gravitate to specific events in each area. Going through a zone alone as a solo player can be quite tedious or challenging. I am not saying an MMO has to be solo friendly but this game is not specifically solo friendly the higher level the areas are. Orr and HoT are the best examples there. I tend to spend my time dodging combat or running through mobs and hoping I’ll lose them before I die rather than engaging in this tedious combat. It’s just a matter of mob spacing and health bars of enemies more than anything.
I can live with it but as such the higher level zones are solo able but not solo friendly in my view. Having enough people around makes it easier but the default position of a solo player is that you don’t need other players to experience the game as fun as per the individual’s definition.
So it’s not about convincing people that their definitions are wrong or coming up with answers which don’t actually apply to solo play but the simple admission that the game is indeed an MMO and not always solo friendly and that a person can then decide what to do with that.
Well it also depends on how well you know the game. It depends on whether or not you’re the type of person that frequents sites like Dulfy, or looks up videos on how to do stuff, which also makes things a lot easier.
If you’re a casual player who doesn’t pay attention to builds, and you don’t look up stuff on sites that advise you how to get through stuff, it’s going to be harder for sure.
On the other hand, I have very little difficulty soloing the new zones on almost any profession.
When I want to do big stuff like metas, I always use LFG because there’s almost always a big group doing those big meta events. But the rest of the time, I don’t care what server I’m on. I just know my characters well enough to get through hard content.
On a profession like thief for example, I tend to use stealth more to get past stuff that I can’t take. On other professions I kill my way through instead of trying to run, because I find it easier. But I can do it.
There are hero points I can do and hero points I can’t do solo. Some are easier and some are harder.
And a lot of times, even though I’m soloing I can call out in map chat for something like a hero point and someone will show up, or in a lot of cases many someones.
When most people are talking about solo in the open world though, they’re not really talking about doing stuff with no one around. Because if that’s the case there has been stuff in Guild Wars 2 you can’t solo for a very long time, including most of the temples in Orr.
I’m pretty sure no one could open the Temple of Balthazar solo. There are many group events that would be really hard to do solo as well, if not impossible.
I don’t know that I’d like to try the champion risen knight solo, the one who’s often guarding a hero point in Malchor’s Leap.
This game has always had stuff you can’t solo, but most people don’t say the game isn’t soloable in those areas. They treat HoT differently because it’s more difficult to solo. You have to know your profession, and you have to learn a few tricks. That’s all.
There isn’t one single hero point in DS that requires meta completion if you have lean gliding unlocked. You can get to the canopy at any time.
DS has a canopy? O_o
lol wow I need to stop answering posts at 4 am. hahaha
many of comments saying it is possible to solo events. if there aren’t champions. legendary in there. how about a group of 3 mobs, one stun/tangle you and the other one bombard you with poison and next one who slam you so hard that before you be able to move, you are downed? if you ask me, it is possible to solo the content in some extent if you are wielding Legendary weapons, and full Ascended armor. Which exotic armor and weapon or below, forget about it. And by the way the events that doesn’t involve a legendary or champion or (at least two veteran) in some stage are very rare, may be in Verdant brink.
Legendary weapons does not provide any combat advantage over ascended. Most of my characters are still using exotic gear in HoT. One was even running around with some masterwork trinkets for a while until I finally remembered to change it. There was a bunch of non-champ events added in the April patch. They were added to VB, AB and TD. Sometimes the amount of CC output from HoT mobs does feel excessive but that is also partially countered by bringing your own.
People commenting above might be from a server full of people. I am from Anvil Rock server. Most of the time my server is empty, Even in Auric Basin. Sometimes we can find a group of 5~10 people to do the some of event which most of the time at the end fails. If we get lucky and find an LFG we can move to other server and it is IF MAP in that SERVER is not already FULL. In past few weeks I go to dragon stand at least 3 times a day on start of events and even on the day that is was part of daily there weren’t enough people to activate the 3 posts (13 players). On that day there were 6 LFG groups at each start and every single one of those maps were full. I managed to get in a group at night and reach the dragon’s gate. As soon as we pass the gate, game crashed, I re-logged in and I was in a different map and my squad map was full so I couldn’t join them again until they finished the event.
Megaserver happened long ago. Your choice of server matters very little outside of WvW. I have done the meta in random instances I’ve joined from doing other stuff(even for TD) but LFG is the only option if you want certainty.
As for elite specialization, I just needed two or 3 hero points in HoT to fully unlock it (only available if you buy HoT). If you have map completion (both PVE and WvW), you should be able to unlock it. I have 364 unused Hero Points after fully unlocking all the tracks.
364 is world completion + WvW + extra maps(dry top, sw, southsun)
Fully unlocking elite spec without any of those requires roughly half of the hero challenges in HoT which is also about the same number of soloable ones(not sure if that is counting the ones in DS that require meta completion).
There isn’t one single hero point in DS that requires meta completion if you have lean gliding unlocked. You can get to the canopy at any time.
I’ll add my thanks here. I’m really happy with the patch. I’m still trying to come to terms with build balance changes, but doesn’t look too bad from where I’m standing, and in some cases, it looks pretty good.
The QOL changes were awesome, the new emotes were cool, the story was great and the new zone is a lot of fun.
And…aerial combat. OMFG. Didn’t see that one coming.
Well I just deleted my elementalist which had full commander’s armor with ascended celestial trinkets. . . I had only just gotten my last gear piece the night before the patch as well, and had been working very VERY hard on my elementalist to get all of that stuff. I’ve never been this stressed out from a video game patch before, Hundred of hours wasted on a toon that I end up deleting because of it’s newfound uselessness.. . . This patch was utterly violating for elementalist players. There is no role for us in spvp anymore. Ele is probably not going to be used whatsoever in spvp. You guys might as well delete the class. : (
And when it goes back to being powerful six months from now after another patch you’re going to kick yourself. I don’t know why people feel they need to delete a nerfed character.
It’s still more powerful than most professions anyway.
MMOs are all about adapting to changed. Not be able to adapt is the only real way to lose in an MMO.