Can you please stop using reputation instead of mastery. You just look silly now.
A mastery implies that you advance in a task by doing the very same. Traditional mastery systems include crafting, as you process through crafting levels by – wait for it – crafting.
If we talk about masteries, let’s say gliding and mushroom jumping, you should advance in these masteries by – wait for it – using your glider and jumping on mushrooms. You master stuff by doing it.
But
You are not mastering “Masteries” in GW2:HoT by doing them. You gain xp on a chosen xp-bar, let’s say gliding. You will never have to even touch the glider, you can just level the whole thing by killing boars.
There is no mastering involved, as even if you are the crappiest glider in the whole Maguuma jungle, as long as you earned enough xp by doing random stuff, you still have “mastered” it somehow. It’s a bit like buying a title, like Ph. D. for money and claim that you are smart.
This on the other hand, is how all reputation systems work. The difference is that you are not doing the task you want to improve, but doing stuff for the “task” to improve your rank.
So in the end, the “masteries” in HoT are simply (mis)labeled reputations. Like we say “professions” instead of “classes” or “boons” instead of “buffs” or “conditions” instead of “debuffs”… ANet loves to name stuff differently, for whatever reason…
