Main story seems to be locked behind mastery levels

[ThrowAwayForAReason]

It seems like this expansion is all about grinding experience. You need mastery abilities in order to even continue the story missions. I'm at the point where I need the mushroom jump things in order to continue the main story. Kinda disappointed because I don't have much time to play and it's a pain to gain mastery experience. I played for an hour yesterday killing things and doing events and only made it to about 45% mastery experience. Seems like this expansion is a massive grind, which I thought ANET was against..

On a side note, does doing world PVP stuff grant mastery experience?

[Fencers]

Those masteries are part of the new design, think Metroid or Symphony of the Night.

[Pyrophobia]

So you grinded for 1 hour and got 45% of what you need.

That seems like a hell of a grind to me. Better deleate your character before you grind for 1 more hour.

[Simulacrum]

Those masteries are part of the new design, think Metroid or Symphony of the Night.

New design my ass. It's raising the level cap with a different name; instead of gating content behind levels it's gated behind masteries, thus cleverly allowing them to add a level grind to the expansion without the other annoying effects that would normally entail.

It also seems to be a totally insane level grind. Unless I'm missing something? I've trained 2 masteries and I'm already at 1,270,000 exp needed for the third one, which is going to take hours just for that one level, and there are plenty more to go.

I wouldn't mind it so much if it just gated conveniences or cosmetic gear or whatever, but gating access to parts of the zones, story missions, and hero points is all really lame.

[Fencers]

New design my ass. It's raising the level cap with a different name; instead of gating content behind levels it's gated behind masteries, thus cleverly allowing them to add a level grind to the expansion without the other annoying effects that would normally entail.

Transposed level cap or not, it's still the new design in HoT.

[Rivellana]

I saw someone in my guild mention needing mushroom jump to continue with the main story too, and that was untrue. Are you on part 5? If so, you can go up the side of a cliff near it, get a bit higher up and glide down to where you need to be, you DON'T need jumping for that. I got up to the part where you need exalted mastery 1 without ever having anything except gliding unlocked.

[Deleted]

You thought ANET was against grinding? They set the modern industry standard for grinding.

[zito]

I skipped the mushroom jump by gliding off a cliff.

People seem to misunderstanding the point of the Mastery system. It's progression without actuality gaining levels which would invalidate your gear and other content.

I do agree though that the exp needed is a tad high

[Deleted]

Masteries is a "level cap increase" without the ridiculous side effects of a real level cap increase.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

You thought ANET was against grinding? They set the modern industry standard for grinding.

I thought that was Everquest

[Zeek Daniels]

Im fine with the grind, no need to rush things, go explore, just wish i was not spoiled in game by events in auric basin that give story spoilers. I am very hesitant to go any maps further.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Those masteries are part of the new design, think Metroid or Symphony of the Night.

You got your abilities as a natural part of the Metroid story; here in HoT you're being forced to put off to story and run sidequests to get the abilities before you can continue.

[zito]

You got your abilities as a natural part of the Metroid story; here in HoT you're being forced to put off to story and run sidequests to get the abilities before you can continue.

Because it was designed that way as a feel of character progression. You unlock more stuff as you go along and go back to the things you missed

[Deleted]

I thought that was Everquest

You have an odd idea of the word 'modern'

You got your abilities as a natural part of the Metroid story; here in HoT you're being forced to put off to story and run sidequests to get the abilities before you can continue.

That's just cause the amount of exp you need to get a mastery is too high at the moment. I have Gliding, Updrafts, Mushrooms + Exalted 1 and I've started the story in the 3rd zone and I only just feel like im hitting a grind.

People who wanna jump in + do all the story at once are gonna have a hard time but I've been completing the zones as much as possible and doing events I come across and I hadn't felt like I had 'grinded' until now, and I only need about 4 more mastery unlocks (I think) to complete all the personal story pre-requisites.

What's bugging me the most atm is too many mobs are capable of one-shotting you without any warning, and half the waypoints are constantly contested. Dying = running half way across the zone to get back where you died. That definitely makes the grind feel awful.

[Deleted]

The bad news (for some of you) is that you indeed need certain masteries in order to progress through HoTs main story (the mastery screen even tells you which mastery is recommended for which story step).
The good news, though, is that masteries are account wide and therefore shared with all your alts.
If you have any level 80 alts, you can select the HoT story in their story tab, repeat the chapters you already did (take the alternative path to keep it fresh) and reap (most) of the exp you get from the story progress (you get a part of the exp as a one time voucher on your main, the other part can be obtained at the end of the by every character).
This exp will count towards your account wide mastery and will therefore level up your masteries.
Might not seem as much (and some of you will disregard it as just another form of grinding), but it's actually another option besides exploration/events to gain exp.

[Svifnymr]

You thought ANET was against grinding? They set the modern industry standard for grinding.

HoT really does seem to bring it to new heights...

- - - Updated - - -

The bad news (for some of you) is that you indeed need certain masteries in order to progress through HoTs main story (the mastery screen even tells you which mastery is recommended for which story step).

Ignoring whether the mastery ability makes sense for any individual character (why my engineer would glide instead of flying... the game does remember there's flying for npcs, right?), it's probably linked to the "reward rate". They changed the leveling process to make sure you know you got something every level (which is a very irritating system when clicking a ton of tomes), but for Mastery it's "go kill shit until you kill enough to learn how to glide".

It's like the Personal Story for so long, many folks (including myself) thought it was irritating that they spread the story over a 10 level spread, so you'd finish one step, then go kill random stuff to get to the next part, even when many of the stories seemed to follow naturally from one to the next. So finally Anet figured out how to change that and we got the new system of personal story chapters.

Then they do the same thing with Mastery and the HoT story.


Another problem with it is that the story seems as much of an introduction to an area as an experience, so as someone else said, you don't want to rush too far forward to earn xp, then circle back to "discover" the area as part of the story, risking spoilers the entire way.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Another problem with it is that the story seems as much of an introduction to an area as an experience, so as someone else said, you don't want to rush too far forward to earn xp, then circle back to "discover" the area as part of the story, risking spoilers the entire way.

Fortunately there's nothing particularly spoilery about Verdant Brink, so if you want to get a head start before beginning the quest, you can pretty much complete the map without fear. You need to start worrying at Auric Basin, because if you wander ahead you will come across Exalted ruins before this is discovered in the plot.

- - - Updated - - -

Poison mastery to no longer be required for the main story, coming in tomorrow's hotfix.

[RH92]

To be honest, I wasn't expecting such a massive grind.

However I consider mastery leveling quite okay, because it "forces" you to do events and prevents rushing through the zone. What however pissed me off, was when you finally reach something just to find out you can't get it because you don't have the mastery yet. Also worth mentioning the absolute lack of information and clues.

What actually disappointed me the most, was the incredible amount of skill points needed for Elite Specialization. Seriously? This was the main selling point of an expansion and you need 400 (!!!) skill points to have it all unlocked. Sure doing skills points in new zones gives you at least 10, but you have to reach them first and then either defeat a monster you most likely can't solo or find out you are not "worthy" (Don't have the Mastery).

Sure I wasn't expecting it to be handed to me, but I don't find it justified. Elite Specializations are not bloody overpowered because of balance, so why gate them so much? Now I consider myself lucky for playing Necromancer as I get basically 10 new skills (Weapon + Reaper Shroud), but it still feels like gimping myself when not having all the traits and skills.

[Deleted]

Wait, I have to actually play the add on to get the story? And it takes me longer then the first day of the release to complete it?

*gasp* WHAT A HORROR!

Little advice, if you forcefully "grind" the masterys just to get further it is your own damn fault. Play the add on, enjoy the journay like in every other game and that stuff will happen like it should happen, without you worrying about it.

[ThrowAwayForAReason]

To be honest, I wasn't expecting such a massive grind.

However I consider mastery leveling quite okay, because it "forces" you to do events and prevents rushing through the zone. What however pissed me off, was when you finally reach something just to find out you can't get it because you don't have the mastery yet. Also worth mentioning the absolute lack of information and clues.

What actually disappointed me the most, was the incredible amount of skill points needed for Elite Specialization. Seriously? This was the main selling point of an expansion and you need 400 (!!!) skill points to have it all unlocked. Sure doing skills points in new zones gives you at least 10, but you have to reach them first and then either defeat a monster you most likely can't solo or find out you are not "worthy" (Don't have the Mastery).

Sure I wasn't expecting it to be handed to me, but I don't find it justified. Elite Specializations are not bloody overpowered because of balance, so why gate them so much? Now I consider myself lucky for playing Necromancer as I get basically 10 new skills (Weapon + Reaper Shroud), but it still feels like gimping myself when not having all the traits and skills.

At least you get to play something new. The Druid is boring and very clunky, something I don't even want to play. So I don't get to play with anything new unless I take the time to level a new character.