Main story seems to be locked behind mastery levels

[Rukh]

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.

Well, raising the level cap without power creep was actually exactly what they were trying to do with masteries.

[zito]

Sweet now I can go home after work and finish the story cause I needed the poison mastery to continue and well that takes too long.

Some people already finished the story

[Svifnymr]

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.

It's cool how you can just dismiss whatever someone says with a rude brush off and sarcasm. You're Neat.

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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.

I've got doubles of elementalist, engineer, guardian, necro, mesmer, everything else just one. I was interested in Scrapper, but both my engineers were even short of the 60 to unlock. Ran one around to get the last few points to unlock the collection, but otherwise I don't see it happening anytime soon. Unlike normal "leveling", you're not getting Hero Points for doing stuff, only for Hero Challenges.

My necro was further along, though my world completion guys were thief and mesmer, but not the mesmer I wanted to make a chronomancer...

So I guess I'll main the necro to try to get all the Hero Challenges I can while folks might be doing them.


Mastery at least is an account thing, Hero Points to unlock Elites? Pretty screwed for me. But then I'm not wanting to give up a full trait line for a single tier trait line, so I'm sure someone will tell me I'm wrong.

[Deleted]

Sadly yes. But hey, what else prepares you better for the pve "end-game" than grinding?

Does anyone who's further down the line know wether we will need higher than level 1 masteries to complete the story?

[Zeek Daniels]

Im on the 3rd map story wise and i can tell you i am currently blocked from advancing cuz it says i need to master poison from the itzel, sooo thats the 4th line in itzel tree? Yeah your gonna need to do alot of mastery leveling.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Im on the 3rd map story wise and i can tell you i am currently blocked from advancing cuz it says i need to master poison from the itzel, sooo thats the 4th line in itzel tree? Yeah your gonna need to do alot of mastery leveling.

It's supposed to be hotfixed out today.

[Zeek Daniels]

It's supposed to be hotfixed out today.

what is????

[Val the Moofia Boss]

what is????

Poison mastery requirement for the story.

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

[Rollcage8]

I finished Verdant Brink without feeling any grind. Granted I don't play GW2 often, but the events around the zone were a lot of fun to me.

I did it all solo as well and I think the only part that might have been out of sync was the itzel frogs I did before the story sent me there.

[Deleted]

I´m on the last step of the story now and it never felt like a grind. The maps are fun to explore and everything is too interesting to get bored.

[Kazgrel]

With Itzel Poison Mastery as a requirement removed, the gating isn't near as bad. So far I've only seen need for level 1 of each different mastery in order to progress (I'm at the part where I'm exploring an old underground city in Tangled Depths...not naming it for spoilerish reasons). I don't think anything will require level 2 mastery of any flavor at this point.

[zito]

With Itzel Poison Mastery as a requirement removed, the gating isn't near as bad. So far I've only seen need for level 1 of each different mastery in order to progress (I'm at the part where I'm exploring an old underground city in Tangled Depths...not naming it for spoilerish reasons). I don't think anything will require level 2 mastery of any flavor at this point.

you need updraft but that's about it

[Kazgrel]

you need updraft but that's about it

Ah, okay. Already have that one too. Right now I'm going for Nuloch 3 so I can buy all those vendor items for the mistward armor set.

[zito]

I'm working on chrono shield next and oh boy the mastery levels you need for that thing :l

[Deleted]

So i spent yesterdays afternoon grinding the Nuhoch lore... When i finally got lvl 1 done after some hours i was all happy about being able to advance in the story...
Little did i know i needed level 2... So i guess another afternoon it is :/

With Itzel Poison Mastery as a requirement removed, the gating isn't near as bad. So far I've only seen need for level 1 of each different mastery in order to progress (I'm at the part where I'm exploring an old underground city in Tangled Depths...not naming it for spoilerish reasons). I don't think anything will require level 2 mastery of any flavor at this point.

Wait, is there another way to get trough the Auric Basin quest (after the City of Hope), than to level Nohoch lore and then take the hollow/pond thingie?

[Arewn]

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.

Yes, it is an alternative to raising the level cap. Raising the level cap entailed what is essentially a progress reset, all our gear would go down the mystic toilet. So they opted for an alternative. They still needed some sort of progression mechanism, so in came masteries and elite specs.
Also, the most important masteries are the tier 1 masteries. They are also the fastest to get. Get the first mastery of each line, and you have access to 95% of each map. The rest are just daily bonuses, extra vendors, and a few map objective gates (some of which you can get around if you're original about it).

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So i spent yesterdays afternoon grinding the Nuhoch lore... When i finally got lvl 1 done after some hours i was all happy about being able to advance in the story...
Little did i know i needed level 2... So i guess another afternoon it is :/

You only need level 1 Nuhock Lore (Nuhock Hunting). Case in point, that's all I have in Nuhock Lore and I'm finished the story.

[Deleted]

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You only need level 1 Nuhock Lore (Nuhock Hunting). Case in point, that's all I have in Nuhock Lore and I'm finished the story.

How did you bypass that mountain range? I mean the one where you are looking for Taimi.

[Rivellana]

How did you bypass that mountain range? I mean the one where you are looking for Taimi.

I don't remember the exact part of the quest, but I can confirm you only need Nuhoch 1, I also finished the story with that.

[Kazgrel]

I'm working on chrono shield next and oh boy the mastery levels you need for that thing :l

For an ascended quality item, though, the mastery stuff makes more sense. Haven't even looked at what is needed for the Tempest warhorn, but I already have an ascended warhorn and don't particularly care for the skin, so I probably won't bother with it.

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So i spent yesterdays afternoon grinding the Nuhoch lore... When i finally got lvl 1 done after some hours i was all happy about being able to advance in the story...
Little did i know i needed level 2... So i guess another afternoon it is :/



Wait, is there another way to get trough the Auric Basin quest (after the City of Hope), than to level Nohoch lore and then take the hollow/pond thingie?

I'm up to the Signs quests in Tangled Depths, and I've not needed anything above rank 1 in each of the HoT masteries. Someone noted you will eventually need rank 2 in gliding (which I already have). Sadly I cannot recall exactly which quest you are referring to.

[Edge-]

I'm up to the Signs quests in Tangled Depths, and I've not needed anything above rank 1 in each of the HoT masteries. Someone noted you will eventually need rank 2 in gliding (which I already have). Sadly I cannot recall exactly which quest you are referring to.

I wish they'd make it a bit clearer that you need to spread out mastery level points. I started going for the second rank in glider stuff and got partway in before realizing that I needed to switch mastery paths -__________________________________-