Guild Wars 2: The One Thread

[PACOX]

They make the skimmer and underwater mount on the same day they revealed the water logo and a teaser with a liquid Jade Sea. They aren't being subtle at all.

[Svifnymr]

The skimmer swimmer chain isn't very long, but it is glitchy. I'm on final stage (race), but haven't tried it today.

After that is a Mastery, hopefully POF based since I got plenty of them points around.

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Did the race without issue just now, gold on first try. It IS a PoF mastery so just gotta get the XP and it's done.

[Ashleyxoxo]

Cheaper than WoW expansions, but I’ll need a new and better gfx card to run it.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I feel bad that I never got far in the first games and legit haven't the foggiest clue about Cantha. Based on how the GW1 community has raved about it nonstop since as far back as I remember though, I've got pretty high hopes tempered by the expectations of modern Anet.

I'm just glad to see another expansion, and that despite a pretty brutal year last year with big layoffs and quite a few major departures (that was last year...right?), that they seem to be returning their focus to GW2 and sorta finding their groove again.

And with the Steam launch I'm hoping they can bring in a new crowd of players to help boost the population/revenue and lead to even more awesome stuff.

AND DON'T FORGET TO LOG IN TO GET YOUR ANNIVERSARY STUFF AND BIRTHDAY GIFTS IF YOU MADE A CHARACTER ON LAUNCH DAY!

I think Cantha had a lot of Japaneise themes and or culture. At least from what I remember. Been a long time since the first Guild wars(And yes hopefully GUilds wars keeps chugging).

[Swnem]

Finally, Cantha.

I still don't enjoy the game. Only play it for the story and cause i love the lore created with GW1. So, i'll keep doing that and maybe i'll get some closure with the last classic region and the end of the Dragon storyline.

Would be great to move onto GW3. :x

[Ashleyxoxo]

Would be great to move onto GW3. :x

Uhhh... no thanks.

[Cattleya]

I actually started playing this again this week, after a hiatus since 2012. Got the expansions and the LW seasons while they're at a discount, haven't reached any of that yet though since I decided starting a new character would be better than jumping back on my level 80 after 8 years.

Currently just going through vanilla zones, already level 80 but i'll keep doing the vanilla zones for mastery experience/points and to get used to Weaver before I go into harder solo content (as I've heard vanilla's really easy compared to HoT/PoF)

It was pretty nice to have 5 characters with 8 years of birthday presents welcoming me

[PACOX]

Uhhh... no thanks.

Why not? Its the only way the game is getting a much needed new engine. It the fear is starting all over, thats not exactly how these games do sequels anymore. Theoretically speaking, you could have GW2 and GW3 exist in parallel, sharing the same data and servers by making GW3 backwards compatible with the current system. The user could use either the GW2 client or the GW3 client and be fine. Eventually new content will come out that requires that only support the "GW3" client, thats why two games will start to deviate. Example, lets say Cantha ships with GW3. GW2 and GW3 players will be able to play with each other until the GW3 player decides to go play Cantha content. Its how the Overwatch sequel is going to work.

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I actually started playing this again this week, after a hiatus since 2012. Got the expansions and the LW seasons while they're at a discount, haven't reached any of that yet though since I decided starting a new character would be better than jumping back on my level 80 after 8 years.

Currently just going through vanilla zones, already level 80 but i'll keep doing the vanilla zones for mastery experience/points and to get used to Weaver before I go into harder solo content (as I've heard vanilla's really easy compared to HoT/PoF)

It was pretty nice to have 5 characters with 8 years of birthday presents welcoming me

HoT zones collectively are the hardest openworld maps.Not overly hard but they make you utilize your classes toolbox. POF is the middle ground.

[Katchii]

Never got into GW2 until recently, am really enjoying it so far. Was really looking forward to unlocking Reaper on my Necromancer and am now working through the HoT zones (just got through the first one and started the second one last night). The zones are frustrating as hell to navigate, though they aren't that big so it doesn't take long, but the most frustrating part is that in order to get to many of the hero points and stuff, you need a ton of masteries that I simply don't have as a new player...and as someone who made a point to 100% every zone I went through prior to this it's REALLY annoying that the game just flat out won't let me do that until much much later after spending hours grinding for mastery training and points.

That and many the HoT hero points that have enemies to fight are impossible to solo for most classes/ people and require parties. Luckily there's groups doing them constantly, but it's still a little frustrating/ jarring after being able to do everything solo up to this point and now just get punched in the face with the spike in difficulty and mastery gating. Not saying it's bad, as I'm having quite a bit of fun, just that it's a HUGE change from what I experienced before and it's kinda killing my desire/ drive to unlock my Elite specializations.

[Rogalicus]

That and many the HoT hero points that have enemies to fight are impossible to solo for most classes/ people and require parties. Luckily there's groups doing them constantly, but it's still a little frustrating/ jarring after being able to do everything solo up to this point and now just get punched in the face with the spike in difficulty and mastery gating. Not saying it's bad, as I'm having quite a bit of fun, just that it's a HUGE change from what I experienced before and it's kinda killing my desire/ drive to unlock my Elite specializations.

You can mostly ignore HoT hero points, finishing Core and PoF hero challenges with their easily soloable veterans would give you almost all of the points for both elite specs.

[Edge-]

Never got into GW2 until recently, am really enjoying it so far. Was really looking forward to unlocking Reaper on my Necromancer and am now working through the HoT zones (just got through the first one and started the second one last night). The zones are frustrating as hell to navigate, though they aren't that big so it doesn't take long, but the most frustrating part is that in order to get to many of the hero points and stuff, you need a ton of masteries that I simply don't have as a new player...and as someone who made a point to 100% every zone I went through prior to this it's REALLY annoying that the game just flat out won't let me do that until much much later after spending hours grinding for mastery training and points.

That and many the HoT hero points that have enemies to fight are impossible to solo for most classes/ people and require parties. Luckily there's groups doing them constantly, but it's still a little frustrating/ jarring after being able to do everything solo up to this point and now just get punched in the face with the spike in difficulty and mastery gating. Not saying it's bad, as I'm having quite a bit of fun, just that it's a HUGE change from what I experienced before and it's kinda killing my desire/ drive to unlock my Elite specializations.

If you have PoF, pause the HoT campaign and do the PoF one until you get the raptor/hopper IMO. I hate HoT with a passion, and legit the only thing that helped me mostly finish those zones was mounts making traversing them much easier. Though I sitll think I'm missing some HP's and the like that require groups because I've been too lazy to find HP trains and the like. IF you see anyone advertising HP trains in LFG or map chat, those are a great way to clear all those HP's out.

As for being locked by masteries, that's by design. It was designed more like oldschool games like Metroid IIRC, where they want you going back to zones with new tools to get to new areas and shit.

HoT is a big departure from the vanilla/PoF design. Some folks love it, some folks (including myself) hate it. Thankfully they at least made the zones less annoying during daytime (it used to be like it was at nighttime all the time) so you can more or less get through it alright. But it's definitely a gear/skill check in the way that you won't really find in the classic zones, even Orriath and the like.

As others have said, PoF HP's are much easier to get (IIRC almost all are easily soloable) and you can fill out a large chunk of your points from there.

[Katchii]

You can mostly ignore HoT hero points, finishing Core and PoF hero challenges with their easily soloable veterans would give you almost all of the points for both elite specs.

While true, I'm trying to go through the story and get things as I go. Having to wait until halfway or more through PoF would just make it seem much less worthwhile. Also, I'm not really all that interested in going around every map in Central Tyria to unlock the Hero Points. It IS an option, yes, I suppose, but the level of effort involved in doing that vs working through HoT masteries seems about even and the HoT would pay off far more. Also, I do plan on going back and doing Central Tyria map unlock, but want to wait until I have more mounts and masteries on them to make it faster

If you have PoF, pause the HoT campaign and do the PoF one until you get the raptor/hopper IMO. I hate HoT with a passion, and legit the only thing that helped me mostly finish those zones was mounts making traversing them much easier. Though I sitll think I'm missing some HP's and the like that require groups because I've been too lazy to find HP trains and the like. IF you see anyone advertising HP trains in LFG or map chat, those are a great way to clear all those HP's out.

I did do that much, a WHILE ago just to get the raptor, and I have absolutely no idea wtf was going in the story at that point, so I stopped as soon as I got it. The raptor almost making things WORSE in HoT zones because of how twitchy it is when you try to switch directions after stopping and how narrow and uneven some of the terrain is and it loses traction and I end up falling. I constantly end up just walking. That said, the fact that you can fall from any height and survive because your mount dies and you don't is making getting to the super low levels of the map really easy and nice.

As for being locked by masteries, that's by design. It was designed more like oldschool games like Metroid IIRC, where they want you going back to zones with new tools to get to new areas and shit.

I can live with that I guess, it just makes it frustrating that I see it all, plain as day, and don't know I can't get to it until I spend 10-20 minutes working my way around, up and down the terrain trying to figure it out and then see an updraft or mushroom I can't use or something.

Half the map of the Verdant Brink is still covered because I just can't get to many places, and that's a HUGE departure from my normal play style in the Vanilla zones.....it doesn't feel good to me, at all.

HoT is a big departure from the vanilla/PoF design. Some folks love it, some folks (including myself) hate it. Thankfully they at least made the zones less annoying during daytime (it used to be like it was at nighttime all the time) so you can more or less get through it alright. But it's definitely a gear/skill check in the way that you won't really find in the classic zones, even Orriath and the like.

I've noticed. I don't mind the zone itself, or the difficulty, it's the events that absolutely cannot be soloed. Events I come across with no participation are destined to fail, and that just sucks and feels bad.

That's a main reason why I chose Necromancer, and specifically aspire to unlock Reaper because the minion mancer Reaper is heavily lauded as a one many army that has a high survivability. And I'm having a blast with Necromancer so far, I'm just getting super antsy to unlock Reaper to a point where it's actually playable for my play style (which is pretty much fully unlocked due to the "Rise!" ability being second to last to unlock)

As others have said, PoF HP's are much easier to get (IIRC almost all are easily soloable) and you can fill out a large chunk of your points from there.

I may have to just suck it up and go get those then, but I really am trying to follow the story. Having to skip a huge chunk of it to get Hero Points, and then go back, would feel awful to me.

[Svifnymr]

While true, I'm trying to go through the story and get things as I go. Having to wait until halfway or more through PoF would just make it seem much less worthwhile. Also, I'm not really all that interested in going around every map in Central Tyria to unlock the Hero Points. It IS an option, yes, I suppose, but the level of effort involved in doing that vs working through HoT masteries seems about even and the HoT would pay off far more. Also, I do plan on going back and doing Central Tyria map unlock, but want to wait until I have more mounts and masteries on them to make it faster

You can also get hero point unlocks via WvWvW, which gives that character a random hero point in a selected region. But, as you say, there's trains all the time in HoT zones, so it's not a big deal.

I did do that much, a WHILE ago just to get the raptor, and I have absolutely no idea wtf was going in the story at that point, so I stopped as soon as I got it. The raptor almost making things WORSE in HoT zones because of how twitchy it is when you try to switch directions after stopping and how narrow and uneven some of the terrain is and it loses traction and I end up falling. I constantly end up just walking. That said, the fact that you can fall from any height and survive because your mount dies and you don't is making getting to the super low levels of the map really easy and nice.

Tie mount/dismount to a key near your movement. For me, x is it. So I can dismount/remount very quickly. I agree that it's not perfect, but it is speed, an extra attack and a little bit of damage.

I can live with that I guess, it just makes it frustrating that I see it all, plain as day, and don't know I can't get to it until I spend 10-20 minutes working my way around, up and down the terrain trying to figure it out and then see an updraft or mushroom I can't use or something.

Half the map of the Verdant Brink is still covered because I just can't get to many places, and that's a HUGE departure from my normal play style in the Vanilla zones.....it doesn't feel good to me, at all.

They really need to reduce the mastery XP at least, and probably the mastery points cost too, get people into the action faster. Likewise, Gliding is really the main one useful overall. Mushroom hopping and a couple others are there also, but a lot of the masteries are just there to act as an xp sink for advancing the story for HoT.

That's a main reason why I chose Necromancer, and specifically aspire to unlock Reaper because the minion mancer Reaper is heavily lauded as a one many army that has a high survivability. And I'm having a blast with Necromancer so far, I'm just getting super antsy to unlock Reaper to a point where it's actually playable for my play style (which is pretty much fully unlocked due to the "Rise!" ability being second to last to unlock)

Reaper is fun, though I don't bother minion with them, just charge in and smash things to death. I've always enjoyed flamethrower engineer too, and Scrapper makes that pretty durable/damaging which is fun. I really love Mesmer, but it's more work than others sometimes.

I may have to just suck it up and go get those then, but I really am trying to follow the story. Having to skip a huge chunk of it to get Hero Points, and then go back, would feel awful to me.

Once you've unlocked Raptor, which is the entrance, you can run around to a few hero points nearby if you wanted to, without spoiling story. It'd be a purely mechanical thing. There's a veteran to the south of the main city, there's one in the mines where you enter, and there's one to the east in a desert (watchout for wandering monsters), and a commune one further east in some ruins. The 5th is a commune all the way to the NE which is irksome to get to.

[Rogalicus]

While true, I'm trying to go through the story and get things as I go. Having to wait until halfway or more through PoF would just make it seem much less worthwhile. Also, I'm not really all that interested in going around every map in Central Tyria to unlock the Hero Points. It IS an option, yes, I suppose, but the level of effort involved in doing that vs working through HoT masteries seems about even and the HoT would pay off far more. Also, I do plan on going back and doing Central Tyria map unlock, but want to wait until I have more mounts and masteries on them to make it faster

I can understand that, but it might feel much more grindy than it should be. Dragon's Stand is impossible to finish without ley line gliding for example and AFAIR most points are inaccessible until the end of meta, so that's at least one map you're better off just ignoring until later.

I did do that much, a WHILE ago just to get the raptor, and I have absolutely no idea wtf was going in the story at that point, so I stopped as soon as I got it. The raptor almost making things WORSE in HoT zones because of how twitchy it is when you try to switch directions after stopping and how narrow and uneven some of the terrain is and it loses traction and I end up falling.

Raptor is mostly useless in HoT other than skipping mobs, especially without investing into masteries. You are better off finishing glider mastery first. Only mounts that give better experience than that are springer, griffon and skyscale and two of those require finishing PoF story first.

Half the map of the Verdant Brink is still covered because I just can't get to many places, and that's a HUGE departure from my normal play style in the Vanilla zones.....it doesn't feel good to me, at all.

AFAIR Verdant Brink can be fully explored with third glider mastery, which should be pretty quick. Just run meta with LFG, they are good source of experience. And take your time to make using glider and bouncing mushrooms your second nature, exploring Tangled Depths without it will be miserable.

[Edge-]

I did do that much, a WHILE ago just to get the raptor, and I have absolutely no idea wtf was going in the story at that point, so I stopped as soon as I got it. The raptor almost making things WORSE in HoT zones because of how twitchy it is when you try to switch directions after stopping and how narrow and uneven some of the terrain is and it loses traction and I end up falling. I constantly end up just walking. That said, the fact that you can fall from any height and survive because your mount dies and you don't is making getting to the super low levels of the map really easy and nice.

It's sorta self-contained for the most part IIRC, but you will miss bits if you haven't done all of HoT.

As for the raptor, it's not glitchy it just turns slowly a la some more "tank"-esque movement. That's by design, and not terribly unlike some of the player movement. Hopper is in the second PoF zone and will help HEAPS with getting to higher areas.

Honestly, I'd spend more time on mounts to get used to them in HoT because you'll be on them a lot in PoF. And you should never really need to worry about dying from falling (unless stunned etc.) because you always have your glider to stop you from taking full damage.

I can live with that I guess, it just makes it frustrating that I see it all, plain as day, and don't know I can't get to it until I spend 10-20 minutes working my way around, up and down the terrain trying to figure it out and then see an updraft or mushroom I can't use or something.

Agreed, but again that's by design. If you can't get somewhere, especially if you see mushrooms or something that you haven't unlocked yet, then just save it for later. Glad they didn't really stick with this for PoF, but it's usually pretty clear when you need to unlock another mastery to get to a certain area.

Half the map of the Verdant Brink is still covered because I just can't get to many places, and that's a HUGE departure from my normal play style in the Vanilla zones.....it doesn't feel good to me, at all.

That's probably in part due to you not being there during the events to get to the top area? You do need updraft and a few other masteries to get up there, but it shouldn't take too long to get all the core ones needed in each respective zone.

I've noticed. I don't mind the zone itself, or the difficulty, it's the events that absolutely cannot be soloed. Events I come across with no participation are destined to fail, and that just sucks and feels bad.

And they used to be even worse -_-

I usually advise people to either skip HoT or just power through the main story and call it a day. I know some folks love it, but it was a deeply unfun expansion for me and I still do my best to avoid returning outside of a few meta events like the Tarir assault or Mouth of Mordremoth meta.

That's a main reason why I chose Necromancer, and specifically aspire to unlock Reaper because the minion mancer Reaper is heavily lauded as a one many army that has a high survivability. And I'm having a blast with Necromancer so far, I'm just getting super antsy to unlock Reaper to a point where it's actually playable for my play style (which is pretty much fully unlocked due to the "Rise!" ability being second to last to unlock)

Assuming this is the pretty standard power build? GS and Axe/Focus? If so it's good fun, my Necro rocks a Reaper build with Berserker gear and shreds pretty damned hard. Minions don't do as much tanking really, but you've still got a fair amount of defensive tools to keep you alive while you melt things.

I may have to just suck it up and go get those then, but I really am trying to follow the story. Having to skip a huge chunk of it to get Hero Points, and then go back, would feel awful to me.

IIRC if you just want the points you don't need to continue the story. The story takes you through the zones and whatnot, but you can always find a guide and just run through and nab 'em solo. Will give you the added benefit of getting WP's and whatnot so they're already unlocked when you go back to the story. But that's your best option if you're finding getting the HoT ones too annoying right now. It's either PoF or find a HP train for HoT zones : /

[Katchii]

I can understand that, but it might feel much more grindy than it should be. Dragon's Stand is impossible to finish without ley line gliding for example and AFAIR most points are inaccessible until the end of meta, so that's at least one map you're better off just ignoring until later.

Raptor is mostly useless in HoT other than skipping mobs, especially without investing into masteries. You are better off finishing glider mastery first. Only mounts that give better experience than that are springer, griffon and skyscale and two of those require finishing PoF story first.

AFAIR Verdant Brink can be fully explored with third glider mastery, which should be pretty quick. Just run meta with LFG, they are good source of experience. And take your time to make using glider and bouncing mushrooms your second nature, exploring Tangled Depths without it will be miserable.

That's my plan, but it still doesn't feel great. Having to grind xp for a mastery I won't use anywhere but HoT zones because they're practically a must have for HoT zones is just icky to me. Necessarily evil it seems, and at least I'll only have to do it once, but still.....blech

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You can also get hero point unlocks via WvWvW, which gives that character a random hero point in a selected region. But, as you say, there's trains all the time in HoT zones, so it's not a big deal.

It is for someone brand new to the zone. I literally have zero waypoints in most of the HoT zones, and those trains all work off of being able to go from one to the other quickly. I joined one in Verdant Brink yesterday and ended up having to bail after just one HP because I had no other waypoints.

Tie mount/dismount to a key near your movement. For me, x is it. So I can dismount/remount very quickly. I agree that it's not perfect, but it is speed, an extra attack and a little bit of damage.

Already done. I do still use it, the trick I'm having to get used to once I semi know my way around is where I should or shouldn't use it. That just takes a little time.

They really need to reduce the mastery XP at least, and probably the mastery points cost too, get people into the action faster. Likewise, Gliding is really the main one useful overall. Mushroom hopping and a couple others are there also, but a lot of the masteries are just there to act as an xp sink for advancing the story for HoT.

I wish the necessary masteries would unlock automatically with requisite story completion. Having to grind even a little bit to unlock a required mastery for getting around the zones just feels miserable.

Reaper is fun, though I don't bother minion with them, just charge in and smash things to death. I've always enjoyed flamethrower engineer too, and Scrapper makes that pretty durable/damaging which is fun. I really love Mesmer, but it's more work than others sometimes.

Definitely looking forward to it.

Once you've unlocked Raptor, which is the entrance, you can run around to a few hero points nearby if you wanted to, without spoiling story. It'd be a purely mechanical thing. There's a veteran to the south of the main city, there's one in the mines where you enter, and there's one to the east in a desert (watchout for wandering monsters), and a commune one further east in some ruins. The 5th is a commune all the way to the NE which is irksome to get to.

I'll check it out. Maybe....I'm really enjoying the story and am loathe to put it on hold for too long to do grindy things if I don't have to.

[Queen of Hamsters]

I'm hearing hopeful things about the Underwater Skimmer mastery, guessing it's not as huge a grind as the others then?

[PACOX]

The HoT grind can still be a pain huh. It's actually nerfed. The grind used to be longer. Maybe it needs another pass. Mastery levels are kind of inconsistent. Some felt super fast while others seems to take forever...like the one I'm going for skimmer.

One thing that helps is to make sure you have XP boosts rolling. Food buffs, basically any, a utility buff, any, if you're in a guild there's a guild buff in your guild hall if unlocked, guild banner buffs. I forgot how much it adds up to but it's a lot.

Good thing about HoT is that it has a surplus of mastery points to go around.

Leyline is the most important thing from HoT, even then only if you are really raiding. HoT and PoF were initially independent so you don't need masteries from one for the other.

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I'm hearing hopeful things about the Underwater Skimmer mastery, guessing it's not as huge a grind as the others then?

The collection part is really easy. But that just allows you to unlock the ability to unlock underwater skimmer.

It takes like 5-8 points so the xp grind is decent. The annoying part, at least for me, is having to go back and do old maps that have been out of my mind for a while. So I'm going back have to do obscure achieves I've put off for years.

[Svifnymr]

It is for someone brand new to the zone. I literally have zero waypoints in most of the HoT zones, and those trains all work off of being able to go from one to the other quickly. I joined one in Verdant Brink yesterday and ended up having to bail after just one HP because I had no other waypoints.

A lot of them do run to the waypoints for unlocking them, so it may be advertised like that in the LFG tool. The main problem of course is knowing where stuff is to get stuff unlocked. As I've said before, I do wish they'd ease up some of the stuff for older content.

I wish the necessary masteries would unlock automatically with requisite story completion. Having to grind even a little bit to unlock a required mastery for getting around the zones just feels miserable.

HoT's issue was maze like zones and locking stuff behind mastery. PoF has a much shorter main story, and so only has like one thing that I recall locked behind mastery (you need level 2 Raptor before you get the bunny and it's the step of the story).
PoF's main issue is that the zones were bigger. It's not a bad thing in and of itelf, and was done because mounts ease the time to get places in general. But, it lead to zones getting population capped/ lagged even though people were so scattered that they weren't doing the same events. So some of the difficult metaevents just aren't done much.

I'll check it out. Maybe....I'm really enjoying the story and am loathe to put it on hold for too long to do grindy things if I don't have to.

Yeah, if you're close enough to completing Reaper, it's not a huge deal. They're 10 points each, so maybe running south of the city to kill the one veteran and hitting the djinn east of the city in the desert for 20 is worth it, but it's like I said above where it's complicated if you don't know where you're going. The wiki of course has maps, and both (assuming you don't die) would take 15 minutes to run over and zap, but of course it's easy to get side-tracked.
Nothing wrong with just continuing on. Hell, without World Completion, you might still have plenty of Old World HP's to get.

Most of the Old World Masteries are so-so, but one is an area loot, which is just super!

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I'm hearing hopeful things about the Underwater Skimmer mastery, guessing it's not as huge a grind as the others then?

The achievement, assuming events work, is a quick thing. I had extra mastery points, it takes 8, so not a big deal.
But yeah, it's 2mil XP. I've got a bank full of xp boosts, so just took some alts for zone completion and events in the PoF zones. Wouldn't be bad to earn over time, but of course I wanted it right away.

In practice, the skimmer swimmer is fluid enough, you dive below waves and surface pretty easily. Realistically, it's not important currently, and I probably could have just earned it over time via random wandering rather than focusing on it for a couple days.

[Katchii]

It's sorta self-contained for the most part IIRC, but you will miss bits if you haven't done all of HoT.

As for the raptor, it's not glitchy it just turns slowly a la some more "tank"-esque movement. That's by design, and not terribly unlike some of the player movement. Hopper is in the second PoF zone and will help HEAPS with getting to higher areas.

To clarify, I said twitchy, not glitchy. As in it will turn in directions I don't want it to, to go the direction it feels I'm pointed. It's caused me to fall on more than one occasion, and I still need to get used to it I guess. But it's still frustrating when that happens.

Honestly, I'd spend more time on mounts to get used to them in HoT because you'll be on them a lot in PoF. And you should never really need to worry about dying from falling (unless stunned etc.) because you always have your glider to stop you from taking full damage.

I think I'm going to power through the PoF story on the Revenant I boosted to get the Hopper because I see SOOOOO many people using it to cheese stuff.

Agreed, but again that's by design. If you can't get somewhere, especially if you see mushrooms or something that you haven't unlocked yet, then just save it for later. Glad they didn't really stick with this for PoF, but it's usually pretty clear when you need to unlock another mastery to get to a certain area.

Oh for sure, it's obviously by design. I'm just not necessarily a fan of that design. I realize it's part of getting players to stick around, but IMO it feels terrible to essentially be forced to farm/grind mastery xp or mastery points to unlock what is essentially a required skill to get to places. The first tier is fine, takes like maybe 20 minutes of working on it to train it. But the rest? Time and xp required is a little ridiculous.

That's probably in part due to you not being there during the events to get to the top area? You do need updraft and a few other masteries to get up there, but it shouldn't take too long to get all the core ones needed in each respective zone.

Gliding specifically, requires at least Tier 2? 3? I forget...Mastery in order to access updrafts which is a couple hours of grinding.

And they used to be even worse -_-

So I've heard. I have a pretty vivid memory of you specifcally making a "fuck Pocket Raptors" post on here a few months ago.

LOL. Yup, here it is.

https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...r#post52092696

I usually advise people to either skip HoT or just power through the main story and call it a day. I know some folks love it, but it was a deeply unfun expansion for me and I still do my best to avoid returning outside of a few meta events like the Tarir assault or Mouth of Mordremoth meta.

I'm doing it for the story and for the Hero Points to unlock my Reaper.

Assuming this is the pretty standard power build? GS and Axe/Focus? If so it's good fun, my Necro rocks a Reaper build with Berserker gear and shreds pretty damned hard. Minions don't do as much tanking really, but you've still got a fair amount of defensive tools to keep you alive while you melt things.

Its a Power based build using GS and Axe/Focus, yes but not the standard one. Uses Blood Magic, Death Magic and Reaper (of course). Focusing on enhancing minions and self healing with them, but the core of the spec is the "Rise!" shout coupled with the Death Magic trait "Flesh of the Master" where you gain "carapace" which increases your Toughness for each minion you control in this spec. All of your slot skills are minions. You will always have no less than 5-6 minions (depending on which ones you have slotted since Bone Minion summons 2), with the "Rise!" shout giving you one minion plus an additional minion for every enemy hit by it, up to 5. So you could theoretically have up to 12 minions, all adding to your toughness with them all feeding you health and Life Force for Shroud and the minions from "Rise!" actively absorbing damage for you while they're attacking.

It's crazy how much survival you have, apparently (since I haven't tried it yet) still unlocking it, just barely got enough points to feel like I could play it withotu too severely gimping myself.

IIRC if you just want the points you don't need to continue the story. The story takes you through the zones and whatnot, but you can always find a guide and just run through and nab 'em solo. Will give you the added benefit of getting WP's and whatnot so they're already unlocked when you go back to the story. But that's your best option if you're finding getting the HoT ones too annoying right now. It's either PoF or find a HP train for HoT zones : /

Yeah I think I will when I'm done with this next HoT mission. I was lucky and stumbled upon an HP train and got 3 in quick succession in the second HoT zone which was awesome, but had to bail again because everyone had Hoppers or Skyscales to get to places I couldn't because they were using shortcuts that didn't even use the mushrooms or anything.

Regardless, I'm having fun for now. Which is all that matter at the moment. But I am looking forward to being able to focus entirely on the story again after I unlock Reaper fully.