This is the first of the series of posts I’ll be adding over time. To start with, I’ll be reviewing the Mastery System in GW2: Heart of Thorns. Mastery replaced the old system where when a player at level 80 levels up, they receive a skill point. The accumulated skill points can be used to purchase skill (obviously) or recipe ingredients. After a while, I was sitting at 250 skill points on my Thief and have nothing to use it for. Thus, the Mastery System is a welcome change.
The system has many tracks and they are groups by each game release. Currently the tracks are grouped by two regions: Central Tyria (CT) and Heart of Maguuma (HoM). I currently have 25 mastery points in Central Tyria, however I cannot spend these points until I level up a track. So for now, these points will simply sit there until I level up my Revenant. Since I am playing in the HoM, I have the tracks in that region active.
The first track I’ve ranked up is gliding then I kept it at that track until I reached rank 2. I ranked up the Itzel and the Exalted tracks only because parts of the story are gated behind them — which I have mixed feelings of, but more on that in the later date.
Since mastery tracks progress thru gaining experience points, I have two choices; one, I can grind away in HoM or two, I can do several Silverwastes runs — which gives tons of EXP — I chose the hard way and stayed in HoM.
Leveling in HoM is tough since I practically have to hunt down a group of players doing events before I can actually earn EXP. It’s not too bad in many occasions since a lot of players seems to like to do the event I like to do so it worked out pretty well for me. However, as I progress to the story, I’m seeing players with rank 45 mastery — I was like, what the fuck! — they don’t sleep or go to the bathroom? I mean the tomes doesn’t work on mastery so I don’t know what they did to get that high in just a couple of days. Then I remember, I was messing around with my Revenant trying to level up without using a tome.
After a while, I got bored with the event grinding and I simply just want to progress with the story. So I logged in with my alts and brought them to HoM then realized that I can do the early quests to gain EXP from each of my alts. So I did just that and reach a high enough level to progress in my story. So this mastery system is a pain in the ass, but I get it.
It’s not all frustrating because each mastery track actually improves my game play. For instance, gliding and updraft masteries are very useful, not to mention enjoyable, and sometimes I forget why I’m gliding while admiring the scenic view. It kinda reminds me of gliding in Archeage — now I wish that there’s no timer on gliding although the updrafts refresh my gliding time so it’s not too bad. The jumping shroom mastery is not that bad either same with the exalted mastery. The exalted mastery is one of my favorite track because it is a rewarding track. The track allows you to purchase Exalted Keys where you can loot exalted chests.
So far, those are the only mastery tracks I’ve ranked up but I’m intended to get them all eventually. However after tonight, Knight of the Fallen Empire (KotFE) is launching so I’ll be playing that starting tomorrow. I might bounce back and forth between the two games, but more than likely I’ll playing more of GW2.
On my next post, I’ll cover the activities in HoM which includes the map, the events, and the adventures. I’ll also cover the different NPCs, Mobs, and rewards.
