Worse still, it's not clear which masteries are required to unlock specific activities. I like exploring, so I balk at the idea of missing out on places because of the high cost to reach them. As previously mentioned, ley-line riding is the final unlock of the gliding map, and, without it, there are areas locked off to me. I can happily navigate most of each map.ĭespite this, the implementation isn't perfect. Even now, after a week of play, I can glide, ride updrafts and use bouncing mushrooms. Most of the ones that unlock traversal options are lower down their respective tracks. Secondly, most masteries are pitched as quality-of-life upgrades. As with many of the systems introduced to Guild Wars 2 over the last couple of years, it's extremely alt-friendly. Unlock them for one character, and they're unlocked for all. But there are a few things that lessen what could otherwise be a serious grind.įirstly, masteries are account bound. The Guild Wars 2 community is-and I'm being diplomatic here-conflicted about this fact. In layman's terms, that's a shitload of events. To unlock all of Heart of Thorns' masteries, you'll need to earn 49,530,000 XP, or about ten times the amount required to fully level an alt. The last, that lets you glide along ley line energy, costs 4,318,000. The first unlock on the gliding track requires 508,000 XP-about twice what it takes to level from 79 to 80. The further into a track you get, the more expensive the masteries become. To unlock all masteries, you'll need 49,530,000 XP. Other tracks unlock access to specialised merchants, specific daily challenges, warp gates, hidden shortcuts, etc. Later masteries in the track let you ride 'updrafts' found across the new maps, or give unlimited endurance to prevent you from unceremoniously falling out of the air. The gliding track, for instance, enables a hang glider that can be deployed at any time. Heart of Thorns' masteries offer a wide selection of benefits. Earn enough XP, and you can purchase the unlock with Mastery Points gained through specific achievements, or collected throughout the new zones. By selecting a track, you start earning XP towards it-your progress displayed at the bottom of the screen where the levelling bar used to be. There are four mastery tracks for the Heart of Thorns region, each containing multiple unlocks. Masteries are a little complex, but they're central to Guild Wars 2's reworked progression. XP gains instead go towards unlocking bonuses in the new masteries system. If you were fully kitted out in ascended armour before the expansion, you've still got the best equipment now. If you were level 80 before the expansion, you're still at the maximum level now. It doesn't add any new tiers of gear, either. Unusually for an MMO expansion, Heart of Thorns doesn't raise the level cap. Whether each map's metaevent can stand the test of time is, right now, a question without an answer (although, three years later, people are turning up for Shatterer. Obviously, it's still early-it will take the community a little while to get into a consistent rhythm with these huge, demanding events. Elsewhere, I've had a couple of ultimately doomed attempts on the expansion's final map, Dragon's Stand, and am yet to see anyone even attempt the Tangled Depths. So far in my travels, Auric Basic has been the most consistently successful. The new maps feel like a logical extension of the approaches found in last year's new zone, The Silverwastes, or the time-limited Twisted Marionette and Escape From Lion's Arch events from the season before. Guild Wars 2 has always done this, but Heart of Thorns draws on ArenaNet's experiments across the last few years of updates. It's also a clever approach to MMO design in general-highlighting the massively multiplayer aspect in a way that makes other players a welcome sight, rather than an irrelevance or, worse still, a hindrance. It often fails, but sometimes everything comes together and your hard work pays off as the map's population congregates in the centre for their rewards. In these moments, the entire map must work together to jointly take down their section of the boss-using the map chat to organise, plan and execute on the fly. In Auric Basin, collaborating to activate multiple pylons in each quarter of the map results, eventually, in a huge boss-fight. Many are comprised of multiple stages that ultimately build into a map-wide metaevent. Instead, each map is made up of a series of public events that scale based on the number of people who participate. As in Guild Wars 2's other level 80 areas, there are no Renown Heart quests-Guild Wars 2's version of, well, quests.
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