Raid mastery won't be required to get spirit shards anymore!

Many asked for it and here it is: you will no longer need to kill at least one boss to activate that track, so if you don't want to Raid, you won't have to anymore. This is a good change for everyone. The Raid mastery will be hidden for those who haven't killed a boss yet. As for why they didn't do this when the Raid was added? Because the tech of hiding a mastery track wasn't available at the time and they didn't want you to master a track without even visiting Raids. Now that the tech exists (with the Griffon also using it) they will expand it to the Raid track. I think news like this should be available on the the forums too.

Side note: there won't be new mastery tracks for the Path of Fire Raids. Also good change in my opinion. So Arenanet DOES listen.

Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/7a36hy/fractal_mastery_track_doesnt_require_you_to_do/dp73khx/

That is good news. I was thinking about this only last night

Good news indeed. Even though personally i don't need that, it's still a much needed change.

Raid sellers just lost a lot of customers.

Does anyone else think feels it's wrong that Anet give this kind of information through Reddit and not Official Forums?

@vicious.5683 said:Does anyone else think feels it's wrong that Anet give this kind of information through Reddit and not Official Forums?I'm just glad they give it anywhere.

@vicious.5683 said:Does anyone else think feels it's wrong that Anet give this kind of information through Reddit and not Official Forums?

Which is why I made this post. Someone asked a question on reddit and a developer answered it, perhaps if we could make "better" questions they would answer us on the official forums too.

Here's what anet_ianim wrote (link in the top post):

First thing: with the next raid release, the HoT Raid Mastery Track will be hidden just like the Griffon track. They can be unlocked the same as always: by completing any raid event. We understand that some people don't want to do raids, but want their delicious Spirit Shards. So let's fix that.

Clarification: why fractal masteries are part of core, but raid masteries are part of HoT

Fractals are part of Core Tyria (meaning base game, no expansion necessary). That is why the mastery track is separate. It has always been part of Core Tyria, and it always will be. Full stop. Raids are expansion content only. The Raid Mastery Track under HoT will always require owning HoT to utilize. At this point in time, I don't see that changing.

Developer insight: why PoF won't have raid masteries

PoF raids will not have a mastery track. We learned very quickly as a company that:

1) good masteries are hard to design.1a) if you create a good mastery, why lock it behind a raid?2) it's better to use open world masteries inside of raid content.

Explanation: why raid masteries were locked in the first place

The Raid mastery track was locked for one simple reason: we wanted players to have to start playing the content before they could farm and max out their masteries. Sure, go level them up in events afterwards, but don't go into the content full prepped without having done it at all.

The track wasn't hidden like Griffon because that tech didn't exist. It does now, so we're enabling it. It sucks for some people that have it unlocked, but it is what it is.

@vicious.5683 said:Does anyone else think feels it's wrong that Anet give this kind of information through Reddit and not Official Forums?

No. Why would I feel it's wrong for an ANet dev to respond to fan questions wherever they see fit, when they are doing so on their own time. Gaile gets paid to respond in all sorts of media, including these forums.

@Cynn.1659 said:Raid sellers just lost a lot of customers.

Not really. I don't know why people buy their kills, but, speaking for the majority, it is certainly not because of the mastery track. Escort is easy and can be done with five experienced people alive, though it takes some time. Additional only one kill is needed to unlock the mastery.

@maddoctor.2738 said:Many asked for it and here it is: you will no longer need to kill at least one boss to activate that track, so if you don't want to Raid, you won't have to anymore. This is a good change for everyone. The Raid mastery will be hidden for those who haven't killed a boss yet. As for why they didn't do this when the Raid was added? Because the tech of hiding a mastery track wasn't available at the time and they didn't want you to master a track without even visiting Raids. Now that the tech exists (with the Griffon also using it) they will expand it to the Raid track. I think news like this should be available on the the forums too.

Side note: there won't be new mastery tracks for the Path of Fire Raids. Also good change in my opinion. So Arenanet DOES listen.

Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/7a36hy/fractal_mastery_track_doesnt_require_you_to_do/dp73khx/

Maybe this should have been posted in the GW2 Discussion Forum, because most regularly looking people into this sub-forum already have there mastery-track unlocked. At least that's what I assume.

If this helps tone down the whining i guess i'll have to bite my tongue on it.

Sad day. As if doing escort/trio/cairn isnt easy enough.

LOLOLOLOLOL... after all the pain I went through to unlock this track and never have to raid again.... all I had to do was wait a little longer. Priceless. Happy with this. It was a much needed change.

@Malediktus.9250 said:Sad day. As if doing escort/trio/cairn isnt easy enough.

It's not like it will affect the actual raiders in any way so I'm not sure why it makes you sad.

I am not selling raids, it is not worth my time. But these raid masteries forced people to at least try raids a tiny bit. Now they can ignore them again and act as if it is the worst thing that was ever added to the game when in fact it is the highest quality piece of content you can find in this game.

@Malediktus.9250 said:I am not selling raids, it is not worth my time. But these raid masteries forced people to at least try raids a tiny bit. Now they can ignore them again and act as if it is the worst thing that was ever added to the game when in fact it is the highest quality piece of content you can find in this game.

Let me give you a perspective from the other side: I didn't care one way or the other about raids when they first came out. I was happy that other people had something they enjoy while I could ignore them and play in the open world I enjoy. But being 'forced to try raiding' just to unlock open world xp turned that ambivalence to dislike. Now that it's all over I'm back to ignoring them again. You can argue that the tactic brought some people into raids who might not have otherwise tried them, but it would also have turned some people off raids who otherwise would have tried them in due course, as I would have. We don't know the numbers of each group, but I do know that this change is good because it changes a stick to a carrot, and no matter how high quality your content is, nobody likes to get the stick.

@Malediktus.9250 said:I am not selling raids, it is not worth my time. But these raid masteries forced people to at least try raids a tiny bit. Now they can ignore them again and act as if it is the worst thing that was ever added to the game when in fact it is the highest quality piece of content you can find in this game.

That's great and all, if you actually have people to raid with, or got into it early enough to get the kill proofs that 99% of PuG's I see on LFG require.Plus it's not like Raids aren't still forced for people who want legendary armor (skins), or new stat set Trinkets like Grievers.

Personally, I would much prefer to just have the line unlocked at least, so I could max out my Masteries, for which I have the points.But quite frankly, after looking at LFG for hours over weeks and not finding a single non veteran exclusive group, looking at guild recruitments for training runs, writing them and not hearing back and trying to get the very few people I know ingame of a skill level high enough that I would try Raids with them to give it a shot without success, I have kind of given up on that entire content, which is a shame.

As a good player without a raid community backing you and lacking kill proofs, you are just stuck in a place where you either can't get into any group without lying, or have to put up with people who can't even do T1 Fractals and don't bother to even read a guide for the Raid encounter before attempting it.

No amount of "forcing" players like me into content I actually would like to check out regardless (and probably could complete without major issues with some practice), is going to change the, in my experience, rather unwelcoming and intimidating Raid community, preventing me from checking out the content in the first place.

@maddoctor.2738 said:It's not like it will affect the actual raiders in any way so I'm not sure why it makes you sad.

I wont claim it makes me sad, but it does make me question masteries as a baseline concept. If they are the true horizontal endgame that we're supposed to be shipping then having them return to the old congrats you're maxed system of spirit shards makes sense. Now they kinda just say well, we don't care if you've actually mastered anything or experienced the game have a cookie on us.

To me this is just a silly fix for a trivial issue, that's what gets me. Instead of just increasing the spirit shards from doing your daily from 3 to 5 or whatever arbitrary number they want.

@vicious.5683 said:Does anyone else think feels it's wrong that Anet give this kind of information through Reddit and not Official Forums?

Yea, it's absurd. Gw2 has a handfull of rough, unfinished edges (both in-game and out). And this is one of the worst. It makes Anet seem like a real small-potatoes, Podunk operation.

Heaven forbid they're like many other devs who use Reddit as a platform when it's one of the largest communities on the web with a good system.

It's not like they post patch notes there or something.

@Malediktus.9250 said:I am not selling raids, it is not worth my time. But these raid masteries forced people to at least try raids a tiny bit. Now they can ignore them again and act as if it is the worst thing that was ever added to the game when in fact it is the highest quality piece of content you can find in this game.

I'm pretty sure raiding minority will only benefit from not having people "forced" to raid.

@Malediktus.9250 said:I am not selling raids, it is not worth my time. But these raid masteries forced people to at least try raids a tiny bit. Now they can ignore them again and act as if it is the worst thing that was ever added to the game when in fact it is the highest quality piece of content you can find in this game.

I'm curious, if your reason for disliking this, is because the old system "forced" players to at least try the Raids, how do you feel about future Raids not having a mastery track anymore (so nobody will be "forced" to try them anymore)

"We learned very quickly as a company that:1) good masteries are hard to design.1a) if you create a good mastery, why lock it behind a raid?2) it's better to use open world masteries inside of raid content.

WHAT A HYPOCRISY !!!"We learned that good mastery are hard to design" - what means "good" for you - for you as a company? For me 90% of all the masteries from HoT are a totally waste of time and effort giving you nothing in return. Exception - gliding. But taking into account the fact that I'm still against gliding in Core Tyria (considering this as having only commercial purposes and not mechanical or game improvements goals) , even this is not a 100% useful mastery from HoT. Anyhow, this is a kind of admitting that you started the mastery episode without knowing what to expect and without a clear image of what you wanted.

"1a) if you create a good mastery, why lock it behind a raid?" - this is the highest sign of lack of responsibility. This is a rhetoric question. But if the person who should answer is yourself, then no rhetoric is valid. How can you be so innocent (to not use another word) to forget that you designed it this way? And to ask yourself now why you designed it this way? From the form you put the phrase, someone not playing GW2 may think that the players designed the mastery locked behind raid and forced you to accept this. And you accepted this because in the beginning you had no idea what a good mastery is. But now, after more than 2 years of HoT you finally learned what a good mastery is and, defying the tirany of the players you decided to change it. LOL!!!!!

In my opinion this comes too late. It is now possible to buy PoF without HoT. So, no need to "fix" something after the expiration date.

All the ANet statement smacks at commercials. Not the players fate drives ANet - they had +2 years of complains regarding this topic.To convince us that the players are the main reason for this late fix, ANet should officially apologize for all the frustration caused to all the players forced to follow this bad model.

BTW - the legendary weapons are also a 2 year old topic. Any "fix" for this issue? Before 2020? With public apologies for the delivery delay?

I like using spirit shards to change stats on my gear, so I am very happy to hear I earn spirit shards in HoT without doing raids. :)

@Asum.4960 said:

@Malediktus.9250 said:I am not selling raids, it is not worth my time. But these raid masteries forced people to at least try raids a tiny bit. Now they can ignore them again and act as if it is the worst thing that was ever added to the game when in fact it is the highest quality piece of content you can find in this game.

I am going to assume that you play on NA? Since what you describe is very far from how it is on EU. We have tons of training and unspecified groups both in lfg and here in the forum. I guess NA is different?

For any EU player, you can always poke me ingame (if I dont reply its me not seing it, so poke again). We do open runs every wed. at 19h server time