Would playing some of the later stories to unlock content spoil the storyline?

I am towards the end of completing the original story of my character, and then I wanted to transition to playing everything else in order.Unfortunately, in order to not lose out on some stuff along the way I need to play certain missions ahead of schedule in order to unlock certain things.

I've already played the first two missions of Heart of Thorns to unlock mastery experience points, so all my time fighting would not go to waste before I even read that story arc. Unfortunately, it did spoil some things.

So now I'm faced with two similar situations.I must complete Out of the Shadows from Season 3 content to unlock unbound magic harvesting, so I don't miss out as I continue to do daily leyline events. But maybe that's not a big deal, unless I will encounter unbound magic elsewhere along the way.

The bigger issue is the raptor mount. I need to do the first mission of Path of Fire to unlock it. Although not an issue of missing out on experience or resources, it is an issue of saving me a ton of travel time along the way. So I'd prefer to do it if I can do the first mission on path of fire without major spoilers.

Are you aware of who the big bad of PoF is? Because that’s a rather big spoiler in of itself and eventhough you get the Raptor very early on, there’s no avoiding that spoiler.

@Oglaf.1074 said:Are you aware of who the big bad of PoF is? Because that’s a rather big spoiler in of itself and eventhough you get the Raptor very early on, there’s no avoiding that spoiler.

No

@Rise.8259 said:

@Oglaf.1074 said:Are you aware of who the big bad of PoF is? Because that’s a rather big spoiler in of itself and eventhough you get the Raptor very early on, there’s no avoiding that spoiler.

No, so maybe I will avoid it.

All of the things you cite spoil a bit, but the PoF one isn't more spoilerish about what came before than Out of the Shadows is about what came before it in the latter parts of HoT, nor the beginnings of HoT that you've seen spoils the end of LS2. (That is, all of them spoil a bit, but not catastrophically.) There are lots of specific details in LS3 that are not revealed at all anywhere in PoF, including the identity of a particular ally.

Equally, it's not a huge deal to skip the unbound magic harvesting one for now, since UM "nodes" (the floating blobs that give 2540XP and some UM) are mainly restricted to LS3 maps anyway. Gliders and mounts are different, since they are useful everywhere, except in the majority of JPs(1) and in instanced content, including story instances that predates them. (Mounts don't work in instances in LS3, HoT, LS2, and "Core", while gliders don't work in LS2 and Core instances.)

(1) Portmatt's Lab doesn't need an explicit ban on gliders and mounts since the whole thing is underwater.

You can come by unbound magic when you start lws3. Once you get into bitterfrost, you should have no problem farming for unbound magic. Also remember to do the side story you get after finishing hot, it gives you a free ascended weapon

I completed Path of Fire (barely) before starting the Living World Season 2 and Heart of Thorns story, and yes, there were spoilers and some things out of sequence, but that wasn't nearly as jarring as going from all the open-map play I'd been doing, into the story instances, where all the hostile-heavy areas were suddenly and mysteriously oases of calm (until the script called for things to be otherwise). Story mode in Heart of Thorns feels like a parallel, empty universe.

A small part of me might have liked to do the story in order, the rest of me would rather not have to deal with story at all, as it feels so clumsily grafted onto an otherwise fun MMO (with, you know multiple players, online). False and meaningless choices, brittle scripting that can't even handle me running a few steps ahead of the NPCs or killing mobs in the wrong order (seriously, WTH), getting kicked at the end of an instance for chasing a mob that runs across the invisible boundary.... But late-tier HoT mastery points are hard to come by, and each act and chapter net you a good handful, plus exotic or ascended gear if you manage all the achievements.

Ahem. Anyhow, spoilers or no, be sure to read a good guide before even beginning each chapter so you don't run into bugs that require redoing the whole thing. You can bring friends along in a party to help, although often those accompanying you won't get any of the rewards.

Getting back to the original topic, though, I am very glad I got all my mounts from Path of Fire first, because navigating Heart of Maguuma without them would be agonizing. Mounts make the game in general tons more fun. (Note that you cannot use them inside core or HoT instances.)

I have inadvertently read later books in series of novels, and going back to the first wasn't such a big deal to me. It might be the same for you, with Guild Wars 2.

Hmm, first of all (sorry if you already know it, just to be sure):

• experience gained in PoF goes only towards mastery track of PoF, so you don't NEED to unlock MP to don't waste exp if you are playing the HoT story. Same for the exp while you do the HoT story: it goes to the HoT mastery track, not core Tyria (the personal story).
• when you do the instanced story missions, you can't use the mounts, so there's no need to rush for the raptor if you want to complete first the HoT story.
• if you really really want to unlock the possibility to gather unbound magic before doing the story, you can buy an item in Lake Doric, for 3g iirc, from the first heart vendor.
• in general, the exp is the easiest thing you'll gain in game. The problem at some point could be the mastery points (slower to collect). My advice: don't focus on the exp, just enjoy the story.

! If you already completed the first chapter of HoT before LW, I bet you asked yourself "oh, that Charr is back... ok, back from where?"

The exp is already unlocked because I did the HOT intro.They should really change it so that Tyria mastery levels do NOT require playing the HOT or POF intro as long as you own the expansions.

The main reason I want the raptor is so that I'll get around faster in traveling between story missions, open world events, and gathering points.