HoT Mastery Guide for New Players

That's right HoT, if you however prefer a guide for PoF masteries then I made one too, which you can find here:https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/4111/mount-training-crash-course-spoilers#latest

Now for those who played PoF but only now started playing HoT then know that it's WAY harder to master everything, not only does each mastery require much more Mastery Points, but also much, MUCH more experience. How much you ask? Well lets just say Gliding alone requires more experience to fully master than ALL the Mounts combined.So it's very important to know where to start, but don't worry each of the 4 maps has a Meta event that awards lots of experience when completed. Also Adventures in HoT award Mastery Points for reaching Silver and Gold for the first time unlike those in PoF and many of them require some of the HoT masteries already unlocked. Even if you have all required masteries unlocked reaching Gold is difficult for many of them, so you should mostly focus on Silver with the very difficult ones and remember they aren't the only source you can get Mastery Points from. Now, before we start there are 2 important notes:

NOTE 1# If you have played PoF first and unlocked all the mounts, most notably the Springer and Griffon, then you will be able to reach certain places that normally require HoT masteries to do so. It won't allow you do everything, but it will make the process much more easy for you.

NOTE 2# As I mentioned before each map has it's own meta event that awards a lot of experience, however it should be noted that all Living World season 3 areas also award experience for HoT masteries. So if you intend to unlock all episodes or already have, then the one that would probably be most helpful to you would be episode 1 "Out of the Shadows." The new area it provides "Bloodstone Fen" is also an excellent place to farm HoT experience, as it has tons of Unbound Magic orbs, which give you, well Unbound Magic and experience when you pick them up. However the area is best explored once you have Gliding fully mastered, although T2 may be enough, but even if not then once you fully master Gliding you can use the map to gain experience for the other masteries.

And now a step by step guide on how to train your masteries, you may find the order a bit off-putting, but it's all about being able to get around as much as possible with as few Mastery Points used at the very beginning and then moving on with the rest.

1) Unlock Gliding and Itzel LoreNo real effort here, you unlock both automatically after you finish "Torn from the Sky" mission which will also award you your first Mastery Point.

2) Unlock Gliding T1 and obtain some Mastery PointsT1 is called Glider Basics, you probably already have it unlocked after "Torn from the Sky", so next you should get some more Mastery Points.With Glider Basics alone you won't be able to obtain many, but even 1 alone is good enough for now. There should be 1 or 2 Insights you can reach directly west from Shipwreck Peak Waypoint. You can also do some Adventures most notably Salvage Pit it's so easy that I got Gold on my very first try, so it's easy 2 points, another one is Shooting Gallery although reaching Gold may be difficult but doable. If you ever feel like smashing your monitor doing it then here is some food for thought for you, when HoT came out you only had 2:00 min to get Gold now it's 3:00, so if you think it's hard now you can only imagine what a pain it was back then. Last but not least is Tendril Torchers although you may wish to wait with that one until you reach T1 Itzel Lore, but you should be able to reach Silver even without it and on that note let's move on.

3) Unlock Itzel Lore T1T1 is called Bouncing Mushrooms for obvious reasons, these mushrooms will allow you to reach many places you couldn't reach before, it's the 2nd most used mastery to get around the maps right after Gliding.

4) Unlock Gliding T2T2 is Updraft Use it allows to use the "Updrafts" which are the air swirls you see all around, not only will they pull you up while you Glide but also restore your whole endurance which can allow you to stay in the air indefinitely as long as you keep using them. With this you should be able to obtain several more Mastery Points and you can do Flying Circus and Bugs in the Branches adventures, although Gold may still be unavailable to you, most notably from Flying Circus.

5) Unlock Exalted Lore and Nuhoch LoreTo unlock Exalted Lore all you need to do is reach Auric Basin, likewise to unlock Nuhoch Lore you need to reach Tangled Depths. The entrance to Auric Basin is at the SW corner of Verdant Brink, while the entrance to Tangled Depths is at the SE corner of Auric Basin. With this you will have all Mastery trees unlocked, except for the Raids and Ancient Magics which are not relevant in HoT zones.

6) Unlock Exalted Lore T1The Exalted Lore mastery tree is the least useful of all, even T1 "Exalted Markings" is only really needed in Auric Basin, however it will allow you to obtain 2-3 more Mastery Points easy and it only costs 1. With it you can enter the the area with the Fallen Masks adventure, which is one of the hardest to get gold with, however silver is fairly easy and should be no problem with Bouncing Mushrooms unlocked, so you will at least earn back the Mastery Point you spent on Exalted Lore T1. With this mastery you can also take part in Enchanted Armor Challenges right before the Battle in Tarir meta event, if you get first place in any of them you will earn another Master Point. The easiest is Enchanted Armor Challenge: Bid aurillium for use of an enchanted armor, near Westwatch Waypoint. Aurillium is the maps currency if you have 100 Aurillium all you need to do is bid first to win the challange, even if you are not first fear not as you get 6 tries.

7) Unlock Nuhoch Lore T2T1 "Nuhoch Hunting" is useless when it comes to getting around, but T2 "Nuhoch Wallows" is very useful. Nuhoch Wallows are kinda like Skritt Tunnels is the Silverwastes, think of them as Mesmer Teleports with fixed locations. With this you should be able to obtain several more Mastery Points in all the HoT maps and get around much more easy from now on.

8) Unlock Gliding T3T3 "Lean Techniques" will allow you to increase your speed or slow down while gliding, however increasing your speed depletes your endurance faster. It will also increase your endurance bar allowing you to glide for slightly longer distances without falling. This step can be skipped as it won't really allow you to reach any place you couldn't with T2, so you can move on to the next if you prefer.

9) Unlock Itzel Lore T4T2 "Itzel Language" is not important, T3 "Blazing Speed Mushrooms" will allow you to use the Speed Boost Mushrooms around HoT maps allowing you to run around faster (which is irrelevant if you have mounts). T4 "Itzel Poison Lore" however will allow you to survive poisonous areas around HoT maps, if you enter a poisonous area without it you will die in a few seconds.

10) Unlock Gliding T6No more fooling around it's time to get serious as this will take a lot of experience and Mastery Points. If you skipped point 8 go there to see what T3 does. T4 Stealth Gliding is mostly useless except for avoiding getting sniped while Gliding. T5 "Advanced Gliding" is the "big one" it allows you to glide indefinitely, even if you run out of endurence from using Lean Techniques your character will simply stop using those but continue to glide and regenerate their endurence. Which makes it the most useful of all HoT masteries as gliding is the only HoT mastery you can use anywhere except restricted areas. T6 "Ley Line Gliding" will allow you to use magic Ley-Lines which will pull you along their currents, which allow you to reach several more places you couldn't before and obtain even more Mastery Points.

11) Unlock Nuhoch Lore T4T3 "Nuhoch Language" is not important, while T4 "Nuhoch Stealth Detection" will allow you to see "invisible" enemies, while it's not that important either it is required for certain events, hence it's best to unlock it before moving on with anything that takes longer.

12) Unlock Itzel Lore T6T5 "Itzel Leadership" is mostly useless, however doing the challenge it unlocks will earn you a Mastery Point. T6 however "Adrenal Mushrooms," allows you to use the Adrenal Mushrooms which instantly refresh all your skills when used.

13) Unlock Nuhoch Lore T6T5 "Nuhoch Proving" is the same as T5 Itzel i.e. useless except if you do the challenge you earn a Mastery Point. T6 "Nuhoch Alchemy" allows you to remove Chak acid by dodging. This can be done before Itzel Lore T6, however this ability is only really useful in Tangled Depths, while the Adrenal Mushrooms can be found in every map.

14) Unlock Exalted Lore T5Yes this mastery is so useless that it comes last and ANET couldn't come up with a T6 for it. T2 "Exalted Acceptance" simply allows you to trade with the Exalted vendors, T3 "Exalted Assistance" allows you to summon an Exalted to aid you is some places, T4 "Exalted Purification" is like T5 Itzel and Nuhoch so you can earn an extra Mastery Point with it, and T5 "Exalted Gathering" allows you to get Auric Sliver from mining nodes in Auric Basin which are worth 5 copper on TP

So these are all HoT masteries, but there still are Raids and Ancient Magics masteries, but the former is only for Raiders while the Latter is for Living World season 3. However they also count as HoT masteries so I will briefly explain them too.

15) RaidsIn order to unlock this mastery tree you must complete a raid encounter, ANY HoT Raid encounter will do it doesn't even have to be a Boss kill, you can complete the Spirit Forest or Twisted Castle and it will be enough. T1 is "Rift Forger" it allows you to use the Ley Rifts to repair your armour while Raiding, previously you couldn't use the Ley Rifts to teleport without it, however that changed when PoF Raids appeared as then PoF only players would be unable to use them to get around properly. T2 is "Explosive Launch" which allow you to use bombs that you can find in Forsaken Thicket to launch yourself from special platforms, you don't exactly need it to finish a Raid wing unless none of the members of your squad can use it, however it also depends on your role, but since you are a beginner probably no one will put you on turret duty on your first attempt. T3 is "Forsaken Thicket Waters" this one is important but only if you are fighting Matthias Gabrel, there will be 4 fountains during the encounter which will remove corruption from you if you walk into them, so without this mastery you will most likely die and probably kill other players in your squad so DO NOT attempt to fight Matthias without it. T4 "Forsaken Magic" allows you to use Bloodstone Turrents which nobody does really, however it also reduces negative effects you will receive when fighting Xera, so like with T3 for Matthias you should not attempt to fight Xera without T4. All Raid Boss encounters award a Mastery Point when done for the first time making it more than enough to compensate for what you have to spend on the Raids mastery tree, however even without them you should be able to get enough from the HoT areas. Each encounter will also award you Compendium of Knowledge which gives you HoT experience as long as you still have not mastered everything.

16) Ancient MagicsTo unlock this mastery tree you need to have episode 1 or 2 of LW3 unlocked on your account and reach the new area the episode provides. T1 "Counter Magic" allows you to use a Special Action skill during certain story instances and events in LW3, which prevents you from getting killed by bloodstone magic and redirects it back at the one using it on you. T2 "Thermal Propulsion," allows you to use Thermal Tubes, which are kinda like the Bouncing Mushrooms but they launch you for much longer distances usually. They are the most used mastery as they appear is several LW3 areas. T3 "Koda's Flame," it's only used in Bitterfrost Frontier and if I remember correctly you can't enter the area without it, however it only unlocks the first skill the remaining four can be unlocked once you reach the area but at a price. T4 "Spectral Aid" gives you a 5th downed skill, however it's not unlocked for all game modes it's mostly used in PvE except Raids. How useful it is also depends on your class, I think Necromancers can make the best use of it as they can drain life like crazy with it. T5 is "Oakheart's Reach" it's only used in Draconis Mons, think of it as Batman's grappling hook and you pretty much will know what it does. T6 "Siren of Orr" it's only used in Siren's Landing and it's pretty much useless, I never found any real use for it, apparently it allows you to buff allies close to you, but what good is that when you can only use it in that one area and nowhere else? You also don't need it to get around the area so in my opinion ANET was simply out of ideas for the last mastery. Each episode will give you new achievements and insights that award Mastery Points, and as far as experience goes this mastery tree is the most laid back as each tier requires the exact same amount of experience i.e. 508000 which is very little so you should have no problems with it.

Well I guess that would be it hope you new players find this helpful and good luck mastering everything.

Thanks for the time you took to explain everything.

I just got Gold on Salvage Pit so I need five more HoT mastery points for Nuhoch Alchemy. I have all the strongboxes and mastery locations so now I'm working on the other Adventure "games."

Which others are the best for a Noob to the games?

@"Game of Bones.8975" said:Thanks for the time you took to explain everything.

I just got Gold on Salvage Pit so I need five more HoT mastery points for Nuhoch Alchemy. I have all the strongboxes and mastery locations so now I'm working on the other Adventure "games."

Which others are the best for a Noob to the games?

The golem one in TD is fairly easy to get gold as you can just spam one skill.

The one above Tarir in AD is very very easy to get gold.

Ley-line one above Ogre Lane in TD is fairly easy to learn and get gold.

Drone race south of the SCAR lane WP in TD is another that’s easy to get gold.

Beetle Feast NE of the Nuhoch WP in TD is an easy one to learn and get gold in.

There may be others that are easy too since they nerfed them greatly but I haven’t tried them after that.

Another option would be to get them from LS3 episodes but it’ll cost you money or gold if you don’t have them already unlocked.

@"Game of Bones.8975" said:Thanks for the time you took to explain everything.

I just got Gold on Salvage Pit so I need five more HoT mastery points for Nuhoch Alchemy. I have all the strongboxes and mastery locations so now I'm working on the other Adventure "games."

Which others are the best for a Noob to the games?

Personally, I find Wings of Gold (in Tarir) and Flying Circus (NW Verdant Brink) to be fairly easy to learn.

For those trying to grind out XP, the leather farm in the NE corner of Lake Doric (LS3 Episode 4) provides the most efficient experience due to being able to chain kill a ton of enemies. There is diminished returns that’ll take effect after a couple hours though. Best to alternate between that and Dragon’s Stand.

The second best XP grind spot if Dragon’s Stand up to the tower events. Here you will also want to tag as many enemies as you can.

For both of these, you will want to use XP boosters.

Is 'Nuhoch Stealth Detection' useful for anything other than the Treasure Mushrooms in Dragon's Stand? Even with those, they are so few and die so fast, it's of doubtful use. In fact, I can get gold in the TM events just by throwing boons at the people fighting this enemy that I can't even see.