How do you feel the masteries pay off in 2019?

We've now had some masteries for a while - especially the HoT and LWS3 ones. On top of this we got several masteries with PoF and LWS4. Upon their arrival, people were extremely skeptical about the usage of some masteries - and even one of the mounts (roller beetle).

Do you feel like most masteries have some fun usage and pay themselves off? Whcih masteries would you rework or otherwise re-use in a way that would make them more worthwhile?

Examples of underrated / lackluster masteries include Bond of Life, Itzel / Nuhoch languages etc.

There have also been masteries that are great but too less used. Do you think Oakheart Essence is more worth it now that they re-introduce it with new content?

Yeah with this new map the masteries seemed way more useful. They should try and implement as many of the old into the new. I loved that there was updrafts, leylines, mushrooms and oakheart essences being used in the new map. These masteries arent needed but was so good to have.

I don't have Griffon, and gliding seem to substitute for it pretty well, so I don't care about getting it at all. I also find myself using gliding pretty often, instead of mounts, it's just more convenient to jump off the cliff a use gliding for soft landing, then mount, then dismount on landing.I would definitely like to see more usage for gliding on core Tyria maps, certainly better than doing some boring collections for flying mounts.

The mount masteries all seemed very lackluster at first, but after getting to actually use them over the last months I started to really value each and every one of them. Especially the last one was amazing for the new map. I really hope they are bold enough to keep adding uses for older masteries in upcoming maps. Their main audience has everything available to them and the cost of getting them isn't so high that a newer player would never consider buying an individual episode.

As for the worst mastery. I really don't know. They all have had their major uses, but none of them are relevant enought o wish there was more of them. The system as a whole is built to be kind of inoffensive and somewhat bland.

I detested oakheart essence, leylines, thermal tubes, and especially bounce mushrooms on the maps where they were introduced. Not feeling any better about them now.

@"Cerioth.7062" said:Examples of underrated / lackluster masteries include Bond of Life, Itzel / Nuhoch languages etc.

Bond of Life can be useful in some situations. Mushroom masteries have proven useful now that all means of movement have been included in the new map (and will possibly be in future content as well). So I don't see real "lacklusters" ATM.

Really looking forward to unlocking the new mount's Masteries. :)

@Ashen.2907 said:I detested oakheart essence, leylines, thermal tubes, and especially bounce mushrooms on the maps where they were introduced. Not feeling any better about them now.

How come, if I may ask?

I've found a couple uses for Bond of Life but its downside is the penalty of getting downed... not sure increasing your mount's HP for a little while is worth that much.

The Mastery system as a whole is excellent, just many of them - especially the ones you mentioned from HoT - felt like they were rushed in last-minute to complement an otherwise fleshed-out system, unlike the Gliding line which is more impactful on gameplay and conveys that sense of progression more clearly.

The Auto-loot mastery feels good at the end of the Core line but many of the others there not nearly so (I do like the Fractal ones).

In PoF they seemed to have designed them a lot better - all of them pretty much make sense and are much more broadly useful than just talking to a Nuhoch vendor in some far hidden corner or being able to loot a daily chest from an enemy locked behind a meta. Then again, not all of them are meant to be super awesome and relevant, It's nice to have a few very niche ones like the Exalted Traitor.

@Cerioth.7062 said:

@Ashen.2907 said:I detested oakheart essence, leylines, thermal tubes, and especially bounce mushrooms on the maps where they were introduced. Not feeling any better about them now.

Bouncing on mushrooms to spin through the air to hit floating gold coins...I mean glowing balls of energy, or get to the next level of a map, using tubes (of lava?!) to be shot through the air to reach the next level of a map, etc are just too mario-esque for my taste. Ive never been much of a fan of that type of game, so seeing elements of it ported into a genre I do like is a bit off for me.

@Ashen.2907 said:I detested oakheart essence, leylines, thermal tubes, and especially bounce mushrooms on the maps where they were introduced. Not feeling any better about them now.

If they were required to play through the map, I'd agree with you. As it stands, they just provide additional options. The more the merrier!

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@"Cerioth.7062" said:Examples of underrated / lackluster masteries include Bond of Life, Itzel / Nuhoch languages etc.

Oh I do not personally find most masteries lackluster, but the ones I gave as examples have been discussed about a lot in the community. When I mentioned itzel and nuhoch languages, I did not mean the entire mastery lines, but the language masteries specificly.

@Perisemiotics.4579 said:I've found a couple uses for Bond of Life but its downside is the penalty of getting downed... not sure increasing your mount's HP for a little while is worth that much.

The Mastery system as a whole is excellent, just many of them - especially the ones you mentioned from HoT - felt like they were rushed in last-minute to complement an otherwise fleshed-out system, unlike the Gliding line which is more impactful on gameplay and conveys that sense of progression more clearly.

The Auto-loot mastery feels good at the end of the Core line but many of the others there not nearly so (I do like the Fractal ones).

In PoF they seemed to have designed them a lot better - all of them pretty much make sense and are much more broadly useful than just talking to a Nuhoch vendor in some far hidden corner or being able to loot a daily chest from an enemy locked behind a meta. Then again, not all of them are meant to be super awesome and relevant, It's nice to have a few very niche ones like the Exalted Traitor.

Oh I agree about the core masteries! Plus it feels like they just threw bunch of random stuff together, so it's really hard to remember which core mastery does what.