Elite Specs and Masteries Too Easy To Acquire In PoF?

I understand that this is a game often called casual wars 2 but perhaps PoF made it a little too easy to max everything out, especially for veteran players. The two main culprits are mount masteries and elite specializations.

Elite SpecializationsI know that there was a massive outcry when the amount of hero points required to fully unlock the elite specs were almost double what they are now, during the HoT era. This reaction was perhaps justified as people wanted to use their elite specs while they played through the story and the new maps. So Anet responded by decreasing the required hero points. Fast forward to PoF, the required amount of hero points remained the same. The main issue with this is that elite specs have been reduced to just clicking the UI and fully mastering the spec upon seconds of logging in. With the new elite spec lore and npcs they added with Path of Fire they should have gone one step further by making a quest chain or something of that sort, perhaps involving the npcs to make the player actually feel like they are learning new techniques and mastering new weapon sets.

MasteriesWhile my main concerns are with the elite specializations I felt that I should mention masteries as well. I was done with all the masteries in more or less a week. Compared to HoT which took me months to max everything out and my playtime has not changed very much. Perhaps requiring more experience to max out the masteries might be the best route forward in order to add more longevity to the PoF maps. This might be an unpopular opinion but feel free to share your thoughts on this.

PoF has done a lot of things right so did HoT, here's hoping that Anet will take the best of both expansions and use it to make even better content in the future.

Yes. they might as well be auto unlocks currently. They feel so easy to get that it feels automatic.

Elite specs are fine with the way the unlock. Most players want to play the new content with the new skills, not have to wait, not only that, but you can only auto unlock it if you have enough Hero points. out of my 15 characters, i believe only one was able to auto unlock, as most of my others are at various stages of map completion throughout both core and HoT.

I disagree with you. I don't want to wait to play with my new elite spec or deal with "trainers". I want to experience it fully as fast as I can, so I like the way it is now. I also like how they dealt with masteries. I hated how they did it in HoT. There is nothing wrong with quicker. I get that people need goals, but playing the game to hang out with friends is also a reason for many which is more or less what PoF gave us.

An expansion to mess around in with friends.

I disagree with the OP. There are plenty of long-term goals in GW2 already, and getting to play with new mechanics and skills should not be made a long-term goal.

Like someone already said, you can auto-unlock only if you have the sufficient hero points. I doubt many players have 250 extra points on all of their characters, so it's going to take time to master them all.

Just because you have an easy time doing something and have the time to rush through it does not mean others have an easy time doing it or can do it quickly.

And I myself did every single Core and HoT (original) mastery in under a week.

Well, there is such a thing as not depending on the story to hold your hand. You're also not prevented from exploring past Crystal Oasis, too. I think that's where a bunch of people are getting confused, that they can ONLY go to the next map if the story allows them to. I took it upon myself to go wandering and I'm now 3 mastery points away from fully maxing out the jackal masteries (with all other core mounts fully maxed) and I'm currently on the Crystalline Memories story step. I've actually seen LESS gating this time around, which in my opinion was a necessary change.

Can't comment on ES, since I unlocked mine from the get-go by massive amount of HoT leftover points. I did get those points back in the day (and in HoT to boot), so it wasn't exactly effortless. Masteries are fine though. One of bad things about HoT was insane amount of grinding required to get them. And there's nothing to grind in PoF to begin with.

I disagree with the OP as well. I want to experience the new content using the full new elites and learn how to play the new spec as I am going through the new content. I had more than enough HPs saved up to fully unlock the entire spec which is what I did as soon as POF launched. I spent some time on the golem getting a feel for them and went right into the expansion to see what they could do. I think ANet got it very right this time. I very much did not like how it was done with HOT where I had to spend time on the new maps grinding to unlock traits before I could even see how the spec would perform. Getting your new expansion spec unlocked should not be a grind or long term goal.

I LIKE that they're a bit easier now. Thanks ANet!

I think people are misunderstanding what I'm saying. I'm not asking for elite specs to be long term goals but for Anet to add more depth to the existing system. With masteries, since it's account bound, I think they can afford to make it take a little longer than a week to max. Believe me I did not rush to max anything out I just progressed through the maps as the story lead me.

Lol would you believe there were ppl actually asking for the masteries in PoF to be easier to acquiere? it was fine in HoT in my opinion, but there you go

@Lyger.5429 said:I think people are misunderstanding what I'm saying . I'm not asking for elite specs to be long term goals but for Qnet to add more depth to the existing system. With masteries, since it's account bound, I think they can afford to make it take a little longer than a week to max. Believe me I did not rush to max anything out I just progressed through the maps as the story lead me.

What you are proposing would require a total rework of specs. I have played games with more to it like FF14. I love FF14 job system with how you do the quests, but I don't think it will work here. Anything less than FF14 job system if they attempted to add more depth would feel shallow, so it is best I think it remains the way it is. Ease of access of the PoF system is better this way. Going through the story should allow you to fully max the masteries. Plus, we don't know what is in store for LWS4 and their masteries. Maybe the easy masteries is preparing us for them instead.

@"Endless Soul.5178" said:I LIKE that they're a bit easier now. Thanks ANet!"A bit" is an understatement. You can max masteries in a single weekend without exp boosts now. I needed longer in HoT even with all exp boosts active and all the large events going on all the time. As I said they are freebies now. If they are supposed to make it feel like a progression system, it is not working for me. To me it feels unlocked in an instant.

I don't mind the exp being less of an issue...

The mastery points however, it took me less than a week to collect all the available PoF mastery points. That's.....underwhelming.

Yeah, well it took me two weeks. And I still don't have all the experience needed for the last mount masteries. ~shrugs~

No, they are not.

Nope, to me they are also too slow to acquire ( HoT was indecent, but it's not that currently is fine too ).The fact that players moan about the missing progression is a problem they have to face theirself.

Add a filler, a time sink or gate does not help the game.Did you see the repeatable hearts, which are also pretty slow on pof?That's what i am talking about.

If the game's longevity is bad, you can't fix it with delaying things or add farm.

The real problem here is that new maps are really pretty but lack something... they should work toward that direction instead.

@Lyger.5429 said:I understand that this is a game often called casual wars 2 but perhaps PoF made it a little too easy to max everything out, especially for veteran players. The two main culprits are mount masteries and elite specializations.

Elite SpecializationsI know that there was a massive outcry when the amount of hero points required to fully unlock the elite specs were almost double what they are now, during the HoT era. This reaction was perhaps justified as people wanted to use their elite specs while they played through the story and the new maps. So Anet responded by decreasing the required hero points. Fast forward to PoF, the required amount of hero points remained the same. The main issue with this is that elite specs have been reduced to just clicking the UI and fully mastering the spec upon seconds of logging in. With the new elite spec lore and npcs they added with Path of Fire they should have gone one step further by making a quest chain or something of that sort, perhaps involving the npcs to make the player actually feel like they are learning new techniques and mastering new weapon sets.

MasteriesWhile my main concerns are with the elite specializations I felt that I should mention masteries as well. I was done with all the masteries in more or less a week. Compared to HoT which took me months to max everything out and my playtime has not changed very much. Perhaps requiring more experience to max out the masteries might be the best route forward in order to add more longevity to the PoF maps. This might be an unpopular opinion but feel free to share your thoughts on this.

PoF has done a lot of things right so did HoT, here's hoping that Anet will take the best of both expansions and use it to make even better content in the future.

Yes, WAY too easy. I'm really disappointed that I'm back to the HoT and Tyria grinds so quickly. I was REALLY getting tired of them, and hoping that PoF would, somehow, revitalize my gameplay. It was a fun week. But now it's well over.

@TexZero.7910 said:I don't mind the exp being less of an issue...

The mastery points however, it took me less than a week to collect all the available PoF mastery points. That's.....underwhelming.

What exactly is less than a week to you? How many hours is that?

Because people have different commitments.

There's plenty of challenge without making HP challenging.

The problem here. ..is again...people don't just want challenge. .they want challenge to pay off. Can't ye make your own challenge by solo-ing some champs? Etc

Why do you want the level of difficulty to increase for everyone?

@Taygus.4571 said:

@TexZero.7910 said:I don't mind the exp being less of an issue...

The mastery points however, it took me less than a week to collect all the available PoF mastery points. That's.....underwhelming.

Exactly, people seem to forget that what they find easy might be hard for others, or in more common cases, what they find a "lack of content" is just them 24/7 rushing through everything. I've played PoF a few days in total, and haven't gotten the jackal mount yet, but everytime i start it up, i'm enjoying the game, and let the content sink in.Don't eat all the chocolate at once, take time to enjoy the flavour. the taste is the same no matter how much you can stuff in your mouth at once.

Personally, I enjoyed unlocking the spec from leftover points and being able to go through the expansion with it.

It took me about 3,5 days to max all the masteries (including griffon) and during that time whenever I got off my mount to gather or whatever and I got into combat I didn't mind at all. Killing random mobs gives quite nice exp which made exploring a lot of fun. After maxing everything getting knocked of your mount or getting into combat is just an annoyance and killing random mobs doesn't feel rewarding.The 4th tier of masteries are completely optional bonuses and I would not mind if they took over 10 million exp to unlock. That would greatly increase the fun of walking around in the open world for me.

I for one am happy with the fast progress with the masteries. Now i don't have to "grind" millions of exp just to get to a certain point anymore like some hot masteries requireed me to do so.

If you think elite specs are too easy/fast to aquire through normal play; many people stacked points through wvw vendor. Getting theirs done in just 20seconds.

I think we need better ways of acquiring the elite specs. I was disappointed to get the Scourge, as well as several others, as soon as I logged in.

Yes, the PoF specs have actual lore to explain them, whereas HoT was severely lacking, but I too wanted a quest chain type of experience. My preference would have been.....

Have enough points to unlock the initial specVisit a "trainer", in the expansion, and receive the weapon and "The Scourge Handbook"Read handbook to open the specAcquire HPs to fully unlock the specReturn to the trainer and receive the armour piece to complete the circle

In GW1 you did quests to learn skills, or used a Signet of Capture for the elites, and you built up your character that way, piece by piece.