Need advice on Mastery points.

[katnipper.3894]

Okay so I just hit lvl 80 the other day and I'm now being asked to start training mastery points. I check to see what I need to do to start and it says I need to do a story mission in the HoT expansion (which I have). The problem is is that I really don't know what to do. I'm nowhere near starting this quest, I'm still doing lvl 60 story and map completion. Should I just focus on the story to get to the point where I can start training these points or should I just carry on as I have been by doing story and map completion? I'm scared I'm going to mess something up for later. So could really use some advice.

[RSLongK.8961]

Chill. If you are enjoying the story keep doing it. The story journal will lead you, eventually, to HoT to unlock the masteries.

[Cyninja.2954]

@"katnipper.3894" said:Should I just focus on the story to get to the point where I can start training these points or should I just carry on as I have been by doing story and map completion?

First off: no worries, you can't mess anything up. So breathe, relax and know that from that angle you are absolutely safe.

Now as far as mastery points, they are a post 80 progression system (not levels, once you reach level 80 you are at max character level). Here is the short wiki on it: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mastery . Masteries unlock additional features for you characters, in most cases additional movement options or additional rewards. They work as follows:

• you need to have at least 1 level 80 character
• you need to complete the first HoT of PoF mission (this will unlock the respective HoT or PoF masterie tracks and the first one will unlock the core Tyria masteries)
• mastery tracks work like levels: they need experience from that area (core Tyria masteries receive experienced from vanilla open world and dungeon content for example, HoT from HoT areas and PoF from PoF areas respectively). All character who are level 80 will provide this experience in this zone, this is an account wide system
• once a mastery track is full, it requires a certain amount of mastery points to finish. You can then either work on the next mastery track from that mastery or switch to another one.
• mastery points are gained for doing certain things which range from achievements, collections, adventures, story missions, mastery points found in the world, etc. There is a lot more mastery points than required as to allow players flexibility in which points they enjoy getting. Think hero points and how you have spare of those available

Here is the approaches you can take from where you are now:

A.) just keep playing the story naturally until you finish the core campaign, then move on to either HoT or PoFB.) change you active story campaign to HoT or PoF (you can do so in the story page of you character menu (originally bound to "H") and finish the first story mission. In case of HoT this will also unlock gliding, in case of PoF the raptor mount. Then switch you active story back to core Tyria and continue playing

Either approach is fine. In case of B, you might benefit from gaining experience while playing the story which otherwise would not count towards the mastery track. This might shortcut getting masteries done somewhat, but is not a game breaker.

EDIT: final recommendation: once you do get masteries unlocked, for Tyria it is advisable to complete the Pact Commander Mastery first (all 5 steps up until Advanced Logistics are done https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Central_Tyria_mastery_tracks#Pact_Commander) to gain access to Auto Loot.