Unlocking Central Tyria masteries should not require skipping ahead

[Tanek.5983]

First off, I understand that the mastery system came to the game with Heart of Thorns, so in that respect it makes sense it would unlock when you get to the expansion.
With respect to the player experience, though, would it not make more sense to unlock the Central Tyria mastery section when you hit 80? (Assuming, of course, the account has at least one of the expansions.)

The experience for Central Tyria masteries can only be gained in Central Tyria zones. So your choices when you reach 80 are to a) skip ahead in the story to unlock masteries, then go back and continue, b) wait to unlock them in the normal course of the story, then backtrack to farm xp in Central zones before proceeding with Heart of Thorns, or c) wait to unlock them in the normal course of the story but ignore Central masteries in favor of continuing with HoT, then catch up at some point later.

As someone who wants to play through the story in order and does not like the idea of "wasting" all the experience that could be going to Central masteries between level 80 and HoT, none of the options appeal.

Not to mention, if you choose to wait, the game constantly (like, a few times a minute level constant) spams you with the message "Your current ability is fully trained and ready to master!" I'm sure it is ready, but you have not unlocked the track for me to claim, game! 😛 At the very least, let me turn this annoyance OFF.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/823613716762984498/885229165937315881/unknown.png

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

You can unlock the Mastery system by any of these methods; some do not even require completing a Story Chapter:

 

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mastery#Unlocking_the_mastery_system

 

Alternatively, some mastery tracks can also be completed outside of the story in order to unlock the system, such as killing a raid boss in Heart of Thorns raids, entering some Living World zones, or completing certain achievements in strike missions.

[Tanek.5983]

33 minutes ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

You can unlock the Mastery system by any of these methods; some do not even require completing a Story Chapter:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mastery#Unlocking_the_mastery_system

Alternatively, some mastery tracks can also be completed outside of the story in order to unlock the system, such as killing a raid boss in Heart of Thorns raids, entering some Living World zones, or completing certain achievements in strike missions.

While it may be true that certain individual tracks can be unlocked outside of completing story chapters once the system is available, it does look like unlocking the mastery system itself requires completing story portions of HoT, PoF, or Icebrood. 

If I have that wrong, I will try to track down a non-story activity that would do it. In case you know of any specific ways and can point me to them, I'd appreciate it. 🙂 (If that activity is in one of the expansions, I'd still be of the opinion the Central Tyria portion of masteries should be accessible before entering expansion content, but at least it would be a little better than skipping ahead in the story and then bouncing back.)

Thanks.

Edit: never mind the pointing to specifics. I see the wiki does list some ways to unlock specific tracks. I'll check them out. Thanks again.

Edited September 8, 2021 by Tanek.5983

[Gehenna.3625]

11 minutes ago, Tanek.5983 said:

While it may be true that certain individual tracks can be unlocked outside of completing story chapters once the system is available, it does look like unlocking the mastery system itself requires completing story portions of HoT, PoF, or Icebrood. 

If I have that wrong, I will try to track down a non-story activity that would do it. In case you know of any specific ways and can point me to them, I'd appreciate it. 🙂 (If that activity is in one of the expansions, I'd still be of the opinion the Central Tyria portion of masteries should be accessible before entering expansion content, but at least it would be a little better than skipping ahead in the story and then bouncing back.)

Thanks.

Edit: never mind the pointing to specifics. I see the wiki does list some ways to unlock specific tracks. I'll check them out. Thanks again.

I'm thinking that some of them require entering a certain map like Auric Basin. You could teleport to friend and enter Auric Basin that way and see if it works.

[Tanek.5983]

1 minute ago, Gehenna.3625 said:

I'm thinking that some of them require entering a certain map like Auric Basin. You could teleport to friend and enter Auric Basin that way and see if it works.

I think my guild hall is in Auric Basin, so I plan to go there and see what happens, first just from being in the guild hall and, if that changes nothing, when I step out into the zone.

Again, I do not think it should be necessary, so would still like to see a change to unlocking the system for access to Central Tyria once you are at 80, but at least I won't need to knot up my story progress.

[Gehenna.3625]

21 minutes ago, Tanek.5983 said:

I think my guild hall is in Auric Basin, so I plan to go there and see what happens, first just from being in the guild hall and, if that changes nothing, when I step out into the zone.

Again, I do not think it should be necessary, so would still like to see a change to unlocking the system for access to Central Tyria once you are at 80, but at least I won't need to knot up my story progress.

Well you don't have to do the core masteries before you get to HoT.  And does your xp bar get stuck in core tyria before you unlock the mastery tracks for core tyria? I don't remember it being that way.

[Tanek.5983]

35 minutes ago, Gehenna.3625 said:

Well you don't have to do the core masteries before you get to HoT.  And does your xp bar get stuck in core tyria before you unlock the mastery tracks for core tyria? I don't remember it being that way.

I know you don't have to do the central tyria masteries prior to HoT, but it is fairly simple to reach 80 well before the end of the personal story and there is still all of Season 2 after that before HoT. Spirit shards are nice, but I'd rather the experience start going to those masteries.

I'm not sure what you mean by the xp bar getting stuck in core tyria, but my current experience is, as soon as the expansion was applied to my account, the xp bar stared yelling at me every few seconds about mastering my trained ability. I close the alert and it opens again a few seconds later. My guess is it filled the first mastery bar and is pegged there because I can't get into the mastery panel to do anything about it.

[Rogue.8235]

3 hours ago, Tanek.5983 said:

I know you don't have to do the central tyria masteries prior to HoT, but it is fairly simple to reach 80 well before the end of the personal story and there is still all of Season 2 after that before HoT. Spirit shards are nice, but I'd rather the experience start going to those masteries.

I'm not sure what you mean by the xp bar getting stuck in core tyria, but my current experience is, as soon as the expansion was applied to my account, the xp bar stared yelling at me every few seconds about mastering my trained ability. I close the alert and it opens again a few seconds later. My guess is it filled the first mastery bar and is pegged there because I can't get into the mastery panel to do anything about it.

 

Interesting.... it seems like the mastery system is incapable of having a null selection even before unlocking the mastery system for active use.  Curious to know how that could be fixed with the current implementation.

 

As far as allowing Central Tyria masteries to be unlocked before ever setting foot in expansion content, I'm in agreement.  I think it's a good idea for each sub-continent to have completely independent mastery systems.  

It would also be nice to have a null selection available for anyone who filled out the experience but don't yet have the points for an unlock.

someone who experimented with the mastery system could probably chime in here and relay their observations.

 

Late note:  Completing a fractal seems like an excellent marker for unlocking Central Tyria masteries.

 

[bwillb.2165]

Didn't know that was a thing. It does seem like an oversight, like they just didn't put a trigger for central Tyra mastery. Seems like the first line should trigger when you become pact commander, the second when you craft an ascended piece of gear, and the third when you complete a certain level of fractal. 

[Tanek.5983]

1 minute ago, bwillb.2165 said:

Didn't know that was a thing. It does seem like an oversight, like they just didn't put a trigger for central Tyra mastery. Seems like the first line should trigger when you become pact commander, the second when you craft an ascended piece of gear, and the third when you complete a certain level of fractal. 

The first one may be an issue since (I think) you become the Pact Commander before the level 80 story. If so, masteries probably should not unlock there while you might still be leveling.

I'd be ok with it being as simple as unlocking Central Tyria masteries once you hit 80, but just about anything that would allow for the unlock without needing to hop ahead into the expansions would be better than it is now. 🙂 

[bwillb.2165]

3 minutes ago, Tanek.5983 said:

The first one may be an issue since (I think) you become the Pact Commander before the level 80 story. If so, masteries probably should not unlock there while you might still be leveling.

I'd be ok with it being as simple as unlocking Central Tyria masteries once you hit 80, but just about anything that would allow for the unlock without needing to hop ahead into the expansions would be better than it is now. 🙂 

You do become the pact commander in the level 70 story step. But the way masteries work, they don't gain xp unless your character is level 80 even if they are unlocked. This way if you've kept up on your story you'll start earning mastery as soon as you hit 80, but if you haven't, you won't start earning 'pact commander' mastery until you are pact commander. 

[Tanek.5983]

5 hours ago, Gehenna.3625 said:

I'm thinking that some of them require entering a certain map like Auric Basin. You could teleport to friend and enter Auric Basin that way and see if it works.

 

5 hours ago, Tanek.5983 said:

I think my guild hall is in Auric Basin, so I plan to go there and see what happens, first just from being in the guild hall and, if that changes nothing, when I step out into the zone.

Again, I do not think it should be necessary, so would still like to see a change to unlocking the system for access to Central Tyria once you are at 80, but at least I won't need to knot up my story progress.

Tested this and just zoning in to Auric Basin did not unlock the mastery system.  I'll report back if anything else works, but it might just be that starting one of the stories is the kick the masteries require.

[Chaba.5410]

It does seem like some sort of oversight, yet also consider if you are playing "in order", no one had masteries during the original playthrough of LS1 and LS2 before HoT either. We all leveled core Tyria masteries after HoT too.

Alternatively, like someone else pointed out, you can unlock the entire mastery system in a non story way by killing a raid boss. The raids exist mostly as side stories.  I also found this: https://sites.google.com/view/guidegw2/xvii-level-80-now-what/a-mastery-system

"Have a guildie or friend complete the first Path of Fire mission for you. It can even be done if you’re a level 2 character fresh out of the tutorial. For the helpful friend/guildie, follow these instructions:

1. Make sure everyone who wants credit is in Lion’s Arch
2. Open your story journal and select Sparking the Flame and replay
3. Read the mail you receive
4. Do NOT head to the green marker. You can skip that part
5. TP to [&BA8EAAA=] and head to the purple marker
6. Everyone needs to accept/click on yes once you start.
7. Have all the lower level players stay back and higher level characters can help out. Minor spoilers involved, but everyone can help put out the fires. If you just need the raptor, have everyone speak to Aksim after completing the heart. If you need to unlock masteries, the rest of the mission must be completed.

"

[yann.1946]

I agree that it's weird that you don't get core tyrian masteries after having hit lv 80.

Your now incentivized to skip forward to the first hot step instead of season 2 to unlock the mastery. That probably is not good for the general enjoyment of the game. 

[Tanek.5983]

3 hours ago, Chaba.5410 said:

It does seem like some sort of oversight, yet also consider if you are playing "in order", no one had masteries during the original playthrough of LS1 and LS2 before HoT either. We all leveled core Tyria masteries after HoT too.

Alternatively, like someone else pointed out, you can unlock the entire mastery system in a non story way by killing a raid boss. The raids exist mostly as side stories.  I also found this: https://sites.google.com/view/guidegw2/xvii-level-80-now-what/a-mastery-system

"Have a guildie or friend complete the first Path of Fire mission for you. It can even be done if you’re a level 2 character fresh out of the tutorial. For the helpful friend/guildie, follow these instructions:

1. Make sure everyone who wants credit is in Lion’s Arch
2. Open your story journal and select Sparking the Flame and replay
3. Read the mail you receive
4. Do NOT head to the green marker. You can skip that part
5. TP to [&BA8EAAA=] and head to the purple marker
6. Everyone needs to accept/click on yes once you start.
7. Have all the lower level players stay back and higher level characters can help out. Minor spoilers involved, but everyone can help put out the fires. If you just need the raptor, have everyone speak to Aksim after completing the heart. If you need to unlock masteries, the rest of the mission must be completed.

"

As mentioned at the start of my first post, I get that masteries released with Heart of Thorns, so maybe it made sense at that point for them to unlock at the start of the expansion (and I don't think all of the central tyria tracks and mastery points were there at the very start, but my memory is not the most reliable). That was 6 years ago, though, and I don't think it should still be locked behind starting the expansion stories for the Central Tyria portion (owning an expansion, sure, but not needing to start the story there).

Does beating a raid boss actually unlock the system, though? The wiki also listed entering Auric Basin as a way to unlock a mastery track, but that did not work for me. If I get a chance, I might try it with a raid group willing to have a tag-along FOR SCIENCE! 😄

And it is good to know there are ways for players to help others get the system unlocked, but even that post says it is unfortunate the system has to be unlocked that way and they don't like skipping around in the story. Plus, for me, having someone else complete the story would be even worse than skipping ahead to run it myself.

Edited September 9, 2021 by Tanek.5983

[DD39C89C-1C46-4F28-BDB7-49]

That's very old problem from 2017, there is already thread for it: Mastery Popup will not go away with workarounds.

Why going through a guild hall didn't work for you? How the masteries menu looked outside?

[Tanek.5983]

46 minutes ago, DD39C89C-1C46-4F28-BDB7-49 said:

That's very old problem from 2017, there is already thread for it: Mastery Popup will not go away with workarounds.

Why going through a guild hall didn't work for you? How the masteries menu looked outside?

Looked exactly the same. All locked. Unless there is a specific place in Auric Basin to trigger it, being there did not change anything.

Either way, I still say there should be ways to unlock Central Tyria *in* Central Tyria rather than needing to bounce ahead before you get to the expansions in the course of the story. I'll check through that thread to see if anyone there had a solution, even though that one seems more geared toward stopping the annoying popup message than solving the unlock issue. Thanks.

[Faridah.8431]

This was one of my biggest pet peeves with a new account I made in 2019 (this one). Here I was trying to play story in order and it just kept telling me to go to POF or HOT to unlock masteries. It's dumb and a complete oversight that should be corrected. Once you hit 80 in Central Tyria, the Central Tyrian masteries should just be unlocked.

[DD39C89C-1C46-4F28-BDB7-49]

When you are at Domain of Vabbi or Auric Basin - the small padlock should be unlocked, other then that the menu looks the same, so it's easy to miss. And you need to use points there, if you go back, it will be locked again.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

6 hours ago, Tanek.5983 said:

As mentioned at the start of my first post, I get that masteries released with Heart of Thorns, so maybe it made sense at that point for them to unlock at the start of the expansion (and I don't think all of the central tyria tracks and mastery points were there at the very start, but my memory is not the most reliable). That was 6 years ago, though, and I don't think it should still be locked behind starting the expansion stories for the Central Tyria portion (owning an expansion, sure, but not needing to start the story there).

Does beating a raid boss actually unlock the system, though? The wiki also listed entering Auric Basin as a way to unlock a mastery track, but that did not work for me. If I get a chance, I might try it with a raid group willing to have a tag-along FOR SCIENCE! 😄

And it is good to know there are ways for players to help others get the system unlocked, but even that post says it is unfortunate the system has to be unlocked that way and they don't like skipping around in the story. Plus, for me, having someone else complete the story would be even worse than skipping ahead to run it myself.

Nowhere does/did the Wiki suggest entering Auric Basin would unlock the Mastery system.  Let's be clear about that.

I'm not sure why joining someone else's Story instance would be worse than 'skipping ahead'; you could leave the room/minimize the game, etc.  It's not like you have to watch or participate. 

I'd suggest 'Silence', the first Icebrood Saga Chapter.  There's no combat, and awards a Mastery Point. 

I'm curious if entering a DRM, and grabbing the Mastery Point within would unlock the Mastery system.  Easy to skip any story in those.

[kharmin.7683]

14 hours ago, Tanek.5983 said:

 

I'd be ok with it being as simple as unlocking Central Tyria masteries once you hit 80,

I'd love to have all of my Central Tyria masteries unlocked for just reaching 80!

[Tanek.5983]

1 hour ago, DD39C89C-1C46-4F28-BDB7-49 said:

When you are at Domain of Vabbi or Auric Basin - the small padlock should be unlocked, other then that the menu looks the same, so it's easy to miss. And you need to use points there, if you go back, it will be locked again.

The ENTIRE mastery system locks again if I don't use points when in Auric Basin? I'll check again, but I am starting to wonder whether some of you aren't just messing with me.  😄

1 hour ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

Nowhere does/did the Wiki suggest entering Auric Basin would unlock the Mastery system.  Let's be clear about that.

I'm not sure why joining someone else's Story instance would be worse than 'skipping ahead'; you could leave the room/minimize the game, etc.  It's not like you have to watch or participate. 

I'd suggest 'Silence', the first Icebrood Saga Chapter.  There's no combat, and awards a Mastery Point. 

I'm curious if entering a DRM, and grabbing the Mastery Point within would unlock the Mastery system.  Easy to skip any story in those.

Nowhere did I say I thought entering Auric Basin would unlock the mastery system. Let's be clear about that. 🙂 It was suggested in your post here that there are non-story ways to unlock the system by doing things that unlock other tracks. that was the one I could most easily get to, so I tried it. Even now, the poster above seems to think it should have worked.

I still think it will require doing the first part of one of the stories, but am willing to experiment in the meantime. Keeps my mind off that mastery track spam in the corner of the screen.

As for why joining someone else's story would be worse that skipping ahead for me, it is because I'd still be doing the story on the account only I'm not even participating. Especially if I leave the room. 

It does look like getting the mastery point in a DRM is a potential way to unlock, though. If it comes to that and all other options are exhausted, I might try it just to see if it works. Would be more for information and curiosity, though, not because I think of it as a "solution".  All of the options serve to show how it would make so much more sense to be able to unlock the Central Tyria masteries a different, non-expansion way.

Edited September 9, 2021 by Tanek.5983

[DD39C89C-1C46-4F28-BDB7-49]

Yes, it locks again after leaving that location, as this is a workaround, not by design. So just go there and carefully check that padlock, click on it, then it should expand and you should be able to use points for Central track. After spending points, it will stay unlocked.

 

This should be enough, but when I went to one of those maps, at first I went for few mastery points from expansion (mastery icons on the mini-map), as I also didn't see that small padlock unlocked at first, but probably it was already just after entering that map.

[Tanek.5983]

1 hour ago, DD39C89C-1C46-4F28-BDB7-49 said:

Yes, it locks again after leaving that location, as this is a workaround, not by design. So just go there and carefully check that padlock, click on it, then it should expand and you should be able to use points for Central track. After spending points, it will stay unlocked.

This should be enough, but when I went to one of those maps, at first I went for few mastery points from expansion (mastery icons on the mini-map), as I also didn't see that small padlock unlocked at first, but probably it was already just after entering that map.

This is what it looks like when I am in Auric Basin. Everything still locked.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/823613716762984498/885615261972037683/unknown.png

Interestingly, I noticed the tooltip indicates you need to travel back to Central Tyria even after the mastery system is unlocked in order to unlock the tracks in that section. Which makes sense that you unlock the tracks there and again highlights the oddity of not being able to unlock the system there.

[Gehenna.3625]

21 hours ago, Tanek.5983 said:

I know you don't have to do the central tyria masteries prior to HoT, but it is fairly simple to reach 80 well before the end of the personal story and there is still all of Season 2 after that before HoT. Spirit shards are nice, but I'd rather the experience start going to those masteries.

I'm not sure what you mean by the xp bar getting stuck in core tyria, but my current experience is, as soon as the expansion was applied to my account, the xp bar stared yelling at me every few seconds about mastering my trained ability. I close the alert and it opens again a few seconds later. My guess is it filled the first mastery bar and is pegged there because I can't get into the mastery panel to do anything about it.

That sucks then

17 hours ago, Tanek.5983 said:

 

Tested this and just zoning in to Auric Basin did not unlock the mastery system.  I'll report back if anything else works, but it might just be that starting one of the stories is the kick the masteries require.

Ok so my next theory is that it's triggered by going through the portal from verdant brink to auric basin. So you would have some waypoints unlocked in AB now. My next suggestion would be to go through the portal in the north-west corner of the map to verdant brink and back again through the same portal. If you want of course.

Edited September 9, 2021 by Gehenna.3625