A Critical Flaw with the Mastery System

[ASP.8093]

On 11/4/2021 at 7:23 PM, Arnox.5128 said:

Are you one of those people who thinks legendary weapons are "mostly cosmetic"?

EDIT: Actually, on second thought, I know what you're talking about now, but even putting gen. 2 legendaries aside, some Masteries are still absolutely required.

They are, for the simple reason that most weapons really have one ideal stat line anyway. How many people craft Twilight and then use it for anything other than Berzerker stats?

Legendary armor gives you good value because it lets you play lots of different builds.

[Barraind.7324]

 

On 11/4/2021 at 10:35 PM, MikeG.6389 said:

The Raids category contribute a whopping 8 Mastery Points to the total and you "only" have to kill one boss to unlock the track and then you can level it up in any HoT map.

 

Theres a number of bosses which are also about as challenging as a dps golem if you have a healer and someone with stab that are happy to give you mastery points too. 

 

  

6 hours ago, ASP.8093 said:

They are, for the simple reason that most weapons really have one ideal stat line anyway. How many people craft Twilight and then use it for anything other than Berzerker stats?

Legendary armor gives you good value because it lets you play lots of different builds.

 

While Greatswords might see 1 (or maaaaybe 2) stat options, things like sword and staff can be 6 or 7. 

Edited November 8, 2021 by Barraind.7324

[Handsel.2891]

8 minutes ago, Barraind.7324 said:

Theres a number of bosses which are also about as challenging as a dps golem if you have a healer and someone with stab that are happy to give you mastery points too. 

I unlocked the masteries by doing escort. The easiest of them all, I hear. Besides doing that a few times, I only killed Vale Guardian once (after about a dozen tries as part of a beginner group) and that's about it regarding my raiding experience. Not for me. Still, 8 MP.

[Dante.1508]

On 11/8/2021 at 3:10 AM, ASP.8093 said:

You're missing out.

Not missing out with roller beetle god thats a pointless mount.

[Ultramex.1506]

2 hours ago, Dante.1508 said:

Not missing out with roller beetle god thats a pointless mount.

its better than any other mounts on flat map now that you get full endurance on mount up

[Gibson.4036]

9 hours ago, Dante.1508 said:

Not missing out with roller beetle god thats a pointless mount.

Funny, I was just reading another thread about how Daily Event Completer is such a chore, and I though to myself, not with Roller Beetle.

1. zooooooom

2. Event

3. Zoooooooom

4. Event

5. Zooooooooom

6. ????

7. Complete

[Khisanth.2948]

2 hours ago, Gibson.4036 said:

Funny, I was just reading another thread about how Daily Event Completer is such a chore, and I though to myself, not with Roller Beetle.

1. zooooooom

2. Event

3. Zoooooooom

4. Event

5. Zooooooooom

6. ????

7. Complete

 

There are several issues with Daily Event completer but actually getting there isn't the most important

1) biggest problem is that the events have to exist in the first place, on maps like Southsun Cove this can be pretty bad but at least Southsun has 2 JP that takes care of it

2) you have to know the event exist, this can be a problem if you don't have the map 100% since nearby completion objectives can obscure events

3a) getting to the event. The beetle might help but that is mostly in maps where there are few or poorly placed waypoints.

3b) people not sticking around for event chains

3c) people hanging around an event for too long, if there is a whole bunch of people at an event just tag it and leave for another event. You will be able to finish the daily faster and it allows more people to get credit. This is especially true for the 3-5 minute defend events

[ArchonWing.9480]

I almost never bother with event completer these days since sometimes stuff just dies too fast. But I mostly WvW or sometimes fractals so none of the mounts would help me anyways.

Regardless, Roller Bettle isn't that hard to get is it?

edit: Oh gross, it's the chapter with the God awful Forearmed is forewarned mission. I hope I don't have to do that again.

Edited November 12, 2021 by ArchonWing.9480

[Akari Storm.6809]

I think the actual problem I see or have with the mastery system is that there are a bunch of them that only have value in the maps they launched with.  Mainly speaking about quite a few the HoT, S3 and of course the IBS masteries.  Just saying that it would be nice if they could start spreading the wealth a bit more, designing maps and future masteries to be useful all over the game.  The big ones like mounts and gliding is a perfect example of use anywhere, instead of something like the itzel or even ancient magic masteries(web slinger) that's only used in like 1 or 2 maps, which become...totally forgot about if you don't play those maps or are superseded by something tons better.

 

Thinking about those IBS masteries, wish that system could be adapted to work on minions of other dragons at some point or just creatures that have magic in general.  I do like the drizzlewood one though for its use in most things now.

 

I don't have any problem with the regional xp gains going towards a specific set.

Edited November 12, 2021 by Akari Storm.6809
added sentence

[Gibson.4036]

9 hours ago, Khisanth.2948 said:

 

There are several issues with Daily Event completer but actually getting there isn't the most important

1) biggest problem is that the events have to exist in the first place, on maps like Southsun Cove this can be pretty bad but at least Southsun has 2 JP that takes care of it

2) you have to know the event exist, this can be a problem if you don't have the map 100% since nearby completion objectives can obscure events

3a) getting to the event. The beetle might help but that is mostly in maps where there are few or poorly placed waypoints.

3b) people not sticking around for event chains

3c) people hanging around an event for too long, if there is a whole bunch of people at an event just tag it and leave for another event. You will be able to finish the daily faster and it allows more people to get credit. This is especially true for the 3-5 minute defend events

Well, before I had a roller beetle I only seemed to find events by other people announcing them, which meant I usually got to them as they were ending. 
 

After getting roller beetle, I could zoom across maps until I saw the orange marker nearby, and join the event.

I’ve also found it to be invaluable for daily gathering, if I don’t go to a farm spot. I can pick a zone and zooooom through, stopping whenever I see a node. Covering ground much faster means finding nodes much quicker.

Clearly, YMMV, but it was a game changer for me.

I’ll also offer that roller beetle is invaluable for my quartz farming characters when they need to get back from picking up more mining picks at the lily of Elon.

Which is all to say, no, it’s not a pointless mount.

Edited November 13, 2021 by Gibson.4036

[Redfeather.6401]

It feels gimmicky and the game is kind of obligated to revolve around it now for better or for worse.

[Perisemiotics.4579]

On 11/4/2021 at 5:36 PM, MikeG.6389 said:

According to gw2efficiency.com, only about 15% of the players have already collected the 366 Mastery Points needed to max out the Mastery Levels. Granted, it's not evenly distributed among the regions, but even in the case of core masteries, it only goes up to 40% of the players.

I think the problem of grinding is one that you imposed on yourself. There are achievements that fit that categorisation better than the mastery system. You can always opt not to do all of them. It's only a race if you make it to be.

We need ANet to create a meta-API, easily embedded into forum posts, that shows the current ratio of players registered to gw2E versus total current players... I suspect less than half of total players have contributed their acct stats to gw2E.

 

The issue however is the old "grind" misconception....... really, guys :) do you play a game to... "grind"? my personal view is that there is no grind at all in this game (except maybe if you're trying to rush a leggy), xp is showered upon us to the point it's trivialized, MPs in general are well balanced.

Some people enjoy "grinding" for gaming, I won't judge - but those who don't, in the case of GW2, chances are you're probably approaching the game from a flawed perspective, or the game may not fulfill your idea of "gaming."

[Moira Shalaar.5620]

Ages ago, before HoT was all that far into development, Anet hosted a long series of community discussions to find out what players wanted from GW2 (link below). Our current mastery system is just one thing that came out of those discussions, and people's requests for XP to still have value past level 80, and to make the game more "alt friendly" so that players with many alts weren't as heavily penalized for playing a broad scope of characters. 

Whether or not people are happy with the system now, it (along with many other systems introduced in and around HoT) is a very direct reflection of those discussions with the community. 

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/cdi

[Ashen.2907]

On 11/4/2021 at 10:47 AM, Dravvi.3146 said:

Just wanted to express this here for a second since it's been a issue I think needs to be looked at and considered by Anet.

Since Heart of Thorns we've had a mastery system which honestly kinda is a bit lackluster, grinding once for masteries and when it's done there is no reason to continue grinding for them. (So much for the no grind philosophy.) But that while annoying is not the real core problem here, the problem is the way in which you are forced to grind them if you want to grind them at all. 

For example, below is something everyone already knows. Zone tying and expansion grinding.

Core Tyria Masteries = Only able to be ground in Core Tyria.
Heart of Thorns Masteries = Only able to be ground in Heart of Thorns.
Path of Fire Masteries = Only able to be ground in Path of Fire.
Icebrood Sage Masteries = Only able to be ground in the Icebrood Sage.

The problem here (Anet I hope you are paying attention) is that once you complete a set of masteries aka.. Core Tyria, you move on to the next zone and abandon older bits of content for the next one (Assuming you are focused on just mastery grinding). I understand the need to lock masteries behind buying an expansion but once it is purchased those masteries should be available to grind for in all bits of content. I don't want to be forced to grind a glider mastery in heart of thorns since to be honest most of those zones are seriously annoying. (To which I regretfully already did.)

But this is also limiting to newer masteries since it contributes to the one and done idea, any player who is not new and has been to core tyria will realize how baren alot of the zones feel. Imagine how much mastery grinding could actually spruce that up for players like myself who loves zones like queensdale or metrica province!

I am asking you to open up the mastery system grinding to other zones, not the points themselves which need to be obtained in the designated expansion.

Moving on to new content once you have completed existing content is pretty normal. There are still options and reasons to visit old content if you desire. 

 

What you describe as a negative, having to level masteries in the regions relevant to those masteries, is a positive as far as I am concerned. It encourages exploring and visiting more of the content rather than just grinding the most efficient event location. It is also more lore friendly.