Level 80 without expansions

[IMidgetManI.3674]

Hey,I've been playing this game on and off for years and playing pretty casually. I finally got a character to level 80 today, and noticed that I now can get mastery levels instead of normal ones. However, without any of the expansions, I don't have access to mastery.At the moment, I can't afford the expansions, but I still want to continue playing through my story and complete zones, but I fear I will be wasting XP which could be used for my mastery levels.Is my fear real and it is a huge waste or do I have nothing to worry about and should continue playing?Thanks for any replies.

[Ayumi Spender.1082]

I was worried about that before I got expansions.That's why I............. made a new character to play for a while until I got HoT, then I finally went back to my main.

[CharterforGw.3149]

the mastery points are more important than the mastery experience in general, since by just playing the expansions, you get a lot of experience from the story missions and meta events (HoT)

You do lose out on the experience once you've filled every single bar of accesible masteries (if i'm not mistaken). but like i said, the experience is fairly easy to get (I myself need mastery points for some of the last masteries, whilst the experience bars are completely filled already)

[Danikat.8537]

You will be wasting the XP you gain before unlocking masteries, but it's not a problem because there is an infinite amount of XP available in this game and the best sources are repeatable things like Dynamic Events.

So it will take you longer overall to train your masteries than if you started right away, but it won't prevent you from getting them or even make it much harder to do.

[Shirlias.8104]

i would buy at least HoT.

Just because, as Danikat said, you are going to waste a huge amount of exp because of masteries.

[YoukiNeko.6047]

Keep playing the game with your mine and exploring the world. There is no such thing as wasted exp.Once you get HOT or/and POF you can easily level your masteries.The most difficult thing is not the exp but the mastery points (most of them are behind achievements or adventures).

[Dashiva.6149]

"Wasting" xp may be unavoidable until you get one of the expansions but don't worry about it. You get xp for basically anything you do in the game, so leveling the Masteries usually goes fairly smooth just by playing naturally. Gaining the Mastery Points necessary for unlocking new tiers of masteries, now that is usually the more limiting factor.

Leveling other characters could be a good way to spend your time until you want to buy an expansion.

Depending on how invested in the story you are you may consider getting Living story season 2 before getting HoT, or you may get lost in the plot. Same thing with getting season 3 (which requires HoT) prior to getting PoF.

[Shirlias.8104]

@YoukiNeko.6047 said:Keep playing the game with your mine and exploring the world. There is no such thing as wasted exp.Once you get HOT or/and POF you can easily level your masteries.

I had the misfortune to lvl up masteries during HoT, and they were everything but not easy to level.Mastery points could be a little hard to get, indeed, but the farm for experience ( unless they changed something ) is real.

[YoukiNeko.6047]

@Shirlias.8104 said:

@YoukiNeko.6047 said:Keep playing the game with your mine and exploring the world. There is no such thing as wasted exp.Once you get HOT or/and POF you can easily level your masteries.

I had the misfortune to lvl up masteries during HoT, and they were everything but not easy to level.Mastery points could be a little hard to get, indeed, but the farm for experience ( unless they changed something ) is real.

Well they did change it since the HoT start. I too farmed some of the masteries then. But since I got stuck on mastery points, i had to wait for the last lines.Now you can do TD or DS meta and complete two or maybe even three tracks.

[Shirlias.8104]

That's really good to know!

Btw to me was the opposite.Mastery Points was ok to get, but It was really slow back then ( but at least i had some skins to unlock and HOPE to craft ) to make the exp needed.

[YoukiNeko.6047]

Verdan Brink spider farm was the real deal back then.So OP just play the game and don't worry about it. They are easy to get once you invest in HoT / PoF.If you don't care too much for the story go with PoF first, since mounts make HoT maps easier to traverse later.

[Danikat.8537]

I think it's worth remembering the Mastery system was introduced with HoT - 3 years after the base game was released. So it was actually designed with the expectation that a lot of people would do exactly what you're doing - get to level 80 and keep playing just the base game, possibly completing everything in it, before even starting on masteries.

So it was designed to allow for that and would never have required anything you couldn't get again after buying the expansion or they'd have a lot of unhappy customers.

(Before that any XP you got after level 80 just got you 1 skill point, which was useless for anything except spending in my Mystic Forge since you'd already have all your skills and traits unlocked. Shortly before HoT they split skill points into Hero Points and Spirit Shards, and then you got 1 Spirit Shard per 'level', until HoT came out and people started working on masteries.)

[Shirlias.8104]

@Danikat.8537 said:I think it's worth remembering the Mastery system was introduced with HoT - 3 years after the base game was released. So it was actually designed with the expectation that a lot of people would do exactly what you're doing - get to level 80 and keep playing just the base game, possibly completing everything in it, before even starting on masteries.

So it was designed to allow for that and would never have required anything you couldn't get again after buying the expansion or they'd have a lot of unhappy customers.

(Before that any XP you got after level 80 just got you 1 skill point, which was useless for anything except spending in my Mystic Forge since you'd already have all your skills and traits unlocked. Shortly before HoT they split skill points into Hero Points and Spirit Shards, and then you got 1 Spirit Shard per 'level', until HoT came out and people started working on masteries.)

That's ok, but we are talking about months of HoT experience needed vs slightly more than a Week with PoF.What i am saying is

If the exp needed now is like PoF, then buy the expansion whenever you want. But if it's slower, i suggest you to buy it now and start working on masteries.

[dolcolax.1268]

i remember getting shards for every level i complete before i got hot. and those legendaries at SW that gave mastery points i got credit from em when i finally got hot.

[Veprovina.4876]

I have masteries, and i'm "wasting" core tyria XP because i don't have enough mastery points to start training a new mastery. So don't worry about it. You'll have to play each expansion's content to level their masteries. So just play the game normally until you get the expansion, it won't be a huge waste, don't worry. Since you now have core tyria only, you're "wasting" core tyria experience, but core tyira mastery points are the hardest to come by so you'll end up wasting that experience anyway until you can unlock the next mastery training.

[Loboling.5293]

We all played the game for years with the only reward for xp being spirit shards. Just enjoy the game, try out the different modes and have fun. Once you save up enough, buy either HoT or PoF. I suggest basing this on the elite specs you want or the story if that is important to you. Gliding vs gryphon is not as significant. (although I do love both mounts and gliding)

[Dreamy Lu.3865]

Hello OP,

As you can see, it is as always: Several persons, several opinions and no possible statement what is better, because it remains a personal opinion based on own experience and on criteria. And that's what is good in this forum, because it allows sharing of different views of same point. :)

I believe there is no "wasting" XPs possible. XPs are XPs and whatever you do, you earn some. That's it. If you are in original Tyria, after you get the expansion HoT or PoF, you keep filling in yellow bars, and it will apply for the world you are in. In original Tyria, you have red masteries, in HoT, green masteries and in PoF, purple masteries.

My personal opinion: I would not bother about keeping aside XPs or not. Just play. Nowadays, filling in XP bar goes high speed thanks to loads of contributors, big or small (Heart quests, storylines, dungeon, farming, living stories, events, meta events, world & area completion, fractal, ...). As soon as you will have an expansion, it will go pretty fast, and you can speed it up even more with XP boosters.

[Bebop.9056]

Ah... So, Indeed:On "Level Up" past 80, without the Expansions: Nothing happens.

I had fun getting into the game the this week, only to have my favorite part (filling up a bar), go unrewarded.Quite the bummer.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Memories may be hazy. Once the Devs split Skill Points (awarded for filling the XP bar) into Hero Points and Spirit Shards (months before Heart of Thorns), everyone, everyone, got absolutely nothing for filling the XP bar. No Spirit Shards, nothing. No one really thought much of it back then.

If it still works the same, you can start accumulating Achievements that will retroactively award Mastery Points while waiting to purchase HoT or Path of Fire. An easy 8 come from the Personal Story, for example. XP really isn't difficult to acquire, and there isn't much to do with Spirit Shards.

Good luck.

[Maximus Delion.8719]

@"Bebop.9056" said:Ah... So, Indeed:On "Level Up" past 80, without the Expansions: Nothing happens.

I had fun getting into the game the this week, only to have my favorite part (filling up a bar), go unrewarded.Quite the bummer.

"You must unlearn... what you have learned..."--Master Yoda

Welcome to Guild Wars 2! :) (And I mean that will all due sincerity!)

Your biggest bottleneck in Guild Wars 2 is typically not going to be Experience Points. You will earn Experience Points for darn near everything you do -- sneeze in the right direction, and you'll probably earn some XP from it. Your advancement bottleneck will usually be earning Mastery Points, which requires actively engaging in the relevant expansion content for the specific Mastery Track you're working on. For example: to earn Heart of Thorns Mastery Points, you need to own the Heart of Thorns expansion, and play through content which is exclusive to the Heart of Thorns expansion. In the course of earning all those Mastery Points, you will almost assuredly earn enough Experience Points to tap out all the various Mastery Tracks from that content as well.

So, once you've tapped out your advancement in one expansion (or the Core game), then... yeah... you're technically "wasting" Experience Points by continuing to play through that content, but it's so easy to earn Experience Points in the next set of content that it's seriously not worth fussing over. Each Expansion Pack, and subsequent Living World Episode, assumes that you're "starting from scratch" and progressing through it naturally (and not "stockpiling XP and blasting up to MAX on Day One").

In other words: buy the expansion content as you're ready for it, chill out... and casually enjoy the events, stories and other adventures from that content (that's really what it's all about, right?). If you want a "purpose" and "goal": focus on the Mastery Tracks from that content, and maybe pop a few XP booster items if you really want to zip ahead. You will almost assuredly earn more than enough Experience Points to unlock your Mastery Tracks in a natural progression. The last thing you should be worrying about in this game is "wasting XP." Experience Points are almost literally served up to you on a silver platter in this game.

TL;DR: just play the game and have fun!!! :)

[Ardid.7203]

@"IMidgetManI.3674" said:Hey,I've been playing this game on and off for years and playing pretty casually. I finally got a character to level 80 today, and noticed that I now can get mastery levels instead of normal ones. However, without any of the expansions, I don't have access to mastery.At the moment, I can't afford the expansions, but I still want to continue playing through my story and complete zones, but I fear I will be wasting XP which could be used for my mastery levels.Is my fear real and it is a huge waste or do I have nothing to worry about and should continue playing?Thanks for any replies.

You should be hoarding hero points to invest in the Elite Specializations you'll get access to when you buy the expansions.If you are interested in more than one profession, this can extend to various characters.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Hero_point