Wasted Mastery XP because of mount masteries, personal view

[fourhim.3584]

OK, so I just now got my Siege Turtle.  I've been playing for 10 years and am still, and always will be, a very casual, button-mashing PVE only player.  And I know there are a lot of us out there (or at least my wife 🙂 ).

What frustrated me about the Siege Turtle, and to some extent getting Skyscale in SOTO also, is that I had to conserve my Mastery Points for those things I know I would want later (specifically mounts in my case).  However those mount mastery tracks do not even unlock until you actually get that mount.  Does it make sense thematically?  Yes.  Did I hate it?  Yes, and here is why.

In EOD and also SOTO there are multiple Mastery Tracks that a casual player like me would just never be interested in.  But you can only get XP up to the level that you are willing to spend Mastery Points on.  And as I said, I want to save my Mastery points for when I get those mounts later.  So two annoying things happen.  1) I sit there playing the game with all this XP wasted because I don't want to "waste" my points on a mastery I will never use, but I'm also not allowed to work on Skyscale or Turtle mastery until  I actually get one (not even when raising it or getting its saddle!).  2) Once I DO FINALLY get that mount I've wanted for so long, I need to keep playing content I'm now bored of, to get the XP needed to increase those masteries.  And all the while I'm thinking of the millions of XP that just got thrown away earlier on a maxed out XP line.

I hope what I am saying is making sense, and might be considered for future content, or GW3, etc.  Why should I not be allowed to funnel mastery points and XP, if I want to, into something that I'm working toward owning one day (even add a warning if you want)?  Was this just done to force me to keep playing (in Siege Turtle's case) in EOD despite me not enjoying it nearly as much as HOT or POF?  I can see, from a business experience, why that might be a good business model.  But from a player's perspective it was not enjoyable for me.  To get my Siege Turtle Mastery to max now will take hours and hours of playing in EOD content, and I just don't think I have it in me 😞

Thanks for considering this.

Edited April 10 by fourhim.3584

[Chichimec.9364]

OP, I get what you are saying and I can't argue with your personal point of view or personal experience. All I can say is that getting the mastery exp for both the turtle and the SotO skyscale didn't seem like a big deal to me because of one simple thing - exp buffs. My main lives in Arborstone so it always gets the rested buff.  That alt also gets 12 hour primers and ascended food for all those buffs, including exp. If I'm particularly impatient to max out a specific mastery line, I'll add other exp boosters. And like the op, I don't bother maxing out mastery lines I don't like/won't use. So focusing all those buffs on the masteries I do want makes them much easier for me to get.

Edited April 10 by Chichimec.9364

[Manasa Devi.7958]

I guess it's my play style, but I've never had too few mastery points at any point.

You can just spend the ones you're saving and earn more to have ready by the time you're ready to start on a new mastery track. There are many more points available than you need to max everything. 

It makes sense to me to lock masteries for mounts you don't have yet. How can you master a thing you haven't even done once, excepting rentals. 

[RoseofGilead.8907]

5 minutes ago, Chichimec.9364 said:

My main lives in Arborstone so it always gets the rested buff. 

Just in case you didn't know, you get the same buff in the Wizard's Tower now.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Although you may not utilize them, no XP is wasted as it applies to the (hidden) Spirit Shard track.

[Knighthonor.4061]

This is something I would like to see get addressed in a future update. 

[Biziut.3594]

Isn't it like You get more than enough mastery points to cover all of the tracks exactly by just playing around and mashing buttons? Where problem? xd

[fourhim.3584]

47 minutes ago, Biziut.3594 said:

Isn't it like You get more than enough mastery points to cover all of the tracks exactly by just playing around and mashing buttons? Where problem? xd

Not in my case.  I have all the EOD Masteries in the maps (or will soon), have completed the EOD story, and I will still be 4 shy for the last Siege Turtle line, and I never touched Arborstone track.  Where are all these extra EOD mastery points you get by "playing around and mashing buttons"?

[Farohna.6247]

OP, have you done some of the achievements that are easy, even for a very casual player...like the raptor rides or other mount achievements on the EoD maps.   They give easy mastery points.  

[fourhim.3584]

6 minutes ago, Farohna.6247 said:

OP, have you done some of the achievements that are easy, even for a very casual player...like the raptor rides or other mount achievements on the EoD maps.   They give easy mastery points.  

I have not, but thank you for pointing that out.  That is HELPFUL, and I will research this on the Wiki.  

[Farohna.6247]

3 minutes ago, fourhim.3584 said:

I have not, but thank you for pointing that out.  That is HELPFUL, and I will research this on the Wiki.  

I hope it helps!  There are some wonderful guides on YouTube as well to show how to do them.  ❤️

[illuminati.8453]

If every mastery felt valuable and worth investing in, this wouldn't be much of a problem. The abundance of filler masteries right now dilutes the satisfaction of leveling in a new expansion.  I hope they put a bit more effort into this area going forward.   

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

2 hours ago, fourhim.3584 said:

Not in my case.  I have all the EOD Masteries in the maps (or will soon), have completed the EOD story, and I will still be 4 shy for the last Siege Turtle line, and I never touched Arborstone track.  Where are all these extra EOD mastery points you get by "playing around and mashing buttons"?

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mastery_point_unlocks#End_of_Dragons_mastery_points

Also found in the 'Hero' tab in 'Achievements' (teal-colored icons).

Good luck.

[Chyro.1462]

Don't even need external resources to find out where you can get more mastery points. They can surely be very helpful, but you can also just check the achievements tab in your hero panel. It has those little mastery icons all over to let you know in which category you find achievements that give you mastery points of the different types. This includes story achievements and mastery insights.

[Luthan.5236]

The xp does not get "wasted" anymore. Afaik everything goes to a hidden bar- giving spirit shards. And there are more mastery points than needed to max everything. Only IBS was a bit tight. SotO also does not really have that many. But still enough. EoD seemed to not have that many at first glance. But now I have a lot left over. Just that some stuff progresses slowly.

From how I  understood it (I hope I am correct here) the problem is that you want to save the mastery points to spend them for certain masteries (like the turtle) that you can not spend them on yet. (To make sure you have enough to max that mastery you save them.) And while saving them and not spending them on the other mastery you are doing the other mastery later and not progressing the xp bar there (while getting spirit shards) ... which makes the whole process slower (since you need to gather xp for there later).

And faster would be if you could "pre-fill" the mastery bars with xp (the ones you plan to max only later) early for all levvels (then spending the mastery points later)
AND/OR
being able to access the turtle mastery (and level it) eben before owning the turtle?

Well ... that might be more convenient. But I do not see a big need for ArenaNet to change anything here. Just take a look on how many mastery points are needed for the one you want that hard. Then you actually can spend points on the other ones ... but only the amount you have above that. (Keep some saved that you might need but you can early spend the additional wants.)

That while working on unlocking the turtle + also working on gathering more and more mastery points (most people eventually want everything - except maybe the raid one that totally is hidden ... to max the mastery level) should be the ideal way to handle things. If you are sure it will take you a lot more time to unlock the favored mastery track you might even consider spending a bit more of your points when by the time you unlocked that mastery track ... you will already have accumulatd more. And yes: It is worth to slowly work on all the collections ... while it might seem annoying first. This is supposed to be a bit of work to max everything.

The EoD afaik hat a lot of collections and at release I thought it seemed tight ... when near the end I slowly managed to complete one collection after another ending with like 10 or 20+ points to spare at the very end. Check out the wiki - this will help a lot.

[Lucy.3728]

4 hours ago, Chyro.1462 said:

Don't even need external resources to find out where you can get more mastery points. They can surely be very helpful, but you can also just check the achievements tab in your hero panel. It has those little mastery icons all over to let you know in which category you find achievements that give you mastery points of the different types. This includes story achievements and mastery insights.

Doesn't tell you how much effort it is. Neither does Wiki I think.

I'm struggling with core masteries on all my alt accounts because of that.
There are achievements that I happily decline.

What helps me on other maps, but core, are path markers (invented by TacO). By now I use them in Blish HUD (Tekkit and ReActif scripts).

Shows me the achievements mastery points very prominently on the map with title (e.g. if you only need to do a event).

[Drarnor Kunoram.5180]

On 4/11/2024 at 1:14 PM, Lucy.3728 said:

Doesn't tell you how much effort it is. Neither does Wiki I think.

I'm struggling with core masteries on all my alt accounts because of that.
There are achievements that I happily decline.

What helps me on other maps, but core, are path markers (invented by TacO). By now I use them in Blish HUD (Tekkit and ReActif scripts).

Shows me the achievements mastery points very prominently on the map with title (e.g. if you only need to do a event).

Do Triple Trouble and kill each head at least once, that's 4 core tyria mastery points right there.

There are actually quite a few mastery points that come from killing world bosses.  I have fully maxxed masteries, have spare central Tyria mastery points, and IIRC have 18 more central tyria mastery points I could potentially get (that might be including my spares, but there's lots more available than you need).

Edited April 13 by Drarnor Kunoram.5180

[Farohna.6247]

On 4/11/2024 at 12:14 PM, Lucy.3728 said:

Doesn't tell you how much effort it is. Neither does Wiki I think.

I'm struggling with core masteries on all my alt accounts because of that.
There are achievements that I happily decline.

What helps me on other maps, but core, are path markers (invented by TacO). By now I use them in Blish HUD (Tekkit and ReActif scripts).

Shows me the achievements mastery points very prominently on the map with title (e.g. if you only need to do a event).

I think the living world seasons helped me a lot with the core masteries.  

[starlinvf.1358]

On 4/11/2024 at 12:38 AM, illuminati.8453 said:

If every mastery felt valuable and worth investing in, this wouldn't be much of a problem. The abundance of filler masteries right now dilutes the satisfaction of leveling in a new expansion.  I hope they put a bit more effort into this area going forward.   

if every mastery were like that it would become mandatory, and thus everyone must have them. at least with filler no one cares

[Supernova Starr.2069]

I have exactly the same thoughts, I haven't unlocked Beetle, Griffon and Turtle and I may never will, cause I can't bare myself to farm exp on maps I already got bored of, also because there are so many more fun things to run around.

[Titip Aja Shay.7136]

how do you deal with the constant notification "your current ability is fully trained and ready to master"?