How do I gain Masteries (quickly....)?

[Cedric Ambidexter.9174]

Hi everyone,

 

I really appreciate your response to this. I've returned to GW2 after a long time away (about 1.5 years). I'm really enjoying it this time.

 

I've realized there are a different set of masteries for say Heart of Thorns, Open-World, and now Path of Fire expansion.

 

I'm slightly confused how it works, is the following correct:

 

1. gain experience by doing stuff, ie killing monsters, reviving npcs etc, completing events

2. When yellow xp bar (bottom of screen) is full, I can gain one mastery in whatever one I've selected to train for each region (if I have enough hero points for the mastery).

 

Is this correct?

 

I want to know what the best way is to grind getting masteries, as I really would like to complete all the flight masteries in HoT (i'm about half way there). Someone suggested I just go around doing meta events (I believe this means killing bosses?).

 

Thank you for any help.

[Randulf.7614]

Events will fill up your mastery bar the quckest so yes metas and event chains within the rehion your mastery belongs too - eg you can only master gliding in hoteven though u can glide anywhere

 

Hero points are notwhat you need, it is mastery points. You get those from various map points and achievements

[Danikat.8537]

You're correct about how you fill the bar and 'train' the mastery. Only thing to bear in mind there is you have to be in the right part of the world - you can only get XP towards HoT masteries in HoT maps, only get PoF XP in PoF maps and only get core Tyria XP in core/base game maps.

 

But once you've trained a bar and you're ready to unlock the mastery you need mastery points, not hero points. These are earned by completing achievements, and again there's 3 different kinds - you need PoF mastery points for PoF masteries etc.

 

There are more mastery points available than you can use so you don't need to do all the achievements which award them. You can see which achievements award points by looking for the mastery point icon in the achievement menu (a red, green or purple star). Which ones are quickest or easiest to do is up to you. I recommend starting with content you'd do anyway and then things which sound interesting rather than forcing yourself to play content someone else has told you they can do quickly.

[phs.6089]

E.G Open HoT story in panel, [check achievements](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mastery_point_unlocks "check achievements") that give you mastery points, go try to get those. If you have LW3 those give bunch of Points as well.

 

[Turin.6921]

> @"Cedric Ambidexter.9174" said:

> Hi everyone,

> 1. gain experience by doing stuff, ie killing monsters, reviving npcs etc, completing events

> 2. When yellow xp bar (bottom of screen) is full, I can gain one mastery in whatever one I've selected to train for each region (if I have enough hero points for the mastery).

 

Mastery points are different to hero points. You have to have mastery points to activate a mastery that you have the XP bar filled. Mastery points you get from specific places in the open world and completing certain achievements or the story of each region. For HoT and PoF adventures for example are good sources as well as they are achievements that give points.

 

 

[Cedric Ambidexter.9174]

> @"phs.6089" said:

> E.G Open HoT story in panel, [check achievements](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mastery_point_unlocks "check achievements") that give you mastery points, go try to get those. If you have LW3 those give bunch of Points as well.

>

 

LW3?

[Cedric Ambidexter.9174]

> @"Danikat.8537" said:

> You're correct about how you fill the bar and 'train' the mastery. Only thing to bear in mind there is you have to be in the right part of the world - you can only get XP towards HoT masteries in HoT maps, only get PoF XP in PoF maps and only get core Tyria XP in core/base game maps.

>

> But once you've trained a bar and you're ready to unlock the mastery you need mastery points, not hero points. These are earned by completing achievements, and again there's 3 different kinds - you need PoF mastery points for PoF masteries etc.

>

> There are more mastery points available than you can use so you don't need to do all the achievements which award them. You can see which achievements award points by looking for the mastery point icon in the achievement menu (a red, green or purple star). Which ones are quickest or easiest to do is up to you. I recommend starting with content you'd do anyway and then things which sound interesting rather than forcing yourself to play content someone else has told you they can do quickly.

 

So there is more than one XP bar? lol.....

[Randulf.7614]

> @"Cedric Ambidexter.9174" said:

> > @"phs.6089" said:

> > E.G Open HoT story in panel, [check achievements](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mastery_point_unlocks "check achievements") that give you mastery points, go try to get those. If you have LW3 those give bunch of Points as well.

> >

>

> LW3?

 

Living world/story 3. It is the story release between hot and pof. You will get more mastery point options when you to thst point, although you will need to purchase it first.

[phs.6089]

> @"Cedric Ambidexter.9174" said:

> > @"phs.6089" said:

> > E.G Open HoT story in panel, [check achievements](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mastery_point_unlocks "check achievements") that give you mastery points, go try to get those. If you have LW3 those give bunch of Points as well.

> >

>

> LW3?

 

[Living World Season 3](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Living_World_Season_3 "Living World Season 3")

[Cedric Ambidexter.9174]

Thanks guys.

 

So just going around killing random monsters/farming in that way doesn't really help?

[Randulf.7614]

> @"Cedric Ambidexter.9174" said:

> > @"Danikat.8537" said:

> > You're correct about how you fill the bar and 'train' the mastery. Only thing to bear in mind there is you have to be in the right part of the world - you can only get XP towards HoT masteries in HoT maps, only get PoF XP in PoF maps and only get core Tyria XP in core/base game maps.

> >

> > But once you've trained a bar and you're ready to unlock the mastery you need mastery points, not hero points. These are earned by completing achievements, and again there's 3 different kinds - you need PoF mastery points for PoF masteries etc.

> >

> > There are more mastery points available than you can use so you don't need to do all the achievements which award them. You can see which achievements award points by looking for the mastery point icon in the achievement menu (a red, green or purple star). Which ones are quickest or easiest to do is up to you. I recommend starting with content you'd do anyway and then things which sound interesting rather than forcing yourself to play content someone else has told you they can do quickly.

>

> So there is more than one XP bar? lol.....

 

The xp bar in pve is replaced by the mastery bar at level 80, although for all intents and purposes they are the same thing. The bar will fill up to whichever mastery you are training in the region you are in, but will record it separately for hot, core and pof.

 

Eg, if your xp/mastery bar is showing half filled in hot, when you seitch to core, it will freeze in place until you go back to hot and show whatever amount you are on in core. So in that sense it can feel like three sep xp bars but it is a seamless transition

 

> @"Cedric Ambidexter.9174" said:

> Thanks guys.

>

> So just going around killing random monsters/farming in that way doesn't really help?

 

It will yes, but events give more xp so trains faster. The easiest answer is to play and have fun and you wont notice the difference since the mastery bar will quickly fill up naturally. The more you watch it and grind, the longer it will feel

[Danikat.8537]

> @"Cedric Ambidexter.9174" said:

> > @"Danikat.8537" said:

> > You're correct about how you fill the bar and 'train' the mastery. Only thing to bear in mind there is you have to be in the right part of the world - you can only get XP towards HoT masteries in HoT maps, only get PoF XP in PoF maps and only get core Tyria XP in core/base game maps.

> >

> > But once you've trained a bar and you're ready to unlock the mastery you need mastery points, not hero points. These are earned by completing achievements, and again there's 3 different kinds - you need PoF mastery points for PoF masteries etc.

> >

> > There are more mastery points available than you can use so you don't need to do all the achievements which award them. You can see which achievements award points by looking for the mastery point icon in the achievement menu (a red, green or purple star). Which ones are quickest or easiest to do is up to you. I recommend starting with content you'd do anyway and then things which sound interesting rather than forcing yourself to play content someone else has told you they can do quickly.

>

> So there is more than one XP bar? lol.....

 

You'll only ever see one at a time, but yes, at level 80 you get 3 different XP bars.

 

For example at the moment if I go to a PoF map the bar is full, because I've trained all the masteries I currently have available. But if I got to HoT it's about 1/4 full because I'm just starting one. And if I go to a Core map it keeps changing because I've completed all the masteries there so it fills, gives me a Spirit Shard and then resets.

[Ayrilana.1396]

For HoT masteries, doing the leather farm on the Lake Doric map is the fastest because you kill so many mobs. You will hit DR after about an hour or so. You can then hop to Dragon’s Stand which is the second best map to farm XP. Again, you want to tag as many mobs as possible.

 

For core Tyria masteries, the lab farm is the best but you’re going to have to wait another year until next Halloween. There’s a farm in the CoF dungeon although that’s one you may have to schedule with a bunch of people that want to do it.

 

For PoF masteries, do the Istan farm and tag everything.

 

I’ll note that using XP boosters that stack with each other while doing all of this is recommended. Any any case chaining enemy kills is faster than chaining event completions.

 

Edit: All of this doesn’t matter if you don’t have the mastery points to progress to the next mastery. You don’t need the mastery points for the final mastery in a mastery line though.

[Danikat.8537]

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> For HoT masteries, doing the leather farm on the Lake Doric map is the fastest because you kill so many mobs. You will hit DR after about an hour or so. You can then hop to Dragon’s Stand which is the second best map to farm XP. Again, you want to tag as many mobs as possible.

>

> For core Tyria masteries, the lab farm is the best but you’re going to have to wait another year until next Halloween. There’s a farm in the CoF dungeon although that’s one you may have to schedule with a bunch of people that want to do it.

>

> For PoF masteries, do the Istan farm and tag everything.

>

> I’ll note that using XP boosters that stack with each other while doing all of this is recommended. Any any case chaining enemy kills is faster than chaining event completions.

>

> Edit: All of this doesn’t matter if you don’t have the mastery points to progress to the next mastery. You don’t need the mastery points for the final mastery in a mastery line though.

 

Leather farm - the Lake Doric map is the setting for The Head of the Snake - one of the Season 3 Living World episodes. In the top right corner there's a centaur camp where the centaurs respawn quickly and drop lots of leather, making it a good place to farm what's currently one of the most profitable crafting materials.

 

DR = Diminishing Returns, a function put in the game to discourage farming one area for too long. If you stay in the same map, and especially the same part of a map killing the same enemies over and over you'll eventually reach a point where you're not getting any loot from them. To 'fix' it you'll have to play that character in a different map for a while.

 

Dragons Stand is the last HoT map and has a meta-event with lots of large groups of enemies. It only starts once every 2 hours though, so it can be inconvenient to get into if you don't have a lot of time to play.

 

The Lab farm is the Mad King's Labyrinth, one of the Halloween activities.

 

CoF is Citadel of Flame, one of the dungeons. You can find groups using the LFG tool but ones looking to farm it often want people who already know it extremely well so they can do speed clears.

 

Istan is a Season 4 map, released as part of the first episode - Daybreak. There's a meta-event in the south east corner which involves killing large numbers of enemies, and which gives a lot of rewards.

 

And I agree that it's better to focus on getting the mastery points first. Almost everything in this game gives XP so you'll get some while getting the mastery points. No point farming XP to train the mastery track if you're then going to be stuck with it completed while you get the points to unlock it.

[phs.6089]

I'll just add that best EXP for Tyria is Silvewastes, lab doesn't comes even close to RIBA farm.

[Ayrilana.1396]

Well for Dragon’s Stand I think I was gaining about 10 spirit shards from leveling during the entire escort with boosters.

 

For the leather farm it was about 30 spirit shards with boosters.

 

For lab, with a good commander, it was about 45+ spirit shards.

 

I’ve never used Istan to farm XP but it should be between Dragon’s Stand and the leather farm if in a squad that hops instances.

 

I don’t see Silverwastes coming anywhere close to any of those. The event completions are so infrequent and you’re not really chaining mob kills.

 

Edit: A spirit shard is 254,000 XP as that’s how much it takes to earn one. Convert the spirit shard numbers that I gave into XP and you’ll see how much you can get per hour to go towards your masteries.