Finally Maxed my core mastery, did not gain any spirit shards...

[Recon.8754]

So according to this post by an Anet Dev

There is a hidden xp bar, and once you max your mastery for a given expansion, all the xp you had gained that was "extra" is stored and converted to spirit shards at a later date.

 

After much grinding, I just maxed my core mastery tracks! Woohoo, but I didnt gain a sudden surge of spirit shards like expected. And boy, I expected a lot. I have done 20-30 hours of SW Riba without max masteries, meaning I should have 20-30 hours of xp in this "hidden spirit shard" xp bar. What gives?

 

Am i missing something or did I miss out on all that spirit shard goodness I though I was owed?

[phs.6089]

you will start getting shards AFTER maxing masteries.

Now every time Tyria exp bar is full you will get 1 shard

[Recon.8754]

> @"phs.6089" said:

> you will start getting shards AFTER maxing masteries.

> Now every time Tyria exp bar is full you will get 1 shard

 

I have a feeling you didn't even click the link and read AnetPauls comment

 

 

Here's a copy paste for those too lazy to click

 

"You don't have to worry about this. XP you get when you have all available mastery XP tracks maxed goes to a hidden XP bar which will give you spirit shards once you've unlocked all the masteries. This is not well explained, and I actually just found out about it myself yesterday."

-Anet Paul

[phs.6089]

> @"Recon.8754" said:

> > @"phs.6089" said:

> > you will start getting shards AFTER maxing masteries.

> > Now every time Tyria exp bar is full you will get 1 shard

>

> I have a feeling you didn't even click the link and read AnetPauls comment

 

You are not wrong. I didn't. I'm saying what I know from experience of fully unlocked materies player.

[Recon.8754]

> @"phs.6089" said:

> > @"Recon.8754" said:

> > > @"phs.6089" said:

> > > you will start getting shards AFTER maxing masteries.

> > > Now every time Tyria exp bar is full you will get 1 shard

> >

> > I have a feeling you didn't even click the link and read AnetPauls comment

>

> You are not wrong. I didn't. I'm saying what I know from experience of fully unlocked materies player.

 

Well the reddit post convo with the dev explained that getting XP before you max your mastery isnt a waste of time, because the XP goes to a hidden bar and youll get the Spirit Shards once you max your masteries

 

So once you max your mastery, you get a backlog of the owed spirit shards.

 

I just maxed my mastery, I didnt get those owed spirit shards AnetPaul mentioned

[phs.6089]

> @"Recon.8754" said:

> > @"phs.6089" said:

> > > @"Recon.8754" said:

> > > > @"phs.6089" said:

> > > > you will start getting shards AFTER maxing masteries.

> > > > Now every time Tyria exp bar is full you will get 1 shard

> > >

> > > I have a feeling you didn't even click the link and read AnetPauls comment

> >

> > You are not wrong. I didn't. I'm saying what I know from experience of fully unlocked materies player.

>

> Well the reddit post convo with the dev explained that getting XP before you max your mastery isnt a waste of time, because the XP goes to a hidden bar and youll get the Spirit Shards once you max your masteries

>

> So once you max your mastery, you get a backlog of the owed spirit shards.

>

> I just maxed my mastery, I didnt get those owed spirit shards AnetPaul mentioned

>

 

 

>Anet-PaulS said:

>XP tracks maxed goes to a hidden XP bar which will give you spirit shards once you've unlocked all the masteries

 

What am I missing?

[mtpelion.4562]

It believe it is just a single XP bar, not a queue of them, so any XP earned after you fill that one single hidden XP bar does wind up getting wasted.

This means that you can "pre-earn" a single Spirit Shard.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I think you are misinterpreting what was stated. There's no 'hidden' storage of XP; the Mastery XP bar becomes a 'regular' XP bar _after_ all Masteries are completed, and awards a single Spirit Shard each time it is filled. This was explained some time ago.

If such a mechanic was in-game, as interpreted by some from that Dev statement, we would have seen posts about it here, and elsewhere.

[Tommo Chocolate.5870]

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> I think you are misinterpreting what was stated. There's no 'hidden' storage of XP; the Mastery XP bar becomes a 'regular' XP bar _after_ all Masteries are completed, and awards a single Spirit Shard each time it is filled. This was explained some time ago.

> If such a mechanic was in-game, as interpreted by some from that Dev statement, we would have seen posts about it here, and elsewhere.

 

But if that's the case, why does the dev quote say "You don't have to worry about this"? To be honest, it looks to me like the dev misinterpreted the question, then gave an answer that appears to be reassuring but isn't actually relevant. And I can't figure out a sensible way of interpreting the phrase "hidden XP bar" that makes the statement true - at no point does experience go to a hidden bar, that bar can only gain experience once it is unhidden (i.e. when masteries are maxed).

[Redfeather.6401]

I been thinking about this recently. It is very hard to find motivation when xp isn't being used towards anything anymore.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

It is pretty simple:

* Spirit shards drop from all sorts of things and in fact were designed without post-80 XP as a source.

* There is no hidden reserve of XP. Any XP that goes unallocated to a mastery is lost, permanently.

* You don't have to worry because... you'll earn plenty of XP after maxing. And even if you don't, spirit shards still drop from other sources.

 

You can argue about what ANet Paul did or did not mean and it won't change the mechanics.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I think, if one reads the whole thread (all of the OP's reddit post), it makes more sense (as far as the "You don't have to worry" part goes).

Regardless, there is no missing mechanic, hidden or otherwise.

[CETheLucid.3964]

> @"Redfeather.6401" said:

> I been thinking about this recently. It is very hard to find motivation when xp isn't being used towards anything anymore.

 

Spirit Shards are useful for a lot of things.

[nottsgman.8206]

I think what the post means is when levelling masteries, the xp isn't lost, but goes into another mastery track that you don't have active.

however, if all the mastery xp bars for those levels have been filled, or you have no other masteries to level, the xp is wasted.

 

at least, that is how HoT masteries worked. it might be different for PoF masteries, which is what the reddit poster was asking about.

[Biff.5312]

> @"Recon.8754" said:

> > @"phs.6089" said:

> > you will start getting shards AFTER maxing masteries.

> > Now every time Tyria exp bar is full you will get 1 shard

>

> I have a feeling you didn't even click the link and read AnetPauls comment

>

>

> Here's a copy paste for those too lazy to click

>

> "You don't have to worry about this. XP you get when you have all available mastery XP tracks maxed goes to a hidden XP bar which will give you spirit shards once you've unlocked all the masteries. This is not well explained, and I actually just found out about it myself yesterday."

> -Anet Paul

 

I see no contradiction between what phs said and this quote. AFTER you get the masteries, you START building XP toward shards. What's the problem?

[kharmin.7683]

> @"CETheLucid.3964" said:

> Spirit Shards are useful for a lot of things.

 

Sadly, not so much for casual players like me.

[Healix.5819]

> @"Biff.5312" said:

> I see no contradiction between what phs said and this quote. AFTER you get the masteries, you START building XP toward shards. What's the problem?

 

That's how it works, but that's now how the dev is saying it works. The dev was saying that once all of the mastery XP bars were full (where you only needed mastery points to complete them), any further XP acquired would then be pooled and later converted to spirit shards after spending the points to fully unlock the masteries. In other words, if you unlocked all but 1 mastery, then acquired millions of XP, you should get hundreds of spirit shards once you unlocked that final mastery.

 

[Mewcifer.5198]

You were actively working on masteries, that means that all the xp you were earning was going towards filling the mastery bars. The "invisible" bar doesn't mean anything unless the xp doesnt have a mastery bar to go to.

[Ashantara.8731]

> @"Recon.8754" said:

> "You don't have to worry about this. XP you get when you have all available mastery XP tracks maxed goes to a hidden XP bar which will give you spirit shards once you've unlocked all the masteries. This is not well explained, and I actually just found out about it myself yesterday."

> -Anet Paul

 

He's saying exactly as it is and what @"phs.6089" told you, too: no Spirit Shards gained until you have maxed all the Masteries. The "hidden" bar refers to the actually unhidden bar. It's just no longer an XP bar as you know it from before reaching Lvl 80. Don't know why he calls it "hidden", but I understand your confusion about this.

[beeftotem.4137]

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > @"Recon.8754" said:

> > "You don't have to worry about this. XP you get when you have all available mastery XP tracks maxed goes to a hidden XP bar which will give you spirit shards once you've unlocked all the masteries. This is not well explained, and I actually just found out about it myself yesterday."

> > -Anet Paul

>

> He's saying exactly as it is and what @"phs.6089" told you, too: no Spirit Shards gained until you have maxed all the Masteries. The "hidden" bar refers to the actually unhidden bar. It's just no longer an XP bar as you know it from before reaching Lvl 80. Don't know why he calls it "hidden", but I understand your confusion about this.

 

Hidden is probably referring to you not being able to see it before all the masteries are maxed out.

[Healix.5819]

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> Don't know why he calls it "hidden", but I understand your confusion about this.

 

He calls it hidden because when you haven't unlocked all of the masteries, your normal XP bar is hidden by a mastery XP bar. Watch what happens to your XP bar when episode 6 introduces a new mastery, then after unlocking it, how it returns with the remaining XP.

 

When your mastery XP bar is full and you have other masteries that require more XP, any further XP gained would overflow into those other masteries. He was saying the XP can also overflow into your normal bar, which would grant the accumulated experience after unlocking all of the masteries. He makes it sound as if acquiring millions of XP with a maxed bar would grant you hundreds of spirit shards upon unlocking your final mastery, but the overflown XP is probably limited to 99% of the bar.

[Ashantara.8731]

> @"beeftotem.4137" said:

> > @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > > @"Recon.8754" said:

> > > "You don't have to worry about this. XP you get when you have all available mastery XP tracks maxed goes to a hidden XP bar which will give you spirit shards once you've unlocked all the masteries. This is not well explained, and I actually just found out about it myself yesterday."

> > > -Anet Paul

> >

> > He's saying exactly as it is and what @"phs.6089" told you, too: no Spirit Shards gained until you have maxed all the Masteries. The "hidden" bar refers to the actually unhidden bar. It's just no longer an XP bar as you know it from before reaching Lvl 80. Don't know why he calls it "hidden", but I understand your confusion about this.

>

> Hidden is probably referring to you not being able to see it before all the masteries are maxed out.

 

If that was the case, then it would mean you gained Spirit Shards even while leveling Masteries, which is exactly what it does NOT mean. ;)

 

Also, you do gain XP while leveling Masteries, they're just Mastery XP.

 

> @"Healix.5819" said:

> He calls it hidden because when you haven't unlocked all of the masteries, your normal XP bar is hidden by a mastery XP bar.

 

I get that, but the phrasing was still unfortunate, hence the OP misunderstanding the statement.

[LucianDK.8615]

I find myself constantly running out of spiritshards, nickling and diming them to make mystic clovers.

[Urud.4925]

"XP you get **when** you have all available mastery XP tracks maxed [...]."

He didn't say that the exp goes to the hidden track **before** you maxed all the mastery tracks. Only after.

I'm not sure why he said hidden XP bar, but I noticed that very often I get the shard and the animation for the level up before resetting the yellow XP bar (especially when I'm in HoT. They are not synchronised. So it's indeed possible that there's another hidden XP bar for the shard.

[CETheLucid.3964]

> @"kharmin.7683" said:

> > @"CETheLucid.3964" said:

> > Spirit Shards are useful for a lot of things.

>

> Sadly, not so much for casual players like me.

 

Not with that attitude.