Yesterday I sat down and finally got into the ‘meat’ of the Guild Wars 2 expansion. Wow. At first I was frustrated. I felt like I couldn’t actually accomplish anything or make any progression without dying in a million new ways. It started when I couldn’t get back to the proper zone in order to work on my masteries. See, there are two types. Both “level up” by you participating in events. Personally I feel that they take way too much experience in order to ‘level’ but I suppose that’s the point, extend the content. Anyway. The masteries for the expansion are things like gliders, unlocking some languages for merchants, and being able to use the random mushrooms to bounce on. They also include things like being able to use the updrafts with your glider. When you finish the opening scene you’re expected to go back and start doing events so that you can level up these masteries. Of course for the ‘good’ ones you need to do it in the proper zones (ie: the new ones). Turns out that I just missed the entrance to the new zone, and a guild mate came along and fixed that for me. Took me over an hour of wandering around The Silverwastes to have a small tiny door pointed out to me. Sigh.
Once I was back in the right location it was time to find events. Of course with my map not even started I couldn’t port around to any of the happening places, and things hurt. Eventually though, I did manage to unlock my glider. That made things a bit easier. I began working on unlocking mushroom jumping, which is required for story progression. Again it took me a while (longer than I feel is necessary, but c’est la vie) but by the afternoon I had also unlocked that. Once those two things are unlocked the zones got much ‘easier’ in terms of survivability, though they were still incredibly confusing because there are different ‘tiers’ to them. I progressed the story to the second map, and I think I’m still only about 33% done the first one (there are four maps total).
The story is amazing, and I won’t get into any details about it here but if you’ve ever been a fan of the GW2 lore it won’t let you down.
If that wasn’t enough to keep you busy, there’s also the Halloween event going on right now. I took a run at the Mad Clock Tower (and failed, utterly, I am just not a jumping puzzle person) and then attempted a few runs through the labyrinth. We spawned the skeleton lich but we didn’t have near the number required to take him down. I did get a few achievements and about 300 candy corn. Unfortunately you need at least 1,000 before you can even get anything useful, so. I’m not sure if I want to spend that much time farming it. I may just look on the broker for the handful of items that I want.
Besides the things mentioned above, there’s guild halls (which I haven’t even looked into yet in any capacity), there’s the new class (I have no intentions of making one, it doesn’t really appeal to me), there’s the new specializations for your current class (I haven’t gotten the 60 points required yet to unlock the Chronomancer but I do plan on going that rout one of these days), a new crafting class (Scribe, in order to get to that point you need a guild hall) and a number of other QoL changes and additions.
Over all I’m having a great time, and I like the way the content is presented. It’s still a bit confusing as far as “how can I progress my gear” – because I haven’t the slightest idea. Right now I’m wearing exotics, but I’ve got no clue how progression for gear actually works. If anyone happens to have a handy site that explains it, please let me know!
As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.
Do you think the expansion is worth it ? I left the game since 6 months ago and playing Elder Scrolls Online at the moment. After the expansion HoT, I am thinking to play it again.
I couldn’t really find a guide on the gear progression but I do know exotic gear is really all you need. You might want to craft some ascended weapons but unless you plan on raiding or you are just looking for something to do ascended armor isn’t really necessary. It’s more like a nice to have. Also a lot of achievements will award you with an ascended armor chest and you can pick something you want from it.
guide on ascended armor crafting > http://bit.ly/1i4Cfna (this one is outdated but it was the best I could find. The made changes to ascended armor crafting with HoT)
guide on ascended weapon crafting > http://bit.ly/1MiphR4 (this one is a little newer but might also be outdated cause of the changes)
Here is a link to some of the different stat combinations. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Item_nomenclature HoT also added some more in but this should hopefully get you started at least to see what stats are out there. A lot of people use to run with all Berserker but that just makes you a glass cannon and with these new mobs I don’t recommend it. I’m thinking of switching my gear out as well with something that will give me a bit more health.