Mastery System

The unfortunate side of being a new player is that you must complete the first story mission in Heart of Thorns or Path of Fire on at least one character to unlock the mastery system (including core Tyria masteries). Since I personally do not like skipping around in story, here is my proposed solution for you as a new player:

Have a guildie or friend complete the first Path of Fire mission for you. It can even be done if you’re a level 2 character fresh out of the tutorial. For the helpful friend/guildie, follow these instructions:

1. Make sure everyone who wants credit is in Lion’s Arch
2. Open your story journal and select Sparking the Flame and replay
3. Read the mail you receive
4. Do NOT head to the green marker. You can skip that part
5. TP to [&BA8EAAA=] and head to the purple marker
6. Everyone needs to accept/click on yes once you start.
7. Have all the lower level players stay back and higher level characters can help out. Minor spoilers involved, but everyone can help put out the fires. If you just need the raptor, have everyone speak to Aksim after completing the heart. If you need to unlock masteries, the rest of the mission must be completed.

For core masteries, the Pack Commander line is probably the most appealing unless you run fractals. For more information on how/where to obtain more mastery points, check the wiki. Dulfy has an excellent guide on Mastery Insights obtainable in Path of Fire, along with what mounts/mount masteries they require. Dulfy also has mastery insight locations for Heart of Thorns areas as well and GW2Taco + Tekkit’s marker packs are a very big help.

Pact commander - 19 req, Legendary Crafting - 19 req, Fractal Attunement - 11 Req = 49 total

1. Mastery Insights (Achievement panel -> General -> Mastery Insights) 9 pt
2. Personal Story (1 per chapter) 8 points + 1 point for reaching level 80 = 9pt
3. Season 2 story (1 point per episode, 1 more for completing achievements) = 8/16 pts
4. Dungeons Discovered - Complete story mode for all 8 dungeons = 1 pt
5. Tequatl - One for defeating it once, one for completing all achievements = 1pt/2pts
6. Karka queen - On a timer. Easy point. = 1 pt
7. Triple Trouble - 1 for each head + 1 bonus one if all are killed at once, 1 for achievements = 4/5 pts
8. The Be-All and the End-All - 1 per boss then bonus one once you’ve killed all 3 = 4 pts
9. Fractal achievements - Most of the mastery point ones are completable on Tier 1 = 14 pt
10. Transfer chaser - fairly easy if a bit time-consuming but gets you a free exotic weapon with Assassin’s stats on it (Under Side Stories in Achievement Panel) = 1 pt
11. Hidden Garden - A jumping puzzle with multiple entrances - beautiful and fun = 1 pt
12. Justice of the Blade - Bounty hunting side story - fairly fun but you’ll need help = 1 pt
13. Dive master, Lion’s Arch Exterminator, gold badges in Silverwastes, Silverwastes JP
14. 100% Core Tyria Map completion = 1 pt

That’s the order I would approach obtaining mastery points for Central Tyria. As you can see, those 8 (or potentially 16) points from Living World Season 2 make things a lot simpler.

This is from Rikimaru.7890 from here on the official forums. All credit goes to them.

Now for those who played PoF but only now started playing HoT then know that it's WAY harder to master everything, not only does each mastery require much more Mastery Points, but also much, MUCH more experience. How much you ask? Well lets just say Gliding alone requires more experience to fully master than ALL the Mounts combined.

So it's very important to know where to start, but don't worry each of the 4 maps has a Meta event that awards lots of experience when completed. Also Adventures in HoT award Mastery Points for reaching Silver and Gold for the first time unlike those in PoF and many of them require some of the HoT masteries already unlocked. Even if you have all required masteries unlocked reaching Gold is difficult for many of them, so you should mostly focus on Silver with the very difficult ones and remember they aren't the only source you can get Mastery Points from. Now, before we start there are 2 important notes:

NOTE 1# If you have played PoF first and unlocked all the mounts, most notably the Springer and Griffon, then you will be able to reach certain places that normally require HoT masteries to do so. It won't allow you do everything, but it will make the process much more easy for you.

NOTE 2# As I mentioned before each map has it's own meta event that awards a lot of experience, however it should be noted that all Living World season 3 areas also award experience for HoT masteries. So if you intend to unlock all episodes or already have, then the one that would probably be most helpful to you would be episode 1 "Out of the Shadows." The new area it provides "Bloodstone Fen" is also an excellent place to farm HoT experience, as it has tons of Unbound Magic orbs, which give you, well Unbound Magic and experience when you pick them up. However the area is best explored once you have Gliding fully mastered, although T2 may be enough, but even if not then once you fully master Gliding you can use the map to gain experience for the other masteries.

And now a step by step guide on how to train your masteries, you may find the order a bit off-putting, but it's all about being able to get around as much as possible with as few Mastery Points used at the very beginning and then moving on with the rest.

1) Unlock Gliding and Itzel Lore

No real effort here, you unlock both automatically after you finish "Torn from the Sky" mission which will also award you your first Mastery Point.

2) Unlock Gliding T1 and obtain some Mastery Points

T1 is called Glider Basics, you probably already have it unlocked after "Torn from the Sky", so next you should get some more Mastery Points.

With Glider Basics alone you won't be able to obtain many, but even 1 alone is good enough for now. There should be 1 or 2 Insights you can reach directly west from Shipwreck Peak Waypoint. You can also do some Adventures most notably Salvage Pit it's so easy that I got Gold on my very first try, so it's easy 2 points, another one is Shooting Gallery although reaching Gold may be difficult but doable. If you ever feel like smashing your monitor doing it then here is some food for thought for you, when HoT came out you only had 2:00 min to get Gold now it's 3:00, so if you think it's hard now you can only imagine what a pain it was back then. Last but not least is Tendril Torchers although you may wish to wait with that one until you reach T1 Itzel Lore, but you should be able to reach Silver even without it and on that note let's move on.

3) Unlock Itzel Lore T1

T1 is called Bouncing Mushrooms for obvious reasons, these mushrooms will allow you to reach many places you couldn't reach before, it's the 2nd most used mastery to get around the maps right after Gliding.

4) Unlock Gliding T2

T2 is Updraft Use it allows to use the "Updrafts" which are the air swirls you see all around, not only will they pull you up while you Glide but also restore your whole endurance which can allow you to stay in the air indefinitely as long as you keep using them. With this you should be able to obtain several more Mastery Points and you can do Flying Circus and Bugs in the Branches adventures, although Gold may still be unavailable to you, most notably from Flying Circus.

5) Unlock Exalted Lore and Nuhoch Lore

To unlock Exalted Lore all you need to do is reach Auric Basin, likewise to unlock Nuhoch Lore you need to reach Tangled Depths. The entrance to Auric Basin is at the SW corner of Verdant Brink, while the entrance to Tangled Depths is at the SE corner of Auric Basin. With this you will have all Mastery trees unlocked, except for the Raids and Ancient Magics which are not relevant in HoT zones.

6) Unlock Exalted Lore T1

The Exalted Lore mastery tree is the least useful of all, even T1 "Exalted Markings" is only really needed in Auric Basin, however it will allow you to obtain 2-3 more Mastery Points easy and it only costs 1. With it you can enter the the area with the Fallen Masks adventure, which is one of the hardest to get gold with, however silver is fairly easy and should be no problem with Bouncing Mushrooms unlocked, so you will at least earn back the Mastery Point you spent on Exalted Lore T1. With this mastery you can also take part in Enchanted Armor Challenges right before the Battle in Tarir meta event, if you get first place in any of them you will earn another Master Point. The easiest is Enchanted Armor Challenge: Bid aurillium for use of an enchanted armor, near Westwatch Waypoint. Aurillium is the maps currency if you have 100 Aurillium all you need to do is bid first to win the challange, even if you are not first fear not as you get 6 tries.

7) Unlock Nuhoch Lore T2

T1 "Nuhoch Hunting" is useless when it comes to getting around, but T2 "Nuhoch Wallows" is very useful. Nuhoch Wallows are kinda like Skritt Tunnels is the Silverwastes, think of them as Mesmer Teleports with fixed locations. With this you should be able to obtain several more Mastery Points in all the HoT maps and get around much more easy from now on.

8) Unlock Gliding T3

T3 "Lean Techniques" will allow you to increase your speed or slow down while gliding, however increasing your speed depletes your endurance faster. It will also increase your endurance bar allowing you to glide for slightly longer distances without falling. This step can be skipped as it won't really allow you to reach any place you couldn't with T2, so you can move on to the next if you prefer.

9) Unlock Itzel Lore T4

T2 "Itzel Language" is not important, T3 "Blazing Speed Mushrooms" will allow you to use the Speed Boost Mushrooms around HoT maps allowing you to run around faster (which is irrelevant if you have mounts). T4 "Itzel Poison Lore" however will allow you to survive poisonous areas around HoT maps, if you enter a poisonous area without it you will die in a few seconds.

10) Unlock Gliding T6

No more fooling around it's time to get serious as this will take a lot of experience and Mastery Points. If you skipped point 8 go there to see what T3 does. T4 Stealth Gliding is mostly useless except for avoiding getting sniped while Gliding. T5 "Advanced Gliding" is the "big one" it allows you to glide indefinitely, even if you run out of endurence from using Lean Techniques your character will simply stop using those but continue to glide and regenerate their endurence. Which makes it the most useful of all HoT masteries as gliding is the only HoT mastery you can use anywhere except restricted areas. T6 "Ley Line Gliding" will allow you to use magic Ley-Lines which will pull you along their currents, which allow you to reach several more places you couldn't before and obtain even more Mastery Points.

11) Unlock Nuhoch Lore T4

T3 "Nuhoch Language" is not important, while T4 "Nuhoch Stealth Detection" will allow you to see "invisible" enemies, while it's not that important either it is required for certain events, hence it's best to unlock it before moving on with anything that takes longer.

12) Unlock Itzel Lore T6

T5 "Itzel Leadership" is mostly useless, however doing the challenge it unlocks will earn you a Mastery Point. T6 however "Adrenal Mushrooms," allows you to use the Adrenal Mushrooms which instantly refresh all your skills when used.

13) Unlock Nuhoch Lore T6

T5 "Nuhoch Proving" is the same as T5 Itzel i.e. useless except if you do the challenge you earn a Mastery Point. T6 "Nuhoch Alchemy" allows you to remove Chak acid by dodging. This can be done before Itzel Lore T6, however this ability is only really useful in Tangled Depths, while the Adrenal Mushrooms can be found in every map.

14) Unlock Exalted Lore T5

Yes this mastery is so useless that it comes last and ANET couldn't come up with a T6 for it. T2 "Exalted Acceptance" simply allows you to trade with the Exalted vendors, T3 "Exalted Assistance" allows you to summon an Exalted to aid you is some places, T4 "Exalted Purification" is like T5 Itzel and Nuhoch so you can earn an extra Mastery Point with it, and T5 "Exalted Gathering" allows you to get Auric Sliver from mining nodes in Auric Basin which are worth 5 copper on TP

So these are all HoT masteries, but there still are Raids and Ancient Magics masteries, but the former is only for Raiders while the Latter is for Living World season 3. However they also count as HoT masteries so I will briefly explain them too.

15) Raids

In order to unlock this mastery tree you must complete a raid encounter, ANY HoT Raid encounter will do it doesn't even have to be a Boss kill, you can complete the Spirit Forest or Twisted Castle and it will be enough. T1 is "Rift Forger" it allows you to use the Ley Rifts to repair your armour while Raiding, previously you couldn't use the Ley Rifts to teleport without it, however that changed when PoF Raids appeared as then PoF only players would be unable to use them to get around properly. T2 is "Explosive Launch" which allow you to use bombs that you can find in Forsaken Thicket to launch yourself from special platforms, you don't exactly need it to finish a Raid wing unless none of the members of your squad can use it, however it also depends on your role, but since you are a beginner probably no one will put you on turret duty on your first attempt. T3 is "Forsaken Thicket Waters" this one is important but only if you are fighting Matthias Gabrel, there will be 4 fountains during the encounter which will remove corruption from you if you walk into them, so without this mastery you will most likely die and probably kill other players in your squad so DO NOT attempt to fight Matthias without it. T4 "Forsaken Magic" allows you to use Bloodstone Turrents which nobody does really, however it also reduces negative effects you will receive when fighting Xera, so like with T3 for Matthias you should not attempt to fight Xera without T4. All Raid Boss encounters award a Mastery Point when done for the first time making it more than enough to compensate for what you have to spend on the Raids mastery tree, however even without them you should be able to get enough from the HoT areas. Each encounter will also award you Compendium of Knowledge which gives you HoT experience as long as you still have not mastered everything.

16) Ancient Magics

To unlock this mastery tree you need to have episode 1 or 2 of LW3 unlocked on your account and reach the new area the episode provides. T1 "Counter Magic" allows you to use a Special Action skill during certain story instances and events in LW3, which prevents you from getting killed by bloodstone magic and redirects it back at the one using it on you. T2 "Thermal Propulsion," allows you to use Thermal Tubes, which are kinda like the Bouncing Mushrooms but they launch you for much longer distances usually. They are the most used mastery as they appear is several LW3 areas. T3 "Koda's Flame," it's only used in Bitterfrost Frontier and if I remember correctly you can't enter the area without it, however it only unlocks the first skill the remaining four can be unlocked once you reach the area but at a price. T4 "Spectral Aid" gives you a 5th downed skill, however it's not unlocked for all game modes it's mostly used in PvE except Raids. How useful it is also depends on your class, I think Necromancers can make the best use of it as they can drain life like crazy with it. T5 is "Oakheart's Reach" it's only used in Draconis Mons, think of it as Batman's grappling hook and you pretty much will know what it does. T6 "Siren of Orr" it's only used in Siren's Landing and it's pretty much useless, I never found any real use for it, apparently it allows you to buff allies close to you, but what good is that when you can only use it in that one area and nowhere else? You also don't need it to get around the area so in my opinion ANET was simply out of ideas for the last mastery. Each episode will give you new achievements and insights that award Mastery Points, and as far as experience goes this mastery tree is the most laid back as each tier requires the exact same amount of experience i.e. 508000 which is very little so you should have no problems with it.

Well I guess that would be it hope you new players find this helpful and good luck mastering everything.

Credit goes to Rikimaru.7890 from the official forum. For help with mastery insights and to see what mounts they require, please view dulfy's guide here.

Each mount has 4 tiers in their mastery, T1 is a random boost, T2 gives a boost to the mounts attack skill.

T3 Is the most important It improves the Mounts special ability which allows you to reach places you couldn't reach before. Which allows you to obtain more Mastery Points among other things. It also is the rank at which your Mount is considered fully mastered, which is required to obtain new Mounts.

T4 is simply T1 now shared among all your Mounts. DO NOT train T4 until all your Mounts reach T3. T4 will not allow you to reach any new Mastery Points and it will only make the training more exhausting. The required Mastery Points to reach T4 (except for Raptor) is enough to reach T2 for your other Mounts and it requires almost as much experience as all other ranks combined. So if you decide to train T4 before all Mounts have T3 you may end up struggling to obtain more Mastery Points for your other Mounts.

Now I will do a step by step explanation on how to train your mounts:

1) Obtain your Raptor

You obtain it automatically after finishing "Sparking the Flame" mission which is also how you reach the crystal desert.

2) Train your Raptor to T3

The Raptor obtains a super long jump, which will allow you to reach some more Mastery Points for your other Mounts, it will also allow you to obtain the Springer and Skimmer mounts.

3) Obtain the Springer and Skimmer

The Springer is in the Desert Highlands north of Crystal Oasis. Go west from Lommuld Kraal Waypoint and you will meet a guy called Bahir standing next to a raptor. He will inform you that you can reach the Springer Ranch if you have your Raptor mastered by jumping over the large gap that is next to him. The first Waypoint you reach after jumping over is the Springer Ranch. You need to finish the Heart Quest there which will allow you to buy the Springer for 1g and 50 Trade Contracts.

The Skimmer is in Elon Riverlands south of Crystal Oasis. You will find the Skimmer Ranch Waypoint in the central west part of the map where the river starts. Although the Skimmer Ranch can be reached any time even without having Raptor T3 the Heart quest will be unavailable before you reach that rank. As with the Springer you have to finish the Heart Quest in order to buy the Skimmer, which costs 5g and 50 Trade Contracts.

The Springer and Skimmer will instantly allow you to reach new Mastery Points, as the Skimmer can traverse harsh environments like quicksand, while the Springer can jump high to reach high ledges, however a lot of Mastery Points will be too high for the Springer without it's T3 ability.

4) Train your Springer to T3

The Springer gains a super high jump, which allows you to reach more Mastery Points again. Reaching T3 also allows you to obtain the Jackal now. Although Reaching T3 with the Skimmer also allows you to obtain the Jackal, the Springers T3 ability is required in many more places than the Skimmers who has the least required T3 ability.

5) Obtain the Jackal

The Jackal is in The Desolation south of Elon Riverlands. You need to reach the Sand Jackal Run which is all the way south, it's most easy using the Skimmer as it is the only mount that you can ride on the blazing hot sand and the Sand Jackal Run is surrounded by it. Although it is possible to reach the Sand Jackal Run at any time the Heart Quest will again be unavailable until you reach T3 with your Springer or Skimmer. Finish the Heart Quest and you will be able to buy the Jackal for 20g and 200 Trade Contracts.

Unfortunately the Jackal alone will not allow you to reach any new Mastery Points until you reach T3 with it.

6) Train your Jackal to T3

The Jackal gains the ability to use the Sand Portals which again will allow you to obtain more Mastery Points.

7) Train your Skimmer to T3

The Skimmer will be able to hover higher above the ground which will also allow you to obtain some new Mastery Points. The Skimmers ability is the least necessary of all the mounts, however the Skimmer allows you to traverse harsh environments i.e. quichsand, blazing hot sand, damaging branded terrain, hence it's most important ability is obtained along with it. Which is why I decided to train it last, however if you don't share my opinion then you can train in any order you like.

8) Train your Mounts to T4

This can be done in any order, you just have to decide which T1 ability you want on all your mounts. I guess the Jackals ability to avoid attacks and Raptors increased attack damage are a good start. NOTE: Because there is a 5th mount, the Griffon, which you can obtain after finishing the story you may want to hold back with reaching T4 until you obtain it. However it is not necessary as you can obtain more than enough mastery points you need now. You need 64 to fully master all mounts including the Griffon. There are exactly 40 insights in PoF, however you can only reach 37 without the Griffon (although it is possible to get all 40 using the other mounts in combination with Gliding), you get 1 point for unlocking each mount so up to 5, all story missions except "Sparking the Flame" award a point on first completion which gives a total of 12 and you can obtain 8 more in Domain of Vabbi alone by fighting djinn or solving their riddles, which already gives you a total of 65 points.

If you didn't do any story missions yet (except "Sparking the Flame") this is the time you should start, as each mission will not only award you a mastery point but also a Stash of Kournan Coins which gives you 127000 exp so a total of 1524000 and that's not including any other experience you gain along the way. In total you will get enough to almost train 2 mounts from T3 to T4. You can delay story if you wish to do full map exploration first, however once 2 of your mounts reach the exp to unlock T4 then you should move on to your story or you will waste a lot of exp. And since the Griffon can only be unlocked after the story is complete you obviously won't be able to use the awarded exp to train it.

9) Obtain the Griffon

Well I'm not going to copy-paste Dulfy's guide obviously, so I'll just give you the link to her guide on how to obtain the Griffon. I will only say that you need to spare 250g to obtain it, so if you don't have it you will have to wait for now.

http://dulfy.net/2017/09/24/gw2-griffon-mount-collections-guide/

10) Train your Griffon

If you trained all other mounts to T4 and didn't manage to obtain the 3 insights that require Griffon yet you might be missing 2 mastery points atm to fully train the Griffon. But you have to be really lazy to be in such a situation as apart from the 8 djinn challanges in Domain of Vabbi there are a few extra points in the other areas you can obtain real easy. However if you are then just use your Griffon to get those 3 insights you previously couldn't. You don't need to train your Griffon to obtain them, training your Griffon instead will unlock new adventures which require the Griffon to do them.

11) (optional) Train your Mounts to T4

If all your mounts are not yet fully trained then it's time to do so.

In addition to this post, Dulfy has an excellent guide on obtaining the Roller Beetle and the wiki has a guide on how to obtain the Skyscale.