RD Tips for New GW2 Player (HoT Edition)

Regarding Central Tyria Mastery Points:

When HoT launched, GW2 added the new Mastery Point System. The points are rewarded for completing certain achievements throughout the game.

The new zone (Heart of Maguuma) included lots and lots of ways to earn Mastery Points through the new content.

But what about Central Tyria?

Players were rewarded mastery points automatically for every applicable achievement that had already been completed.

But what about new players or players who need more points to complete all of the Central Tyria mastery reward tracks?

This is my experience with how to proceed with Central Tyria mastery points, your experience may vary.

Central Tyria Mastery Points

This list is sorted by the achievement category, and my comments on each. The numbers in parenthesis show the total number of points and the number that I would consider to be "Easy" to earn.

(1/1) Basic Collections - Koutalophile: Easy. A basic scavenger hunt and a couple of random drops from Tequatl world boss, WvW skirmishing, and low level fractals.

(4/4) Bosses: Easy. One point for each of the heads in Triple Trouble and one for the Karka Queen. There are maps that organize for TT and make this fun and easy to complete. Karka Queen normally has enough players on the map to complete on the regular timer.

(2/1) Echoes of the Past: A recurring theme as earning the point for completing the story is relatively easy and something many players would be doing anyway, but completing all of the other achievements in a Living Story achievement category is not easy and requires multiple playthroughs of the story.

(2/1) Entanglement: See Living Story comments.

(2/1) Explorer: Dive Master will be mostly accomplished during map completion; however, the Not So Secret JP (Aetherblade JP) is challenging to complete and the dive is essentially a blind leap of faith that can be very frustrating. There are video guides but it is still not easy to do. Lion's Arch Exterminator is a fun scavenger hunt that does not take long (especially if you choose to use a guide) and you get a nice reward for finishing it.

(1/0) Fashion: Very expensive to soulbind 90 unique pieces of cultural armor.

(14/14) Fractals of the Mists: I highly recommend trying for these. Fractals at low levels are fun mini-dungeons with nice rewards. Fractals at high levels are endgame content to challenge experienced players. But the mastery points can all be earned from low level fractals. Some of them are harder than others to get, but, in general, I find this to be a rich source of Central Tyria mastery points.

(11/11) Hero: I found the Personal Story worth doing at least once, so that knocks out most of this category. The story dungeons (except Arah) are not required for completing personal story, but are fun and worth doing. 100% map completion may be a chore, but the personal story guides players through a good portion of the map and it is worth completing for the gift of exploration that is used in legendary weapon crafting.

(1/1) Jumping Puzzles: I am certainly no pro at JP's, but there is only one JP that has a Central Tyria Mastery Point tied to it - Hidden Garden. I'd put this one somewhere in the middle of difficulty level for me, but with gliding allowed for this one, it is actually much more forgiving if you miss a jump, as you can at least glide to safety and retry.

(2/1) Point of No Return: See Living Story comments.

(5/0) Rare Collections: These will take a lot of time and coin to complete.

(2/1) Seeds of Truth: See Living Story comments.

(2/1) Tangled Paths: See Living Story comments.

(2/2) Tequatl the Sunless: It will take a few tries through this world boss event to complete, but maps are active for Teq and it goes fast and is fun.

(2/1) The Dragon's Reach, Part 1: See Living Story comments.

(2/1) The Dragon's Reach, Part 2: See Living Story comments.

(7/7) The Silverwastes: Go for the Gold is the hardest one of this group, but there are guides available. The Respective Runaround is a very long jumping puzzle, but gliding helps and a guide will make this much less confusing to complete. The rest of this group are done by killing the various legendary creatures that spawn randomly around the map. Silverwastes is a lucrative map, but just be sure to find a map that is doing events and not just a loot chest train to help increase the chances of the legendaries spawning.

(2/2) Triple Trouble: Like Teq, getting the TT achieves will take a few runs through but this is a fun world boss encounter when done on an organized map.

(9/9) Mastery Insights: Added with the July 2017 update! There are nine new Mastery Insights locations in Central Tyria!

(x/x) Side Stories: There are a few mastery points hidden inside this new category!

So, what does this all mean?

There are 76 Central Tyria mastery points available. I would rank 62 of these as "easy". Currently, there are 49 mastery points required to complete all of the Mastery Tracks for Central Tyria.

So, while daunting, there are paths to reach the required number of points to unlock everything and not have to do every single achievement with a mastery point attached to it.

Good luck and have fun gathering those Mastery Points!

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