Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns’ New Mastery System Unveiled

Guild Wars 2 developer ArenaNet has published a new video showcasing elements of its upcoming Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns expansion pack. The studio is inviting fans of the series to learn about its new Masteries system, a new form of endgame progression for the game, as well as the game’s new area, the Heart of Maguuma—a jungle environment. 

In the Heart of Maguuma, the game’s story takes off after the events of Season 2, journeying deep into the jungle to find out what happened to the pact fleet. The new environment is composed of three biomes and brings an element of verticality directly influencing the gameplay. Players must learn new masteries like hang-gliding and mushroom jumping to traverse different levels of the jungle.

Likewise, the new Mastery system allows maxed out characters to level up even further. ArenaNet describes it as a progression system that both respects the palyers time and effort by allowing them to grow their characters (capped at level 80) in new ways. 

“Masteries grant meaningful powers to characters, like the ability to hang glide or jump on mushrooms to traverse the Heart of Maguuma faster and get to previously unreachable areas. Specific masteries will be earned from experience gained in PvE regions that are tied to those skills. Masteries will be leveled up on separate tracks, allowing for multiple tiers and simultaneous progression on multiple masteries.

“Masteries must first be unlocked with Mastery points, which are gained from tasks like completing a chapter in a character’s story, completing achievements, finding secret locations, defeating difficult enemies, performing well in the new adventure system and earning 100 percent completion in maps. New characters can accumulate mastery points, but the points cannot be spent until a character hits level 80. Furthermore, Masteries will bring new benefits to all of the characters in a player’s account. The mastery system was designed to expand players abilities without invalidating past achievements and to grow their characters while focusing on gameplay instead of grinding for new gear.”

Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns is out later this year.