It’s a tough one because I’m not sure it affects new players that much. It’s more of a problem for returning players and I’m wondering if those questions will just vanish once people get used to the new system.
Having said that, I do think we need a little better explanations other than the one popup at the start that everyone closes.
Personally, I think the mastery class tabs shouldnt even appear until the mastery quest is triggered, at least.
That’s an option we considered, only problem is that people want to be able to look ahead and plan. The nodes almost need a popup error that self vanishes when you try and put the points in.
Is that a problem better solved with the build planner you guys are working on? From a character development perspective and from a newbie pov, I feel not showing mastery tab before the quest feels more natural.
That’s a good point. I’m not sure how the build planner would tie in to that whole thing. I feel like it will have the same UI as the actual building UI.
Yes, one individual argued that because the initial nodes of the Mastery classes state “Requires ‘insert base class’ level 20” that this was justification that they should be able to put points into the mastery classes. Though, it certainly didn’t help that everything we communicated back and forth to one another had to be translated.
My very first time through I was a little confused as to why I couldn’t pick a mastery at level 20. I figured it was tied to a plot point and found out on my own soon enough.
I do feel like having a message somewhere might have helped with my confusion.
Assuming people want to look ahead (I know I do), why not just slap a giant “tip” window over the whole thing that states something like “Mastery will be unlocked upon completing [Mission name] during story”. You could then just have a “View Passives” button they have to click to hide that warning?
Offering a single free respec upon completing that mission for the first time could remove the need to “save passive points after spending 20” dilemma. This could also be added to the warning/tip screen when viewing mastery trees prior to completing the story mission.
We definately talked about having a free respec after completing that quest and it’s still on the table. We figured the gold coast is probably not prohibitive for most people playing normally in that initial tree. We probably won’t be changing it for a 0.7.8 hotfix but we do have the topic on the docket to talk about.
It’s honestly less of a gold cost thing, more of a tedious thing. I’ve completed that mission as early as level 18 and as late as level 24. By the time my level 24 was able to spend the accumulated points (quite a few just sitting there) I had invested enough play time without making any “progress” towards my build I was kind of over it.
A new player may feel forced to play a certain way without having the knowledge of how much longer until the mastery mission will come up. Seems like an easy opportunity to remove any “what if” situations for new players.
I don’t think free respec will help as it doesn’t really solve the initial problem. The problem here is that unlocking mastery quest is not intuitive and often confuses players. They usually have to look for the answers in the chat or from somewhere else. They will look for the answers first because many players usually don’t want to advance the story if they feel they have missed something major somewhere.
When a new player looks at the tree, they will see “requires base level 20” so intuitively they will assume that they will need level 20 or 20 points in the base tree. That’s what happened to me and I’m sure I’m not alone in this. You can say that the passive tree misleads the players.
I feel like if we just put “Requires Completion of Mastery Quest” in the passive tree, it will remove part of the confusion. Most likely they will assume “oh there’s a quest, I’ll probably encounter it eventually if I keep playing”. This message can be somewhere here.
Or probably you can tie in the mastery quest to the shards that we have to find before reaching The End of Time. This way the player knows that the mastery quest is something that they have to work towards in the main story. I remember there were at least 2 shards (one before teleporting to Ruined Era, and one after defeating the Omen of Silence).
Another option, what about allowing the quest to be completed as EARLY as character level 20?
Either put a button that creates a portal to the quest on the mastery tabs; or drop an npc in the major town hubs that has a quest starting at 20.
That way the quest lines up with the tooltips on the mastery tabs, and people can spend their points earlier, which has been a weird frustration, especially when Im trying to test out a new build.
I like the idea of making the mastery available earlier in the game - feels to late now imho.
Furthermore i want to add that i think that the last skill spec slot opens up much too late too! At level 49 you almost finished the game if you dont like grinding.
I feel like there will be some lore issues about this idea.
there are a sum of problems for the mastery quest.
i think it would be good, if we can spent points in the mastery skill, even without specializing in one. so anyone who thinks “i will go this way” after reading into a mastery skill tree can go that way. naturally only to the point where nodes are hidden under the “take a peek” window.
when you reach the mastery quest, it is “time to decide”. someone might chose a different one from the points he allready spend into a mastery skill tree. for example, you spend some points in necro but midway, by gaining testing more skills you find “beeing a lich” more appealing. so the points allready spent into the mastery skills should be, one time, reset after chosing a mastery skill.
(wishfull thinking ahead)
or why dont we get a “test play” for the three mastery we could chose. we play a timeline hoping game. you can click the “necro” and you switch to a (very) small map as a necro ancestors with “standard” build (not well build or specialized in one way, just to “show off” what a necro does). with fixed stats for that play, only visual items with no stats on them. “placeholder” to give them a name. after killing all enemies you return to beeing yourself infront of the necro and may do the same with the lich and, soon™ warlord.
this way you get a little insight of the masteries, a little “ok thats how it should be done as a necro, but i would do it different…”.
Since it’s a quest that gives you the mastery, I don’t think there’s anything preventing the player from running through the preceding areas and getting to the mastery quest “early”.
Some great ideas here. I just thought of combining them…
What if the quest triggers automatically, once a character reaches level 20? Could be like “a million voices in your head give you a glimpse of what could be”. Then a quest line starts with three time rifts spread around the maps, each representing one mastery. In each rift there could be a “test play”, like suggested above, where one can test the mastery and has to collect the “essence” of the mastery. After that, all three “essence” can be brought to the end of time (when the main quest has advanced that far), where the quest can be completed by doing the rift there and choosing the mastery. Or something like that…
I think the idea thing will be to add something about needing training from a master to unlock them. Plus either a related mini quest to do on the way (so people feel right about moving forward) or move the quest to earlier in the game.
Seriously, this pops up in game chat every 15 minutes…
Can you just put a message on each mastery tab/section that says something like. “Locked until completing (Main Quest: qusst-name) and assigning 20 points into base class.”
Same message should also be shown the first time you open your passive screen with the first popup “Passive System Introduction”.
A few example solutions. Let me know who to invoice 
Need to click on images to see full image
https://imgur.com/ndP7A7z
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