Heart of thorns now or later

[Xxanno]

I really want to unlock Scrapper elite, but I just reached chapter 3 in the story. Are HoT a seperate story or should I complete base game before starting it?

Edit: to avoid confusion; I have all the expansions exept one and I'm level 78.

[Joker]

You need lvl 80 to do Heart of Thorns
I would get it before the sale ends
Think it's on tuesday the sale ends

You can pick up the HoT + PoF bundle

[Xxanno]

My bad, I should have been more specific: I have all the expansions exept one and I'm level 78.

[Joker]

Originally posted by Xxanno:

My bad, I should have been more specific: I have all the expansions exept one and I'm level 78.

Then you can play HoT in 2 levels from now :)
Your call if you want to do the previous story before entering HoT story

[Xxanno]

soo... are the expansion seperate or not? As in does it build upon a linear story that becomes messy when swapped about?

[Joker]

Originally posted by Xxanno:

soo... are the expansion seperate or not? As in does it build upon a linear story that becomes messy when swapped about?

If you care about story you should play in order

But for people who don't, there's the option to play whatever order you like

[Nico]

For the Scrapper you odn't actually have to play the HoT story. You just need to own the needed expansion and get the needed hero points. Though for the hero points you probably need to play on one of the 3 expansions maps, since there you get 10 HP per hero point. But you only need the maps, not the story missions. Though you might have to play the initial story mission for some of the expansions to get access to their maps, or need to use teleport to friends.

[Shieva]

u should unlock POF first

[Joker]

Originally posted by Shieva:

u should unlock POF first

Only if you really want the mounts fast

If you want to play the game how it was designed to be play, then HoT first.

[Xxanno]

My god Im retarded. The moment I reached level 80 I got scrapper...

[ebaG-gamma]

Originally posted by Xxanno:

My god Im retarded. The moment I reached level 80 I got scrapper...

Your original question about unlocking Scrapper was still reasonable, since only unlocking Scrapper won't give you a fully effective elite specialization outright. You'd need 250 hero points (HPs) to fully train the scrapper specialization: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Training/Engineer#Scrapper
Investing the first 30 HPs will give you the ability to wield a hammer, 10 HPs more and you'll unlock the function gyro. Only then I'd start calling you a scrapper. You'd need a full 190 hero points to be able to select a trait in each of the three columns (adept, master, grandmaster) in the build. If you unlock every last hero point in Central Tyria and the Maguuma Wastes, you'll have 200 HPs – however this would take a long time; I cannot recommend it.
You can play your engineer as a scrapper, but you'll be missing traits and the gyro skills that you don't have the points to unlock yet. A base engineer might be more effective than a half-unlocked scrapper. However, if you only play story until you get to HoT, the reduced effectiveness probably won't matter too much, most of the time.

About the story:
Guild Wars 2's "Dragon Saga" storyline is one continuous narrative from the beginning of your personal story to the end of End of Dragons.
If story consistency is important to you, I highly suggest you play in order, not skipping forward. This includes living world seasons. The stories in living world episodes are not side stories, but bridge the gaps in between expansions.
The canonical story order is:
base game personal story (levels 1-80) + dungeon story modes starting at level 40 → season 1 → season 2 → Heart of Thorns → season 3 → Path of Fire → season 4 → The Icebrood Saga (season 5) → End of Dragons.
Then comes Secrets of the Obscure which begins a new storyline. (Although you won't be safe from spoilers for the previous stories there either.)

I'd go with Joker's advice over Shieva's. You could unlock mounts in Path of Fire before you play Heart of Thorns and season 3, but it will take away much of the sense of progression from the mastery system in HoT and keep you from ever experiencing the zones in HoT the way they were designed for. That is all on top of butchering story consistency.
You will have mounts for long enough if you unlock them naturally while you play the Path of Fire story.

[nazeer28]

Originally posted by Xxanno:

I really want to unlock Scrapper elite, but I just reached chapter 3 in the story. Are HoT a seperate story or should I complete base game before starting it?

Edit: to avoid confusion; I have all the expansions exept one and I'm level 78.

Another option is you can use teleport to friend to get to the expansion maps you don't need to start story to get there. In Path of Fire you can unlock bunny, skimmer and Jackal just by doing the hearts to unlock them (the HP's are much easier then HoT).

[buffy805]

Originally posted by Shieva:

u should unlock POF first

Yes, POF is better than HoT, it is the best of the expansion.

The jumping rabbit mount of POF will be a great help to jump nearly everywhere up the tree of the jungle of HoT.
When you reach the wings mastery of the rabbit you will also be able to glide from higher when you are at the top of your rabbit jump.

The rabbit mount is very useful in all the game and expansions.

[ebaG-gamma]

Another who is more knowledgeable about GW/2 than I am (or probably everyone) has said it more eloquently than I ever could: https://youtu.be/cXGTxJAiEpA?t=411 (don't worry, the relevant part starting at 06:49 (for some reason ?t=411 does nothing, thanks Steam) is only a bit over a minute long; even though the whole video is over half an hour long – and also worth watching).
Main takeaway: Only unlock the mounts before HoT if you are after a quick but inauthentic experience; once mounts are unlocked on your account they stay unlocked forever and you'll never have the authentic HoT experience unless you have extreme self-control.

If you are easily frustrated though and hate movement challenges in general (and you don't mind playing the story in reverse order), maybe the backwards path is for you.

[Q]

Originally posted by Xxanno:

I really want to unlock Scrapper elite, but I just reached chapter 3 in the story. Are HoT a seperate story or should I complete base game before starting it?

Edit: to avoid confusion; I have all the expansions exept one and I'm level 78.

wait for the next steam sales maybe u can get the hot & pof bundle for 15 or 7 bucks

https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/3902995340341070247