Players can craft Mastery Chains using the Tinkering skill
Mastery Chains are blessed, wearable items occupying the Talisman slot on a player
Mastery Chains can have Links added to them that provide permanent PvM bonuses (i.e. against creatures) to that player
Similar to Aspect Gear, Mastery Chains will never provide any bonuses to players who are currently in PvP or have been in combat with another player within the last 2 minutes
Similar to handling for Aspects, players can now only change their Mastery Chain at most once every 30 seconds (players will be prevented from equipping it until that 30 seconds passes)
There are four visual styles of Mastery Chain:
Gilded
Exquisite
Fashionable
Twin Loop
The visual style does not affect its mechanics, simply how it looks
Using Mastery Chains
Mastery Chains must be permanently bound to that player in order for that player to receive bonuses from the item
Players can have multiple Mastery Chains bound to themselves, although most players will likely maintain just one due to large amount of effort required to upgrade a Mastery Chain
Players may choose to simply keep their Mastery Chain in their backpack, rather than wear it (since it takes up a Talisman slot on their character), however they must equip it at least once in order to set that Mastery Chain as their "active" one for bonus purposes
Single-clicking a bound mastery chain will display who the owner is
Mastery Chains by themselves will provide no benefit to the player until they add Mastery Chain Links to the chain
Players are allowed to add up to 25 Mastery Chain Links to a Mastery Chain, however they must first Unlock Links in them by earning XP
Players earn XP by performing actions that earn gold (killing monsters / unlocking dungeon chests / etc) while wearing their Mastery Chain
Players will earn 1 XP for every 1 gold that they earn (will also be adding other ways to earn XP in the very near future)
When players earn enough XP to Unlock a new Link, they will receive a notification that their Mastery Chain has Unlocked a new link
Players can unlock up to 25 Links, and they can see how many total they have unlocked at the top of the Mastery Chain gump window (1/25 in this image)
If players have any available Unlocked links in their Mastery Chain, they will see one or more Green colored links in the chain graphic
Installing a new Link requires consuming 250 Arcane Essence
Mastery Chain Experience and Links Unlocked are now fully stored on a per-player basis rather than on individual mastery chains themselves (this allows players to use multiple Mastery Chains and share Experience / Unlocked Link amounts between all of them freely) patch May 30,2020
Mastery Chain Link Types
Mastery Chain Links are very rare loot items that are only available through a few specific game mechanics, or alternatively, purchasable by using a very large number of reward points from certain systems
Mastery Chain Links come in 3 different material types: Bronze, Silver, and Gold
Each Link has a specific effect or bonus it adds to a player when installed into a Mastery Chain, with that effect/bonus amount increasing based on the material type
Silver Links are even more rare than Bronze, and typically will have 25% higher bonus amounts than Bronze Links
Gold Links are ultra rare and typically have 50% higher bonus amounts than Bronze Links
Mastery Chain Link Bonus Values
Current values for potential Mastery Chain Links are listed below:
Note that "Effective" skill gain bonus for Mastery Chain Links only boosts the bonuses you get from those skills in combat
It does not increase your skill value for crafting
** = Chain link changed with the Wildlands Expansion
*** = New chain link introduced with the Wildlands Expansion
**** = Chain link changed in the Phase 1 Rebalance
Installing Mastery Chain Links
If a player has an available unlocked link in their Mastery Chain (displayed in Green at the top chain graphic) players can click the Install Link button in the Mastery Chain gump window to target and add a Chain Link in their backpack to their Mastery Chain
Players are allowed to install up to 10 Chain Links of the same bonus effect into a single Mastery Chain, and the cumulative total bonus for each effect is displayed in the Mastery Chain window
Players can remove Links by clicking the Remove Links button in the bottom right corner of the window
Removing Mastery Chain Links
When Removing Links from a mastery chain, players can click the Left/Right arrows to navigate through their currently installed links, with the selected link denoted with a Green pointer and the individual Link bonus displayed in the bottom panel
Clicking the Remove Link red button will remove the highlighted link from the chain and place it back in the player's backpack
Players will not receive the 250 Arcane Essence back when removing links, but they will be able to place a new link back into the chain in place of the removed one
When a player is done removing links, they can click the Done button in the lower right corner to return to the main page
Mastery Chain Link Reforging Tools
Due to the scarcity of Mastery Chain Links and because there are over 50 different types of potential randomized bonus effects possible on Mastery Chain Links, it will be very, very difficult for a player to acquire a large number of the matching or similar types of bonuses through pure random chance
To address this, players have the opportunity to purchase Reforging Tools, which can be used to alter a Mastery Chain Link to a specific bonus effect
There are Bronze, Silver, and Gold Reforging Tools available, and players must use a Reforging Tool of the same material type as the Mastery Chain Link they wish to alter (i.e. Bronze Reforging Tool on a Bronze Mastery Chain Link)
Players can double-click the Reforging Tool in their backpack, and then target the specific Mastery Chain Link they wish to alter
In the resulting menu, players can use the left/right arrows to rotate through the different bonus effects available that they may to change the Link to
When the player is satisfied with their selection, they can click the Reforge Link button to change the bonus on the Link (this will consume the Reforging Tool)
Players can acquire Reforging Tools by spending Reward Points from Arena, Achievement, Faction, and Society Reward systems
Players can also acquire Reforging Tools by spending gold at the Prevalia Market
Mastery Chain Link Tome
Players will now be able to purchase Mastery Chain Link Tomes from the Prevalia Market Merchant as way to store their various Mastery Chain Links they acquire.
