Guild Wars 2

So it seems every time I run the Labyrinth nowadays there’s at least one player (often more) yelling at everyone during the Viscount to stack. “Quit kittening ranging and stack” (exact words from one of them yesterday, BTW) and so forth, discussions by those players about how mindless and idiotic people are, ect.

I understand stacking on the Lich, because apparently he heals from targets who fight at long range. Or at least that’s what I keep hearing, and the posts I’ve seen where the Lich is unbeatable would suggest that might be true. That being the case, obviously its needed to stack in melee range so that you don’t make him heal more damage than you can dish out.

I don’t see the need to stack on the Viscount, though, and none of the yellers ever give a reason for why you need to stack either. I even specifically asked yesterday why it was nessicary to stack and got no answer.

Unless I’m mistaken on the mechanics, there’s no disadvantage to ranging the Viscount as long as you find a candy pool to stand in when he’s going to launch his projectiles. He’ll do a bunch of ranged candy spire attacks on occassion, but they’re less dangerous and easier to dodge than his melee attacks / melee AoE (which comes pretty fast and can sometimes insta-down you).

So… am I missing some mechanic that actually makes it needed to stack on the Viscount, or are people just getting overly aggressive for no reason and I can safely ignore them?

I would ignore them. as long as you are aware of the candy pools. I always stack because i play a dagger necro so i get my highest DPS with the melee dagger. But i find that if I switch to staff and range the whole fight then i can stay on my feet the entire time. But in melee, you will frequently go down from his huge melee DPS spikes.

I say to stack because I like the look of tons of people swinging at him. Teehee

I like to stack as you’re less likely to get hit by his throwing of candy bombs…

Sometimes, the candy field spawns on him and allows melee folk to beat him up…but sometimes it doesn’t. To be honest, I’d just watch for the fields to spawn and stack on them before going in and hitting him.

I believe the only advantage to stacking is that he usually puts a candy pool at his feet. It works the same as when you use the other pools, so I just ignore these people. If you use the candy pools to get the buff, you’re protected from the range attacks. I usually stand in the pool until I have about 7 or 8 stacks of the buff. If you hit 10, you get knocked down and have a cooldown on your skills. Once the stacks wear off (whether or not you hit 10), you have increased cooldown on your skills, but don’t get knocked down.

I find that staying at range makes it easier to avoid his other AOE attacks since you can more easily see the red circles and dodge them. It also makes the fight more interesting since you’re moving around more.

Stacking is good advice for the many who don’t seem able to avoid getting flattened by the candy bombs and spikes. Do people not know you can dodge or are they all colour blind?
I don’t mean to come across as unkind but it’s not a complicated mechanic to avoid.

Stacking at the candy corn boss is a good idea, so the candis aoe fields are always on the zerg. Candis aoe gives a large damage boost and makes you immune against his ranged attack, so its a win win even if you insist on continuing your ranged wep in melee range.

Malediktus.9250:

Stacking at the candy corn boss is a good idea, so the candis aoe fields are always on the zerg. Candis aoe gives a large damage boost and makes you immune against his ranged attack, so its a win win even if you insist on continuing your ranged wep in melee range.

That’s wrong. Sometimes he lays a candy AoE field at his feet, sometimes he lays 4 AoEs around him in a circle. Its independent of the position of the players.

The ONLY thing you must REALLY keep in mind in that fight is standing on the candy pools.

Those that get candy coated will deal more damage to all enemies (not just the viscount) and become immune to the Viscount’s candy corn barrages.

The pools may appear right under him, but also around him. So standing still in one spot all the time is a bad idea. Players must be aware of their surroundings during the fight and look out for candy pools. As soon as they appear, get in and attack the Viscount. For that i a good idea to have at least one ranged weapon of at least 600 range.

The rest is just common sense. Get out of AoEs, don’t aggro other enemies into the fight and such.

No matter where I am in this game, in every dungeon, I get downed 500% more when I stack. Almost every time I don’t stack or am standing very close to the stack but still dodging out, I don’t get downed. I’ve monitored this playing every dungeon boss in the game. If I don’t get to dodge, I will be falling a few times. So yeah, I personally tell people that I stay close to stack but never fully stack. If they cry and moan about it, I find another group that is not totalitarian. I’m also a squishy Mes so yeah.

P.S. I run more than 10 pugs a night and stacking does completely work when the entire party are super OP and burn the crap out of the boss. That victory, however, isn’t a product of the stacking. It’s a product of our gear and trait setup. Boop

there’s no actual need to stack on Viscount of Candy Corn ~ it does help, yes. though people can kill him just as fine not stacking.

where people do need to stack is on the Linch ~ so many people just stay ranged. It life steals off of those people, everyone should always stack on him, and since the majority of people don’t care or don’t care to listen then i just move along to the next door that pops up. you can only tell so many people why stacking is important before you just don’t care and leave those that do range dead in the back.

Lich also steals life on melee but:

Skeletons actually spawn on people (who don’t block or evade summoning attack). So when you stack they spawn at the same place which allows you to easily kill them with area damage. Killing them means that Lich can’t consume them for health. If you kill them fast they won’t be able to use Retaliation, Protection and Regeneration which is a huge asset (Retaliation does lots of damage).

Melee naturally allows you to cleave and you do higher damage which helps with the damage race. Also stacking helps with buffs!

The only other advantage I can see to stacking Viscount is that it’s a lot easier to res downed people when you’re all in a bunch. It’s frustrating when someone lays there screaming for a res way off on the other side and expects people to rush over and get themselves killed trying to reach them. I’m never down for more than a few seconds in the stack because you’re surrounded by people who can res you without moving an inch.