Guild Wars 2

Herr der Friedhoefe.2490:

So we now have content that can be done solo by thieves, but guild groups can go suck lemons.

Lovely.

Thieves, mesmers, guards, warriors, rangers, engineers, and necros so far actually…

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Herr der Friedhoefe.2490:

So we now have content that can be done solo by thieves, but guild groups can go suck lemons.

Lovely.

Bezerker geared characters Thieves, mesmers, guards, warriors, rangers, engineers, and necros so far actually…

Fixed that for you.

We beat it last night in a guild group that had no special plans in forming. We did what some of the people here say to do when doing it solo. You hide off to the right behind the rocks at the start and just come out and kill the plunderers as they spawn.

The only kittene is the far plunderer but if you let him get the cash and then all run as a blob and jump him as he comes back you can do it. Just retreat back behind that rock after you zerg out.

Took a couple tries but it wasnt nearly as bad as it first seemed.

I just solo’d on my necro with his conditiondmg/toughness/precision kit.
Took down the plunderers then legged it to lose aggro. Rinse repeat.

I found that I could just chill out next to the mortar fellas for a while before anyone came to get me so that was pretty convenient. Had 2000 gold left at the end. Was an easy run but I would have sworn it impossible when I first tried it.

Does having more people increase the chance of getting the aetherized weapons?

Kittimm.3875:

I just solo’d on my necro with his conditiondmg/toughness/precision kit.
Took down the plunderers then legged it to lose aggro. Rinse repeat.

I found that I could just chill out next to the mortar fellas for a while before anyone came to get me so that was pretty convenient. Had 2000 gold left at the end. Was an easy run but I would have sworn it impossible when I first tried it.

Could you post the build you used?

So this is a game that’s possible to solo if you abuse the spawns, but next to impossible if you actually try to do it the way its intended (the fact that your award is based on aetherblades killed and not just on gold remaining is a clear indicator that they want you to fight the enemies that spawn, not just the pludnerer’s).

Yah, sounds like a good design to me…

Anyone find out how to do this solo with an Ele yet? I’ve tried a lot, but the moment it starts spawning two plunders is where it falls apart for me.

Electro.4173:

So this is a game that’s possible to solo if you abuse the spawns, but next to impossible if you actually try to do it the way its intended (the fact that your award is based on aetherblades killed and not just on gold remaining is a clear indicator that they want you to fight the enemies that spawn, not just the pludnerer’s).

Yah, sounds like a good design to me…

I’m not sure. The two times today I’ve soloed it (for research into builds) I’ve had to deal with 3 spawns of plunderers at once. There are a few times I had to chase one down to kill him, and just tank the vets. As for agro they would chase me off the island.

First ss is of me being chased past the rocks, he didn’t stop till I almost reached the armor repair. Second is of me finishing t4 solo on kiel as I’ve posted ones of me doing gnash in the guardian forums.

I’ve used two different builds to complete this so far as guardian.

Eh i did it with this tactic
let me no in the comments if it worked.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL57bFfRb1k&feature=c4-overview&list=UU0zSiQPXmsqbc9zpYfFIbJw

Solod with an ele using a s/d burst build, arcane wave, arcane blast and signet of earth.

Spec was 0/30/0/30/10 using a mix of zerker, soldiers and cavaliers.

Did it on my first try too. Was cake. Startes to bring some guildies in for the achievement too.

did it with my warri for kiel and later my mesmer for gnashblade. the achievements are of course bugged again, as usual for ANet and their untested crap. I’d really like to see ANet employees with random classes play T4 here. I’m so incredibly tired by halfbaked content which very obviously has never been tested by anyone.

Best way to solo is to not fight anything else but the plunderers. Stay close to the mortars, go in to kill the plunderer, get out. Don’t chase the plunderers too far, you can wait for them to get back then finish them. Use your CC.

Same as everyone. Solo’ed all 4 levels with my rifle Berseker Warrior

Ixeilon.3651:

Best way to solo is to not fight anything else but the plunderers. Stay close to the mortars, go in to kill the plunderer, get out. Don’t chase the plunderers too far, you can wait for them to get back then finish them. Use your CC.

yeah, you obviously had luck, like I had on my first try of T4. it was possible, as only 3 plunderers spawned on the right side. since then I’ve tried 6 times and every single time I only get plunderers on the right side, immediately followed by ones on the left, and 2 strikers/swashbucklers and 1 veteran (which respawn if killed of course). in that composition, you cannot win anymore, as they never leave your frontyard, unlike those that spawn when you get lucky and have plunderers on the left.

this is by far the worst instance I’ve seen in this game. I really can’t fathom how they design that stuff without ever trying it out themselves (which they obviously didn’t, let’s not kid ourselves here)

Haven’t seen any Guardian solo video yet, so here goes mine:

Herr der Friedhoefe.2490:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Herr der Friedhoefe.2490:

So we now have content that can be done solo by thieves, but guild groups can go suck lemons.

Lovely.

Bezerker geared characters Thieves, mesmers, guards, warriors, rangers, engineers, and necros so far actually…

Fixed that for you.

Solod with my bunker guard in bunker gear (just respeced traits for more dmg) and valk geared thief traited for crit/stealth, so no, zerker geared characters are not needed to solo this.

Oranisagu.3706:

Ixeilon.3651:

Best way to solo is to not fight anything else but the plunderers. Stay close to the mortars, go in to kill the plunderer, get out. Don’t chase the plunderers too far, you can wait for them to get back then finish them. Use your CC.

yeah, you obviously had luck, like I had on my first try of T4. it was possible, as only 3 plunderers spawned on the right side. since then I’ve tried 6 times and every single time I only get plunderers on the right side, immediately followed by ones on the left, and 2 strikers/swashbucklers and 1 veteran (which respawn if killed of course). in that composition, you cannot win anymore, as they never leave your frontyard, unlike those that spawn when you get lucky and have plunderers on the left.

this is by far the worst instance I’ve seen in this game. I really can’t fathom how they design that stuff without ever trying it out themselves (which they obviously didn’t, let’s not kid ourselves here)

For the plunderers spawning at the front most spawn point (I’m guessing it’s the one in front of the rock? The other side is so far back that it shouldn’t be causing any issues), swim out and back towards the pile of gold, normally a sweet spot there which gives you enough time to go in and kill and back to the water. Don’t worry about the other side while doing this as you should have enough time to kill them on their way back. It is still possible with the spawns you talk about, you just need to change up your strategy.

I’ve successfully done this multiple times (as well as some unfortunate spikes that I ate which killed me) so I will agree a little bit of luck is involved, but no more then anything else really.

I’ve just soled it easily (1k left) with my knight-geared ele for the first try:)

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

Avalon.8436:

Mortifer.2946:

soloed with full support guardian for both kiel and evon

How did you managed that? Still trying to solo tier 4 as a guardian… =[

Check the thread in the Guardian forum for solo advice. Made one just for this to discuss different builds. You should know ahead of time that the guardians there usually post screen shots of their achievement so that they don’t end up just feeding false information.

I don’t lie

Topher.1684:

For the plunderers spawning at the front most spawn point (I’m guessing it’s the one in front of the rock? The other side is so far back that it shouldn’t be causing any issues), swim out and back towards the pile of gold, normally a sweet spot there which gives you enough time to go in and kill and back to the water. Don’t worry about the other side while doing this as you should have enough time to kill them on their way back. It is still possible with the spawns you talk about, you just need to change up your strategy.

I’ve successfully done this multiple times (as well as some unfortunate spikes that I ate which killed me) so I will agree a little bit of luck is involved, but no more then anything else really.

actually, the frontmost spawn is completely random in how often it spawns a plunderer and adds. it also seems random whether a spawn on the left follows immediately or not. as I’ve said, my first time I only got 3 right ones total, which is easily countered, you’ll just lose 1500. if you get 6+ it’s gonna get impossible. the problem is not bursting them down, it’s the simple fact that depending on spawns, you cannot physically get both at the same time and will lose 500 supplies always. you either burst down the right/front one with his incredibly short path and get aggro from everything, meaning you’ll have to shake them off, so the left one WILL have returned before you lose aggro, or you burst down the left one but then the right one will be able to deliver one piece of treasure. there’s nothing around that. at 6 times or more spawning two at the same time, you have lost the game. you can still get lucky and get both down, but this is rare and I haven’t seen any videos who managed that. they all just lived with the losses, because you can survive a few of those bad spawns. I’ve just seen another video with a lot of spawns on the right side, but not a single add being spawned just left of the right spawnpoint.

it all boils down to pure, stupid, simple luck.

but yeah, I expect people will defend this activity as the greatest triumph in game making, because they did it sucessful, can’t see the terrible RNG behind it and feel superior. great, I managed it as well and would’ve never played it again if the achievement hadn’t bugged as usual.
I could try until I get lucky again, but frankly this idiocy just shows again how little ANet cares about a decent design of their instances, minigames and the game as a whole. new content every 2 weeks but still bugs from beta weekend 1…

I managed to solo Evon T4 this with my mesmer now as well. It was bit hard, since the plunderer that spawned from the right-side spawnpoint all the time could not be aggroed without having to aggro a few other mobs too. In the end Evon and his buddies saved my hide. Running a berserker shatter build, 20/20/0/0/30.

It does get very old very fast, I may try for Kiel T4 as well but I don’t really feel like playing this too much.

woot did both t4, zerker gear guardian GS/Secptor/torch

sat in the back

Solo as a necromancer is easy. Just equip dagger for dark pact and use spectral grasp to pull.

I’m all for challenging content, but these trails are challenging for all of the wrong reasons. The artificial difficulty introduced when doing the trails as a group is entirely anti-fun. And yes, you can certainly solo the entirety of the trial tiers, but there is an enormous amount of luck involved as the enemy spawns are largely random. If you luck out and get enemies in the right spots or the plunderers spawn ideally, great, but otherwise you’re in for a nearly impossible time.

The enemies here do not follow a set pattern when breaking aggro — you can easily get the entire group to follow you all the way back to the initial spawn point (which can be an effective strategy). I think everyone who claims that there is a magic bullet to breaking aggro just hasn’t spent enough time with the events, as there is no spot on the map that will guarantee the enemies disengage. The magic rock only works 9 times out of 10, so there is always the chance of a bad roll there.

Ultimately though, I think the biggest issue is just that the entire set of events only rewards Berserker, damage-niche traits and stats. Yes, it can be completed without that focus, of course, but there is absolutely no incentive given to use more creative builds to complete the content. Everything else is going to be inefficient at best.

Between hindering group play and boiling the challenge down to a damage check, I really don’t find this particular bit of content to be very appealing personally.

From last night, my best T4 run has been 21 kills so far on my Ranger. Nothing good for drops. Just some heavy loot bags.

Mango pie’s on my shout warrior certainly helped me stay alive. I can run right through them for the most part. I’ve been trying to pull all I can behind the wreckage while partied. Solo, I just don’t have the dps to finish this by killing them

It appears they already nerfed/fixed this event. Just did it on my lvl 33 Hammer/Staff Zerker Guardian easily. Ring of Warding to lock them at spawn and smack them around. Then Zealots Embrace as they try to run and Signet of Wrath to really slow down their progress. Another fun thing was using Line of Warding and Sanctuary to deny them access

This pass they didn’t even spawn mortars or any of the heavy vets at 5:30

Wait… the poster above me sneaked that post in while I was playing/typing this. I kept reminding folks last night in my party to use the water! Also, if the get to low on HP, go for a swim and heal out of combat. Especially when the event was failing if someone died. Because I’ve never been chased out onto those rock formations in the water to the south of the plunderer’s spawn points.

Actually, I did all tiers of both, solo.

Very easy if you know how it works. I’m a elementalist asura, and this had been by far, the easiest achiev of ever all for me

This should have been advertised as a solo activity. There is literally no point to group.

Ok, tried it again on lvl 1 for Evon. Holy Cow it was crazy spawning again. Sigh, and here I thought they fixed it. It’s just buggy that’s all. Some runs are cake, others are insane. #smh

Edit: lvl 2 is pretty impossible right now. So, after doing multiple lvl 4’s, this is certainly a broken event.

I ran T1 – T4 with 3 guardians, 1 Necromancer, and 1 other class. We tried everything we could think of. Sadly we did not get the achievement for finally successfully completing.

The learning curve between T3 and T4 is steep but doable. Everyone has to bring their A+ game. This is basically Gate of Madness all over again.

Against the Plunderers control effects are the most important skill every class HAS to bring no matter what. I don’t know every possible CC skill for every class. There’s a Wiki for this. I play a Guardian so my build went something like this:

GUARDIAN SKILLS

• Signet of Resolve - large self heals
• Hammer of Wisdom (2x) - knocks down target
• “Stand Your Ground!” - Grants stability
• Wall of Reflection - I could be wrong but this one seems to block bombs.
• Tome of Wrath - Basically offensive damage and CCs on a massive scale (be careful not to use too close to the rocks or else you might aggro mobs)
  • #1 Conflagrate – Burn foes in target area.
  • #2 Affliction – Send out a projectile that cripples and weakens foes.
  • #3 Smiter’s Boon – Send out a cone that grants might and swiftness to allies.
  • #4 Zealot’s Fervor – Grant fury and quickness to all nearby allies.
  • #5 Judgment – Knocks down and damages nearby foes with a massive blast.

WEAPONS

Primary: Hammer

• #3 Zealot’s Embrace – immobilizes foe
• #4 Banish – Be real careful with this skill. This skill sends plunderers really far away if they get too close to their spawn but if used on a new spawn can send them closer to the treasure piles.
• #5 Ring of Warding – creates a ring around you that foes cannot cross while trapping enemies inside the ring when active! The best skill for this instance! Hammer Guardians rotate this skill!

Secondary: Greatsword

• #5 – Blinding Blade > Pull – Great for pulling Plunderers who are seconds away from reaching their spawn.

TRAITS

Zeal

• I. Blinding Jeopardy (might be better with VI. Spirit Weapon Mastery for faster Hammer of Wisdom knockdowns).
• VII. Zealous Blade (might be better with X. Eternal Spirit so that your spirit hammer won’t disappear after use; complements VI. Spirit Weapon Mastery).

Radiance

• II. Signet Mastery – faster heals

Valor

• IV. Strength in Numbers – gives allies 150 toughness (might be better with V. Purity to lose a condition every 10 seconds)

Honor

• I. Wrathful Spirit – gain retaliation when Aegis buff ends. (might be better with II. Superior Aria when combined with “Stand Your Ground!”)
• VIII. Empowering Might – Allies gain might for 5 seconds when you land a critical hit.
• IX. Two-Handed Mastery – Two-handed weapon skills recharge 20% faster… more times to use Hammer’s Ring of Warding!

TIPS AND GENERAL STRATEGIES

1. The east beach bank spawns Plunderers the fastest (~35 second intervals). The west bank spawns plunderers the slowest (the first doesn’t spawn for about 5.5 minutes; I think subsiquent spawns happen in ~3 minute intervals). As far as I’ve seen only Mortarers spawn in the middle.
2. Stay on the beach and do not go beyond the rocks. You want to keep the number of mobs you aggro to minimum. Their conditional damage is what will wipe your group fastest.
3. 80% of the T4 veterans dish out conditional damage. This makes the stat priority CC > DPS > CONDITION REMOVAL. Feel free to add 1 or 2 CRs to your build without sacrificing CC and DPS. Always pick ally CRs over self CRs.
4. Start hitting the air before Plunderers spawn so that by the time they starting moving ~80% health is gone.
5. Mortarers are an important secondary objective. They do massive AOE damage if not dealt with. Killing Mortarers is preferred but if not then go after the Mortars. They can be destroyed in 3-4 hits. Guardians can also use the Hammer skill Banish to hit Mortarers into the water where they can sometimes glitch and just stay there.
6. Strategy: do MASSIVE amounts of DPS against Plunderers and if for some reason they are able to run past the rocks let them go and kill them when they return. Plunderers DO NOT regenerate health.
7. Pull west bank Plunderers and do as much DPS as possible. If they manage to run past the rocks let them go. Pull and finish them off on their return. Try and avoid the aggro zone.
8. @ T4 no more than four Plunderers can get by.
9. Be prepared after all your group’s hard work not to receive the achievement for successful completion. (GG Arenanet)

Hope this helps!

The only thing that makes T4 hard IMO is the fact that they throw so many veterans at you, and said veterans seem to take too many hits before going down, while hitting like a berserker build. Lower how much they can take before they fold, and this will be easier.

Focus on surviving while killing the plunderers.

Almost got it done in a group (25s left).
Then I just solo’d it afterwards.
Didn’t have to deal with the mortars cause I was in short range 24/7.

Both are very possible.

Tried soloing on my ranger. Aggroed the mobs from behind the mortars and died to a Veteran Striker.

Tried soloing on my guardian. Aggroed the mobs from behind the mortars and died to a Veteran Striker.

Tried soloing on my mesmer. Aggroed the mobs from behind the mortars and died to a Veteran Striker.

See the pattern? And each time I was somehow within their aggro range despite killing the plunderers from there.

RyuDragnier.9476:

The only thing that makes T4 hard IMO is the fact that they throw so many veterans at you, and said veterans seem to take too many hits before going down, while hitting like a berserker build. Lower how much they can take before they fold, and this will be easier.

Agreed! They are not Veterans. They feel like Elites. If they are elites then Arenanet should use the appropriate silver emblem and lower the numbers to a challenging but manageable size. T4 is too difficult for 95% of the player base. If you would like to make it super hard offer a Hard Mode version for the 5% that want that kind of challenge.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Tried soloing on my ranger. Aggroed the mobs from behind the mortars and died to a Veteran Striker.

Tried soloing on my guardian. Aggroed the mobs from behind the mortars and died to a Veteran Striker.

Tried soloing on my mesmer. Aggroed the mobs from behind the mortars and died to a Veteran Striker.

See the pattern? And each time I was somehow within their aggro range despite killing the plunderers from there.

They fixed it. Mobs no longer have leashes (well, they do…the leash just ends about where the armor repair NPC is, and if you drag a mob all the way out there, he camps between you & the mortars so there is absolutely no going back without getting his attention). Now it really is just all luck. You better hope they don’t throw some right side plunderers at you cause even one = fail. You better hope swashbucklers don’t spawn near the mortars, because you cannot shake them. This definitely is not worth my time.

It was a fix alright…a MICROSOFT fix, meaning they broke it.

T4 was fun for both trials I am glad I got the hang of it soloing dont rely on no one lol but its easy once you get the just of it.

I was able to solo both Gnashblade’s and Kiel’s tonight, finished about an hour ago. I used my level 80 Guardian who is outfitted in mostly rares in a mix of PVT and Berserker stats, though I had to respec 30/30/10/0/0 and used all the scepter/burning/one handed crit damage traits, plus the snare trait that gives some vulnerability to snared target.

I used a combo of scepter w/torch to quickly burn down the plunderers and hammer for knocking away the two mortar guys from their spots where they spawn their mortars. Once I did that they stayed in the same spot and didn’t attack me and their mortars never spawned.

As the veterans start spawning in the middle I would quickly run to the armor repair NPC’s direction until I noticed the veterans walking away to the main stash area and then quickly run back, snare, and burn down the plunderers before they sent their pilfered goods back to their ship.

After a little while the vets stop spawning and I was able to stay a safe distance from aggroing them while easily burning down the plunderers. I’d say I was generally a few paces in front of the middle teleporter. I finished one tier IV at 2000 and the other at 1500. It’s better to let a plunderer get to his/her teleporter than to aggro one of the vets and have them keep coming after you and possibly downing you.

Eclispsor.6524:

T4 was fun for both trials I am glad I got the hang of it soloing dont rely on no one lol but its easy once you get the just of it.

Pretty much this. Every group I was in we all failed miserably in tier IV and I finally had enough of it and tried it on my own.

Korval.3751:

Plunderers DO NOT regenerate health.

This is incorrect, as I’ve watched plunderers regen. They will regen if left alone long enough.

Tried again, and got as far kitten minutes and 30 seconds left on the clock before I got overwhelmed. They started summoning numerous Veterans on me…which I don’t mind if I’m able to KILL said veterans at a somewhat decent pace, which apparently I cannot do as a berserker Mesmer (which is stupid).

I tried a few times on my zerker Mesmer too but eventually got fed up since my clones/phantasms were drawing aggro rather than helping (and I lacked a decent immobilize skill, which was a problem).

I took the easy way out and completed the trials solo, but I cannot help but wonder, with a grin, how fun this event would be if it was playable as it seemed to be intended. Even successful groups appear to be using the same tactics as folks doing it solo -- that is, avoiding mobs as much as possible instead of actually racking up the kills.

The lower tiers were a lot of fun with a party (edit: actually they were a lot of fun solo, too, as I did that first before throwing my lot in with others), kickin’ pirate booty and manhandling plunderers.

The vets feel stronger than typical vets, but it is possible that is because I was trying to focus on handling the plunderers in a limited time frame (whereas in a typical dungeon the party is free to focus down and kite as needed) to keep as much treasure as I could.

Whether solo or in a group… you can finish Trials on T4 without trying to kill the plunderers. Hint hint.

just to add my warrior to the statistics:

my warrior solo-ed both tier 4 kiel and evon’s candidate trials.

i stayed near the rocks and just cripple (leg specialist) dps them down as fast as i can.

sword / sword (both berserker)
rifle (soldiers, got it long time ago, did not bother to get a new berserker rifle)
armor (full soldiers)
trinkets (full berserkers)

not using dps traits also
0/0/25/30/15

Electro.4173:

So this is a game that’s possible to solo if you abuse the spawns, but next to impossible if you actually try to do it the way its intended (the fact that your award is based on aetherblades killed and not just on gold remaining is a clear indicator that they want you to fight the enemies that spawn, not just the pludnerer’s).

Yah, sounds like a good design to me…

This sums up almost all of GW2 “challenging” content. The best dungeon groups are full melee berzerker builds that kill bosses before they get a chance to be threatening. The healing/tanking side of the game has been nerfed so badly and the dodge mechanic is central to design that the risk vs reward when it comes to berserker builds in PvE is dramatically unbalanced.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Tried again, and got as far kitten minutes and 30 seconds left on the clock before I got overwhelmed. They started summoning numerous Veterans on me…which I don’t mind if I’m able to KILL said veterans at a somewhat decent pace, which apparently I cannot do as a berserker Mesmer (which is stupid).

Look back to my earlier posts to see how to do it as a mesmer.

WAY TO TROLL US Anet! Was just doingt level 4 again on Evon. Watch the Ele Vet auto heal right in the middle of combat. My pet is hitting him while I’m just behind the mortar and his HP was actually CLIMBING during my attack.

Everyone should be just giving this achievement. Or, the devs should have the vets lined up, firing squad style, so we can all one shot them down. Thus, Event Successful.

The fact that I did it earlier on an up level with ease and it’s not consistently repeatable shows clearly this is a bag of bs. I wouldn’t care is it wasn’t tied to any points but, it is.

I managed to beat T4 with my ranger and a group of 4 others (we pretty much tanked and CC’d through the whole thing). However, I hadn’t beaten T3 beforehand. So now I have to beat T4 again. This isn’t right, I don’t see why A-net grouped the achievements like that. There should be separate achievements for beating T1, T2, T3, and T4.

Lol we finally get something challenging and you can’t do by spamming auto attack and people complain…

But for the ones that want to do it easy.
We just stood with 3 people behind the cannons and pulled plunderers to us to kill them. (guardian gs pull, necro pull, warrior for dps) Also chill, cripple, guardian stakitten etc.
Run a little further on the island so you lose aggro again to kill the next plunderer without adds. In the end you might lose a few gold because so many plunderers spawn.
But you should be able to do it this way.

Razor.9872:

I managed to beat T4 with my ranger and a group of 4 others (we pretty much tanked and CC’d through the whole thing). However, I hadn’t beaten T3 beforehand. So now I have to beat T4 again. This isn’t right, I don’t see why A-net grouped the achievements like that. There should be separate achievements for beating T1, T2, T3, and T4.

I feel you. Did T2, T1, T3 and T4 (in that order), before discovering we had to start over again at T2. Not sure why everything in the game seems to be designed based on groups doing everything a set, certain way. This happened in Aetherblade Retreat as well, where if you either didn’t turn off the bridges (not everyone would find it necessary if all their members crossed) or if you didn’t have members too lazy or unable to do the jumping bit (thus engaging the mobs from behind before Kiel), you wouldn’t be able to progress to the final boss fight. Even if they kept the achievements as is, how hard is it to simply do a boolean check for completion of both T1 and T2, or T3 and T4? The current setup seems a much less intuitive coding design choice.