Guild Wars 2

Xista.7391:

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

Well add guardian to the professions that can solo all 4 tiers.

can confirm

Was surprised what my scepter could do when specced properly =D

heh, figured scepter would do the job. ; )) waiting to get home to try it out.

for GNASHBLADEEEe

Did it solo as a Ranger, full zerker with 1500 range on longbow, stand of the rock near mortar and snipe. Get into water if you agro any veteran (got only one bothering me). Pet on standby (take pets with buffs).

This thing is buggy as bleep. Did it with my Ranger in a three man party. Two of us were bow Rangers. Can almost solo it in Knights gear as a shout warrior. Yet, in a full party, everything goes to heck! The mobs were chasing us behind the rock were Kiel talks even. I ended up going hero mode and pulling 10+ behind the wreckage, dove in the water, and swam back to the start.

This thing still needs a nerf, scaling fix, bug fix, or whatever the heck makes it so inconsistent. IMHO, this is still the worst content to date. It’s not even about skill, just which gimmicky peg fit’s this content’s hole.

DeWolfe.2174:

This thing is buggy as bleep … It’s not even about skill, just which gimmicky peg fit’s this content’s hole.

The only thing that’s “buggy” is how easily the creature aggro and leash range is being exploited to trivialize the encounter. At least the only thing being rewarded for it is an Achievement. It isn’t profitable to do so at all.

it’s been one day in, already talking about nerfing instead of finding out better ways to do it?

Just now, I managed to solo tier 4 Kiel’s candidate trial in 2 tries with my full berserker rifle warrior. I tried full party earlier and it was hell.

This is what I did:
- All berserker stats traited with rifle 20% reduced cd on skills and physical utility 20% reduced cd (for your Throw Bolas), always pop up “for great justice” and signet of rage for full dps
- Always stay behind the spawn areas (where plunderers spawn and this is the spot where you want to lose aggro and hp reset)
- Kill plunderers as soon as it spawn (use bolas and rifle skill#2 to slow them down) and if you didn’t manage to to kill it in one try, don’t attempt to chase it or you will be inviting more mobs/vets to you, wait for it to come back and kill it (if mobs comes to you by chance, run away until you lose aggro)

Hope it helps.

I just finish T4 trials with my zerker ranger. I was actually surprised on how easy it was, because when i grouped up to do T4 it seemed impossible.

aspirine.6852:

it’s been one day in, already talking about nerfing instead of finding out better ways to do it?

I’m calling for a nerf because how many tries does it take to figure that out? The scaling is poorly implemented. As many of the post’s are pointing to this conclusion. It reminds me of how badly implemented the scaling is on the Karka Queen. Which is mostly why Southsun is a ghost town again.

We finally beat it after several fails when we decided to just pull/knockdown/knockback the first plunderer and NOT kill them.

Did it yesterday with Rifle on my Warrior lol. I justed Burst Mastery and Berserkers Power, FGJ and both dps Signets and just oneshottet the plunderers with 14k crits.
DPSing the Veterans with a full Squad didn’t really worked out for us since those have about what? 400k-500k Hp lol.

I found this “trial” concept to be extremely boring.

My first thought was “…didn’t they remember how defending magg in CoF went? just constant spam waves of veterans over and over, where the player can’t really over power the enemies but just get constantly wittled down.”

Also to avoid the annoyance I simply solo’d it with a thief camping the spawn points. I didn’t even bother doing it in a group, hearing how it will scale and with all those vets running about, I doubt a normal pug group would have been able to do it at all.

This instances are easier in solo mode, the scaling is bigger than x (number of players) , seems like to compensate sinergy. Still you can do it.
Theres only 2 plunderers at the same time, the second one began to spawn at 5.30 min left, what you need to do is going behind the spawn place of the first one (like where the further mortar is) and atack and pull the plunderer, if he go away you atackhim at return (that way you dont pull more mobs), near minute 5.30 move your party to the rock at the side of the second mortar, some members need to take care of the second plunderer respawns and the others to do the first, same not pulling mobs strategy. The more problematic part is pulling the second plunderer withourt agroing a lot of mobs, you can do it witha necro pulling at the side of the rock, use fear, knockbacks, cds, paralizaton, criple and freeze them. Thats all.

DeWolfe.2174:

aspirine.6852:

it’s been one day in, already talking about nerfing instead of finding out better ways to do it?

I’m calling for a nerf because how many tries does it take to figure that out? The scaling is poorly implemented. As many of the post’s are pointing to this conclusion. It reminds me of how badly implemented the scaling is on the Karka Queen. Which is mostly why Southsun is a ghost town again.

Ok didnt mean to insult you or anyone else. But it is suppose to be an ongoing mini game so nerfing it right away might not be the best.
So far I see that the vets are the major cause of the problem, these type of mini games are indeed better with hordes of normal foes instead of hordes of vets.

Xista.7391:

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

Well add guardian to the professions that can solo all 4 tiers.

can confirm

Was surprised what my scepter could do when specced properly =D

What would be “specced properly”?

Hypothesis: Instance scales enemy stats with total effective party stats, enemy numbers scale with number of people in party.

T4 is a great challenge its fine how it is to much of you people whine about everything get a good group find a strategy and DO IT! (:

I did it yesterday with a 5 man party and was surprised how easy it was. We only lost 500 out of the 2500.
Party was a Ranger, Warrior, Guardian, Elementalist and myself (mesmer) and all we did was camp at their spawn point.
When one game out we attacked it but didn’t follow. Waited for them to grab loot and come back then DPS them to the ground. Lots of slowdowns and knock backs and stuns are the key to these guys. When a Mortar guy popped up we took care of it while the dude was grabbing the loot.

As for the tons of Veterans , we would also focus on them while the looter was spawning/ grabbing loot, yet we never followed them into the middle and we attacked only who came close to us.

It’s a bit on the “cheap tactics” side but it worked and I think it was easier than Tier 3 just because we didn’t use that strategy.

Hopefully this maybe helpful to 5 man groups.

DPSK.5762:

T4 is a great challenge its fine how it is to much of you people whine about everything get a good group find a strategy and DO IT! (:

I don’t really think a good group strategy is hanging out in the back, not aggroing most of the mobs and quickly burning down plunderers. Yes, this is what you have to do to get it done, but honestly, it seems that this isn’t scaling well. You’d think the intention of the instance is to have us actually fight, not hide out in the back. Of course I could be wrong.

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

hmmm anyone solo-ed it with a warrior? O_O

Very easy with a rifle and zerker gear. Take healing surge and/or signet of fury and you should be able to snipe every second plunderer (I saved this for the spawn point that closest to the pile of treasure). I used the mortars to charge up adrenaline when I had downtime (which is often, doesn’t take much to kill them). Take Bolas for some laughs if you want too.

Edit: I’ve done this several times, and have only lost at most 500g (1 plunderer) in a run (most often it’s a “perfect” game).

Edit 2: I would agree with the people saying the scaling is a bit off. Maybe a closer look into this is warranted. What I think needs fixing ASAP is the bug (I’m assuming this is a bug) where when in a party, if someone dies (not downed, dies) the event has a good chance of failing (this happened to us many times before we finally decided to just solo the instance). Nothing like getting to under a min left (and not using the stay next to the mortars strat) and having 1 member die (first time was to a dc too…) and bam, event failed (still had full treasure).

Topher.1684:

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

hmmm anyone solo-ed it with a warrior? O_O

Very easy with a rifle and zerker gear. Take healing surge and/or signet of fury and you should be able to snipe every second plunderer (I saved this for the spawn point that closest to the pile of treasure). I used the mortars to charge up adrenaline when I had downtime (which is often, doesn’t take much to kill them). Take Bolas for some laughs if you want too.

Edit: I’ve done this several times, and have only lost at most 500g (1 plunderer) in a run (most often it’s a “perfect” game).

Warrior, not a coward with a gun.

DeWolfe.2174:

My one word for this, “nerf!”

Well yeah, if everyone is having to cheese it and avoid 99% of the spawns, I think something is wrong… :/

That said, I will be soloing it later today. Lulz.

Forsaker.9213:

Candidate Trial T3
http://www.twitch.tv/forsaker_/c/2626665

Candidate Trial T4
http://www.twitch.tv/forsaker_/c/2626667

GJ at linking a private feed…

Soloed T4 with bomb/nade kit engineer, via camping out in the spawn of the plunderers.

Way too hard for content that is temporary.

Aza.2105:

Way too hard for content that is temporary.

It might be hard if your party is not great. But try it solo, its really easy then IMO. Scaling for groups seems a bit over the top.

Solo

Candidate Trial T3
http://www.twitch.tv/forsaker_/c/2626665

Candidate Trial T4
http://www.twitch.tv/forsaker_/c/2626667

The problem I find with the trials is that they are simply not fun. Regardless of if you can do it or not, solo or group, how many people actually say: Lets do this again because it is so fun!

Note: I have done both Kiel’s and Evon’s on T4 with my elementalist, solo.

I used the hide behind the spawn point tactic in both.

- With Evon’s, I got lucky and only one plunderer spawned the entire time, so killing just one when they spawn was easy.

- With Kiel’s, a second plunderer would always spawn at around 5:25 and with the other random spawns that will attack you once you start attacking the plunderer even if they are far away, it was really tough until I found out a strange glitch/bug/loophole:

I found this out while trying to do the trials on my lv 5 (upscaled to 80) ranger for giggles (lack of sleep).

I tried using the longbow’s interrupt to see if the plunderer would drop the bag (they don’t), I started just doing that instead of killing him and notice even after 5:25 when the second plunderer was supposed to spawn with other enemies, that plunderer didn’t. I even notice that besides the first few that spawns along with the first plunderer, no other enemies spawned at all.

I switch back to my elementalist, tested this theory out, still work. So after the 5:25 mark, I started killing the plunderer and each new one that spawned, but no other enemies besides the plunderer would spawn.

This was how I beat Kiel’s tier 4 trial solo, easy, but so boring.

I hope that all whiners who cried about no solo content are happy now.

… Ended 2 times lvl 4, no acheivement unlock…
Another untested crap…

soloed with full support guardian for both kiel and evon

TatsuKan.5412:

… Ended 2 times lvl 4, no acheivement unlock…
Another untested crap…

try to finish tier 1 and 2 first to unlock that achievement

jagabs.5086:

Just now, I managed to solo tier 4 Kiel’s candidate trial in 2 tries with my full berserker rifle warrior. I tried full party earlier and it was hell.

This is what I did:
- All berserker stats traited with rifle 20% reduced cd on skills and physical utility 20% reduced cd (for your Throw Bolas), always pop up “for great justice” and signet of rage for full dps
- Always stay behind the spawn areas (where plunderers spawn and this is the spot where you want to lose aggro and hp reset)
- Kill plunderers as soon as it spawn (use bolas and rifle skill#2 to slow them down) and if you didn’t manage to to kill it in one try, don’t attempt to chase it or you will be inviting more mobs/vets to you, wait for it to come back and kill it (if mobs comes to you by chance, run away until you lose aggro)

Hope it helps.

Kudos to you sir. Just used this strategy and solo’d this with my warrior first try. Strict no aggro. Went to down state twice, but rallied each time on a plunder.

Only additional point is when the vets manning the cannons come to build them, knock them back while in the process and they will be frozen and never start firing on you. You don’t have to kill them, just knock them back!

Thanks again!

Mortifer.2946:

TatsuKan.5412:

… Ended 2 times lvl 4, no acheivement unlock…
Another untested crap…

try to finish tier 1 and 2 first to unlock that achievement

I’ve already finish tier 1/2/3 with Kiel & Evon.

TatsuKan.5412:

Mortifer.2946:

TatsuKan.5412:

… Ended 2 times lvl 4, no acheivement unlock…
Another untested crap…

try to finish tier 1 and 2 first to unlock that achievement

I’ve already finish tier 1/2/3 with Kiel & Evon.

I had the same issue. It’s a bug, not a l2p issue. Soloed 1&2 yesterday, did 3 with a group today (and had 1 of 2 in advanced support), then spent about 90 minutes working out 4. Finally did it, no achievement.

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… =[

TatsuKan.5412:

Mortifer.2946:

TatsuKan.5412:

… Ended 2 times lvl 4, no acheivement unlock…
Another untested crap…

try to finish tier 1 and 2 first to unlock that achievement

I’ve already finish tier 1/2/3 with Kiel & Evon.

You did 3 after 1 and 2 were completed right? That’s the only other thing I can think of that would cause this to not happen, and it is very possible this is a bug.

I don’t know how you can solo this and not have aggro. By the time you run back, plunderers have spawned and possibly more enemies as well. They spawn quite in the back as well near the spawn-sites. I only had ample time to kill the runners in the beginning, they I started getting mob aggro.(sylvari mesmer)

Traveller.7496:

I don’t know how you can solo this and not have aggro. By the time you run back, plunderers have spawned and possibly more enemies as well. They spawn quite in the back as well near the spawn-sites. I only had ample time to kill the runners in the beginning, they I started getting mob aggro.(sylvari mesmer)

Hang around the spawn point, use the rock to loose aggro. I’ve found the strikers are the only things you really need to loose, the others don’t do much (but still try to loose them when possible). Remember, the plunderer has to return and throw the bundle away, so even if you don’t kill them when they spawn, you can finish them off when they return. I’ve only noticed they start to heal when they run to the very back pile of gold, which isn’t often.

aspirine.6852:

it’s been one day in, already talking about nerfing instead of finding out better ways to do it?

The better way of doing it appears to be avoiding as many of the mobs as possible. They made an area where you more or less try to avoid the majority of it.

That strikes me as a little bit off, doesn’t it to you?

Soloed tier 4 with my Thief. Took me about 3 hours of evaluating my prowess, changing active skills and analyzing how to win against the hordes.

I have found the engagement hard and quite fun. Hope to see similar things later and I hope they won’t add any more “you must play as a group” content.

There is an alternate strategy as well if you die to aggro a lot.

You can lure kiel/Evon into the fight and they are invulnerable so they will slowly kill and aggro every vet there. Then you can killer the plunderers at your leisure without dieing to massive stun locks. Just make sure not to actually attack any of the vets so they don’t switch aggro.

It’s so easy with glass canon warrior, just stay near mortars, kill plunders and if veterans start attacking you, just go away and then come back and they will go away (if there is just one or two veteran, kill) And use mango pie, it will help you a lot!

Did this solo and as a small group (2man with someone who needed help)

What I did is stay out of combat and stay near the spawn points.

Only kill the pillagers

drop agro by swimming out into the water and waiting for the pillagers to spawn

You can buy yourself a lot of time if you let the pillager spawn and loot something then kill it on the way back.

They seem to have a gated spawn rate and wont spawn if one is already triggered, so you can toy with them and CC them a bit with knockbacks and knock downs till you are ready to kill.

I did this with a GS/Staff guardian.

Soloed until T3 now. T4 is a bit harder but I’ll try to solo it too. Main problem at T4 seems that there are more people spawning in the back near the drop points(and more veterans there).

But with that upscaling… 5 man group we really got pwned even at T3(that’s why I tried to solo it and managed do to T3).

What is best? 3 man groups someone mentioned? (and upscaling for 5 too much it seems cause everyone complaining)

Avalon.8436:

Xista.7391:

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

Well add guardian to the professions that can solo all 4 tiers.

can confirm

Was surprised what my scepter could do when specced properly =D

What would be “specced properly”?

full beseker + scholar runes

20
30
20
0
0

save yourselves
signet of wrath
bane signet

Guys stop with the “oh it’s sooo easy” stuff. It’s easy for US to solo. That might be saying more about our level of skill than the content. I’m not saying that I’m the best player in the world, but I too found it easy to solo. Yet I’ve talked to people that no matter what can’t get past t3.

It’s only going to make them feel bad when you say “ohh but it’s soo easy”. There is no need for that at all.

Did it… Tier 4. With my engineer full exo(no ascended; WvW rifle build with a lot power and not that bunkerish – mixed with some knights and soldier armor/trinkets).

As rifle engineer I can use a lot of CC on the runners(plunderers). Also using Bomb Kit for Big ol Bomb and the Mine(only knockback not launch but still good). Last skill the rocket boots to get away from enemies if needed should I get too much aggro. Not using the ram here… not enough range for my taste.

Supply Crate as elite… I don’t like the idea of moving into water to lose aggro. Then I’m not back fast enough and get killed(should I ignore the enemies in the back near the drop points).

Staying at land near drop points was better for me. And only killing plunderers and try killing all the Vet Grenadiers building the mortars in the back to be able to stay there safe(used my Elite Supply Crate do do that and killed 1 guy then waited for the plunderer that ran a bit and got him while walking back… then killing next grenadier).

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.

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

Lovely.

Solo’d with a stealth thief. Plunderers dropped in two backstabs, mostly. Use stealth to break aggro from the veterans.