Guild Wars 2

From the sounds of it, the Sky Pirates dungeon needs a lot of coordination and the guild I am in… just doesn’t have ANY. Its taken me weeks to try and get my Arah story done with my 5th character, and even then I had to do it with 1 guildie and 3 randoms.

From what I have read in other threads, I may as well not even bother with this dungeon.

Is it really this hard as far as teamwork goes, or should I give it a go?

IMO you should always give something new a go, however you should also be prepared to bring a bit of patience and time with you.
Depending on your group you might need those.

The dungeon is interesting but unless you have said coordinated group of dedicated players, rushing it isn’t an option. That however isn’t necessarily a bad thing as far as I’m concerned.
It’s possible to do it with a group that isn’t “well coordinated”, at least if people are capable of learning and a bit of movement.
It might take a little longer, but it is still doable nevertheless.

I say do it. As long as people are learning from their mistakes it takes a few tries, you don’t even need to talk. You can also read guide on dulfy.net or any other site and just explain to your team what to do. I’ve learned it the hard way – tried, tried and tried. Eventually I completed the dungeon and when I went there for the 2nd and 3rd time I asked who doesn’t know what to do and then explained it.

I know that sometimes people can make you cry – they are not actually using their brain, just tired, lagged etc. but all in all I think they are getting better – just give them time and help them.

Anyhow, I want that monocle so I think I won’t sleep enough tonight.

Give the dungeon a go. I’d avoid grabbing a PUG unless you absolutely have to, because this dungeon can’t be facerolled the way, say, CoF P1 can, and many people will quit when they can’t figure out why spamming 100 Blades isn’t working.

Good PUG is good. I tried this dg with pug. This was my first time there and we manage to almost kill last boss – we were killed when she had <25%HP and I didn’t have time for second attempt).
So I think you don’t have to give up on this dungeon. Especially when it’s quite fun and challenging.

Tried it my team always gets wiped… not fun at all to me

I have done it 2 times now with complete pug groups. I say at least try it. I think it is not as hard as people make it out to be. Don’t stand in red and focus on what you are doing not others and you can do it.

I plan on continue pugging it until I get my monocle :P

No you shouldn’t. It’s too hard. Why would you even think of doing something that is slightly challenging???

(gamers these days….)

I’m glad this is tough, It’s kinda funny there are dungeons that lead up to this in terms of challenge, but nobody does them so many people are just terrible :P

If I believed everything I read on the forums I’d have never attempted dungeons at all. I definitely wouldn’t have started with Arah on a ranger.

Give it a go. If your guild are no good then find a group elsewhere, but don’t give up without even trying because someone else found it hard.

Why not? You lose nothing by trying

Dedlaw.9130:

Why not? You lose nothing by trying

you lose gold for repairing your gear

Sat outside shooting fireworks until I got picked. Completed it easily enough, died a few times to unfamiliar mechanics/damage. Went to fill a spot on another group where someone left due to wiping at the sparkle-pain-mixer-thing room, completed that easily enough too. Don’t think I died that time but we lost a thief and ranger now and again. Discovered the shield comes off quicker if I distract Trin in the AOE for a bit then dodge out and heal.

The only really trippy thing was bouncing up those pistons. Rubberbanded like crazy on the first run, and the camera hitting the ceiling fails to help. Not as bad as dying when running down stairs/slopes though, so as a means of traversing heights I’d rate it better than most other parts of the game.

negerleif.2106:

Dedlaw.9130:

Why not? You lose nothing by trying

you lose gold for repairing your gear

If you lose more than a few silver repairing your gear, get your pockets repaired at the same time.

Silberfisch.3046:

IMO you should always give something new a go, however you should also be prepared to bring a bit of patience and time with you.
Depending on your group you might need those.

The dungeon is interesting but unless you have said coordinated group of dedicated players, rushing it isn’t an option. That however isn’t necessarily a bad thing as far as I’m concerned.
It’s possible to do it with a group that isn’t “well coordinated”, at least if people are capable of learning and a bit of movement.
It might take a little longer, but it is still doable nevertheless.

It might be easier to accept this view if the dungeon wasn’t around for only two weeks.

My first pug fell apart at the beams, second pug finished it. It doesn’t need so much coordination as much as players who are willing to fail more than 3 times at something without leaving. Once you know the tactics it gets easier.

negerleif.2106:

Dedlaw.9130:

Why not? You lose nothing by trying

you lose gold for repairing your gear

lol, my first pug wiped repeatedly enough for all my armor to get damaged, to repair it cost about 10s I think?

All of my runs are with random. Some of these randoms are good, some are bad.

Read up on the fights here on the forums, let people know it’s your first time in and try to do it with friends. It’s not that bad, but most people somehow acquired a “I’ve never done this new content before so it should be easy” mentality, I’m not sure where from. If you go in thinking it’ll be challenging and you’ll actually have to know how to play your profession, you’ll do all right. Bring stun breakers, I forgot on my run, probably would have made it a lot easier.

Don’t try it! Losing alot of time just to have it bug out on you is rather unsatisfying.

I just did it from 1st try as a casual player. Was fun!

Are you a Ranger? Then don’t bother

Give it a go, you might enjoy it. I enjoyed it up to Fizz, at which point all enthusiasm was gradually leeched away. However it seems that some people are really enjoying the challenging nature of it so you might too.

It’s pretty fun. And you don’t need actual coordination as much as some smarts at playing the game. Most people should be able to handle that tbh. Rage quitters are wasting their time when it’s doable.

Rage quitters give space to pro’s :P

No. Not worth the pain. The constant beam fields were annoying, the enemies were annoying, and the Frizz lab boss fight (and apparently the one after) were designed with your suffering as the top priority, as well as breaking your armor.

PUG it!

I have the same problem as you OP. Some of my guildies are just impossible to coordinate with (we usually fail 2-MULT bounty boss).

Failed with my guildies, did it with a PUG.

An advice would be: look for people above 2-3000 ahcievment points, they tend to be better at these.

Oh and: prepare to wipe about 2-6 times.

At my first encounter I didn’t really know what to expect. A lot of people said that it was very difficult and that they kept wiping until they gave up.
So I braced myself for a very difficult encounter.
I must say that I was dissapointed.
The dungeon is very easy and I think we wiped a single time because someone was trying to ress at a bad point of time.
Everybody should be able to this dungeon fairly easy.

No Walking.6349:

No you shouldn’t. It’s too hard. Why would you even think of doing something that is slightly challenging???

(gamers these days….)

Step into spvp, tpvp, or even wvw THAT is a challenge. Carebears are always quick to assume that PvE is “challenging”.

TBH the rewards aren’t worth it.

I’m not really interested in anything to do with the ‘Sky Pirates’ (like I have seen them to anything aerial!) so I think I’ll leave it.

You should wait until it can be done without major bugs (nowadays you can get stuck just before the final bosses if Kiel becomes bugged)

Because this dungeon IS bugged.

Cassius.4831:

You should wait until it can be done without major bugs (nowadays you can get stuck just before the final bosses if Kiel becomes bugged)

Because this dungeon IS bugged.

There are multiple solutions to this bug. Regardless, I would say run with pugs. It’s definitely easy.

The rewards aren’t all that great, but the dungeon seems pretty interesting

Just another thread that supports my request for hard mode vs normal mode and fair rewards for both! Great dungeon design though, I found the encounters fun and good examples of what ArenaNet could do if they pushed the 10-12 man raiding envelope!

I wondered the same thing. Kept reading and hearing how “bad” it was.
Did it with 3 guildies and 1 pug. Didnt use a voice server, 2 had run it before.
We wiped 2x at the lab and 2x at the final boss due to 3 of us being new to the fights.
3rd time we beat it. Took us 30-40 min total. It was fun so give it a go.

Don’t underestimate the power of the PUG. Even fantastic players need to PUG. I’ve had amazing PUG groups. This dungeon is no different. First PUG we got through all up to boss fight before Kiel bugged and we had to call it.

I wouldn’t PUG with anyone under level 80, personally, for this dungeon. Having good gear makes a difference. But I would 100% PUG it again and again. I PUG FoTM as well for levels up to 30 and rarely have an issue.

I can never say that there isn’t a chance that you will get a bad PUG, but don’t discount it based on a few bad experiences.

If you enjoy the people in your guild (even if they have trouble coordinating) and you trust them not to lose their tempers while they figure things out, then grab a guild group and go for it!

If you’re worried that you, or your guildmates, might get angry or combative in the face of some nasty real-time problem-solving, then you might want to look for other options.

Draknar.5748:

Don’t underestimate the power of the PUG. Even fantastic players need to PUG. I’ve had amazing PUG groups. This dungeon is no different. First PUG we got through all up to boss fight before Kiel bugged and we had to call it.

I wouldn’t PUG with anyone under level 80, personally, for this dungeon. Having good gear makes a difference. But I would 100% PUG it again and again. I PUG FoTM as well for levels up to 30 and rarely have an issue.

I can never say that there isn’t a chance that you will get a bad PUG, but don’t discount it based on a few bad experiences.

This.

I did it with a PuG as my guild is practically dead (aside from this inner circle of friends), was a good experience for this dungeon- there will always be the off chance of a bad experience but don’t let that deter you.

The dungeon itself… it’s worth a look especially as it’s limited content, plus the artists probably spent a lot of time on it so worth visiting just to see their work.

Draknar.5748:

Don’t underestimate the power of the PUG. Even fantastic players need to PUG. I’ve had amazing PUG groups. This dungeon is no different. First PUG we got through all up to boss fight before Kiel bugged and we had to call it.

I wouldn’t PUG with anyone under level 80, personally, for this dungeon. Having good gear makes a difference. But I would 100% PUG it again and again. I PUG FoTM as well for levels up to 30 and rarely have an issue.

I can never say that there isn’t a chance that you will get a bad PUG, but don’t discount it based on a few bad experiences.

Basically this.
However, as this dungeon is slightly more difficult than the others, one
bad player is enough to svrew the whole group over, at least in the
Mai Trin fight as your group will try to ress the person and just get downed in the process.
Yes you could do the boss with 4 people but due to her teleportshot
not being avoidable you need the baddies as a meatshield.
Normally you can see if a PUG is good or not at the Frizz fight;
more than 2 wipes and I personally quit it. No need to waste anyones
time or money.

Give it a shot. I’ve had better luck with PUGs (the last one I had was absolutely perfect – almost zero communication, but everyone played off each other well) than guild runs, quite honestly.

It’s just a crapshoot with PUGs. While you know the skill level of your guild, you won’t know the skill level of the members of the PUG. You may get a terrible group, an average group, or an amazing group.

Keep in mind that sometimes, guild runs can be worse, because people can be more lax with fellow guild members. If you’re downright bad in a PUG, you have the risk to be kicked. Forces some people to up their game. Sometimes.

Pug’d it on the second try. I almost wonder if the same people that complain about having to coordinate are the people that complain about no tank/healer/dps. Sounds like a barrier for some people to learn.

If you’re planning to do the achievements then I’d do them this weekend. There’s less and less people doing the dungeon now.

Quite frankly I haven´t got the slightest inclination to even try it with my guild.

I could care less for the “achievements”.

What I read in the guide sounds like being a cat in a room full of rocking chairs and on top of it, learning this dungeon is virtually useless when it´s again gone for good next week or so.
But maybe I´m a bit burned out on GW2.

Well, looks like I can’t do it if I try.

Can never get more than 1 guildie interested. Tried joining PUGs, noone ever seems to be asking for/taking on randoms, at least on DB. Even the AAA guild formed to run it never has more than 2 players on the same server.

I don’t give a hoot about the poor looking monocle that just floats there, I just wanted to play it to see the story. Doesn’t look possible, however.

GuzziHero.2467:

Well, looks like I can’t do it if I try.

Can never get more than 1 guildie interested. Tried joining PUGs, noone ever seems to be asking for/taking on randoms, at least on DB. Even the AAA guild formed to run it never has more than 2 players on the same server.

I don’t give a hoot about the poor looking monocle that just floats there, I just wanted to play it to see the story. Doesn’t look possible, however.

You don’t need to be on the same server to run the dungeon, the only thing you can’t do is have NA and EU people playing it together.

I tried it; got to the end but my deteriorating twitch skills and color blindness did me in even with the wavy lines. So we could not finish and it was mostly my fault for dying so much.

Of course you should.

Like King Leoric says in Diablo III: “ALL SHALL SUFFER, AS I SUFFERED!”

Share the pain!

Now, seriously, all you need to do is making sure people understand what they have to do before each fight:
- In the normal fights, go first for the veterans (and normal ones with your AoEs), then for the elites (the ones with silver portrait frame).
If you get rid of the fluff first, fights are easier. Also, go first for the Thumpers and the ones that make all the lightning, their CCs are annoying.
- In the beam boss, tell people to avoid melee and stay away from the beams. The golems can be hit with unblockable attacks like ranger traps, traited marks and Static Fields when they are supercharged by the beams. Invulnerability allows to going through the beams without being harmed (if hit while invulnerable you won’t lose the achievement). So elementalists, guardians, engineers and mesmers can have a bit of a leeway. Specially elementalists with their two invulnerability skills.
- When Mai has her shield, stay close to her and keep the electric field (the sparkling blue ones, the others do nothing to her) from Horrik between you and her, so she’ll enter the field when she goes after party members. Stay together and close to her, or she’ll use her slow projectile and shadow step to you for a lot of damage. You can be hit by any of Horrik’s large AoEs in this phase and still get Personal Space. If you have high health, try to stay in the Electric field with her so she won’t leave. She’ll lose about 4-5 stacks if she takes an entire Electric field. If it takes you more than 3 Electric Fields to take the entire shield, you are going too slow.
- During the barrage phases, SPREAD, if you go together, the barrages will overlap and cover greater areas, and even hit in front of where you are going. Instead, spread and stay as far away from each other as possible, and stay still unless you are inside an AoE. The AoEs will not overlap as much and you’ll be able to avoid them by simply taking a step to the side here and doing a dodge there. Also, keep in mind that the AoEs lie. They are spheres, and they’ll hit you if you are too close to them, even if you are not inside the AoE:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/Sphere_with_cross_section.svg/304px-Sphere_with_cross_section.svg.png
See that drawing? Spherical AoEs rarely touch the ground in the middle. Instead, the usually touch it under the middle like the red section in the graphic, so they’ll hit further than the circle. So stay away from the border, not just the AoE.

But you can’t control other people. So even when you tell them what to do, sometimes they will do anything but that.

All you can do is keep trying until you find a decent party.

But if you only can play within a certain schedule like 2 hours each day during the weekends, just a few days may not be enough for that.

I hope they bring back these achievements if they turn this dungeon into a fractal. Or, even better, if they transform it into a proper Dungeon with explorable paths. The dungeon may seem small, but it’s actually really large, because it’s very vertical.

I haven’t even played it yet. Maybe if it had a group finder. To help me find players that just wanted to play for fun “win or lose” without the fake elitism some players project.

After you defeat the last bosses is there a cut scene? , if so maybe someone or Anet should upload it for those of us who cant finish it. Just so we see the story atleast.

I’ve said it before, but I must have lucked out and gotten the most amazing pick-up ever. I also watched a playthrough of the dungeon before hand, so I knew what to do and the others had beaten it before already. I thought it was really fun