Guild Wars 2

Can someone explain to me how it’s possible to defend a stationary NPC against waves of mobs that never stop spawning? I’ve been in 10 groups now and NONE of them have been able to get past this part. Not a single one. The closest I’ve gotten so far is down to 3/6 of the burrows destroyed before the NPC just gets overrun.

Kill things till everything’s dead. Not hard.

1. Don’t destroy the burrow near the entrance of the room. Destroying this burrow will summon another burrow at south-east corner of the room that will immediately spawn 2 Graveling Scavengers that can knockdown the NPC and kill him.

2. Ask 1 or 2 of your party members to kite the mobs appearing from the burrow near the entrance. Should not too hard, just make sure they have condition removal and mobility skills to counter the bleed effects from the Gravelings.

3. The remaining party members should attack the burrow that appears on the west side of the room first. Once the burrow is destroyed they should then move on to the small room at the south-west corner of the room to destroy the burrow there. Once that is done, another burrow will appear beside the burrow near the door – destroy that first.

4. After destroying the 3rd burrow, proceed to cleaning the room of any large Gravelings or Graveling Breeders (optional). Only then proceed to destroying the burrow near the entrance.

5. Once the burrow near the door is destroyed, move to the burrow that will appear on the south-east corner (the one that spawns 2 Graveling Scavengers immediately).

6. Split your party members to destroy the last remaining burrow on the north-west corner and killing/managing the 2 Graveling Scavengers.

Done! You’ve succesfully defended Hodgins.

The way my guild does this is to have all 5 destroy the south burrow. Then 1 goes to kite the mobs and start destroying the newly spawned burrow in that back room. The group them runs to the next spawned burrow, then to the one at the door from the start. Then just destroy the next spawned burrow and then move to the next one.

The point I am getting at is the burrows dont spawn till you destroy the previous one. Combine that knowledge with the ability to melt the burrows you should be able to keep the spawns at a minimum and have no issues. Most of these dungeons battles just require you know the mechanics and they become very easy.

What server are you on? If you change to Blacktide I would be happy to take you through it.

If not Siam has given you sound advice.
The only real challenge in AC is path 3.

The trick to the encounter is figuring out how the burrow spawns work. You can think of it as there being two sets of three burrows each. The two burrows that spawn at the beginning are the first in each set. When you kill one, the next burrow in that set pops up. So A) There can never be more than two burrows – one from each set – active at one time, and B) Only one burrow from each set can be active at a time.
In other words, if you leave one of the burrows alone and kill the three from the other set, you can kill the last three in the second set, one burrow at a time.

Using this method, I have never, ever, ever wiped, or even let Hodgins die, forcing the reset (This is largely identical to Siam’s strategy, but it might be helpful to hear it described from a second perspective):
1) Set two players to guard Hodgins, at least one of whom should be able to heal him in some way. The other three players have to go destroy the first set of burrows.
2) Leave the burrow near the entrance alone. The most powerful kind of Graveling that it spawns is just the standard elite “Graveling” – reasonably tough enemies, but lacking in any particularly dangerous abilities. The two players who are guarding Hodgins, however, should be actively killing the Gravelings that emerge from that burrow, so that you don’t get overwhelmed.
3) The remaining three players should target the western burrow, then the one that pops up when that one is destroyed, then the one that pops up when that one is destroyed. However, the first burrow that they fight spawns a Graveling Breeder, and it’s unlikely that they can destroy the burrow before it pops out. Kill the Breeder first. You’re already going to be dealing with a lot of Gravelings, and if you let a Breeder start popping out Hatchlings left and right, you’ll probably get overrun.
4) When your damage team has destroyed the first three burrows, and the only one left is the one by the entrance to the room, do not attack that burrow immediately. There are probably a lot of Gravelings scurrying around, and you should take a moment to mop them up before you move on. This is also the time where you can take a bit of a breather, and just tread water for a moment if your party is low on health.
5) Kill the burrow by the door, and be prepared for the two Graveling Scavengers that pop out. They can easily pounce and down a party member or two, and if they move on to Hodgins, you’re in real trouble. Killing them is an option, and so is just distracting them while some of your party members blitz their burrow. If you choose the latter option, though, you’ll need to keep them off of Hodgins long enough for some players to run to the opposite corner of the room to kill the final burrow. A few seconds after the last burrow is destroyed, any remaining Gravelings will disappear. If Hodgins dies after the burrow is destroyed, you’ll still get credit for winning.

The room is essentially a puzzle. Once you figure out the ‘solution’, it’s very manageable. You’ll still need to be on your toes, because you do have to fight a steady stream of Gravelings, but other than the Scavengers, none of the enemies are particularly threatening by themselves.