Guild Wars 2

I think I might be missing the point, but isn’t the point of a starter dungeon to be easier than higher dungeons, also farmable so you can acquire the exotics in ORDER to do the higher level dungeons. So you made it much more frustrating and I have never seen more rage quits than I have now from people on gw2lfg.com, a team going in without extremely well off coordination skills is almost a guarantee failure.

Also the huge FPS drop in P1 during burrows is not welcomed, I had other severe lags in other places but I’m way too mad right now to remember where.

I just want a dungeon that doesn’t require lvl 80’s with full exotic and team speak to beat…

And by “beat” I DON’T mean take 1 hour on one path and get wiped 7-8 times, that isn’t beating anything.

So true. When they said they made some changes in that dungeon I thought like “Yay they understood that it was too hard for lvl 35 beggining dungeons so they changed it finally, good choice.”

How more wrong could I be. Now all lvl 80 can’t finish the easy paths without raging all over the place.

Thank you very much.

I’ve only done Path 2 in here, and I can definitely see the changes. Some very good, some were… not really bad, but the mechanic is broken a bit and needs tweaking. Might do Paths 1 and 3 today if we get some time. Path 2 has a very bad video lag hit on pulling chains. All of the lag seems to be related to gravelings. Noticed it very quickly.

Amodin.1092:

I’ve only done Path 2 in here, and I can definitely see the changes. Some very good, some were… not really bad, but the mechanic is broken a bit and needs tweaking. Might do Paths 1 and 3 today if we get some time. Path 2 has a very bad video lag hit on pulling chains. All of the lag seems to be related to gravelings. Noticed it very quickly.

I’ve just started a thread about that. The graphics get really messed up in that fight.

I tried AC last night just after the patch. Had three different teams of well equiped players of higher levels (50+) and each time we wiped at the spider queen.

Now Im not a noob, I understand perfectly how to dodge roll and use status removal skills. However it is nigh on impossible to survive when SQ does the AoE poison rings then subsequently immobilises you right on top of them. If you wait to get immobilised before using removals your dead from the base ring damage. If you use status removal before immobilise, you then have nothing to break the immobilise (which also does damage).

In short; The difficulty scale for this dungeon is now horribly broken without specific classes and skills. Any hope of 5 “randoms” passing this dungeon are now gone. And I was the person In my guild who took new players through AC explaining it to them as we go. Now there is little point even entering the dungeon, since the vast majority of newer players simply are not capable of playing it.

Ill stick to CoF for “fun” runs.

The dungeon can be completed, but you can’t expect finishing it with the same old strat, for example in the burrow part, you need to go slow, clearing scavengers, it is the way it is, you need to adapt yourself and forget about the old tactics in order tu succeed.

And yes, the dungeon can be finished by pugs, and yes the dungeon can be finished by sub 80s, now more than ever the level doesn’t matter but the skill, and the adapt capability of the group.

Yoda: " you must unlearn what you have learned"

Are you serious? They nerfed almost everything. All the trash mobs’ health were reduced by like a half and Kholer’s spin does laughable damage now. All you have to do at the spider is stand outside the red cricles. The troll punishes cheesers now and the bosses are actually really fun.

I’ve been in different PUG’s and all of them suck! they can’t get passed the Spider Queen! ¬.¬

LOL AC is really easy…use dodge….the reason people keep dying because they don’t use dodge. they just stand in-front of spider queen and on the red circle that do the dmg. This is not GW1 anymore lol… we’re not trading blow anymore. “use dodge”

I disagree that AC is now impossible for PUG’s.

The patch is new, therefore the strategy to approach each path is slightly different. Your experience sounds similar to any group running AC for the very first time, meaning they had no idea what to expect. The same thing happened to me, I felt like I was running AC for the first time again. You can’t expect an optimal performance from your group (regardless of coordination) if they have no clue (or if they think they know) what they’re up against.

Take the Spider Queen for example.
What was the general strategy before the patch? Just stand and DPS with the occasional dodge/heal. There wasn’t anything notable about the her imo in terms of counter strategy.
Now lets look at the revamped Spider Queen.
What’s the strategy now? No initial idea, but let’s use what worked before and gauge what changed. The general change? Everything (which may seem harder to some), therefore old strategies need to be modified.

After completing all three paths, I watched the forums as they flooded with these kind of topics. Instead of lamenting over your initial failures, your time will be better spent reevaluating your approach to the revamped AC.

I already read up on the changes to the SQ and new what to expect in general. However the actual amount of damage done per ring is way way higher now. Yes its simply a matter of dodging it, however you cannot do that if she immobilises you and then drops one on top of you which is her new favourite trick.

Coupled with that is that due to the size of her, and the massive rings in triplicate there is no room TO manouver. You evade one, and purge condition and get smacked with another right away and/or get immobilised. The cooldown on most “purging” skills is to long compared to the cooldown time on her AoE, so at some point you are going to be poisoned with no removal option.

Unless your team is hyper attentive, getting them to stagger things like “Shake it off” with your own condition purge skill on cooldown is extremely hard. Especially when they are also dodging/purging/healing every 7 or 8 seconds.

Yes its doable, but it is in no way “fun”. Reduce the damage on the AoE alone and it would be a better encounter. 1 or 2 seconds worth of the base line AoE damage will kill most sub 50’s before the team even gets to focus attacks, leading to players just leaving.

I cant even speak for the rest of the content as I simply have not seen it yet, and dont hold much hope of doing so with the current mechanics and bias towards high level characters.

My experience and thoughts after yesterday’s AC P3.

The dungeons have gotten harder, yes. We were wiped at the spider about 6 times and as much as I tried dodging his poisonous circles, the spider attacks way too often to dodge everything. I dodged his first attack, dodged his second, activated Burning Retreat (dodge backwards, leaving a fiery trail) to dodge his third attack, activated the elite Take Root skill (invincible for 3 seconds while spawning turrets) to dodge his fourth, etc. At some point through the fight I ran out of skills to dodge and, you guessed it, was immobilized and killed in less than 5 seconds.

On our sixth try he wiped all of us except one who somehow managed to defeat him. Ok, moving on to Kholer. He’s not that hard to kill. What’s peeing me off are the random Necro and Mesmer spawns that spawn all of a sudden and deal massive, unbearable AoE damage. Needles to say, after 10 tries we gave up and quit. AC is off limits for me, this is pointless.

So, basically, regular/casual gamers don’t stand a chance in dungeons anymore. Nice going, devs. Oh, and if you need ideas for your next bosses, let me give you a few suggestions. Why not create

- a troll with a 50 second knockdown?
- a bandit that permakills your level 80 character while relieving you of all your gold from the bank?
- a harpy with 50 mil HP and a 2 mil HP regen once his bar hits 99 %?
- a worm that swallows your game client, kicking you from the game and forcing you to purchase another account to continue playing?

I thought games were supposed to be challenging AND fun. And by the looks of the new patch, “fun” is not even remotely associated with GW2’s dungeons.

I just finished p3.

I think I see the problem now, Anet didn’t count on Artificial Intelligence (NPC
s) being half kitten Big mistake, Anet.

In order to ease dungeon stress Here’s a list of things to do.

-Spider Queen-

Leave the queen as is, I can deal with it. BUT please for gods sake nerf the babies hp back to how they were.

-Kholer-

Make him the way he was, or nerf his whip attack a little more. OR make it so he can’t summon necromancers or elementalists. Make it so he only summons warriors or something.

-Troll-

Make him back to the way he was. Also, 99% of the time we let kholer and troll fight it out anyway so it really doesn’t matter what you do to the troll.

-Howling King-

Leave it the way it is now.

-Ghost king-

Change the fight to something else entirely.

-Colossus King-

HIGHLY improve the AI’s survivability, make warmaster invincible or something. Also make it so the rock fall isn’t a one hit kill and you actually have a chance to get back into the bubble. Make it so that it deals damage equal to 50% of your hp and doesn’t knockdown, so 2 hits and you die. That gives plenty of time to make it back into the bubble.

-General-

Improve FPS, fix graphic glitches, and make it so that burrows spawn less gravelings. I can’t tell how much lag there is now.

Oh and hints for people having trouble, I find that range attacks have become extremely imporant in the dungeon. It really isn’t melee friendly. (Maybe they are trying to put rangers up a notch)

I seriously cannot believe how you manage to wipe multiple times on Spider, Troll and Kholer.
For the spider, simply hug her and pick up anyone who goes down, don’t stand inside the red circles and bring condition heals.
The troll essentially became a easier Subject Alpha, the red rings appear, count to two, press your dodge button and dodge towards him. Everything else he does is harmless, the stun might be annoying but it doesn’t do much damage. It’s also easily avoidable since it has a long telegraph.
And Kholer is just a joke now. Avoid his spin like always, for the rest of the fight hug him and unleash all your hundred blades. If ghosts appear, focus them and they will go down without problem. Both their damage and their health bars were nerfed quite a bit.
Also, have you guys ever tried to rez someone who is downed?

I haven’t done AC yet since the patch but based off of the difficulty of all the other dungeons I highly doubt it is impossible for PuGs.

It does seem kind of stupid that they would make it harder then much higher level dungeons though since it’s supposed to be a lvl 35.

On the issue of poisons that everyone is complaining about. Remember you can remove conditions with Combo’s. One whirling finisher in a light field should take care of the whole party and combo’s are not hard to do in PuGs.

You’re upset that dungeons aren’t enough like farming?
I think you are actually missing the point, OP.

Vox Hollow.2736:

You’re upset that dungeons aren’t enough like farming?
I think you are actually missing the point, OP.

Get out. That’s all I have to say to this.

Just pugged AC path 1… Wasn’t that hard. I’m loving the new final boss fight

As somebody who has run AC twice, all three paths, and not wiped once with his crew, you’re not as good as you think you are if you’re calling this dungeon difficult. The dungeon is easier than ever, all I have to do is pay a bit more attention on the spider.

Araito.5869:

I think I might be missing the point, but isn’t the point of a starter dungeon to be easier than higher dungeons, also farmable so you can acquire the exotics in ORDER to do the higher level dungeons. So you made it much more frustrating and I have never seen more rage quits than I have now from people on gw2lfg.com, a team going in without extremely well off coordination skills is almost a guarantee failure.

Also the huge FPS drop in P1 during burrows is not welcomed, I had other severe lags in other places but I’m way too mad right now to remember where.

I just want a dungeon that doesn’t require lvl 80’s with full exotic and team speak to beat…

And by “beat” I DON’T mean take 1 hour on one path and get wiped 7-8 times, that isn’t beating anything.

This isn’t WoW. The goal of lower level dungeons isn’t to farm the gear treadmill so you can progress to the next dungeon. The whole point of level scaling was so that you could run the dungeons when ever you want and they’d be challenging, though I’ll admit that the scaling still gives decked out 80s an advantage. If all you want is exotics for running higher dungeons then just craft/buy them. It’ll be easier.

That being said, with all the nerfs to HP on bosses it’s become easier for low levels to run. You don’t need exotic weapons to DPS down the hit point bags anymore. I ran all three paths last night without VoiP and the biggest cause of wipes were as follows:

-Standing in Spider AoEs
-Not rezzing downed teammates
-Not dodging Kholers scorpion wire…..
-Not killing Kholers adds
-Learning the mechanics on the boss fights

Still finished all three paths. It is very possible to pug.

GabGar.4962:

Yoda: " you must unlearn what you have learned"

I don’t trust the words of some failed hermit with no grammar skills in some backwater planet who was totally blind to the dark side’s rise until it was too late.

This dungeon is suppose to be ran at level 35 with, 5 – 35’s not 5 -80’s. I do believe you have made this dungeon a bit hard. The spider on the first round, all of those hatch-lings can take out 4 level 80’s, so running it at level 35 which it is suppose to be ran at, is almost mere impossible. GW2 will have to nerf this soon.

Yeah but you won’t get a response you’ll like from AN on this. They have already posted many times that essentially THEY can beat it and if we can’t then we suck and need to practice a lot more. It is clear that they are intending for these dungeons to be directed at the hardcore players who are STILL complaining that its too easy. Apparently us casual players who don’t have the uber-reflexes and all level 80 exotic gear are not worth their concern. Their only other response I’ve seen here has been to suggest that we play story mode instead which is easier. Apparently we aren’t supposed to be able to get exotic dungeon gear unless we are hardcore players.

I tried running this with a group of guildies last night and we were levels 35 – 80 and no exotic gear. We picked up an extra non-guildie b/c we needed 1 more. After getting wiped SEVERAL times by the insane spiderlings that all fired at a single person taking them out in 1 or 2 salvos at a time before doing the same to the next target, the extra guy said this was impossible and left. He was a level 80. I was still learning the old way to fight through this but after that it was extremely demoralizing to find that we can’t even get passed the first spider boss because of the insane ranged poison attacks of all of the spiderlings.

Yep I agree…For casual gamers, like myself, theres no real incentive to play all that much. I ran dungeons, mainly AC, for getting gold, getting tokens, and leveling my alts. Which I found enjoyable. Unfortunately for me, and others, even when i run it with all level 80’s with full exotic gear, its still seems a bit difficult now. IMO if hardcore gamers want harder dungeons they should run harder dungeons…Arah for example. There has been two updates so far that have increased the difficulty, but yet fixed no bugs, such as falling through burrows and such. Hope Anet fixes this soon.

I became frustrated and very agitated today when attempting AC path 1. My group could not progress. We were four 80s and a level 59. I was under the impression dungeons were going to receive changes to become more forgiving but i quickly realized these changes were to make them less forgiving.
-The spider boss now has a frontal cone attack that will lock you in place while doing damage to you. Not sure what that was suppose to achieve other than be annoying but we killed it.
-The trash mob in the trap hallway (the champion) now has the ability to go underground and burst out damaging players. Annoying and dangerous because he does it repeatedly now. Whats odd is that after he comes up from the ground he is see through and invulnerable for 1-2 seconds.
-LT Kholer. I cannot stand this boss and his mechanics. It is tedious and his AoE pull and AoE attack combo is not forgiving for anyone especially my engineer who if she gets caught is quickly downed. Now Lt. Kholer has adds and I do not understand why this was needed.

I am upset and feel like i have been left out of the loop some how. “Easy” was never a word i used to describe dungeons in GW2. In fact because of the lack of a Tank and Healer I would describe them as challenging and chaotic. Now i can add frustrating and unavailing to the list.

Don’t worry, ANet and Dungeon Masters told players that Simin could be beat, but that was nerfed. It wil not be long until AC is nerfed.

Sure, this would have been appropriate for lets say, an 80 dungeon, But MOST of the people trying AC are first time dungeoners that just want to get some good gear and check out how awesome these dungeons are.

That was me, unfortunately all I faced instead of fun and joy was appointment and a lot less gold from repairs.

AC SUCKS RIGHT NOW!

ANet, just a tip: When people ask for harder dungeons, you don’t have to go all out and make it impossible. Jesus you literally flew to the other side of the spectrum.

They buff a starter dungeon but leave cof p1 untouched I guess they like elitist zerker wars and don’t care about newer and casual players which from most games the majority of the player base,

dungeon exotics are supposed to be difficult to get, im casual and i approve this change. it’s not like we don’t have other easier ways to get drcent armor

We tried AC Hodgin’s path with our guild. Spider was different, but ok to do. The troll was not there, so we went to the room where Hodgin needs to get the first scepter and the graveling mounts spawn. This event never was a problem so far, but now after the patch caused such a severe lag that the game became a slideshow for 3 of us. I do not need to tell you it became unplayable. After a slide you sometime ended up with suddenly a stack of 12 bleeds out of nowhere. Before the patch no problems here. Please fix the lag here!

I’m sorry. Did you say the spider hatchlings were taking out 4 level 80s?

That’s not an issue with the dungeon. That’s an issue with the group.

Kumu Honua.2751:

I’m sorry. Did you say the spider hatchlings were taking out 4 level 80s?

That’s not an issue with the dungeon. That’s an issue with the group.

THIS if 4 level 80s are getting insta downed by this might be time to change that “uber” build uou made and start dodging a lot more…. It sounds like a L2P issue… As a low lvl taking and learning the appropriate condi removal and stum breakers is a musy if u even stand a chance not going all signets on ur character…

So I already know that this topic has been brought up a lot, but want to throw it out there again. Think that the new update for AC exp. mode is pretty difficult. At the spider, the spiderlings just kept downing one of us at a time, to the point where we couldn’t even get back up from the downed state cause their little “salvo” of poison would just drain your health. All of us had to die twice just to kill all the spiderlings then take on the huge spider.

I’d expect someone with “Houdini” as their display name to know how to get out of a situation.

Conditional Removal
Reflection
Invulnerability
Blocking
Projectile Destruction
Healing Fields and Regen
Necro Skills
Dodging + Vigor

xHoudinix.4523:

So I already know that this topic has been brought up a lot….

why not ask in another thread then, instead of creating the 500th? half of the first page is full of ac spam, with completely redundant topics. I mean it’s one thing to not check past page 3 or so, but if you see 10+ topics including AC in the title.. do you really think another one is necessary. is your point of view so much more interesting than everyone elses that it needs its own thread? just a few things to think about before creating a new thread.

The main issue I have with this is that there are plenty of difficult dungeons, but there was one you could just do to relax and have a bit of fun to get through.

That dungeon, called Ascalonian Catacombs, has now been replaced with a bug ridden knockdownfest. And if there’s one thing I dislike about this game, it is the spamming of 4-seconds stuns. I’m not playing this game to wait until I can act. That’s what chess is for.

Nolimitz.9467:

Kumu Honua.2751:

I’m sorry. Did you say the spider hatchlings were taking out 4 level 80s?

That’s not an issue with the dungeon. That’s an issue with the group.

THIS if 4 level 80s are getting insta downed by this might be time to change that “uber” build uou made and start dodging a lot more…. It sounds like a L2P issue… As a low lvl taking and learning the appropriate condi removal and stum breakers is a musy if u even stand a chance not going all signets on ur character…

I assume it’s l2p as well, but after things settle down I’m wondering if its possible to take 5 lowlvl chars (well geared) and do any ac path anymore. before the patch it was easily doable if everyone knew what they were doing (new players with lowlvl chars had a bad time though). with the current mechanic I’m not so sure anymore – been holding off of leveling my guardian in AC until everybody comes to term with the new mechanics.. ;-)

Not harder maybe, but the long lasting stunfest is still there. There’s nothing as boring as having to wait 12 seconds before your character can move again because your Armor of Earth was on cooldown….

Vox Hollow.2736:

You’re upset that dungeons aren’t enough like farming?
I think you are actually missing the point, OP.

Please tell ANet to buff COF P1 please. Isnt that the easiest dungeon and the most preferred farm despite being lvl 75?

Oranisagu.3706:

Nolimitz.9467:

Kumu Honua.2751:

I’m sorry. Did you say the spider hatchlings were taking out 4 level 80s?

That’s not an issue with the dungeon. That’s an issue with the group.

THIS if 4 level 80s are getting insta downed by this might be time to change that “uber” build uou made and start dodging a lot more…. It sounds like a L2P issue… As a low lvl taking and learning the appropriate condi removal and stum breakers is a musy if u even stand a chance not going all signets on ur character…

I assume it’s l2p as well, but after things settle down I’m wondering if its possible to take 5 lowlvl chars (well geared) and do any ac path anymore. before the patch it was easily doable if everyone knew what they were doing (new players with lowlvl chars had a bad time though). with the current mechanic I’m not so sure anymore – been holding off of leveling my guardian in AC until everybody comes to term with the new mechanics.. ;-)

They are quite doable with 35’s. The ONLY place where it will be harder will be on spider queen.

Simply because their gear is probably going to suck. They will have teeny tiny health pools and less traits etc etc.

But if they play smart and have tools to remove conditions they can certainly do it.

After running all the paths over 3 times, I can say that the dungeon has become MUCH easier.
If you are a glass cannon, then sorry it’s gotten harder.
Now for Pugs, a path might take them 1 hour and a half maximum, but it is very possible if they learn how to coordinate themselves.
In my guild, I teach all my members the tactics and tell them how to stay alive. Do so before a boss encounter.
Easy.
If u don’t know them, learn them. We did all 3 first paths without a wipe. Just takes coordination.

The solution is simple my good man.

Stop pugging, get yourself a nice group of people who aren’t total horribads and run kitten with them. Y’know, socialize. It doesn’t hurt… much.

Oh and it took my hastily assembled ragtag group of drunkards from guildchat 20 minutes to clear AC3.

Iehova.9518:

The solution is simple my good man.

Stop pugging, get yourself a nice group of people who aren’t total horribads and run kitten with them. Y’know, socialize. It doesn’t hurt… much.

Oh and it took my hastily assembled ragtag group of drunkards from guildchat 20 minutes to clear AC3.

Sry I dont mix with drunks. I rather socialize irl.

Kumu Honua.2751:

They are quite doable with 35’s. The ONLY place where it will be harder will be on spider queen.

Simply because their gear is probably going to suck. They will have teeny tiny health pools and less traits etc etc.

But if they play smart and have tools to remove conditions they can certainly do it.

Why not give it a go? Play for the challenge not for the rewards and tell us how it goes. Or you could go in lvl 80 with blue gear and remove your grandmaster traits to simulate lvl 35.

Darksanity.1690:

After running all the paths over 3 times, I can say that the dungeon has become MUCH easier.
If you are a glass cannon, then sorry it’s gotten harder.
Now for Pugs, a path might take them 1 hour and a half maximum, but it is very possible if they learn how to coordinate themselves.
In my guild, I teach all my members the tactics and tell them how to stay alive. Do so before a boss encounter.
Easy.
If u don’t know them, learn them. We did all 3 first paths without a wipe. Just takes coordination.

faster yes, if you know what you’re doing.
but how can you claim its become easier?

• cc against players : nearly none before, now commonplace
• mechanics : autoattacking bosses worked before, now you need to learn mechanics
• condition removal : at worst necessary for spider queen – now you need it constantly

this has nothing to do with playing class cannon or not. players have to utilize much more skills appropriately than before – I wouldn’t call that easier and I’m stumped as to how you can.

ac pre-patch was much easier, as less skilled players could still be an asset to a group, now they’re a burden because it’s gotten to hard for them.

I like the changes, but the dungeon has become a lot harder than before.

They buff a starter dungeon but leave cof p1 untouched I guess they like elitist zerker wars and don’t care about newer and casual players which from most games the majority of the player base.

Please tell ANet to buff COF P1 please. Isnt that the easiest dungeon and the most preferred farm despite being lvl 75?

I approve of doing this to all the dungeons.
It might take a while before they get done doing this to all of them. Scripting-wise and balance-wise this is honestly a decent chunk of work for two people, even if those two people are Mr. Hrouda and his nameless trusty sidekick.