Guild Wars 2

Just a little quote from one of our groupmates after 6hours trying to get through this dungeon. I think it summes this whole dungeon thingish up pretty well.

" This is supposed to be the hardest kitten out there but it is just kitten."

I agree that it’s a horrible path but I don’t think it’s supposed to be the ‘hardest kitten out there’.

Also I don’t really see the point of this post.

It’s one of the longer ones. Only did a couple of runs. It was alright. First run was a disaster but with repeats it is just longer not necessarily harder. The unskippable cutscenes probably contribute to the length.

The Aetherpath isn’t much harder than some other dungeon paths. The problem is that it’s long, so people don’t go there very often, so there are few common knowledge PUG tactics. That’s all. The fights do need genuine tactics and not just stack and skip, but that’s good isn’kitten

Explie.3478:

Just a little quote from one of our groupmates after 6hours trying to get through this dungeon. I think it summes this whole dungeon thingish up pretty well.

" This is supposed to be the hardest kitten out there but it is just kitten."

i second this emotion.
(even though the reference to fecal matter has been censored, and replaced with feline matter)

…honestly, even though we got all the way to the legendary clockheart, there were just too many places with a tedious amount of enemies. the sense of exploration was kinda lost, because you got worn out by the length of combat.

as we discussed in there, maybe the designers only tested with certain classes/gear…

I try to do Aetherblade if I can gather guildies on a 2-3day basis per week.

Coordination and experience is needed. There’s barely any stackable positions and the boss fights are somewhat refreshing.

I only wish it gave 3g instead of 2g. It takes just about as long as arah paths even with a fully experienced group (just because there isn’t much stuff you can skip).

I did it enough to get all the achvives and haven’t been back since. kitten that dungeon.

With a good group this should be doable in about 40-45 mins.
It’s one of the few dungeons where you really want to work together and balance skills for the team (not individually).

The classic zerker bars with stack and spank tactics don’t work – this was part of the aim for this dungeon. I honestly hope more dungeons become like this so it actually requires team work and co-ordination.

I’m tending to run WvW tactics here – combo finishers to stack things like might etc just before pulls to make this fight fast and easy.

I really enjoyed the path, but once my group hits the industrial part of it, my fps drops down to about 5 and it is barely playable. If it weren’t for that I would run it more often but it is just terribly taxing on my computer compared to everything else in this game besides massive zergs.

TPMN.1483:

With a good group this should be doable in about 40-45 mins.
It’s one of the few dungeons where you really want to work together and balance skills for the team (not individually).

The classic zerker bars with stack and spank tactics don’t work – this was part of the aim for this dungeon. I honestly hope more dungeons become like this so it actually requires team work and co-ordination.

I’m tending to run WvW tactics here – combo finishers to stack things like might etc just before pulls to make this fight fast and easy.

Sounds like a cool idea, making a dungeon where you can’t just stack and burn, but would require actual tactics and changes to your build, BUT……

Once again, fail on anets part. They made it WAY to long and then to top that off, they add unskippable cut scenes? Who’s idea was that? It’s as if they wanted to make a cool new dungeon that takes different tactics to complete, but wanted everyone to know how terrible that was by making it long and boring so that everyone would just happily go back to the stack and burn zerk way.

It’s not way too long. Fractals are longer. Arah paths can be longer. It all depends on how experienced your party members are.

Tachii.3506:

It’s not way too long. Fractals are longer. Arah paths can be longer. It all depends on how experienced your party members are.

You can’t compare fractals to a single dungeon path.

You also can’t compare it to what is supposed to be the hardest dungeon in the game (arah).

Comparing it on equal footing, which means to other paths in that level range and in the same dungeon, it is by far way too long.

Aetherblade is a level 80 dungeon. It shouldn’t be compared to the other 2 paths in twilight arbor anyways. And I believe the devs made this in mind so it can be compared to Arah. They wanted to make a challenging dungeon with great rewards (exotic dreams weapons easily 100g+), so not sure where you’re coming from that it can’t be compared to the top tier dungeons in this game.

Aether is one of the easier runs around if you just don’t ignore the mechanics. Sadly, in the gw2 community we are too much used to ignore 50% of the fight and just dps before the enemy kills you. In Aether you need to know every boss skill to avoid it.

That makes a fun dungeon for 2 reasons:
- 1: You need to adapt on first tries and learn the skills (oh, so the enemy can throw me into areas, ok, i won’t melee the boss).
- 2: You really improve trying several times, because you will learn how to fight it instead of just do a lotto DPS race and kill something before it kills you.

In Aether, the only thing that you need to know is how it works. A noob reading this guide ( https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Guide-for-TA-Aether/first ) can even not get hit once in bosses 2 or 3. And they are bosses, should be hard!… but they are not, they are just complex.

You guys should understand the difference between hard and complex. A complex fight can be studied until you get 0 damage. A hard fight will give you damage always and you will have to deal with it and win in a luck or very skilled fight.

Anyway, the run can be done in 30 minutes or even less if the group knows a solid strategy. I don’t know why there is so many people scared of Aether where the only thing needed is teamwork. Aren’t you in a dungeon because you want to play with 4 more players? Teamwork is expected. Don’t fight near “that warrior or that necro”, you go and ask that player what he think your group should do, get a strategy, try it, if don’t work try something different… and everyone pay attention to what it’s going on. That’s what a dungeon is about and it’s about time that you understand that you are not alone in a dungeon… and you should not play like that. DPS doesn’t matter in Aether. Actually you could go with the lowest DPS group ever (i did that once, with 2 necros and 2 rangers just for lols) and suceeded without a wipe.

Have fun there. You only need to accept that it’ll take 2 hours (since you don’t know how to do it perfectly yet). Then get good attitude players and be patient.

P.S. I just noticed that it might be impossible to suceed if everyone is zerker there because they don’t have so much brain when it comes to complexity strategies. Something to have in mind: don’t bring a group full of zerkers to Aether

Tachii.3506:

Aetherblade is a level 80 dungeon. It shouldn’t be compared to the other 2 paths in twilight arbor anyways. And I believe the devs made this in mind so it can be compared to Arah. They wanted to make a challenging dungeon with great rewards (exotic dreams weapons easily 100g+), so not sure where you’re coming from that it can’t be compared to the top tier dungeons in this game.

Something that drops once in a blue moon hardly counts as rewarding(if they dropped more often their value would be lowered …).

It’s more like the majority of players ignore this path like the plague.

I’ve already got that scepter of dreams and sold it for 250g. From tp data a bunch of them came out when the dungeon was released, and now there’s only like 0-2 for each piece. I can only assume it’s that there aren’t many players that do this regularly, and not that the items are super rare. (well it is an exotic like any other from a dungeon chest but I don’t think it’s as rare as precursors).

Elrey.5472:

A noob reading this guide ( https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Guide-for-TA-Aether/first ) can even not get hit once in bosses 2 or 3. And they are bosses, should be hard!… but they are not, they are just complex.

a lot hinges on that “can” (my emphasis up there)… it’s not like knowing the mechanics will take away the random elements.

but i get what you say about a dungeon being an adventure (or whatever). and it was. i was lucky to be part of a group that had the stamina to get that far. but it honestly feels like that place was made for stellar gear – and the “right” classes/builds – and not people just wanting an adventure…

thomasgjkgwdn.4760:

a lot hinges on that “can” (my emphasis up there)… it’s not like knowing the mechanics will take away the random elements.

That is why i love Aether, man. If you know the mechanics, there is no random elements (except in boss 1), so you can be safe almost all the time.

With skilled people like myself, this should take no longer than 40-50min. However, most skilled players are busy with fractals equipping ascending armor from rewards, or are running the more lucrative dungeons. So, I am usually left with inexperienced people to play in the Aether path.

I typically graduate 4 newbies every weekend in the Aether path, taking around 1:30min – 2 hrs. Some of them have never attempted it before, some failed at Spark, etc. I just tell them to bring as much DPS as possible, both range and melee. I personally run a cleric guardian because I know exactly when they will need boons and basically keep them all afloat. I also tell them roughly where to stand (stack) as I pull all the bad guys to them.

What I have noticed from the newbie runs is that most newbies do follow general instructions but take a few wipes to nail my strategies down. The parts requiring most explanation are the ooze puzzle and Spark/Slick. For the latter, pugs have a hard time understanding how the oil puddles work. For this part, I tell them to hard DPS Spark first unless the ooze is following one of them, in which case the chased target should STOP all dps and focus on removing the oil puddles. But most of the time, I run the ooze because my DPS on cleric guard sucks and I buff them all as I pass through them.

The only other part where they have trouble is the Clockheart boss. But after a few tries, they usually complete it fine.

Overall, the dungeon is quite easy but for some reason, most people do not like to run this path. They should at least read Dulfy’s guide on the Aether path – not because it is perfect, but because it at least gives them some strategy to work with and not appear completely clueless.

Have you tried tell them to kill Slick first?

Wethospu.6437:

Have you tried tell them to kill Slick first?

If the group has made it as far as 1st boss, it’s because they have the abbility to do the ooze room. If they can suceed with 4 different roles in ooze room, then only 1 role is piece of cake. That’s one of the better reasons to kill Sparki first.

2nd reason: Slick does almost 0 damage, a simple banner can heal the group for what he does. So… once you killed the robot, you only need to clean oil and faceroll it.
3rd reason: Slick has 250% health more than Sparki, takes a lot of time to fight while u need to clean oil and get fire attacks from him.

Since all the big damage in that fight comes from Sparki, killing him is the best choice. After that, slick does more oil shots but if your group goes close to him (less than 10 meters), the oil will be easy to clean because you dont need to move the ooze too far away.

Tachii.3506:

It’s more like the majority of players ignore this path like the plague.

I’ve already got that scepter of dreams and sold it for 250g. From tp data a bunch of them came out when the dungeon was released, and now there’s only like 0-2 for each piece. I can only assume it’s that there aren’t many players that do this regularly, and not that the items are super rare. (well it is an exotic like any other from a dungeon chest but I don’t think it’s as rare as precursors).

I run this dungeon almost every day since shortly after its release. Easily 70+ runs, thats 350 Chances for one of these weapons. We got 2.
They HAVE a ridiculously low drop chance.