Guild Wars 2

Ok, so far the only dungeons i’ve done were AC P1-P2-P3 and CoF P1-P2.

I want to try CoE, because of the chance to acquire charged cores and lodestones. But, i’m sure that will be very hard for me, i’m not a PRO at dungeons, this is my first MMO and i still feel like a newbie to the game, i rarely die now on AC and CoF, but i’ve seen a lot of people saying that this Subject Alpha is hard and unforgivable.

What i need to know is, the right way to to dungeons in this game is by stacking and run pass trash mobs? Like, this is the way you need to do dungeons? Because, in AC you stack on the spider queen to kill her fast and you just run pass whatever appears in front of you.

Before i try CoE, i will see some videos on YT, the problem is, almost every video is about rush/speed run, those videos are the one that i need to see?

One other thing. It is normal to bosses one shot you in FoTM lvl 10? Not insta-kill, like, go downed with one shot from the boss, like, the boss in the dredge fractal, the one after the door, not the legendary. I rarely die in FoTM now, i’m on lvl 19, but after the 16 i realized that things start to get hard.

I run this build on my guardian ( my only character):

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.4|1.1g.h1b|b.1g.a7.d.1g.h1j|1g.71h.1g.71h.1g.71g.1g.71g.1g.77.1g.77|4s.d1e.2s.d1e.3s.d1e.2s.d1e.3s.d1e.cc.67|0.a6.u56b.u28b.0|1.9|v.16.19.18.1i|e

Should i change for knights gear (armor) + full soldier runes for FoTM lvl 20 and CoE? I already have this set.

Can you count? 1, 2, 3?

That and a half decent party is all you need in CoE
Google/Youtube some guides or be brave and join a gw2lfg and ask a few questions (they can’t do more to you than kick you^^)

CoE is, once you know the basics, really easy. And berserker/damage is probably the most efficient gear in this dungeon.

If you play on an EU server and need help, feel free to invite me for a few runs.

I have made Elementary guide to Subject Alpha (http://youtu.be/wgy1tVLvDOI)
It shows its major attacks and how to deal with them. There’s also a video of me soloing most of path 2 on my Warrior but not sure if that is any helpful).

And I guess watching speedrun video is good too.

The Dredge you speak of is Rabsovich. Just watch his animations, when he leans back with his arm out, he’s getting ready to use his ohk. Just dodge it, you’ll get the timing down once you recognize the animation.

As for COE, very easy dungeon. Alpha is quite easy. As guard you may sometimes be expected to hammer #4 him into the corner (if there isn’t a mesmer). Then just stack, melee and dodge when needed. This fight is only difficult if you end up with bad pugs that can’t dodge or either very low dps and people are running out of vigor. My guild runs all 3 COE’s in probably 35 minutes-ish.

If dungeoning is your thing you may want to try to get into a dungeon guild, but you may also need a warrior for that. You could also try the stickied post at the top of the dungeon page, it’s a guild that introduces new people to dungeons.

COE is dead easy if you don’t party up with bad players.

Mesmer pulls alpha, you all stack in some kind of corner and just wail on him until he dies. Whenever you see red circles, just count to two, then dodge forward inside the corner so you dont have to run back (more melee uptime plus he doesnt move then). Then for the other bosses, they all literally just sit there doing nothing while you whack them to death, it’s an extremely easy dungeon.

colesy.8490:

Then for the other bosses, they all literally just sit there doing nothing while you whack them to death, it’s an extremely easy dungeon.

This isn’t entirely true, but I do agree that the dungeon is easy if everyone knows what they are doing. For example, on the golem boss, chaining knockdowns/stuns when he is going to spin is crucial to ensure a smooth kill, and on the plant boss the mesmer using temporal curtain to pull in rogue golems also makes things faster/smoother.

Oh and guardian putting up aegis when the destroyer boss casts dragon’s tooth, or else everyone goes boom.

Tell a group you are new when you join and watch a vid of the dungeon. Most ppl doing coe are willing to help out. Just stay out of the ‘exp only’ til you get ur feet wet.

If you’ve done AC path 2 nothing in COE should phase you, so long as you can count to two and dodge. After HOTW and COF it’s probably the next easiest dungeon.

For fractals, you need to buy agony resist. Agony is a condition fractal bosses will put on you that will dish out insane damage. You need asended trinkets which you can buy with laurels or fractal tokens. Those have an “infusion” slot rather then the normal upgrade slot. Then you need to buy a versatile infusion, which gives you +5 AR. The higher you go in fractals, the more agony resist you will need.

You need 0 survivability for alpha, just run full zerks. Aegis and virtue of resolve are all you need. Fotm 20 is a faceroll, once again go ahead and just go zerks. Reserve knights set for bad groups and 48 dailies with poor pugs.

Give all the other dungeons a go. If you can go with a guild group that can take you through properly you’ll have some fun. Forget all the ‘dungeons are easy, take zerk warriors blah blah blah’ nonsense. All the dungeons are difficult without tactics. All the dungeons can be done by any classes with good tactics. Dungeons that were previously seen as hard are now seen as easy (CoE) because the common knowledge tactics have improved, even though the dungeons have not changed.

Stacking and skipping are parts of the common knowledge tactics. You don’t have to always do that. People often stack in the middle of red circles and wonder why they die. People often skip too much but can’t understand why the rest of the group is in trouble and losing time. For your first run however it is easiest to go with the flow and follow the staking and skipping.

lol… with 3 war zerk, a guard and a necro heal, most of the tactics are pointless, alpha is you standing and killing him in all three path (all 3 together can be done under 50 min, our guild record is 43min for CoE p1-2-3 in a row, timed with a 1h potion taken before the first pack, though i’m sure you can do way better time somehow… that’s a little slower than chain CoF p1 but it’s 180 tokken and charged core/lode drop.) The same for TA p1 2 3, just that in p3 2 war for spiders and going back to tree when no more spider.

Just tried CoE. It was horrible. Got destroyed like 6 times, that subject alpha guy have a insane rate of spell/skill spam, everything one shot you, i can’t dodge every 3 seconds, even with specs for vigor and sigil of energy. Seriously, it was horrible.

I don’t know if was the group > 2 mesmers + 1 ranger + 1 engineer.

I won’t be able to acquire those kittening core and lodestones right?

Also, people hate newbies and LFG for this dungeon is a desert.

aophts.9862:

Just tried CoE. It was horrible. Got destroyed like 6 times, that subject alpha guy have a insane rate of spell/skill spam, everything one shot you, i can’t dodge every 3 seconds, even with specs for vigor and sigil of energy. Seriously, it was horrible.

I don’t know if was the group > 2 mesmers + 1 ranger + 1 engineer.

I won’t be able to acquire those kittening core and lodestones right?

Also, people hate newbies and LFG for this dungeon is a desert.

What path did you do? If it was 2 or 3, when you see the huge AOE circles count to 3 and THEN dodge, you should have enough endurance to dodge everytime you see the circles and you will never get it. If you dodge right when you see them you will run out and die

aophts.9862:

Just tried CoE. It was horrible. Got destroyed like 6 times, that subject alpha guy have a insane rate of spell/skill spam, everything one shot you, i can’t dodge every 3 seconds, even with specs for vigor and sigil of energy. Seriously, it was horrible.

I don’t know if was the group > 2 mesmers + 1 ranger + 1 engineer.

I won’t be able to acquire those kittening core and lodestones right?

Also, people hate newbies and LFG for this dungeon is a desert.

A few things makes this fight easier.

Dodging at the right time. (Count to 3 as stated above). I like to make sure my dodge is set to one key, ‘V’) instead of double tap. Double tap lengthens your reaction time.

High Dps party eliminates time for error. You should really only need to dodge between 1 and 3 times per encounter depending on how often he decides to do and how quickly he dies.

A block and condi removal for any errors/ crystallize bugs.
Disable ‘Melee assist.’ in your F11 options so that you are able to walk through Alpha.

jwaz.1908:

Oh and guardian putting up aegis when the destroyer boss casts dragon’s tooth, or else everyone goes boom.

If everybody just attacks from near the edge of their melee range, when the tooth comes you can just walk 2 steps and never need to stop attacking. The only time you need guard aiges is either in the groups that 100% need the warrior to never have to dodge to interrupt a possible 100b. Most of the time any decent group without a guard will just use axes the whole time or wait till the 1st tooth is cast before using 100b.

@ op

I also have a video/semi-guide to killing Alpha in all 3 paths and a solo of p2 but you might be better off finding a vid that explains exactly what the bosses do before watching vids to figure out how to counter them. I’m a thief and weth is a warrior so just pick which would help you the most. If you’re interested just click the link in my sig.

I suggest doing CoE. It’s actually a fun dungeon and is the best dungeon atm to prep you for arah if you ever decide to run it.

Crucible kind of slaps you in the face the first time (or three times) you run it.

It does get better though, as you figure out how to deal with Alpha’s attacks and some of the more damage-heavy intermediate fights.

Give these dungeons some respect. GW2 is meant to provide some challenge and be tough for those who don’t know the tactics and play style. If you wipe badly on the first time through it just makes it more satisfying when you eventually stroll through easily.

If you take a build from a website and watch strategy videos then you might do every dungeon first time easily but you’re not playing your own game. You are walking through the game under instruction. If you can find your own challenges and overcome them you might actually feel like you’ve achieved something.

Slither Shade.4782:

Buy a second account. On this second account you are free to look like an idiot and be a kitten. Btw I’m posting this on my second account now….not really.

Why are you offending me? Reported.

It is good you are using a Guardian to learn CoE paths; a heavy armor class may be more forgiving if missing a dodge than a light one (I learned it with an elementalist… my first couple runs were a disaster XD; now I mostly play it with a guardian too :P ).
Those are some suggestions you may want to check out.

NOTE: I do not consider myself an expert; the following suggestions are just the result of my experience in CoE; feel free to change and modify everything written here according to your play-style. You may just use these notes as a starting point.

First Alpha encounter:
To fight alpha I suggest you to load the trait “Strenght in Number” (Valor #4) to help both you and your all team increasing the overall amount of toughness.
Be the first one to approach Subject Alpha:
1. Use “Retreat” to run out of the door (facultative);
2. While running in the room, target Subject Alpha;
3. When in range use “Judge’s Intervention” (it will teleport you to the selected foe);
4. Use GS #5 to grab Alpha;
5. Run at the right corner of the gate and press GS #5 again (pull Alpha at you).

If this fails, fight Alpha following him around and always standing on him.

Fighting Alpha on Path 1:
You may use GS all the time; Alpha will not use the concentric AoE so it is just a matter to move at his side/back to avoid his conic attack. If everybody do not move around too much Alpha do not usually use the fire tooth.

Fighting Alpha on Paths 2 and 3:
Use GS to put him in corner and then shift to Hammer (it will speed up building endurance to both you and the whole team giving you more chances to dodge). After the AoE appears (accompanied by his sound effect), count 1-2-3 (not too fast) and dodge (possibly against the corner/wall to avoid Alpha moving around). There is no need to dodge all Alpha’s AoE attacks. Look what appears in the center of the AoE (when the center is visible… stacking can make it difficult sometimes):
- ice -> stay;
- ice & mist -> dodge.
About the skills, you may load “Purging Flames” to clean you and the party up from eventual burning; “Stand your Ground” to raise you up in case you are knocked down.

The encounters with Alpha follow the same pattern during each path. However, according to the area, the stacking positions change:

Path 1:
Second encounter -> stack at the crates in front of Alpha;
Third encounter -> stack at crates in fron of door.

Path 2:
Second encounter -> stack at the corner between the steps and the first column at the left of the door;
Third encounter -> stack at the corner at the left of the teleportation lab (standing in the Green lab)

Path 3:
Second encounter -> like for path 2;
Third encounter -> go at the platform before the one with the gate and stack at corner left of the stairs (which is the first corner of the polygonal railing).

In each path, during second and third encounters Alpha will randomly trap a team member inside a crystal; break the crystal as fast as you can otherwise the entrapped one can be downed/killed by the next AoE attack (it is very rare but it may happen that a player may be stocked even if the crystal has been broken; I guess it is a bug). Stacking makes breaking crystal easier than moving around. Reviving people, instead, need to be done carefully (again, stacking give the chance to revive faster since more than one person can do that at the same time speeding up the process).

I hope those suggestions may help you. If you want I can go more in detail for the additional foes you will face in each path; just let me know