Guild Wars 2

I’m currently doing Arah exp for tokens to get some armour (not to outfit, just the looks) and it’s a really dreadful 10 or so runs to get the 630 tokens I need. Broadly speaking I have seen two types of people who join groups for Arah – people who are doing it for tokens, and people who are doing it for completion.

Yes there are the guild runs but sometimes we do need to pug. While some people who repeat exp (usually paths 2 and 3) are willing to take newbies along, if the lfg says EXPERIENCED ONLY, we mean it. We’ll take the newbies and show them the fights some other time.

Just because you’ve done the path ONCE does NOT make you experienced. Even if you’ve done it ten times but you still have no idea what’s going on or where to go and all you do is follow others, you are NOT experienced.

It matters not how many times you’ve done the path or Lupi, you are only experienced if you know what you need to do and should be doing. I’ve seen way too many self-proclaimed experienced players or groups who make rookie mistakes. If the group is experienced, no one should be getting downed by locusts. No one should be getting downed at the start of phase 2. I’ve been told by no less than three “experienced” people that “there isn’t enough time to dodge when Lupi shadowsteps at the start of phase 2”.

This issue of experience goes beyond knowing the fights. Please at least be aware of your skills and the game mechanics. It’s very annoying when people rez mesmers and thieves only to find that they’ve used their downed skill 2 in the middle of a rez. Not only that, if you do that, you’re a liability in Arah. Some mesmers don’t even know they have Illusion of Life or what it does.

Arah is long. So please, don’t make the lives of other players harder. If someone asks for experienced players only and that’s not you, do not join. Do not represent yourself to be someone experienced, only to be the one who rezzes a downed player in a red circle and run past a downed player when it is safe (yes, that has happened to me before). We really don’t want to spend two hours in Arah and not achieve our tokens.

TL;DR if people ask for experienced players only for Arah, do not join unless you really are experienced (know the fights and your class)

On a funny and semi-related note, about two weeks ago I joined an Arah P1 group that asked for “Experienced Only!”. When I got in, they asked me, “Do you know what to do?” And I responded yes, so they said, “Okay, can you lead the way and explain the strats?”

I was like, “…”

LOL ! A mesmer with Illusion of Life, seriously ? You’d have to be in a pretty sucky group to start using that spell. That made my day Tx

As for the rest I partially agree. Mesmer should port if they gonna get hit by AOE or SS for the simple reason that it will allow teammates to dodge without having to get of the reviving process. Thief should port for the same reason, and also to get under him if a mesmer or guardian gonna bubble.

DigitalKirin.9714:

On a funny and semi-related note, about two weeks ago I joined an Arah P1 group that asked for “Experienced Only!”. When I got in, they asked me, “Do you know what to do?” And I responded yes, so they said, “Okay, can you lead the way and explain the strats?”

I was like, “…”

I just joined a coe party looking for experienced.
-bow ranger
-mf food staff guardian
-heal signet/regen tactics banner/never used FGJ warrior
-engi had luck stacks
First alpha was fought in the middle of the room

At least the vuln stacks were up to 25 >.<

Experience is a subjective interpretation so unless you qualified your statement completely, you can’t blame them for joining. Besides this sub-forum is mostly occupied by elitists and their experiences are way beyond what you just described. Newbies don’t come here and pretended elitists are kicked into corner so bad, they just have to leave (or be quiet).

That moment when you rally/mist form/teleport and 2s later someone puts a banner… -_-

Sylvanwood.2746:

No one should be getting downed at the start of phase 2.

I call total bullkitten on this one. The switch to Phase2 can result in a trainwreck of random things all going wrong at once and the guy who dives on the grubs to prevent multiple stacks is a HERO, not a rookie. A any decent team can even Rez him later on if needs be. The only real mistake in the transition to phase2, which I’ve made a few times I’ll admit, was not saving up a Dodge for it while also not running Endurance Stew…

ilr.9675:

Sylvanwood.2746:

No one should be getting downed at the start of phase 2.

I call total bullkitten on this one. The switch to Phase2 can result in a trainwreck of random things all going wrong at once and the guy who dives on the grubs to prevent multiple stacks is a HERO, not a rookie. A any decent team can even Rez him later on if needs be. The only real mistake in the transition to phase2, which I’ve made a few times I’ll admit, was not saving up a Dodge for it while also not running Endurance Stew…

Of course if you range then you shouldn’t get downed at the start of phase 2.

SkyChef.5432:

ilr.9675:

Sylvanwood.2746:

No one should be getting downed at the start of phase 2.

I call total bullkitten on this one. The switch to Phase2 can result in a trainwreck of random things all going wrong at once and the guy who dives on the grubs to prevent multiple stacks is a HERO, not a rookie. A any decent team can even Rez him later on if needs be. The only real mistake in the transition to phase2, which I’ve made a few times I’ll admit, was not saving up a Dodge for it while also not running Endurance Stew…

Of course if you range then you shouldn’t get downed at the start of phase 2.

was that sarcasm? hard to tell and you have a much better chance of living by standing directly under him at the beginning of phase 2

Sorry, but as a Mesmer, I refuse to carry Illusion of Life to GL (or even greater Arah). If you can’t stay alive yourself and get out of harm’s way, then just stay out of combat/heal up.

Will only ever carry Blink, Mantra of Concentration, and Feedback to GL, and swap Mantra of Concentration for Null Field, Mantra of Resolve, or Portal for rest of Arah~

Clumsy.6257:

SkyChef.5432:

ilr.9675:

Sylvanwood.2746:

No one should be getting downed at the start of phase 2.

I call total bullkitten on this one. The switch to Phase2 can result in a trainwreck of random things all going wrong at once and the guy who dives on the grubs to prevent multiple stacks is a HERO, not a rookie. A any decent team can even Rez him later on if needs be. The only real mistake in the transition to phase2, which I’ve made a few times I’ll admit, was not saving up a Dodge for it while also not running Endurance Stew…

Of course if you range then you shouldn’t get downed at the start of phase 2.

was that sarcasm? hard to tell and you have a much better chance of living by standing directly under him at the beginning of phase 2

I’ve done both methods with Sky several times…. sometimes everything goes right.
Sometimes there’s a panic & one or the other gets downed (But never both of us at the same time which is frankly all the skill really needed to ensure a successful enough fight)

I’m usually the one warning my team that phase 2 started, and I’m usually the one that kills the grubs and I’m usually the guy that doesn’t die… unless I’m ressing, almost all my deaths at lupi is because I was either lagging or ressing, the rest is because I think that I don’t need to heal.

Well check you out, Mr. Awesome.

Bismuth is the OG Lupi slayer

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

Bismuth is the OG Lupi slayer

meh… I suck at arah, I can’t even solo lupi :’(

SkyChef.5432:

Experience is a subjective interpretation so unless you qualified your statement completely, you can’t blame them for joining. Besides this sub-forum is mostly occupied by elitists and their experiences are way beyond what you just described. Newbies don’t come here and pretended elitists are kicked into corner so bad, they just have to leave (or be quiet).

I agree there are certainly different levels of experienced players. When joining a group that is asking for “experienced only,” it gives the impression – and I believe rightfully so – that all the players in the group should have a base competency of having done the run and knowing the basic strategy of each fight. It is disappointing to join an “experienced” party to find out that you’re the only one who has done that path.

Now, if the players were looking for an experienced player to help guide them through P1 because nobody knew the path, I think it would be something important enough to write in the comments section of their LFG.

I think there are different levels of experienced, most of the people here would rate somewhere from 7-10 in arah, which is very rare, but what I think is needed for an experienced run is 3 or above, 3 probably includes knowing the path, not getting downed a lot in lupi, not taking ages to skip mobs, knowing how to kill the boss, which is enough to get arah p1, p2 and p3 in 25-40 minutes depending on dps, but the thing is, most of the people rate 2 or 1, 0 being completely new, 1 being done it a few times.

Bismuth.3165:

I think there are different levels of experienced, most of the people here would rate somewhere from 7-10 in arah, which is very rare, but what I think is needed for an experienced run is 3 or above, 3 probably includes knowing the path, not getting downed a lot in lupi, not taking ages to skip mobs, knowing how to kill the boss, which is enough to get arah p1, p2 and p3 in 25-40 minutes depending on dps, but the thing is, most of the people rate 2 or 1, 0 being completely new, 1 being done it a few times.

I would said there is a passable grade for the whole group per particular instant. Speaking arbitrarily of Lupi fight in melee and assume Lupi has a passable grade at 8 for a solo, 7 for duo, 6 for trio, 5 for 4-5 players, the average grade of a party will determine whether the party could win the fight or not. Range fighting obviously would even lower the passable grade of the whole fight in this particular case. Take longer but easier.
The problem is most players over-estimated their grade because they rarely spend time to solo/duo/trio Lupi (or skipping alone in Arah w/o exploit) to realize how bad they are. So when a couple of weak links introduced , here go the complains.

I’m like a 1.5. I make good-guy Obal carry me.

Lol…

I’d say mine varies a good 5 points depending on whether I’ve had my ADHD meds or not

Just had a pug run for p3 take 25 minutes, pugs can be awesome sometimes

So to be clear, if you are only experienced in ranging Lupi, are you by definition not experienced? Personally, I never join “Experienced Only”groups even though I have done Arah many times since casual groups are much more enjoyable for me- don’t like the yelling and cursing if anyone is even a step out of place or gets downed. Of course that means I often don’t find a group since 90% of the posts are experienced only.

You are experienced in ranging Lupi but not experienced in melee Lupi. The 2 experiences are completely different. Most PUGs and new players start at ranging Lupi so you are safe there. And stay where you like doing the most w/ the like minded people.

I so tired of people joining games that say experienced only! Yesterday I had path 1 run someone with instance raged got mad because he couldn’t run to the 2nd phase. It happened again after another group of people, guardian and necromancer couldn’t make it and cried about it. Left dungeon instance, wow all that time wasted.