Guild Wars 2

AC Story Mode is pretty hard, especially the 3 ghosts in the hallways. No way to get around those. I just finished Caudecus Manor Story and it was much easier than AC Story and shorter too. Ascalonian Catacombs had better fights and more bosses but defentively more difficult. might want to look into it and make other dungeons harder or AC easier.

AC threw me through loops several times the first time through. The second time I walked in actually prepared and understanding what I needed and only died once.

I’m too unfamiliar with arenanet to know if they would nerf it, but it’d not be shocking. I would be a little sad though as it is fun to triumph over it.

Anyone building a straight power character with no defensive stats whatsoever is going to die horribly.

+1 for making other dungeons harder.
That 3 ranger pull is more dreaded than all but the Couple’s boss fight. Once we figured out how to do reflect projectiles as a group, it became mostly straightforward.
Still have no idea how to deal with elementalists. . .

Tank them just like Ralena since they basically have the same skill set. Don’t fight crowds of AoEing mobs in hallways.

It’s not that the dungeon is too hard so much as that it’s a very jarring experience (even for story mode.) This is the reason I think it should be made easier. Ascalonian Catacombs needs to serve more of a tutorial in how future dungeons work. We should be required to kite, dodge, and learn when to use ranged or melee weapons ect.. but it does need to be a little more forgiving so that people actually can practice and learn these things for future dungeons.

So I agree that the difficult needs to be toned down in story mode.. explorable mode can be as hard as they want it to be as that’s a whole different experience. Sadly though, there are many players who will miss out on a big chunk of the story because they won’t be able to do it… and there really is nowhere in the open world where you can practice these skills.

I agree that it’s not too hard for a dungeon, but it really is for the “first” dungeon to do. Or should I say the Lovers fight is way too hard for the “first” dungeon :P

Make no mistake, AC Story Mode is difficult.

Take a look at all the other dungeons in the game – while I personally may have only played up to CM so far, I hear the others are similarly less challenging than AC was, so this is obviously where the problem lies and if anything, for a first dungeon it should be EASIER than the others. But here’s the thing – nobody I know has gone back in with the same gear they had at level 30 and tried to play it well. I guarantee you they couldn’t, despite how many other dungeons they had done since.

The mobs have ridiculously damaging abilities for such a constrained path through the dungeon – about 60-70% of the trash fights are in tight corridors and hallways and this does not make for easy dodging of traps. Not to mention the AoE circles for said traps seem bugged – they only seem to appear after the trap has already come up.

I believe to tune this dungeon, all that needs to be done is lower the AoE damage capabilities of the mobs. Yes, it goes towards the easing of difficulties that Blizzard have recently become infamous for, but if it means a more consistent difficulty curve and more people getting into dungeons then I’m all for it – the dungeons have a great storyline of their own to explore and I know so many people that have become discouraged from them because of sour experiences in AC.

+1 to that. I’ve gone in to AC about 3 times now (all above level 30) and every single time, I haven’t gotten far. First time was first room, then the second room, and last time was the rangers.

Goto say, it has stopped me from doing any other story mode dungeons because of the difficulty

JulysFire.9603:

+1 to that. I’ve gone in to AC about 3 times now (all above level 30) and every single time, I haven’t gotten far. First time was first room, then the second room, and last time was the rangers.

Goto say, it has stopped me from doing any other story mode dungeons because of the difficulty

Do not be discouraged – I promise you, CM is a lot easier than AC was, but you still need to keep an eye out for downed players and AoE circles. It doesn’t feel too ‘easy’ but it’s certainly not as much of a wake-up slap as AC is.

omgNova.9052:

JulysFire.9603:

+1 to that. I’ve gone in to AC about 3 times now (all above level 30) and every single time, I haven’t gotten far. First time was first room, then the second room, and last time was the rangers.

Goto say, it has stopped me from doing any other story mode dungeons because of the difficulty

Do not be discouraged – I promise you, CM is a lot easier than AC was, but you still need to keep an eye out for downed players and AoE circles. It doesn’t feel too ‘easy’ but it’s certainly not as much of a wake-up slap as AC is.

Yeah, I notice a lot of teams don’t like to get the downed players up lol. But the AoE circles aren’t too much of a problem. Ill try CM later tonight

It’s not difficult, it’s just that the first time everyone goes there they are severely under geared. The other dungeons seem easier why? Better gear.

That’s not even remotely true. I used the exact same gear for AC that I used for CM (lvl 41 pow/pre armour and level 35 vit/toughness jewelry.

AC is much harder.

I agree, Lvl 80 with lvl 70 gear. Still able to die in AC, CM is a cake walk. The easiest way to balance this out would be to make CM the first dungeon…

Now that I’m more attuned to explorable mode difficulty, story AC is really easy by comparison. It is harder than CM, but much easier than some later story mode dungeons. Actually, pretty much every story mode dungeon is harder than AC except CM. (I have done them all except Arah.) Some of the trash in AC story is vicious, but there is no brutally hard encounter or boss to get through. All 4 are really easy. Explorable will make you long for how easy story mode was.

tl;dr If you think AC story is hard, you have significant room to grow in skill, build, and coordination, before you will be able to do later instances or explorable difficulty (aside from CM story.)

I did AC for the first time last night, and it was a very RUDE awakening. No where in the game do you have a training experience for such a horrible awakening.

There are no tanks, no healers, and no CC based players. Everyone goes raw damage (per their leveling up methods). So when you get in those tight groups, its just unorganized chaos. I think I died 30+ times, but we did the ENTIRE Dungeon. All the way to the King.

Now, I’m not complaining about the game, the dungeon or otherwise. But I think Arenanet needs to figure out a way to introduce players, that are new to this type of MMO, for its dungeons. Coming from a EQ/WoW background it was very hard to get in sync with what I needed to do. With no tanks, crappy mitigation/avoidance, Lack of Good healing spells, and no real CC (the people I was with didn’t know how to CC with Knockback and other nice skills to interrupt casting and what not) it makes it very hard.

But, 20/20 hindsight, being a ‘professional’ raider for many years I can now see how to handle this instance. But I now need to go through my Character and figure out what defensive skills I can monopolize on. As before my AC experience I have not had to touch them…at all. And from a players experience, that’s not good.

sirsquishy.8531:

… I think Arenanet needs to figure out a way to introduce players, that are new to this type of MMO, for its dungeons. Coming from a EQ/WoW background it was very hard to get in sync with what I needed to do …

Basically this^.

There needs to a very short solo instance on ~level 20 with 1 or 2 bosses as part of your personal story that explains how your profession can work in a group and what combo fields & combo finishers are.

As some people flat out disregrad until AC that there are combos and skills that should be used in dungeons for that very matter it makes adjustment for most players hard [difficulty of AC overall is fine ].
The only times i had trouble in AC was when i went with players that had a servere lack of knowledge in that regard.

I have already tried AC (in live) with 4 different professions and i really think the only problem with AC is that – as stupid as it sounds – players need to ‘learn to play’ / adapt their playstyle for grouping.

AC need voice communication in order to succeed a type of communication the game dosnt give, not everyone have TS or vent.
The game doesn’t try to promote teamplay in any way at the outside world, all we see is a rush of people coming to help each other in difficult battles and leave to do their own bidding when the fight end. AC need to teach us players how to communicate how to use our skills in the right way, catacombs feels like learning the dynamic event system in low level areas with event webs and difficult boss fights, some will love the challenge most will hate it.
I love dungeons i led countless dungeons in GW1, i realy waited for the moment that i will go to the dungeon, i dont care about reward im doing the run for fun and the story, after dying countless times lost way too much money on repairs, i decided that this aspect of the game is too frustrating, a difficult dungeon is fun, but AC difficulty is insanely hard for players new to this type of dungeons.
in my opinion the way to fix the issue is to give players incentive to be in a team and learn good teamwork, all of us like shiny stuff, what if every party member will add 2% magical find to the party, a full team will grant 10% magical find in this way we will be able to get better stuff and feel rewarded.
remove the need to pay money for repairs in the dungeon forge, it is frustrating enough to die there and not being able to help the team, with the added repair bill it is is an unrewarding experience.

Maybe it’s because I did AC story in the BWE, but I absolutely do not understand how anyone has trouble with this dungeon.

I did it at level 30 on live and we never wiped once (with a half pug half friend group – didn’t use voice chat). I died several times, but I was always able to rally or run back, and I don’t really consider that a problem in the current implementation.

Hell, we weren’t even any good at focusing the marked targets and I don’t think anyone was ever defeated on trash (a few downed, but that’s it).

The twins aren’t that hard because the moment they’re separated they do like no damage. The only issue I had was that I was using 2 ranged weapons and I took the job of holding the guy’s attention. Little did I know that they added (or I missed it in the beta) reflect projectiles to his skill list. It wasn’t an issue for damage, but it made it difficult for me to keep his attention.

Just so long as you know that you should focus one trash mob at a time (hard concept I know), rangers won’t actually kill you. The other mobs are all pretty pathetic and should go down in a few seconds (rangers go down fast too).

I recorded it and the video is just 45 minutes long (sound is messed up as hell though or I’d post it). It could definitely be more like 30 minutes for people with experience, since were running with pugs and it was the first week of the game.

Really I just don’t understand the hate for AC story. It’s a fairly easy dungeon and if I had to do it again I would probably nod off from boredom.

wtf??

AC story mode is a cake walk.. i did it with 3 randoms and 1 friend.. it was like.. 2 mesmers and 3 mages or something like that.. and we didnt wipe.. EVER.. and we were all virgins that time.. noone knew where to go or what to do.. but we were fighting pretty well..

needless to say, we didnt had voice chat or anything.. lol :S

CM was another piece of cake dungeon..

and actually the only dungeon i had some difficult was one of CM’s exploration routes.. where there is a passage with traps that 2 shot you.. and we couldnt figure out how to get trough it.. lol

lethlora.1320:

Anyone building a straight power character with no defensive stats whatsoever is going to die horribly.

I had glass-cannon-build and -gear on my Thief.
I got 2-shotted all the time.
I prefer to play melee, but I had already decided to go ranged-only in my first dungeon. I still got 2-shotted all the time. It wasn’t fun at all. I’m not a complete noob, but I just didn’t know what to do. One healing trinket (small self-heal on doing damage). No ways to remove conditions. Two dodges with a relatively large refill-time. Aggro rules that we don’t understand yet (because there are aggro rules, no matter what people think. This is AI, there are rules, invented by some programmer).

It’s StoryMode.
The trash felt like endgame raiding.
Supposedly I had to prepare like endgame raiding (get survivability traits, survivability gear, read up on bosses, play with friends/guildies, use voicecom).
And it was the first dungeon in the game.

Terrible macro gameplay design, imho.

Fantom.9217:

Maybe it’s because I did AC story in the BWE, but I absolutely do not understand how anyone has trouble with this dungeon.

You use the word “anyone”.
Do you realize what that word means ?
Anyone is the average player in GW2.
It is also the below-average player in GW2.
It is the player who has not done a dungeon in GW2 before.
It is the player who did not play in any of the betas.
It is the player who did not read any strategy guide before going into a StoryMode dungeon.
It is the player who did not get a “survivability build”. (Because that’s not required when leveling in the outdoor world).
It is the player who plays one class, doesn’t know the other classes, and only has a basic understanding of the synergies.

Do you think AC StoryMode is easy for them too ?

I did it at level 30 on live and we never wiped once (with a half pug half friend group – didn’t use voice chat). I died several times, but I was always able to rally or run back, and I don’t really consider that a problem in the current implementation.

So 3 of you, and 2 pugs ? So if they were your friends, did they play in the betas too ? If so, you got a lot of experience already. And still you died several times. Can you imagine what it’s like for an unprepared person, who has slightly slower reaction-skills than you ? Who didn’t have a survivability spec ? Can you imagine how it could change if it was just 2 experienced GW2-players and 3 pugs ? Remember, this is StoryMode. My mother should be able to walk in, and finish it in a pug.

Little did I know that they added (or I missed it in the beta) reflect projectiles to his skill list.

So there was something you didn’t know, and it caused you problems ? Can you imagine what it’s like for a player like myself who walks into a StoryMode dungeon ? I know nothing. I need to “discover” all mechanisms myself. During hectic gameplay. Rember, we’re talking StoryMode here.

Just so long as you know that you should focus one trash mob at a time (hard concept I know), rangers won’t actually kill you.

They 2-shot my Thief consistently. If there were 2 focusing on me, I would die in 1-2 seconds, 2-3 hits. If I got a condition on me, I was toast. If I missed an AoE, and got knocked down, I was toast. I should have specced more survivability, I know. But even then, at lvl37 you can only get 10 trait-points into healing/toughness. Maybe it would have helped, but I just didn’t know.

I recorded it and the video is just 45 minutes long (sound is messed up as hell though or I’d post it). It could definitely be more like 30 minutes for people with experience, since were running with pugs and it was the first week of the game.

You did a lvl30-39 dungeon in the first week. That means that most (if not all) players in your group had leveled relatively fast. And had probably played in the betas. And were probably “serious” (aka relatively hardcore) players. Imagine what it’s gonna be like in the 3rd week. Or later. I imagine having 1 or 2 real noobs in your group.

Really I just don’t understand the hate for AC story. It’s a fairly easy dungeon and if I had to do it again I would probably nod off from boredom.

That’s why there are Exploration Mode dungeons. Those can be hard, it’s a different matter. We’re talking StoryMode here. Introduction dungeon. Those should not require the same approach or skill-level as endgame raiding.

Actually, the difficulty of any particular dungeon is not the major concern here. What’s more important is to understand that Story Mode is called Story Mode because it’s supposed to focus on the story. And its rather difficult to enjoy the story if the combat elements are so overwhelming. I’d recommend that difficulty of all story mode dungeons be tuned down, but that of all explorable dungeons be drastically increased. This game is a RPG so don’t let RP elements get smashed by combat!

1. way to beat ac, have a way to remove conditions from yourself at least if not others, and PAY ATTENTION.

AC story mode is convoluted. The three Ascalonian Archers are still the most overpowered mobs in the whole dungeon, while the last boss is a joke where ranged attackers can basically kill him without ever taking damage. I don’t understand why people say this dungeon is fine as it is… it definitely is one of the hardest story mode dungeons in the game even though it is the first one players would face, and have several instances of non-boss foes are insanely difficult.

The first time I did AC we wiped like 40 times and never finished it.

The last time with a random pug but with an experienced leader who did the pulls we breezed through it.

Experience matters.

greg.3792:

The last time with a random pug but with an experienced leader who did the pulls we breezed through it.

Then please explain how we should do the pulls. (I assume you are talking about the trash packs). Because we never succeeded in pulling just 1 mob. Always the whole group (2 or 3 mobs) came after us.

Bah who needs runs? Ill talk my guildmates into running it. Drop a pm and Ill be glad to turn you into one of the leet pro l2pers. Kidding aside. If you havent finished it, ill be glad to help.

Gryz.8376:

It’s StoryMode.
The trash felt like endgame raiding.
Supposedly I had to prepare like endgame raiding (get survivability traits, survivability gear, read up on bosses, play with friends/guildies, use voicecom).
And it was the first dungeon in the game.

I feel the exact opposite.

One of the things I hate most about wow is that 99% of the game is sickeningly simple; only heroic mode raiding is in any way challenging. And whenever you bring that fact up, people scream that if you want a challenge you should do heroic raids.

I want the WHOLE GAME to be challenging.

So far, GW2 is providing that. Can’t do the jumps? No vista for you. Level 80 in a level 20 zone? You’re level 20 now. Doing into a dungeon? It’s going to be rough, as it should be.

I like the difficulty of AC, but comparing it to the other story mode dungeons I really wonder why AC was used as an introduction for new players to the dungeon system.

They overestimated the ability of some of the players?

See the main difficult I found was with some of the trash mobs inbetween bosses. The bosses themselves we didn’t really struggle with at all – especially as you are given hints to the basic strategies for each. But some of the mobs inbetween bosses gave us a lot of difficult and caused several wipes. That being said I enjoyed it quite a fair bit, and I liked the challenge, though I agree as a first dungeon maybe it’s a bit out of place. I also felt there wasn’t really much need in doing the dungeon, the XP and Loot gained was poor and made it seem fairly unrewarding (When I could have gained several levels in the time it took to do).

I agree that AC is jarring and really quite a big dive for a first dungeon. But in response to some of the suggested fixes, such as making CM the first dungeon or adding an instance prior that ‘prepares’ you, I’d have to say that would actually really take away from it. Now I never played WoW myself, though I was a long time GW1 player and remember the dungeons in Eye of the North. As it is though, I remember finally reaching level thirty and discovering AC being unlocked for me. I remember the feeling the first time I walked up to it, with no knowledge of what I was in for. I remember finally getting a group together and entering. That very cool and ominous loading screen, the stylized introduction describing the foefire, and finally entering in to this dark pit that was unlike anything experienced in the game before. My whole group was so nervous, and we tried to reassure ourselves that it wouldn’t be so bad. Of course, it slammed us straight away. And as weird as it sounds, that was FULFILLING for me. All of the build up that subtly happened, either in my own mind or in game, didn’t turn out to be for nothing with an easy and short instance. No; AC perfectly framed the idea that a dungeon is an optional instance for a reason, that reason being it takes some firm stuff to muscle through it. It SHOULD be jarring, from an aesthetic perspective, and it shouldn’t be replaced with CM, because CM is frankly boringly easy (albeit fun).

After doing AC and CM story mode I’d say that the problem is that the trash in AC is overtuned for a first dungeon. The bosses didn’t cause any major issues, even seemed easy compared to a trash pull, quite the opposite to what I’d expect (easier trash, harder bosses)
If there is a way to pull 1 trash or 2 at a time instead of groups of 3 I’d be really keen to find out. As it was, we were focusing targets, and I had multiple condition removers, and still could get 2 shot on random pulls.