Guild Wars 2

A few days ago me and some good friends tried, for the first time, to play the Ascalonian Catacombs dungeon. Now we’ve waited this long because few of us have been online at the same time, but we wanted to do this together as friends. So, the 5 of us were finally together, a necromancer, warrior, and 3 rangers. We went into the dungeon as a lvl 60, 49, 45, 38, and 32. And all of us except 1 have been playing Guild Wars 2 since the first beta weekend events, so we are all relatively used to our characters, and the style of play of Guild Wars 2. This being said, right as we entered the dungeon, we got our butts handed to us. We got through the first rooms with multiple instances of being downed, and in some instances defeated. Most ghosts hit with 1-2 hit k/o’s and the health on these ghosts was literally somewhere between that of a veteran creature and a champion, based on the amount of damage I was able to deal through my elite lich form. In the end we had to quit, in the amount of time it took to even get through the first part of finding Eir I had a full suit of damaged armor and 1 broken piece, and most of my friends were in the same situation.

Now I would be fine if this was the explorable mode of the dungeon which is for quest rewards such as unique armors and weapons, but this was story mode. Now I know I’ve read many people commenting on complaints saying it’s just people wanting free giveaways, but I promise you that this is not the case. I am a lorehound, and I always have been. I want nothing more than to play through the story to understand how everything runs it’s course. And it was my understanding from the Wiki that the story mode of dungeons was meant to be something that any random pick up group could run though relatively easily without large amounts of strategizing, but this, at the current time, is not the case. Now I’m not saying that ArenaNet should make the dungeon into a piece of cake walk through. I want a challenge, but challenge isn’t the same as being blown away the instant you walk into a room.

They really need to give you room to breath. Getting hit for 1k isn’t bad, except you get hit non stop by a mob chain casting everything it has every second. Give the players a freakin chance to pause and try to figure out what happened.

My advice is if you get agro run for it, you really aren’t meant to be standing toe to toe with any of the trash until you get a bit better gear and levels.

Ive also speced all my characters with some toughness when I run dungeons, signet of toughness if possible, and a few traits in whatever gives toughness. Don’t need much if you aren’t planning on tanking, but it helps a bit.

Also a few slows or CC is good.

The way I see it, this is the issue right now with dungeons:

If you want to play melee, you’re going to be running, dancing 1/2 the time, and waiting for your endurance to come back before going back into combat…just to dodge again.

If you want to play ranged, just shoot away at whatever the main target is and throw a few dodge rolls in when you’re in a red circle.

I’ve been in both situations and I find that melee is much more fun and interesting to me…but ranged combat is BY FAR easier…

Redscope.6215:

The way I see it, this is the issue right now with dungeons:

If you want to play melee, you’re going to be running, dancing 1/2 the time, and waiting for your endurance to come back before going back into combat…just to dodge again.

If you want to play ranged, just shoot away at whatever the main target is and throw a few dodge rolls in when you’re in a red circle.

I haven’t played melee in dungeons yet but that is the impression im getting >.<

Melee’s has to move when it’s attacking too though. It does wonders when I play my guardian and theif, and just run circles around mobs.

I got mykitten handed to me on my first AC story too. Took some getting used to, but you need to support your team with your skills as well as use your both your sets and dodges right. Eventually it becomes a cakewalk. AC story is nothing compared to AC exp, and I’ve shown people that cried about that how easy it is.

Deathfrost.9145:

Redscope.6215:

The way I see it, this is the issue right now with dungeons:

If you want to play melee, you’re going to be running, dancing 1/2 the time, and waiting for your endurance to come back before going back into combat…just to dodge again.

If you want to play ranged, just shoot away at whatever the main target is and throw a few dodge rolls in when you’re in a red circle.

I haven’t played melee in dungeons yet but that is the impression im getting >.<

Melee’s has to move when it’s attacking too though. It does wonders when I play my guardian and theif, and just run circles around mobs.

The problem is, holding Mouse2+D and moving the mouse to the left constantly is not skill. And you’ll find out that becomes MUCH harder to do in dungeons when mobs do way more damage and last longer….oh and they only go for you because you’re closer.

Not trying to be a smart@ss or anything but melee PvE in GW2 leaves very little room for error in dungeons. (which I personally enjoy…to a point)

I’d venture to say that’s where most of your “this is too hard” posts are coming from. People who play more melee-built classes.

My point, which no one seems to be getting, is that I thought that the dungeons, in their story mode, were supposed to be fun. They were supposed to tell the story, get a few poultry chest rewards in there and viola, it’s done. Then if you wanted to really go all out and play things as extremely difficult then you play the explorable mode. But no it seems the only way to play the story is to have the perfect team, have someone who’s done it before, and waste all your money on repairs. Then if you really feel like you want to punish yourself more you try explorable mode. This was not the way that ArenaNet lead me to believe that the dungeons were meant to be.

Sorry guys but you will enjoy AC a lot more when you… L2P. I mean no disrespect when i say that.
After understanding how to play my character in a dungeon i realized that most of the at level hearts and mobs and such…. are pathetically easy unless im doing content that is 10-20% higher than i am. At least with my warrior.
my ele im still dumb with.
If i dont have to use blocks and whatnot to survive then its easy mode.

the sad truth is that if you want to play melee, you have to spec/gear VERY defensively and have a LOT of escape buttons (besides dodge) or cc.

on the small upside, there are a couple of examples where meleeing is actually easier than ranged (last boss in AC is actually a good example, you can dance around him so you almost never get hit by his ranged thing and get knocked into his foefire).

Also being ranged does nothing for you vs ranged mobs (those CM snipers… good luck).

As a side note, I do think several story mode ENCOUNTERS are overtuned (actually most of CM after the recent ‘fix’ is just dumb… the ambush is now something like 8 mobs at once, and the dog packs knock down AND chain fear, gg no re). For example in AC the ‘lovers’ fight could do with a little less damage output. I wouldn’t call AC very ‘hard’ all around, unless you can’t focus fire and everyone on your team is squishy-solo spec. It certainly does help if you have someone that’s ran it before, and if everyone has some group/support utility.

If i am expecting to get hit i need defensive weapons. mace/shield.
I generally run mace+shield/Axe+mace.
axe has decent DPS.
but my traits in dungeons run more along what i would use in PvP save for the regen sig.
condition remover.
stunbreaker
dps bursting.
generally not geared so much for defense just easy to use stuff. passive abilities and long lasting or very short duration.
so i can learn more on how the mob fights and less on where the buttons are.

I agree with the OP. I’ve run AC once in Story Mode, and we made it through with a Thief, Guardian, Elementalist, Engineer x2 I think. We were downed in every fight, and wiped multiple times. The story mode should not be like that. I was playing a Thief, and all I did the entire time was using Smoke Shot or whatever every chance I could. Spending 100% of my time blinding mobs and dodging is not what I consider fun.

Story Mode needs to be made much less difficult.

Crunchy Gremlin.5798:

Sorry guys but you will enjoy AC a lot more when you… L2P. I mean no disrespect when i say that.
After understanding how to play my character in a dungeon i realized that most of the at level hearts and mobs and such…. are pathetically easy unless im doing content that is 10-20% higher than i am. At least with my warrior.
my ele im still dumb with.
If i dont have to use blocks and whatnot to survive then its easy mode.

I don’t think anyone realistically thinks that dungeons need to be made ultra easy, or that learning to play will improve their experience, the problem is that the way the dungeons are set up currently, there’s currently no room to learn how to play.

Even though you can enter it at level 30, and do explore at 35, AC is built much like a end game dungeon, with utterly no build up to teach players how to build their characters or play with the mechanics of the game. Consider that many players probably don’t understand the combo field system for example.

I’ve only run AC once so far, and I’ve not attempted to run anything else again, because it’s extremely discouraging and unfun to die consistently from trash, and the rewards weren’t nearly good enough.

I know Anet wants the end game to be “everywhere” throughout the levels, but truthfully this is unrealistic short or getting rid of levels all together and going for (perhaps) a more EVE online style system of progress or similar. Players need beginner dungeons to help ease them into more difficult dungeons, otherwise people wil get discouraged and just not play.

I guess i would agree that the approach they take here invites some hostility however I think they sort of banked on that. They expect the dungeons to frustrate typical play styles. Whatever that is worth.
They are more likely to make them harder then to make them easier. Smarter mobs and such.
They are trying to kill you in there. actively trying to kill your character. not just present a challenge.