Guild Wars 2

In Caudecus’s Manor in explorable path 2 (Seraph), there is an encounter that requires you to destroy a gate by running kegs of gunpowder while dealing with an overwhelming amount of mobs.

I’ve tried several different group compositions and strategies for this encounter and the only time we actually managed to get past it was with a Guardian and a huge stroke of luck.

The idea of this encounter is fine, but I have noticed a few design flaws with it.

PLAN 1) Have all 5 people grab a keg and run it to the gate after assigning each red circle to a party member, then place the kegs down at the same exact time.

- The problem with this plan is that the endless supply of mobs will actually steal the keg you’re placing down before the game can even register that you hit the tilde key (drop bundle key). The only time this strategy works is if you have a Guardian in your group that uses the ability where they create a field that enemies can not enter for 10s – but a class with a certain ability should not be a requirement for any dungeon encounter.

PLAN 2) Have 2 people guard the keg pile and distract mobs while the other 3 players try to run the kegs to the gate.

- Again, the issue here is that the mobs will steal the kegs entirely too fast for this to work. Even though you have 2 members dedicated to distracting the mobs, there’s always a few stragglers that will ultimately ruin this strategy. The most kegs you can get up at a time with this is 3 or 4 at most.

This encounter quickly wears out it’s welcome and becomes very frustrating. I’ve had groups lash out at each other over the stress of this encounter. The mechanic of this encounter is anything but consistent, making it incredibly gimmicky. I’m finding that this encounter needs to be looked at again to rethink the mechanics.

Don’t mistake this thread as me raging – I’m simply trying to give constructive feedback.

~ Thanks

Used plan 2 and it worked for my group.

Gonna try spawn kittening them next when I run it with 3 people.

Kiting works fairly well, so does just getting a well timed drop (everyone at once).

Or you could just avoid the gate altogether. Funny thing about gates is that they’re only so high…

The should really make it 4 kegs. Would be much easier.

Bravix.3497:

Kiting works fairly well, so does just getting a well timed drop (everyone at once).

This isn’t the case anymore, although it used to be. We had people coordinating on mumble, so they were dropped at the same time. You could clearly see all 5 sitting there, but the gate didn’t open nor did the objective update until the barrels had sat there long enough for one or two of them to be picked up by the bandits.

If the new intent is that you have to somehow defend them, there needs to be an update to the objective. If it’s not the intent, then something is bugged. We did this quite awhile back (when fewer barrels were required) and the update to the objective was instant.

Is buggy, imo. We gave up after obviously having all 5 down at the same time several times, assuming it was totally broken, not just slow to update. Not that we had a guardian to knock baddies back anyways.

Plan 1 is kinda dodgy but it does work. Plan 2 does work too but its also dodgy. When I did plan 2 it usually ended up 1 guarding the kegs, 1 running for more bombs, 1 throwing bombs between the gate and stockpile. 1 taking the kegs that are everywhere halfway up towards the gate.

Plan 2 works more though:P Plan 1 usually ends up in a team wipe or several players dying:P

Before we aggro anything, have every player pick up a keg. Have one player take their keg and drop it by the waypoint. Drop another keg between the waypoint and the initial keg location. When you’re ready to begin, drop another keg right next to the initial keg location. The mobs will aggro and go after the 3 kegs on the ground.

Once you’ve aggroed the mobs, have the players with kegs still in hand run over and place their kegs in the red circle. Meanwhile, the player that dropped their keg right next to the pile of kegs to aggro the mobs should have been able to grab another keg and trail behind the main group.

By the time the last player drops the 5th keg, the mobs should be chasing after the keg by the waypoint and all 5 kegs will be in the red circles.

Plan 3

Keep 1 or 2 people throwing kegs towards the door like crazy while the other 3 run some of those kegs to the door, problem solved. (Bring aoe fear, and anything to clear mobs at the begining)

Don’t say things are flawed just because you find them hard and we won’t mistake your post with a rage…

Solution to what your problem is. Have the people guarding the kegs at the pickup point constantly throw some down near there. The mobs will grab those instead of the ones at the gate.

Problem solved.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Caudecus's_Manor_(explorable)#Seraph_Route

Google is your friend you know…

Simply put: place some kegs in the courtyard and the mobs will stay busy clearing those up instead of cleaning up kegs at the gate. Also, they’ll be too busy carrying kegs to attack.

I succeeded on my fifth try with my first group due to the complicated plan.

Get your crowd control out there and pull him around the bend. He grabs a keg and runs/dodges, so does everyone else. The mobs chase him. He jumps onto the repair building. The bandits appear on him shortly after on the building. He dodges, escaping their combined attack and going to ground level. He runs up, we plant all the kegs at once just as the bandits arrive to stop us. Boom, then I got to quench my thirst for outlaw blood en masse.

It… Took forever, yes, but it was possible.

Through a bunch of trial and error, my group ended up luring all the mobs by the keg station and killing them there. Immediately after, with this window of opportunity, we rushed the kegs simultaneously to the door. Most of the mobs were still trying to get to us by the time the door blew up.

My problem isn’t that it isn’t doable, it’s that the encounter gives very poor feedback. When you know you had them down at the same time and it used to work instantly, you may assume (as we did) it was totally broken versus “requires other tactics.”

Sure, now that we know we need to give it some time, we’ll definitely do that. The problem is, that isn’t communicated at all to the player.

Something to note is that if a player has the option Disable casting circles checked in his options screen the red circles to place the kegs on will not even appear. Make sure all the members of your party who are dropping kegs actually can see the red circles.

In combination with the tactics mentioned above, have a Mesmer use Into the Void spell to AOE suck enemies away from the gate and fling them back out into the court yard. While that is on cooldown have the Mesmer run up to the gate with a keg and cast [Illusionary Wave] to repel enemies back out into the court yard.

I like this path quite a bit, though I had a few problems with bombing the gate: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/CM-Seraph-Constructive-feedback-for-bombing-the-gate-phase/first#post313377

Yeah, it does give poor feedback on when your barrel is or isn’t in place. The circle should turn green when it’s detecting a barrel and be more forgiving when it comes to what counts as being “inside the circle.”

Both of OP’s strategies have worked for me, except in strategy 1 we also all dropped a set of barrels as a distraction, then all ran for the door with a second set.

I cover the door event pretty thoroughly in my video guide:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Explorable-Mode-Video-Guides-Wiping-is-Overrated/

Quick summary:

• You can have your entire party grab kegs without aggro’ing the bandits, before you actually dash to the door. That’ll save you 2-3 seconds, and time is critical.
• If you simply have everyone run straight for the door, even if you all make the run safely, bandits will be on you 1-2 seconds after you arrive. Instead, have one player drop a keg ~20ft from the farthest-out bandit as everyone else starts running, and then pick up a replacement keg along the way. All of the bandits will run to where you dropped the keg before pursuing, meaning you have 5-6 seconds at the door instead of 1-2.
• The Guardian skill Sanctuary can give you six free seconds at the door, which is kind of a big deal. Another game-changing ability is the Ranger elite Entangle, which can root all of the bandits for 20 seconds.
• The circles are very finicky about whether a barrel is “inside” them or not. Be sure to stand directly in the center before dropping your keg.
• If you screw up somehow, it’s probably best to just run out and reset the event.

Hope that helps.

Plan 1 works well and without team wipe if you you shadow refuge and guardian skill
Can get to door quickly without encounter and then guardian skill while put down kegs
-worked very nicely first try

I would have three people throwing barrels in the opposite direction of the gate (make sure they all run off their auto targeting or it will throw them at bandits) while two people run barrels to the gas after they start throwing. If people are having a hard time throwing barrels you can have only one person running them to the gate. As long as no one kills a bandit your group should have no trouble doing it this way regardless of composition.

Dramen Maidria.1034:

I would have three people throwing barrels in the opposite direction of the gate (make sure they all turn off their auto targeting or it will throw them at bandits) while two people run barrels to the gas after they start throwing. If people are having a hard time throwing barrels you can have only one person running them to the gate. As long as no one kills a bandit your group should have no trouble doing it this way regardless of composition.

Well instead of editing it double posted

Was too lazy to read comments.

There’s a rock around – place a keg on there and the mobs won’t bother with the other kegs you place. Not an exploit, but some consider it so.

Alternatively, 2 people spam drop kegs near the pile, and the rest run kegs to the gate.

When a mob picks a keg up, they don’t drop it unless killed. Just make them ALL have a keg and the ones you plant won’t be removed.

Where’s “Plan D” ?

(d is for distraction … the best kind of plan)

No seriously… ask yourself, What would Vael do?

aleiro.8521:

Plan 3

Keep 1 or 2 people throwing kegs towards the door like crazy while the other 3 run some of those kegs to the door, problem solved. (Bring aoe fear, and anything to clear mobs at the begining)

Don’t say things are flawed just because you find them hard and we won’t mistake your post with a rage…

haha thats my plan, it worked last time I tryed CM p2

Haven’t read anything in this thread yet but.

I use the bomb behind the house trick. Everyone drops bombs behind the house west of the gate, then run back to get bombs to place at the gate.

And then there’s the bomb exploit :]

You can also use teleports to quickly get extra barrels to the door. This works with Spectral Walk, and should also work with the mesmer portal.