Guild Wars 2

First off – I wanted to post this because of the HUGE amount of complaining about dungeons, their difficulty, rewards and so on.

Secondly – ArenaNet has JUST released this game, and the dungeons are still very much a work im progress.

So the guide:

Why do a dungeon?
Currently you do a dungeon for a few things – The first run gives really good exp and some average items. Its also a good challenge.
However, at 80 you dungeons for SKINS. You do not grind out dungeons for gear unless you VERY PARTICULARLY want that dungeons set of stats and skins and you have all rares/some exotics.

You also need to do dungeons (or rather one particular dungeon) for crafting Legendaries, which you craft mostly for the skin (and HOLY-kitten-AWESOME animations)

They are also the best test of a PvE groups ability to work together.

The rewards are also currently being adjusted, and ArenaNet is very much working on the issue for the betterment of the game and the players.

Why are dungeons so hard??
The dungeons require groups to be organised and know what they are doing. They are hard. This was, and always has been advertised by ArenaNet as what dungeons will be.

Most of this stems from mobs which have skills that hit really hard and/or have lots of health (and secondarily for the average rewards which i’ve already addressed)

Many of these skills and/or mobs have tells to ‘dodge’ skills or have a simple counter (like Chilling the Dogs in TA). Yes some bosses are bugged. If you think this is intentional stop doing dungeons right now.
In time people will have guides on how to do them, and dungeons will probably be easy mode.

I end up spending twice as much repairing than i get from the dungeon.. WTF!?
This could stem from a few things.

• 1. Are you under geared/Not specced right? You need toughness and vitality in dungeons. If you gear is all precision, power, crit dmg you need to get some different gear or you will spend heaps of cash repairing that gear.
• 2. Are you fighting the mob/boss/environment correctly? There is a way to beat everything. If you are doing it wrong, especially in Explorable you’re probably going to be punished.
• 3. Is your group working together? Applying 20+ seconds of burning because your team was shooting through a firewall instead of just plinking from any old spot makes a big difference. Eles – if you arent telling your team to use projectiles through Static Field (very easy to get 25 vuln stacks), you’re going to slow your progress by up to 25%.

In general I spend too much money (getting there repairs etc) vs what i get
Dungeon’s are probably not the best way to make cash. I see lots of people saying ’we’re going to HAVE to buy gold to keep up’.
Well stop doing dungeons and expecting them to be get-rich-quicks. Re-read my first chapter – Why do a dungeon -. Notice that money making isnt in there.
I’ve done almost every path in almost every dungeon (except Arah), and done lots of crafting, wvw upgrading and i have 13 gold. Not tonnes, but not broke either. And i’ve only got 180 hours played. I’ve got 58% of the map explored, im rank 16 in sPvP, and ~2.4k wvw kills.

I have SO much more i can do, and if i focused, im certain i could break 100g no sweat.
Late game, in like 5-6 months, and in 2-3 years when people have been playing since release, repairs are going to mean nothing.

Are the skins worth it?
You can preview them in Lions Arch, and imo YES!

Whats with this anti-farming diminishing returns BS?
Speed farming actually hurts they economy and the game.
The few who can do this over and over and over benefit with lots of exp, gold, items and tokens.
The items get sold and these people make lots of cash.
As this gets shared the ‘less profitable routes’ dont get used because who wants to do a 40 minute run when you can do a 15.

The biggest hurt however is the lowered ‘valve’ of the armor and weapons. Because it only takes 15 speed runs of a dungeon to get your skins, everyone and their dog will get them in no time, and it means less.

For those that played wow here is an example;
Remember the Blades of Azzinoth? When someone had both, its was something of a miracle and people would crowd around said people. Now imagine what they are worth if you could Speed run the BT, and gather tokens to buy them with. Next to nothing. They’re cool still but it means less.

What diminishing returns does is help stop this ‘grind’ and encourages people to have fun and try other routes (if its exp etc you want)
If you really really want to grind out the items you can still run the quickest route, but if you want exp gold etc, its actually better overall to do different routes.
If you find it fun to run the same stuff over and over and over…… then you’re actually the minority, and you still can, its just not as rewarding.

Why dont i get epic drops?
Remembering that rewards are being adjusted… what GW2 has done is removed the RNG drop for good items. Rather than getting a random idem that you might not need, its given the token system used in other games.
So now its just a time game instead of a RNG.

Some say this is a grind, but thats being plain ignorant. You have multiple routes to do, and no doubt different ways of overcoming things with different teams. Its more rewarding to get a guaranteed 1/10th of an awesome item each run than have 20 runs with net you nothing, and having a small chance to get your item each run.

I thought this guide was going to tell me how to do dungeons, You suck!
Yea sorry. I havnt done them all and i dont know them in that much detail.
This is more for people to read so they understand the overview of dungeons, why you do them and so on, and to help people understand that they are still being worked on.

Stop being a fanboy and defending everything!
I do really like this game because its so much more than any other give i’ve ever played. I’ve had in depth discussions directly with the people who are actually working on it, something i’ve never had in any game before.

Yes there are decisions that have been made that not everyone (and infact most people) disagree with, and its likely there will be more sometime in a future.
ArenaNet makes mistakes just like everyone. They are on these forums actively answering questions and reading what people think.

Sometimes unpopular decisions have to be made, and sometimes they’ll backtrack because its not what they wanted.

Every single game company does this. Its called the feedback loop.

/rant off. Hopefully someone found this helpful.

Regarding the fanboy thing, it’s hard to please everyone. MMOs now have such a broad player-base that it’s next to impossible. Everyone has different wants and desires, time constraints, mentalities, etc.

I am fairly good at video games, but I completely empathize with my friend who tries her hardest to play and ends up saying—a lot, actually—“[…] because I suck at this game,” or, “[…] because I suck at video games.”

Everyone has their own valid opinion, but, at the very least, be open to understanding where others are coming from. It’s the internet, so that person who wants things to be less grindy might just be a single mother or father of two with two jobs and not a lot of time.

Of course… that person also might be a complete brat, but it’s nicer to ignore that fact.

Haha. Yeah. Get it? Be understanding. On the INTERNET. Such a good joke. I’m so funny.

+1 for the effort. Much appreciated.

However, what’s still needed are specific tactics and patterns. Not for each boss, but general things that work and don’t work. For example, you mention shooting through two different ele fields, but nothing else. Does shooting through a Theif’s many blind AOEs work or not? If Blinds are only 10% effective on most bosses, how can you tell which bosses Blinding will be useless on? Are blinding tactics still useful on dungeon trash? And speaking about trash, what are decent techniques for handling a pull of 3+ linked trash mobs that roflstomp the player who tries to pull them? What about techniques for peeling unshakable stacks from bosses? When to do it, how to make the CC stick as long as possible after peeling the stacks, how to ensure you get the right CC in place after all stacks are peeled? When to spend time peeling the stacks and when not to, etc?

See, what the playerbase needs more than anything is a cookbook of tactics that work and general boss/trash patterns to be aware of and watch for. Some ideas to explore as a team when trying to figure out why a trash pull nearly wipes you all or at least instakills one or two players every single pull. Some ideas to explore when any new encounter seems WTFimpossible.

Just vague handwaving about “it’s easy, i never die, l2p” isn’t what the community needs if you’re true goal is to get them to understand the system, learn to love it, and stop crying for nerfs and changes.

miya.5160:

Regarding the fanboy thing, it’s hard to please everyone. MMOs now have such a broad player-base that it’s next to impossible. Everyone has different wants and desires, time constraints, mentalities, etc.

I am fairly good at video games, but I completely empathize with my friend who tries her hardest to play and ends up saying—a lot, actually—“[…] because I suck at this game,” or, “[…] because I suck at video games.”

Everyone has their own valid opinion, but, at the very least, be open to understanding where others are coming from. It’s the internet, so that person who wants things to be less grindy might just be a single mother or father of two with two jobs and not a lot of time.

Of course… that person also might be a complete brat, but it’s nicer to ignore that fact.

Haha. Yeah. Get it? Be understanding. On the INTERNET. Such a good joke. I’m so funny.

My Girlfriend does the same, so i totally get what you’re saying.

BTW, you joke made me laugh :P

well u are a funny man. a funny man indeed. i dont remember having a good laugh like this.

if your gear is all power, precision and crit go for vitality and toughness.

yeah i give u credit for effort, but your so called ’’guide’’ is flawed. very much flawed.

lets say a person decided to to CoE only. because all other skins are too ugly for that person. cos, hey why the heck not. and by your ’’pro’’ guide u need toughness and vitality. well guess what hotshot… there ISNT any gear in that place with those stats

i suggest u give up writing your ’’guides’’ because ure just wasting time for ppl who actually thing your ’’guide’’ will be helpful.

Too general. I tried starting a thread with more specifics about the class I play and how it used it on a run in a specific dungeon. I’d love to hear how other people are using their characters.

However, given the response to the thread (zero, the first response is the second part of my post) I’d say many of the people on the forums are here only to complain and point out what they feel is wrong.

If enough people post specifically how they play their character in dungeon encounters other could learn what works and/or any glaring issues with dungeon design will be revealed in a more detailed light.

More specifics of how I played my guardian in a CM explore mode are at this link:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/How-to-succeed-with-profession-X-in-a-dungeon/first#post236585

Maybe you could add a sub section for professions and how their weapons / utilities function within a dungeon setting.

ObiWan.2917:

well u are a funny man. a funny man indeed. i dont remember having a good laugh like this.

if your gear is all power, precision and crit go for vitality and toughness.

yeah i give u credit for effort, but your so called ’’guide’’ is flawed. very much flawed.

lets say a person decided to to CoE only. because all other skins are too ugly for that person. cos, hey why the heck not. and by your ’’pro’’ guide u need toughness and vitality. well guess what hotshot… there ISNT any gear in that place with those stats

i suggest u give up writing your ’’guides’’ because ure just wasting time for ppl who actually thing your ’’guide’’ will be helpful.

You ever consider getting gear before you go and do dungeons? Like via the TP or Crafting or World Drops or WvW or Mystic Forge?

irongamer.6014:

Too general. I tried starting a thread with more specifics about the class I play and how it used it on a run in a specific dungeon. I’d love to hear how other people are using their characters.

However, given the response to the thread (zero, the first response is the second part of my post) I’d say many of the people on the forums are here only to complain and point out what they feel is wrong.

If enough people post specifically how they play their character in dungeon encounters other could learn what works and/or any glaring issues with dungeon design will be revealed in a more detailed light.

More specifics of how I played my guardian in a CM explore mode are at this link:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/How-to-succeed-with-profession-X-in-a-dungeon/first#post236585

I’ve tried to do the same with Thief on GW2Guru and it didn’t take off and devolved into a “You’re doing it wrong” thing, despite my own and my group’s methods succeeding quite well.