Guild Wars 2

I’m get tired of seeing the same posts over and over again about how hard things are so I decided I would make a nice little post with some helpful tips.

Communication
ANet said, before the game was released, that dungeons were meant to be challenging content for a coordinated group of individuals. Notice that key word, coordinated. If you are going to do a dungeon then expect to communicate with your party. This does not necessarily mean you need a voip program, using the in game chat works perfectly fine. If you aren’t at least willing to communicate with your group for the very basics then don’t expect to clear the dungeon. It’s that simple.

Food/Potions
I’ve run far to many dungeons and seen far to many players go through a run without using food or potions, it’s actually depressing tbh. You can buy an hours worth of food buffs for a couple silver, same for potions.

Food buffs, depending on the type, can increase your damage or defense a hefty margin. I, myself, love using the Fire Salsa as it gives me 100% downed health and 20% downed damage which is great! The damage isn’t really useful, most of the time, but the 100% downed health rocks. That gives my team more than enough time to rally me which prevents a death.

Potions are also a hell of a good thing. If you are running TA then grab a few of the Potions of the Nightmare Court. That’s going to reduce the damage they deal by 10% and increase your damage by 10%. That’s a HUGE deal! Unlike food buffs, these do not persist past the downed state, luckily they are very cheap and you can get more than enough for a few silver.

Combo Fields
I don’t really think a lot of people fully grasp just how helpful combo fields are. They can make or break a run like no other. For some help with the combo fields you should read up on: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Combo Once you get them down you will find you live longer and kill things much faster than you ever could before! A blast finisher inside a water field is going to do a nice bit of healing, if you use it in a fire field you’re going to get a nice boost from the might stacks. They are huge benefits.

Spec/Armor
Too many people go into dungeons with glass cannon specs and berserker gear. If you’re going into a dungeon then you need to plan properly. If you’re in a good group and can pull off being a glass cannon, or you just don’t mind the repair bill, then by all means, stick with it. However, most players really need to get some gear to help live longer. I suggest using Knight’s Armor with some form of defensive upgrade, I love Soldiers crests. Knights armor has a hefty dose of offense and defense, which is fantastic for dungeons. You don’t need full exotics for this. Get a set of masterwork quality and laugh as mobs try to kill you in 1 hit. You’ll spend ~20s for a full set, if that.

At 80 it costs 3.5 silver to respec. Make sure you’re going in with a decent spec that has survivability as well. As an ele you don’t want to run in with a 30/30 Fire/Air spec as that has next to no durability. Make sure you have some in Earth and Water for the added toughness and vitality. Make sure you’re bringing some defensive utilities as well.

Quick Edit: Also, make sure your gear is up to date. If you’re an 80 running around with level 60 gear you’re not going to get very much use out of it. Spend a little gold to keep nice and updated and you shouldn’t spend a lot of time dead.

Rezzing
If you see someone go into the downed state don’t just stand there dpsing the target, go rally that player. If they die that’s 1 less person for a good bit of time. If they are in the middle of AoE then DON’T attempt a rez as 1 death is better than 2. If the player dies then you should either have them respawn at the check point or wait until the area is cleared. Again, Fiery Salsa gives 100% more downed health which can be a huge deal in times like these.

If you are on a boss and people are constantly dropping left and right, do NOT continue to bum rush the boss from the waypoint. Instead you need to stop, regroup, find out what you were doing wrong, and start over. This will save loads on repair costs as well as ensure a much faster fight. If you’re not willing to do that then you deserve high repair costs. Now, if you’re really close to the boss and he’s almost down and you can make it back in time without worrying about dying, go ahead and do it. Play it smart and you’ll find you’re saving a large amount of gold in no time.

Marking Targets
Again, this is a problem you come across in a large amount of pugs. No one wants to focus fire, everyone wants to be a BAMF and take on a mob by themselves. You need to call targets to focus down using Ctrl + T. Start with ranged mobs because you can’t really kite them so there’s no real way to avoid that damage, unless you’re using you abilities to blind them and such wink wink. Keep melee mobs CC’ed using snares, stuns, blinds, whatever you can and kill off those ranged guys asap!

If you’re fighting a boss that has adds then you should focus those adds down first. The boss can wait, the adds will be the things that kill you more often than not. Remember the kill order goes like this: Ranged adds > Melee adds > Boss. Follow that and laugh at their corpses.

Dodging
Learn what moves to dodge and what moves don’t need to be dodged. If you’re wasting your endurance on every attack that comes your way then you’re not going to have it when you actually need it. Mobs tend to do a fairly obvious animation when they are going to do something you need to dodge. Trolls will rear their arms back while they get ready to smash the ground, guys with swords will bring the sword back, like a bat, while they are powering up that massive swing, some even tell you what they are going to do, like during the Priest of Melandru fight where the lady tells you not to look at here because when you do you’re going to be dazed until you look away.

Once you learn what needs to be dodged and what doesn’t you’re going to find yourself staying alive much, much longer. Sometimes you will be short on endurance and won’t be able to dodge an attack. That’s what downed state is for though. You’re not going to be able to avoid downed state forever, sadly, just try your best and make sure your teammates are bringing you back asap!

First Timers
This really isn’t a tip, necessarily. If it’s your first time through, or the majority of the groups first time, then expect to wipe a lot. That’s NORMAL! As you learn the encounters you will find you die less and less. I am not completely sure if it’s possible to avoid at least going into the downed state once or twice, but as you get better you will spend less and less time dead. If you are expecting to fully clear things with no wipes when it’s your first time through, then you’re crazy. Everyone dies their first couple of times. Stick with it, get better, and don’t just cry for nerfs because the big bad pixel monster killed you.

I’m sure there are more things that can be added and if you have any other tips then add them as well. There are bugs and balance tweaks that need to be done, that much is a given, but if you use some basic thought and at least try to adapt then there isn’t a single dungeon out now that can’t be beat. Don’t cry for nerfs because you died. Try and figure out how you can avoid that death instead.

Thank you for taking the time to write up this guide; I found it very helpful although I haven’t found dungeons to be that difficult. Still there are always things we can improve on to be more effective.

I’ve noticed several threads offering advice or people asking for help. It would be a great idea if ANET would start an official thread with all of these posted in one place. =)

Yeah,most dungeons aren’t all that difficult if you do the basic teamwork thing. Too many people try to avoid that which makes runs really rough. I’m with ANet when they said give it a couple months and as people grow accustomed to the challenge people will QQ less and less. Of course they still have bugs to fix, but overall the dungeons have been completed by thousands upon thousands of players already so they are doable if you adapt. :-)

Nice tips! I do agree that communication is KEY! No matter if you’re with guildies or with some random PUGs, you need to communicate with each other or your face will get rolled.

Ari Kagura.9182:

Nice tips! I do agree that communication is KEY! No matter if you’re with guildies or with some random PUGs, you need to communicate with each other or your face will get rolled.

If you do nothing else you should at least do that. ;-)

I find that ressing is one of the most important factors when it comes to completing dungeons successfully. I’ve been in teams that wipe over and over again on simple encounters, simply because people refuse to res downed teammates. Then I go in the same instance with a group that does res people, and clear it nicely without any deaths.

Agreed with the rezzing. To many people focus on doing nothing but DPS so when someone goes down all they are thinking is “I must kill target” instead of “I need to make sure my entire team is up or we might wipe”. lol

I always love being with an ele when in a dungeon, since I’m a guardian that primarily uses a hammer. Nothing is better than seeing that water field go down for my Mighty Blow, which can give the everyone nearby 1k health. It’s absolutely beautiful. And yeah, it’s definitely a good idea to rez downed people, especially when if someone just popped Tome of Courage.

Yeah. I do love water fields. I tend to do Healing Rain then Arcane Blast. Regen + AoE Healing + Damage to mobs = WIN!

I agree, I wish I could recommend for sticky

You missed something in your guide that’s pretty major:

“SUPPORT”

You should always think of your utility skills. Many of them will do more damage when used properly than what you could accomplish mindlessly tunneling your target with your normal weapon skills, and in the process they could save the lives of your fellow players.

Rather than focusing on downing your targets, you will often prevail by prioritizing the survival of your team first. Peel nastier mobs off people getting low on HP or endurance, put aegis on people who get caught in aoe, keep maximum uptime on condition removal, etc.

In my head that went along with the spec portion, but I can see it being worth it’s own section. ;-) If anyone else comes up with anything else then feel free to post it as well.

For AC boss fight #2, Its actually alot easier to just pull the boss down the steps and to the left area where you enter from, the 2 adds will reset, but the boss will follow you, that way you don’t have to worry about dpsing them down first.

Any tips how to actually get a group for dungeons, i’m really struggling to find people to run with. I’ve tried a couple of servers and different guilds. Everyone seems more interested in zergfesting WvW. Are there any servers where dungeon groups are not a miracle to find?

Just shout in LA, sometimes it takes awhile to find a group. Be proactive and form the group instead of just saying LFG all the time.

Communication is super important. If nobody in your group talks, nobody will get anywhere. If you talk you might make some friends to do more dungeons with.

Rezzing allies > killing enemies, unless the situation calls for a rally-kill or it’s simply not possible to get your ally back up without putting yourself at extreme risk.

Dodging is not your only way to avoid damage. Blocks, protections, walls, anti-projectile, stealth, weakness, kiting – it all stops damage. If you have skills that assist in these aspects, BRING THEM.

Bring utilities that you know you will use. Signet builds are usually awful because they bring nothing to the table; they just sit there and provide passive buffs that, more often than not, do absolutely nothing for your team. There are some exceptions to this rule, but they are few in number.

Aesthetics.2671:

Any tips how to actually get a group for dungeons, i’m really struggling to find people to run with. I’ve tried a couple of servers and different guilds. Everyone seems more interested in zergfesting WvW. Are there any servers where dungeon groups are not a miracle to find?

Ideally, you’d have run dungeons while leveling up, noted competent players, added them to your friends list and invited them to future dungeons, etc. That’s how I did it, at any rate, and by the time I hit 80 I had a group of new friends that all wanted to do Arah with me, given our record of success.

If that’s not an option for you, you’re going to have to find these friends in what dungeon you -can- manage. This may mean you’ll have to run around broadcasting “LFG any Explorable” even if you don’t want to do the explorable in question. Consider also joining a LFG guild of some sort – I think one’s being advertised on the GW2 SubReddit, if you hang around that place.

Recently is spot on, too. If you aren’t getting success you have to take initiative. Most people are too timid or lazy to lead; if you try leading and end up being good at it, people will flock to you.

Nice guide, congrats.

I’ve been spamming map chats in LA and in CoE and not 1 person and asked to join. I don’t know if the server just really doesnt want to do CoE or what. the only runs that seem to be happening is SE.

People is just waiting the patch, DR system is bugged
Try again tomorrow

Aesthetics.2671:

I’ve been spamming map chats in LA and in CoE and not 1 person and asked to join. I don’t know if the server just really doesnt want to do CoE or what. the only runs that seem to be happening is SE.

CoE is pretty much the ideal dungeon, as far as Arenanet’s design goals. Decent length (~1 hour a run), varied and semi-challenging bosses, more or less glitch/exploit-free. For those reasons, people really don’t want to run CoE. There’s no shortcuts or excuses.

SE is fairly easy and full of exploits. 10m to 40m for each non-Rasolov route.

@Recently, they may change the leashing adds on that boss so I always find it better to just go with completing the encounters the way they were designed for. If they fix it and you’re not use to dealing with them as well then you will have an even harder time later on. That goes for any boss tbh. ;-)

Aesthetics.2671:

I’ve been spamming map chats in LA and in CoE and not 1 person and asked to join. I don’t know if the server just really doesnt want to do CoE or what. the only runs that seem to be happening is SE.

As one of the above posters mentioned, you may have to start the group yourself and don’t just limit yourself to 1 dungeon. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and do something else to get the people you need for what you’re actually after. I play on Northern Shiverpeaks and I generally don’t have a problem starting groups, normally I try to run them with my guild of course. Once you get a decent friends list built up it shouldn’t be too hard to form groups down the road. A lot of people just aren’t willing to run with people they’ve never been with before, especially if they haven’t done the run before as they know just how painful they can be as they don’t want to teach anyone else, sadly.

As others have mentioned, communication is key… I think sharing builds before starting the dungeon is a good idea since you can see what skills overlap or what might be missing. You might need to adjust your build to be as effective as possible not only in dps but in team support.

Also it’s a good idea to check out any dungeon info you can ahead of time; so you have some idea of what to expect. That way you can also create the most effective build possible against the mobs you will face.

Very usefull, thanx.