Guild Wars 2

So I consider myself a casual, “average” player. I’m competent at open world PvE with my class (elementalist) but I don’t have crazy skills or amazing reflexes, I don’t have hardcore friends/guild to group with, high-tension situations stress me out and are not fun, and I don’t have large blocks of uninterrupted time where I can just hang out in GW2.

All of this makes me not a good dungeon runner. This wouldn’t be a problem normally, I would just avoid dungeons and let people who find them fun do their thing. But there’s a large chunk of storyline in the dungeons, and one of the main reasons I got this game was for the storyline. I know a lot of people don’t like it, but I’ve enjoyed it so far and I’d really like to see the rest of how the story plays out in each dungeon.

So far (since August) I’ve somehow managed to run all the story dungeons up to Twilight Arbor with one friend plus pickup members, but I marvel at people on the forums, Reddit, etc saying they can run a dungeon in 15 minutes because I’ve never been on a story run that took less than two or three hours. (One of those hours might easily be spent on trying to find a pickup group, depending on the dungeon.)

I’m okay with dungeons being hard, and I’m okay with dying and high repair costs, because that’s the price you pay if you make a mistake in this game. But I just wish story dungeons weren’t such long, painful, tension-fraught events that I generally only manage to schedule one per month. I want to see the end of the story.

Do you have any tips for a casual player like me to just be able to get the story over with?

Thanks guys.

I would use gw2lfg as mentioned just about anywhere in these forums to find a group. However, most people running Story are usually new to the dungeon, so it could still take a lot of time to get through it. I’d suggest finding a nice little guild that knows a lot about dungeons & join them.
If you are on the US servers, feel free to shoot me a whisper sometime since I’m usually on. I could help out with dungeons or, heck, really anything since Guesting is finally implemented.

Thank you! I may take you up on it sometime

It just seems like most guilds who focus on dungeons probably aren’t interested in carrying someone like me. I wouldn’t want to bother them with joining up as a noob player who’s just trying to get through the story.

Shame you’re on Tarnished Coast, my Guild would probably welcome you. lol
I’ve had great experiences so far with gw2lfg; though never with a Story mode dungeon (I’d assume it would take a bit longer to get a group from there, but still more effective than LA spamming).
I’m also practically always online, only exception is later this evening & most of tomorrow for work reasons. If you’re online now though we could always exchange friend requests so you don’t have to blindly whisper & not know if I’m online or not.

Those people who can do 15min dungeon runs are actually doing explorable mode, and they’ve probably ran it a dozen if not hundreds of times making them very efficient with their run. Story mode runs are usually longer and take alot of time even for veteran dungeon runners simply because you don’t repeat it enough times to be super good at it. I’ve done all story mode from AC to Arah and I can say, most of the story mode dungeons are doable and quite easy, you just have to be patient with yourself and your teammates. And most important advice: It’s ok to die! Dying helps you to learn what not to do.

Also, it might help if you can start joining in people who do the explorable mode first just to get a feel of that dungeon. For me, I started (and completed) cof paths 1-3 first before doing the story mode. :p

theres no real tricks you can use besides someone telling you exactly how to spec your class, and no one wants that. i havent seen many “tactics” guides for storymode since its not popular but it would be nice if someone would put one together

Dodge!
Duck!
Dip!
Dive!
Anddddd……Dodge.

If you want some people to play with PM me or mail me in game. I am on TC and you will be welcome.

Also, people have alt’s to run through the story mode to. Did arah last night and we moved through it really fast and it was a pug.

Story mode is the longest of any run no matter the dungeon so you are just stuck there. Figure on an hour in a PUG. Being in a guild with voice chat will get you through exp. mode with only a little discomfort as you will have people to tell you the mechanics involved. Once you get some experience you will not feel like you are out classed.

No worries…with story mode dungeons it’s generally accepted that you haven’t done it before, people aren’t going to rage at you or whatnot (from my experiences anyways); I’d say it’s pretty chill. Usually an hour will be needed I guess?

Not to be a dick, but how do you take 3 hours for story mode dungeons…? Most of them take up to 1 hour for first runners… Less if you have someone in your party that has done it before and gives you tips on the less linear parts. All you need is a solid build, a modicum of reflexes, and some basic knowledge of fundamentals: Know what your skills do, don’t have dead weight in the party, don’t pull more agro than you can deal with, etc.

By dead weight I don’t mean “non-optimal players!!”. I mean actual dead weight. Yesterday I was doing Caudecus Manor story with a couple of friends (one of them lvl 45) and we picked up 2 randoms. One of them was pretty standard, no complaints, but one of them was roughly as useful as a migraine. Some level 45-ish Elementalist whose entire contribution can best be surmised as: Run in > do nothing, or worse – pull agro like an idiot > die. Fortunately 2 of us were fully exotic level 80s (me on a warrior and a friend on a Guardian), our other friend is also a really good player just leveling an alt, and the other random pulled their own weight well enough, so we breezed through it, simply facepalming at the eejit, but that one guy was actually making the whole thing harder than it needed to be. If you’re with a lower level party, that guy could have been the difference between a normal run and a 3 hour run.

I guess the fundamental tips are to know your character (know and use all the tolls you have available), have a solid build (doesn’t have to be min-max perfect, just make sure it actually works, not “condition damage greatsword warrior!!” or “power build scepter necro!”, and don’t rush in “zerg style”. Take your time to read each mob’s info and what they do, and consider a strategy before attacking. If there are many enemies, consider just pulling a few at the time with ranged weapons instead of rushing right into them.

It also helps if you’re doing them with friends on some VOIP program, like skype or something, so you don’t have to stop to write once you notice something everyone else hasn’t noticed yet.

Goodluck.

Tulinor.6745:

Also, people have alt’s to run through the story mode to. Did arah last night and we moved through it really fast and it was a pug.

Just a side note but Arah Story Mode is arguably the easiest dungeon in the game. Also the most underwhelming. It only takes as long as it does because of some really cheap “time burners”, like the ships moving so incredibly slow you can play a second game on the background while you wait.

The complete opposite of Arah Explorable, which is by far the hardest of the dungeons.

Dungeons are unfun and the story in them is laughably lousy anyhow…ok, I get it, Destiny’s Edge is a bunch of wee blubbering babies that are probably lying about almost taking down an elder dragon because they’re not organized or mature enough to open a pickle jar.

Just avoid them, there’s no real reason to run them and every reason to do anything else in the game because most of the rest of it is awesome.

cherrycola.3127:

So I consider myself a casual, “average” player. I’m competent at open world PvE with my class (elementalist) but I don’t have crazy skills or amazing reflexes, I don’t have hardcore friends/guild to group with, high-tension situations stress me out and are not fun, and I don’t have large blocks of uninterrupted time where I can just hang out in GW2.

All of this makes me not a good dungeon runner. This wouldn’t be a problem normally, I would just avoid dungeons and let people who find them fun do their thing. But there’s a large chunk of storyline in the dungeons, and one of the main reasons I got this game was for the storyline. I know a lot of people don’t like it, but I’ve enjoyed it so far and I’d really like to see the rest of how the story plays out in each dungeon.

So far (since August) I’ve somehow managed to run all the story dungeons up to Twilight Arbor with one friend plus pickup members, but I marvel at people on the forums, Reddit, etc saying they can run a dungeon in 15 minutes because I’ve never been on a story run that took less than two or three hours. (One of those hours might easily be spent on trying to find a pickup group, depending on the dungeon.)

I’m okay with dungeons being hard, and I’m okay with dying and high repair costs, because that’s the price you pay if you make a mistake in this game. But I just wish story dungeons weren’t such long, painful, tension-fraught events that I generally only manage to schedule one per month. I want to see the end of the story.

Do you have any tips for a casual player like me to just be able to get the story over with?

Thanks guys.

People saying they can run a 15 minute dungeon are lying. There’s only 1 path in 1 dungeon where that might be possible and it requires a specific team setup and gear choice.

The bottom line is the current dungeons are not setup such that they are beatable solely with people with your situation.

A good team can maybe carry one or two of people like you through but if there are too many people alot of dungeon runs will be impossible.

Heh … story mode will take more than 15minutes just from people watching the story. There is probably more than one explorable path that is doable in 15 minutes but that would mean skipping everything skippable. Story mode also tends to have more unskippable bosses.

Then there are people using map glitches but that is basically cheating and saying you can accomplish a certain thing by cheating seems pointless.

Be willing to listen. Even if you aren’t doing explorable, some others may have done story before, and are doing it on their alts. Don’t be that person who brings all solo abilities to a place that requires teamwork. And most importantly, don’t be that person who refuses to take a certain ability just because you don’t like it.

Find a PVE focused guild that has a policy against mob skipping or exploits. http://www.reddit.com/r/guildrecruitment is a good place to start.