Guild Wars 2

I love gw2. a lot of things are done right. Dungeons are a mess and are the main reason I will not recommend this game to friends.
The starter dungeon AC (story mode because its first for new players) is insanely difficult and requires what amounts to throwing yourselves at your enemy until they die. over and over again. I’ve only succeeded when grouped with 2 or more level 80’s

Damage is way over the top and if you fail to dodge or simply can’t read the future you are punished severely. As a new GW player, but a long time MMO lover this leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Simply put I don’t like to do dungeons in this game.

Examples: Spike traps rooms are hell. The thin red lines indicating instant death (and no chance for revive since you’re standing on them) are very hard to see in a dank tomb where spells are clouding up my screen.

Aoe damage fields (such as foefire and Ralenas lightning storm) same deal, if you get caught and are low on endurance or health or wits. You’re dead again with no chance of revive.

I love a challenge, but this requires more luck than skill. That’s not fun. That’s called gambling.

Here we go again. Every two weeks or so someone will post something along the lines of what you did in this particular subforum. I suggest you go read up guides, watch some on youtube, get better, and come back. Chances are, in a month or two you’ll be laughing at how easy AC.

It definitely is more skill than luck for almost every fight in the game. Knowing a fight inside and out makes all the difference.

Every boss gives visual and sometimes audio queues for their dangerous attacks. On Story Mode the bosses even say what abilities you can expect from them to form a general strategy before you start.

One issue I find is that people blow through their dodge rolls too quickly on a lot of fights. Positioning can make all the difference, and so can having other defensive skills that give you blocks, or more dodges, or just stop the attack outright. Very few fights in the game would I consider unfair in any way. SE path 1 gauntlet and Simin in Arah Path 4 are probably the only 2 fights that are actually super difficult.

Kid Taylor.5479:

Here we go again. Every two weeks or so someone will post something along the lines of what you did in this particular subforum. I suggest you go read up guides, watch some on youtube, get better, and come back. Chances are, in a month or two you’ll be laughing at how easy AC.

That’s because you’re 80 in full exotics. Try a full group of lv35 in greens, as the recommended level suggests.

It’s doable at level 35 with sub-par gear. When the game first came out and there were no level 80s, we were still doing AC story/exp. It was challenging but not horrible.

Also my armor was mostly blue, not green then. But then again… I took the time to learn to play my class as best I could.

Luck? Seriously? There’s tons of groups that run ad very smoothly without any of your problems. I run ac with lots of low level characters with my friends to level them up. Are we just lucky? No! We just are experienced and have a certain degree of skill. And believe it or not that takes you a long way.

As some posters here suggest, take some time to learn the dungeon. Lots of people are learning to do it pretty smoothly. So can you!

The fact is dungeons are somehow balanced on lvl 80 in exotics….or around certain classes.

Many people will say they can do them with one hand at level 1 with their monitor shut down, but from a player that plays almost only dungeons and fotm i can tell you to just ignore them, they would say they can solo arah explorer in all white items if someone said its too difficult……..

Imho its harder to bet a lvl 35 AC explorable, at lvl 35 that a lvl 30 fractal properly equipped…..

Also because at low level people cannot afford many things high lvl players use (food, potions proper equip/build etc etc etc).

I would like to add my 2-pence worth…I played from the start and have several 80s but gave up this game because there was pretty much no point getting to 80….you cant do an awful lot and yes the dungeons are an absolute joke…GW2 model with no dedicated healer or tank is just crappy (would be much better to allow everyone to be a tank or healer through some sort of alternate skill-set to reduce dependence on the holy trinity rather than just give half baked healing powers to everyone and force people to bounce the mobs from one person to another).

I understand why it was done but it is one epic fail…such a shame because the levelling aspect is pure class…this game is quite simply not for people who want to do serious dungeons.

And like the OP I did AC a whole bunch of times but stopped doing it because i ran out of money through repairs…really quite pathetic. God it is an awful mess with dodge/dodge/die/rez…I mean come on!

Possibly great if you have 10 hardcore-gw2 friends who are always online same time as you and all have amazing dodge capability lol.

Really great single player game with some ground-breakingly brilliant new features but absolutely let down by the ridiculous dungeon mechanics.

In summary I enjoyed levelling in GW2 more than any of the many MMORPGs I have played…but I would suggest grouping is quite possibly the worst. Big shame and let-down.

Zenith.7301:

That’s because you’re 80 in full exotics. Try a full group of lv35 in greens, as the recommended level suggests.

Did it during BWE2 and I did not have as many problems as I had when I done it a few weeks ago, with players way above level 30.

AC story mode is a horrible dungeon (doesn’t mean hard), especially for beginners because it throws a lot of new things at them and doesn’t let them make a few mistakes before killing them.

Every common problem players encounter aren’t that hard to find solutions for.
-Problems with projectiles (elementalists, ranger) ? Most professions have skills to help you with that.
-Problems with melee attackers ? Most professions have a blind or cripple or chill or block.

And then there are problems with the environment because players don’t bother to look around them.
Did you notice that on the side of the wall there weren’t any traps ?
In the corridor (I think that’s only in explorable mode) the traps have a easy to analyze pattern with safe spots along the way.

As for the bosses in AC : did you notice all those boulders ? Abuse them against bosses, it’s the reason there are so many of them.

AC explore, for example is designed for toons at level 35 with a variety of gear, not neccissarily inline with their traits.
There is nothing easier than that. Everybody does that and pretty succesfull.
When you’re 80, and full exotic with the stats you want and all the traits, you don’t really need to know the dungeon, you just roll through things, but at level 35 with inferior gear and traits, you should know what your’e doing. It’s not hard.

There is a bonus to low level and low level gear when learning – repair bills are way cheaper than at level 80 with full exotic gear.

People are just used to most games where the dungeons start off pretty easy and scale up in difficulty as you near endgame. GW2 is the opposite, the first time you do dungeons is probably the hardest they’ll ever be for you, since gear/traits will trivialize them as you progress.

Doobiefog.8347:

I love a challenge, but this requires more luck than skill. That’s not fun. That’s called gambling.

i believe i could run it better then you, while being naked. how is that luck and not skill? ;o [brag hue hue hue]

btw when i was making ele alt, @ 35lvl i was far better then average 80lvl newb with exotics.

yarr and like RedStar metioned AC story is fun boulderfest. i often go there to help begginers troll bosses with boulders ;D good place to recruit new players to guild hehe. at their darkest hour, when they are frustrated and cry in agony, you come forth like a guardian angel and offer helping hand. works every time.

I LOVE the dungeons in this game. I think they are great, but i have to admit… You got something right. The AC Dungeon story is were most people start. And when i get a group of level 40 players to do it with me (I am 80) it takes A LONG TIME. They get one hitted, bosses wont loose health since the players have to low DPS and they dont know the red circle mechanics yet.

So, i think AC story should be easy, just to give new players a positive experience first time. This dungeon is alot harder than CoF, TA, CM etc. And its the first dungeon. Thats why alot people try to stay away from them

They do AC and get shocked by how hard it is.

Wow just checked my thread. For shame on a lot of assuming I have 0 experience with this game OR working together with people. That is the exact opposite and I am well aware of how to run a group(many raid leads in a game I wont mention here) and am extremely knowledgeable of EVERYTHING in the kittening dungeon. That does not mean it is still not stupidly difficult.

I come to you now fresh off another run with some great people. Minor hiccups here and there under my leadership. Yet we were stopped again at Ralena and Vassar boss fight. The illusionary mages that attack for 500 are near invisible and the rate at which our group remained confused (and as such taking 300 a tick for thinking about moving) was almost 100% uptime. This fight turned my smooth sailing well oiled-machine group into a babbling mess of death zergs and cries of WTFpwned

To all of you claiming this will be easy or it is easy for you while having sex with a panda with NO hands come try it with semi skilled players from 30-45(i.e. The levels this dungeon SHOULD CATER TO) and talk to me then.

Doobiefog.8347:

To all of you claiming this will be easy or it is easy for you while having sex with a panda with NO hands come try it with semi skilled players from 30-45(i.e. The levels this dungeon SHOULD CATER TO) and talk to me then.

Here’s the thing, either it can be pretty challenging and difficulty at that level and pretty easy at max gear/level …. or it can be pretty easy at 30-45 and people will straight up half-AFK solo through it at max gear/level. GW2’s system isn’t bad, all things considered, but you do have to get used to difficulty being frontloaded. The first dungeon, the first time, is one of the toughest group challenges you will ever face in GW2. There’s no “Hard Mode” to progress to here, it just gets easier from the first time onward.

Honestly, the majority of the population will inevitably end up at max level, why should content be tuned exclusively to low gear and level simply because that is the level at which content is unlocked?

This is what happens when a generation of gamers are brought up with DeadlyBossMods and other crutches.

• Spike Traps give a visual cue and in some cases trigger in a timed pattern
• One shot abilities have an animation telegraph before the big hit
• In Ascalonian Catacombs:
  • If a graveling tunnels underground, prepare to dodge
  • If a graveling has it’s arms swept back and has a glowing particle effect, prepare to dodge or interrupt
  • Kill Breeders First

Ascalonian Catacombs is a training ground to teach new players what
to expect. Honestly, I think it would be far better if res running were removed so If you wiped the boss fight resets. At least that way you are required to learn the fight instead of bashing your face against wall until you win.

Just went through Crucible of Eternity where the final boss sets the whole floor on fire or whatever – we got through once today (with 4 people), but it was a terrible experience all around.

Red rings stretching from wall to wall… you dodge roll and get rubber banded back to your starting point and die in one hit. Or you manage to get just outside the red circle, but somehow still get hit and die instantly.

Then you have to run back from the way point, which conveniently is miles away. The second run (with 5 people) we got him to about 50%, but he returned to full health when we couldn’t get a player back in time. It’s just depressing after a while.

Haven’t done AC since i was low level, but i remember the rangers in that place being harder than the boss mobs (one shotting everyone), which is absurd.

LordByron.8369:

The fact is dungeons are somehow balanced on lvl 80 in exotics….or around certain classes.

Many people will say they can do them with one hand at level 1 with their monitor shut down, but from a player that plays almost only dungeons and fotm i can tell you to just ignore them, they would say they can solo arah explorer in all white items if someone said its too difficult……..

Imho its harder to bet a lvl 35 AC explorable, at lvl 35 that a lvl 30 fractal properly equipped…..

Also because at low level people cannot afford many things high lvl players use (food, potions proper equip/build etc etc etc).

False, they are balanced for their shown level. They are meant to be challanging. Obviously getting downscaled with exotic/ascended/runes/sigills/infusions all traits will make it easier.

Doobiefog.8347:

Wow just checked my thread. For shame on a lot of assuming I have 0 experience with this game OR working together with people. That is the exact opposite and I am well aware of how to run a group(many raid leads in a game I wont mention here) and am extremely knowledgeable of EVERYTHING in the kittening dungeon. That does not mean it is still not stupidly difficult.

I come to you now fresh off another run with some great people. Minor hiccups here and there under my leadership. Yet we were stopped again at Ralena and Vassar boss fight. The illusionary mages that attack for 500 are near invisible and the rate at which our group remained confused (and as such taking 300 a tick for thinking about moving) was almost 100% uptime. This fight turned my smooth sailing well oiled-machine group into a babbling mess of death zergs and cries of WTFpwned

To all of you claiming this will be easy or it is easy for you while having sex with a panda with NO hands come try it with semi skilled players from 30-45(i.e. The levels this dungeon SHOULD CATER TO) and talk to me then.

Oh don’t worry bro, who usually post this crap is people carried who learned from others silently pretending to be experienced to not be kicked , or from a youtube video watched 30 times showing how to play AC, i’m surprised noone wrote you “learn how to exploit/skiprun everything as we all do”, rofl
I perfectly agree, a newbie (or even an experienced) can still have some form of difficulties to deal the AC full content not exploiting / skipping, not so much newbie-friendly.
Nor a piece of cake of dungeon at all, for sure. Doing it a lot, clearly (learning curve) will lead you to play the content better. Human brain learning curve nature, you know.

If dungeons like AC are balanced around level 80s in exotics (which they’re not) then the difficulty needs to be massively increased.

Doobiefog.8347:

Wow just checked my thread. For shame on a lot of assuming I have 0 experience with this game OR working together with people. That is the exact opposite and I am well aware of how to run a group(many raid leads in a game I wont mention here) and am extremely knowledgeable of EVERYTHING in the kittening dungeon. That does not mean it is still not stupidly difficult.

I come to you now fresh off another run with some great people. Minor hiccups here and there under my leadership. Yet we were stopped again at Ralena and Vassar boss fight. The illusionary mages that attack for 500 are near invisible and the rate at which our group remained confused (and as such taking 300 a tick for thinking about moving) was almost 100% uptime. This fight turned my smooth sailing well oiled-machine group into a babbling mess of death zergs and cries of WTFpwned

To all of you claiming this will be easy or it is easy for you while having sex with a panda with NO hands come try it with semi skilled players from 30-45(i.e. The levels this dungeon SHOULD CATER TO) and talk to me then.

Not to sound arrogant or anything, but what I gather from your post is that you “are a very experienced player and know all the boss/mob mechanics, know how to lead a group through hell and back and all” but you still fail in this dungeon with your group… So, what’s the catch? If you know everything, how come are you guys failing? I don’t get it. No condition removal? No blocks? No dodges? What? o.O It shouldn’t be that hard if you truly know everything there is to know about AC story. Still you are saying there’s nothing wrong with you, it’s the dungeon that is bad…

I don’t think it’s “all luck and no skill”. I wish all the dungeons were a lot more difficult.

Zenith.7301:

Kid Taylor.5479:

Here we go again. Every two weeks or so someone will post something along the lines of what you did in this particular subforum. I suggest you go read up guides, watch some on youtube, get better, and come back. Chances are, in a month or two you’ll be laughing at how easy AC.

That’s because you’re 80 in full exotics. Try a full group of lv35 in greens, as the recommended level suggests.

I did that 6 or 7 times. Even pre-nerf it wasn’t bad. As long as people stop playing like rabid dogs as they do in PvE, AC is perfectly doable.

Indeed, some dungeons are just way too hard and way too boring to do. Either the mobs have way to much HP or you die everywhere. It’s just plain boring

the problem is at 35 when you do your first dung everyone is still so used to:

1. solo play where they do not have support skills (not just not slotted when enter the dung, but likely have not even purchased them). unless you have done your research you may not have the correct skills to slot for dung play.

2. every other mmo. your a dps class, other mmo you just worry about dps and that does not work here. if your a tank you dont worry about healing yourself, does not work here. there is no tinaty to expect the tank to take all the dmg and a healer to help with what you take. thats not how this game works, some classes are better at taking hits and can keep mobs on them better, but everyone needs to be able to heal themselves for w/e amount of dmg they take when they do not dodge.

3. too many people do not stop to revive people in a downed state. this is the biggest reason groups wipe (and even happens with way to many lv80’s). someones health bar goes red, you need to revive them, or they will die and need to run back leaving you a man or more down making it even more likely to wipe.

4. not understanding what/when to dodge. this takes experience with the game to learn when to dodge and when not to. if you dodge more then you need to you may not have dodge up when it is actually needed and take a big hit. more runs in the same dung and playing more dung gets you this knowledge.

Blazed.8346:

Indeed, some dungeons are just way too hard and way too boring to do. Either the mobs have way to much HP or you die everywhere. It’s just plain boring

while I may agree that some mobs do have to much health, there is nowhere you should be “die everywhere”. I have done every dung without having a single member die, and even many paths without a single member being downed.

I also bet many of the “too much HP” is from people running bad builds, bad gear, and severely under-performing.

I recently went into AC(story) for the first time today and had an absolutely horrible experience. I’m not new to MMOs, raided top tier PVE WoW content for better part of four years so I’m used to beating my head against the wall if need be to figure out mechanics but I usually find that kind of content in the end game, not the first dungeon I step into.

Despite having a level 50+ and me being very close to level 40 we struggled really hard with just the trash mobs (we never actually got to a boss). In the amount of time that it probably would have taken me to gain a level and a half running around enjoying the world we managed to wipe at least a dozen times before we just got fed up and quit.

This is NOT the experience a first dungeon for the appropriate leveled characters should be like

I don’t expect to never die but I do expect some decent tuning so that I don’t feel so overwhelmed by my experience that I never ever want to set foot in another dungeon again while I play this game… I was really looking forward to being able to do dungeons because everything else in the game is so well done but this is a huge disappointment.

We are still trying to understand the game and getting used to what our professions can do, why are these dungeons so hard that a one or two mistakes can leave you at a waypoint?

dungeons in this game are easy and padded for extra length. difficulty is not one of the ways i’d describe gw2 dungeons.

For the Lovers fight, there is an “undocumented” spell (as in not listed under his name) for the mesmer where he casts Confusion on players (i.e. every time you attack, you get damage)

As the first dungeon, having something that causes you to die from your auto attacks is kinda harsh to new players.

Pandabro.8743:

I recently went into AC(story) for the first time today and had an absolutely horrible experience. I’m not new to MMOs, raided top tier PVE WoW content for better part of four years so I’m used to beating my head against the wall if need be to figure out mechanics but I usually find that kind of content in the end game, not the first dungeon I step into.

Despite having a level 50+ and me being very close to level 40 we struggled really hard with just the trash mobs (we never actually got to a boss). In the amount of time that it probably would have taken me to gain a level and a half running around enjoying the world we managed to wipe at least a dozen times before we just got fed up and quit.

This is NOT the experience a first dungeon for the appropriate leveled characters should be like

I don’t expect to never die but I do expect some decent tuning so that I don’t feel so overwhelmed by my experience that I never ever want to set foot in another dungeon again while I play this game… I was really looking forward to being able to do dungeons because everything else in the game is so well done but this is a huge disappointment.

We are still trying to understand the game and getting used to what our professions can do, why are these dungeons so hard that a one or two mistakes can leave you at a waypoint?

I might shock you, but I really can’t find a much easier dungeon than AC. Granted a few game mechanics trivializes most fights in most dungeons, but AC story, in hindsight, seems like a very appropriate dungeon to introduce players to tougher dungeons.

What you are experiencing is a disconnect in difficulty between the brainless world PvE and dungeons.

Koga.7215:

the problem is at 35 when you do your first dung everyone is still so used to:

1. solo play where they do not have support skills (not just not slotted when enter the dung, but likely have not even purchased them). unless you have done your research you may not have the correct skills to slot for dung play.

2. every other mmo. your a dps class, other mmo you just worry about dps and that does not work here. if your a tank you dont worry about healing yourself, does not work here. there is no tinaty to expect the tank to take all the dmg and a healer to help with what you take. thats not how this game works, some classes are better at taking hits and can keep mobs on them better, but everyone needs to be able to heal themselves for w/e amount of dmg they take when they do not dodge.

3. too many people do not stop to revive people in a downed state. this is the biggest reason groups wipe (and even happens with way to many lv80’s). someones health bar goes red, you need to revive them, or they will die and need to run back leaving you a man or more down making it even more likely to wipe.

4. not understanding what/when to dodge. this takes experience with the game to learn when to dodge and when not to. if you dodge more then you need to you may not have dodge up when it is actually needed and take a big hit. more runs in the same dung and playing more dung gets you this knowledge.

I’m totally agree with this point. The main problem with AC in my opinion that one have to rethink all solo-experience “before” and start to use some group utilities, defensive traits and some vitality\toughness on armor. Glass cannon is good with exotic and full-traited but totally bad when grouped in low levels and trying to dungeon.

I was totally crashed first time but now enjoy alot with all my new toons.

On the other side – lovers in AC are the most difficult bosses for me. Place them in first dungeon for 30lvl toons who just even started to know how to play in team? Kinda sort of trolling heh.

Doobiefog.8347:

I love gw2. a lot of things are done right. Dungeons are a mess and are the main reason I will not recommend this game to friends.
The starter dungeon AC (story mode because its first for new players) is insanely difficult and requires what amounts to throwing yourselves at your enemy until they die. over and over again. I’ve only succeeded when grouped with 2 or more level 80’s

I was coming to the forums to post my frustration at AC. I was going to use the phrase ‘insanely difficult’ so I totally agree with you.

I am a recent level 80 and we had a couple of other 80s and a 76 and 58 or something. We kept dying/rezzing/repairing. Eventually when we got to the two bosses that you’ve got to try to keep apart, we kept on wiping over and over. WTF? This is a level 30 dungeon.

So, given that dungeons are out of range, there’s not much point sticking with the game. I re-subscribed to WoW last night, and look forward to some dungeons with an actual LFD tool, and actually making progress.

Cheers.

Elthurien.8356:

This is what happens when a generation of gamers are brought up with DeadlyBossMods and other crutches.

• Spike Traps give a visual cue and in some cases trigger in a timed pattern
• One shot abilities have an animation telegraph before the big hit
• In Ascalonian Catacombs:
  • If a graveling tunnels underground, prepare to dodge
  • If a graveling has it’s arms swept back and has a glowing particle effect, prepare to dodge or interrupt
  • Kill Breeders First

Ascalonian Catacombs is a training ground to teach new players what
to expect. Honestly, I think it would be far better if res running were removed so If you wiped the boss fight resets. At least that way you are required to learn the fight instead of bashing your face against wall until you win.

I would say that all the boss battles in CoE are hard, even for good players that have the right gear. Path 2 has alot of aoe and path 3 sucks all around. Even with the best party I’ve ever had people were dying 2-3 in the last fight on path 3.

Hi OP,

I can relate- when I did my first dungeons in GW2 I felt that they were way too fast-paced, difficult, and not fun. At all.

BUT, I came to realize that I was judging dungeons based on my perceptions of dungeons in previous MMORPG’s, and I realized that wasn’t fair.

I’m not sure if you have any history of playing other MMO’s, but for me, GW2 was way different. At first I found GW2 dungeons to be way too fast-paced and spammy – I felt like I didn’t even know what I was doing because I was barely staying alive just dodging and avoiding crap on the ground.

I can say, if you like other parts of GW2, try to hang in there and give it time and practice. I can now say that when I play other MMO’s, I find that they feel too slow – GW2 now feels like it’s the “right” speed for me.

Think of it as a learning curve. It has been a long, long time since a video game actually challenged me…. and GW2 did that when I first started doing dungeons. If you can think of it like that, maybe it’ll help.

If you still don’t find them fun, I understand and perhaps it isn’t the right game for you. I know many people here will tell you you suck and that’s why you find dungeons hard – I doubt that’s the case. Maybe it just isn’t your style.

But if you like a challenge and are willing to put in a bit of practice, you can alter what you view as a normal dungeon which may be based on previous MMO experience.

Edit: I will admit that aoe red circles on the ground, mixed with the insane amount of “particle” effects in the game, is quite problematic sometimes. I do think something could be done about this.

I’d really hate for them to turn graphics down across the board, but maybe allowing one to turn down particle density would be a good way to let people optionally tone things down.

80’s have the luxery of not having their Lvl 80 gear weirdly downscaled. I mean your gear that is ten or even five levels lower than you starts to make you weaker than you could be inside the dungeon. Ive felt noticeably weaker when my gear is five levels below me. In gear that matches my level stuff is getting smashed in ac but five levels later I am really noticing the difference.

To make your life easier before doing the dungeon get all current gear blue or green it doesnt matter. Armor weapon jewelry all of it. Get gear with vitality power and toughness. If one of those stats is missing from your gear use your upgrade slots to put it in. Dont bother with precision and all that junk as you just want to live at this point. Mess with precision ect later when you are not getting face planted in vit/power/toughness gear. Now that you are geared for your first run enter the first room of ac story. In this room are two glowing spheres on the floor and going up to them will activate the ghost. The nearest one is a warrior approach it and learn how to fight a warrior. The next is a mesmer so now learn how to fight a single mesmer. Both Dont have any or much range so are easily kited. Now open caskets one at a time getting a sampling of the mobs found in the dungeon in the process. Eventually your first boss comes out yay! Use the call target and assist function. Call a target with control t and assist on the called target by pressing t. No point in having a bunch of ghosts running around with half health. Concentrate the parties damage one a single ghost at a time. Use line of sight pulls to make a group of ghosts run to you and cluster up so any aoe will hit them all. Kill order imo is necro/Ele/ranger/monk/mesmer/warrior so control t call target on them in that order. Rez each other. If you are totally dead run back from the waypoint Dont make someone Rez you back from full death it takes forever. If a ghost is near death and you are downed throw stuff at it till it is dead because when it dies you will rally back to life. Do the boss Kasha before the lovers because her waypoint is the closest to the lovers which cuts your travel time in half compared to the next closest waypoint. You are not damaging the lovers at all while running back from a way point so if your party is getting killed may as well use the closest waypoint. I Dont think you really even need to keep them seperated just have everyone range on Reanna till she is dead. Otherwise have two people throw boulders at Vassar and the rest dps on Reanna. Boulders and some player skills have a push back effect so direct them such that it moves the lovers apart. The lovers are not doing damage while being knocked down by boulders by the way. Stop and kill the pesky illusions they will chew you down. But best thing I can say is do like I said with the gear and to use the first room as your practice room. That is where I learned how to kite a melee mob on my thief with pistol/dagger. Cant touch me!

I did this story dungeon with my 35 warrior, an 8 year old Lvl 30 ranger, a 10 year old Lvl 35 thief and two under 80 pugs. Myself and one of the pugs knew the dungeon. We did not wipe on the lovers but did make use of Kasha’s waypoint.

Ha my first time ac explore none of us knew how to do it. We killed the spider in the stairway with all the flame throwers burning us. Died so many times it was the worst ac run Ive ever seen. Hope that helps someone. But if you just wanted to complain then ya the dungeons feel like being punched in the face and kicked in the kittens at the same time but are still fun so give them a chance.

I’m not sure why they made AC story mode pretty tough compared to other story modes, it’s indeed pretty punishing for newcomers and leaves dissapointment in them.

Zogyark.4597:

I’m not sure why they made AC story mode pretty tough compared to other story modes, it’s indeed pretty punishing for newcomers and leaves dissapointment in them.

Well from threads around here, it seems that CM story mode isn’t a favorite. But just like AC, maybe this is because your general groups is…bad.
I think that after this, players either get better or they stop from doing story modes. But trough out every story mode, I’ve compared the time it took us (5 guildies) to do it and the time it took one of us to do it with a PuG. The differences are as big as those for AC, for some being more than 80 minutes…But I must admit that in everything I have done so far, AC story mode took me the most time…nearly 3 freaking hours (with a PuG ranging from level 40 to 76 and me as the sole level 30) …even Arah path 4 didn’t take me that long.

General group is bad usually because they are new at GW2 Dungeons, and AC is pretty unforgiving with their traps and not really knowing what’s going to happen next with mobs that hit like a brick if you let them. Not full traits at low levels and still learning the class makes it all more complicated.

Personally I did Arah Story mode after AC story mode and of course it felt much easier IMO.

CM wasn’t that bad for me, but then I’ve had some experience by then so this probably made it seem easier.

AC is fairly unforgiving for lower lvl players, especially as its the first dungeon available. Most of the later dungeons are much more doable at their lvls. Even at 80 with exotics kohler hits like a truck and theirs not much room for error. In most groups I pug 3/4 people die after his first pull+whirlwind. In story mode its not so much the bosses but the trash thats fairly unbalanced

you my friend need more skill. I will admit during my noob days we stayed up till 4am and still couldn’t beat it but now..AC is one of the easiest dungeons.

RedStar.4218:

But I must admit that in everything I have done so far, AC story mode took me the most time…nearly 3 freaking hours (with a PuG ranging from level 40 to 76 and me as the sole level 30) …even Arah path 4 didn’t take me that long.

My group, all friends I’d played with for years, took 4 and a half hours for AC story mode, though at the time only one of us had their Elite skill at 42, everyone else was low 30s. Then we needed 2 and a half for CM story mode, and by then we had two 80s, though not in exotics yet. I’m not super optimistic that we’ll get enough better to make any of them easy, as even now that I’m 80 in Knights/Carrion exotics, and have played nothing but that one Engineer since starting the game several months ago, I still die on average at least once a “level” just in regular outdoor PvE.

This game places a fairly high premium on fast reflexes and good visual memory, both of which I am below average at, and dungeons amplify that requirement. I think that to people who are average or above at those things, and who have a lot of time to play and practice, it borders on inexplicable why people struggle in dungeons. If they were to contemplate adding one seconds worth of “deciding what to do” time on for every button press, they might see that a dungeon fight gets a lot harder in those circumstances.

I don’t know that Arenanet will be willing to reduce general dungeon difficulty, but I do think it might be nice if Story mode was substantially easier, while keeping the same difficulty for token-rewarding Exploration mode, so that the difficulty curve was more of a hill rather than a cliff. Alternatively, a third, even easier mode might be added with just regular outdoor PvE rewards and a nice chest, and with critters with maybe 2x or 3x normal hit points instead of 10x (or more?). That would let people in it for the “story” get some different content then just normal outdoor stuff.

I believe I won’t be the only one who enjoyed wiping over again in AC story/exp mode over and over again with our 3 week old level 45 ‘main’ characters when the game first launched. Fun times, compared to the 20-minutes-per-path-speed-oh-so-fast-pro-skip-everything runs that dominate amongst the players now.

Back then when we were stuck in AC, we know there are people who have already have done all paths, so the message should always be that it is doable, instead of jumping to the conclusion that it is too hard not fun and impossible. And guess what? We were actually very excited about the difficulty back then, think about it, if there are so much to learn and explore in the first dungeon, there would be so much more to be enjoyed in the 7 after that.

I just want to point people to this well thought and written post from Colin a while back:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Do-NOT-nerf-please/first#post126835

I completely agree with his point of views, that’s why I kept the link, and was waiting for sometime later, and a chance like this to post it again so we can all reflect on how true it was and how far we have come. The very first time I jumped into a dungeon, AC story mode, I learned more about the class my class in 3 hours than the 3 weeks I have spent with it prior.

Then again, I’m the sort of person who enjoys a challenge and the process of figuring things out. I understand that might not be the case for every player, but at the end of the day, it is one’s own responsibility to set your expectations straight. The dungeons, explorable or not, are supposed to be challenging content in GW2, and I just also want to add, (entirely personal opinion), that challenging content is exactly what GW2 currently is lacking. In general I think AC story mode sets the tone fairly well for later content and of the mechanics of the game. It is the first time where we actually put blind/daze/interrupt into good use and for the first time worried about condition removal. I don’t know why one would expect a smooth as silk run the first time into a dungeon. I know where you might be coming from, maybe the 5 man dungeons in WoW? In normal mode? You have to keep in mind that dungeons for now in GW2 is the highest level team content. There is not 10 man 25 man raids here, this is supposed to be the highest level challenge for a group of players. (yea, supposed to be, but not really anymore)

I hate to say learn to play the game, but a lot of times the problem do lie within ourselves. Either dig deeper into the game mechanics and your class, or it’s definitely fine to come to the conclusion that the game is not for you. There are people farming Arah, there are people reaching the level cap of fractals, don’t doubt about anything is impossible.

And just a few tips for you for AC story mode..:

1. Having trouble with trash? Don’t engage more than 3 if you are not comfortable with them. Blind and projectile blocking abilities are your best friends for ranged, and move impairing abilities are most useful for kiting melee.

2. There are plenty of opportunities to take advantage of LoS in AC. For trash and bosses. Ranger boss hitting you too hard? For every shot it does, it will turn to the target before firing, so spread out and prepare to dodge when he draws his bows. And if you run out of dodge, just hop down, or find a column to LoS

3. The lovers.. Well, seems like you are missing a bit of mechanic regardless of your claims. They gain a buff if they are close together, 100% more dmg, and I believe certain spells cast more frequently, they are called the lover for a reason. Pull them apart, dps the elementalist (the lady) down first, use boulder or your skills to interrupt the mesmer, so you don’t get overwhelmed by confusion, the ability is quite easy to spot and has a long cast animation. Split your group 3-2 or 4-1 which ever more comfortable, nothing much else to say about it.

4. Adelburn.. don’t try to melee him, LoS with poles for the pull, don’t over use dodge. You have to remember vigor is still a resource, you HAVE to manage it, the only thing you should be dodging is probably foefire, there should be plenty of vigor left.

I did this quite a long time ago, shortly after release of the game last year, so I might be wrong on details or some don’t apply anymore.

Finally, just… try to have fun I guess?

DancingPenguins.9875:

Zenith.7301:

Kid Taylor.5479:

Here we go again. Every two weeks or so someone will post something along the lines of what you did in this particular subforum. I suggest you go read up guides, watch some on youtube, get better, and come back. Chances are, in a month or two you’ll be laughing at how easy AC.

That’s because you’re 80 in full exotics. Try a full group of lv35 in greens, as the recommended level suggests.

I did that 6 or 7 times. Even pre-nerf it wasn’t bad. As long as people stop playing like rabid dogs as they do in PvE, AC is perfectly doable.

Hello DancingPenguins, fancy seeing you here

Doobiefog.8347:

… starter dungeon AC is insanely difficult .

I love a challenge, but this requires more luck than skill. That’s not fun. That’s called gambling.

To me its kind of funny how so many story modes are more difficult than the explore modes. Like you I enjoy the challenge. After running a ton of AC explore I felt generous and took a guild group of first time dungeoneers thru AC story. And it was much hard than I expected. We cleared it no problem but I think it left an impression that “omg the dungeons are so hard in this game I die all the time!” My opinion is story modes are entertaining but need tweaked down several notches. It should never be harder to do story modes than it is to do explore modes……. yet it is.

Jzl.8715:

DancingPenguins.9875:

Zenith.7301:

Kid Taylor.5479:

Here we go again. Every two weeks or so someone will post something along the lines of what you did in this particular subforum. I suggest you go read up guides, watch some on youtube, get better, and come back. Chances are, in a month or two you’ll be laughing at how easy AC.

That’s because you’re 80 in full exotics. Try a full group of lv35 in greens, as the recommended level suggests.

I did that 6 or 7 times. Even pre-nerf it wasn’t bad. As long as people stop playing like rabid dogs as they do in PvE, AC is perfectly doable.

Hello DancingPenguins, fancy seeing you here

Oh hai, I’m bored when there’s nobody for fractals.

all dungeons are made for full rare+ geared lvl 80.

i find ac to be one of the most fun once actually:) its not too difficult to noob around and have fun and not soo easy its boring the whole way ^^

i find arah wildly annoying becouse even max geared every mob hits soo hard that people die in seconds :/ .
and they got soooooo much hp it takes forever to kill trash mobs and there is soooo many of them…

think the biggest problem is the group or lack of lfg system, since once i do dungeons with a full “premade” meaning people i know are good and know +- what they are doing even arah seems quite pleasent to do (way too long due to all the high hp trash) and i think they add alot of fun.

i remember the first time i tried ac with my friends, we found it insanely hard, way too hard actually, and it would be nice if there was difficulty setting on it, so you could get through it in a decent manner and when they done it a few times and got a grip on it move the difficulty up.
i remember at the end we could easy run it just 3 good friends(except one path since the spawning pools couldnt be hit by anything hten aoe becouse it was buggde) ^^

I think arah has been nerfed or people have just gotten better, but the hp on mobs seems to have been decreased. I remember that silver mobs would take quite a bit to kill but last time I was there, each mob took about 10seconds if all 5 members dps it down.

Lankybrit.4598:

Doobiefog.8347:

I love gw2. a lot of things are done right. Dungeons are a mess and are the main reason I will not recommend this game to friends.
The starter dungeon AC (story mode because its first for new players) is insanely difficult and requires what amounts to throwing yourselves at your enemy until they die. over and over again. I’ve only succeeded when grouped with 2 or more level 80’s

I was coming to the forums to post my frustration at AC. I was going to use the phrase ‘insanely difficult’ so I totally agree with you.

I am a recent level 80 and we had a couple of other 80s and a 76 and 58 or something. We kept dying/rezzing/repairing. Eventually when we got to the two bosses that you’ve got to try to keep apart, we kept on wiping over and over. WTF? This is a level 30 dungeon.

So, given that dungeons are out of range, there’s not much point sticking with the game. I re-subscribed to WoW last night, and look forward to some dungeons with an actual LFD tool, and actually making progress.

Cheers.

I wandered into the Manor in EXP mode and successfully pulled 1 single enemy out of the 1st room into the hall and up the stairs and no matter what my pet and I tossed at it, we could not move its health bar – and got killed. I thought these guys are just considered part of the area ‘mob’?

Outside of the dungeon – in PvE the same Lvl30/35 thief/pirate/whatever would be down in a few hits from a Lvl55+ player. Not so in a dungeon.

After waiting most of the evening outside of three dungeons looking for others to party with I gave up and wandered off to spend sometime actually playing the game.

Malediktus.9250:

LordByron.8369:

The fact is dungeons are somehow balanced on lvl 80 in exotics….or around certain classes.

Many people will say they can do them with one hand at level 1 with their monitor shut down, but from a player that plays almost only dungeons and fotm i can tell you to just ignore them, they would say they can solo arah explorer in all white items if someone said its too difficult……..

Imho its harder to bet a lvl 35 AC explorable, at lvl 35 that a lvl 30 fractal properly equipped…..

Also because at low level people cannot afford many things high lvl players use (food, potions proper equip/build etc etc etc).

False, they are balanced for their shown level. They are meant to be challanging. Obviously getting downscaled with exotic/ascended/runes/sigills/infusions all traits will make it easier.

cof, hotw and coe are way easier than AC.

If you want to show your skill on a forum making newbies think they just are not good enough for the game….well gratz…..

I pass 99% of my time in dungeons and high lvl fotm and i think AC is excessively hard for a lvl 35……

Hard =/= impossible……but for sure harder than any endgame dungeon.
There are fewer players able to face ac with a lvl 35 party than people able to complete hotw, and lvl 30 fotm possibly.

Also in any content the difference between a lvl 79, a lvl 80 and a lvl 80 exotic geared player is excessive and getting worse with ascended gear.

LordByron.8369:

Malediktus.9250:

LordByron.8369:

The fact is dungeons are somehow balanced on lvl 80 in exotics….or around certain classes.

Many people will say they can do them with one hand at level 1 with their monitor shut down, but from a player that plays almost only dungeons and fotm i can tell you to just ignore them, they would say they can solo arah explorer in all white items if someone said its too difficult……..

Imho its harder to bet a lvl 35 AC explorable, at lvl 35 that a lvl 30 fractal properly equipped…..

Also because at low level people cannot afford many things high lvl players use (food, potions proper equip/build etc etc etc).

False, they are balanced for their shown level. They are meant to be challanging. Obviously getting downscaled with exotic/ascended/runes/sigills/infusions all traits will make it easier.

cof, hotw and coe are way easier than AC.

If you want to show your skill on a forum making newbies think they just are not good enough for the game….well gratz…..

I pass 99% of my time in dungeons and high lvl fotm and i think AC is excessively hard for a lvl 35……

Hard =/= impossible……but for sure harder than any endgame dungeon.
There are fewer players able to face ac with a lvl 35 party than people able to complete hotw, and lvl 30 fotm possibly.

Also in any content the difference between a lvl 79, a lvl 80 and a lvl 80 exotic geared player is excessive and getting worse with ascended gear.

AC with all lv 35 alts in blue/green is a joke, but AC with a full set of new lv35’s in the same gear is hard. Why is this? well the alts have experience with this games system (much different from every other MMO) and know how to play. the new players do not yet understand how group dynamics work in GW2 and how to deal with dung runs go, making it seam more difficult then it is.

Now lv30 fractal or higher level dung are easier? well when you consider the extra experience in GW2 that people have by then it is to be expected. By the time your doing fractal 30 you know the fractals inside and out, know exactly what and when to dodge and have done them all MANY MANY times making them easy and Zzzz.

Take a fresh group of 80’s give them best gear and 30AR and toss them into a frac 30 (w/o ever doing a fractal before, or at max doing just the pre lv10 runs w/o agony and all mechanics, hell even give them the stratagies) and watch how bad they will fail, or how long it will take them.

It is simple, it takes time to adjust to the way the game works and this is why the first few dung are so hard to new players. and add the fact that many quickly take to the grave run strategy rather than figure out the proper way only makes it worse.