Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone

I really would love the Arah armor for my Asuran necromancer and basically need some advice on which path to do daily

Only ever done story mode before so I basically need the easiest path to do with an average LFG group

Thanks all

I think the easiest path to pug is path 3? Or else it used to be. Also, if you see the thread on dungeon mentors, you can easily get folks to take you into Arah, any path.

LittleLepton.8915:

I think the easiest path to pug is path 3? Or else it used to be. Also, if you see the thread on dungeon mentors, you can easily get folks to take you into Arah, any path.

Yeah its P3. Hardest thing in there is the first boss, because I’ve seen pugs muck up dealing with the poison. Other than that, it has easy skips and the rest of the bosses are simple(assuming your pug group knows lupi). I’d recommend youtubing the first skip though, it can be tough if you have no idea the exact route.

Definitely path 3. Don’t get discouraged if your pug has trouble with the first boss(es). They are easy once you get the hang of it.

Great was going to take a look on youtube once I found out a decent path and thanks for the dungeon mentors suggestion

I thought the easiest one is P1, since the ooze can be killed with stacking, and the skipping part is relatively easy. But P3 is easy as well. I need to work on my skipping skills.

Iris Ng.9845:

I thought the easiest one is P1, since the ooze can be killed with stacking, and the skipping part is relatively easy. But P3 is easy as well. I need to work on my skipping skills.

New people to P1, die all the time on that second skip. That is a pug killer. But the real problem with P1 in pugs, is if you wipe on lupi, you must run the whole way back to him. Not a problem in premades. But definitely is for pugs.

Skips in P1 are definitely tougher to new people than in P3.

P1 trash skips is where “skipping needs to stop (because I can’t do it!)” threads come from.

I routinely solo up to Tar in 10-15 mins, and it can regularly take 30+ to get a full pug capable of even reaching Tar if I dont pre-activate the Tar WP (I’m sure this is partly to do with my early morning playtime, but still…).

I find my pug groups fail the P3 skip more than P1 skips :>

p3 first skip is pretty harsh especially because of that chokepoint with elementalists that chill and illusionists.

and if you play a warrior you can pretty much facetank the poison AOEs in the first bossfight with healing signet. use condition removal on the immobilise (not SIO if you’re poisoned) or whirlwind to dodge the crusher attack.

p1 is pretty easy except for the lack of wp on the way to lupicus. tar is also annoying in a group without burning uptime and projectile protection.

For a dagger/focus ele, I have an anti-projectile, an insta-cast condition removal, a skill that grants invulnerability and burning speed to quickly break off from the mobs. Since I have no way to keep up swiftness, I usually slot signet of air, arcane shield and mist form to get out of the aoe. Then, here comes the problems: Risen Hands. If I get knocked down even once, I will get caught by the chasing mobs and end up dead. So skipping in p3 is something I consider a challenge by myself.

Edit: Scratch it. I failed at all the skips Just double check today.

For that run on my ele I generally switChed to staff…. For the magnetic aura (semi short anti projectile) swiftness buff, cripple, and freeze fields to slow the descent of risen on my poor cute Asura

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

I find my pug groups fail the P3 skip more than P1 skips :>

I will give you, that in advanced groups, a person is more likely to die in the p3 skip than the p1 skip. The thing about p3 skip, is if on person doesn’t make it, its not a big deal since you can four man mage crusher then get the WP for your teammate.

In P1, the party members HAVE to make the run, unless they wait for lupi to die lol. So that puts pressure on new people to actually make it.

A mesmer can portal people for path 1 past the rough skip, though in all fairness that requires a mesmer. And the mesmer needs to make the skip them self.

Path 3.

Alphard, the Destroyer of PUGs means P2 is probably the hardest now.

I got the best PUG ever at P2 today. A mesmer set up triple wardens for us to autoattack Alphard :’D. My new idol !!!

Skipping on P3 is really easy and you only need one person to do it. The other 4 people can just waypoint.

And you only have to kill Lupi and the end boss, so an effort of 5-10min.

3 > 2 > 1 = 4 in terms of difficulty, 3 being the easiest.

I don’t think p1 is as hard as p2, skipping aside. I find skipping in Arah is difficult wherever.

The p1 trash skip isn’t that hard provided
A) There aren’t lingering Oozes/eye turrets in the Champ ooze area, having to burn some mobility or blocks/evades there can really set you back as you run into the mobs.
B) You’re not dealing with back aggro, back aggro in any trash skip makes it infinitely harder (which is why I usually despise GS Warriors who yolo in without a care in the world, leaving slower professions to get picked off by the disorganised shamble of chaos left in their wake.) By all means, use your Rush and Whirl, ONCE WE’RE PAST THE BULK.
> Cue poison clouds as far as the eye can see reducing your FPS to a standstill.

Dolan.3071:

The p1 trash skip isn’t that hard provided
A) There aren’t lingering Oozes/eye turrets in the Champ ooze area, having to burn some mobility or blocks/evades there can really set you back as you run into the mobs.
B) You’re not dealing with back aggro, back aggro in any trash skip makes it infinitely harder (which is why I usually despise GS Warriors who yolo in without a care in the world, leaving slower professions to get picked off by the disorganised shamble of chaos left in their wake.) By all means, use your Rush and Whirl, ONCE WE’RE PAST THE BULK.
> Cue poison clouds as far as the eye can see reducing your FPS to a standstill.

This holds true for experienced players of this run. For newbies, they often don’t know when to save skills for whats.

Example: On my guard for the second skip I always:
1.) GS#3 past the first group of risen
2.) Dodge ->Retreat
3.) Continue running to either the right of the drakes if I’m first(which is rare), or to the left of the drakes and avoid the poison clouds.
4.) I generally am not in combat during this run, so I just keep running forward to the ooze field
5.) I will delay my charge in the ooze field until my GS#3 is off cooldown, then I leap over half the field
6.) Switch to staff, then do Staff#5
7.)Profit.

What noobies do:
1.) Turn corner, get bombed by silver mobs
2.) Waste any invuln/heal skill they have recovering from the early bomb
3.) Take a bad route into the large oozes, wasting their condi removal
4.) Have no leap skills/heals/invulns for when they reach the mini ooze field
5.) Die

Retreat from the get go, round corner, Shelter through silvers, chain Sword 2 and Judge’s Intervention up to the Lesser Ooze’s, Focus 5 through them for safe measure, GS 3 once I’m far enough through to not put myself in combat
If I do it right the left Drakes won’t have aggro’d, and the first few will spit their poison somewhere off to the right near the cliff after I teleport, leaving a clean(ish) path for those walking up the left. Keeping left to pop Jotun once I’m in, burying the left side in poison but keeping the middle clear.

Of course if I’m in a guild run then I just yolo through and aggro everything, a small sentiment of revenge for the hundreds of times I’ve had to deal with their back aggro

Dolan.3071:

Retreat from the get go, round corner, Shelter through silvers, chain Sword 2 and Judge’s Intervention up to the Lesser Ooze’s, Focus 5 through them for safe measure, GS 3 once I’m far enough through to not put myself in combat
If I do it right the left Drakes won’t have aggro’d, and the first few will spit their poison somewhere off to the right near the cliff after I teleport, leaving a clean(ish) path for those walking up the left. Keeping left to pop Jotun once I’m in, burying the left side in poison but keeping the middle clear.

Of course if I’m in a guild run then I just yolo through and aggro everything, a small sentiment of revenge for the hundreds of times I’ve had to deal with their back aggro

Retreat out the gate is so wasteful. You already have one free aegis from your virtue. So I prefer to let that one tank one hit, then re-up on the aegis with retreat as well as topping off swiftness.

As far as sword and JI, I generally never bring those for skipping. I enjoy a good ward for my team. And the drake aggro was if a warrior does it in front of me, since they are quick little buggers.

Retreat is just good for the party. Aegis will tank one tick of Chaos Storm, potentially saving a member half their health, I’m not sure if it’s a latency issue or what but I always get ticked once by Chaos Storm :/
I’m not a fan of Staff in skips, no one likes waiting around in a symbol and trying to get PuGs to stand inside it is just never going to happen, that and there really isn’t a definitive bottleneck where you can stop every single mob (like there is with AC p1 skip to the boss) as there’s mobs after the mini oozes that take forever to break aggro as well.

If I’m absolutely on my own for Swiftness cough every Warrior ever that doesn’t know what a Warhorn is cough then I take Save Yourself. Sure the CD’s are long but we usually muck around for a while after the skip waiting for mobs to leash or killing the persistent ones, waiting for others to do the skip, etc.

Somewhat back on topic, Arah p1 and p2 in that order IMO are easiest. Since the jumping puzzle that let you start at Lupi in both p3 and p4 has been nerfed (until a new skip is found) I don’t really see them to be worth the time. I forever hold disdain towards the Hunter Crusher fight and its use of poison clouds that destroy my FPS

But oh man JI and Sword 2 best mobility, I felt so sluggish learning Guardian with my singular leap skill on an eternal CD, now I know what real pain is trying to learn Mesmer <_<

It depends on so many different factors. Reality is that P1 is probably the easier to solo (obviously aside from tar) than all of the other paths without exploits, but P3 is probably the easiest to do in a group. P3 can be pretty tough to solo… the ritual is extremely annoying and the wraithlord boss is actually horrible to solo if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing. It’s not really one of those things you can just wing it on when you’re alone but it sure as hell is a joke with 4 others at your side.

@dolan
if you’re behind you will probably take a tick of chaos storm. it’s only really predictable if you’re the guy in front because as soon as the illusionists aggro they tend to cast the chaos storm. in my experience just randomly dodging as soon as they aggro allows me to get out without taking ticks

also, I’m always using warhorn on trash skips, dunno what you’re complaining about, though I may be too far ahead for you to get buffs. especially for that p1 first skip I tend to save WH 4 for the oozes in case i get crippled by them.

kinda surprised that you’re learning mesmer too. are you regretting it already?

Best Mesmer NA right here, had the smoothest SE runs, I may or may not have caused a wipe… Jokes!


I caused multiple!

I couldn’t even do that p3 bridge skip, every class I’ve played has blocks in one form or another, or ungodly mobility in lieu of that (Thief) but a Mesmer is just… A short burst of swiftness, a singular blink, and if you’re still in the firing range after that well RIP in peace.
Ah … I’ll get there eventually haha

Mesmer has a block in sword 4, scepter 2, distortion on shatter 4.

mes blocks suck for trash skipping since they teleport you which I find highly annoying. anyway if you go all out mesmers aren’t too bad at skipping in my experience, though you kind of have to chain stealth skills (torch, decoy, mass invis if you’re really desperate)

having a centaur/traveller set is also worth it. I got myself pvt + centaur just for skipping, and it helps that centaur runes are a mere ~10s apiece

Goes to show how ridiculous a class can be when some people consider alternate armour sets <_<
Though I feel somewhat useful being able to swap to Mes for a few minutes when we roll Dredge now xD

i find the 4th one the easiest one, however it’s really looong and there is a lot of fights in there. Nevertheless, if the group can manage to kill melandru boss (1 person kite gorillas and the other 4 just stack in a safe spot and range) that path is really easy (until dwayna, where you can start praying the gods for dps). However, i find dwayna just long and easier than Alphard. It also seems that Lupicus is easier in path 4 (i never get why, but it seems his areas in phase 2 are Way toooo much less dangerous in path 4).

Just my thoughs/experiences.

lupi is the same across paths, you’re just getting different rng with regards to phase 2 frenzied blasts.

melandru is cancer and possibly one of the most lazily designed bosses in the game. I’m pretty sure the old safespot is there, and I find it easier to just camp range there and then quickly burst gorillas with stab/condi cleanse whenevr they spawn.

dwayna is also a cakewalk unless you kitten up spark pulls badly/have no dps.

We tested full melee’ing the post-patch Melandru a while back. You can do it if you try really hard, but it’s a pain and I don’t really want to do it, ever. Pretty fast, though. Was easy with spiky fruit, but… yea.