Guild Wars 2

I ran CoE once like 8 months ago and had such a horrible experience that I haven’t been back. I really like the design of the place, though, so I thought I’d give it another shot. Which path is the easiest to start with?

I guess path 1 because Alpha is supposedly easier.

I personally think p3 is the easiest, but I’m pretty sure my view is jaded by the fact that we speedclear it so fast.

All of them.

I actually have more trouble with the p1 alpha attacks since the p2 and p3 ones are much easier to dodge I feel.

Differences between the 3 paths are minor. If your group has never done it before, it may take a few tries to learn the timing to evade Alpha’s ice attack, which he only uses on paths 2 and 3. Ice hurts a lot if you get hit by it but once you learn the timing this attack is really easy to avoid.

I find Alpha’s earth attack (which he uses in paths 1 and 3) to be the worst. Many groups will cheese him by getting him next to a wall and then stacking on him, which prevents him from moving at all and thus he will never hit anyone with the earth attack. You can then evade fire (path 1) and ice (path 3) and you should take essentially no damage during the entire fight (or, for path 1, you can just eat all the damage and not evade at all). I think the fights on these paths would be much more interesting if he wasn’t so easily trapped.

In a pinch, you can range him in path 2 pretty easily. You can literally walk out of both attacks (or stay put for ice attacks with no mist cloud) as long as your group is sufficiently spread out. Don’t ever try this if the rest of your group is stacking. Always rescue poor warriors from crystals

I don’t really find that you need to dodge Alpha much/at all on P1, so I’d say that’s the easiest path. Just remember to have everyone melee him, preferably up against a wall. The flipside is that P1 has that really glitchy feeling midboss and the golem bomb section is arguably a bit harder than P2/P3. Way more interesting, but harder.

Really, though, none of the paths are all that bad, and they’re all quite similar. I’ve never run CoE with a pug, though, so ymmv. P3 is the most fun for me, since P2’s midboss is interesting but a bit of a pain if you’re not playing a mesmer with a focus. You might want to look up a video of whatever path you decide to run.

P1 only because of alpha. If you can time your dodges properly, p3 is definately the easiest.

Oh my god, PuGs have a better chance of dodging AoE’s than wrapping their tiny brains around trying to 1:4 the golems. Path 1 most likely to tear a PuG apart IMO.

Taht’s why all pugs I met do in this order: p3>p2>p1. p1 is still the most popular so disbanding after fail on that golem part is less problematic to finish.

While pugging, I encountered all the following scenarios on that golem p1.
1. we name the guy 20 times so he comes to the switch, “oh I didn’t know you spoke to me”
2. 4 people go on the switch, only 3 activate. “sorry, what do I have to do with the switch?”
3. “3, 2, 1, activate”
“interrupt: X isn’t activating. X please activate when we say. 3, 2, 1, activate”
“interrupt: X isn’t activating. Dammit X, press F. 3, 2, 1 activate "
X dodges out
“You told me to press F, I pressed F. F is my dodge button”.
4. And finally, the great classic “we see that we are bad at this dungeon, so let’s do 1-1-1-1-1”.

So I don’t understand why p1 is the most popular. There is no reason. My worst experience always were on p1. p1 isn’t the most easy because you don’t dodge. p1 is the hardest because of pugs.

I always hear P1 is the easiest/most popular. I prefer P3 and even P2 to P1. The switch part in P1 is harder to coordinate in a PUG while P2 and P3 are easy to coordinate with PUGs.

I always do 2-3 on the path 1 console with pugs. Slightly slower, but it’s basically impossible to screw it up. If you do 1-4 and one player is not on the ball, your group is going to have a bad day.

P1 is the easiest one for bad groups. P3 is the easiest one for good groups.

Gieniusz Krab.8259:

Without CoF, CoE is the easiest dungeon.

Actually without tactics CoE is one of the most difficult dungeons. Players can still die easily here from bad play (and bad group play) but good players can get through it quickly and safely. It has turned out to be one of the best dungeons in that respect.

Stooperdale.3560:

Gieniusz Krab.8259:

Without CoF, CoE is the easiest dungeon.

Actually without tactics CoE is one of the most difficult dungeons. Players can still die easily here from bad play (and bad group play) but good players can get through it quickly and safely. It has turned out to be one of the best dungeons in that respect.

Tactics? The “tactics” are the same as CoF. Stack up and burst.

Dodging is a tactic, and from what I’ve heard, a pretty advanced one.

As mentioned Alpha in p1 is supposed to be the easiest. For me, first 2 are equally all right, but the jungle one gets a bit annoying with the bombs (I think that’s p3). A lot of Stability needed.

hedix.1986:

As mentioned Alpha in p1 is supposed to be the easiest. For me, first 2 are equally all right, but the jungle one gets a bit annoying with the bombs (I think that’s p3). A lot of Stability needed.

That’s path 2, and it’s pretty easy once you figure out the timing on the little golems.

If you fire your rifle right before, or as they stop walking, they will run straight into the Husk and immediately explode.

I find the little golems far easier when people stop getting into aggro range of mine. It’s just a matter of spaming the submission rifle #1 attack on them and they’ll suicide on the boss in 2 cycles usually. When you do that well, the golem will just stand on the spot waiting for you to recharge your submission ray.

But when someone gets into their aggro table, the golem will run to him systematically between two cycles and you’ll lose your progress.

“Tactics? The “tactics” are the same as CoF. Stack up and burst.”

You might not be able to remember the months after the game was released when everyone dodged around the room fighting the alpha’s, but I can. Until players were stopped from reviving mid combat, waypoint rushing was the way most PUGs did CoE. 2:3 and 1:4 became PUG knowledge only months after players needed to find some new tactics.

stof.9341:

I find the little golems far easier when people stop getting into aggro range of mine. It’s just a matter of spaming the submission rifle #1 attack on them and they’ll suicide on the boss in 2 cycles usually. When you do that well, the golem will just stand on the spot waiting for you to recharge your submission ray.

But when someone gets into their aggro table, the golem will run to him systematically between two cycles and you’ll lose your progress.

You can avoid that by shooting them right before they stop walking towards their spot in the middle. They won’t run towards whoever aggro’ed them, but run straight into the Husk as well. The timing on that isn’t too hard either. I don’t know what you mean with spamming your #1 in two cycles, but I only have to use my skill #1 once, and they’ll always run straight into the boss and explode.

That’s an interesting point. I’ll delay using the gun until I see them stop somewhere. Currently, I use #1 as soon as they spawn and I can target them.

As our good friend Koptev would say, No no no!

Also btw, this always applied, but doubly so now with champ boxes dropping, make sure to put some actual hurt on the boss before he dies to the golems to ensure you get loot from him as well as the chest. About 3K-5K damage seems to do the trick.

stof.9341:

That’s an interesting point. I’ll delay using the gun until I see them stop somewhere. Currently, I use #1 as soon as they spawn and I can target them.

They will start running from their spawning point up until around the middle of the room. If you hit them right before they get there or as they stop, they’ll run straight into the Husk and die. It’s pretty easy to get a hang of.

Broadicea.8294:

As our good friend Koptev would say, No no no!

Also btw, this always applied, but doubly so now with champ boxes dropping, make sure to put some actual hurt on the boss before he dies to the golems to ensure you get loot from him as well as the chest. About 3K-5K damage seems to do the trick.

The best thing to do is take a ranged weapon with you when you do the event. Once your golem explodes, drop your rifle, get some hits in with the ranged weapon, once the golem spawns, pick it up, shoot it, rince and repeat. If everyone’s doing it, it makes it a little bit faster, and everyone gets loot.

He reflects projectiles though or destroys them. Only mesmers and necro’s can range the husk afaik. Just run in, auto attack with axe a few times then move out before you get murdered.

The fastest and easiest way to do the Husk room is to have one person solo the boss.

spoj.9672:

He reflects projectiles though or destroys them. Only mesmers and necro’s can range the husk afaik. Just run in, auto attack with axe a few times then move out before you get murdered.

Huh, TIL. I only started doing it recently, because it was advised by a guildy (although it’s so blatantly obvious) and I used PBAoE’s, so that might be why it works for my ele as well.

Nike Porphyrogenita.8137:

The fastest and easiest way to do the Husk room is to have one person solo the boss.

This.

spoj.9672:

He reflects projectiles though or destroys them. Only mesmers and necro’s can range the husk afaik. Just run in, auto attack with axe a few times then move out before you get murdered.

He only destroys projectiles when his bramble “shield” is up. He stomps or something to bring it up and then it kinda fades away over 30 seconds or so IIRC. It stays completely down for just a little bit before he brings it back up again.

Ye but he tends to always have it up when I wanna go hit him and switching to a ranged weapon is 2much hassle for me!

well yeah I usually just go run in while the brambles are down and whack him a few times

Yeah he can be annoying but mostly due to people now knowing what todo and messes things up with using guns on bots to early or bots who are already controlled by other parties.

Easiest is just go in and take a gun and a specific alcove then camp it, clearing the bramble when needed. If one is advanced you can actually cover two alcoves and then having 2 clearing/ranging the boss.

The most annoying in that encounter is when people run around fiddling with your bots and/or aggroing them.

Axe #3, Mace #5 on Warrior when he isn’t surrounded by roots does the trick
I’m too scared to melee tag him since he pimp slapped me across the room.

Bright.9160:

That’s path 2, and it’s pretty easy once you figure out the timing on the little golems.

If you fire your rifle right before, or as they stop walking, they will run straight into the Husk and immediately explode.

Good to know, we always just dragged the golems into the central area, which is a bit more time consuming I guess.

spoj.9672:

P1 only because of alpha. If you can time your dodges properly, p3 is definately the easiest.

This is true. For veteran players who know how to dodge and understand Alpha’s mechanics, P3 is easiest. If you’re dragging in people who are new to the dungeon, though, do yourself and them a favor and do the submarine escape in P1.

P3. Alpha does not cleanse all of his conditions every 10 seconds or so, so you can actually stack vulnerability/other conditions on him. P1 if you have pineapples.