Guild Wars 2

So my group and I’ve been doing Arah pretty regularly for the last few weeks and in the last week Lupi’s been absolutely unbearable. I’ve come to the conclusion that either he was buffed, he’s bugged, or we’re doing something wrong.

The first phase is the same and we never have an issue getting through it.
The second phase is a nightmare though. We’ve never allowed him to have more than 1 stack of the buff Empowered and a couple times we’ve managed to avoid the buff entirely. Once he goes into P2 though he spawns aoes, shadowsteps onto people, and throws some kind of heavy damage poison attack.

1. AoE
Before, AoE were easy to dodge or at least get away from. They were almost always patterned in a line that you could dodge to the side and get away from. If they weren’t patterned in a line, they were patterned in a circle that you could get out of so you wouldn’t be in the area the darts bounce between.
Now, you can be standing 6 feet from the circles and still get hit. They no longer have nice neat patterns but come in 1s, 2s, and 15s. On several occasions, my group has reported to be standing in the middle of a circle and taken no damage. This is not merely a case of lag because it has happened consistently to all party members in the last several runs through Arah that I’ve had.
2. Shadowstep
Before, every time he used this skill, he moved making him pretty simply to kite around the room in order to rez people who die. However, recently, the smoke will appear as if he were shadowstepping and he has stayed put. The damage that should occur from standing where he’s moving does not occur.
3. Poison Attack
Before, if I got hit with it, it took me down pretty hard but I could heal back up and was fine. Now, he hits me with it over and over. Since it drops me to half health, the second hit downs me, the third hit kills me. It isn’t dodgeable, or if it’s meant to be, it’s broken because it hit me just now mid-dodge.

If you can get to phase 3, you’re usually okay with the exception of the poison attack which I don’t remember being in p3 before. My memory on that could be broken though.

Another problem we’ve been running into is that where before you could typically do a little extra damage and pull him off of others so you can get people up. Now though, he has a mind of his own. His agro is all over the map and he seems determined to attack anyone who’s dying, rezzing, or running away to out-of-combat.

Can anyone explain these dramatic changes? Did they change the fight, do we just keep getting a bugged Lupi, or is there something we should do differently?

2. Shadowstep
Before, every time he used this skill, he moved making him pretty simply to kite around the room in order to rez people who die. However, recently, the smoke will appear as if he were shadowstepping and he has stayed put. The damage that should occur from standing where he’s moving does not occur.

When they “fixed” shadowstep, they truly screwed over all shadowstep skills. He is supposed to be dashing forward to the person he has targeted but instead he’s getting stuck on that nearly flat plate on the ground. If you try being a thief there you’ll notice your shadowstep skills doing absolutely nothing as well. I had a time where he got stuck on 1 spot for 3 minutes and couldn’t move (3 people were dead from the fake dash, insta melee range kill). If he wasn’t bugged to all hell now the fight would be fine. He is easier to solo now if you have noobish teamates who refuse to do anything but range.

Shadowstep is the only difference I’ve noticed. The circles have always been that way and I don’t get hit by them enough to notice the damage. If you guys are doing full melee and use a mesmer, have the mesmer feedback the first AOE in phase 2 right on Lupi. You can all stand under it safely and dps him. If your dps is good enough you can get through phase 2 in a single feedback.

Bugged shadowstep really blows when you have 4 ppl in melee and that pug is at range and he blows up everyone in melee…..

I was unaware that Lupicus could be melee’d at all. We’ve only ever used 100% ranged tactics. How does that work? Doesn’t he just wipe out everyone in melee range?

What about p3? Surely he can’t be melee’d in p3 right?

Kasaeva.4691:

I was unaware that Lupicus could be melee’d at all. We’ve only ever used 100% ranged tactics. How does that work? Doesn’t he just wipe out everyone in melee range?

What about p3? Surely he can’t be melee’d in p3 right?

I suggest going on youtube and checking out all the videos of people soloing him in melee range. Click the link in my sig to see thief doing it. Every class has done it now. You might also want to check out the 50 something second Lupi kill where all 5 players are melee. Knowing is half the battle and now you know.

Kasaeva.4691:

I was unaware that Lupicus could be melee’d at all. We’ve only ever used 100% ranged tactics. How does that work? Doesn’t he just wipe out everyone in melee range?

What about p3? Surely he can’t be melee’d in p3 right?

basically:
P1:
dodge when he raises his hand so you don’t get grub on you
dodge 2 seconds after he tries to put grub on people and after he summons locusts so you don’t get kicked

P2:
no shadow step when all in melee range
he will try slap people in melee range but there is big windup so dodging that is easy
aoe can be reflection by mesmer feedback, guardian WoR (haven’t tried that myself but I’ve seen people avoiding all AoE by placing it directly below him and standing inside it) or guardian shield 5

P3:
you have to run away from big circle life drain
have to dodge single target life drain like you do ranged
rapidfire attacks negated using same things as AOE is phase 2 or dodging underneath him (may need 2 dodges)
can avoid bubble attack if you stand still in melee

once you get the hang of it, it is much easier than ranging cos he won’t be able to hit you with lupine blast (single target attacks that does ~15k damage)

Wukunlin.8461:

Kasaeva.4691:

I was unaware that Lupicus could be melee’d at all. We’ve only ever used 100% ranged tactics. How does that work? Doesn’t he just wipe out everyone in melee range?

What about p3? Surely he can’t be melee’d in p3 right?

basically:
P1:
dodge when he raises his hand so you don’t get grub on you
dodge 2 seconds after he tries to put grub on people and after he summons locusts so you don’t get kicked

P2:
no shadow step when all in melee range
he will try slap people in melee range but there is big windup so dodging that is easy
aoe can be reflection by mesmer feedback, guardian WoR (haven’t tried that myself but I’ve seen people avoiding all AoE by placing it directly below him and standing inside it) or guardian shield 5

P3:
you have to run away from big circle life drain
have to dodge single target life drain like you do ranged
rapidfire attacks negated using same things as AOE is phase 2 or dodging underneath him (may need 2 dodges)
can avoid bubble attack if you stand still in melee

once you get the hang of it, it is much easier than ranging cos he won’t be able to hit you with lupine blast (single target attacks that does ~15k damage)

Ok, thanks! My group and I will have to try this tactic next time we’re in Arah.