Guild Wars 2

I would run your very first arah path with your guildies. It may not be successful but at least no one would be always yapping at you and actually giving helpful advice. Also watch the videos sticked on this forum so you know what to expect.

Lastly, those “experienced” groups are not some speed runners who finish in 15-20 minutes. Most of them aren’t that good, so after you’ve done 1-2 runs of p3 consider yourself “experienced”

give this a go:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Arah-Vets-grouping-together-to-do-Arah-Runs/page/8#post2421353

As for paying, I have no problem with that sort of business but new players being forced to pay for a dungeon path is disgusting

They nerfed the only hard part of path 4 so it’s just more time consuming the other paths. If your on an NA server I’d be willing to take you through path 2 and 3.

The experienced only groups are funny. If you watch a video on giganticus lupicus you will be as experienced as people in those groups. I joined one last night for path 3 and got a laugh as I was the only one meleeing the first boss while the rest kept ranging and going down, they all went to glitch range the second boss which is extremely easy especially since we had 3 guardians in the group but finally went up to melee since I went up and was meleeing it, the orb kept managing to be caught by someone who didn’t understand how to throw it right, our mesmer meleed lupi with me and was actually very good but the others just were all over the place and just went down over and over again and we would have probably had to duo him if one of them didn’t use a res orb. That’s a typical experienced only run from my experience. There are plenty of groups that don’t ask for experienced only and they are actually better for the most part.

haha that reminds me of a run back then I joined one of those exp only pugs. at lupi one of them was like “is it sad I did this so many time I can’t take this fight seriously anymore?” That guy died like 3 times in phase 2. WP rushing was still possible back then and all those experienced pros were all running back and I was solo kiting in phase 3. I managed to run out of endurance and skills on cd etc, I got downed first time in that fight that same guy asked “Is this your first time in arah?” When I had 2 pieces of arah armor showing.
That was actually one of those 2-3-2 runs when the exploit wasn’t fixed. Those pro’s all got downed countless times at the P3 final boss.

Funny how 6-7 months later the arah pug community hasn’t changed much. Back then those people would be kitten when they are not the only special snowflakes with access to arah armor. Now these armor are all over the place you’d think they should over that by now.

Most people who claim to be experienced aren’t any better than first timers. Just watch a p4 video, remember what boss comes when and you are ready to go.
Anyway, already too many people have a weird understanding of beeing experienced and i don’t want to encourage anyone making false claims.
My first arah path 4 was a paid run. An experienced group charged 4.5g (in a time you could buy a full set of berserker armor with scholar runes for 12g) for carrying me and explaining how every boss works. I don’t really have the feeling that i just bought the run – dungeon master is nothing i care about anyway. And theese days i’m offering spots for Arah runs myself. If you are on an EU Server and have the patience to wait till august, i’ll probably run you for free. But only if you are willing to learn the mechanics instead of just completing it for title/tokens.

So yah those “experienced” groups are just your regular pugs. Sometimes I advertised for “meleeing lupicus” or “full melee” and still someone invites me to a group where they have no idea what they’re doing; it’s like they can’t read. What’s really funny is sometimes you get one of those loud mouth member which really is just as bad as the next guy.

Thanks for replies – and tips, and special thanks to the person who offered me help in-game/forum! Well, I have played the game now couple of months and finished all other dungeons except Arah, as it seems to be the only one being hard to find group.

I would go with my guild but I am afraid we don’t have enough manpower – we have many new players who are still on lower levels but despite that they are still great people with who game is fun, so leaving guild and joining another is not really option.

I will watch video guide to even have some kind of idea what to expect. I wonder what actually means to be “experienced” – being experienced in dungeons general, being experienced on some certain dungeon path, or just being experienced in the dungeon but different path?
I guess I keep trying to find group for p3, run it couple of times and then aim to finish p4, as suggested here. Maybe afterall I won’t be that bad compared to those “elite” runners.

I manage to get my dungeon master title without too much of a problem.

Just check the gwlfg page often. Not every group require experienced in arah.

The 2 advice I can give you is use food and consumable. A ghost slaying sigil and a potion of ghost slaying can boost your damage by 20%. Another is try to get a berserker set for path 4 if you havn’t already.

napooz.1986:

some kind of idea what to expect. I wonder what actually means to be “experienced” – being experienced in dungeons general, being experienced on some certain dungeon path, or just being experienced in the dungeon but different path?

To me, being experienced means knowing every situation in the path, knowing bosses animations, beeing able to dodge and to skip trash without more than 1 or 2 tries. You are experienced in my eyes if you are able to fully survive any situation without help and probably even beeing able to solo certain parts.

To most other players… i don’t know what they consider with experienced but it must be something like "knowing how to pretend to be experienced but have no idea whats going on so running around and dying like headless chickens.
No joke, i made far better experiences with new players who concentrate on listening and following instructions.

I think most people are just worried about getting a complete X-factor who may or may not ever learn how to stay up in the Lupi fight. They’re almost justified in that too because 1 player going down a lot on Lupi can drag the rest of the team down too when they get downed themselves trying to bring that other player back up too often. And that can easily happen if the “New player” gets Lupi’s “primary” or “secondary” aggro but doesn’t have either the Speed+Regen or Blocking+Reflecting to handle either one.

My first time doing it… I got exactly that aggro… including being the chase target for his Barf Bubble in phase3. It wasn’t my idea of a fun time b/c I went into it with “Tome” instead of Renew Focus (biiiiiig mistake)

And the only real way to know is if you do Lupi enough times to read his telegraphs.
And yet, I’ve seen people who’ve done him a dozen times who still don’t seem to get it.
(especially when it comes to nailing those extra grubs being spit out between phase 1 and phase 2 …. unlike a bad teammate… those things REALLY ARE worth going down for b/c they define the entire fight after that and can even decide which Food & Drink you need to pop next).

napooz.1986:

we have many new players who are still on lower levels but despite that they are still great people with who game is fun, so leaving guild and joining another is not really option.

You can be in multiple guilds… you just can’t “Represent” more than 1 at a time.
And the Arah group isn’t really even a guild, it’s a listing of who’s online and Rank generally indicates their Experience level. My rank is like somewhere above initiate (haven’t even checked to be honest) …which means I’ve done every path and you could for instance, PM me anytime that I’m not busy soloing the “Pre’s” for Orr Temples … and I’d join to be a filler, in most cases. (Teamspeak would be extremely helpful too).

going back to the topic of experienced groups. I think that the problem with those groups are people who join them are doing them to get rid or their Arah Virginity and thats why they seem a bit crappy. But honestly as long as you trying to be aware of attacks that look dangerous or things that killed/downed you in the first place you have a spot in most teams.

Just don’t go all elitist like I did. xD

go to gw2lfg.com: tick the ‘newbie’ flag. create a post.

did p1, 2 and 4 on the weekend this way, most time it took to find a group was about 10 minutes for p4, because I said everybody has to bring a zerker set in case of problems at simin.

I just had the wiki open on my secondary monitor and even though we were 5 newbies it went very well on p1 and 4. it obviously took a lot of time, but we also learned a lot about each of the encounters, and we had exceptionally good teamplay. I usually took the lead, we tried something, failed, discussed and tried something else until we succeeded. usually one or two wipes on the harder encounters, rest was smooth from the get-go. simin could’ve gone better but changing strategy midfight is nearly impossible without voice communication, so we kept going and the fight took us a good 10 or 15 minutes.

p2 was a mess, because one ‘experienced’ player kept rushing in and dieing while he tried to pull against the wishes of the rest of us. he was also the only one who kept dieing at lupi and ressing him killed the rest. newbies are NOT a problem in arah, they’ll wipe, they learn, they get better.
people who can not learn or play in a team are the only difficulty in arah, no matter how much experience they have.

tl;dr: make a lfg post, look for newbies. make it clear who leads and have fun. avoid experienced players who want finish as fast as possible (though if they like to teach, perfect!). clear your schedule for at least a few hours and tell the same to everyone.

Like Dub said, if you on EU, whisp me, i spend my time in pugs most of the time.

As for the gw2lfg “looking for exp people”, “speed run”, “fast run”, … well they … suck… sorry but to me experienced people don’t die on lupicus… seriously ^^ number of time where i have to finish GL and I see guys popping their ORB and screwing my CDs… They also know, as Dub say, how to run and skip.
And for Lupicus, they should know how to:

• either melee, or make him move from one spot to another (when has aggro) so that the others don’t have to run all the time.
• move him to a spot where rez can be done safely and fast.
• DODGE THE FRIGGING GRUBSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS … how many “exp” group i see where i am the frigging only one dodging and even if you explain, they just don’t bother….

As for speed runners, to me, it means they melee everything and don’t frigging stand in “safe corners”…

Am not even joining those groups anymore since i usually have a worse time than if i go with a group that says LFM for P# and that is it.
In the same way, I don’t go with groups that ask for specific professions. You usually end up with guys that you have to carry.

Why as a first timer to arah are you doing path 4 the hardest one. Do path 3, 1, 2 then 4, by the time you get to path 4 you will be awesome.

Lie to get on the group for path 3 and just keep up, dont say much, and act like an elitist

Recently i took 4 new people through path 1, took around twice the normal time, but was fun, and goes to show you just need to take your time with new people to any dungeon.

I would suggest you try Path 4 it’s easiest path there is to be honest ( apart from path 3 what is very short ), i did p4 few weeks ago thinking its hard etc etc with first timers under 1h30min. Path 4 is good because its simple and does not contain hard skipping like Path 1 for example. ive done all paths multiple times including P4 love it

If you need help you can whisp if ur on EU server

Gladly would join for P4 P3 P2 P1 and help you out
as im sure many others as well , as long people are willing to listen arah is walk in the park just longer than cof p1

+1 on Path4 being a bit lower in the skill spectrum compared to 1 & 2. The Lysssa fight actually takes some thinking/blocking and positioning, but all the rest of the priests are literally “Beat on this Purple things as long as you can”, usually from range in Mel & Balth’s case unless you’re more survival spec’d. It just takes a long time which everyone agrees may make it the next Farming candidate once the Blog Reward changes go through so there’s no time like the present to get in that habit once “Speed runs” stop being so Meta.

glass cannon spec can melee balth just fine. The spinning attack has a fixed timer. Just need to watch out for the random fireballs

I’ve been doing a ton of Arah lately, and there seem to be quite a few first timers; which isn’t a bad thing, I don’t mind showing first timers the ropes as long as they give a heads up so explanations can be given. I think people who have not looked anything up, have no idea what is going on, and just run around and die make the whole thing take far longer than if they just said ‘hey, this is my first time, any pointers?’ or something.

It seems like the ‘experienced only’ people are these kind of players, they post that in their LFM and the run turns out to be terrible and it just seems like no one knows what is going on. After a few runs like that I’ve begun to just avoid those posts, normal LFxM runs go much smoother. Lately it almost feels like joining a CoF P1 group whose LFM says: “LF1M SERK WOR OR KIK$$$$$$$P1 PHARM$$$$$$$PING$$$$$$”, you know that group is going to be the best ever.

^^ Exactly why those elitist party with " bla bla or kick" or “dont suck or kick,” ends up being the best party. They’re not kittens or anything, they’re actually quite nice more often than not. :P

Yenn.9185:

^^ Exactly why those elitist party with " bla bla or kick" or “dont suck or kick,” ends up being the best party. They’re not kittens or anything, they’re actually quite nice more often than not. :P

I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic or not.

No sarcasm, just simple math. Elitist x elitist = best party!!! Negative times negative equals positive.

If no questions are asked, you’re not required to say anything.

If questions are asked, you’re not required to answer.
eg: anyone new? <silence>
If someone else says yes, I say yes too to shield us both and guarantee decent explanations. If we wipe because of bad tactics, it won’t be our fault.

Keep your eyes open, don’t do stupid stuff and make sure you know the encounters from wiki and/or youtube. Stay silent, don’t attract attention and make sure you do your thing as good as possible. If you don’t outright suck, you’ll blend in easily.

Well, it seems posting here, even though not directly asking for help, some kind people offered me help and I got paths 2-4 finished! I wasn’t very great, but I learned few new things and tactics for bosses.

I am grateful for all the advices in here, and special thanks goes to the [SOLO] guild who were kind enough to use their time to take me into the action!

And at last, good luck to other new players who are seeking to visit Arah. :P

I was at Lupi with the other night with 2 pugs and 2 experienced Lupi melee friends. The pugs wanted to melee, cool. Turns out they would not dodge the grubs. After we told them they need to dodge the grubs, the thief says “nah, it’s fine up to 15”.

Wtf?

15 what??

he couldn’t possibly mean stacks…

my first arah p4 was with all noob pt
all guards and only me a warr we were doing fine until we meet the boss that go invisable and you have to colect sparks
we fight her for 1h until 2 guys left the pt then we get exp ppl to show us how to kill her

all in all we did it in 5h so my sugestion is get all guard pt and go in
some bosses are easy others not so much, make stops befor every boss and look for a vid how to kill it

that is how you pass arah p4 with noob pt

laharl.8435:

I was at Lupi with the other night with 2 pugs and 2 experienced Lupi melee friends. The pugs wanted to melee, cool. Turns out they would not dodge the grubs. After we told them they need to dodge the grubs, the thief says “nah, it’s fine up to 15”.

Wtf?

I already solo’ed him with 12 Stacks, 15 shouldn’t be much of a problem too.
It will just take forever without reflection skills.

Go to www.gw2lfg.com and ‘tag’ onto a group looking for members. I’ve been in loads of groups where only 3 of the 5 were experienced players. You’ll get through, with just a little luck. I completed all 5 paths this way, many times over.

Chryzo.8906:

• DODGE THE FRIGGING GRUBSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS … how many “exp” group i see where i am the frigging only one dodging and even if you explain, they just don’t bother….

Indeed!

Not long ago I farmed the Arah set on my thief, so I did 1-3 path every day (in my limited 5h play) but I loved “exp” partys!

“LF2M Arah p3 EXP Party no noobs” (blablabla)

As when we came to Lupicus the first words of the leader “ok Warrior you kill grubs” lol ^^

Why did you assuming dodging was part of his playstyle? Don’t you know any and all play-styles are equally optimal and valid?

Dub.1273:

laharl.8435:

I was at Lupi with the other night with 2 pugs and 2 experienced Lupi melee friends. The pugs wanted to melee, cool. Turns out they would not dodge the grubs. After we told them they need to dodge the grubs, the thief says “nah, it’s fine up to 15”.

Wtf?

I already solo’ed him with 12 Stacks, 15 shouldn’t be much of a problem too.
It will just take forever without reflection skills.

But…but…but 99% of players out there aren’t you, Dub.

The game could have something in place to encourage rookie training though. I have recently played another game where your first 10 runs in some instance would give you some personal buffs like a free out of jail card(ress) and even a party wide increase to the final boss drop rates so long as the rookie stays near it when it dies.

While we don’t really have good drops in GW2 at all, that system could be adjusted to grant extra tokens per path with a rookie, as to make up for the extra time spent teaching yes?

Anyway, hope OP got some help, this community can be kitten sometimes.

Is it weird that I actually prefer contending with the Grubs??
Granted, Path of Scars is like practically custom built for exactly that task… but I think it’s one of the few things keeping the fight interesting :p (God I wish Entangle was on a 25 sec Recharge in PvE! , lulz)

SkyChef.5432:

Dub.1273:

laharl.8435:

I was at Lupi with the other night with 2 pugs and 2 experienced Lupi melee friends. The pugs wanted to melee, cool. Turns out they would not dodge the grubs. After we told them they need to dodge the grubs, the thief says “nah, it’s fine up to 15”.

Wtf?

I already solo’ed him with 12 Stacks, 15 shouldn’t be much of a problem too.
It will just take forever without reflection skills.

But…but…but 99% of players out there aren’t you, Dub.

That doesn’t change the fact that it’s technically possible.

has anyone tested if there is a maximum to the stacks? I guess it would be like 25 but then defiant can exceed 25 so idk anymore. Too scared to check for myself.

I was at 18 once but grubs stopped spawning on me for some reason.

Dub.1273:

I was at 18 once but grubs stopped spawning on me for some reason.

I heard from someone that it’s possible to make the grubs not spawn. Is this true????

As a necro easily. Plague/Lich and probably Spectral Skills make the game think you’re a different character and no grub spawns. Also Lupicus can only have 8 “pets” so if there are 8 locusts no grub will spawn.
Eles can avoid grubs spawning by mistform – doesn’t always work, though.

…Dub pls. Dodging the application >:(

Wukunlin.8461:

has anyone tested if there is a maximum to the stacks? I guess it would be like 25 but then defiant can exceed 25 so idk anymore. Too scared to check for myself.

25 is max.

The Mexican Cookie.3690:

…Dub pls. Dodging the application >:(

<.< Thats how noobs do it.
Theres also a chance of getting no grub if dodging in the moment it would spawn with stability.

Dub.1273:

<.< Thats how noobs do it.
Theres also a chance of getting no grub if dodging in the moment it would spawn with stability.

Or being in downed state.

True, how could i forget that…

you don’t get downed enough ^^

Chryzo.8906:

you don’t get downed enough ^^

I saw him get downed by a risen chicken