Guild Wars 2

Hello

The audience for my question is warriors, elementalists, and mesmers.
My guild and I tried running Arah path 3 last night but ended after about 75 minutes. After we called it we compared stats and a few people werent really sure what target stats for arah should be. For anyone that has any experience in Arah with the following classes, could you please offer some suggestions on stats/utility skills/gear/spec for them? It would be appreciated so I can point them to this thread or convey the info to them sometime this week.

The path was going reasonably well but couldnt get passed Lupi phase 2. We also had major problems running past trash mobs (after first boss fight).

Our group make up was:
Warrior
Warrior
Elementalist
Guardian (me)
Mesmer

For guardian I was running protection, stability, and swapping b.w
speed & wall of reflection. 3k tough, 18k attack power, 38% crit, 600 heal p, 17k hit p
gear was magi with knights jewels. For myself my concern is that my HP and toughness is not high enough. I have access to soldier set, knights set, and beserker set.

One of the warriors was running only 1k toughness and in complete beserker gear (same toughness as the mesmer!) & was around 17-19k hit points. While the clothies had about 13k in hit points and 1k tough. My gut tells me that is not the way to go in this dungeon but I really just don’t know anything about those classes. I played with a couple warriors over the weekend who were absolute beasts in terms of damage and taking hits; very well rounded. They were the engine of the group imo and I would like to mimic this.

Any help guys/gals is appreciated. Thanks

You got a good class setup so it should be easier. In my experience after the first boss I would recommend you guys stack before the run, Guardian use Retreat, Mesmer can use Elite stealth, Ele can use AOE swiftness and chill/cripple enemies while running (when out of stealth), you might get hit with conditions/chill so make sure ele has condition removal on Water attunement. after going past the tunnel mesmer can cast veil for another stealth. Warriors should have bulls rush, endure pain and shake it off for more condition removal if necessary, along with greatsword/sword/warhorn for faster movement. Guardian can use staff #5 to hold mobs back. What you want to save your dodges for are the enemy mesmers single target attack/mesmers aoe, hunter’s bouncing attack and ele closerange chill. After these mobs you go through the center past the 6 walkers (if you’re too late and they are at center, figure best way around them), then back to the left mountain and hug the left wall, then go past the spiders that spawn when you enter the 2nd boss room and can LOS on top of the mountain to the left of the 2nd boss.

For Lupi I recommend as first timers for warriors to equip axe/shield to deal with the locust warms, shield to use against his aoe on phase 2, warriors can also whirlwind away from the circles while evading if they feel more comfortable with greatsword. Secondary probably rifle would be best. They can equip endurance regeneration, balanced stance and endure pain. for Elite use warbanner to res the tank mainly (whoever lupi is focused on)

Guardian can equip stability utility, wall of reflection (helps alot vs his AOE on phase 2), and whichever other utility u prefer, some prefer save yourselves, others retreat whatever you feel more comfortable., you can have scepter focus to range lupicus, immobilize him. Focus to protect vs AOE, Renewed focus also helps vs aoe. and shield #5 also absorbs his aoe projectiles as long as you stay inside and cast right before his aoe. You can also use the trait that casts the energy bubble when reviving as this will also destroy projectiles while you res.

Mesmer I would use greatsword to range lupicus, sword/focus with warden’s feed back trait. For utilities the teleport works well, stability mantra for his bubble just in case and feedback is a great tool to burn down lupicus faster. Feedback will reflect his giant aoe back to him dealing massive damage as long as someone is in the feedback bubble. Warden’s feedback trait allows your focus skills to also reflect his projectiles, though I wouldn’t rely on them as much as the feedback bubble. Mesmers can also cast feedback when reviving an ally with a trait. Elite would be Time Warp of course.

Elementalists have a skill that reflects projectiles on their focus so you can use that or they can use#3 on the staff on the earth attunement to protect themselves from projectiles, utilities cantrips are usually best with blink, earth armor and mist form. Elite I don’t think they are very useful I guess you can use an elemental to distract unless you feel really comfortable with the fight using the fire greatsword.

Some other tactics are, if lupi is after you stay away from people, if lupi is after you, don’t res downed people and if lupi kills a player, don’t res until phase 3 if you’re almost there. A lot of mistakes i see in pugs is everyone going to res a down player, then lupi shadowwalks/aoe and everyone goes down with the downed player. with traits from the guardian/mesmer where they cast a protective bubble when rezing helps a lot.

As for stats it depends on the players skill and knowledge with the boss, if you don’t feel really comfortable or feel like you’re going down too fast anyway then you might want to equip more tanky gear, but a lot of people can easily do it in berserker and it’s much faster, it’s what you feel more comfortable with but neither is fully right. Sigils of energy also help a great deal and regeneration food/undead potions.

There’s a very good video out there that explains the fight if someone could point you out I can’t remember the thread it was on.

Can’t go wrong with obal’s guide on lupi:
http://youtu.be/mJ25Ts2LAuk

I also should point out that warden’s feedback is not like wall of reflection. It must be placed directly in front of you instead of anywhere between you and Lupi.

Ayrilana.1396:

I also should point out that warden’s feedback is not like wall of reflection. It must be placed directly in front of you instead of anywhere between you and Lupi.

could that be because temporal curtain is very short and iwarden very narrow and only works when spinning so the close you are to them the less likely the projectiles will fly over/around them? I ask this because even wall of reflection isn’t 100% reliable and the further away you stand from it the more likely you get hit from my experience.

I play Elementalist when I do Arah, and generally have not too much trouble with Lupicus. Using staff (Fire skill 4 is your friend here, Earth skill 3 is also very useful in phase 2). Utility is Arcane Shield, Lightning Flash and Mist Form.

For other professions I would recommend bringing skills that grant extra mobility (dodge rolls for Thief, teleports), a stun breaker can be useful and projectile reflects.

Yeah I probably should’ve been clearer with my explanation. While both are more effective up close, wall of reflection is a little more lenient on how close you need to be.

Stability is also very useful as well. It will allow you to get out of Lupi’s bubble attack and help if you’re skipping trash.

Everyone thanks so much for your responses!

Much of Arah isn’t too bad so guessing you got stuck on Lupicus. Ranging him is the easiest way to start out. Lup can be melee’d but its a bit harder.

Mesmer could trait for reflections or using a greatsword. I used a staff for survivability when I first started doing Lup. Staff #2 is OP for phase 2 or 3 on Lup. Its not a bad idea for mesmer to save TW in case someone dies and you want to try for a fast res. Temporal Curtain is nice for the reflection if traited but also for moving mobs in a bad spot.

Group makeup isn’t so critical in Arah. Its mostly just learning the content and being able to do Lup since he’s on each path. As far as stats its not so critical either. People who know the content well can run zerker gear while others tend to run a mix of toughness and damage.

Alright, start help?

1) Do all the trash mobs at least once. I know it’s a tired argument and I swear I’m not a no-skip-kitten. Trust me, do them once. You’ve already wasted 75 minutes on a failed run. Doing the mobs once or twice while on voice will give you a much better understanding of how to run past them, where stability and swiftness help the most etc.

2) When you DO run past them, remember to adjust ALL your traits and slot skills possible at first and only stop doing that when you’re sure you know what the hell you’re doing. That means all the stability, swiftness and GROUP swiftness possible. How the Ele is built could have an effect here but I’ve grown spoiled with giving everybody auras, swiftness and occasionally protection.

3) As warrior, resist the temptation to run full toughness OR full zerker. In my experience, lack of damage can extend Phase 1 of Lupi and increase risk of maggots getting through or just plain extend Phase 2. Everyone needs to be tough enough to survive but you need to put an end to the nonsense before someone (inevitably) makes a mistake. For this, I’ve always been fond of PVT gear, available with karma, as a go-to.

4) Best results I’ve had when someone goes down is for the person downed to look for and request the rez (or to explicitly reject it and self-rez). It helps especially to avoid miscommunication with mistform and the mes downed blink.

“My guild and I tried running Arah path 3 last night but ended after about 75 minutes. After we called it we compared stats and a few people werent really sure what target stats for arah should be.”

Sorry for an unhelpful answer but Lupicus is mainly about using skills and experience. Builds certainly help but are not crucial. 75 minutes isn’t a long time to look at Lupicus either. The best way to defend against Lupicus is to anticipate his attacks and be prepared with the right counters. More time in the arena will give you that experience.

You are a guardian and you should be able to make this fight a lot easier since you are well equiped to revive and kite him around. Starting out you should put on your soldier set with scepter focus and shield. Put on Valor IX and Honor V. Bring stand your ground, retreat, wall of reflection, renewed focus. Use sheild 5 when he hugs himself at phase 2 which starts his aoe and you wont get hit. Use focus 5 if sheild 5 is down and dodge when it lands. You can use renewed if both are down. I use wall but I still dodge at aoe and mostly use it for damage or to revive while he auto attacks. If you have the most toughness he will probably stay on you at phase 3 which is good and you can kite him away from whoever is downed or dead for easy reviving. Use stand your ground for the bubbles. If that is down use renewed and walk out. If both are down use focus 5 and aegis skills. I run 2 sigils of energy and can solo him or res the team when all are down just fine with them on and can’t imagine going back to 0 of them. Use heal on crit food and potions of undead slaying.

You have a very good team composition for this fight. I made a video guide for all professions which should help your team and give setups and such at the end for all. I did it as a guardian so you can see how I play it regardless of what the situation is.

With a mesmer and so much DPS, you should melee him in p2. Range for p1, since this is a lot easier, then, when hes invulnerable at 75%, go melee.

Either he will use his big aoe right away or a strong melee attack first and then aoe. Once you know the animations, use Feedback right before he uses his big aoe. If you want, you can drop your TW, too. He should be in p3 in no time.

Takes a few wipes for practice, but once you know what to do, this is FAR easier then range in p2.