Guild Wars 2

Been playing on and off since launch and have 2 toons in 30’s (32 and 35) and a few others in 20’s.
Not once have I been pushed or lured into one of the dungeons.

I actually didn’t take dungeons to serious in this game until I saw a list of dungeons, and I noticed there are quite a lot.

So how do I start? I’ve seen that at lvl 30 you can go to the first dungeon.
My elementalist is 32 which is perfect. Is there a quest somewhere that leads me to the place?
Or do I just call out for people in chat, in Lion’s Arch?
How lucky do I have to be to find a group?

Cheers

You have 3 options:

Dungeon Guild – Best way to learn is to join one of these
GW2lfg.com – fast groups but its random so runs can be bad or good
Map Chat – Sometimes you get lucky but maps are currently empty due to Southsun

With the way dungeons are designed and played in this game, many people will suggest that you level your toon a bit more before trying a dungeon. It’s not a requirement, but most PUGs will moan and groan if there is anyone in the group that is not level 80, because they see it as someone who is not contributing as much to the group as everyone else, and may even drag them down if that person is inexperienced and keeps dying.

I suggest you take RagingDragon’s advice and try to find a PvE guild that runs dungeons and would be willing to show you the ropes, it will make the experience much more enjoyable for you. Good luck! =)

Thanks for the answers.
So everyone gets down scaled to the level of the dungeon? This means that just like in WvW, level is not an important difference in dungeons? (other than experience)

I sure am not underestimating the drama factor.

There should be a mail that shows you were the dungeon entrance is. You get it as soon as you are high enough level to enter. At 32 I think you are only high enough for AC story.. Ascalonian Catacombs. It is in the charr area. You will need a group to do even story. At 35 you can do explorable mode in that dungeon. You will get a mail each time a dungeon is available to you and it will have a show me button attached to show you where the entrance is.

To enter the dungeon you have to be in the area it is in— you cannot be waiting in Lion’s Arch and enter from there, 1 person has to go into the actual portal for the dungeon and then the rest can hit accept to be ported in as long as they are in the zone for the dungeon.

Highly recommend using gw2lfg to get the group— there are ones for story dungeons as well— so make sure it says story or exp depending on what you want. Map chat works for some dungeons, but it can take much longer to fill then using the website.

Gimano.7381:

Thanks for the answers.
So everyone gets down scaled to the level of the dungeon? This means that just like in WvW, level is not an important difference in dungeons? (other than experience)

I sure am not underestimating the drama factor.

You are down leveled.. but 80s have all their skills available to them so it does make it easier to be a higher level. I am not sure how the gear effects it.

Thanks Jazzlanna, I may have overlooked the mail, honestly there were a few confusing mails with a show me button. I’ll check that again.

But I can’t do much without a group. And since there are no level brackets and everyone is free to play with everyone, I suppose I better get in a guild instead of throwing myself in front of the lions :-)
Meh to bad…was looking forward to some quick and fun dungeon game time.

Gimano.7381:

Meh to bad…was looking forward to some quick and fun dungeon game time.

Your biggest obstacle is getting to a point where you’re familiar with the dungeon. Some people really enjoy running a dungeon for the first time and learning it by trial and error, but in my experience, most PUGs do not want these people in their groups because they’ve already earned their stripes and now they want to fly through the content as quickly as possible and collect their reward.

You could simply post on GW2LFG.com with a note in the description that you’re new to the dungeon. It might get you an invite from some kind souls, and who knows, could lead to a guild if you all get along =)

Well you don’t need a guild to run dungeons.. It may help I guess depending on what kind and how large the guild is. I am in a guild that is just my husband and I.. I use gw2lfg and have not had any issues for grouping.

Guilds specializing in dungeons won’t take you. Guild not specializing in dungeons take everybody as long as you are still breathing. Many are good for low levels but really bad at hard contents. I suggest you go the way Facepunch suggested. Posted on LFG w/ a note that you are new to dungeons. It will be a slow process, but if a kind soul takes you, be friend w/ him/her. A kind person like that doesn’t hang around bad apples, and there might be a guild waiting for you.

I have posted I was new and gotten groups fyi so do not be scared to let people know you are new.. It is more frustrating to not know someone is new and have them doing weird stuff lol.

jazzllanna.1278:

It is more frustrating to not know someone is new and have them doing weird stuff lol.

Yes, one thousand times this. I run arah a lot because I enjoy it, and I have no problem if someone says oh hey, i havent done this path, so please feel free to explain anything that needs explaining. What is TERRIBLE for the group is when first timers dont communicate and instead they just do things that gets the group wiped. I don’t mind donating some of my time to teach, but I do mind having my time wasted by poor communication.

I’m usually on every week night doing dungeons. Feel free to whisper if you see me on and we’ll run something.

I’ve played a lot of the dungeons at the suggested level and gear and stats scale very well as long as you have up to date armor. There is a slight hump at level 55-65 caused by the 3rd stat coming in, it can lead to you feeling really under powered until you have armor with the 3rd stat, my suggestion is try to get some TA tokens and buy the 3 stat 55 rare armor from the dungeon vendor as this can really help you get over this hump.

Also you need to consider the skills you unlock. There are certain skills that make you useful in dungeons no matter your level and others that you will rarely use. For example on the Elementalist: Ice Bow, Earth Shield and Mist Form are really useful in dungeons as they give you stun breaks and the Ice Bow is amazing against AC burrows. Guardian: Shield of Avenger and Wall of Reflection to protect team against masses of ranged attackers. Thief: Shadow Refuge, to save downed team mates. SO it might be good to talk to another player of your class and ask them what Utilities they find really useful in dungeons so you can attempt to get them first.

Thanks for the input everyone, I’ll keep everything in mind that is said here.

Off course I understand that people don’t want to lose time on newbies, hence the reason I check it out here first.
I was hoping there would be some kind of quest leading to the dungeons, so I could try to find people with the same quest.
Honestly I don’t feel like going in with people who are doing the dungeon for the 50th time and who just want to get over with very fast.

In the other hand, I learned to not care anymore and just do my thing, it’s part of the game style, the goal is to get a long with each other.
We can either help each other or bash at each other, I’ve almost become immune to the bashing (it used to annoy me, even when it’s not me they’re targeting)

Special thanks to you Laharl, I may send you a whisper one of these days

Dungeons are divided into story mode and exploration mode. You need to finish story mode once to unlock exploration mode. Story mode has a few cutscenes and NPCs follow along. Anyone else running it would usually be either first timer or someone experienced and willing to help. Speed run farmers would only run exploration mode because the higher level rewards are there.

You can still run exploration mode even if you haven’t done story mode as long as party leader has done it.

Gimano.7381:

Off course I understand that people don’t want to lose time on newbies, hence the reason I check it out here first.
I was hoping there would be some kind of quest leading to the dungeons, so I could try to find people with the same quest.

This pretty much describes Ascalonian Catecombs Story Mode (and some of the other story modes, although there are some harder ones). AC story can be run pretty easily by a group of 5 newbies in random gear, and people running it usually haven’t run it many times themselves and don’t expect that you know it. You can find groups by going to gw2lfg.com and filtering by Ascalonian Catecombs – Story.

Once you get to level 35+ for explorable dungeons, there are plenty of groups that don’t mind “losing time” showing newbies the ropes as long as you let the group know when you start that it’s your first time, so that they know to explain the fights (I like bringing newbies along, doing the same dungeon over and over with people who know exactly how to do it is boring). You can also post a looking-for-group on gw2lfg and specify that you are new to the dungeon.