Guild Wars 2

Hi all,

I’m slowly pecking away at a legendary that requires TA dungeon tokens (Kudzu). Anyway, I don’t always have a ton of time to play at a given time, and am wondering how long each of the TA EX paths take, as I’ve never done one.

I realize that times vary based on what the group is like, but let’s just say an average group.

Thanks!

With all the skipping, average time would be 20-30 mins per 1 path. Some are faster, others are longer. Add 10 mins if it’s going to be pug.

With pugs you should be able to do it within 30 mins, helps if you’ve got someone to lead you the first few times.

Pretty much every explore path for all the dungeons in the game takes around 30 minutes with a decent team. Arah being the exception.

For TA specifically it’s going to come down to how well you manage the mobs. There are quite a few high powered ones and good CC goes a long way.

Average for a pug should be around 30 min. or so.

Up and Forward-Forward take about 25 minutes, assuming you skip about half the mobs. Forward-Up takes about 40, because there are more unskippable mobs, and the mesmer boss takes longer to kill.

FF has some trickier pulls / runs, so it’ll probably seem harder than U, but after you’ve done it 4 or 5 times both take about the same.

Account.9832:

Up and Forward-Forward take about 25 minutes, assuming you skip about half the mobs. Forward-Up takes about 40, because there are more unskippable mobs, and the mesmer boss takes longer to kill.

FF has some trickier pulls / runs, so it’ll probably seem harder than U, but after you’ve done it 4 or 5 times both take about the same.

I thought that what makes fwd-up longer is the last boss. More hp than the one in fwd-fwd and some adds you need to kill. And no one melees her (melee = more dmg). Mesmer boss goes down pretty fast.

haviz.1340:

I thought that what makes fwd-up longer is the last boss. More hp than the one in fwd-fwd and some adds you need to kill. And no one melees her (melee = more dmg). Mesmer boss goes down pretty fast.

The problem with the mesmer boss is that she spends half the time shielded and keeps teleporting, which means melee players waste a lot of time walking (and ranged players spend a lot of time waiting for her damage reflection to wear off). Switching back and forth between ranged and melee weapons isn’t really viable, either, because that concentrates all her AoE around her, and everyone takes a lot of damage.

It’s not that she has a lot of HP, it’s just that you can’t spend 100% of the time damaging her, unlike most other bosses.

And what makes you think that melee players do more damage? My engineer’s grenades (1500 range) do a lot more damage than my guardian’s mace or longsword, for example.

I’ve never noticed a significant difference in the time it takes to kill the last boss itself, although F/U does require killing some adds first, that you can simply avoid in the other two paths.

Account.9832:

haviz.1340:

I thought that what makes fwd-up longer is the last boss. More hp than the one in fwd-fwd and some adds you need to kill. And no one melees her (melee = more dmg). Mesmer boss goes down pretty fast.

The problem with the mesmer boss is that she spends half the time shielded and keeps teleporting, which means melee players waste a lot of time walking (and ranged players spend a lot of time waiting for her damage reflection to wear off). Switching back and forth between ranged and melee weapons isn’t really viable, either, because that concentrates all her AoE around her, and everyone takes a lot of damage.

It’s not that she has a lot of HP, it’s just that you can’t spend 100% of the time damaging her, unlike most other bosses.

And what makes you think that melee players do more damage? My engineer’s grenades (1500 range) do a lot more damage than my guardian’s mace or longsword, for example.

I’ve never noticed a significant difference in the time it takes to kill the last boss itself, although F/U does require killing some adds first, that you can simply avoid in the other two paths.

Mesmer boss is really squishy, she goes down in 2-3 minutes most often. She doesn’t have damage reflection. She gets retaliation and you get confusion which one mesmer, necro (or even guardian) can clear really fast. So if you have those proffesions you can try just bruteforcing her and rely on fast clears whenever you accumulate some conds.

As for melee > ranged argument, grenades are (I think) the only exception from this. But you have to spam a lot of keys (ground targeting) to achieve that. And mace or sword aren’t exactly the best dps weapons for guardians.

haviz.1340:

She doesn’t have damage reflection. She gets retaliation

Which causes damage to players who hit her. And the same goes for confusion (which you can get by hitting her shield). It doesn’t reflect actual projectiles, but try using Rapid Fire against her when she has Retaliation and Chaos Armor, and you’re not going to last very long. That forces players to stop firing now and then, which makes the fight longer than the corresponding bosses in other paths. And the same goes for when she teleports and remains invisible for 4 or 5 seconds.

haviz.1340:

As for melee > ranged argument, grenades are (I think) the only exception from this.

The elementalist would like to have a word with you.

haviz.1340:

And mace or sword aren’t exactly the best dps weapons for guardians.

I never said they were. In fact, I didn’t mention the sword at all (I mentioned the 2h sword, which probably is the highest DPS melee weapon for guardians, in most situations). But you made a blanket statement (“melee is higher damage”), so I just gave you a couple of examples that disproved it.

Account.9832:

Which causes damage to players who hit her. And the same goes for confusion (which you can get by hitting her shield). It doesn’t reflect actual projectiles, but try using Rapid Fire against her when she has Retaliation and Chaos Armor, and you’re not going to last very long. That forces players to stop firing now and then, which makes the fight longer than the corresponding bosses in other paths. And the same goes for when she teleports and remains invisible for 4 or 5 seconds.

I did it yesterday in about 2 minutes in a pug without caring for her chaos armour. We got 1 necro. It’s doable.

Account.9832:

The elementalist would like to have a word with you.

Elementalist doesn’t have truly melee weapon set. D/D is quasi-melee. Autoattacks got 400/600/300/300 range and melee is most often considered 130.

Account.9832:

I never said they were. In fact, I didn’t mention the sword at all (I mentioned the 2h sword, which probably is the highest DPS melee weapon for guardians, in most situations). But you made a blanket statement (“melee is higher damage”), so I just gave you a couple of examples that disproved it.

Longsword is sword for a lot of people. That statements isn’t blank. Can you do as much dmg as 100b warrior or even GS guardian with ranged weapons on them? Melee is higher damage because it comes down to the simple logic “higher risk > higher reward”. Most speed groups in dungeons consist of warriors/guardians and occasionaly thief utilizing melee weapons.