Guild Wars 2

I never done it before. There are rarely any on the lfg page and when there are, they require knowing the paths. Am I just screwed until I find a big guild?

ask your guild, im sure a couple of arah newbie groups pop up every once in a while on lfg. Best thing to do is watch a couple of guides and look into the lupicus fight (not melee but range version) so you dont act completely lost and get kicked. good luck

champ.7021:

ask your guild, im sure a couple of arah newbie groups pop up every once in a while on lfg. Best thing to do is watch a couple of guides and look into the lupicus fight (not melee but range version) so you dont act completely lost and get kicked. good luck

Are the videos of the stick still relevant or have things changed since then?

Not sure, when i was a beginner i used strifes videos which i think can also be found in the thread. Although some tactics have changed so ask your group to explain what you are going to be doing before you do it. I know for arah p2 i think strifes video had him ranging the ooze boss when most pugs will jump on a coral and stack and melee. Make sure when you enter a group to tell them that you are new, it is one of the most annoying things to find out someone is new halfway through.

I faked my way by acting experienced in running Arah P3, then P2, and finally P1.

I finished P4 by opening it myself, and getting a group of friends that gear or can swap to gear berserker.

Preparation
- Watched Strife’s video
- Read the guide from gw2dungeons and incgamers

Some things that are different on my PUG run compared to Strife’s video, like P3:
- Crusher was pulled to a different location free of risen, separating him from the Hunter
- I’m bad at running back then, I didn’t make it to Magecrusher, the PUG group 3 manned it
- All phases of Lupicus were fought ranged. Range stack on P1

Pls avoid pulling crusher from hunter unless you or someone in your party is competent in pulling it separately. Because a wrong pull will cause both to be pulled anyways or worse, the risen by the doorway to be rezzed. Fight them both in the same starting area, which really is more interesting.

And I agree with champ to tell the party that you are new. Not all parties mind first timers on p3 or p2. And it is painfully obvious if fakers join, as well as annoying if they do not sound off.

Just form a group for beginners and ask for someone who is experienced to guide. A lot of us kitten about pugs being bad but that’s mostly directed at the ones who act like hot kitten but are in fact terrible. So long as you’re not objectively terrible at the game in terms of build + dodging most people don’t mind guiding newbies who follow directions. Most of the bosses in Arah are pretty easy so long as you do what people tell you, i.e. don’t try to range Abom because you think it’ll be safer. Melee him like people tell you and just circle around him and he’ll never hit you.

As for Lupicus, there really is no “safe” way to range him so the strategy is actually pretty simple:

1) Stack for phase 1. Kill all grubs and locusts as they spawn.
2) Bring invul/blocks/reflects for phase 2. Shield of Absorption and similar projectile-blocking skills with a large enough area of effect will protect you from Lupicus’s spray, and stuff like Shield Stance or Counterattack will get you through it clean one time.
3) If Lupicus is chasing you in phase 3, turn and run from him. Don’t just back away.

You will down against him if you range. There’s no way to avoid his projectiles at range so he is pretty much guaranteed to down you eventually. Just run around and heal as much as possible and try to keep most of the party up. That’s what most Arah pugs do.

What guang said.

There are actually 2 minigames in the pug lupi for melee. P2 there is “tag dat lupi” minigame if you have ranged team mates and P3 has “stay away from that other melee who is strafing left and right like crazy and causing non-stop bubbles” minigame.

Thanks, I’ll be sure to watch video guides for them.

If you are ranging Lupicus you should be strafing at phase 2 and 3 at all times. When you see a single projectile flying towards just change strafing direction. You won’t get hit.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Just form a group for beginners and ask for someone who is experienced to guide. A lot of us kitten about pugs being bad but that’s mostly directed at the ones who act like hot kitten but are in fact terrible. So long as you’re not objectively terrible at the game in terms of build + dodging most people don’t mind guiding newbies who follow directions. Most of the bosses in Arah are pretty easy so long as you do what people tell you, i.e. don’t try to range Abom because you think it’ll be safer. Melee him like people tell you and just circle around him and he’ll never hit you.

As for Lupicus, there really is no “safe” way to range him so the strategy is actually pretty simple:

1) Stack for phase 1. Kill all grubs and locusts as they spawn.
2) Bring invul/blocks/reflects for phase 2. Shield of Absorption and similar projectile-blocking skills with a large enough area of effect will protect you from Lupicus’s spray, and stuff like Shield Stance or Counterattack will get you through it clean one time.
3) If Lupicus is chasing you in phase 3, turn and run from him. Don’t just back away.

You will down against him if you range. There’s no way to avoid his projectiles at range so he is pretty much guaranteed to down you eventually. Just run around and heal as much as possible and try to keep most of the party up. That’s what most Arah pugs do.

You can dodge his projectile at range, or use other methods of evade or reflect. Melee is better because you don’t have to worry about it at all, but that’s not recommended for beginners.

Topic creator: If you’re on an NA server, send me a mail or add me in game. I run Arah whenever the chance comes up and I’ll probably run a path tonight.

I helped someone learn P3 who I had just met in-game not 30 minutes before that…
…Worse yet, he had apparently only been playing the game for a week.
…Worse than that, he was in a full set of Menhlo’s (yes, the heal-tank version ;P)
…Worst of all?? He was a necro
PS: (PS: if you take offense to this: PM me like an adult & I'll explain it. Don't report it and then force me to contest it just b/c you're an easily offended nec player who doesn't know that I Mained Necro in Gw1 and have over 500 hours on one in this game too)

Never the less… by making it clear to him that he had to watch a video of Lupicus first to atleast understand the Telegraphs, he managed to make it through the entire fight without dying.

Maybe he was just a really quick learner, I don’t know… But Arah is like that. It’s not like COF or COE where everything comes down to a perfect formula. It’s a lot of “mistakes will happen … and you’re judged by how you adapt and ovecome”.

I can’t really elaborate on it beyond that b/c I’ve seen Guild runs that were disasters, and pug runs that did a lot better… Sometimes it’s just bad party chemistry that makes them fail so ALL YOU CAN DO, if you’re new to it, is resign yourself to the fact that it might just be trial and error and require a lot of patience to get into those inner circles that do it perfectly every time (either that or you could try bribing the experts here to teach you….)

Was able to get few p3 runs in. Always had to go roll CoF afterwards to rub my bruised ego.

Soon the in game LFG will be out of beta so you can use that tool

moiraine.2753:

Soon the in game LFG will be out of beta so you can use that tool

I’ve been using that, just most party ask for experienced player.

Just keep at it. When i was new to arah i hated it because it would take so long. But after a while it will become alot easier. Also if you’ve already done p3 before and you have enough experience (you know what happens at each encounter and know lupi well enough) then you should be able to handle experienced groups. They dont really mean pros when they say experienced, because if they did the groups wouldnt be so bad.