Guild Wars 2

…Because way too many people are exploiting the stairs to have invulnerability when fighting the path 1 and 3 bosses. I have tried asking a group when joining if they will use the stairs exploit, but even in the groups who say “no” someone will run to the stairs and most of the group will follow.

This is extremely ironic considering all the topics we had after the snowflake bans, with a lot of whining about how people were afraid of being banned over anything. It appears that, in reality, players are not afraid of being banned even for using an exploit.

ArenaNet should ban the stair exploiters in order to finally make people understand their stance on exploits in GW2. I’ll wait until they do so to play in AC again, but at least I have a nice list of exploiter names to send ArenaNet when the banning begins.

Overreacting much…It’s not like Anet planted the glitch there to see how many that are using it and then ban them. People will use it if it’s there because it’s easier. If Anet would ban anyone who exploit a glitch they would have a lot to do and lose players aswell.

Snowflake ban removed a lot of people with big impact on the economy. AC doesn’t really have an impact on the economy.

Blazed.8346:

If Anet would ban anyone who exploit a glitch they would have a lot to do and lose players aswell.

They would lose exploiters, not players… And good riddance, I say. If ArenaNet were that afraid of losing exploiters, they wouldn’t have permanently banned the snowflake exploiters.

I have never seen a group use this glitch…….

Erasculio.2914:

…Because way too many people are exploiting the stairs to have invulnerability when fighting the path 1 and 3 bosses. I have tried asking a group when joining if they will use the stairs exploit, but even in the groups who say “no” someone will run to the stairs and most of the group will follow.

This is extremely ironic considering all the topics we had after the snowflake bans, with a lot of whining about how people were afraid of being banned over anything. It appears that, in reality, players are not afraid of being banned even for using an exploit.

ArenaNet should ban the stair exploiters in order to finally make people understand their stance on exploits in GW2. I’ll wait until they do so to play in AC again, but at least I have a nice list of exploiter names to send ArenaNet when the banning begins.

No they should not ban people for this,simply because not everyone realizes this is called an exploit,some think its just an easier way of doing it.They do not gain anything in particular with it and do not get rich from doing so.anet should just fix the bug and move on.Not everyone needs to get banned,shove that banhammer somewhere please.

Gelltor.3015:

I have never seen a group use this glitch…….

Trust me, a lot of people use this… Not against rumblus though. I’m sick of it too…It’s not like the howling king is hard to fight, so I don’t see the purpose of using this exploit.

The problem is that if you’re the only person who doesn’t want to do it you’ll probably get booted, so with the way things are right now a lot of players are being forced to do this myself included. So it’s not like anet can really ban people for it. I do hope they do something about it soon though.

If there are any melee in your group, this exploit will only slow you down. Stairs might be easier, but remind your group that fighting legitimately on the ground is almost always quicker.

I don’t believe this is consider an exploit, it is basically an easy way out or call it a tactics. It does take much longer to use the stair comparing to fighting him heads on. It was a matter of finding the “weakness” of the boss. Would you call skipping Kholer an exploit? It is just finding a way to go through the dungeon with less headache. I normally fight it through but when you are with an extremely bad PUG that already took an hour to get to the last boss and have hard time killing breeders, then I would use the stair.

I saw people using it, but I just keep meleeing despite them complaining.
I wish anet would ban all exploiters no matter what exploit.

bakared.9284:

Gelltor.3015:

I have never seen a group use this glitch…….

Trust me, a lot of people use this… Not against rumblus though. I’m sick of it too…It’s not like the howling king is hard to fight, so I don’t see the purpose of using this exploit.

The problem is that if you’re the only person who doesn’t want to do it you’ll probably get booted, so with the way things are right now a lot of players are being forced to do this myself included. So it’s not like anet can really ban people for it. I do hope they do something about it soon though.

I don’t see why you would get booted from the group, many a time I stay down and fight him alone while the cowards shoot from above. I like the challenge.
Also I didn’t know people got banned for the snowflake thing. Really? Person A give me item, Person B takes item and figures out how to make money with it. Person A exiles them for being good at making money? If that kind of logic carried through to real life innovation would be non-existent.

Erasculio.2914:

Blazed.8346:

If Anet would ban anyone who exploit a glitch they would have a lot to do and lose players aswell.

They would lose exploiters, not players… And good riddance, I say. If ArenaNet were that afraid of losing exploiters, they wouldn’t have permanently banned the snowflake exploiters.

Well tbh, i dont play AC that much, but in fractals we had same person as you, player who didnt want to kill Moseman from tree, rather he would fight as it should be, on lvl 30 u shouldnt do any mistakes or u die from him fast. That same player died multiple times, then in end rage quited since he died to much and armor repairs cost silver. We were left with 4 players who killed him easly and finished fractals without tree exploit (Swamp was 3th map). Some fights in fractals are hard on high lvl, some even impossible without some tactic (like using Ash legion spy kit). I wonder how to pass dredge map without spy legion kit on lvl 50 +. IS there actualy some way to pass it or?

I ran into this type of group recently when doing a random pug. My response for people asking me to get on the stairs: “lol no”. I had a swell time in melee alone.

They are gimping themselves trying to finish easy fights with an unnecessary exploit and get roflstomped by harder bosses or when they fix those exploits. I have seen so many “speedrunners”/kholer skippers who now get pulled each and every time when fighting him. Good times, good times.

meh i use it and i have fought him lots the normal way and its nice now to just sit back and not have have to worry about anything.

I would love them to put people on temp-bans, even if that included me (I have done my fair share of exploiting, mainly for testing purposes or being part of a team).
I don’t get why people play if they just want “I win”-button.

they can’t put bans for exploits because the dungeons are buggy as hell (simin and se path 1 for example) can’t be done the way they are intended and require certain tricks (glass cannons for example and putting 4 sparks and just 1 on the next time she stealths).

Same with teleport gun, I mean why keep it in the game anyway? to bait people? :/

Buggy = can’t faceroll and/or don’t care about improving own game-play?

Wethospu.6437:

Buggy = can’t faceroll and/or don’t care about improving own game-play?

Well buggy as in, and like I explained already. Sparks in simin not following correctly so using the 4-1 spark trick for a poorly coded boss mechanic. This is buggy/not working as intended. Imagine they giving out bans for doing this when the boss mechanics are buggy themselves.

Also I don’t see how cornering players into berserker builds is improving own game-play.

4-1 trick only works if you have very very high DPS (enough to kill Simin after 4-1). If you can’t do that it just gives you a better start and you have to deal with remaining health as intended. It’s now awfully hard but big problem is that you can’t faceroll.
Spark aggro can be annoying but it’s not impossible unless you have everyone randomly running around.

Based how bad people can do it you don’t need everyone with glass-builds. What you need is people who are ready to adapt and swap weapons/utilities to more offensive ones and be able to follow simple orders (like Warriors shouldn’t use stuff like Endure Pain).
Playing glass actually forces you to improve your own game-play because you die more easily.

Wethospu.6437:

4-1 trick only works if you have very very high DPS (enough to kill Simin after 4-1). If you can’t do that it just gives you a better start and you have to deal with remaining health as intended. It’s now awfully hard but big problem is that you can’t faceroll.
Spark aggro can be annoying but it’s not impossible unless you have everyone randomly running around.

Based how bad people can do it you don’t need everyone with glass-builds. What you need is people who are ready to adapt and swap weapons/utilities to more offensive ones and be able to follow simple orders (like Warriors shouldn’t use stuff like Endure Pain).
Playing glass actually forces you to improve your own game-play because you die more easily.

Well I’m not here to argue glass cannons/faceroll/skill, my main point is the fight is not working as intended (buggy sparks), the point is you can’t ban people for using the 4-1 tactic if the sparks mechanics are buggy themselves.

I fully agree this needs to be dealt with. It’s just ridiculous how many exploiters I’ve encountered trying to run AC. The justification for doing so is always extremely poor. Temp bans should be issued in my opinion.

This is the environment that was created post November patch though.

Nobody deserves to be banned doing this. This method has absolutely no effect on anybody else outside the party. As many of you have said it’s actually easier fighting him on the ground if you know the mechanics and have a decent team.

As for the snowflake, I’m not saying they deserved to be banned too, however that had a big effect (arguably) on the market and affected everybody.

Ethics.4519:

Nobody deserves to be banned doing this. This method has absolutely no effect on anybody else outside the party. As many of you have said it’s actually easier fighting him on the ground if you know the mechanics and have a decent team.

As for the snowflake, I’m not saying they deserved to be banned too, however that had a big effect (arguably) on the market and affected everybody.

Wrong. It affects the people who refuse to exploit him that includes actively participating while someone else exploits. I have been kicked from group because I refuse to exploit. Thus wasting my time. So how does that not affect me.

Agree with the OP, this is getting kitten 90% or so of all parties are crying for stairs atm on Aurora Glade.

Dear Erasculio.2914,

How is this an exploit really? the stairs are there, clearly designed for people to climb up, because you know, the pixels on my screen had a party, got together in varying colors to make it look like a staircase. And what do you do when u see stairs? Your guess would be as good as mine.

This is totally different than what you see in CM exp, where you have to smash the space bar repeatedly to jump up the rock, or HOTW exp P2 to P3 shortcut where you had to run/swim through walls to get to the other boss – both fixed now by the way.

If Anet doesn’t want it to be like that, nobody would know, because in real life, when you see stairs, you know it is meant to get you to higher ground.

In P3 though, Colossus regens too fast if everyone’s up there. I’ve never met a group who would fight colossus using this. Even if you could kill him this way, it’ll take far too long for it to die.

Careful when using the word “exploit” and “ban”. Its a sensitive topic.

Arenanet super team, can you clarify if this is indeed an exploit?

Until Anet comments we can’t be 100% sure it’s an exploit. But if something feels unintended (like in this case boss not attacking back?) there is a good chance it is considered as an exploit.

Zogyark.4597:

Well I’m not here to argue glass cannons/faceroll/skill, my main point is the fight is not working as intended (buggy sparks), the point is you can’t ban people for using the 4-1 tactic if the sparks mechanics are buggy themselves.

Sparks aggro to closest target. Last 3 times I have pugged Simin I have seen no weird behaviour from sparks.

If the group is not careful while running up the stairs, the howling king would get aggro-ed and follow them up there, proceed to scream at the poor souls (even if they are underneath it), and then everyone would get downed for being so close together.

While you’re struggling to rez yourself, you take a peek at the party chat and see the other members saying, “LOL”.

AdliBot.4718:

Dear Erasculio.2914,
How is this an exploit really? the stairs are there, clearly designed for people to climb up, because you know, the pixels on my screen had a party, got together in varying colors to make it look like a staircase. And what do you do when u see stairs? Your guess would be as good as mine.

When an enemy cannot reach you or attack you, he breaks combat and becomes invulnerable. You can easily test this with virtually any monsters in PvE.

However that boss doesn’t, it’s a bug. A bug players are exploiting to make sure no one dies.

And those stairs weren’t clearly designed to be used as an exploit…they lead to an area that isn’t finished and might be used in the future, like in a lot of dungeons.
You could wonder if any placed that little broken pillar specifically for that exploit, but that’s like thinking that Anet totally planed that players will use the various jumping exploits in CM and that they wanted players to exploit in HotW/Arah/CoE, while in the end it’s probably something they didn’t expect players to do.

So basically, you’re saying that the bug is on the howling king, not the stairs, am i correct? Because Colossus seems to reset itself just fine.

For the sake of argument, the howling king is able to climb up the stairs and kill everyone. I’ve seen this happen.

Either way, if the boss is bugged, I hope Arenanet is reading this and get the Howling King fixed.

Wethospu.6437:

Until Anet comments we can’t be 100% sure it’s an exploit. But if something feels unintended (like in this case boss not attacking back?) there is a good chance it is considered as an exploit.

Zogyark.4597:

Well I’m not here to argue glass cannons/faceroll/skill, my main point is the fight is not working as intended (buggy sparks), the point is you can’t ban people for using the 4-1 tactic if the sparks mechanics are buggy themselves.

Sparks aggro to closest target. Last 3 times I have pugged Simin I have seen no weird behaviour from sparks.

It’s been beaten to death and even confirmed by robert that sparks pathing is not working as intended.

IIRC, Robert said he did only minor tweaks to their behavior. Nothing indicates that it’s completely broken and impossible.

Wethospu.6437:

IIRC, Robert said he did only minor tweaks to their behavior. Nothing indicates that it’s completely broken and impossible.

It’s broken that’s the point, it’s not impossible I’ve done path 4 plenty of times also, I just don’t put a blindfold and pretend things are working fine and people just need to L2P and get banned when the game is not working as intended itself.

I go to sparks, sparks follow me. I don’t see how that’s not working as intended. What do you want? Them to automatically go to right place?

Wethospu.6437:

I go to sparks, sparks follow me. I don’t see how that’s not working as intended. What do you want? Them to automatically go to right place?

It’s working as intended, that’s why they are being worked on because they are fine.

Makes sense.

The fight is doable, no excuses. That still doesn’t prevent them from improving things.

Wethospu.6437:

The fight is doable, no excuses. That still doesn’t prevent them from improving things.

I do agree it’s doable, just don’t pretend that it’s working as it should.

Don’t take it from me though. There’s a thread about it with over 15000 views and a dev addressing the issue. If you take your elite status glasses off and read through it you might find it.

Yes, as I stated it is not a fight you can faceroll. That alone makes it too hard for 90% (random number) of player-base. And people rather complain than analyze what they are doing wrong and get better.
Last 3 times I have joined just for Simin-fight. And people there are simply pathetic. First of all no one seems to bother with consumables. On some groups no designated tear-thrower and even if there is he doesn’t attack, at all. No one uses mobility when running sparks. Lack of damage due wrong gear and skills. Random stuff going on like people running around during sparks or getting all the time killed on red circles.
Fix most things above and you get it done in 15 mins (includes practice).

Well hey, if you say it must be true right, Some people are indeed pathetic others could use some guidance and the improvement is noticable, however spark pathing is still pretty buggy if you read that thread.

Anyway I’m moving on before I get infracted, carry on.

AdliBot.4718:

So basically, you’re saying that the bug is on the howling king, not the stairs, am i correct? Because Colossus seems to reset itself just fine.

Yep it’s a bug with the boss. The stairs are “only” used to exploit this bug.

I haven’t done AC in ages, but are people really glitching bosses there? Anet should just make a button that gives tokens/silver/other shinies. Do those parties kick “renegade” players trying to dps them normally?

Imposible to do AC right now? What stops you?

haviz.1340:

I haven’t done AC in ages, but are people really glitching bosses there? Anet should just make a button that gives tokens/silver/other shinies. Do those parties kick “renegade” players trying to dps them normally?

Yep players are glitching them. And from some posts around this forum, “renegades” do get kick.

Unfortunately, like so many exploits in the game, I feel kind of sorry (and extremely annoyed) for those using them. Most of them are rather new players and they don’t get to learn how to correctly play…if they can’t even get pass that boss by fighting him head on, how are they supposed to finish anything sort of challenging ? By exploiting yet again ?
Old players that exploit have been around the block enough time to know how to do the encounter correctly and now they are tired of doing it so they exploit, to save time by using a shortcut or because they think their teammates are going to die so might as well reduce the risk.
But new players don’t know anything. They blindly follow without asking why they are doing that or how is the normal way so hard. But some of them can’t be blame because they might get kicked for asking…
PuGs are starting to be bothersome in a way I never imagined : I imagined players to complain that a PuG kicked them because they were bad, but now PuGs are kicking players for not exploiting >.>

stairs exploit? i run AC exp often and dont think ive ever encountered a stairs exploit (unless you mean running up the ramp/into the cove thing after skipping the breeders to reset aggro?)

i have encountered teams that insist on exploits though (cough -cm- cough) which is stupidly annoying

hmm haven’t run AC in a while, at leas tnot since last patch. but i did ’em throughout wintersday. is this new? there are stairs…? O__________o

regardless, i think the graveling bosses are kind fun, save path 2. that one’s just boring. though i don’t mind it either. i like the fights that keep you mobile and having to be on the lookout and reading tells from the boss. if not, you really could wipe if you take a couple wrong steps. but i guess that’s besides the point…

Erasculio.2914:

Blazed.8346:

If Anet would ban anyone who exploit a glitch they would have a lot to do and lose players aswell.

They would lose exploiters, not players… And good riddance, I say. If ArenaNet were that afraid of losing exploiters, they wouldn’t have permanently banned the snowflake exploiters.

this is not a sub game.. they shouldnt really care about losing exploiders since it doesnt lose them money, contrary maybe then they could rebalance all the dungeons to be very fun and exciting and remove some of the annoying elements..
arah as an example, we generally do it without any exploiting and i will never set my foot in there again once i get my last piece part, simply just becouse the trash mobs are such a kittening plague to take care of, they got WAY!!! too much hp and to be fair only tanky builds are any use vs. lupi (warrior/guardian in dps gear is still tanky builds due to their very innated tankability) becouse it simply just hits soo hard and 20% of the time you will not be able to react becouse you get hit without being at a point where you should have gotten hit.

How on earth the stair is an exploit???

It’s call tactics/ or terrain advantages. Not an exploit.

The stair is just there designed and put there for us to climb up and see the battlefield and then possibly use brain to think how we gonna do with this battle.

Then we think why don’t we attack from high ground???? it’s terrain advantage!

In battle, do you think the snipers/or hill/ or cliff/ or valley are exploits?? Do you want every soldier to charge in the slash each other with just swords with no brain??? so that is the only way of battle? We use tactics and plan ahead for battle.

This fight is battle also.. and it’s not break any game mechanics and systems.

The exploit for example… is the snow flake.
Not this.

BlackPaw.5948:

How on earth the stair is an exploit???

It’s call tactics/ or terrain advantages. Not an exploit.

The stair is just there designed and put there for us to climb up and see the battlefield and then possibly use brain to think how we gonna do with this battle.

Then we think why don’t we attack from high ground???? it’s terrain advantage!

In battle, do you think the snipers/or hill/ or cliff/ or valley are exploits?? Do you want every soldier to charge in the slash each other with just swords with no brain??? so that is the only way of battle? We use tactics and plan ahead for battle.

This fight is battle also.. and it’s not break any game mechanics.

The exploit for example… is the snow flake.
Not this.

4 members up top with the person he has agro on standing with him so he can attack them may be legit, but all 5 running past all the breeders and up the stairs and afk ranged auto attacking him because nothing can get to the spot you go it is an exploit.

use of terrain is a legit strategy but the stairs, well if the mob can not attack you, or get to you, it shouldn’t stay there and just die. it should move away and hide so you must come out to attack or go invulnerable until it can attack the player it has agro on (it does not do this currently as it thinks it can attack you when it can not, thus why it is an exploit).

Koga.7215:

BlackPaw.5948:

How on earth the stair is an exploit???

It’s call tactics/ or terrain advantages. Not an exploit.

The stair is just there designed and put there for us to climb up and see the battlefield and then possibly use brain to think how we gonna do with this battle.

Then we think why don’t we attack from high ground???? it’s terrain advantage!

In battle, do you think the snipers/or hill/ or cliff/ or valley are exploits?? Do you want every soldier to charge in the slash each other with just swords with no brain??? so that is the only way of battle? We use tactics and plan ahead for battle.

This fight is battle also.. and it’s not break any game mechanics.

The exploit for example… is the snow flake.
Not this.

4 members up top with the person he has agro on standing with him so he can attack them may be legit, but all 5 running past all the breeders and up the stairs and afk ranged auto attacking him because nothing can get to the spot you go it is an exploit.

use of terrain is a legit strategy but the stairs, well if the mob can not attack you, or get to you, it shouldn’t stay there and just die. it should move away and hide so you must come out to attack or go invulnerable until it can attack the player it has agro on (it does not do this currently as it thinks it can attack you when it can not, thus why it is an exploit).

so basically from your point then the path 3 stair is not an exploit since the boss ill reset if no one down there.

I also prefer to be 1 lure+4 att since it provide more sense of tactics more than just afk range shooting thing.

My guild group did it yesterday. We all agreed it should be closed yet consider the following:
This game is very heavy on jumping puzzles. Arena.net can’t consider any form of jumping solution an exploit. Jumping is a core mechanic in this game. So any jumping solution to a problem is always legit, however bad it is.

I really hope it gets closed asap. I don’t like exploiting in dungeons. I do, however, understand why it’s done.

Stairs on AC, tactical advantage and an oversight by the devs, cuts off maybe 5 mins of your run and saves the chance of someone accidently dying.

Mountain in CM, obvious exploit and an oversight by the devs, cuts off up to 30 mins of the run and skips bosses, mobs and loot.

P3 Arah, questionable exploit, FIXED and oversight by the devs, cuts off several revivals and maybe 5 mins of the run.

My point here is tactical advantage should be allowed when it does not skip huge portions or bosses. People that have been running AC for 3 months every day are sick of putting in effort for a boss that could be done afk, that is not their fault. People that skip a mountain in CM are lazy and would favour the “I win” button so yes, something should be done about that. For the people that do Arah, I honestly don’t blame them for looking for cheap ways to get through mobs and mobs and mobs of silvers for no reason, who wants to spend 3+ hours in a dungeon making crap loot?

The exploits/tactics used by players are not their problem, devs released the game with these issues, it is their job to fix them. I don’t put short dungeon runs down to player laziness but to dev laziness. After 3 months of doing the same paths over and over you would easily take the easy path because in those 3 months the devs have still not fixed it.