Guild Wars 2

Hi folks. After watching more than my share of pickup groups have trouble trying to learn instances as they go (with Lieutenant Kohler being Exhibit A), I decided the best way to help as many people as possible have an enjoyable dungeon experience was to bite the bullet and make a video guide. Several days later, here it is!

I hope you enjoy it, and I hope it helps you avoid some frustration and have a smoother time in Ascalonian Catacombs. A Caudecus’s Manor Explorable Mode guide is next up, so stay tuned.

Stay safe in Tyria. Remember, the pointy end goes TOWARDS the bad guys.

Just a heads up: there’s been so much construction near where I live that it’s been hard to record decent audio. The Caudecus’s Manor video is mostly done and just needs voiceover work; expect it within a couple days. I’m confident a lot of folks will find it helpful.

Highlights:

• On the Butler route, instead of trying to navigate the trap corridor from start to finish with Riflemen oneshotting you, park a party member (ideally someone with self-swiftness and some kind of projectile reflection) by the door as the boss in that room gets low. When he dies and the door opens, that person can make their way up the rock face, then ramp, on their right, disabling the traps.

• On the Asura route, the Sure-Shot Seamus fight can be frustrating because of the enclosed corridor. You can skip it by running in with Traffa alive, tagging the last asuran artifact, running through the door and into the western yard, and group-stealthing with the Mesmer or Thief abilities or an Area Stealth combo. Just don’t wipe before Bloody Victoria dies, spawning the waypoint in the barn.

• On the Seraph route, the easiest way by far to handle the door-blasting event is to run in as a group, grab a keg each, run to preassigned keg-dropoff circles, and drop them together. Guardians are great for this (group swiftness, group regeneration, group stability, two group Aegis’s).

Awesome, awesome, awesome video. The best I’ve seen, seriously. The only thing I can add is that having a smart ele is invaluable in this dungeon. A good staff ele can save you from every one of Kohler’s pulls, use meteor shower and frost bow for the burrows, apply group swiftness, can tank the Detha trap event because of so many aoe slows, cripples, chills, etc.

But I’m biased because I’m that ele for my guild xD

Ender.3508:

stuff

What exactly (which skills, what cooldowns) do eles bring in terms of area control?

Crippled in particular is one condition I’ve had to essentially relearn. After several of my early AC explorable groups couldn’t cripple/immobilize Kohler for beans, I assumed that Crippled was a really valuable and expensive condition to apply – something like slot a utility skill with a minute cooldown for 3s cripple.

Surprise, it was just inexperienced players. e.g. Warriors have several weapon skills that cripple with ~50% uptime.

Well for starters our staff E4 creates a line AoE that stacks cripple as long as an enemy is on top of it. E5 sends out a projectile which cause immobilize and bleeding. E3 gives projectile reflection (groupwide if traited for it) which can negate Kohler’s pull. W4 creates a huge AoE chill and ice field. A3 is a single target push and A4 is group swiftness and condition removal and A5 is an AoE daze.

Also, seriously check out frost bows on those burrows. Our group used the #4 ability on one and barely had time to see the health bar before it was gone.