Guild Wars 2

Idk I just hit 50 a couple days ago and started doing AC and is it just me or is the cave troll and kohler in p1 way too OP. Im all for tought battles that require skill to fight but sheesh!! We used kohler to fight the cave troll and waited like 10 mins for the fight to end… Why even have dungeons if your gonna run through 2/3 of it to get to the end and then have npcs fight npcs to beat it? IDK it just doesnt make sense to me.

Kohler is one of the hardest bosses until you learn to dodge his grapplehook, once you learn to dodge that he becomes the easiest boss in the game.

It’s easy to dodge at that, when you see him powering up like a cartoon character, you dodge or move behind a pillar.

FlyingK.9720:

Kohler is one of the hardest bosses until you learn to dodge his grapplehook, once you learn to dodge that he becomes the easiest boss in the game.

It’s easy to dodge at that, when you see him powering up like a cartoon character, you dodge or move behind a pillar.

Yes you can dodge his pull, but nobody can stand there and take hits for more than a few seconds. You end up having to kite him.

JUST LIKE EVERY SINGLE BOSS IN GW2. KITE KITE KITE KITE

Can’t we have some boss fights where we can actually CC the boss and use strategy to win? I’m so sick of kiting every single boss. It’s so boring, not fun.

CC-ing most bosses actually makes the fight harder. If you blow through the defiant and actually interrupt a skill, it tends to reset the bosses’ AI. Making them use attacks outside their usual predictable order (at least once).

For example, knocking down Rumblus in AC 3 during his summon, has caused him to immediately stand up and scream on multiple occasions with guild tests. Far more dangerous than just letting him summon adds.

Sarcasmic.6741:

CC-ing most bosses actually makes the fight harder. If you blow through the defiant and actually interrupt a skill, it tends to reset the bosses’ AI. Making them use attacks outside their usual predictable order (at least once).

For example, knocking down Rumblus in AC 3 during his summon, has cause him to immediately stand up and scream on multiple occasions with guild tests. Far more dangerous than just letting him summon adds.

How about we remove Defiant? Then bosses would be fun. And not a kite-fest.

Darx.9842:

Can’t we have some boss fights where we can actually CC the boss and use strategy to win? I’m so sick of kiting every single boss. It’s so boring, not fun.

Properly timed interrupts do actually work to interrupt bosses (or at least on some bosses, I haven’t really sat down to test). Defiant prevents you from just stun-locking a boss but if you time against animations as they kick off an attack, you will actually see “Interrupted” pop-up even with defiant still up. Captain Ashyn can have his crouching Agony attack interrupted, for example. The interrupt won’t work AFTER the attack has already started but it seems that many attacks have sweet spots that can be hit to shut down the attack. I’ve seen Kholer’s spin interrupted (though a proper word for it seems to be blocked) through defiant by a hammer guardian. (Though I have no clue if these interrupts are intended or some sorts of bugs… and the Kholer one has only ever happened once. I’ve tried it myself only to get a full serving of his Daggerstorm.) The issue, if this is intended, is that its really hit or miss because of how hair-thin the timing is and how hard some animations are too spot before its too late.

You can also “block animations” for certain bosses. This is easiest to see/do with the Jellyfish boss in Fractals. His eat animation can be interrupted by any sink skill but the timing is very, very fine and can easily be missed by either going too early or too late. Interrupting the animation does not add/remove Defiant.

Darx.9842:

How about we remove Defiant? Then bosses would be fun. And not a kite-fest.

Removing defiant will just lead to CC spam, and the bosses won’t be able to do anything. You’d have to give them some sort of retaliation if CCed too frequently but then that will punish certain weapons that have intrinsic CC built into them (Necro’s and Warrior’s pop to mind right away).

Sarcasmic.6741:

CC-ing most bosses actually makes the fight harder. If you blow through the defiant and actually interrupt a skill, it tends to reset the bosses’ AI. Making them use attacks outside their usual predictable order (at least once).

For example, knocking down Rumblus in AC 3 during his summon, has cause him to immediately stand up and scream on multiple occasions with guild tests. Far more dangerous than just letting him summon adds.

Lol yup. If you CC Kholer during his grapple hook charging animation, he will go straight into the sword whirl. Your melee team mates will be…. grateful of that. I will generally keep an eye out for the defiant stacks of bosses and be weary when they are susceptible to CC, especially when bosses are about ready to deliver their signature attacks.

I enjoy the Kohler fight and the cave troll is just a little bonus. I’m not sure whats more fun… fighthing Kohler or watching people get repeatedlly sucked into to his spinning move

I think you can interrupt his pull move. I just put feedback on him but the long cooldown allows me to do this only every other pull. I’m assuming a guardians WoR would negate his pull also…. although I rarely see many guardians even using WoR in pve! The only time I ever get pulled into Kohler anymore is when people are AoE’ing him like crazy and it gets to be nearly impossible to even see his animations. At which time you really have to stand close to him to look for his pull animation.

In general though I dont think bosses are hard at all in GW2 once you learn there attacks. Even Gigantus Lupicis, the hardest yet funnest boss in the game isn’t too hard once you’ve done him enough times. Maybe thats my fault because I’m thinking in terms of raid events from other mmo’s that require a larger group of people to do coordinated things during a longer event.

Do check that your gear is up to date.

They will seem that way initially but you will gradually trait, gear and skill up and become better at those fights.

Kholer – watch for him placing his sword behind him in the charge animation, a moment later dodge and you wont get nuked by his spin. If you have time learn the timing and how hornet’s sting / monarch’s leap and serpent strike work (ranger sword mainhand skills), you can position yourself easily out of the way of these attacks.

Troll – snare him, stay out of his quite obvious aoe circles (which are slightly larger than they indicate) and keep him on fire (will negate his regen).

If troll + kholer are fighting help kholer out by ranging the troll, you will get the troll eventually down to hp equality with kholers damage from the troll than aoe them both down simultaneously at about 25% remaining hp.

It is a matter of experience in dungeon fights it is better to get in the thick of it and die and learn something rather than get frustrated because of it. There will be genuine times when you will be justifiably annoyed at some of the stuff ANet put in dungeons, AC is not one of them.

Darx.9842:

FlyingK.9720:

Kohler is one of the hardest bosses until you learn to dodge his grapplehook, once you learn to dodge that he becomes the easiest boss in the game.

It’s easy to dodge at that, when you see him powering up like a cartoon character, you dodge or move behind a pillar.

Yes you can dodge his pull, but nobody can stand there and take hits for more than a few seconds. You end up having to kite him.

JUST LIKE EVERY SINGLE BOSS IN GW2. KITE KITE KITE KITE

Can’t we have some boss fights where we can actually CC the boss and use strategy to win? I’m so sick of kiting every single boss. It’s so boring, not fun.

If you kite every boss in the game then you are using awful tactics, sorry. Of course it’s gonna be boring when you don’t even use your brain to come up with valid strategies for different bosses.

Kumakichi.2583:

I’m assuming a guardians WoR would negate his pull also…. although I rarely see many guardians even using WoR in pve!

Waste of time, “Stand Your Ground” makes him unable to pull you, on a shorter cooldown, and much easier to use on the whole group.

Ah, I remember the first time I did AC explore, my team is full of lvl 50-60’s and none of us has done it before. We wiped almost 10 times by kholer and decided to give up. Now with my guildies we just stand beside a pillar or wall, once we see the wind up animation we just move behind the pillar/wall and continue whatever we were doing after the spin. Always have at least a panic button if you do somehow get pulled, mist form, renewed focus etc allow you to get sloppy every once in a while

Wukunlin.8461:

Ah, I remember the first time I did AC explore, my team is full of lvl 50-60’s and none of us has done it before. We wiped almost 10 times by kholer and decided to give up. Now with my guildies we just stand beside a pillar or wall, once we see the wind up animation we just move behind the pillar/wall and continue whatever we were doing after the spin. Always have at least a panic button if you do somehow get pulled, mist form, renewed focus etc allow you to get sloppy every once in a while

I remember back in BWEs, people viewed AC as the bane of all dungeons believing dungeons to be one of those rare fruits of excruciating labor. Look at it now, can’t imagine we used to think it’s a tough dungeon.

DancingPenguins.9875:

Wukunlin.8461:

Ah, I remember the first time I did AC explore, my team is full of lvl 50-60’s and none of us has done it before. We wiped almost 10 times by kholer and decided to give up. Now with my guildies we just stand beside a pillar or wall, once we see the wind up animation we just move behind the pillar/wall and continue whatever we were doing after the spin. Always have at least a panic button if you do somehow get pulled, mist form, renewed focus etc allow you to get sloppy every once in a while

I remember back in BWEs, people viewed AC as the bane of all dungeons believing dungeons to be one of those rare fruits of excruciating labor. Look at it now, can’t imagine we used to think it’s a tough dungeon.

Hehe. I remember my first run through Arah P1 a couple of weeks after release. It took something like 7 hours. We had literally no clue what to do or how to play our professions and we were all still in Masterwork gear. I remember I had one rare (Longbow) that I was proudly using on my Ranger

Darx.9842:

JUST LIKE EVERY SINGLE BOSS IN GW2. KITE KITE KITE KITE

I honestly don’t know any boss I’d kite.

First time in AC tonight with 2 others (also first timers), we beat Kohler easily, but that troll was impossible. We gave up and left him there and then we got stuck on the burrow part – hundreds of mobs swarming us. Think we need a couple of extra DPS in order to finish this dungeon path.

Avigrus.2871:

First time in AC tonight with 2 others (also first timers), we beat Kohler easily, but that troll was impossible. We gave up and left him there and then we got stuck on the burrow part – hundreds of mobs swarming us. Think we need a couple of extra DPS in order to finish this dungeon path.

You should probably look up info on the dungeon before you run it, it shouldn’t be hard at all once you know what to expect.

Dude they literally tickle apart from their extremely orchestrated attacks which are easily dodged. Learn to dodge or even stand behind a pillar when they prepare their attacks if you can’t do that. Or kitten, use Aegis.

Darx.9842:

JUST LIKE EVERY SINGLE BOSS IN GW2. KITE KITE KITE KITE

I concur and I’d like to see Jon Peters’ comment on this.

When I was new to AC, hell, Kholer was a freaking pain. Same goes with P1 and P3 final boss. Their shouts…. it’s annoying.

But others are right. Correct dodge timing will make you survive. Now, we melee kholer and all AC bosses. :p

bigtankstarsp.3581:

Idk I just hit 50 a couple days ago and started doing AC and is it just me or is the cave troll and kohler in p1 way too OP. Im all for tought battles that require skill to fight but sheesh!! We used kohler to fight the cave troll and waited like 10 mins for the fight to end… Why even have dungeons if your gonna run through 2/3 of it to get to the end and then have npcs fight npcs to beat it? IDK it just doesnt make sense to me.

It’s just you.The bosses are fine as they are.

Darx.9842:

FlyingK.9720:

Kohler is one of the hardest bosses until you learn to dodge his grapplehook, once you learn to dodge that he becomes the easiest boss in the game.

It’s easy to dodge at that, when you see him powering up like a cartoon character, you dodge or move behind a pillar.

Yes you can dodge his pull, but nobody can stand there and take hits for more than a few seconds. You end up having to kite him.

JUST LIKE EVERY SINGLE BOSS IN GW2. KITE KITE KITE KITE

Can’t we have some boss fights where we can actually CC the boss and use strategy to win? I’m so sick of kiting every single boss. It’s so boring, not fun.

Nope. Hammerguard with perma prot+warr with mace for perma weakness=happy and healthy melee glasscannons. Hell, I can facetank him with a bit of outside regen on my balanced dps spec. Play melee, have fun.

LOL at all the people that think they have to kite every boss. I usually won’t post this, but this is a classic L2P issue.

I always find Kholer’s pre-pull effect (where he winds his hand back and it glows) a little hard to read when you’ve got lots of effects hitting him, as well as melee classes, and the same aura colour for most of guardian’s attacks.

If he’d had the same sword-up-at-the-sky stance that Adleburn has, then i’d be really happy about that change.

Are they OP? not as much as you think they are. There are silvers that hit harder, which is COMPLETELY backwards.

nethykins.7986:

I always find Kholer’s pre-pull effect (where he winds his hand back and it glows) a little hard to read when you’ve got lots of effects hitting him, as well as melee classes, and the same aura colour for most of guardian’s attacks.

For me, this is really the only thing making many of the dungeon bosses hard. I think Kholer is one of the easier to dodge because of his size. Bosses that are human-sized, or smaller, are a lot more of a problem. Add in the fact that dungeons tend to be dark areas that highlight the effects even more, and they can easily leave you completely blind to what the target is doing. It’s a shame that the dodging mechanic is completely trashed so often because of the insanely overstated effects.

It would be nice to have a graphics option that greatly tones down the skill effects without effecting other graphic quality. Disabling post-processing and lowering the shader settings help, but reducing the overall image quality of the game isn’t really an acceptable solution.

Bosses are too OP? What exactly is a boss supposed to be if not an OP mobling with a gimmick of some sort?

Granted you have some boss fights that are not a beefed up mob but a task that you have to complete such as CoF path 2’s end boss fight.

Kohler is actualy easy boss if you know how to avoid his pull + spinning, for lower level players i recomend Mesmer’s Feedback buble

Darx.9842:

FlyingK.9720:

Kohler is one of the hardest bosses until you learn to dodge his grapplehook, once you learn to dodge that he becomes the easiest boss in the game.

It’s easy to dodge at that, when you see him powering up like a cartoon character, you dodge or move behind a pillar.

Yes you can dodge his pull, but nobody can stand there and take hits for more than a few seconds. You end up having to kite him.

JUST LIKE EVERY SINGLE BOSS IN GW2. KITE KITE KITE KITE

Can’t we have some boss fights where we can actually CC the boss and use strategy to win? I’m so sick of kiting every single boss. It’s so boring, not fun.

Absolutely 100% agree with this.

As for the troll, that kitten thing can hit you for a huge chunk of your health AND apply FIVE stacks of bleed in ONE HIT. And that troll hits very frequently, so you’ll be at 10-25 stacks of bleed in a matter of seconds.

mrstealth.6701:

nethykins.7986:

I always find Kholer’s pre-pull effect (where he winds his hand back and it glows) a little hard to read when you’ve got lots of effects hitting him, as well as melee classes, and the same aura colour for most of guardian’s attacks.

For me, this is really the only thing making many of the dungeon bosses hard. I think Kholer is one of the easier to dodge because of his size. Bosses that are human-sized, or smaller, are a lot more of a problem. Add in the fact that dungeons tend to be dark areas that highlight the effects even more, and they can easily leave you completely blind to what the target is doing. It’s a shame that the dodging mechanic is completely trashed so often because of the insanely overstated effects.

It would be nice to have a graphics option that greatly tones down the skill effects without effecting other graphic quality. Disabling post-processing and lowering the shader settings help, but reducing the overall image quality of the game isn’t really an acceptable solution.

After having a little stint on TERA, the options to tone down effects when in a party and manually determine your draw distance were something I was litterally like “WTF. COME ON ARENANET! WAKE UP!” at my screen. It’s like when they port over a game from console to PC, and don’t give any option tweaks because it’s not needed on console versions. Very Frustrating.

Anyhow, back on topic:
Actually, seeing what your wrote about Kholer also makes me think about the general colour pallet of AC dungeons when dealing with ghosts. Mainly storymode, taking on the mobs in the centre area, and the king too. It’s like, Light blue, on light blue. And his flame attack is also light blue….light blue! light blue! light blue! light blue!

I’m nitpicking now though.

Darx.9842:

FlyingK.9720:

Kohler is one of the hardest bosses until you learn to dodge his grapplehook, once you learn to dodge that he becomes the easiest boss in the game.

It’s easy to dodge at that, when you see him powering up like a cartoon character, you dodge or move behind a pillar.

Yes you can dodge his pull, but nobody can stand there and take hits for more than a few seconds. You end up having to kite him.

JUST LIKE EVERY SINGLE BOSS IN GW2. KITE KITE KITE KITE

Can’t we have some boss fights where we can actually CC the boss and use strategy to win? I’m so sick of kiting every single boss. It’s so boring, not fun.

This is not really true at all, you can eat Kohler’s Dagger Storm and face tank the troll.

Support for something like “dungeon mode” for graphics.

Bosses arent OP once you learn to read their animation. Dodging, kiting, LoSing. Using better gear. Dungeons and especially bosses should be a challenge. Fight Lupicus or Kohler once and its annoying. Fight them several times and it becomes fun (at least for me).