Guild Wars 2

I’d like to see a simple list of people’s concerns with each dungeon, including FOTM. You do not have to list ALL of the dungeons, just any that you’d like to touch upon or have serious issues with. It could be pros and cons, or just pros, or just cons, it doesn’t matter just list it in this format:

<Dungeon Name>
<Specific path (optional)>
<Concern>

I’ll start it off

Ascalonian Catacombs:
I only have 3 issues with this dungeon. Enemies now have a higher HP pool, some of them seem to hit much harder, and the whole dungeon is literally consisted of constant CC (Crowd Control). Anything that ISN’T a hatchling will knock you down or knock you back.

Caudecus Manor:
I haven’t done this dungeon since the various patches that have come out, but the last time I remember doing this dungeon it was horrendous. Disgusting FOV (Field of View), claustrophobic design, infinite amounts of enemies spawning, and a whole mess of glitches/bugs

Twilight Arbor:
I’ve only ever done this dungeon once, and I didn’t even finish it. On top of that, it was before any patches for dungeons had come out. I remember having a horrible time with those exploding flowers or whatever they are. After that, it was confusing because instead of choosing paths, you had to choose to go up or down, left to right, I was completely confused. What really got to me and completely turned me off from going to that dungeon ever again was fighting some boss (or mini boss I don’t remember). I remember it was a female, and I think her name started with a V but again, I hardly remember the fight but I do remember her practically one shotting everyone to death.

Sorrow’s Embrace:
Never done this dungeon. Although, everyone always tells me its nothing but a zerg rush, and I believe this. Since this dungeon deals with those god forsaken dredge, I can imagine it IS a zerg rush AND there’s constant CC.

Citadel of Flame:
My only problem is path 3. Specifically, that boss. He has crazy, crazy high HP, and hits ridiculously hard. Not only that, if you fall into the lava, there is no chance in hell anyone can revive you because for some reason the lava is constantly hitting you even AFTER you’re dead. (Side note: I don’t understand why everyone wants this dungeon “nerfed.” Who cares if people farm it? Let them, its not like they farm this the ENTIRE day, as DR (diminishing returns) hits you pretty quick)

Honor of the Waves:
I use to do this dungeon quite frequently before any patches. I don’t know why I stopped, but I did. My only problem was every mini boss and boss has crazy amounts of HP. However, it seems like in the world of GW2, any boss that is a norn seems to have crazy amounts of HP. I’m wondering if that’s intentional…

Crucible of Eternity:
Use to do it constantly with a guild using Vent (Ventrillo). Ever since I left that guild many months back, I personally feel like I can’t do this with PUGs (Pick Up Groups) as this dungeon requires some serious communication.

The Ruined City of Arah (Or just Arah):
I’ve never fully done this dungeon. My only experience with this was when someone on my friend list asked me to help them with Lupicus whatever the hell his name is and my goodness, what a HORRIBLE experience that was. Completely avoided this dungeon.

Fractals of the Mists:
3 places are a pain for me -
-Swamp (traps everywhere, TWO champions!, and even more traps…)
-Dredge (My only problem is that there’s 2 bosses with crazy HP. Why 2?)
-Grawl (Once you hit FOTM 10 and up, you can BARELY see that stupid arrow that, if it hits you, you get destroyed by agony. That, and my fingers hurt from just constantly having to walk around the whole place because you can’t stand still)

ZeroArmada.9426:

Twilight Arbor:
I’ve only ever done this dungeon once, and I didn’t even finish it. On top of that, it was before any patches for dungeons had come out. I remember having a horrible time with those exploding flowers or whatever they are. After that, it was confusing because instead of choosing paths, you had to choose to go up or down, left to right, I was completely confused. What really got to me and completely turned me off from going to that dungeon ever again was fighting some boss (or mini boss I don’t remember). I remember it was a female, and I think her name started with a V but again, I hardly remember the fight but I do remember her practically one shotting everyone to death.

There are 3 paths. At first intersection (vines) you get to choose up or forward path. If you chose foward, at the next intersection (archers) you get to choose forward or up again. So the 3 paths are up, fwd/fwd and fwd/up.

For Vevina, avoid her Chaos Storm and have some cond removal with you. When her Chaos Shield is up stop attacking as she will give you conditions.

If you are still interested with TA, you can whisper me ingame and mention you’re from the forums and we can run together (im from NA server).

On AC, enemies actually have LESS health (besides hatchlings, which were buffed up a little), but are more threatening. I’m not sure having standard gravelings actually do something important besides be bigger than hatchlings is the best choice, but it certainly isn’t any worse than scavengers that will outright kill you if you don’t dodge or their channeled knockdown isn’t interrupted in some way.

My only real concern with AC is how flaky Grast is with his shield that prevents you from being murdered by the cave-in. Hodgins can be random with his fire ring placements, but it’s still up to the players to make sure they have the right positioning to bait adds into them. Colossus Rumblus needs to not be reliant on a do-or-die mechanic initiated by an unreliable NPC.

The only real problem that I’ve found was the sparks movement on Dwayna fight in Arah path 4. The sparks are bugged as crazy (they stop moving for no reason or they go around the spot they’re supposed to move in), which makes the fight extremely unpleasant.

The difficulty should be in learning the mechanics and not in being lucky enough to not have a bugged fight.

I think the main problem is that ANet made the statement that you could take ANY combination of classes into a dungeon and complete it, but in trying to force players to use TACTICS what they have ended up with is the same problem that they end up with the same problems that plagued the HOLY TRINITY in where your tactics end up incorporating PARTY BUILDS so you end up with parties only inviting select classes for different dungeons.

You also have the problem with adding TACTICS and large amounts of boss HP is that players who WORK for a living may have 4-5 hours to play will be reluctant to run a dungeon that takes 2 hours especially if the rewards are not worth the time.

So to recap…
+ Classes Required
+ Long Run Times
+ Little Rewards
_______________
= Lack Of Interest

Story dungeon design > explorer path design for most dungeons. Notwithstanding difficulty variance.

ZeroArmada…great summary

You just summarised my opinion on the updated dungeons. Totall agree with you.

For Ascalonian Catacombs, have the pugs and listing for parties have gotten serious attitude problems showing up more. Players getting more arrogant and also angry when a certain members is not pulling their weight in a fight. Postings in LFG with people posting like ping gear, and some will rage quit half way. Pre-Lv80’s will not be as welcome as before. Come-on it’s only a Lv35 dungeon. Understand Arena wants to create more contents and players want more contents. But imo, i would rather have better quality and build for the existing contents than to spam quantity and not quality. Arena just made the game boring and too freaking long for dungeons. You very know we have to gather over 1000 dungeon tokens to get a full set exclude the weapons.

Just did HotW p1 and p2, for P1 everyone used to jump into the hole in wall coz its the most efficient way. Understand also Arena wants us to play the game as its mechanics intended. But please make it right, not spend a ton of time killing a champion with over 200,000 vitality and will usually 2-3 hit you. imo, the ghost busters p2 last boss fight is kind of silly.

This means average players will not be welcomed. Most of the players in Gw2 are very casual. Most players are getting meaner now. I just pity the new comers that just started playing Gw2.

I used to spend real money on gems. Now it seems its, I will continue to stop spending real money on gems. Until Arena improves the existing content.

Testers and programmers in Arena will have direct communication between each other when testing dungeon runs and you guys will have the full details on what to do, and used to it, plus you know each other. In real life, when we party up with strangers, we don’t have voice communication. Adding to it there are alot of kitten holes and weirdo playing this game as well.

Please improve the playability of the existing content. Make it efficient and fun.

Ascalonian Catacombs
-Kholer being optional.
-Spiders hatchlings have too much HP. They were fine before.
-I really prefer the old Gravelings, I can’t see the reason behind their change. They spam knockdowns too kitten much.
-Ghost Eater, while having an interesting group mechanic, is still a boring boss.

Caudecus Manor
-Camera issues with some indoor places. Very annoying during combat.
-Boring, frustrating enemies.
-Snipers.
-Huge groups of enemies that totally aren’t ever worth fighting.
-Most bosses are basically normal mobs but with huge amounts of HP to grind away.
-Sureshot Seamus does nothing but spam the same attack over again. Also is way too much melee-hate, while ranged combat is completely safe from him.

Twilight Arbor
-Too much skipping.
-Husks being immensely anti-melee with their constant knockbacks.
-Those poison flowers respawning out of nowhere everytime.
-Final bosses are easily exploited, and just not much fun in general.

Sorrow’s Embrace
Been too long since I played this one, not much to comment on.
-Path 3 takes far too long in comparison with the other 2 paths, and is filled to the brim with trash mobs and trash bosses that have way too much HP to grind away.

Citadel of Flames
-Path 1 is way too easy.
-The Searing Flame Effigy barely does any damage at all. His attack power could easily be upped by at least x5.
-Path 1 and 2 are too short, too easy, and too much content is simple to skip or rushed through.
-Path 3 is way too tough compared to the other 2 paths.

Crucible of Eternity
-Path 1 Alpha is too easily exploited by staying in melee range.
-The stationary golem boss on every path is very boring, and tends to focus only the same player during the whole fight.
-Bjarl bugs out too often, messing up his animation.
-Destroyer Crab gets skipped because it’s frustrating, and easy to skip.
-Evolved Destroyer that must be hit with 3 lasers is extremely boring, and frustrating. One of the least fun fights in the game.

Honor of the Waves
Been a while since I’ve done this one…
-Too many bosses with huge HP and offer little challenge to the player.
-Underwater bosses are one of the longest and most boring fights in the game.
-Underwater bosses stalking the same player during the whole fight, never even changing target.

Arah
Been a while since I’ve done this one, I’m not sure if some things I mention here have been fixed while I’ve been away from the game.
-The waypoint before Giganticus Lupicus on path 1 is way too far away. With the update that players can no longer resurrect during combat there is no reason for this.
-I assume the exploits on Giganticus Lupicus are no longer going on?
-Giganticus Lupicus losing agro, and healing back to full HP in the middle of combat happens too frequently. Not sure if fixed…
-Korga is easily exploited by luring him away from corpses.
-Alphard focusing on the same player during the whole fight, never changing targets.
-Path 4 takes way too long.
-Melandru’s boss is really boring…
-Simin. Do I need say more?
-Path 4’s final boss is boring and way too easy.

Fractals
-Agony

Most common concerns
-Some places have too much CC going on.
-Bosses with too much HP.
-Bosses that do too little. Only having 1 or 2 different attacks.
-Bosses that are no threat to the party.
-Bosses that have too much melee-hate, yet are too easily safely ranged.
-Bosses are easily exploited.
-Too much content is simply skipped.

Twilight Arbor
-All paths
The Nightmare Blossoms are a mechanic which have huge gaps in how difficult they are to deal with for different classes. Some professions can almost ignore them with their auto attack (guardian staff) while others will invest significant resources to take out a single one (condition necromancer has a slow attack speed, usually takes two hits per blossom and can only hit one at a time). A mechanic which is so prevalent in the dungeon shouldn’t have such dramatic differences in how easy or difficult it is to deal with it. Another issue is with how pets (which can’t be controlled directly) will trigger the blossoms and won’t avoid them and will generally fail miserably due to their AI (unless you baby them by clearing a path out for them first, which takes time and should be unnecessary). It’s one of several areas where you realise having a pet was something that was never considered when designing the dungeon in the first place. Dungeons are designed for player awareness and responses, pets don’t have these so they do what bad players do and bad players usually die (just like how pets usually die).
-F/U
The Nightmare Tree fight currently encourages a ranged only meta (outside of very specific builds). This is obviously very punishing to rangers who can’t send in their pets, the same goes for all summoned allies, and AoE. Partially this is a player problem because that’s the meta they chose, but an individual ranger has no control over the meta (and forming a group to melee the tree isn’t going to be viable for a ranger) and the devs do have control over whether or not a pet running to melee the tree draws aggro. Redesign to fight to remove the melee penalty and replace it with some other kind of challenge.

Ascalonian Catacombs
-All paths
Gravelings are designed as time sinks. They tunnel and thus are immune to damage, but once they are above ground they continue to be immune to damage. I read somewhere that this kind of mechanic empowers conditions over direct damage, and I love that concept, I really hope you work that concept into about 50% of the mobs in the game (periods of invulnerability to direct damage to give some kind of advantage to condition damage) but the current implementation seems really buggy and they are immune to damage for too long. If it’s above ground I should be able to hit it.

AC
-first dungeon make it easiest stop listening to those FEW elitists….i think you have gathered enough data.

CM
-See above…snipers are not intuitive, robot in story is just annoying, path 3 barrels are just awful and if you miss you get spawn camped by mobs….

Fractals:
General:
-account bound exotic awithout even runes/sigils? why do you hate fotm players?
-decreasing loot the more you go on? i don t want abysmal in crease for sure but not even decrease.
-bad rewards in general considering tokens are useless compared to dungeon tokens
-too long for most players…

Uncategorized:
-Aside how unfun while not challenging this is….the spawn camping have to go…
-Harpies can kill you where you cannot fight back
-invulnerability >.>
-4 Champions HP reduce ettin and fire shaman.

Dredge:
-Do something good delete first part…its not challenging its a complete mess….a tactic requiring to die is wrong! (also i bet almost any player do it legit….
-fractal is TOO long
-reduce regen/hp of trash mobs
-remove daze or shorten it….it makes fights too long and boring.
Lava shaman:
-the DPS wall on grawl veterans is another bad mechanic…..get rid of it
-lava shaman Attacks are not easy to see due to model (Flying and all orange _) and particle effects of attacs
-Fix the bug of his invisible Attacks
-Fix the lava dealing damage to dead players being ressed

Ascalon:
Either fix NPC to not aggro center square or just reduce abysmal burst of warriors/mages

Underwater:
-the UBER poison is not fun….i don t know why you think so (see last patch) but nobody agrees….its not difficult but its just annoying and unfun.
-Jelly: reduce HP

CLIFFSIDE:
WORST dungeon/fractal ever possibly.
Why on earth do you have a 1 tactic that at higher levels can just let a SINGLE PLAYER ruin the Whole run?
We all know what we are talking about….arm seals!
I know elitists have their fixed groups….but for pugs run its the most frustrating thing ever to be punished for a single player mistake on 3rd fractal.

instead of fixung you made thing worst having adept following you in next room last Patches.
why do you hate your players? rewards are already awful…

Aside that work on fotms they are the most fun dungeon in game according to many…
You know why?
Because people still runs them with the horrible rewards.

AC- Path 2 Ghost Eater bugs out all the time for me
CM- too many trash mobs, boring bosses, camera issues
TA- Nightmare Tree, Feel like I have to play my guard for the blossoms
SE- Overall too many trash mobs
CoF- I don’t have a problem other than the bosses
HoTW- Too much trash, everything has way too much health
CoE- I feel this dungeon is in a pretty good place, but boss mechanics could be better.
Arah- Abundant trash, The Orb event, Sparks bugging out

Balance/Meta: Warriors out dps everything just by having mobs pulled correctly. Everyone else pales in comparison in terms of DPS as well as utility options. Conditions/Crits builds are hampered on things like gravelings’ burrows and the nightmare tree. Too many trash mobs are repeated without any mechanics unique to that fight.

Rewards: No reliable way to progress on fine mats/Lodestones. More tokens for harder paths would be nice. Better loot tables on chests would also be appreciated. I think the silver granted by bosses is pretty fair, but harder paths should grant more silver at the end to make up for the potential of easier paths to being farmed.