Guild Wars 2

New player, lvl 45 thief. Finally decide to do AC story mode. I say ‘finally’ because I haven’t been too interested in instanced content, being majorly burnt out on it from WoW. Plus, I love the gw2 world and event system, so I just haven’t bothered.

So we get inside, and 2 or 3 pulls into the what I understand to be the first instance, on its “easiest” setting, and its a total cluster!&@k mess.

I understand that I’m basically responsible for my own skin. I’m aware of stuff like using my heal, removing conditions, evading appropriately, etc. But getting anywhere close to our target basically guaranteed my death. Should there be a tank? Hell, am I the tank? Do things just get sort of kited around? Does this game have some sort of cc? What is supposed to be going on exactly? Why is this elementalist spamming me with unavoidable fire that takes 2 or 3 shots to kill me completely? I tried to get some info out of my group, but of course no one was interested in explaining why we couldn’t get past the 3rd pull.

I don’t want the game to be easy. I’ve had enough of easy. But I don’t want it to be hard simply because I don’t know whats going on. Any suggestions?

Look at videos on youtube. I understand exactly how you feel being an old wow player and also going through that same exact mess lol. This games dungeons are way easier then they look once you get pass the first couple time, theres mechanics for everything and most are quite easy so just look into some videos, the dungeons are actually quite fun.

dungeons are balanced on lvl 80 …
even if it says lvl 35 >.<

its not fair, but its so >___>

any dungeon even lvl 80 dungeons are easier at lvl 80 if compared to any dungeon faced before lvl 80 (even AC at lvl 65 for example)

They are balanced for their proper level, not 80.

AC is a walk in the park at level 80, and a proper challenge at levels 30-35.

Your problem is being a Thief; Thieves get insta-gibbed in most dungeons of they attempt to melee, sad to say.

yeah i know any time we open those threads, someone arrives withtheir pro ego….

Just ask yourself:
At 80..

Is easier AC story or hotw explore?

You have your answer…

I don’t get your point…?

AC story mode is easier than HotW exploration, naturally.

You can do AC story mode at level 30, and AC explorable at level 35. Scaling makes it that you’ll have better stats than a level 80, but you won’t have the higher trait bonuses.

Whatever, you can still do it. I remember my first AC, it was so tough, I died so much, it was horrible. I think I even ragequit. Now after having done it over 30 times on each path, it’s pretty much muscle memory. You don’t even think about it anymore.

Oglaf.1074:

I don’t get your point…?

AC story mode is easier than HotW exploration, naturally.

its the opposite…
For most classes

Hotw explorable is a cakewalk compared to AC story….even devs admitted it in the past….

Any dungeon even high level fractals are way easier than AC story done at 30…
Just scaring new players with L2P messages is not good…

I almost only run dungeons in my daily play and i can assure them that before 80, dungeons are the most unpleasant experience they’ll have…

After that point almost any dungeons becomes fun (most even really easy).

AC story really only has one hard part; the Lovers.

But they can be defeated relatively easily regardless of levels – all you need to do is read up on what you need to do there – spam them with Boulders. AC story is really, really easy because Boulders ignores Defiant stacks so you can just have to people chuck rocks at the boss and it can’t do anything. Also, you can’t expect it to be as easy as exploring the world. L2P should apply to dungeons.

P.S – Have you done HotW recently? Fimbul has been buffed, significantly and the “bug” with Aldus spawning infinite Elite adds that teleport all over happens almost every single run.

AC story is the hardest dung that I’ve did so far in the game, go to CM story, and it will be a walk in the park, one or two tricks to learn there but it will be more fun.

Get ready for TA, I’ve hated that place, the other places I’ve really like

ive did all dungeons in the proper lvl, like 30sh for ac, 40sh CM and etc the only one that I had trouble was AC

you are supposed to get smashed the first times you do a dungeon,as time goes by you will learn the game mechanic.I’ve done over 700 dungeons,and now i can complete most dungeons in berserker gear,without falling once

Really? I found that CM is the worst, period. All the Bleeding/Poison stacking before you’re high enough level to have reliable Condition removal…

The horror!

Oglaf.1074:

They are balanced for their proper level, not 80.

AC is a walk in the park at level 80, and a proper challenge at levels 30-35.

Your problem is being a Thief; Thieves get insta-gibbed in most dungeons of they attempt to melee, sad to say.

You and/or the people you play with must be much better then my friends and I, we took 4.5 hours to do our first AC in story mode, ranging in level from 32-41 (only one of us over 40 and with Elite skill), and 2.5 hours to do our first CM, though by then we actually had one level 80 with us in Rares. We all got insta-gibbed in both dungeons by everything, not just the bosses. That has been all we could get our friends to do so far.

The two of us who really like a challenge hope to keep persuading our friends to try other ones, maybe now that we have 3 of 5 of us with 80s if we can manage to get some Exotic gear hopefully they will go smoother and they will be willing to do them more often to learn them. I doubt we will ever have time to do more than a couple a week as a group, though, we just don’t have that much play time.

Dungeons are rather special.

They seem impossible at first, but once you learn the encounters you can do them blind-folded.

OP – this happens to just about everyone their first one or two times in the GW2 dungeons – especially if they are acclimated to games with tank/healer/dps makeups.

I would recommend going back and not giving up on it. A couple of tips:

- make sure your gear is up to your current level (if you are level 30, dont try going into AC story with half your gear at lvl 22).

- If you are a glass cannon build, you have to play almost “perfectly” to survive and may still die even then. It is a good practice for every player to take at least a few defensive stat points.

- Condition removal and control is crucial, especially in Ascalonian Catacombs. Every player either needs a way to remove conditions or need a REALLY GOOD support player with AOE cleanses.

- Dodge is extremely important, but it isnt the only way to negate damage to yourself. Remember to use blocks, shadowsteps, distortions, etc., as well. Likewise, pay attention to your boons – especially regeneration and protection.

- Fight positioning is important. Dont fight packs of AOE casting mobs in a tight hallway. Fight on your terms – not theirs.

- While most bosses cannot be crowd controlled effectively, their damage can be reduced or shut down through weaknesses, blinds and chills. They can also usually be effectively slowed with cripples. Keeping cripple on the lovers in AC story, for example, makes it harder for them to meet up and wipe the group.

And, to those saying you have to be lvl 80 for explorables, that isnt the case. The big issue is that your gear still has to be up to your level. A lvl 35 character wearing even a couple of lvl 29 pieces of gear will have issues. Most people dont think as much about their gear pre-80. If you do, then explorables are still challenging, but definitely doable.

i felt the same was as the OP when i first ran dungeons. did AC, CM, TA story modes and was so frustrated i stopped doing dungeons for a long long time.

a couple weeks ago tried doing explorables, and would let the group know that it was my first time thru the dungeon in explorable. now with some helpful guidance in each path, i feel pretty comfortable in AC and CoF dungeons, and even HotW isn’t too bad.

some things i have learned – skills like knockdown and push and pull dont work against bosses. having skills that give things like weakness, blind, protection, and aegis are very helpful in keeping you and your teammates alive – if 5 players each have some skills that can keep the boss from using its most dangerous powers for 45 seconds out of every 60 it will help a ton – a lot of what you are doing in a boss battle is just staving off damage and staying alive until you can use your next heal skill – so dodge, block, protection, blind, dodge again, heal up, and do it all again

i am not the best player, and will die once or twice sometimes per dungeon run – usually about 4 or 5 times my first run thru a path – but i still come out way ahead money wise, plus get the dungeon tokens for buying exotic gear – so its all worth it in the end, and i have been enjoying it as well for something different than open world exploration

I did AC at 32-ish and was lucky enough to have a good group – some experienced players helped us through it and we had all read the guide. It was challenging but really fun.

I then laid off dungeons until yesterday, at which point I’m a level 80 guardian with full exotics, built and traited for tanking and support. I did CM story with a level 40-45 PUG group and was expecting the experience to be similar to my run in AC. But to be honest, my guard facerolled the dungeon due to the upleveled gear and traits – nothing to do with skill at all.

I kind of wish I’d done the story modes as I leveled – yesterday was much less of a challenge and definitely less fun.

At your level everyone is glass dps build, hardly anyone uses helpful utilities. When they say there is no tanking in this game they mean there is no spell to force targets onto you.

If you have a tank thats taking the majority of damage laying down CC and healing the party things go much smoother. Or just be godly like that zerker warrior that solos lupicus

Lots of good feedback here, thanks.

Oglaf.1074:

Your problem is being a Thief; Thieves get insta-gibbed in most dungeons of they attempt to melee, sad to say.

Its funny, shortly after I read this, someone in my guild chat was throwing a fit about thieves, claiming that every dungeon run with a thief turned into a huge headache, that with 1 thief it felt like they were 4-manning, and with 2 thieves it was near impossible. I don’t consider random anecdotes as evidence, but there seems to be a trend going on with this issue (I’ve read this kind of stuff over and over on the thief board as well)

Even so, I’m sure I have other issues with my character. My gear levels aren’t good, and I could be set up more defensively. Its still questionable that I would have to min/max stats & gear at level 45 just to run the level 30 intro dungeon, but I’m ok with the game being what it is.

pnice.5067:

Lots of good feedback here, thanks.

Oglaf.1074:

Your problem is being a Thief; Thieves get insta-gibbed in most dungeons of they attempt to melee, sad to say.

Its funny, shortly after I read this, someone in my guild chat was throwing a fit about thieves, claiming that every dungeon run with a thief turned into a huge headache, that with 1 thief it felt like they were 4-manning, and with 2 thieves it was near impossible. I don’t consider random anecdotes as evidence, but there seems to be a trend going on with this issue (I’ve read this kind of stuff over and over on the thief board as well)

I did FotM with a good thief the other day, she still died more than anyone else but her contribution in terms of damage and conditions was really impressive. It was totally worth it – she sped up the run a lot even though we had to scrape her off the floor a bunch of times.

pnice.5067:

So we get inside, and 2 or 3 pulls into the what I understand to be the first instance, on its “easiest” setting, and its a total cluster!&@k mess.

I don’t want the game to be easy. I’ve had enough of easy. But I don’t want it to be hard simply because I don’t know whats going on. Any suggestions?

The dungeon crowd, for the most part, aren’t what I was used to. A lot of players are only focused on speed runs while others are purely farming gold or tokens. I didn’t get much help or explanation either. Mostly I just rely on youtube video’s of the content to make and sense of it.

Dont let a bad experience or two put you off doing dungeons. I’ve grouped with some great people and had a lot of fun. And I like the dungeons. Most of them dont chain you to your computer for 2 – 3 hrs. Good luck with your future runs!