Guild Wars 2

First Subject Alpha encounter, all three paths: [edit: replaced first link with version 2]

And for fun, the Champion Icebrood Wolf at the start of the dungeon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnvtry_uFAg

In terms of difficulty, the 4 bosses were something like this:
P3 Alpha (hardest)
Champion Icebrood Wolf
P2 Alpha
P1 Alpha (easiest)
[Edit: with the new version of P1, I’d put P1 just above Champion Icebrood Wolf]

P1 and P2 are relatively easy because his burning attack is pretty wimpy, and necromancers have lots of condition removal.

P3 was quite rough, but I finally managed it today. Alpha’s ice and earth attacks hit quite hard when they’re all directed at one player, and my heals couldn’t even keep up with just the earth spikes, so I ended up buying some +30% endurance regen food (based on the number of times I had to repair armor, I really should have payed the comparatively small amount for +40% endurance regen).

The most annoying part is the way Agent Spire wants to tank all of the ice attacks. If you let her (or any other ranged NPC), this fight becomes really easy, because you can stand in the middle of the rings alpha then casts on you. That didn’t really seem in the spirit of the fight, so I got her killed first then went in without any ranged minions. She does miracu-res when the risen thralls appear and tank several of the ice attacks, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to prevent that.

That’s why necro needs vigor like guardian and mesmer and ranger ;(

Zenith.7301:

That’s why necro needs vigor like guardian and mesmer and ranger ;(

Yep, being the only class without vigor can be sad. I use two superior sigils of energy, which help mitigate that somewhat.

I’d like to see you do it without cheesing p1 alpha… and then I’d like to see you do the rest :P Still gj though! Always nice to see players accomplishing tasks that few are even willing to try.

I’d just like to say that if you aren’t pushing alpha into a wall, p1 is imo, the hardest b4 far… but only because you can’t effectively melee it due to all the flame blasts and ground spikes you need to avoid. P2 and 3 are still very easy to melee due to no spikes in 2 and no flame in 3.

Ye, p1 was extremely tough when you had to dodge everything (I can’t tank even that Fire-thingy).

randomfightfan.4091:

I’d like to see you do it without cheesing p1 alpha… and then I’d like to see you do the rest :P Still gj though! Always nice to see players accomplishing tasks that few are even willing to try.

I’d just like to say that if you aren’t pushing alpha into a wall, p1 is imo, the hardest b4 far… but only because you can’t effectively melee it due to all the flame blasts and ground spikes you need to avoid. P2 and 3 are still very easy to melee due to no spikes in 2 and no flame in 3.

I’ll try p1 without pushing him into a wall tomorrow. I don’t know a lot of people I’d be comfortable asking for help with the lasers, but someday I’d like to do a whole path.

(Also, is it fair to get closer than melee range so his earth spikes miss you as long as he’s not on a wall?)

Wethospu.6437:

Ye, p1 was extremely tough when you had to dodge everything (I can’t tank even that Fire-thingy).

Doesn’t decent condition removal pretty much negate it? Of the three attacks, it felt like earth > ice > fire. I forgot to even bring much condition removal on p1 and it went fine on my first try (p3 though… that was something like my 40th try)

yea every time I tried pure melee with dodging it was real rough just getting past the transition part. I’d get overwhelmed from the burns and poison so fast. Had to resort to ranging it…

and yea that’s fair cause the boss can still move out of the way and try to hit you.

If you can tank the burns and poisons then lucky u. For wars (who don’t have the kind of condi removal you’re talking about) and some other classes, the conditions start to stack and hurt. Even if you’re cleansing all the conditions, something like a thief just can’t handle the initial burst of the flame blast attack (1.5k or something per blast, not 100% sure on those numbers though) if you aren’t dodging them. So dodging them and the spikes tends to be a little too much dodging.

randomfightfan.4091:

yea every time I tried pure melee with dodging it was real rough just getting past the transition part. I’d get overwhelmed from the burns and poison so fast. Had to resort to ranging it…

and yea that’s fair cause the boss can still move out of the way and try to hit you.

If you can tank the burns and poisons then lucky u. For wars (who don’t have the kind of condi removal you’re talking about) and some other classes, the conditions start to stack and hurt. Even if you’re cleansing all the conditions, something like a thief just can’t handle the initial burst of the flame blast attack (1.5k or something per blast, not 100% sure on those numbers though) if you aren’t dodging them. So dodging them and the spikes tends to be a little too much dodging.

Necros need something to make up for the lack of vigor. I’m definitely not going to be able to dodge them all, so we’ll see how tanking the flames goes.

Edit: I didn’t know about the base damage, that’s good to know.

I think you can do it if you get the trait where ds is on a 5s cd. Using that as a replacement to dodging is a very strong tactic if used right.

It’s about 1.5k initial damage + 1.5k Burning.

randomfightfan.4091:

I think you can do it if you get the trait where ds is on a 5s cd. Using that as a replacement to dodging is a very strong tactic if used right.

Yeah, before I got the +30% endurance food I was trying a routine of ‘upcoming earth blast’ → ‘dodge’ or ‘death shroud’ or ‘heal’, depending on cooldowns. It worked but it required much more perfect play than I was pulling off, and I would die whenever the risen thralls spawned. 30 points in soul reaping would increase the reliability and make it easier to generate the necessary life force.

0/0/10/30/30 makes an awesome tank build, but I usually run 20/0/20/30/0 for the minion traits, which make clearing “trash” mobs much easier. I can’t get through the gravelings after the spider queen in AC with the former, but I can with minions (I haven’t played too much with this though, carrying a set of DPS armor would probably overcome the difficulties).

Wethospu.6437:

It’s about 1.5k initial damage + 1.5k Burning.

Thanks!

Warriors have a rough time with conditions if they’re not running a shout+rune setup to remove conditions.

For classes like mesmer, necro, guardian, ele, and ranger the flame attack is no issue at all. Mesmer just needs blink, mantra of resolve, and null field. Or he can trait into inspiration for condition removal on healing, so he can drop null field and bring inspiration signet for some aegis.

In the case of guardian, purity+ smite conditions is all the condi removal you’ll be needing, especially if you carry the signet heal which is another condi removal every 10 secs.

For the ranger it’s healing spring+30 in wilderness for pet condi transfer and signet of renewal. Very steady condi removal. For ele it’s about as easy as water attunement+ ether renewal.

The reason rangers don’t solo crap is that they’d have to bring subpar dps pets like devourer or drake to even see them survive for any amount of time, and the amount of perfect micromanagement to even have those kind of tankier pets survive is annoying.

I’m very certain a ranger can also solo any encounter, but it’s much slower because 30-40% of his damage (the pet) is dead so often.

New version uploaded without walling p1.

(I’ve updated the link in the first post as well.)

Path 3 was still harder for me, since you can’t avoid some of his earth attacks by getting really close to him, and you can’t run to long range to heal up, but I think it’s harder than path 2. If you had to stay within 130-600 range (so you can’t avoid the earth up close or the fire at long range), path 1 would probably be the hardest.

I ended up managing it without retraiting to 5 second condition removal on death shroud. Eventually I realized that I could eat most of the burning with my regeneration, so perma-regeneration from a focus (+traits and runes) was actually more useful against the burning than 15 second condition removal on the dagger offhand. Getting close to him to avoid the earth attack was also important, but that’s partially because I suck at dodging (as you can see in the video, I fail to dodge almost every flame blast, even when I try).

Thanks for the challenge; that’ll keep my desire for hard content at bay for a while.

Zenith.7301:

The reason rangers don’t solo crap is that they’d have to bring subpar dps pets like devourer or drake to even see them survive for any amount of time, and the amount of perfect micromanagement to even have those kind of tankier pets survive is annoying.

I think the reason you don’t see many rangers solo things is probably just that there aren’t many ranger players who really wants to. For a long time the Compilation of Solo Dungeon Videos thread was mostly warriors and guardians, but now there are several videos with other classes (including rangers).

I bring horrible DPS (as you can see on the new p1 video) while soloing if I don’t have my minions out, and for a lot of solo fights they’re not viable (the flame blast hitting my flesh golem and using plague form for the risen thralls probably accounts for the time difference between p1 and p3). I don’t think anyone is soloing things to get them done quickly, they’re soloing things for fun. Longer fights do mean more chances to make mistakes, but if you’re not bringing pure damage those mistakes are less likely to kill you.

Well, I solo to get them done quickly. :P

DelOnasi.6051:

New version uploaded without walling p1.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDVWkceB1OY

(I’ve updated the link in the first post as well.)

Path 3 was still harder for me, since you can’t avoid some of his earth attacks by getting really close to him, and you can’t run to long range to heal up, but I think it’s harder than path 2. If you had to stay within 130-600 range (so you can’t avoid the earth up close or the fire at long range), path 1 would probably be the hardest.

I ended up managing it without retraiting to 5 second condition removal on death shroud. Eventually I realized that I could eat most of the burning with my regeneration, so perma-regeneration from a focus (+traits and runes) was actually more useful against the burning than 15 second condition removal on the dagger offhand. Getting close to him to avoid the earth attack was also important, but that’s partially because I suck at dodging (as you can see in the video, I fail to dodge almost every flame blast, even when I try).

Thanks for the challenge; that’ll keep my desire for hard content at bay for a while.

Zenith.7301:

The reason rangers don’t solo crap is that they’d have to bring subpar dps pets like devourer or drake to even see them survive for any amount of time, and the amount of perfect micromanagement to even have those kind of tankier pets survive is annoying.

I think the reason you don’t see many rangers solo things is probably just that there aren’t many ranger players who really wants to. For a long time the Compilation of Solo Dungeon Videos thread was mostly warriors and guardians, but now there are several videos with other classes (including rangers).

I bring horrible DPS (as you can see on the new p1 video) while soloing if I don’t have my minions out, and for a lot of solo fights they’re not viable (the flame blast hitting my flesh golem and using plague form for the risen thralls probably accounts for the time difference between p1 and p3). I don’t think anyone is soloing things to get them done quickly, they’re soloing things for fun. Longer fights do mean more chances to make mistakes, but if you’re not bringing pure damage those mistakes are less likely to kill you.

Yeah I meant the larger time windows to make mistake. But keep in mind that a ranger geared the way you are will do even worse DPS than you, because simply put 30-40% of a ranger’s damage is the pet. And the pet is dead all the time.

It’s just not fun to be a ranger when your class mechanic is limping beside you for most of the fight, even if it is doable. I managed to solo the gorilla boss in arah on my ranger because my group of pugs couldn’t make it by skipping through the adds. It was just so slow and mindnumbing with a pet dead most of the time because the summoned gorillas stunned it and zerged it down.

Wethospu.6437:

Well, I solo to get them done quickly. :P

I’d actually believe you can probably do most dungeons faster than many pugs :P. (Also, your one-liner quip posts are hilarious.)

Zenith.7301:

It’s just not fun to be a ranger when your class mechanic is limping beside you for most of the fight, even if it is doable. I managed to solo the gorilla boss in arah on my ranger because my group of pugs couldn’t make it by skipping through the adds. It was just so slow and mindnumbing with a pet dead most of the time because the summoned gorillas stunned it and zerged it down.

Yeah, I’m all for making rangers/pets more viable in dungeons (I often run minions too).