Guild Wars 2

I haven’t been running FOTM almost for a month, for obvious reasons, it’s too long, and the reward is kidding. I am lvl 31 and familiar with all mechanisms of FOTM, but I don’t run FOTM any more unless guidies need help.
So today some gudies needed help, and we got notorious grawl shaman at lvl 10. Don’t get me wrong, I have done it many times at lvl 30 before and I know the trade. still IMO, it’s the worst designed boss in game. This boss is too complicated and there is way too many places you can make mistakes. And the class balance is a joke here.
Make no mistake, we are not taking him lightly even it’s only level 10, I am well versed at level 30 and most of the party members have run it many times before, we spent almost 30 min running him naked 1 by 1 so guidies can practice dodging his agony attack. We only made real attempt after guidies can dodge him at least 2 out of 3 times easily. Everything is in place and to sweeten up the deal, we have a Mesmer (reflection) and a thief (smoke screen), no guardian tho.
Still, we wiped many times. Dunno if its bugged or something, the burning damage in this boss is out of proportion. If anyone died near lava, it’s a wipe for the team coz there is no way you can ress. The burning damage offsets the combined healing from ress of all teammates. After tiring one hour’s fight, we got him finally, but there is no joy of success. We are only lucky since we were running with all guidie group, pugs would probably disband after 2-3 attempts.
Really? anet, you really have bump up the difficulty on a dungeon which is already hard and boring and long? Srsly, what’s wrong with the PM that prioritize stuff? And more importantly does the PM actually play the game? It looks to me, every time the PM tries to invent something or fix something in dungeon, s/he ended up making it worse. I don’t know the other fotm runner, I personally won’t pug any more and I don’t want to run high level either. The mechanism is old and boring, the fight is long, it’s like rolling a dice hoping you won’t get grawl shaman, and the reward is a joke. I got all ascend gears I need even for my alts, why do I need to run it? why do I need to get higher level? by using ress orb? lol? what’s the f’king point? And now you want to bring in inexperience pugs and make the whole thing more risky? no kitten way I am going to run it any more.
RIP FOTM.

Most people have trouble with the elementals. If you can, have one or two people remove his shield, while the rest mop up the elementals. Once the shield is down, everyone should be focusing on the elementals before attacking the shaman. Classes with reflects, might want to save them for the elementals rather than the shaman’s flame arrow. Once the elementals are destroyed, rez whoever needs it and continue fighting the shaman.

Use ranged attacks. Players in melee range will be instantly defeated by his dive attack. I onced dodged into it and was hit for 15k x3 damage! Ranged attacks will also help you dodge his flame arrow.

If you are hit by the flame arrow, keep away from your teammates. You will be spreading burning. Condition removal helps a little, but the burning is reapplied. Null field is helpful here.

This boss is way OP compared to all the others, one weak link on this boss can wipe you every time, I don’t run fractals 30+ anymore because I pug groups and 90% can’t beat this boss.

You got so many things in play on this boss its a joke and anyone takes your life down.

Can’t stand still.
Flame arrow that cause you to explode.
AOE raining fire (OP)
Burning lava everywhere.

During grubs you have all of the above plus

Can’t really start to defend your self until the bosses bubble is down, at this point 1 or 2 members are already on the floor.
Being stunned over and over but grubs
Obviously the grubs them self’s.

Its a joke, it could be a nice fight if it was toned down in line with the other bosses at the same level fractal.

I like it. Very challenging fight.

And yes, I have wiped on it many times with PUGs, but I still enjoy it

Levistis.8356:

I like it. Very challenging fight.

And yes, I have wiped on it many times with PUGs, but I still enjoy it

Agreed….there is absolutely nothing wrong with this boss. Op did the right thing in nailing down a strategy in order to beat him….now successfully implement it.

His attacks can be dodged so you are never guaranteed damage as he always passes a tell and the elementals can be surpassed with the right tactics (which DON’T require a class). Don’t understand the problem.

edit: Its been stated that we were not intended to go past 40 at this point. I think we should stop making any excuses for failed parties because you may be there on the basis of that.