Guild Wars 2

Note I’m ranking this based on a PUG setting. Most of the bosses are faily easy IMO but this my list nonetheless.
1. Escort
2. Trio
- these 2 need no explanation
3. Keep Construct
- if everyone is focused and knows what they’re doing, this boss is a piece of cake
4. Sloth
- if everyone knows how to deal with “shake,” easy peasy
5. VG
- First boss in the raid, when you make a pug, you’ll have a lot of new ppl claiming to be exp which honestly isn’t a big deal. Pretty easy to explain to newcomers
6. Xera
- Xera will probably be lower on my list as more people become familiar with her. Tank has the most important job, how good your tank is will probably determine whether you get the kill or not.
7. Sab
- probably my favorite boss in the raid. Another boss where being focused is key. Not a hard boss to pug at all but since the other 6 are just slightly easier, it gets 7 on my list.
8. Gors
- For some odd reason, Gors is a hard boss to PUG. A lot of issues when puging whether it’s the low dps, slow CC, inability to hold spirits, inability to clear orbs, getting egged, getting ghosted and not picking up gold orbs, etc.
9. Matt
- IMO the hardest boss in the raid by a country mile. No trouble getting him down to 40% but after his abomination phase, the people always seem to panic

1/2 Escort and trio
3 Gorseval ( slight dps check and an easy one at that)
4 Sabetha, as long as you clearly communicate cannons its easy.
5 Keep Construct, DPS turns this fight into an easy one but the mechanics are interesting
6 Xera, tank can carry

7 Vale guardian
8 Slothasor
9 Matthias

I feel for 7-8-9 some people failing can turn the whole fight in a disaster.

I think gorseval is way too high on your list, it one of the most pug friendly bosses

1. Escort
2. Trio
(Obligatory)

3. Gorseval
Attacks are easy to avoid, little potential for wipes if everyone is somewhat competent. Generous DPS check.

4. Vale Guardian
Easy if everyone plays appropriately. I see a lot of experienced players say he’s difficult, but I think they’re just not giving the encounter the respect they did when it first came out. If everyone gets knockbacks for seekers, and CC is good, then he’s a piece of cake, regardless of RNG.

5. Keep Construct.
Really depends how often he does the circle bomb instead of the phantasms. If he does the bombs a lot on the final phase, sometimes people go down, DPS isn’t good enough at the end and the statues merge. Relies on a somewhat experienced player to handle the core.

6. Slothasor
Fairly routine for an experienced group, but this can be an utter nightmare for pugs. One person not knowing what to do can screw over everything due to the poison and fixation. Friendly fire and mushroom management can also lead to issues.

7. Sabetha.
The cannons can be difficult to manage for newer groups. It especially gets hectic once 2 time bombs come into the mix, and even worse when Karde starts dropping flame turrets everywhere. Requires good map awareness and coordination.

8. Xera
I seem to find her way more difficult than other groups do. There’s a lot of stuff that can screw up the fight. The shard dying a millisecond after the switch kills you (preventing a rally), her minions do surprisingly high amounts of damage, tempests need to stay sharp on bloodstones, glider deployment can malfunction, someone in back can get crippled and not make it to the leyline in time, and the teleportation in the last phase requires some quick calls to be made. The tank, of course, also has to be on top of their game.

9. Matthias.
Lots of potential for fast kills, in addition to constant pressure from conditions and time bombs. Players need to stay alert for corruption and profane wells, but if they spawn right before someone goes down, everything can get screwed up. At the end, ghosts and the haduken can pretty much kill anyone who’s down instantly. Staying alive can be a challenge if you’re new, as there are just unrelenting amount of attacks thrown at you.

Why is Matthias the hardest on any of your lists? He’s easier than Trio. He’s literally “Autoattack: The Boss”. Beyond reflection and doing wells, there is no mechanic to his fight. Don’t get hit.

afrocrusade.4253:

Why is Matthias the hardest on any of your lists? He’s easier than Trio. He’s literally “Autoattack: The Boss”. Beyond reflection and doing wells, there is no mechanic to his fight. Don’t get hit.

I believe there are a few caveats with his fight that might not make him immediately appear as threatening as Sabetha or Xera.

First, the raid positioning is never quite the same throughout the entire fight. There’s a certain stack order for instance when you are doing Sabetha, however Matthias is flexible, people will try to kite him somewhat where the next tank spot should be, but because of his aggro mechanic he won’t quite be that nice. There’s plenty of RNG involved, getting downed can happen often even if everyone perfects the Hadoken mechanic as between conditions and other mechanics the damage from Matthias is more sustained than any other boss. For instance, if you were to play a Necro in the encounter the fire phase could be your bane, getting rapid stacks of Burning on top of the ill-timed debuff can put you downed way outside the rest of the group.

It’s terribly easy to have a raid collapse in Matthias, especially during his very long final phase which might as well be a fight all its own. The ‘flip’ to the abomination phase and how the entire group functions is far different than any other raid boss in Forsaken Thicket.

I have had smooth kills with Matthias with players that are completely aware, but I have had groups that I know that are really experienced with any other boss, continue to wipe to Matthias because something like a spirit went ahead and finished off 3 people during the last 25%. Matthias is one of the hardest bosses of this raid for those reasons I stated.

I find that if groups have an easy time with Matthias, they’ll have an even easier time with every other boss.

He has more attacks and players suffer more sustained damage than in any other fight. This often causes some unfortunate situations where people die near wells, or get a well/corruption right before going down, putting a huge AoE in the middle of the fight.

easiest
McLeod
- difficulty gap -
Gorseval
Keep Construct
Sabetha
los tres banditos
Vale Guardian
- difficulty gap -
Slothasor
Matthias Gabriel
hardest

have only done Xera a few times, so I left it off

Trio
Siege
Those two don’t need any explanation
Gorseval. Dodge Smash, do your Rotations, thats the Core of this Boss,
Xera While an Epic Fight she is relatively Easy. Tank needs to memorize the Pattern of the big Attacks and avoid the Blurred Frenzy, but otherwise not that hard
Vale Guardian: A bit RNGish in Context where in the Section the Green Circle will spawn. The hardest Boss to Tank and Tank needs to know when to go where. Green Circle Duty can be easy, can be hard depending on where the Circle spawns. But 5 People can be completely new and the Boss still can be killed smoothly ( they don’t really have a job in the Fight )
Slothasor Post Nerf. After disabling his Chain Attack, he is following the Tank like a Good Dog. Mechanics can still screw you over with Poison and Shake
Keep Construct: If doing correctly not hard but his Mechanics are really punishing. Failed the Green Circles? Wipe, Failed to prevent the Spirits from Merging? Wipe. Failed to killed the Phantasms? Wipe. Pizza Attack while having Bombs? A big frickin’ Mess. Again a bit bipolar the Boss. Very unforgiving but doing the Mechanics and he should be no problem.
Sabetha: Quite a few Mechanics going on. A lot of Panic Potential. Everyone needs to pay Attention. Flame Wall and Green Bombs can overlap at bad Times. Mobs tend kick quite smart ( out of the Platform, in the Wall, or if you have the Bomb, back into the Group ). Cannon Fire also really damaging.
Slothasor Pre Nerf: Before his “Nerf” or “Fix”, that Boss goes into overdrive of being Lazy. Tank not moving fast enough? Chain every Mechanic he has. Tank swap at a bad Time, Chain every Mechanic he has. Flamebreath, Shake, Tantrum, moving 2 Metres Sleeping, Mushrooms growing back, waking up, another Shake etc etc. This was something that could happen and happened quite often, and this was one of the bigger Reasons why Slothasor was so hard.
Matthias Gabrel: So many Mechanics going on. Cleansing Corruption, dodging Hadoukens, CC’ing your Raidmembers, Wells, Tornados, Bombs etc etc. Good Potential of Sacrifice and Bomb Overlap which leads to Panic. Australian Tornados can change Direction everytime and be close enough to the middle that it can screw up with sacrifices. Matthias prefers to throw the Wells on Players with low HP or who are in Tornados so they drop the Well into the Middle. And then Abomination Phase. DO EVERYTHING. Oh and Ghosts are spawning. Some Mechanics go into overdrive. So much Potential for Panic and wipes

easyest to hardest:

trio
escort
sabetha
gorseval
construct
xera (not tank)
slothazor
vale guardian
matthias
xera (tank only)
slothazor (slippery slubling)

1. Trio
2. Escort
3. Gorseval
4. Keep Construct
5. Slothazor
6. Sabetha
7. Xera
8. Vale Guardian
9. Matthias

My ranking as a raid lead who trains new recruit. 2 hours per session, kill by the end.

1. Trio
2. Vale Guardian
3. Escort (I rank this one after VG bc it requires more micromanagement from me. It’s also easier to lose one person early for this encounter. It also has many viable variations.)
4. Gorseval
5. Slothasor
6. Keep Construct (4-6 involves no tanking experience and are fairly flexible with playing around the group comps.)
7. Xera (requires dedicated tankers and a few of personal mechanical skills.)
8. Sabetha (requires a LOT of personal mechanical skills. Easy to lose momentum. Easy to get early wipes -pls don’t stand in the cannon area if you can not dodge the shot!)
9. Matthias (requires extensive situation awareness and adaptation compounding with complex boss mechanics and harder skill check. Tension arise fairly quickly)

My ranking as a member of my static group:
1/2/3/4. VG – Gors – Sabetha. Escort (easy one-shot)
5. Slothasor (usually DPS issue. Smoother with better DPS)
6. Trio (usually half to 8 members die for kitten ing around. The lack of concentration and situation awareness really shine here. One-shot on a good day)
7/8. Keep Construct and Xera (a couple of weak links will noticeably make the run less smooth. One-shot if everyone is on top performance.)
9. Matthias (hilarious chain mistakes happen by the lack of concentration and situation awareness. Group sustain tends to dip here.)

hard: anything that requires randomly chosen people to identify cardinal directions/colored icons on the mini map; It is incredible how many different definitions of north, east, south and west I have seen in this game. And the red heart also seems to have many shapes and colors.
ez: anything else

My ranking, based on our static group’s ability to one shot a boss:

Sloth
Escort
Gorseval
Trio
Sabetha
Vale Guardian
Keep Construct
Mathias

Xera has not been done yet but I bet it will be easier than Mathias based on this thread xD

VG and Sabetha are kinda tied but we can usually two shot VG; and Sabetha depends on how late at night we get to her.

We only got KC down recently but learning that I, being druid healer and having lowest ping, does orb control best, we might be able to one shot it soon too. Thus it would be moved below VG and Sab.

• Escort – No timer means you can go as slow as you need to.
• Trio – 4 kegs on narella = gg
• Gorseval – Almost no personal responsibility for anyone. The whole stack moves together the whole fight besides the split spirit phase which is super easy. Large hitbox means eles will destroy him. It would be nice to bring back the old movement bug where he would fixate on the furthest away player, it made orb clearing a little more strict.
• Keep Construct – 90% of the fight’s difficulty is whacking the ball. The other 10% is holding the phantasm still so your eles can kill them fast. Large hitbox and being stunned during burn phase makes the DPS check a joke.
• Xera (not counting bugs) – Move boss to side of arena. Dodge red balls. Epidemic/cpc for adds. Not much else to do but park and kill.
• Slothasor – Recent nerfs have turned the one time hardest boss into even more of a joke. If your squad learns to dodge the shake and ground pound then there is little else to worry about. But there is a lot of personal responsibility in this fight, and one person’s mistake can wipe the raid.
• Sabetha – The mechanics in this fight are not horribly difficult but they will kill you if you mess them up. This fight is more difficult from a new player’s point of view because the mechanics are really dangerous and seem to have a random element, but once you have done the fight a lot you discover that you can mitigate most of the risk (know when wall+green bomb will be an issue, pull in adds when they spawn, kill karde’s turrets immediately, assign knuckles break bar duty beforehand, etc).
• Vale Guardian – This fight is much harder than people give it credit for because it is the first boss and everyone has lots of practice. But it requires a lot of preparation and the movement timings are pretty strict. This is still the best raid boss we have.
• Matthias – Not overly difficult mechanics but there are a lot of them going on at once and a single mistake at a bad time can cause a wipe.
• Xera (bugs count as features) – many a run has ended because the ley lines killed someone important (by one of several different bugs), or because resurrection doesn’t work, or because players are desynched on the buttons and they don’t work. I actually think the resurrection bug is a cool layer of extra difficulty (albeit incosistent difficulty) since you can prepare for it with res skills. The ley line / button issues are just frustrating.

Should probably update my list as well

1. Escort
2. Trio
3. Sloth
4. KC
5. VG
6. Sab
7. Xera
8. Gors
9. Matt

Not too different from my original list. I really find Sloth to be enjoyable and the easiest boss in the Raids. Xera is actually a lot harder to PUG than I realized. Idk what it is but whenever I pug my group dies near the 15% mark. Gors is still the biggest pain in the a**. How some teams who have “100+ LI” and “kill exp” on join and we get to Gors but can’t kill him just baffles me.

VG definitely deserves a split ranking along with Xera depending on tank/non-tank. The tank on VG has to play nearly flawlessly. If you don’t move it fast enough, green circles spawn in active sections. If you ever get hit by a teleport, VG follows you wherever that went. VG actually hits pretty hard, so you need to be good with rotating defensive skills so that the Druid can focus on healing other people.

Xera is similar of course. You need to move her properly and know the mechanics as well as mitigate the blurred frenzy or keeping you alive will be a full time job for 2 healers.

Fay.2357:

VG definitely deserves a split ranking along with Xera depending on tank/non-tank. The tank on VG has to play nearly flawlessly. If you don’t move it fast enough, green circles spawn in active sections. If you ever get hit by a teleport, VG follows you wherever that went. VG actually hits pretty hard, so you need to be good with rotating defensive skills so that the Druid can focus on healing other people.

Xera is similar of course. You need to move her properly and know the mechanics as well as mitigate the blurred frenzy or keeping you alive will be a full time job for 2 healers.

Are you speaking from experience? Tanking VG is really nothing much compared to tanking Xera. You’re pretty much dead if you facetank blurred frenzy, the adds hits really hard so you need to pull them with focus 5 if you’re a chronotank, movement pattern is also more complex than VG.

After the LS3 patch Xera is the hardest boss imo, because of Ele nerf and the red orbs actually relevant now. I believe there’s some other change too that makes the fight harder than usual. Chronotank still doing 85% of the job for Xera but you can’t really carry your raid like you used to. People need to learn dodging the red orbs and your tempest must be more competent on clearing the bloodstones now.

My list now probably
1. Trio
2. Gors
3. Escort
4. Sloth
5. VG
6. Sab
7. KC
8. Matt
9. Xera

Really don’t understand how people failing Gors. I’ve been doing several training raids with my guild and we literally one shot Gorseval everytime with 3-4 new people.

Hazell.2065:

Fay.2357:

VG definitely deserves a split ranking along with Xera depending on tank/non-tank. The tank on VG has to play nearly flawlessly. If you don’t move it fast enough, green circles spawn in active sections. If you ever get hit by a teleport, VG follows you wherever that went. VG actually hits pretty hard, so you need to be good with rotating defensive skills so that the Druid can focus on healing other people.

Xera is similar of course. You need to move her properly and know the mechanics as well as mitigate the blurred frenzy or keeping you alive will be a full time job for 2 healers.

Are you speaking from experience? Tanking VG is really nothing much compared to tanking Xera. You’re pretty much dead if you facetank blurred frenzy, the adds hits really hard so you need to pull them with focus 5 if you’re a chronotank, movement pattern is also more complex than VG.

After the LS3 patch Xera is the hardest boss imo, because of Ele nerf and the red orbs actually relevant now. I believe there’s some other change too that makes the fight harder than usual. Chronotank still doing 85% of the job for Xera but you can’t really carry your raid like you used to. People need to learn dodging the red orbs and your tempest must be more competent on clearing the bloodstones now.

My list now probably
1. Trio
2. Gors
3. Escort
4. Sloth
5. VG
6. Sab
7. KC
8. Matt
9. Xera

Really don’t understand how people failing Gors. I’ve been doing several training raids with my guild and we literally one shot Gorseval everytime with 3-4 new people.

I am speaking from experience, yes. I didn’t mean to imply that Xera is easier though. Her sustained damage mechanic of the blurred frenzy is far more punishing than anything on VG. That being said, VG requires more movement, so it’s a bit of a different fight.

Overall, I have a feeling that if I had the same amount of experience on VG and Xera, they’d probably be similarly difficult to tank. As it is though, I have probably 100+ attempts on VG and like 10 on Xera, so it’s hard to really compare the difficulty.

My best tanking ever was on my tempest at vg with 1k vita. I am sure Xera is harder. Though all our chrono does is blade frenzy when she does and it is cake.

I still think escort is easier than trio only because of Nurella and those bloody fire tornadoes. Escort can be done like any dungeon so no reason any boss would be considered easier than it.

When I’m on druid and no one is being a kitten: almost-no-updraft Gorseball < Sabaton < Mushroom! < VeeGee = broMatt (a.k.a. OmgImCarryingWithHeals) < I’m looking at sexy construct ladies < Kill(so)Clutch.

When we’re all screwing up, the run is going to kitten and I’m very miserable: holy mother of Jesus get that mushroom < green? GREEN?!?!? < where’s the godkitten bomb? < STOP screwing up the dps rotation or I’ll have your bum < where are y’all running, don’t panic! poison, AOE!!! /panics < we lost another one to gliding <<<<<< /qq, I don’t know why we suck so much at this boss.

When, god help us all, I’m chronotanking (who the kitten thought giving me that role was a good idea?): Sloth = Gorse = Sab < KC (a.k.a. Miraculously Forgets How To Use Curtain Pull) < Matt <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< VG
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Xera.

ç_ç Maybe sometime into next year I’ll stop sucking at it.

deSade.9437:

When I’m on druid and no one is being a kitten: almost-no-updraft Gorseball < Sabaton < Mushroom! < VeeGee = broMatt (a.k.a. OmgImCarryingWithHeals) < I’m looking at sexy construct ladies < Kill(so)Clutch.

When we’re all screwing up, the run is going to kitten and I’m very miserable: holy mother of Jesus get that mushroom < green? GREEN?!?!? < where’s the godkitten bomb? < STOP screwing up the dps rotation or I’ll have your bum < where are y’all running, don’t panic! poison, AOE!!! /panics < we lost another one to gliding <<<<<< /qq, I don’t know why we suck so much at this boss.

When, god help us all, I’m chronotanking (who the kitten thought giving me that role was a good idea?): Sloth = Gorse = Sab < KC (a.k.a. Miraculously Forgets How To Use Curtain Pull) < Matt <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< VG
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Xera.

ç_ç Maybe sometime into next year I’ll stop sucking at it.

D,

This post alone almost has me convinced to transfer to EU to raid with you…. 0.o

(( gives whiskey and beer ))

1. Gorseval
2. Escort
3. Trio (I could put this one higher :P)
4. VG
5. KC
6. Sloth
7. Matthias
8. Sabetha
9. Xera

1: Escort
2: Trio
3: Gorseval
4: KC
5: VG
6: Slothasor
7: Sabetha
8: Xera
9: Matthias

I only do Xera and Matthias nowdays with my static, i really think it’s a waste of time trying to pug.

Ropechef.6192:

deSade.9437:

When I’m on druid and no one is being a kitten: almost-no-updraft Gorseball < Sabaton < Mushroom! < VeeGee = broMatt (a.k.a. OmgImCarryingWithHeals) < I’m looking at sexy construct ladies < Kill(so)Clutch.

When we’re all screwing up, the run is going to kitten and I’m very miserable: holy mother of Jesus get that mushroom < green? GREEN?!?!? < where’s the godkitten bomb? < STOP screwing up the dps rotation or I’ll have your bum < where are y’all running, don’t panic! poison, AOE!!! /panics < we lost another one to gliding <<<<<< /qq, I don’t know why we suck so much at this boss.

When, god help us all, I’m chronotanking (who the kitten thought giving me that role was a good idea?): Sloth = Gorse = Sab < KC (a.k.a. Miraculously Forgets How To Use Curtain Pull) < Matt <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< VG
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Xera.

ç_ç Maybe sometime into next year I’ll stop sucking at it.

D,

This post alone almost has me convinced to transfer to EU to raid with you…. 0.o

(( gives whiskey and beer ))

Almost? Guh, kitten I’ll still take your booze, though.
… better if I’m drunk and cheerful, else I turn into the lost son of Burzum and Belial after every fail – but hey, growling “CENTER!” when people start panicking at Matt abom works pretty well. Everyone literally rushes. Worth a try!