Knights of Ares will be holding a dungeon teaching event this saturday at 5:00pm Server Time (5:00pm PST) 8th Febuary. We will be running 4 dungeons at the same time all starting with Ascalonian Catacombs and proceeding with higher level dungeons that will be decided by the groups. Each Dungeon group will have 2 Knights of Ares Mentors leading/teaching them. This allows one of the leaders to concentrate on explaining the mechanics and the other to assist with the dungeon.
At this moment we have 3 spots in each dungeon group with a total of 12 spots. Anyone who wants to join our groups people make sure to have Teamspeak 3 installed. We are opening our private TeamSpeak 3 server to the public so it is easier for players to learn. You do not need to have a microphone as you can just listen Our Ts3 Server information is: TS3WDC02.TrinityGames.com:9988 (case sensitive and at the moment it has a password which will be removed on the day).
The Dungeons that the groups will run include Ascalonian Catacombs (AC), Crucible of Eternity (CoE), Twilight Arbor (TA), Citadel of Flames (CoF), Sorrows Embrace (SE) and Honor of the Waves. If you are interested in these dungeons post below and be online on the day of this event. We will try to do most of the dungeons however some may be skipped to save time.
This event is to allow new players to learn these dungeon first hand from an experienced mentor. If you wish to join this event please make sure to post IN THIS LINK and be online on the day of the event.
“I may not be a horse whisperer, but I certainly
can and do speak to unicorns.” (Arrow The
Unicorn)
To be honest, I’ve never heard of “Knights of Ares” so I am doubtful of your knowledge of “current dungeon tactics”. Do you have any resources that I can look at that proves you are experienced and able to teach dungeons correctly?
To be honest, I’ve never heard of “Knights of Ares” so I am doubtful of your knowledge of “current dungeon tactics”. Do you have any resources that I can look at that proves you are experienced and able to teach dungeons correctly?
They are the folks involved with the original sticky up at the top of the forum. I’m not sure what their tactics are, but the OP of that has said in the past week that the forum regulars are toxic and stuff, so I’m guessing they are much like PASSS. (Which is fine, play how you want just let us play how we want ^^)
To be honest, I’ve never heard of “Knights of Ares” so I am doubtful of your knowledge of “current dungeon tactics”. Do you have any resources that I can look at that proves you are experienced and able to teach dungeons correctly?
As Lilith Mentioned we were the original Dungeon Mentoring group, we have run approximately 2000 players through various Dungeons since we started up the “New to Dungeons” initiative 8 months ago. But due to a couple of us taking a break we had to slow down our Mentoring these last couple months. So we are glad to see that Lilith has started to provide the same service for the community.
As for teaching, we teach people how dungeons are currently run by PUGS. While I personally do not always stack when I am running with friends, stacking is what is used as the current META for Dungeons. So no, we are nothing like PASSS. Most of us run META builds, but we do not force others to run META, in short we will teach anyone and everyone. We just thought it would be a nice change of pace to run a public event instead of the private ones we usually do.
To be honest, I’ve never heard of “Knights of Ares” so I am doubtful of your knowledge of “current dungeon tactics”. Do you have any resources that I can look at that proves you are experienced and able to teach dungeons correctly?
As Lilith Mentioned we were the original Dungeon Mentoring group, we have run aproximately 2000 players through various Dungeons since we started up the “New to Dungeons” initiative 8 months ago. But due to a couple of us taking a break we had to slow down our Mentoring these last couple months. So we are glad to see that Lilith has started to provide the same service for the community.
As for teaching, we teach people how dungeons are currently run by PUGS. While I personally do not always stack when I am running with friends, stacking is what is used as the current META for Dungeons. So no we are nothing like PASSS. Most of us run META builds, but we do not force others to run META, in short we will teach anyone and everyone.
Good to know, I just assumed based on some recent comments by the OP of the original sticky.
[ARES] And all who stood by and did nothing, who are they to criticize the sacrifices of others? Our blood has bought their lives.
Arrow finds some of the responses, in this forum specifically, less than helpful to new players. And I can’t say as I blame him, when we post about providing a public event for the community (that we have already been doing for 8 months) and we get questioned about our credentials. Or other people post to ignore our thread and join Lilith’s.
As we both have said, having more than one option is better for the GW2 community, and that is what this is supposed to be about helping the GW2 community as a whole.
Arrow finds some of the responses in this forum specifically, less than helpful to new players. And I can’t say as I blame him, when we post about providing a public event for the community (that we have already been doing for 8 months) and we get questioned about our credentials. Or other people post to ignore our thread and join yours Lilith.
Like I said having more than one option is better for the GW2 community, and that is what this is supposed to be about helping the GW2 community as a whole.
I think the timing is what is throwing folks. I mean, we just started this initiative of our own, and it just happens to be the time where you guys are coming back.
I think the leaders of the mentor thread (which I do not own, but do participate in and give heavily to ) are just trying to keep the initiative strong. It’s been going well, but of course folks feel competitive.
It’s important to help the new folks, it always is, so we are all trying to do that.
[ARES] And all who stood by and did nothing, who are they to criticize the sacrifices of others? Our blood has bought their lives.
Fair enough Liltih, we are not here to step on anyone’s toes. But I did post that we were in the process of planning a large scale public event about a week ago, in the “New to Dungeons” thread. Which is why I am a little surprised at the “lack of support” from the Dungeon community. It is about teaching and building a better Dungeon community, not about competition.
And we should be combining forces instead of competing.
If you look, the dungeon mentor thread was started over 3 weeks ago (with an original thread that was closed due to the owner not wanting to do it being started a few days prior). So the idea is still fresh for us and we are still working on it.
I did see your post, I always check out the sticky to see what’s new, but I’m not sure everyone does. People don’t generally look at my sticky either, unless directed to it in other threads.
Of course we should be joining forces. I think what we are seeing is a clashing of personalities. The elite dungeon runners who frequent the forums are offering up their services to teach, and as with anything, they are wary of people who insult them (like in the recent posts). I think that’s all this is. Personality clash.
[ARES] And all who stood by and did nothing, who are they to criticize the sacrifices of others? Our blood has bought their lives.
As our thread is stickied we do not have to bump it, so we only post in it every couple of weeks, or when people respond there. But as most of the people contact us directly in game (as we asked them to), that thread may not look like it is being regularly updated. But I assure you that we continue to do so “behind the scenes” so to speak. Which may be why you guys assumed you were the only ones doing this recently.
Agreed this may just be a difference of opinion in teaching styles, but it seems more like the elite dungeon runners do not want our help, or only want Dungeons taught their way. Either that or they feel like we are competing competing to see who is more popular. We were never in this to be popular or well known, which was why we did this behind the scenes. We started this for the GW2 community as a whole, not for ourselves, back when we decided to start doing this 8 months ago. But we were looking for a new guild project, and decided instead of going in a new direction maybe we should revive our older project in a big way, hence the public version of our previously private runs. Anyways as this is getting way off topic, I do not see any further need to continue this discussion. But I do wish you guys luck on your own initiative.
Didn’t mean to come off as combative. Sorry if it seemed that way. I am just very passionate about helping the community and am wary of the “play how you want even if it hurts the group” mentality. I’m glad there are other people out there that share my passion for educating the willing
Thank you for your response Tree. We are also passionate about helping the community, which is why we are here. And just because we accept “play how you want” players does not mean we necessarily agree with them. But everyone here is entitled to play the game (they purchased) for fun. But as fun is subjective (to that individual), only that individual can define what they would call fun, be it a META build or otherwise. Essentially we are all “playing how we want”, some of us just play “mathematically optimized” (so to speak). So I personally do not see the need to exclude any type of player from the community.
Glad to see concordance. Also, again, since there is so much interest in being taught dungeons I’m really glad to see more people teaching. As it stands in [Noob] we have tons of students and not enough teachers. So yay.
[ARES] And all who stood by and did nothing, who are they to criticize the sacrifices of others? Our blood has bought their lives.
Hey Lilith and Tree, I just want to ask that you do not take my occasional negative attitude on some of the goings on in Gw2 to be reflective of this event. I am but one of the 8 mentors who are running this event. Also this event is nothing that will be intruding on the wonderful group of teachers that you guys have organized. It is a once in a couple of months type of event. I did not know whether the teachers in the Dungeon Mentors thread wanted to collaborate but I believe that for next time we could get more then 4 parties together on the same day if we were to work together?
All that aside though, I try to get onto the Gw2 forums as much as I can and for some reason I always disregard the stickies. I posted this a second time for players who have the same issue.
Once again as Kane (Ragingdragon) said we did not mean to step on anyones toes and I believe that for the next event we could have both [Noob] and [ARES] collaborate to get a greater number of Mentor runs if you guys agree.
“I may not be a horse whisperer, but I certainly
can and do speak to unicorns.” (Arrow The
Unicorn)
At the time of my original post in that thread attitudes in this forum was somewhat different, so my tone was somewhat different. I have always taken the standpoint that you run with what you are comfortable with and how you enjoy playing, and at the time of the OP people were often berated for not running full berserker gear or using specific weapon sets, and even for daring to want to play certain classes. While that is not completely gone there is less of it now. I was happy to see that the NOOB initiative had two separate teaching groups, one just for dungeon mechanics and one to actually teach the meta.
My intent with starting that thread was to allow people a safe environment to learn basic dungeon mechanics while they decide how they want to run for themselves. Some people love speedclearing when they get their feet steady, others never get past casual and dungeons like Arah will forever be beyond their skill level. I think its great what you guys are doing with a larger group of mentors who spend almost all of their time running dungeons.
I won’t pretend I don’t disagree with the attitude of some people who frequent/frequented this forum, but I have never been one for arguing on the internet so I keep my opinions of individuals to myself. These days the general attitude on this forum has changed, although it still has a reputation among the overall game community as a toxic place (this is less my opinion and what I have been told by other players). Things like the NOOB initiative and your FAQ thread help to remove that opinion. A lot of it comes from the constant war between people expecting everyone to suddenly stop skipping and stacking and trying to cram it down the speedclearers throats and some on the other side taking a vocal standpoint that if you don’t run meta builds you suck and should not run dungeons. A vocal minority has tainted this forum to the game community, and it makes me smile to see that there is a growing group from the elite community (not elitist, two entirely different things) making a real effort to change that.
Dramen Maidria
Knights of ARES, Dragonbrand
Good times, good memories
You may not have noticed, Dramen, but there is a “Stacking exploit! Skipping exploit! Zerker gear exploit! Dodging exploit! Soloing dungeon exploit! Being better than me exploit!” thread appearing daily, and not just in the dungeon forum. And the vast majority of the time, the players making these threads: 1) use terrible English; and 2) demonstrate in their complaints an alarming ignorance of game mechanics. Us “elitists” need to actively promote meta builds to combat the aforementioned tide of stupidity that all those “_ is exploit!” people are polluting these forums with.
You know why this has given the dungeon sub-forum “a reputation among the overall game community as a toxic place?” Because the average member of the “overall game community” does not have enough brain-power to realize that us “elitists” are right. The average player is too stupid to understand the extensive theorycrafting that we do, and the enormous amount of time and effort that we put into that theorycrafting. And even if that average player could understand why our meta builds are superior, he wouldn’t care. He’d rather kitten his group by running a rubbish build to maximize his own “fun” at the expense of everyone else. And his excuse for being so selfish? “I play how I want.”
You may not have noticed, Dramen, but there is a “Stacking exploit! Skipping exploit! Zerker gear exploit! Dodging exploit! Soloing dungeon exploit! Being better than me exploit!” thread appearing daily, and not just in the dungeon forum. And the vast majority of the time, the players making these threads: 1) use terrible English; and 2) demonstrate in their complaints an alarming ignorance of game mechanics. Us “elitists” need to actively promote meta builds to combat the aforementioned tide of stupidity that all those “_ is exploit!” people are polluting these forums with.
You know why this has given the dungeon sub-forum “a reputation among the overall game community as a toxic place?” Because the average member of the “overall game community” does not have enough brain-power to realize that us “elitists” are right. The average player is too stupid to understand the extensive theorycrafting that we do, and the enormous amount of time and effort that we put into that theorycrafting. And even if that average player could understand why our meta builds are superior, he wouldn’t care. He’d rather kitten his group by running a rubbish build to maximize his own “fun” at the expense of everyone else. And his excuse for being so selfish? “I play how I want.”
Elitism doesn’t spawn from being good at what you do. It comes from looking down on others that disagree with your viewpoints. Some people don’t want to stack because it IS an abuse of poorly designed game mechanics, and some people don’t want to run your builds because they want to play the game their way for their own enjoyment. I mean, heaven forbid that someone plays a video game for fun and doesn’t treat it like a job, right?
That’s where you’re wrong. Elitism DOES spawn from being good at what you do. The reason your average player is NOT “elite” is because he is NOT good at this game. Your average player is a bad pug who “plays how he wants” for his own enjoyment, and doesn’t give a kitten about the enjoyment of others. If he did care, then he’d play a meta build to help to group. If he did care, he’d pro-actively attempt to improve himself by watching speedrun videos to learn dungeon tactics before joining an “EXP ONLY” group. If he did care, he’d take a look at all the research behind our meta builds. He’d draw on our collective knowledge. But no, doing any of that is “too much work”; that “average player” would rather join a speedrun LFG and get carried by others who DO play meta builds.
Your logic is so backwards that it confounds me. I will never understand this game’s ‘PvE elite’ for the exact reasons you’ve just shed light on: You are complaining about others not caring about your enjoyment, and yet you consistently talk down on them for playing the game for their enjoyment. Ever consider that maybe some people HAVE looked into meta builds, and speedclear tactics, and just prefer to play the game a different way even though they are perfectly capable of playing the game your way as well?
The kind of attitude you are displaying toward the ‘average player’ is exactly why the average player refers to you as elitists, among other more directly insulting terminology. Your views represent the archetype of a person completely and utterly deluded by stereotypes, and until you fix that and learn to get past it the problem that you are complaining about will not stop.
I personally know better than to generalize every player that is interested in speedclearing and meta builds into this specific category, but many people won’t, and you are setting a bad example for the rest of them just like the people you’ve had bad experiences with are setting a bad example for the players that you are generalizing yourself.
_________
TL;DR: Go look in a mirror and please stop being hypocritical. I’d hardly like to see someone who looks down upon the average player with such contempt trying to act as a teacher to them.
At Ani and Blackbox: I’m just going to try and rein this in: take your arguments to a PM so that this thread does not get muddled with it. Your posts are off topic and do not belong in this thread.
At dramen, let us know when you intend to do another of these so that maybe we can join forces.
[ARES] And all who stood by and did nothing, who are they to criticize the sacrifices of others? Our blood has bought their lives.
At Ani and Blackbox: I’m just going to try and rein this in: take your arguments to a PM so that this thread does not get muddled with it. Your posts are off topic and do not belong in this thread.
At dramen, let us know when you intend to do another of these so that maybe we can join forces.
I apologize for the derailing, but don’t worry. I’ve said all that I need to say about the matter.
Lilith we definitely will, Kane and I have had to scale back in recent months due to real life stuff, which was why I was happy to see such a large initiative spring up over mentoring.
Dramen Maidria
Knights of ARES, Dragonbrand
Good times, good memories
Our Ts3 Server information is: TS3WDC02.TrinityGames.com:9988 (case sensitive and at the moment it has a password which will be removed on the day).
