Guild Wars 2

Been gone awhile and returned to see a lot has been added to the game like the new lfg option. Being new to dungeons I’m wondering which dungeons are good for pugging and which one’s should be avoided, for pugging ?

No dungeon is good for pugging.

Tree.3916:

No dungeon is good for pugging.

Lol.

CoF p1 is still probably the least painful to pug.

I’m tempted to say AC, but a lot of PUGs go there, so there’s more of a chance to find baddies? p2 is a no-no for pugs.

TA up maybe.

Other than that, I can’t offer much. I almost always run guild groups.

Oh, fotm30+ is usually safe. People that high already tend to know what they are doing.

It’s good if you just want anybody for anything, but if you want something specific (like speed runs or an unusual path) you’ll have a harder time. The problem is that hardly anyone reads the descriptions (what are supposed to be what filters things out for us). So you’ll get PVT/clerics people with speed runners and people looking for P1 joining P2 parties etc. It can get kinda messy : /

More of my runs fail despite my best efforts to describe what I’m looking for. I miss gw2lfg.com, it’s amazing how much a difference that site made to find desired people for dungeons.

It’s been pretty bad for me thus far. I got through Ascolonian Catacombs and COF. Other than those two, we went down pretty quick and everyone dropped out.

Better then expected actually. Most of the dungeons I do are pugged at this point anyway and I was a big user of the gw2lfg.com before.

I suspected that the LFG tool would attract more inexpirienced players because of how easy it was to access and for the most part I was right, but the ease of use and the frequency at which groups are formed has made it easier.

I have joined all dungeons through the tool and have had mostly sucesses.

Try not to PUG arah too much. It can wear out your soul if you pug with 4 randoms too much.

So what do you guys think about the looking for group option ? As of right now it seems to be pretty useless.

What can make this option viable for enhanced gameplay ? Suggestions ?

Ethics.4519:

Tree.3916:

No dungeon is good for pugging.

Lol.

CoF p1 is still probably the least painful to pug.

I’m tempted to say AC, but a lot of PUGs go there, so there’s more of a chance to find baddies? p2 is a no-no for pugs.

TA up maybe.

Other than that, I can’t offer much. I almost always run guild groups.

Oh, fotm30+ is usually safe. People that high already tend to know what they are doing.

CoF p1 has gone downhill. I joined a 1 mes/4 war zerk run yesterday. The run was setup by the mesmer, he was decent, knew what skills to use and when. The other 3 warriors were terrible. They all gs auto’d until their 100b was of cool down. Then they all 3 died at the Effigy.

Other than that, most runs are average for me. Had an exceptionally good (for pug) arah p2. I started a group for “arah p4 all zerkers, will explain run”. I got 1 zerker, apparently rabid and PVT are “dps builds” as I was told.

Here is the list I don’t mind full puging:

COF P1&2.
AC 1&3
HOTW P1
TA Up

For Arah, if you don’t have a large pool of friends who can run Arah with, pug a few times and add any good players you run into. It will make you punch walls less.

The first few weeks it was pretty much a crap shoot. Now I’m getting about the same proportion of good/bad parties as I did with gw2lfg. Haven’t touched pugging fractals with it yet, though.

It’s pretty much a lottery.

Arah pugs are bad across the board though, I join experienced only groups and they range Lupicus and can’t skip for &%*!

Not to say I’m some kind of god skipper, but for the skips that aren’t path 2 (count to 2 then dodge deadeye too hard for me) I get so bored normally that I wp back and skip everything again just so I can be doing something.

colesy.8490:

It’s pretty much a lottery.

Arah pugs are bad across the board though, I join experienced only groups and they range Lupicus and can’t skip for &%*!

Not to say I’m some kind of god skipper, but for the skips that aren’t path 2 (count to 2 then dodge deadeye too hard for me) I get so bored normally that I wp back and skip everything again just so I can be doing something.

P1, Second skip lets me know what kind of player I got on my hands. P2 skips are easy if you are use to deadeyes. New arah players panic and don’t keep their cool with the big red circle on them.

P3 skips are just plain easy. I don’t even jump on that tree, never got the hang of it, never tried to lol. I just wait for the patrol to pass and waltz on by.

But, I try to keep arah pugging as low as possible. Or with as few as possible.

Cat Has Ducks.1982:

Here is the list I don’t mind full puging:

COF P1&2.
AC 1&3
HOTW P1
TA Up

SE P1/P3 aren’t that bad too.

I pretty much gave up pugging Arah p1 fully. I just do my thing and invite 4 others when I hit Tar Elemental. They can run on their own if they want. Or take my portal I dont care.

Cat Has Ducks.1982:

Here is the list I don’t mind full puging:

COF P1&2.
AC 1&3
HOTW P1
TA Up

For Arah, if you don’t have a large pool of friends who can run Arah with, pug a few times and add any good players you run into. It will make you punch walls less.

I won’t pug AC anymore. Idk why but I’ve always gotten far more bad players for it than the others.

I agree with the dude about SE 1/3… as long as you have enough reflects for the P1 robots and people know how to skip in P3 (smh when 3 people die trying to get across the bridge).

It has made it easier for us to host our pug lottery. Every night there is a chance for you to be the lucky pug to join our 4 man speed run team

I’m actually having a better time with the LFG now, much better actually, when it first came out it was horrible, but now i’m getting pretty good pugs from time to time, and most pugs are willing to follow directions as well.

AC13, CoF12, HotW1, SE13, Arah23, and TA up are all pretty safe.

Safe, not fast.

For anything speed you have to make a lot of stipulations and form your group for more than 2 minutes (hopefully people aren’t impatient).

AC2 is usually fine if you don’t mind some typing and using all 3 traps (according to pugs, damage is a mythical creature) and can play as guard or mesmer.

Young Somalia.1706:

AC13, CoF12, HotW1, SE13, Arah23, and TA up are all pretty safe.

Safe, not fast.

For anything speed you have to make a lot of stipulations and form your group for more than 2 minutes (hopefully people aren’t impatient).

I’d take the whole CoE over any Arah path if i’ve had to pug it.

I’ve gotten to the point where I purely play the game for fun (no grinding ftw, spent gold on 500 dragon coffers like a filthy casual yesterday), and I get a strange level of enjoyment out of pugging Arah despite it being a complete crapshoot.

Skipping mobs ahead of everyone and going in melee against bosses that the pugs are ranging gives me a smug sense of satisfaction, and it’s great wiping at Lupi because then it means I get to practice meleeing him longer.

AndrewSX.3794:

Young Somalia.1706:

AC13, CoF12, HotW1, SE13, Arah23, and TA up are all pretty safe.

Safe, not fast.

For anything speed you have to make a lot of stipulations and form your group for more than 2 minutes (hopefully people aren’t impatient).

I’d take the whole CoE over any Arah path if i’ve had to pug it.

I get the sentiment, but unfortunately, it’s not so intuitive in practice. 2 people can clear any Arah boss, even with poor DPS, and run to the next WP; two people cannot complete P23 Alpha if DPS is kitten simply due to intervals of crystals and dodging (they will eventually overlap and get one person killed, sentencing the 2nd to a rather imminent death).

Love the LFG. Been pugging TA/SE/COE/Arah daily and party fills up fast. On the downside, I wish some players actually bother reading the post before joining. Had a few still stupidly hanging at Fireheart even though the rest of the party were in SE instance already. Or asking ‘f/f right???’ when stated is a TA u/u.

Reading. It’s not that hard.

I only do TA Up and CoF 1,2 with it, the rest i can’t say i trust enough to try.
A bit annoying how Living Story people advertise or join TA expecting it to be for the new path, i don’t want to do the new path, i just want my up/up daily. Haven’t these people heard of TA before this LS? :P

Other than that, it’s been fine for those 3 paths, i’ve never been unable to finish a path, haven’t had any kicks or extremely bad or rude players at all.

No one mentioned CoE full runs… I tend to have pretty nice people that are either good or willing to follow and learn fast. Regarding Fotm, never had any issue, it’s pretty safe if 10 daily or above 26.
It’s far from speedruns, but it’s safe and a good altrnative when you aren’t able to full guild/friend list.

I tried pugging Arah p1 3 times when the tool came out and it almost made me quit GW2. Haven’t been back to Arah since.

Pretty much the same with AC.

TA F/F can make you judge the hell outta people for not being able to make a simple run(Arah can also).

Most Pug lfg groups suck and don’t read descriptions. You can get level 25s trying to join A TA experienced only speed run.

One massive flaw is that whenever i make a LFG. Random people just hit join without even reading it. When you’re group is full. If they are not level 80 or something else.
You have to kick them then make a NEW lfg. A nice addition would be if you could request specific professions or 90% critical damage. Or 5k+ achievement points.
And maybe a couple other options too and then they could ONLY join if they meet those requirements so you dont have to filter them after group is full.

Would be enough to have the option to check the join, looking at the person who’s trying to enter.

Just a “Name: Random Guy, Prof: Engi, Level: 45 is joining your team. Accep/Decline”.

Easy as that.

Not asking for gear/AP/Stat checks, at all.
But let me say “£$/%& NO, i don’t want a third Necro, a lvl 56 when doing coe, this guy i’ve played before with and i know it’s useless and a flamer. /Decline join”

A suggestion for the lfg tool and most of you will hate me for it. Give armor a gear score. Exotics being the best Whites being the worst. You set the minimum gear score required to join your group. But obviously this goes against the play how you want mantra.

Used the LFG feature to breeze through story modes of pretty much every dungeon. Found it decent for putting together 1-9 scale fractal groups.

Explorable dungeons are hit/miss; have been running TA Up path with decent outcomes. Not every run is perfect, but I’m getting way more dungeons completed now in comparison to ever.

Imo, it actually goes well with “I make a group because I want to play how I want”.
The flaw is, Exotic Zerk or Exotic PVT will technically have the same gear score and thus the feature will not filter out unwanted builds.

Nefaria.7659:

Used the LFG feature to breeze through story modes of pretty much every dungeon. Found it decent for putting together 1-9 scale fractal groups.

Explorable dungeons are hit/miss; have been running TA Up path with decent outcomes. Not every run is perfect, but I’m getting way more dungeons completed now in comparison to ever.

To be honest, story mode is not difficult at lvl 80 (with decent gear) scaled down. The other day for story mode daily 3 DnT advertised our party in lfg. We didn’t need to since it can be solo’d easy. A 77 mesmer joined and a 38 guardian joined. They just followed us trying to keep up. In the end, we weren’t expecting the guardian to watch the cut scene so one of our members didn’t get the reward because he left the dungeon too soon lol.

tl;dr;
Story mode easy mode

Miku Lawrence.6329:

Imo, it actually goes well with “I make a group because I want to play how I want”.
The flaw is, Exotic Zerk or Exotic PVT will technically have the same gear score and thus the feature will not filter out unwanted builds.

Yes but exotic gear > rare gear

Pugging will always be pugging… there is no difference in using this tool or spaming LA. Blaming the tool for having bad players in the group is wrong. If you are sooo skilled, then teach players instead of ranting and saying the LFG tool failed.

Usually get decent runs in Cof 1, Hotw 1, SE 1 & 3, AC 1 & 3 when I join speedrun and experienced groups. Story modes are okay too, got a mix of 80s and lowbies. Havent really tried for Fractals but for Arah even ‘experienced only’ groups seem to take longer than the ones I got from gw2lfg.com.

Mesket.5728:

Pugging will always be pugging… there is no difference in using this tool or spaming LA. Blaming the tool for having bad players in the group is wrong. If you are sooo skilled, then teach players instead of ranting and saying the LFG tool failed.

Respect

Mesket.5728:

Pugging will always be pugging… there is no difference in using this tool or spaming LA. Blaming the tool for having bad players in the group is wrong. If you are sooo skilled, then teach players instead of ranting and saying the LFG tool failed.

I 75% agree with you. I wouldn’t say the tool failed, but it could be better.

I don’t mind teaching sometimes. But there will always be the new/bad player that doesn’t want to be taught, or will even get angry.

Ethics.4519:

Mesket.5728:

Pugging will always be pugging… there is no difference in using this tool or spaming LA. Blaming the tool for having bad players in the group is wrong. If you are sooo skilled, then teach players instead of ranting and saying the LFG tool failed.

I 75% agree with you. I wouldn’t say the tool failed, but it could be better.

I don’t mind teaching sometimes. But there will always be the new/bad player that doesn’t want to be taught, or will even get angry.

I don’t know how much better it can get… people suggests filters but its not like there is a flood of parties to pick; there are just a bunch or 1-2 for certain dungeons. It seems pretty simple and it does its job, at least for me; i can’t talk for others.

Regarding players not wanting to learn, that depends of they are being taught. If an experienced player teach others the mechanic of the dungeons, the boss skills, what to dodge, what to reflect, what to clean, etc… I don’t see why anyone would have a problem… Another thing is when some elitist kids come here and say “use zerk – why? – cause its better, huh” or kids yelling in caps “STACK HERE!!! COME NOOBS HERE!!! STACK!!! YOU KNOW NOTHIN!!!” well.. nobody wants to be taught like that, besides its not really teaching anything.

I won’t teach anyone unless they ask for my opinion… why?
It usually goes like this:
Me: Just melee it, it is faster that way. Be careful when he ra-
Pug: No need, lets just range.

Mesket.5728:

Ethics.4519:

Mesket.5728:

Pugging will always be pugging… there is no difference in using this tool or spaming LA. Blaming the tool for having bad players in the group is wrong. If you are sooo skilled, then teach players instead of ranting and saying the LFG tool failed.

I 75% agree with you. I wouldn’t say the tool failed, but it could be better.

I don’t mind teaching sometimes. But there will always be the new/bad player that doesn’t want to be taught, or will even get angry.

I don’t know how much better it can get… people suggests filters but its not like there is a flood of parties to pick; there are just a bunch or 1-2 for certain dungeons. It seems pretty simple and it does its job, at least for me; i can’t talk for others.

Regarding players not wanting to learn, that depends of they are being taught. If an experienced player teach others the mechanic of the dungeons, the boss skills, what to dodge, what to reflect, what to clean, etc… I don’t see why anyone would have a problem… Another thing is when some elitist kids come here and say “use zerk – why? – cause its better, huh” or kids yelling in caps “STACK HERE!!! COME NOOBS HERE!!! STACK!!! YOU KNOW NOTHIN!!!” well.. nobody wants to be taught like that, besides its not really teaching anything.

In an ideal world yes. But you are using logic and reasoning, two things that I have found to be shorter supply in tyria than expected.

Also… this:

Oxxy.7068:

I won’t teach anyone unless they ask for my opinion… why?
It usually goes like this:
Me: Just melee it, it is faster that way. Be careful when he ra-
Pug: No need, lets just range.

I pugged a 38 fotm. I use strife’s strategy for the two arm seals where he portals one side, group runs over, kills, he gets a charge, portals, hits, then come back.

I asked if they wanted to try, they said “what is it?” I told them exactly what to do, etc. As I was clarifying the important parts, one guy said “Na, lets do target” then runs in and starts it. Eventhough the rest of the group wanted to try Strifey’s way.

Young Somalia.1706:

AC13, CoF12, HotW1, SE13, Arah23, and TA up are all pretty safe.

Safe, not fast.

For anything speed you have to make a lot of stipulations and form your group for more than 2 minutes (hopefully people aren’t impatient).

Arah P2 with new pugs can hurt… Really bad. Unless you have like a thief or engineer to make the runs mindlessly easy with invis. I’m telling you, pugs panic with that deadeyes. I literally had to run at deadeyes so they wouldn’t target certain people. Arah P3, is the most pug friendly(of arah) I have noticed.