Guild Wars 2

They added new archers so when u hug wall
U get attacked, they added more
Mobs and if u kill them they respwan,NO MORE NPCS. When u attack
dulfy more
Mobs comes plus the mobs u have to
Kill near her, wth man i find this really annoying I tried having ideas to
Go in without attracting mobs but won’t work we had to wipe a thousand times to hit gate and go though and kill dulfy behind gate it’s ridicolous. >:( did anybody notice
This?

Well honestly I’m fine with it. Ascalon is a pretty rare fractal and if it’s as bad as you say redoing swamp really isn’t that bad.

I’m really happy that I did the achievement with killing the chicken solo last week… wasn’t too hard and now it would be near impossible ^^

It’s crazy and impossible. It wasn’t like this yesterday so I’m assuming it’s a ninja patch

If i remember correctly, whenever you get too close to the wall, you would always be barraged by arrow carts anyway.

There have always been bugs when the NPCs randomly vanish or get aggroed away from you and start fighting in the middle with the ascalonians. The gate fight has never been something you can blitz.

Not sure which direction you’ve been approaching from, I presume the standard left swing and under the wall. But just for something different, has anyone tried approaching from the right?

Personally, I really enjoy Charr fractal. If anything, Anet might think about changing it slightly to increase the distribution of the mobs so that you can’t just swing round the outside of the battlefield, or at least you have to clear a couple of mobs to do so. Nerf the mobs just a little bit but increase their numbers to compensate. It would be kinda cool if your party has to lead a charge through the ascalonians to reach the gate. The NPCs that follow you need some AI improvement so they don’t run off at the least sign of aggro, something like taking aggro on things that your party attacks.

Ascalon fractal is the second worst change in gw2 history.

It used to work.
Then for some reason, someone decided to nerf the already poor NPC AI to make a wipe nearly mandatory for every run.

Also they steadily added bugs over bugs each patch.

The fcactal was balanced already but they had to ruin it in previous Patches.

But nothing annoying like molten fractal.
That still have the worst gamebreaking bugs.

Why the kitten would they mess with a Fractal that was both fine in difficulty and length? Sure the reliance on NPCs was annoying, as were the untelegraphed instant-gib AoEs by the NPC Elementalists but overall it was just that…..fine.

And now they messed with it for no good reason….wth?

Rikimo.2650:

They added new archers so when u hug wall
U get attacked, they added more
Mobs and if u kill them they respwan,NO MORE NPCS. When u attack
dulfy more
Mobs comes plus the mobs u have to
Kill near her, wth man i find this really annoying I tried having ideas to
Go in without attracting mobs but won’t work we had to wipe a thousand times to hit gate and go though and kill dulfy behind gate it’s ridicolous. >:( did anybody notice
This?

I heard about this, I want to see if its as bad as people say… Im pretty sure players will start to flood the forums complaining about this fractal if this is the case.

Thanathos.2063:

I’m really happy that I did the achievement with killing the chicken solo last week… wasn’t too hard and now it would be near impossible ^^

Do all achieves in a level 1 fractal :-}

Impossible? I didn’t even notice the changes, it went just as usual…
Uhhhhh, I might have an idea why.

I actually found it went better than before, I didn’t have stupid npc messing up the aggro, the boss took a little longer but the rest went smooth , it was only a lvl 38 though

Also, maybe it’s just me but the wern’t that many mages, only 2-3 at a time (not the usual 7-8 mages group that instantly ohko your party)

Hmm I did mines in a lvl 50 what a nightmare. When u start the dungeon when u hug the left wall there’s some archers that would be impossible to go through without killing them. Then u have to kill those respawneble mobs near dulfy. XD

I just got this fractal for the first time since the patch, think it was only level 29 though, I didn’t notice any new archers, and we hugged the wall as per usual. I asked the others in my group if they had seen any changes and they all said no.

I noticed the npc changes though, but that was pretty meh.

Dee Jay.2460:

as were the untelegraphed instant-gib AoEs by the NPC Elementalists

it’s not untelegraphed.

Wow soo u didn’t see the archers that’s crazy I did it in a lvl 50 how about this explain this?

nice screenshot lol

I have done 49 and 50 and those new archers, in two groups, exist in 50 only.
Also there are fewer friendly vets so fights take longer after patch.

did some of my own testing on taking the right side.

yes things respawn but there’s very few mobs at a time as long as you dont aggro the middle.

I am able to get to the door with npcs on dulfy.

this is on FotM 50 by myself but the npcs do not resurrect since I am by myself.

EDIT: got the npcs to respawn, just a bug i guess but it feels like going right side would be faster then going left even before the change as long as you have a solid comp that can murder the respawn mobs then get to the door proper but I guess that’s the message Anet is trying to send

I am also past the door ready to go do the rest of the fractal by myself.

Rikimo.2650:

When u attack
dulfy more

Why would you attack dulfy? Don’t be so mean to her.

I wonder how many times dulfy has committed virtual suicide.

Just to update, it looks like mobs in general have been extremely toned down along with the dredge fractal, the two most lucrative fractals as far as drops are concerned. Unfortunate but I guess its what people wanted. The days of getting upwards of 10 to 20 gold worth of materials on the clown car alone are done.

We did it the last ~ 5 times (in 3 days) without the npcs.

It would be rly nice if they would make the ascalonias lootable. And not respawning infinite.

I just did Ascalon fractal last night on 14. I can’t say I saw anything different at that level. There are now extra Ascalon mobs around the gate, but they’ve been there since a few patches ago. My group cleared them all before taking on Dulfy; they didn’t respawn after being killed.

We did have a Flame Legion Shaman ally now though. Was he always there? I’m used to only ever seeing Shadowblades and Axe Fiends/Bladestorms as allies. (The Shaman’s fire fields were awesome to have. XD)

ohaider,

It’s your friendly dungeon newbie here May I ask why almost every stranger dislikes Ascalon fractal? The highest difficulty I’ve did it was 19 and I find it super easy to deal with – I can pretty much run into the groups of Ascalonians and just facetank them.

… also it offers a great chance to sing “Warm kitty, soft kitty” throughout the whole fractal to my guildies on TeamSpeak. c:

because at higher level any trash mob will have legendary HP and will onehsot you with every attack

Healing area for 12.000 damage, rish for 18.000, lava font for 11.000 per tick before the aoe appears and so on.

That under the fire of sieges that perma knockback and while in minority.

Also mobs will hit you without LoS.

Its pure annoyance that makes no sense.
Its not hard but will probably cause 1-3 wipes making the fractal long and unfun despite everyone in the end will succeed.

Rikimo.2650:

Wow soo u didn’t see the archers that’s crazy I did it in a lvl 50 how about this explain this?

LordByron.8369:

because at higher level any trash mob will have legendary HP and will onehsot you with every attack

Healing area for 12.000 damage, rish for 18.000, lava font for 11.000 per tick before the aoe appears and so on.

That under the fire of sieges that perma knockback and while in minority.

Also mobs will hit you without LoS.

Its pure annoyance that makes no sense.
Its not hard but will probably cause 1-3 wipes making the fractal long and unfun despite everyone in the end will succeed.

You need to bring more support (protection, weakness) and controls (knockdowns, chills, blinds), brute force and killing before being killed doesn’t always work.

I’d assume the biggest problem is getting hit by nonexistant lava fonts when they are actually throwing meteor showers with pretty clear tells.

edit: or possibly that other attack that staffwielding fire attuned elementalists have that isn’t lava font.

It seems that Anet listened to the Agony and scaling the difficulty not by simply ramping up the hp.

I did a lvl 50 maw and the mobs that spam confusion don’t disappear. They still do in lvl 49.

haviz.1340:

LordByron.8369:

because at higher level any trash mob will have legendary HP and will onehsot you with every attack

Healing area for 12.000 damage, rish for 18.000, lava font for 11.000 per tick before the aoe appears and so on.

That under the fire of sieges that perma knockback and while in minority.

Also mobs will hit you without LoS.

Its pure annoyance that makes no sense.
Its not hard but will probably cause 1-3 wipes making the fractal long and unfun despite everyone in the end will succeed.

You need to bring more support (protection, weakness) and controls (knockdowns, chills, blinds), brute force and killing before being killed doesn’t always work.

Exactly the opposite XD
I usually go with a mesmer for its support (dps but still has utilities).

When i get ascalon i just sitwch to ele dps.
No thinking pure dps meta as intended for “cool people”.

P.S. Remirome before “someoneZ” tells you to L2p, ele lift his arm before the invisible lavafont.
That for some players is conidered a “tell” despite you don t actually know who is the target.
I’d like to have that on my ele.

If the elementalists are holding theirs staff up in the air. U can dogde to evade the 1hit lavafont/meteors.
Usually they are all casting it at the same time. So it´s not that hard to do the fractal even at lvl 49 without a wipe, and without the npcs.

It´s just annoying and not rly funny at the beginning battle field. A change here would be welcome.

Hammerstun (Yeah, i mean Warrior F1)/Protection/Blindspam/Weakness are helping too.

Did this frac on lvl50 before and i don’t think it’s all that bad. Those archers are kind of pesky, okay, 1 or 2 less would have done the job too i guess, but nothing too hard about it. With a guard reflection wall it’s even funny watching them hitting themselfes.
It also seems like they’ve decreased the amount of mobs on the “street” – if i’m not wrong.
To me it felt like those mobs have more health or armor though, that’s why they survive so much longer in the “arena”, just like captain ashym. I think that’s fair since you could kill them too easily.
The only thing i slighty don’t like is how many mobs stand in the arena when reaching it. They either sould decrease the ballistas and arrow carts or the amount of mobs by a few. Because the warriors, mages and monks still are kind of op, there are just too many factors to come by when a ballista interrupts and knocks you down while four mages cast their fire balls and some warrior chase you with their atomic greatswords. There’s no point in a one-hit mob if there are so many of them anyway, not even on lvl50. It’s just unfair.
Some fine-tuning and this frac is good in my opinion.

Fine tuning=
reverse every single change made to the fractal
You have boss harder and the rest more reasonable.
Another example where “fixing team” just messed up a perfectly working fractal.

P.S: if possible keep pets and illusions immune to agony Attacks.

LordByron.8369:

because at higher level any trash mob will have legendary HP and will onehsot you with every attack

Healing area for 12.000 damage, rish for 18.000, lava font for 11.000 per tick before the aoe appears and so on.

That under the fire of sieges that perma knockback and while in minority.

Also mobs will hit you without LoS.

Its pure annoyance that makes no sense.
Its not hard but will probably cause 1-3 wipes making the fractal long and unfun despite everyone in the end will succeed.

Is 150k legendary HP? Or 4k a oneshot?

Sure, their Flame Burst hits like a truck but it’s a PBAoE with a distinctive sound.

Firestorm is only a problem if you tank all hits.

Wethospu.6437:

Is 150k legendary HP?

Yes /s

Wethospu.6437:

Sure, their Flame Burst hits like a truck but it’s a PBAoE with a distinctive sound.

Flame burst?

What happened to the invisible lavafonts? This changes everything!

Wethospu.6437:

Or 4k a oneshot?

I use light armor professions.
Never seen an hit for 4000.

Lowest hitting attack is 6000 (ranger autoattack and warrior autoattack).

Most Attacks will go for 10.000 + like the healing area and similar.
Imho with pugs best tactic you have is pure, raw, straight DPS.

No need to lose 20 min explaining tactics nobody will follow and you can wipe mages reasonably fast with one rotation.

This way you can kill most groups before npcs dies and spread the Others, so you can clear sieges.

Or you can have 2 mesmers and chain their pull to get mobs where npc won t charge to the center.

P.S. their flameburst hits behind walls for some reason.

Mages also have an autoattack.

Healing Area is only that high because of Might stacks. But I think that one should be toned down (fast animation & big area).

Wethospu.6437:

Mages also have an autoattack.

Healing Area is only that high because of Might stacks. But I think that one should be toned down (fast animation & big area).

Mages hit more with their auto.
Might stacking can t be interrupted since as the skill starts they already have 25 so doesn t matter.

Can anyone explain why heal area does damage? Id love to be able to kill people with healz! Always makes us laugh when someone gets downed to it. “You cant heal things to death”, Ascalonian Monk begs to differ.

LordByron.8369:

I use light armor professions.
Never seen an hit for 4000.

Lowest hitting attack is 6000 (ranger autoattack and warrior autoattack).

Most Attacks will go for 10.000 + like the healing area and similar.
Imho with pugs best tactic you have is pure, raw, straight DPS.

No need to lose 20 min explaining tactics nobody will follow and you can wipe mages reasonably fast with one rotation.

This way you can kill most groups before npcs dies and spread the Others, so you can clear sieges.

Or you can have 2 mesmers and chain their pull to get mobs where npc won t charge to the center.

P.S. their flameburst hits behind walls for some reason.

That’s why I wrote it before:

haviz.1340:

You need to bring more support (protection, weakness) and controls (knockdowns, chills, blinds), brute force and killing before being killed doesn’t always work.

Suddenly they hit like wet noodles.

And i wrote something about pugs, explaining and time.
Also two easier brainless tactics.

LordByron.8369:

Wethospu.6437:

Mages also have an autoattack.

Healing Area is only that high because of Might stacks. But I think that one should be toned down (fast animation & big area).

Mages hit more with their auto.
Might stacking can t be interrupted since as the skill starts they already have 25 so doesn t matter.

Here you go: 3.7k Fireball and 2.8k Firestorm tick.

LordByron.8369:

And i wrote something about pugs, explaining and time.
Also two easier brainless tactics.

Stacking those buffs and debuffs doesn’t require any sort of coordination, i.e. you don’t lose protection duration when you use it too soon since they stack in duration. There’s virtually no difference in support capabilities when you compare pug and guild team while using same team composition. Do you not claim that every pug team requires at least 1 guardian (with 2 being optimal)? 1 guardian can give you permanent protection and getting weakness is trivial thanks to skale venom or glyph of elemental power if you play as an ele.

Wethospu.6437:

LordByron.8369:

Wethospu.6437:

Mages also have an autoattack.

Healing Area is only that high because of Might stacks. But I think that one should be toned down (fast animation & big area).

Mages hit more with their auto.
Might stacking can t be interrupted since as the skill starts they already have 25 so doesn t matter.

Here you go: 3.7k Fireball and 2.8k Firestorm tick.

And 73 damage from volley?

Too low.

Maybe where you are there are some offcourse mobs that hit lower, but even volley hits me for way more.

Try mobs you are supposed to kill.

@Haviz you don t pug.
You should know that is hard even to ask to let you aggro.
You can t position.

Protection is useless in ascalon with pugs…attack rate+ damage is too high.
I pug fractal daily since release…and i never found myself in a party trying to do this fractal in a tactical way.

At that point you need something extemely easy.

If you consider few groups let you do the pull train when they have 2 mesmers (requires only to let mesmers aggro), you can see why what you say won t work.

LordByron.8369:

Wethospu.6437:

LordByron.8369:

Wethospu.6437:

Mages also have an autoattack.

Healing Area is only that high because of Might stacks. But I think that one should be toned down (fast animation & big area).

Mages hit more with their auto.
Might stacking can t be interrupted since as the skill starts they already have 25 so doesn t matter.

Here you go: 3.7k Fireball and 2.8k Firestorm tick.

And 73 damage from volley?

Too low.

Maybe where you are there are some offcourse mobs that hit lower, but even volley hits me for way more.

Try mobs you are supposed to kill.

It’s the first group after the gate. But I guess it’s up to debate whether they are supposed to be killed or not.

I can t explain why you take so low damage.
What i can say is its not what usually happens.

I suspect that sometimes you get some fractal scaled wrongly for some reason.

You even said yourself that Warriors do 6k on their auto. Scaling 5.2k from heavy to light armor is 5.2k * 1.16 = 6k.

I said and i still say it.
Something is strange about your screen.
Even the volley damage is extremely low.

Yes, something is strange but it’s not the damage.

There are two kind of Arrow Carts. Normal ones in front of the gate and in courtyard do decent damage but then there are also “offcourse” Carts in the wall which do barely any damage.