Guild Wars 2

I’ve put hundreds of hours into GW2 and have never stepped foot into a dungeon or fractal. Generally I play GW2 as if it were a single player RPG and I never care for situations where I’m forced to use a specific build and party up with others that simply want to rush through to get loot. I want to try them with my Mesmer that I’ve built through PvE and I don’t want to have to change my set up.

I would love to try one on my own, but it doesn’t really seem possible. Am I out of luck here? Do I have to continue ignoring Dungeons/Fractals or else deal with having to team up with four strangers?

You can start by trying to solo the story mode dungeons, you can search on youtube for videos about solos. Start with ascalonian catacombs story mode, the lower lvl dungeons should be easier.

You can also search on youtube for builds, where you can maximize reflect uptime or personal dps, maybe go for a condi build, getting this kind of knowledge is really fun.

Another thing that helps a lot is getting a friend or anyone to duo dungeon paths, AC path 1 for example gets really easy in a duo and if one of the players is an elementalist.

You CAN solo… soloing without experience is going to be painful though. And that experience is least painfully gained through doing it with a group. I probably did a few dozen runs through Arah before I really felt comfortable trying to solo paths. Some other paths are easier… but I don’t know about for mesmer, honestly Arah is the toughest dungeon but imo most strait forward for solo.

Chaotic.9760:

I’ve put hundreds of hours into GW2 and have never stepped foot into a dungeon or fractal. Generally I play GW2 as if it were a single player RPG and I never care for situations where I’m forced to use a specific build and party up with others that simply want to rush through to get loot.

You aren’t forced to join those types of groups.
Make your own LFG add and include things like “casual, everyone welcome, no rush, fullclear” etc.
If you really insist on soloing them, mesmer isn’t really the best class for it, certainly when you don’t have experience with soloing yet.

Not to mention, but some paths CoF path one, and CoE etc are impossible to do by yourself. Due to the event triggers.

bladex.9502:

Chaotic.9760:

I’ve put hundreds of hours into GW2 and have never stepped foot into a dungeon or fractal. Generally I play GW2 as if it were a single player RPG and I never care for situations where I’m forced to use a specific build and party up with others that simply want to rush through to get loot.

You aren’t forced to join those types of groups.
Make your own LFG add and include things like “casual, everyone welcome, no rush, fullclear” etc.
If you really insist on soloing them, mesmer isn’t really the best class for it, certainly when you don’t have experience with soloing yet.

What is the best class for soloing dungeons?

Ele/warrior/thief.

But for mesmer solos > https://www.youtube.com/user/sanderinoa/

One thing I want to mention is that while AC is the lowest level dungeon, it is by no means anywhere close to easiest to solo if it’s explorable paths. Explorable paths were very trivial before the downscaling changes from June, but now they are AIDS. Possible of course, but still AIDS. I tried it on warrior and certain events like the p3 burrows which were once faceroll are awful now, but it is still very trivial on ele. Last boss on p3 also has been bugged/overlook since stability changes and the NPC will glitch when he gets knocked down during his shield animation, so there’s that too.

I would say that out of all dungeons TA is by far easiest to solo.

Thanks for the comments guys, I appreciate it.

Solo plus mesmer spells Sanderinoa. Look up his name in youtube, you’ll be delighted.

CM story should be easy enough for mesmers to start with.

Chaotic.9760:

I’ve put hundreds of hours into GW2 and have never stepped foot into a dungeon or fractal. Generally I play GW2 as if it were a single player RPG and I never care for situations where I’m forced to use a specific build and party up with others that simply want to rush through to get loot. I want to try them with my Mesmer that I’ve built through PvE and I don’t want to have to change my set up.

I would love to try one on my own, but it doesn’t really seem possible. Am I out of luck here? Do I have to continue ignoring Dungeons/Fractals or else deal with having to team up with four strangers?

First of all, soloing dungeons is an extremely ineffective and unrewarding strategy. Most of the people you see doing this are bored with the game (lack of new challenging instanced content) and do this just to test their skills. If this is what you seek, be my guest. But if you want to make money, be prepared that it takes a significant amount of time to both learn to solo and execute it. Running with other people (even if they’re inexperienced) is still way more efficient, since content in dungeons doesn’t scale.
Second, are you really sure you want to solo dungeons if you haven’t finished one before, not even with other people? A lot of dungeons can be a challenge for a newbie even if he’s part of a 5-man team, let alone doing them on his own. I’d highly suggest you to pracice a lot in groups to understand general dungeon strategy, get an idea of where you have to go and what you have to do. Then you might have a chance at completing some of the easier dungeons (some story modes as suggested above).
Now about that “I don’t want to change my setup” part. If that’s true, you can forget about ever soloing a dungeon. Imagine that even with full offensive spec, it takes several times longer to finish a path solo than it would with a group. That means with bad gear you might even have to spend half a day in a dungeon just to be able to finish it. Some parts of dungeons will physically require you to wear full offensive set because they’re a DPS race. It is also hugely recommended that you get all the basic consumables (food, potions, feathers, ele powder,…) as they will often make things easier.
It all comes down to what you’re after. If you’re a Sandy-level skill player who seeks challenge, soloing dungeons might be your thing. However, if you just want to get things done, you should do them normally.

spoj.9672:

Ele/warrior/thief.

But for mesmer solos > https://www.youtube.com/user/sanderinoa/

Engi? (ok ok, even playing an engi isn’t easy!)

Jerus.4350:

spoj.9672:

Ele/warrior/thief.

But for mesmer solos > https://www.youtube.com/user/sanderinoa/

Engi? (ok ok, even playing an engi isn’t easy!)

Well yeah we could recommend every single class technically. But i decided to just point out the main fast ones which arent too difficult to do. Engi and guard are decent as well. :P

Well, basically any classes can attempt to solo. But in the necro case, you may need to tug under your belt some crystals, some rocks, feathers, poison pots, pet summoning items, or in a greater effect, some friends to res you… Oh wait, look like it’s not a solo anymore. But whatever…

Tarasicodissa.7084:

Chaotic.9760:

I’ve put hundreds of hours into GW2 and have never stepped foot into a dungeon or fractal. Generally I play GW2 as if it were a single player RPG and I never care for situations where I’m forced to use a specific build and party up with others that simply want to rush through to get loot. I want to try them with my Mesmer that I’ve built through PvE and I don’t want to have to change my set up.

I would love to try one on my own, but it doesn’t really seem possible. Am I out of luck here? Do I have to continue ignoring Dungeons/Fractals or else deal with having to team up with four strangers?

First of all, soloing dungeons is an extremely ineffective and unrewarding strategy. Most of the people you see doing this are bored with the game (lack of new challenging instanced content) and do this just to test their skills. If this is what you seek, be my guest. But if you want to make money, be prepared that it takes a significant amount of time to both learn to solo and execute it. Running with other people (even if they’re inexperienced) is still way more efficient, since content in dungeons doesn’t scale.
Second, are you really sure you want to solo dungeons if you haven’t finished one before, not even with other people? A lot of dungeons can be a challenge for a newbie even if he’s part of a 5-man team, let alone doing them on his own. I’d highly suggest you to pracice a lot in groups to understand general dungeon strategy, get an idea of where you have to go and what you have to do. Then you might have a chance at completing some of the easier dungeons (some story modes as suggested above).
Now about that “I don’t want to change my setup” part. If that’s true, you can forget about ever soloing a dungeon. Imagine that even with full offensive spec, it takes several times longer to finish a path solo than it would with a group. That means with bad gear you might even have to spend half a day in a dungeon just to be able to finish it. Some parts of dungeons will physically require you to wear full offensive set because they’re a DPS race. It is also hugely recommended that you get all the basic consumables (food, potions, feathers, ele powder,…) as they will often make things easier.
It all comes down to what you’re after. If you’re a Sandy-level skill player who seeks challenge, soloing dungeons might be your thing. However, if you just want to get things done, you should do them normally.

My main reasoning for wanting to solo the dungeons is simply because I’ve run out of other single player content, but still want to get enjoyment out of my Mesmer. It sounds like grouping is my only option then as I’m not one to seek out challenge just for the sake of it. Thanks for the input.

My advice; find a guild or a group of people to run with, pugging is all in all a horrible experience, I have met some really good pugs, some really bad pugs and the one’s in-between think they’re gods at the game and are unpleasant to be around. If you run with with pugs that are premade in the same guild, chances are you’ll be forced to wait on them have to deal with random afkers, dcers etc. just delaying you even more and they will look for every excuse to kick you.

If you do decide to pug make sure you join a group that you meet the requirements of, otherwise no-one will have a good experience.

spoj.9672:

Jerus.4350:

spoj.9672:

Ele/warrior/thief.

But for mesmer solos > https://www.youtube.com/user/sanderinoa/

Engi? (ok ok, even playing an engi isn’t easy!)

Well yeah we could recommend every single class technically. But i decided to just point out the main fast ones which arent too difficult to do. Engi and guard are decent as well. :P

I can never pass up an opportunity to shamelessly plug the best profession ever!

on a side note… I’m sorry spoj… reaper… /cry

Dear op. Please start doing dungeons and fractals with pugs there is nothing to be scared of trust me. It will boost your ego and morale after you see that there are much, much MUCH worse players then yourself and lot of people who somehow miss common sense. I was scared of pvp for for a year, when i tried it and it was a good feeling, there was much worse players. Countless worse players.

spoj.9672:

Well yeah we could recommend every single class technically. But i decided to just point out the main fast ones which arent too difficult to do. Engi and guard are decent as well. :P

Engi > Thief

Element Two.7316:

spoj.9672:

Well yeah we could recommend every single class technically. But i decided to just point out the main fast ones which arent too difficult to do. Engi and guard are decent as well. :P

Engi > Thief

Yes and no, there are a lot of dungeons that Thief + Invigorating Precision can make a joke of. So if we’re talking easiest, thief is up there, if we’re talking best ignoring capability of playing the profession I’d agree.