Guild Wars 2

Ohai,

Your friendly, cake and coffee loving, ignorant newbie here! I was wondering if I could create a thread on which veterans that solo dungeons could help newbies like me and others with tips and could probably answer our questions.

I went a few pages back and didn’t manage to find such a thread, feel free to link it in case I missed it, and I also didn’t want to hijack Rage’s “Soloing Dungeons is fun” thread.

Okay, allow me to start off. My main character is an ele, you can see my build here:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFEQJAodnMISZD2yA+MAfEIwBwI9DG9BEHBCAdwiHhlAA-TBSBwAUOBA3UXArSjyKDQpHAnKNE3fAwDAAA-e

The accessories that I currently have are crappy, that’s why I haven’t added them to the build, it won’t make much of a difference. Also disregard the amulet, it’s from my guard only because I needed to put something there. I will be going for zerk one soon and I currently have a few friends crafting the bolts of damask for the back item.

So far I’ve managed to only solo AC story and the vine champion in TA explorable and here comes my problem – I decided to go up since I find the path to be far more easier than forward, however my biggest problem as an ele seem to be the groups of mobs. I wiped a few times during the first few groups near Marlona until I got to those spiders that paralyze you. I spend like 30 minutes trying out different utility combinations but still didn’t manage to take that particular bug down. Do you have any tips on what might be a good strategy to use against those?

I shall be sharing cake in-game if you help me out! <3

Winter

Boom!

You don’t even have to dodge if done properly.

0.o

as always.

Wethospu delivers!

thank you sir!

For soloing with elementalist, I’d go with this setup

If you take an energy sigil, you could go 6/6/2/0/0 I suppose. Then I think Sigil of Battle should be a good sigil for soloing content (Strength + Battle??).

Also for the spider paralyzes you, you could use Obsidian Flesh

get your fgs ready for groups with stone touches and dps them down before they can hit you. you can los them on the lieft side right before the entrance to the malrona cave.
what I also found helpful was lava tomb (adept trait in fire). It’s like an 8s lava font when downed which is really good for rallying. also try staff and cast a meteor shower before they get to you.

Change your build would be the first thing.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Zelyhn-s-Advanced-D-F-PvE-Guide/first

Scepter conjure builds and staff builds can often be more efficient in some situations. But D/F is a good flexible solo build. As any soloer knows, be prepared to change build for almost every encounter. Adapting your traits and weapons around each encounter is very important especially when just getting started. Being creative and finding what works for you is a big part of soloing. What works for some people might not work for you etc.

Wethospu, thank you! This is indeed valuable information, I will try to keep it in mind.

Jerem, I’m a few months and some hundreds gold away from the build. I will consider the sigils, thanks!

Orgraal, will do, cheers!

Spoj, yea, I know that D/F build, I’m just experimenting around and I want to push the build I posted up there to its boundaries. And thanks for the tips!

Probably going to give it another try tonight when I get back home. (:

Jeremlloyd.6837 posted exactly what I use on my ele whenever I solo, but periodically I’ll change traits depending on if staff is particularly good for an encounter or if I plan to make use of FGS/LH as much as possible (in which case you’d swap out pyromancer’s alacrity for conjurer).

You definitely want to stay in full berserker and to avoid going lower in fire magic as much as possible because in a solo situation you will struggle to deal a sufficient amount of damage unless you make use of FGS. However, for lower dungeons like AC/TA it’s pretty awesome. It’s mostly for ones like Arah that you’ll most likely not want to solo with ele on unless you’re feeling patient. :P

The silver spiders before Malrona are definitely tough because you often have to deal with more than one at a time. Ele might have enough burst to actually kill one quickly then retreat, but this part takes me forever on mesmer.

A couple points:

• The first groups will maintain aggro almost all the way to the waypoint. If you pull them back into the cave and you die, the NPC will hold aggro while you can respawn.
• The 5 final spiders spiders have slightly different leash ranges based on their initial position, all somewhere near the entrance of the cave. So you can carefully pull them and have all but one reset. It’s easy to fight the spiders if you can get them alone.

The NPC can help, but be aware that if the NPC is killed and you res her normally, she will immediately run back into the room and aggro spiders. To avoid that, teleport to the entrance waypoint and back and she will respawn without aggro.

winterchillz.2564:

Wethospu, thank you! This is indeed valuable information, I will try to keep it in mind.

Jerem, I’m a few months and some hundreds gold away from the build. I will consider the sigils, thanks!

Orgraal, will do, cheers!

Spoj, yea, I know that D/F build, I’m just experimenting around and I want to push the build I posted up there to its boundaries. And thanks for the tips!

Probably going to give it another try tonight when I get back home. (:

May I propose a variation of the Poor Man’s build, based on your build:
winterchillz edit
Plus Candied Dragon Roll.

My reason:

• I took Air IX (or I) instead of Air X because main my burst damage will come largely from Burning Speed/Glyph of Lightning Storm/ Lightning Hammer in Water attunement. Swirling wind is used as defense against the (absolutely disgusting) immobilization attack.
• The rotation would be open with Flame Wall+ Burning Speed + swap to Air Attunement to kill the Hatchlings → Swirling Wind, cast Glyph of Storm → swap to Water Attunement + Frozen Burst + Drop LH to blind and kill off the rest. Use Arcane Shield when needed.
• I’m on the fence between the Storm and the Ice Bow. Ice bow would be nice so that you can pump out more blast finishers instead of waiting to finish the casting of Glyph of Storm.
• The key is big Burst Damage with some extra cleanse as those little ones hurt a lot and deal considerable condition damage.

As for the Manly variance, suggested by Jerem and Miku:

• Stack might with a usual rotation
• Use Sandstorm for blinding
• Ice bow for sweet burst
• 111111 in Air
• Burning Speed whenever it’s off CD (12 sec)

Finally, the Manliest staff build from our larger-than-life celebrity, Dub

• It was used against the Queen Spider but in the general sense, it should work.
• Basically, stack might, pre-cast Meteor Shower and then obliterate everything with your FGS.
• Use Arcane Shield for your Rush, then alternate between dodging with skill #3
• Cleanse your immobilization.

Fun, a dungeon soloing thread other than weths compilation. Not a bad idea actually, just hoping it will stay up and non ele/wars will come around. I’ll monitor this myself I suppose

I too use 6/6/2/0/0 on Train Of Thought.
Have been using it as long as i can remember…
Weapon sets are always Dynamic, unless i’m lazy and stick to d/f.

Super helpful tips, thank you everyone! You will receive your cake via a mail tonight.

Last night I felt like playing my warrior so I instead managed to solo TA up on her. Was super happy until 1 hour later when we got into fractals and I got Rasi on the party just to fail big time. sigh

Did arah p2 solo as warrior today and it wasn’t that challanging people always said.
Belka was easy as hell, just dps her run ooc "shake it off "and dps her again.
Abornimation is easy as well – you even havn’t to dodge during the autoattacks.
Lupicus was a bit more fun but the fact that you are able to dodge every single attack makes it a bit boring – it isn’t that hard to evade his attacks. They’re extremly simple to notice.
Alphard was just spamming autoattack during walking in a circle. Then I invited my guildies to donate them some gold.
Srsly I don’t udnerstand why people told me it requires Skill to do that and why they designate themself as “Skilled players”. It just needed some practice and it was a firsttry. I often did p2 with a group but never solo.
For sure it was more fun than running P2 with a 5 man group but it didn’t require that amount of skill, though. If there isn’t any more challenging and funnier content to solo, I’ll quit as fast as I have started with soloing Gw2 – AI

How do you guys enjoy soloing Gw2 content? Is there something more fun than arah p2?

Spider Queen man mode.

plays on easy class
bugs a boss
complains game is easy

lol

lupi in or out of wall?

You mean with man mode full melee, allthough her patched poisn fields, I guess?
I already defeated her , for sure not 100% melee. I played with GS/ Longbow to get out of her poisn fields. I don’t enjoy to make content artificially hard, so I think I wouldn’t enjoy to beat the spider, only because I stayed melee 100%
In Gw1 for example I enjoied to solo FoW fullrun as ranger. I just miss something simillar to that in Gw2.

@maha
I only have a warrior at 80 ,sorry for that. @ Belka I could hide aswell behind the pillars instead of running ooc wouldn’t require more “skill”.
And because I did lupicus solo the first time I didn’t know how to push him infront of the wall.

No dodges, no damage taken, only melee skills, must hit at least every 5 second (to prevent kiting).

Properly I’ll try it, but I don’t think that I’ll enjoy that. How I said I don’t enjoy content that I make artificially hard for myself.
But ty for your help and advices

Well, if you solo, you are already making it artificially harder. Just up to you how far you are willing to go.

Year that’s right. But It just doesn’t make me more proud because I did arah p2 for example without any dodges. It’s the same achiv – Arah p2 solo.
Dunno in Gw1 it was so fun to solo. In Gw2 I played a lot of PvP now I started with soloing and Iam just disappointed.

But a friend already told me arah p4 ( for sure without dwayna) requires more skill than p2 – so I’ll try this in near future. Properly it needs some time that I can enjoy this, otherwise I have to return to Solo PvP and normal fast dungeon runs with my guild.

This guy again. How did that Justin Wong solo go?

dominik.9721:

You mean with man mode full melee, allthough her patched poisn fields, I guess?
I already defeated her , for sure not 100% melee. I played with GS/ Longbow to get out of her poisn fields. I don’t enjoy to make content artificially hard, so I think I wouldn’t enjoy to beat the spider, only because I stayed melee 100%
In Gw1 for example I enjoied to solo FoW fullrun as ranger. I just miss something simillar to that in Gw2.

@maha
I only have a warrior at 80 ,sorry for that. @ Belka I could hide aswell behind the pillars instead of running ooc wouldn’t require more “skill”.
And because I did lupicus solo the first time I didn’t know how to push him infront of the wall.

“I don’t enjoy making content artificially hard, that’s why I soloed a boss/dungeon”.

If you don’t like it … don’t do it.

I find warrior to be most fun to solo with. For thief I just find myself either pistol whipping or CnD backstab or Heartseeker spam all day. Just my 2cents.

maha.7902:

dominik.9721:

You mean with man mode full melee, allthough her patched poisn fields, I guess?
I already defeated her , for sure not 100% melee. I played with GS/ Longbow to get out of her poisn fields. I don’t enjoy to make content artificially hard, so I think I wouldn’t enjoy to beat the spider, only because I stayed melee 100%
In Gw1 for example I enjoied to solo FoW fullrun as ranger. I just miss something simillar to that in Gw2.

@maha
I only have a warrior at 80 ,sorry for that. @ Belka I could hide aswell behind the pillars instead of running ooc wouldn’t require more “skill”.
And because I did lupicus solo the first time I didn’t know how to push him infront of the wall.

“I don’t enjoy making content artificially hard, that’s why I soloed a boss/dungeon”.

If you don’t like it … don’t do it.

It’s a difference between soloing stomething without groupmates and to shoot yourself in your own leg.
But I have get lot of new advices and ideas from some friends, which I’ll try out. So it won’t get to much boring up to ToL 2.

sigh and someone is here again to ruin people’s days. Let’s just keep this thread for those interested in soloing and who like pve, hmmkay?

With the risk of being annoying, could we please have the thread only for tips and advice for newbies that are interested in soloing due to one reason or another, instead of arguments.

Have some cake and go kill a dredge. Because, you know, dredges suck.

Thanks c:

Sanderinoa.8065:

• Let’s just keep this thread for those interested in soloing and who like pve, hmmkay?

I like PvE, I spent like 80% of my Gw2-time in dungeons. I worked with my guild for a cm p3 worldrecord ( get it for round about 2 days before SC ^^) etc.
Iam just disappointed because firends always told me that I have to start with soloing and that it requires so much skill. Now it was done and I didn’t enjoied it., because killing Alphard by spamming autoattack during walking in a circle wasn’t that fun.
Therefore I asked for sth. which is simillar challenging and fun like Gw1.
It was my only question

How do you guys enjoy soloing Gw2 content? Is there something more fun than arah p2?

Don’t know what your problem is. At least Wethospu could give some firendly and serious answers

Sanderinoa.8065:

Fun, a dungeon soloing thread other than weths compilation. Not a bad idea actually, just hoping it will stay up and non ele/wars will come around. I’ll monitor this myself I suppose

Well I’m a dingen noob ad use a thief so I can keep asking for advice on this post, whenever I need advice. That will keep this post lively

dominik.9721:

I like PvE, I spent like 80% of my Gw2-time in dungeons. I worked with my guild for a cm p3 worldrecord ( get it for round about 2 days before SC ^^) etc.
Iam just disappointed because firends always told me that I have to start with soloing and that it requires so much skill. Now it was done and I didn’t enjoied it., because killing Alphard by spamming autoattack during walking in a circle wasn’t that fun.
Therefore I asked for sth. which is simillar challenging and fun like Gw1.
It was my only question

You could always try something else than a warrior but since you wrote you don’t have any other profession that doesn’t leave much of a choice.

Iam working atm on my lvl 40 ranger and I got some cool ideas from my firends.So it seems I’ll get some fun in soloing anytime soon.
Ty @ the people with some serious advices

My problem is with the way you write, you don’t sound like you’re actually looking for answers, but instead seem to be here to tell us about how easy everything is and that people who call themselves “skilled” are idiots.

I am open to taking your question seriously though. I enjoy soloing content because on my mesmer I can and have go take various different approaches at each encounter, and learn my class as well as the encounters a lot better that way.

That aside, there are a lot of things harder than arah p2, I personally had a lot of fun wit soloing fractals like Cliffside and volcanic(shame I can’t redo it on mes atm). That aside I had more trouble with the legendary svanigandr than I ever had with lupi, and if you’re really up for some fun you should try the hotw story boss solo.

Even subject alpha can be a pretty challenging encounter on warrior from what I heard, and if you really run out of ideas you can, indeed, introduce your own gambits, but only if they genuienly make it more fun for you (no armor isn’t fun imo)

Sanderinoa.8065:

My problem is with the way you write, you don’t sound like you’re actually looking for answers, but instead seem to be here to tell us about how easy everything is and that people who call themselves “skilled” are idiots.

That was not my intention sorry for that, allthough it is true that I’m often very kittend how a lot of experienced Pvers are acting so complacently towards people without that amount of experience

I am open to taking your question seriously though. I enjoy soloing content because on my mesmer I can and have go take various different approaches at each encounter, and learn my class as well as the encounters a lot better that way.

That aside, there are a lot of things harder than arah p2, I personally had a lot of fun wit soloing fractals like Cliffside and volcanic(shame I can’t redo it on mes atm). That aside I had more trouble with the legendary svanigandr than I ever had with lupi, and if you’re really up for some fun you should try the hotw story boss solo.

Even subject alpha can be a pretty challenging encounter on warrior from what I heard, and if you really run out of ideas you can, indeed, introduce your own gambits, but only if they genuienly make it more fun for you (no armor isn’t fun imo)

Thank you for that! That’s what I searched for and at least one who understand what I think about "no armor etc. " :P
I’ll try fractals first I think. Sounds like a funny idea

I want to start learning how to solo on my engi, i know that engi is often seen as a “weak” class, but i know all of Engis toys and how useful they can be…
So: any tips on which Dungeon to start with and what build to take ?

Yeah, im a very stubborn person, so i will find a way to do that somehow, no matter how many ppl tell me to get war or ele for soloing.

Solo content on any class you want, or whatever you feel comfortable with.

Engineers CURRENTLY (key word there) dont have a solid place in the “record run” Meta.

but we are not talking about Record runs. We are talking about finding Challenge and enjoyment in Soloing Content.

So….

Get yer Engie.

And I would (personally) suggest starting with AC Story.

Build? well start with the one you like… and then adjust it as you go along. its the beauty of the new trait system

Artas, don’t give up hope, man.

Start with a dungeon you enjoy and are familiar with tbh.

Soloing Arah p2 with Nec. I thought about doing this since Nec is my main, but I assume it will be quite hard to kill Lupi in comparison with other classes. Is a berserker build viable there (I have energy sigils on offhand weapons), especially seeing that the swarms will most likely annoy in p1 or should I roll a condition build? Also, which utilties would be useful?

//I thought of something along the lines of Consume Conditions, BiP, Well of Power (for vigor), signet of the locust and plague or lich form for the utilities.

Hey Sanderinoa, on average how many hours do you think you put into each dungeon path before you have a clean solo? If DnT Tourney is successful and there would be future tourneys, I want to solo other dungeons to improve my skill as a player rather than soloing Arah just to make money.

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

Soloing Arah p2 with Nec. I thought about doing this since Nec is my main, but I assume it will be quite hard to kill Lupi in comparison with other classes. Is a berserker build viable there (I have energy sigils on offhand weapons), especially seeing that the swarms will most likely annoy in p1 or should I roll a condition build? Also, which utilties would be useful?

//I thought of something along the lines of Consume Conditions, BiP, Well of Power (for vigor), signet of the locust and plague or lich form for the utilities.

Berserker is probably a bit easier but condi is faster. You can have some difficulty with condi due to lack of lifeforce for aoe in phase 2 and lifesteal cleansing your conditions in phase 3. See vids below.

http://youtu.be/Nk2NNMxp3t4
http://youtu.be/fryNu0KS8iQ

spoj.9672:

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

Soloing Arah p2 with Nec. I thought about doing this since Nec is my main, but I assume it will be quite hard to kill Lupi in comparison with other classes. Is a berserker build viable there (I have energy sigils on offhand weapons), especially seeing that the swarms will most likely annoy in p1 or should I roll a condition build? Also, which utilties would be useful?

//I thought of something along the lines of Consume Conditions, BiP, Well of Power (for vigor), signet of the locust and plague or lich form for the utilities.

Berserker is probably a bit easier but condi is faster. You can have some difficulty with condi due to lack of lifeforce for aoe in phase 2 and lifesteal cleansing your conditions in phase 3. See vids below.

http://youtu.be/Nk2NNMxp3t4
http://youtu.be/fryNu0KS8iQ

Sweet, I’ll take a look at them later. Thank you.

Forgot to mention. Energy sigils are required. If you are still struggling, get endurance food, use double wells (for locusts), signet of locust and use speed of shadows in soul reaping. This allows you to always have bonus movement speed even in DS and means you can get out of aoes more easily. Plague form for phase switch and accidental bubbles.

Yeah, guessed as much. Energy sigils are ready since I almost do everything with Nec.
In groups my main problem actually was staying alive during his Necrid Barrage, but I guess the swarms will make me kite like a man in p1.

Anyway, once I’ll try it I will post progress.

EcoRI.9273:

Hey Sanderinoa, on average how many hours do you think you put into each dungeon path before you have a clean solo? If DnT Tourney is successful and there would be future tourneys, I want to solo other dungeons to improve my skill as a player rather than soloing Arah just to make money.

Hmmm.. its hard to determine as it will all depends a bit on your class knowledge but even more on dungeon specific knowledge(thoigh some are very straightforward).

The longest time I ever spent on one solo was my lvl 20 Cliffside solo, it took 40 hours which included a long time of me just sitting at the two seals trying to figure out what the hell I was going to do.

Hard bosses usually take about 10 to 15 hours to take down xD focussing on lupi, though that was my first time in arah, and the volcanic fractal boss on thief, as I had just crafted it to 80.

I’m fairly confident that a regular dungeon path would take me about 4 hours or more to solo for the first time, but I’d probably manage in one go, simply because encounter types are limited and I have learned to react to them properly with my class throughout my older solos.

Nevertheless, different classes require different levels of depth and performance, and solo a require a very different approach than team fights meaning you will definitely require certain qualities to a larger extent(mes mostly consistent play because of low dps).
This all means that your personal input is going to determine the time you take for soloing a lot more than factors like which class you’ve picked.

Another thing that will influence time is going to be in which DEPTH you look at dungeons while you play with groups, I found that knowing the exact way attacks work can speed things up a lot as you can fond weaknesses a lot more easily that way.

You’re going to be spending some time on soloing, but if it’s for the tournament you are definitely going to learn a lot of useful things about your class as well as the dungeon, no matter how long it takes you.

Now to your actual question (yeah I totally read it again after writing all this) a clean solo is usually already the second or often third time you do it.
First time takes a long time, second time takes about half of your first actual clear time(excluding experimenting), this is the run in which you clean out your mistakes, then third time is usually very clean.

Hope this helps

1. Pick warr;
2. Go TA fwd;
3. Do everything nearly flawlessly;
4. At the skip before Laurent, get shot by an archer in midair;
5. Continue falling down;
6. ?
7. Cry.

sigh

Artasqweroldy.7458:

I want to start learning how to solo on my engi, i know that engi is often seen as a “weak” class, but i know all of Engis toys and how useful they can be…
So: any tips on which Dungeon to start with and what build to take ?

Yeah, im a very stubborn person, so i will find a way to do that somehow, no matter how many ppl tell me to get war or ele for soloing.

Go for it meng. When I started soloing, thief was widely considered the worst dungeon class. Hope you’re able to change some minds and raise awareness GL

So I did HoTW story solo and hotw p1 solo. I have to say that end boss at story, kodan’s bane is impossible to solo as a Thief.
Ginva the Butcher took 22mins, basically a snoozefest.

Vs. Wahlen air gun 1million dps http://www.twitch.tv/eco_r_i/c/4517068
literally

Artasqweroldy.7458:

I want to start learning how to solo on my engi, i know that engi is often seen as a “weak” class, but i know all of Engis toys and how useful they can be…
So: any tips on which Dungeon to start with and what build to take ?

Yeah, im a very stubborn person, so i will find a way to do that somehow, no matter how many ppl tell me to get war or ele for soloing.

Engineers are actually a pretty solid class for soloing content since they can do just about everything to some extent. I’ve had much easier time doing dungeon/fractal solos on my engi compared to my warrior/thief/ranger/mesmer.

And engi is so far the only class for me on which I’ve managed to get Lupi to ~15%. Someday I’ll find enough interest to go into Arah and take down that bugger.