I don’t understand why Arenanet doesn’t seem to get some of the most basic aspects of their own game. It’s almost impossible to find a decent group for dungeons like Arah or CoE these days, even within my own guild, because they take a lot more time and skill (effor) than places like AC or CoF. Despite this, the reward isn’t any better than other dungeons (in fact, AC and CoF actually give better rewards for the time spent). So for most people there is not a single good reason to do these dungeons.
Meanwhile, places like AC and CoF take very little time and effort relative to the other dungeons and give good rewards, so (besides FotM which is in a unique position right now) they’re pretty much the only dungeons you can find a decent party for at any time.
For people like me and others who didn’t get their Orrian set early on when people were still interested in doing things besides AC and FotM and have to grind up a kittenload of tokens just to get the shiny armor they want, it’s being made almost impossible to find a group because everyone else either already has their armor or doesn’t want it, and the other rewards of these dungeons are simply not worth it compared to the alternatives.
This problem is made even worse by the fact (and this is a bit of a separate topic but I’m going to say it anyway) that dungeon tokens are the only possible way to get certain armor sets. I remember back in GW1 when I really wanted the Kurzick armor, so I needed a bunch of Amber Chunks. To get them I could choose to grind faction points in PvE in a number of different ways, earn faction points in PvP Alliance Battles, or even make a lot of gold and buy the Amber Chunks straight from the marketplace. In GW2 I have no choice but to run the same dungeon again and again, which as I said is being made very hard by the fact that almost noone has any interest in doing so, and I can’t do a thing on my own.
And yes, I fully realise that I don’t -need- Orrian armor to enjoy the game, and that I can just choose -not- to spend all day trying to get a party for Arah. It’s just a shame that entire dungeons are being ignored just because Arenanet doesn’t have the slightest grasp on basic ingame economics.