Why doesnt anyone like TA Aether?
Because Mario Party is MUCH better at Minigames.
And … Guild Puzzles do exist outside of dungeons. Why putting them into one?
And it’s unrewarding. The only reason to go in there are the skins which are very unlikely to drop.
It’s way too long.
The mechanics make you BABYSIT the bad AI of this game. (that has nothing to do with “teamwork”)
The sparky and forgot his name-fight is quite funny, though, but still just a zerker DPS race.
Because Mario Party is MUCH better at Minigames.
And … Guild Puzzles do exist outside of dungeons. Why putting them into one?
And it’s unrewarding. The only reason to go in there are the skins which are very unlikely to drop.
It’s way too long.
The mechanics make you BABYSIT the bad AI of this game. (that has nothing to do with “teamwork”)
The sparky and forgot his name-fight is quite funny, though, but still just a zerker DPS race.
The puzzle is fun, just because people dont know what to do and complain about it doesnt change that fact. The rewards are bad and that is why no one does it. The dungeon is not perfect but it is still fun and a improvement from the rest of them and Anet has improved a 10x since they released that content.
I can understand why people dont like this dungeon. It was very different when it came out so a lot of people got bad groups and just raged. It is hard to go from not having to think in any dungeon to having to know what to do before going into a fight like with TA aether.
Why do you say that it IS fun? (I don’t mean that you have to put a “in my opinion” behind every opinion, of course) That’s subjective! Furthermore, people do know what to do (by now at least), so that argument falls flat.
You always have to know what to do before you go into a dungeon (meaning: you always have to learn certain mechanics which is true for all dungeons), even the farmed ones. Nobody went into CoE the first time, pushed Alpha against a wall and destroyed him like it is done today.
I wanna quote Nike from DnT as he just nailed it for me 2 months ago:
“TA ather path is hardly done because they confused dungeons with guild puzzles. Many other named dungeons have a small puzzle section in them (cof 1 flame braziers, TAFF bubble room) that never verge on annoying, with the exception of some of Arah p4.
However, TA ather path has 3 puzzles that are long and annoying as well as boss fights that substitute puzzle mechanics for actual mechanics. This is why it isn’t done. People want more bosses like Lupicus, or bosses that resemble the Orrian Temple bosses, not bosses like Mecha Oakheart that substitute a puzzle for interesting combat mechanics.
That is the result of Living Story developers designing a dungeon: you end up with a dungeon based around things that open world PVErs enjoy (puzzles, cluster kitten chaotic ranged fights) as opposed what makes a dungeon good.
People ran Arah hardcore for over a year when it had the worst rewards of any dungeon because it was the right kind of challenging and it rewarded practice and skill. They could give Ather path the best rewards in the game (hint: it already does) and people still wouldn’t run it since the encounters are so dismal.
This, incidentally, could be avoided if Anet allowed members of the dungeon community to alpha test things the way they allow members of the WvW/PvP community to do so. It wouldn’t have taken many hours of alpha testing with some of the more serious dungeon guilds before we informed them that Ather path was complete garbage."
(edited by Acerola.6407)
Why do you say that it IS fun? (I don’t mean that you have to put a “in my opinion” behind every opinion, of course) That’s subjective! Furthermore, people do know what to do (by now at least), so that argument falls flat.
You always have to know what to do before you go into a dungeon (meaning: you always have to learn certain mechanics which is true for all dungeons), even the farmed ones. Nobody went into CoE the first time, pushed Alpha against a wall and destroyed him like it is done today.
I wanna quote Nike from DnT as he just nailed it for me 2 months ago:
“TA ather path is hardly done because they confused dungeons with guild puzzles. Many other named dungeons have a small puzzle section in them (cof 1 flame braziers, TAFF bubble room) that never verge on annoying, with the exception of some of Arah p4.
However, TA ather path has 3 puzzles that are long and annoying as well as boss fights that substitute puzzle mechanics for actual mechanics. This is why it isn’t done. People want more bosses like Lupicus, or bosses that resemble the Orrian Temple bosses, not bosses like Mecha Oakheart that substitute a puzzle for interesting combat mechanics.
That is the result of Living Story developers designing a dungeon: you end up with a dungeon based around things that open world PVErs enjoy (puzzles, cluster kitten chaotic ranged fights) as opposed what makes a dungeon good.People ran Arah hardcore for over a year when it had the worst rewards of any dungeon because it was the right kind of challenging and it rewarded practice and skill. They could give Ather path the best rewards in the game (hint: it already does) and people still wouldn’t run it since the encounters are so dismal.
This, incidentally, could be avoided if Anet allowed members of the dungeon community to alpha test things the way they allow members of the WvW/PvP community to do so. It wouldn’t have taken many hours of alpha testing with some of the more serious dungeon guilds before we informed them that Ather path was complete garbage."
Most people still dont know what to do exactly. I am not saying there arent people that know what to do but if you were to get a pug groups 99% of the time they wont know what to do. I would have to disagree with having to know what to do before going into the other dungeons. I did go into a bunch of dungeons in rare gear when the game first started and cleared it without my group wiping or knowing what we were doing going into a fight. I actually like that but it would be hard to have content like that and have it be challenging every time you go in after X amount of runs.
When I say aether path is fun, I am comparing it to the dungeons in this game. I would love to see a lot changed but for now I will compare it to what is in game. The dungeons in gw2 can be much much better than what they are atm which is the whole point of this post. I want to see more interesting boss mechanics that take good team work. Something I would love to see is the use of combo fields in dungeons. People only use it to stack might but what about aoe heals, etc. It is rare to see someone use a water combo field in a dungeon.
Lupicus is not fun at all unless you solo him, even then I wouldnt really call it fun. I dont know how a boss that your whole team can stack on and kill, be interesting, hard, or fun, Which are most bosses in this game, including arah. Most people run arah for there dungeon title or to sell paths. There are people who run it for fun but I would guess there are few.
I wouldnt call aether path garbage, its a fun path compared to the rest but I wouldnt deny that there would have been a lot of changes if Anet let members of the gw2 dungeon community test it before release. Maybe Anet will do this for the next dungeon, IF WE EVER GET ONE! lol
Fire is not the only used combo field in dungeons.
Water, Smoke and Lightning are used fairly often, just maybe not in PUGs.
Whirls + light fields are also good for clearing conditions.
etc.
But its k b/c you can just stack on Lupicus and win amirite?
(edited by TurtleDragon.3108)
Fire is not the only used combo field in dungeons.
Water and Lightning are used fairly often, just maybe not in PUGs.
Whirls + light fields are also good for clearing conditions.
etc.
But its k b/c you can just stack on Lupicus and win amirite?
Did I say those are the only ones? No. You can just stack, just because you have to dodge doesnt mean your not stacking.
Wow that post by Nike is spot on.
I want to add to it though and to the topic because I think a lot of others share this common mindset with me:
I don’t like Scarlet. She is a cringe-worthy and annoying antagonist and I’m happy for her to be gone.
Arah feels like what I would expect when entering an instance of the type “dungeon.” Exploring this ancient city that’s now in ruins with undead enemies everywhere seems a lot more thrilling to me than anything at all to do with Scarlet no matter what. I didn’t want any of the Living Story seeping its way into the dungeons because with every new release of it, it’s felt cheesier and cheesier.
It’s kind of tough to explain what I want to here but not only am I not interested in the story behind Aetherpath at all, it’s the kind of dungeon path that you simply can’t get by without a coordinated group which means that a pug one off the LFG isn’t really viable. I’m personally ecstatic at the idea of dungeons having more difficult content, but this is not what I had in mind. Spending over a half hour wanting to beat my head against the wall because the people on my team are too inept to kite tar elementals away so that I can lure an ooze over to a door is absolutely infuriating. This puzzle isn’t difficult or dangerous, my team is just inept! The mechanics behind this encounter are by no means challenging or demanding of skill.
I think I’ve completed Aetherpath a total of 3-4 times ever and ragequit in pug teams an equal amount of times at the ooze part due to it being essentially impossible thanks to the idiots I was with. I don’t know anyone at all who thought that puzzle was fun.
(edited by Purple Miku.7032)
Did I say those are the only ones?
Something I would love to see is the use of combo fields in dungeons. People only use it to stack might but what about aoe heals, etc. It is rare to see someone use a water combo field in a dungeon.
There’s more to dungeons/fractals than stacking (although not much more), but that’s beyond the scope of this discussion and off topic.
I believe that people would run it if the mechanics were less irritating and less puzzle-y. I enjoy fights like Lupicus and Molten Duo but not fights like clockheart and Mai Trin. Like Nike said, It already does have the best rewards in the game. If only it was more like the other dungeon paths and didn’t replace an existing one.
(edited by TurtleDragon.3108)
- snip -
TA skin is unlikely (understatement) so don’t count on it…ever.
non-skippable cutscenes – no one likes it.
Take out the dumb gimmick before the final boss and people would like it a lot better.
Clockheart himself is fine since you can burn him down with 1 or 2 holo pull depending on party. Not saying that the holo made of glass is good design, it really isn’t – im saying clockheart is fine only because the annoyance can be minimized.
About puzzles – they’re fine first or second time you do a dungeon, but after that the replay value comes from the encounters in the dungeon. People will tolerate a certain amount of puzzles if there is a good enough encounter to look forward to. In the case of TA aether, it’s not that interesting. Imagine arah without lupi; I would never run it again if you take out lupi.
(edited by Bread.7516)
Because I hate puzzles and CC happy mobs. Clear recipe for me having no interest in TA Aether. I cleared it a couple of times when it was new…no interest in a return visit.
Because it felt cheapened to me. The LS wasn’t really in a good place when this dungeon came. They took out a ‘core’ dungeon path to replace with some temporary content. It left me with a pretty poor feeling. It would have been fine as a ‘flavor of the week’ imo, or even as an additional path.
The other main reason I don’t enjoy it is because it’s nearly 100% gimmick. It grabs your attention once or twice and then it’s used up all of its tricks.
I like TA aether.
Blùb [LuPi]
I really like Aetherpath except for the major problem that once I get past slick and sparky, my computer plummets to like 5 fps, starts overheating, and becomes nearly unplayable. Seems like only a few people really have this problem but it is really the one reason I will likely never run it again now that I got the mini from the achievements.
14 Dungeon paths soloed
Lupi solos on 9/9 professions
Wost Engi NA
Lupi solos on 9/9 professions
Wost Engi NA
I like that path, but it’s soooo hard to find a decent group that actually knows what it’s doing.
TA Aetherblade is perfectly good content. No problem there surely? What players want is repeatable content and in all MMOs players go for the easiest route to the most reward. The fun tends to diminish when you repeat stuff too often, whatever it is. So the problem is that TA Aetherblade isn’t as repeatable as COF1. It is also less rewarding than really badly scaled open world zerging of champion for champ purses.
What does that lead though? The GW2 dungeons rely on players sharing common knowledge tactics for the puzzles and bosses. Without those even the staple dungeons look hard to beginners. The player base is not sharing the common knowledge for many of the dungeon paths at the moment. If common knowledge tactics were widely shared then in truth none of the dungeons would be particularly difficult or troublesome for anyone (anyone who can dodge).
Unskippable cutscenes.
Skippable cutscenes that force you to wait for it to play out anyway.
What is the hurry? I got better things to do and I’ve seen them more than enough times already anyway.
It’s long and not particularly rewarding. It is different. It can be decent if you are there with a group where everyone knows what to do or at least willing to learn.
The skins aren’t a factor at all. I don’t like them so the only value is in the gold they could get me running the dungeon is basically buying a lottery ticket. If I did like them farming gold and buying them would still be better due to the drop rate.
(edited by Khisanth.2948)
I dont know how a boss that your whole team can stack on and kill, be interesting, hard, or fun, Which are most bosses in this game, including arah.
And TA aether. Apart from the person running the ooze at sparki and slick and the person who kites the holo to the clockheart, everything can be stacked and killed just fine if you have the proper DPS.
I think the main problem is that it is just a bit too long.
Take away some of the enemies inbetween fights (a group of jungle creatures, a few hologram machines, some of the trash around the spinning boss, and some hologram machines right before the clockheart) and remove that electric jumping puzzle. This could easily take off 45 minutes for casual guild groups without losing the most interesting parts. (Ooze puzzle, Sparki & Slick, The spinning boss, the variety of aetherblade/hologram mobs we find in the dungeon and the Clockheart.)
It is just a bit too much for inexperienced groups to deal with. Especially since many parts require all the teammembers to know what they’re doing. It takes time to explain things and this makes a run often take over 2 hours, sometimes even over 3.
I really like most of the encounters in this dungeon though. Just a shame that it takes so much time to complete.
There isn’t anything wrong with TA Aether. People who say its too long say so because it takes more than 10 minutes to complete because you can’t actually skip mobs in the dungeon, and the boss fights can’t be bugged the same way most can in this game. The playerbase has gotten too comfortable with corner stacking and mob skipping, anything that divulges from this style of mechanic will be considered a poor dungeon.
There isn’t anything wrong with TA Aether. People who say its too long say so because it takes more than 10 minutes to complete because you can’t actually skip mobs in the dungeon, and the boss fights can’t be bugged the same way most can in this game. The playerbase has gotten too comfortable with corner stacking and mob skipping, anything that divulges from this style of mechanic will be considered a poor dungeon.
Nahh, for the experienced dungeoneer it’s unskippable cinematics and most of all the kitten puzzles. All trash mobs can be LOSed easy in a corner and killed in seconds and all bosses are melee friendly.
As for casuals, it’s just too difficult for them, making them apparently spend up to 3 hours in there. I mean, I’ve heard stories of people spending an hour on the ooze puzzle alone before rage quitting.
In my experience, people don’t like the TA Aetherpath for a couple of key reasons.
First off, the reward for the time spent pales to most other dungeons. I’m not entirely certain that the “of dreams” weapons even drop anymore since I see so few of them on the TP. I’ve ran this path a few dozen times since the release period and haven’t seen such a weapon drop since. The 5 hidden “Aether chests” typically drop masterworks despite having a fun mechanic where you have to assemble the key from pieces dropped in the Maguuma Jungle. It’s very telling that the key pieces are worth nil on the TP atm, allowing one to buy an entire stack for next to nothing.
You can easily double/triple the rewards by running 2/3 paths in one of the easier dungeons in less time. Granted, if you have an experienced team you can complete TA Aetherpath in under an hour—still enough time to complete 2 paths of AC. I suspect this is all because Arenanet did not properly gauge the rewards for this dungeon path and since the earlier, easier dungeons set the precedent.. there’s not much room for recanting there without overhauling the whole system. So it likely needs improved rewards overall.
Secondly, the dungeon path is somewhat more cerebral than the other dungeons. A lot of players join pugs for the path without prior experience and it ends up being a slog. Even with experience, some players simply don’t have the ability or the attention span to conquer some of the bosses. It therefor may be hard to separate the people who genuinely dislike the path’s design and those that bear a grudge because they’re not up to snuff or had a frustrating experience. After all, we started with all these easy dungeon paths.. so what is this Aetherpath non-sense, eh? ;-)
Personally I like the nature of the design because it convinced me that you could do more with instances in GW2 than I previously thought. Most of GW2’s dungeons lack meaningful puzzle design, have negligible trash/boss mechanics and are simply tired DPS grinds where the only thing you have to overcome is the foe’s health bar.
So improve the rewards and continue to release more challenging instanced content for PvE.. this will both entice players and make them accustomed to expecting more challenging content.
Most of GW2’s dungeons lack meaningful puzzle design, have negligible trash/boss mechanics and are simply tired DPS grinds where the only thing you have to overcome is the foe’s health bar.
So improve the rewards and continue to release more challenging instanced content for PvE.. this will both entice players and make them accustomed to expecting more challenging content.
By meaningful puzzle design, do you mean the ooze and lightning puzzle? Because after doing those once or twice it’s just so boring. There’s also no way to still improve. At least with fights you can come up with new ways of killing it faster, instead of useless timegates.
As for boss mechanics, I’d prefer more bosses like lupi that require some skill to do fast. Bosses in TA aether, especially the clockheart, is just another puzzle-y mechanic that’s extremely easy once you get the hang of it. Although I do really enjoy sparki and slick.
As for trash mobs, they’re a lot more negligible than arah mobs.
By meaningful puzzle design, do you mean the ooze and lightning puzzle? Because after doing those once or twice it’s just so boring. There’s also no way to still improve. At least with fights you can come up with new ways of killing it faster, instead of useless timegates.
As for boss mechanics, I’d prefer more bosses like lupi that require some skill to do fast. Bosses in TA aether, especially the clockheart, is just another puzzle-y mechanic that’s extremely easy once you get the hang of it. Although I do really enjoy sparki and slick.
Don’t mistake me.. I don’t know if I’d call it great or even good puzzle design, but it’s certainly more meaningful than say the rolling fiery balls in CoF P1. What it is, is an indication to me that more is possible with GW2’s framework than previously demonstrated. I do think it’s keen that guiding the ooze is a foreshadow of later boss encounters.
As for improved play, I think you’re wrong there. I’m convinced you can come up with new strategies for improved times. i.e. You can attempt to guide both oozes at once(I’ve seen this done) or you can utilize more blind and reflection to protect the ooze better.
I can solo Clockheart on every maxed toon I play but I’ve seen more than my fair share of people who can’t stay alive for more than 30 seconds in that fight.
As for trash mobs, they’re a lot more negligible than arah mobs.
They’re nothing special encounter-wise but TA Aetherpath is more of a traditional MMORPG instance in that each section is gated off until you kill all the mobs. Where as, in Arah, you can gap close, block, stealth and invuln your way past most every trash mob. Not to mention that if you bothered to kill everything on the way to completing any one Arah path, you’d be there for hours and you’d be very bored. That pretty much takes the cake when it comes to “negligible” trash mobs in my mind.
By meaningful puzzle design, do you mean the ooze and lightning puzzle? Because after doing those once or twice it’s just so boring. There’s also no way to still improve. At least with fights you can come up with new ways of killing it faster, instead of useless timegates.
As for boss mechanics, I’d prefer more bosses like lupi that require some skill to do fast. Bosses in TA aether, especially the clockheart, is just another puzzle-y mechanic that’s extremely easy once you get the hang of it. Although I do really enjoy sparki and slick.
Don’t mistake me.. I don’t know if I’d call it great or even good puzzle design, but it’s certainly more meaningful than say the rolling fiery balls in CoF P1. What it is, is an indication to me that more is possible with GW2’s framework than previously demonstrated. I do think it’s keen that guiding the ooze is a foreshadow of later boss encounters.
As for improved play, I think you’re wrong there. I’m convinced you can come up with new strategies for improved times. i.e. You can attempt to guide both oozes at once(I’ve seen this done) or you can utilize more blind and reflection to protect the ooze better.
I can solo Clockheart on every maxed toon I play but I’ve seen more than my fair share of people who can’t stay alive for more than 30 seconds in that fight.
As for trash mobs, they’re a lot more negligible than arah mobs.
They’re nothing special encounter-wise but TA Aetherpath is more of a traditional MMORPG instance in that each section is gated off until you kill all the mobs. Where as, in Arah, you can gap close, block, stealth and invuln your way past most every trash mob. Not to mention that if you bothered to kill everything on the way to completing any one Arah path, you’d be there for hours and you’d be very bored. That pretty much takes the cake when it comes to “negligible” trash mobs in my mind.
We do both oozes at once, it’s easy and fast and takes only a few tries to master. You constantly see new ways of killing bosses in speedrun vids. Puzzles however are just boring after a while. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun the first few times, but if I had to speedrun it every day It’d become a snorefest very soon. As for the clockheart, I see people fail at the slave driver in COF p1 so that rly means nothing.
Arah skips are all harder than any of the trash mob kills in TA aether. Since it requires more skill I’d say they’re less negligible. Unskippable trash mobs in aether are just another useless timegate requiring hardly any skill.
We do both oozes at once, it’s easy and fast and takes only a few tries to master. You constantly see new ways of killing bosses in speedrun vids. Puzzles however are just boring after a while. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun the first few times, but if I had to speedrun it every day It’d become a snorefest very soon. As for the clockheart, I see people fail at the slave driver in COF p1 so that rly means nothing.
If you do any dungeon path repeatedly it can and will become a snooze fest. Even though I do occasionally enjoy TA Aetherpath, I pretty much avoid it.. and every other dungeon path, because I’ve ran them all so many times. Once in a while is okay. In pretty much every MMROPG out there, Instanced PvE content has a limited life span.
I don’t think the Slave Driver is really a fair comparison to the Clockheart. It’s a much easier fight and I think if you surveyed players you’d find they have far more trouble with Clockheart than CoF’s Slave Driver
Arah skips are all harder than any of the trash mob kills in TA aether. Since it requires more skill I’d say they’re less negligible. Unskippable trash mobs in aether are just another useless timegate requiring hardly any skill.
I don’t believe this to be true. It seems that skipping most of Arah’s trash mobs is par for the course in any pug.
I don’t think the Slave Driver is really a fair comparison to the Clockheart.
Agreed. the Slave Driver is way harder.
I don’t believe this to be true. It seems that skipping most of Arah’s trash mobs is par for the course in any pug.
Pugs successfully doing arah skips? What is this, some kind of bizzaro world?
Especially the P1 skip; I’ve had whole groups rage quit or try clearing the mobs after they couldn’t make the skip, while I waited down by the ooze.
We do both oozes at once, it’s easy and fast and takes only a few tries to master. You constantly see new ways of killing bosses in speedrun vids. Puzzles however are just boring after a while. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun the first few times, but if I had to speedrun it every day It’d become a snorefest very soon. As for the clockheart, I see people fail at the slave driver in COF p1 so that rly means nothing.
If you do any dungeon path repeatedly it can and will become a snooze fest. Even though I do occasionally enjoy TA Aetherpath, I pretty much avoid it.. and every other dungeon path, because I’ve ran them all so many times. Once in a while is okay. In pretty much every MMROPG out there, Instanced PvE content has a limited life span.
I don’t think the Slave Driver is really a fair comparison to the Clockheart. It’s a much easier fight and I think if you surveyed players you’d find they have far more trouble with Clockheart than CoF’s Slave Driver
Arah skips are all harder than any of the trash mob kills in TA aether. Since it requires more skill I’d say they’re less negligible. Unskippable trash mobs in aether are just another useless timegate requiring hardly any skill.
I don’t believe this to be true. It seems that skipping most of Arah’s trash mobs is par for the course in any pug.
Do TA aether with a zerk party. The mobs get stacked and killed in mere seconds. There’s no CHANCE of dying. It’s boring, there’s no need to dodge even, so a useless timegate. I could see a skip there to be much more interesting considering the amount of CC scarlet’s mobs have.
If you’re full zerk, a lot of the trash mobs in arah almost one shot, which means you need to have knowledge of skills, when to dodge, where to go, etc. Arah p2 is especially brutal in that regard for the average PUG.
As for the clockheart, it’s easy. There’s one attack you need to dodge. At least if you go melee. If you range you just gotta run around like a headless chicken.
Hah. Well of course we’ll never know if skipping trash in TA Aetherpath would cause people problems because the path is designed to make you kill the mobs. I would guess they would have a lot of trouble due to immobilize, static field and a number of stun attacks.
Hah. Well of course we’ll never know if skipping trash in TA Aetherpath would cause people problems because the path is designed to make you kill the mobs. I would guess they would have a lot of trouble due to immobilize, static field and a number of stun attacks.
Exactly, much more interesting than basic killing without the need for dodging.
Do TA aether with a zerk party. The mobs get stacked and killed in mere seconds. There’s no CHANCE of dying. It’s boring, there’s no need to dodge even, so a useless timegate. I could see a skip there to be much more interesting considering the amount of CC scarlet’s mobs have.
If you’re full zerk, a lot of the trash mobs in arah almost one shot, which means you need to have knowledge of skills, when to dodge, where to go, etc. Arah p2 is especially brutal in that regard for the average PUG.
I don’t think we’re going to agree on this bit.
As for the clockheart, it’s easy. There’s one attack you need to dodge. At least if you go melee. If you range you just gotta run around like a headless chicken.
If you go melee there’s a handful of attacks you need to avoid. He has a frontal AoE, a radial AoE and a knockback of sorts where he picks you up. I tend to stay just out of melee range and dodge his AoE’s. If my group can’t seem to coordinate killing a holo at the right time and place then I’ll either block/invuln through his special AoE or gap close to the far end of the room. Hopefully your group plays well enough that the entire floor doesn’t light up. Like I said, Clockheart is not a problem for me personally, but a lot of people have trouble with this boss for whatever reason. The Slave Driver is simply about face-planting unless he targets you, then if you’re taking too much damage.. move away for a bit, heal up and resume face-planting.
I don’t think we’re going to agree on this bit.
It’s no opinion to disagree with, it’s fact. If you somehow magically fail at scarlet’s trash mobs that’s your issue. In any case you need to know far more about your class and what to dodge when skipping in Arah.
If you go melee there’s a handful of attacks you need to avoid. He has a frontal AoE, a radial AoE and a knockback of sorts where he picks you up. I tend to stay just out of melee range and dodge his AoE’s. If my group can’t seem to coordinate killing a holo at the right time and place then I’ll either block/invuln through his special AoE or gap close to the far end of the room. Hopefully your group plays well enough that the entire floor doesn’t light up. Like I said, Clockheart is not a problem for me personally, but a lot of people have trouble with this boss for whatever reason. The Slave Driver is simply about face-planting unless he targets you, then if you’re taking too much damage.. move away for a bit, heal up and resume face-planting.
If you stand in the right spot he throws you into the wall dealing 0 damage. The frontal attack is extremely telegraphed and easy to dodge, if you don’t have aggro it’s even easier by standing behind him. With the proper DPS your group needs to either kill 1 holo near him or pop 1 invuln and then you can kill him.
It’s not the same as the slave driver, that was an extreme example. Still the mechanics are as easy as let’s say subject alpha with a small puzzle element. All damaging attacks are easy to dodge and let’s face it, the puzzle element is kiting an enemy. Does it get more basic?
It’s no opinion to disagree with, it’s fact. If you somehow magically fail at scarlet’s trash mobs that’s your issue. In any case you need to know far more about your class and what to dodge when skipping in Arah.
It’s fact that Arah’s trash mobs can largely be skipped and are skipped constantly, even in common pug groups. I think it’s rather easy to do, albeit some classes will have a more difficult time with it(i.e. necro). The fact that you can skip over them and the fact that it would be incredibly tedious(and uninteresting) to kill all the mobs makes them even more negligible to me than TA Aetherpath’s mobs. You call it a pointless timegate, I call it a system of checkpoints to prevent players from skipping through content. There is a problem with your design when players skip half of it to earn the fake reward.
If you somehow magically fail to skip past Arah’s trash mobs then that’s your issue… see what I did thar?
We are not going to agree on this.
It’s not the same as the slave driver, that was an extreme example.
Yeah, no kidding.
I think I’ve said everything there is to say on this issue, so until the next “What’s the problem with TA Aetherpath” thread…
If you somehow magically fail to skip past Arah’s trash mobs then that’s your issue… see what I did thar?
We are not going to agree on this
Lmao, I see you’re missing the point entirely. I have no issues, I see however random PUGs using the underwater exploit now just because they can’t finish arah p2 otherwise. I’ve seen hundreds of pugs rage quit over the skip after the ooze boss in arah p1. I have however NEVER seen anyone ragequit because they couldn’t kill a few grenadiers and taskmasters. Even if both are relatively easy, skill wise they just can’t be compared.
The best way they could’ve handled it would be to make them skippable, but make the skip hard, so the casuals can still get through by killing and the people who are actually interested in speeding it up can be challenged a bit.
if you know what you are doing, and is one of, if not, the only dungeon that promotes teamwork the whole run.
You answered your own question
There isn’t anything wrong with TA Aether. People who say its too long say so because it takes more than 10 minutes to complete because you can’t actually skip mobs in the dungeon, and the boss fights can’t be bugged the same way most can in this game. The playerbase has gotten too comfortable with corner stacking and mob skipping, anything that divulges from this style of mechanic will be considered a poor dungeon.
Nahh, for the experienced dungeoneer it’s unskippable cinematics and most of all the kitten puzzles. All trash mobs can be LOSed easy in a corner and killed in seconds and all bosses are melee friendly.
As for casuals, it’s just too difficult for them, making them apparently spend up to 3 hours in there. I mean, I’ve heard stories of people spending an hour on the ooze puzzle alone before rage quitting.
The puzzles arn’t hard at all though if you are so called experienced dungeoneers.
does annoying mean difficult?
There isn’t anything wrong with TA Aether. People who say its too long say so because it takes more than 10 minutes to complete because you can’t actually skip mobs in the dungeon, and the boss fights can’t be bugged the same way most can in this game. The playerbase has gotten too comfortable with corner stacking and mob skipping, anything that divulges from this style of mechanic will be considered a poor dungeon.
Nahh, for the experienced dungeoneer it’s unskippable cinematics and most of all the kitten puzzles. All trash mobs can be LOSed easy in a corner and killed in seconds and all bosses are melee friendly.
As for casuals, it’s just too difficult for them, making them apparently spend up to 3 hours in there. I mean, I’ve heard stories of people spending an hour on the ooze puzzle alone before rage quitting.
The puzzles arn’t hard at all though if you are so called experienced dungeoneers.
They aren’t. As guan said, they’re just boring and annoying. Specifically put in there to make the dungeon long.
i always hated aetherpath, but eventually i wanted to get the mini clockheart, so i decided to risk and pugged it. fortunately, i met 2 experienced ppl. i adapt fast so it took me 1 run to learn all the stack spots (i already knew the mechanics). now i run with them daily and we are able to carry 2 corpses easily. and now i think its pretty fun dungeon xD
and the whole dungeon is worth doing for the "Does that mean we’re dating? Should I start calling you “DEARHEART?”" <3
No, you should call me Braveheart.
I like it! Only downside is there is no reward for it but fine.
Still the chance to get a 650 gold skin is there! Though in about 10 runs I’ve never seen anyone get a skin….
(message me if you want to run it some time (EU)).
It’s too long and for the reward … I can farm Mithril and make more in the same time.
I’ve only done it once (run to completion with folks I knew from open world in YB — I think it took us ~1-1.5h … my first and last run). Perhaps I’d like it more after more tries, but the puzzles all seemed like gimmicks, and overall it took too long for the interesting parts.
Long, tedious, hard to find a decent team of decent players not to have it turning into a nigthmare, and most of all, I simply despise all that steampunk trash.
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We just tried to get past the oil slime puzzle. last time I ran this the slimes were friendly? But you would always have the problem of either one side gets all the elementals and loses their slime, in which case the other side might as well kill it too and start all over. Fights should not be repeated trial and error. Lower the elemental’s health, so they’re easier to deal with. Hell, if the slimes moved a bit faster, we could make the window better.
We just tried to get past the oil slime puzzle. last time I ran this the slimes were friendly? But you would always have the problem of either one side gets all the elementals and loses their slime, in which case the other side might as well kill it too and start all over. Fights should not be repeated trial and error. Lower the elemental’s health, so they’re easier to deal with. Hell, if the slimes moved a bit faster, we could make the window better.
We get it first try, no problem. Let the first oozes die, kite the elementals to the back, let 2 party members who stayed outside come in to pick up the new oozes and then start killing the elementals. They should have an elemental free path if you do that.
Also, they’ve never been friendly.
The ooze font puzzle is terrible – it involves managing aggro which in this game is supposed to be impossible/very hard by design. Seems like it contradicts the rest of the design principles. I’m talking about the elementals obviously, not the ooze. That part could’ve been made so much better if the oozes were green and untargetable by cleave/aoe. Also, the stay cool achievement seems bugged, me and several of my friends are unable to get it despite taking NO damage or stepping into the fire(Maybe not completely bugged, but it seems glitchy).
The skins are terrible – they are just recolored TA skins(or was it Sylvari cultural?) and the drop rates are abysmal.
The clockwork boss is meh – just giving invuln stacks to bosses is not really good game design, especially since once again you need to manage aggro. It’s not hard, it’s just not fun.
Slick and Sparki is pretty much the only good part of this run, along with the possibility of making 700g in one run I guess(tho I personally never met anyone who got a skin drop).
Actually I like last boss mechanic :P
for ooze font, let 2 ppl enter the room, they need to kill their oozes and then go to the end of the room, dragging elementals with them. then they tell others to go, and then they enter the room, take buff and pull ooze without any problems. oh, and its impossible with pugs and bad players by the way
I like it, but I struggle to find groups to do it. If I had a set group, I would do it probably once a week.
[ARES]
And all who stood by and did nothing, who are they to criticize the sacrifices of others?
Our blood has bought their lives.
And all who stood by and did nothing, who are they to criticize the sacrifices of others?
Our blood has bought their lives.