Guild Wars 2

This is actually my favorite dungeon, and I lead learner runs every weekend in hopes of eventually getting a group together that’s good at it and runs it regularly!

I always get a mixed bag of people – from novices, to experienced players, to experts. Runs with more experienced folks tend to be around 35-40 minutes, while runs with most newbies tend to be 2 hours (most time spent would be me explaining mechanics). Even then, almost every time, people would come out having really enjoyed the run!

I think the real key points in enjoying the dungeon is really knowing all the tricks and strategies.

For example, the Ooze font puzzle can be made easy even without much coordinated kiting (10 seconds window is more than enough) if you have at least 1-2 players on each side with cc/reflects/projectile cancels/immobilize/blind. I always just tell my group to equip/trait the following, and just using these skills on the lava eles without trying to kill or even kite them. We’d get it down in 2-3 tries tops even if most of the group is completely new.

Mesmer: focus 4, 5 traited with Warden’s Feedback, GS 5, Feedback
Guardian: Hammer 4, 5, Staff 5, Wall of Reflection, Shield of the Avenger
Ele: air focus 4, Lightning Hammer (for the blind on the lava eles)
Thief: pistol 5, Smoke Screen, Needle Trap
Engi: turrets traited with Fortified Turrets, shield 4, Big Ol’ Bomb (away from the Ooze)
Ranger: axe 4, LB4, Muddy Terrain, Entangle
Warrior: sword burst, Throws Bolas, Stomp, Fear Me (this one can be tricky since it works on the Ooze too)
Necro: staff 3, 5, Spectral Wall

Usually a Mesmer on one side and a Guardian (many people run Guard and Mes, so this setup usually always happens) on the other is enough to get the Ooze through in one go even without coordinated kiting and aggro control.

Sparki and Slick is easy if you melee burst Sparki first and keep up reflects/projectile cancels/cleanses, and ensures that the person with Ooze debuff and aggro always stays within 300 range of party (and to never res), and stand inside the oil (it only does minor cripples and small damage unless lit on fire) to kite the Ooze into it. The reason the Ooze kiter should stand inside the oil to lure the Ooze into it is because if he/she stands on the outside, or in a clean location, then it increases the chance of Slick shooting another patch of oil at the Ooze kiter that’s even farther away, and would require more directed kiting.

Once Sparki dies, the same strategy can be applied to Slick, and it becomes even easier than when Sparki is alive because the amount of damage that Slick does on his own is abysmal if you keep the oil spots cleaned (very easy to do if they are all close to Slick himself).

Clockwork boss is not too big of a problem as long as you stay within 500 range (whether you melee or range), dodge the ground pound, and bring cc (Mesmer GS5, Focus 4, Thief Scorpion Wire, Guardian GS5, etc.) for the holos.

Also, EVERY trash/elite mob encounter in this dungeon can also be los’ed and stacked with full zerker group, and become extremely easy if you bring even a bit of stability, projectile cancels/reflects, and cleanse. In fact, this path, Arah, and Dredge fractals are probably the best dungeons where you can stack and kill for a lot of quick loot.

MysticHLE.7160:

I think the real key points in enjoying the dungeon is really knowing all the tricks and strategies.

No. Many people knew all these strats shortly after it came out. It makes it less of a pain when everyone knows what to do, but that is a fact for all dungeons in this game.

I still don’t see how most of the puzzles and puzzle-ish bosses are any fun, especially towards the end where the game turns into a Mario Party Minigame. Even worse, the last boss is awful. A kiting nightmare which can be bursted down in just one lap like so many other bosses.

The only positive signs are the Sparkly&whateverhisnamewas boss fight (to some extent), low HP-trashmobs and cool skins which never drop anyway.

i love it. i just want to do on my ele but she just insta dies.

176 runs done… still going there. That’s all i got to say. Aetherpath is awesome

And to the guys that said slick and sparki are a DPS race, they are NOT. I’ve soloed that fight once and it took me about 20 minutes, all you need to know is about the mechanics of the fight.

Acerola.6407:

MysticHLE.7160:

I think the real key points in enjoying the dungeon is really knowing all the tricks and strategies.

No. Many people knew all these strats shortly after it came out. It makes it less of a pain when everyone knows what to do, but that is a fact for all dungeons in this game.

I still don’t see how most of the puzzles and puzzle-ish bosses are any fun, especially towards the end where the game turns into a Mario Party Minigame. Even worse, the last boss is awful. A kiting nightmare which can be bursted down in just one lap like so many other bosses.

The only positive signs are the Sparkly&whateverhisnamewas boss fight (to some extent), low HP-trashmobs and cool skins which never drop anyway.

That’s not from what I gathered when talking to people. They always complain about the Ooze font puzzle and Sparki and Slick – that’s where majority of the pugs spend the most time on (1 hour+). And even when I run with “experienced” people, I still see 70%+ of them doing at least one wrong thing (e.g. trying to kill the lava elementals, going out to 900 range and ranging Sparki and Slick) until I tell them otherwise. Like I said though, a good group finishes this in 30-40 minutes, and at a 2 gold reward with chances for weapons that sell 200g+, it’s not too bad compared to likes of SE 1/3 or TA up/forward.

To be honest, I think all dungeons should have varied mechanics like this one. I come from games like Zelda OoT, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy, where dungeons have actual puzzles to them…and it’s actually fun solving them and killing mobs at the same time! The electric floor room is the only part of any dungeon where I feel like I’m trapped and need to figure out a way to get out, ya know…like in an actual dungeon. The only other dungeons where I get the dungeon feeling from is AC 1/2, CoF 3, and CoE (something about escaping from the facility through jumping security lasers, and killing your way through a recurring experimental monster makes it feel good). Arah feels more like an explorable dead city (with the best boss fight in game) than a dungeon.

Otherwise, the rest (AC 3, TA up/forward, SE 1/3, CoF 1/2, HotW, CM 1/3) are just trash skips and mindless stack/kill.

That said, I really think they should revise the dungeon rewards though. Harder dungeons that require more thinking/coordination/skills should reward much more than what they do right now, and tone down the rewards for easy dungeons (like wtf, AC 1/3 gives the same as Arah p3?).

The thing to keep in mind about Aetherpath is that it is
primarily a control dungeon. None of the bosses have huge HP sacks and attacks that you can just mindlessly stack through.

Which is probably why most dungeoners, who like to mindlessly blast through dungeons and collect money, have a strong distaste for it.

But I love it and run it often with guildies. We’ve got it down to under 30minutes. And I’ve gotten a Xanthium, which was nice consolation prize for not getting precursor drop in 3k hours.

Let’s review:
The Ooze Font – has nothing to do with agro management, as someone a few posts above me just said. All you have to do reflect / knockback the eles while the kiter runs the ooze through. The point is to let control specs shine.

Slick/Sparki – the fight is all about positioning and having a minimum amount of attention to detail. Players have to pay attention to who has the ooze buff and whomever gets it has to kite it through the oil slicks or the toxic fumes will kill everyone fast.

Hologenerators – Again, all about mob positioning and control. If you have an aoe pull or knockback, you can simply group up the holos and set off a chain reaction.

Foreman Spur – this is probably the worst fight in the dungeon, because it’s basically a tank and spank except for the whirl phase.

Security room – straight forward puzzle, meh.

Oakheart – All about mob positioning. He dies super fast you can even get him before a single invul phase. The only trick is learning how to slow walk the oakheart while pulling the holo. Yet for some groups this is like running headfirst into a brick wall.

I believe you can still interrupt the oakheart when he goes to do his invulnerable spam thing so that he loses the stacks or doesn’t gain the invuln, don’t recall which.

Gyler.8150:

I believe you can still interrupt the oakheart when he goes to do his invulnerable spam thing so that he loses the stacks or doesn’t gain the invuln, don’t recall which.

Confirmed. My armour got nightmare runes (50% chance to reflect fear) and last day i was in range of the tier 30 attack since we screwed the holo nearby and well… on the first hit, my armour reflected fear and he didn’t hit with the other 4 lol. Was funny to see.

I wonder if it’s done more than TA F/U? And if not, can we have TA F/U back… since the reason it’s gone is supposedly because it wasn’t run enough?

Lord Kuru.3685:

I wonder if it’s done more than TA F/U? And if not, can we have TA F/U back… since the reason it’s gone is supposedly because it wasn’t run enough?

#FreeTAFU

Lord Kuru.3685:

I wonder if it’s done more than TA F/U? And if not, can we have TA F/U back… since the reason it’s gone is supposedly because it wasn’t run enough?

Well, the other reason was that it wasn’t different enough from the other paths.

If they’d made the spiders de-spawn, I would have liked F/U. I did it a couple of times (guildies & PUGs where we ran through it the first time) — but every time I tried to help a PUG which had failed once, it was too late (didn’t help that obviously such PUGs aren’t dodging right).

If you’re going to say that a wipe is game over, you should do it like FoW or DoA in GW1 — not by just making the encounter much harder.

RE: Aetherpath: I didn’t mind the fights, but by the end it felt really gimmicky — and I didn’t like the security room puzzle. Maybe I’d enjoy it more a second time through.

linuxotaku.4731:

Lord Kuru.3685:

I wonder if it’s done more than TA F/U? And if not, can we have TA F/U back… since the reason it’s gone is supposedly because it wasn’t run enough?

Well, the other reason was that it wasn’t different enough from the other paths.

If they’d made the spiders de-spawn, I would have liked F/U. I did it a couple of times (guildies & PUGs where we ran through it the first time) — but every time I tried to help a PUG which had failed once, it was too late (didn’t help that obviously such PUGs aren’t dodging right).

If you’re going to say that a wipe is game over, you should do it like FoW or DoA in GW1 — not by just making the encounter much harder.

I didn’t mind the fights, but by the end it felt really gimmicky — and I didn’t like the security room puzzle. Maybe I’d enjoy it more a second time through.

Wasn’t different enough are you kidding?

The husk and vevina fight, the bees with the fountains… IT WAS A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PATH.

breathes heavily

I miss tafu. And they stated very clearly that the reason was because it wasn’t run eniugh and their lore reason was that of the possible scenarios, Fyonna getting to the Nightmare tree before Vevina or Leurent was unlikely. However, I counter that it is highly unlikely that Fyonna could have a prayer of defeating Vevina in the first place… which makes “up” the least likely path.

Well TA Aether wasn’t well received for a few reasons. I’m put off by the unskippable cut-scenes and the narrative sort of shoved down your throat with it. I’m not a huge fan of what that dungeon represents. It’s a leftover of a very average attempt at a story.

Some of the mechanics of the dungeon can be kind of interested but it is too broken up by puzzles and some attempts at exposition. Now, I realize traditional MMO dungeons are full of puzzles and breaks in combat however it’s not something I really enjoy.

Most people just don’t like it because they find it hard though. And honestly, without experience or TS, it probably is tougher. At least more so than the other dungeons available.

I like it so much that Im going to try to do at-least 1 run every night. Till I get all the weapons. Till I figure out how to make my ele survive half that crap.

DonQuack.9025:

I like it so much that Im going to try to do at-least 1 run every night. Till I get all the weapons. Till I figure out how to make my ele survive half that crap.

Things should melt pretty quickly with a proper team, last boss goes down fast with ice bow and FGS from what i recall.

Would it be possible for someone from Anet to confirm whether or not the “of dreams” weapons are sill obtainable from running this path?

I run it a few times per week and have not seen one drop since the living story where it was introduced.

I got a exo scepter a few months ago and sold it for 250g.

I’d like to run this path more but I have no one who plays in the same time as I do and can invest time in it. Then again, I don’t play that much anymore and after my daily dungeon runs I use my spare time roaming in WvW. Meh.

A decent run relies on all 5 members knowing somewhat what to do. Pugging it is a nightmare. Almost every boss fight/level design can waste time if people don’t know what to do. My most recent memory is me and a couple wasting 10-15 minutes on the ooze part. The thing is if people do know what to do, then it usually goes pretty smoothly (I guess you can say that for everything, Fractals/Arah, etc). The final boss is arguably the easiest part of the dungeon (assuming if people knew what to do), since his HP isn’t that much for a final boss and has obvious telegraph animations.

Gyler.8150:

DonQuack.9025:

I like it so much that Im going to try to do at-least 1 run every night. Till I get all the weapons. Till I figure out how to make my ele survive half that crap.

Things should melt pretty quickly with a proper team, last boss goes down fast with ice bow and FGS from what i recall.

I am a pugman. Such things as proper teams is a dream.

Lilith Ajit.6173:

I miss tafu. And they stated very clearly that the reason was because it wasn’t run eniugh and their lore reason was that of the possible scenarios, Fyonna getting to the Nightmare tree before Vevina or Leurent was unlikely. However, I counter that it is highly unlikely that Fyonna could have a prayer of defeating Vevina in the first place… which makes “up” the least likely path.

I never got to play TAFU. I shall forever have to wonder at what I missed. From what I’ve heard though, the reason why people didn’t do the path was because of the bug(?) that made spawned spiders at the last boss not despawn after a wipe. Since it was viewed as the “hardest” path, people just avoided it in droves. (See AC P2 and CM P2 for similar examples. People hardly ever do those two, but they do the dungeon’s other paths all the time, simply because it’s regarded as “harder”.)

Wasn’t TAFU the one where you could afk range the big oak thing? With almost no spider aggro?

robertul.3679:

Wasn’t TAFU the one where you could afk range the big oak thing? With almost no spider aggro?

If you have rangers who trait for longbow range, and you have someone else stand a little closer — then yes, you could do this. If you’re at 1200 range, you’re in range of the spider summoning projectiles, and it becomes basically impossible once there are many spiders (partially because your team is obviously not dodging well if you reach that point).

I found the path OK — except that I was frustrated when I couldn’t help a PUG out because of the non-despawning spiders.

Why does no one like the Aetherpath?

-It’s not fun.
-Takes too long for the reward at the end.
-The ooze puzzle is annoying.
-The electric tile puzzle is annoying.
-The Sparki/Slick fight revolves around the stupid oozes again, so you don’t get killed by cheap pseudo-agony.
-The final boss is an amalgamation of all the annoying gimmicks in the dungeon.
-The Invasive Weed, a.k.a. Scarlet Briar, was involved in this. I’m so glad she’s dead. Even as a hologram, she’s annoying.
-The Aether-mare weapons, the only real reason to do this path, are Nightmare weapons with a blue glow hidden behind RNG.
-Did I mention it isn’t fun? To be fair, neither are the other dungeons/paths, but at least most of them can be finished quickly. Not this one.

Zaxares.5419:

Lilith Ajit.6173:

I miss tafu. And they stated very clearly that the reason was because it wasn’t run eniugh and their lore reason was that of the possible scenarios, Fyonna getting to the Nightmare tree before Vevina or Leurent was unlikely. However, I counter that it is highly unlikely that Fyonna could have a prayer of defeating Vevina in the first place… which makes “up” the least likely path.

I never got to play TAFU. I shall forever have to wonder at what I missed. From what I’ve heard though, the reason why people didn’t do the path was because of the bug(?) that made spawned spiders at the last boss not despawn after a wipe. Since it was viewed as the “hardest” path, people just avoided it in droves. (See AC P2 and CM P2 for similar examples. People hardly ever do those two, but they do the dungeon’s other paths all the time, simply because it’s regarded as “harder”.)

Yes, that’s why no one ran it.

…and ultimately why I ran it.

#RIPTAFU

This path needs to award 3g and then perhaps more people would do it.

I am not a big fan of the ooze escort room either but its manageable.

No dungeon is any more rewarding than any other.

So you take the path of least resistance.

This is one of those dungeons that is painful with pugs but really fun with an organized group…but again where to find an organized group is a different story. Personally I have done it 4-5 times with random LFG and managed to finish it 2 times out of 5. I will not go through that again. Also the dungeon needs a repair station.

^ Not finishing a dungeon is rage-inducing, though it’s just as rage-inducing if you’re stuck in a dungeon for 2+hrs (first time I did Aetherblade and Arahp4 ;_;)

Elrey.5472:

176 runs done… still going there. That’s all i got to say. Aetherpath is awesome

And to the guys that said slick and sparki are a DPS race, they are NOT. I’ve soloed that fight once and it took me about 20 minutes, all you need to know is about the mechanics of the fight.

How many of the rare skins have you seen drop?

I don’t do this path because I only do pug runs and it’s just way too daunting to pug this one. I don’t want to spend two hours in a dungeon and maybe not even finish.

Lalocat.6793:

Elrey.5472:

176 runs done… still going there. That’s all i got to say. Aetherpath is awesome

And to the guys that said slick and sparki are a DPS race, they are NOT. I’ve soloed that fight once and it took me about 20 minutes, all you need to know is about the mechanics of the fight.

How many of the rare skins have you seen drop?

I don’t do this path because I only do pug runs and it’s just way too daunting to pug this one. I don’t want to spend two hours in a dungeon and maybe not even finish.

Seen 3, won 1… The RNG is such a kitten and 2 weeks ago, a guildie that went there first time and said it wouldn’t come back because he only want the dungeon master tittle… won the greatsword of dreams… yet my luck in the last 50 runs was not getting even an exotic ^^

For the next quotes, my answers are in bold (i didn’t feel like making 10+ quote sections)

Why does no one like the Aetherpath?

-It’s not fun. Yes it’s
-Takes too long for the reward at the end. This one is true
-The ooze puzzle is annoying. This one is also true, yet it’s done in 30 seconds without even defending oozes, as long as the group learn how to NOT kill elementals and tank them away
-The electric tile puzzle is annoying. It’s really easy if you learn all 4 patterns
-The Sparki/Slick fight revolves around the stupid oozes again, so you don’t get killed by cheap pseudo-agony. This fight it’s awesome because it’s not a DPS race, you just need to control the battleground. Either clean all oil and survive, or just DPS and wipe. Slick does almost 0 damage to even balance the fight, so i don’t get how groups can even die there. All you need to do is to clean oil as priority if you got the blue buff, NOT dps and NOT rez :P
-The final boss is an amalgamation of all the annoying gimmicks in the dungeon. The final boss is all about positional awareness, and it’s one of the easiest fights in gw2 due to non-random attacks. All his attacks got an animation that you can see 3 seconds earlier… dying there is almost impossible, hence why Anet added the tiering up mechanism. That part is tricky, it’s challenging, and i accept it’s almost impossible for pugs, however this is the kind of fight that learns a learning curve, such as lupicus. Did u ever go to Lupicus in Arah with a group of 4 newbies? and you as well as newbie? If you survive that fight, would be after several attempts, several wipes, and after learning what all his skills do. Adaptation in mid-fight it’s great, but for some fights you just need to know what awaits you. I’ve done clockheart with groups and also soloed it about 30 times, he’s way too easy if you just try (again) to NOT DPS as priority. He will die eventually, with your random attacks, but the priority is to survive, and positional awareness there is the best thing that you can have. Melting clockheart is imo the worst thing that you could try with a group of non-experienced players.
-The Invasive Weed, a.k.a. Scarlet Briar, was involved in this. I’m so glad she’s dead. Even as a hologram, she’s annoying. This is one of the reasons why i go to the Aetherpath, slaughtering enemies and hearing her yelling “DEARHEART” to caithe in the background is priceless, plus i’d love how she introduce sparki and slick, i always hear “foggy and slick” somehow xD
-The Aether-mare weapons, the only real reason to do this path, are Nightmare weapons with a blue glow hidden behind RNG. This one is true, lame RNG makes the chance of obtaining them a pain.
-Did I mention it isn’t fun? To be fair, neither are the other dungeons/paths, but at least most of them can be finished quickly. Not this one. This one is fun once you learn how to solo clockheart and you struggle with him 20 minutes i’ve never felt so epic before in gw2 than the first time i did that. Go to Aetherpath for the fun, not for rewards!

Zylonite.5913:

Also the dungeon needs a repair station.

There has been always a repair station inside… i guess you were blind that day. In the first Waypoint, next to the NPCs where u choose a path.

This was meant to be a reply to the above post, but got messed up due to post size and a forum bug not showing all the text. Regardless…

No, it isn’t fun. To be fair, none of them are after a while (if the annoying elites don’t kill the fun for people first), so better to do the ones that can be done quickly.

So the ooze puzzle is pretty simplistic, if you can get around the fact that the elementals love to spawn near the oozes and chain immobilize them to death. Also, the oozes take your fire as well and also do ridiculous damage if they hit you. Not fun, not necessary, just annoying.

The big problem with the oil bit in the previously mentioned dual boss fight? Between trying to kill the boss and stay alive, it’s tougher to notice that blue buff on you than you’d think. And it loves to switch randomly or be on more than one player at once, messing things up. Simply put, it requires a level of coordination that most P.U.G.s simply can’t do. Bad design.

The electric tiles…I’ll admit I haven’t done this bit (partly because after losing constantly to the dual boss, I only came back to join groups that were at the end already…twice. Never again). But from what I’ve seen of it, it’s annoying.

Impossible to die to the Clockheart? Lies. Care to explain how one deals with the bit where the entire floor goes electric on you, then you jump on to the small raised platforms, only for the boss to drop gears on said platforms, which cover the entire platform, meaning your options are to stand there and die, or drop off to the floor, and die?

And don’t get me started on that stupid armor gimmick. If you get a ranged Aether-holo, it is such a pain to lure it to the boss and finally kill it to try and break that stupid invulnerability gimmick. Sometimes one won’t spawn at all and you’re forced to run and watch as the Super Attack stacks up. Oh, and 3 to 5 constant knockbacks/launches for a Super Attack is just annoyingly cheap.

Oh my…you actually liked that blight on the Sylvari? Sigh…I’m beginning to suspect a troll here. Bottom line is: The Aetherpath isn’t fun, it isn’t worth the time spent, and it was not worth removing a previous dungeon path (which was supposed to be permanent) for that atrocity. I’d rather have the old Forward/Up path back than that Aether-trash.

Aether4 Prez! I love her yelling Dearheart too. It was so lovely. Best lines ever

Scarlet Briar Hologram: “Ooh, and I just realized: I know something about you even Faolain doesn’t know.”
Scarlet Briar Hologram: "Does that mean we’re dating? Should I start calling you “dearheart?”"
Caithe: “Keep babbling. When I find you, I’m going to shut your mouth for good.”

Helo Nilkemia I understand your position that you do not like Aetherpath. Elrey addressed your points pretty fairly I think. If you have an organized group with good dps you can complete it in about 20-25 minutes. We ran 2 guards, 2 eles, and 1 war
with no pugs the other day and completed in this time even with 2 of them not being super experienced. I will address your points in the same way Elrey did.

Nilkemia.8507:

This was meant to be a reply to the above post, but got messed up due to post size and a forum bug not showing all the text. Regardless…

No, it isn’t fun. To be fair, none of them are after a while (if the annoying elites don’t kill the fun for people first), so better to do the ones that can be done quickly. I understand you do not think it is fun, for some people it is so I don’t think there is a point for you to say “No it’s not” then other people to come back and say “Yes it is!!” it’s an opinion lets move on.

So the ooze puzzle is pretty simplistic, if you can get around the fact that the elementals love to spawn near the oozes and chain immobilize them to death. Also, the oozes take your fire as well and also do ridiculous damage if they hit you. Not fun, not necessary, just annoying. This is why we bring 2 guards. You can kite all lava eles to the end, put up wall of reflection -> shield of avenger -> wall of reflection. If they start going away, use gs5 to pull them back. This makes it quick and painless

The big problem with the oil bit in the previously mentioned dual boss fight? Between trying to kill the boss and stay alive, it’s tougher to notice that blue buff on you than you’d think. And it loves to switch randomly or be on more than one player at once, messing things up. Simply put, it requires a level of coordination that most P.U.G.s simply can’t do. Bad design.The blue buff on your head also shows up on your buff bar so if you are having trouble seeing it on your head, check your bar. If more than one person has it on their head, they both can run around and use a range weapon during that time, or just stop dps. You can also push both bosses to a wall and fgs them so it can be ended quickly. I don’t think you can say it’s bad design because pugs can’t do it because many pugs cannot do a lot of things. That is bad players.

The electric tiles…I’ll admit I haven’t done this bit (partly because after losing constantly to the dual boss, I only came back to join groups that were at the end already…twice. Never again). But from what I’ve seen of it, it’s annoying. The pattern for electricity is the same every time, so once you do it maybe twice it is extremely easy to not get hit even if you run to each platform yourself. It does not take very long to do

Impossible to die to the Clockheart? Lies. Care to explain how one deals with the bit where the entire floor goes electric on you, then you jump on to the small raised platforms, only for the boss to drop gears on said platforms, which cover the entire platform, meaning your options are to stand there and die, or drop off to the floor, and die?
And don’t get me started on that stupid armor gimmick. If you get a ranged Aether-holo, it is such a pain to lure it to the boss and finally kill it to try and break that stupid invulnerability gimmick. Sometimes one won’t spawn at all and you’re forced to run and watch as the Super Attack stacks up. Oh, and 3 to 5 constant knockbacks/launches for a Super Attack is just annoyingly cheap. You can FGS clockheart on an exploded generator and kill him before he even goes invuln. The floor only goes full electric if you let him stack to invuln a bunch of times. If you stay in melee he will not do the gears. To kite the holos you just LOS him behind a generator and make sure nobody is afk auto attacking boss to keep him far away. GS5 on guard is also extremely useful here if you manage defiant stacks you can just pull them on top of eachother for easy explosions. The only reason you can even get his super attack is if he gets 30 stacks, which is really easy to do if you follow what I said above.

Oh my…you actually liked that blight on the Sylvari? Sigh…I’m beginning to suspect a troll here. Bottom line is: The Aetherpath isn’t fun, it isn’t worth the time spent, and it was not worth removing a previous dungeon path (which was supposed to be permanent) for that atrocity. I’d rather have the old Forward/Up path back than that Aether-trash.I addressed the “isn’t fun” part already, I have no opinion of Scarlet. I do not think Elrey was trolling though. I’m sorry you don’t like it, 2g + chance of an expensive skin for half an hour isn’t “too” bad

I have no received a skin, my 2 regular partners have received the greatsword (ele) and shield (guard). Hopefully I’m next.

Have a good day,
Kojin

The only way for it to be profit is with organized group.

Which very few bother with GW2 dungeon, since the dungeon isn’t even difficult enough that you’ll want to do organized group like other raiding game.

So basically I did the dungeon twice, and people’s response is usually never again.

My guess is the ooze kite to door puzzle. Its a stumbling block for pugs who dont have someone in party who can explain a method that works and all it takes is for one or two party members to not play as a team and blow it. Then playes quit perhaps the dungeon opener so the players still around find themselves rudely ejected from the path. At that point most say kitten this. This stumbling block is early into the path and the players have not committed. Slick and Sparky are deeper in so the players are more invested. By the time they get to Clockwork they are very invested.

Ooze puzzle sends them away crying imo. But I never wanted to play with those quitters anyways. Im just guessing.

Nilkemia.8507:

This was meant to be a reply to the above post, but got messed up due to post size and a forum bug not showing all the text. Regardless…

So the ooze puzzle…

yeah, they spawn near ooze and try to kill it… ok, then LET them kill it ^^ ooze dead? cool, now all elementals will follow you like sheeps, just move them to the end door, where they can’t hit the oozes

The electric tiles…

It takes no more than 1 minute if everything goes right, and if not, you can’t die in that room, you are insta-rezzed in a platform, and the mechanisms are easy anyway.

Nilkemia.8507:

Impossible to die to the Clockheart? Lies. Care to explain how one deals with the bit where the entire floor goes electric on you, then you jump on to the small raised platforms, only for the boss to drop gears on said platforms, which cover the entire platform, meaning your options are to stand there and die, or drop off to the floor, and die?

And don’t get me started on that stupid armor gimmick. If you get a ranged Aether-holo, it is such a pain to lure it to the boss and finally kill it to try and break that stupid invulnerability gimmick.

This is what really made me notice how bad you were at noticing stuff while fighting. Caithe clearly calls to “find a way to stop his shield”. Well, good news for you, an explosion of an hologram not only removes the invulnerability shield of Clockheart, it also prevent/clean up all the electricity around Actually the room only got 25% electrified if you let clockheart gets to tier 30.
About moving the ranged holo to clockheart, that is quite obvious to deal with. Clockheart goes melee, the holo is ranged, ok, move the boss to the hologram instead of the hologram to the boss. And you know what? the boss is invulnerable anyway! so nobody should Dpsing, everyone should just focus on moving boss when buffed. ^^ Do it right and you won’t die.

For more detalied info of everything that happens in Aetherpath, including all bosses major skills and how they work, just take a look to the guide i posted last year and still works https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Guide-for-TA-Aether/first

heres a super cheesy probably bug thing you can do on the clockheart….if your party dies except for two of you run in separate directions…. the boss will follow one of you allowing the other to get out of combat … now the player with the boss dies…everyone dead now has a small window to hammer on the waypoint…. and whamo your entire party is alive again then teleported back into the boss room before its health resets

me not stacking but using every other type of cheese that i see fit lol the hyprocracy

Slither Shade.4782:

heres a super cheesy probably bug thing you can do on the clockheart….if your party dies except for two of you run in separate directions…. the boss will follow one of you allowing the other to get out of combat … now the player with the boss dies…everyone dead now has a small window to hammer on the waypoint…. and whamo your entire party is alive again then teleported back into the boss room before its health resets

me not stacking but using every other type of cheese that i see fit lol the hyprocracy

This can be done with even one player if he/she has enough stealth/swiftness to run fast.

Dunno if this is the right place to ask, but I’m two achievements away from the meta (finding the pirate treasure chests, and don’t get shocked in the electric room), and it’s bugging the hell out of my OCD.

Any experienced organized groups out there be interested in taking me on a run? Can bring almost any class, pretty much whatever would be needed. Contact me in game if you’re interested and I’d be glad to accompany you on a run.

The dungeon is fun, but: It’s hardly pug-able.

People hate it becuase they cant stack

Conaywea.5062:

People hate it becuase they cant stack

http://youtu.be/x88CmDOWnc4

lol no stacking

guanlongwucaii.3162:

Conaywea.5062:

People hate it becuase they cant stack

http://youtu.be/x88CmDOWnc4

lol no stacking

Absolutely amazing!

MysticHLE.7160:

guanlongwucaii.3162:

Conaywea.5062:

People hate it becuase they cant stack

http://youtu.be/x88CmDOWnc4

lol no stacking

Absolutely amazing!

yeah it really is a very well-done record, only the most deluded people would look at it and think “stacking no skill needed zerkers”

FGS Exploits, with walls and stuns and heals!!! One thing they did right was not skip cut scenes. Long live the immersion.

Acerola.6407:

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.

THIS, totally. Sparki and Slick could become fractal bosses, oozes could be removed, and less walking around + unnecessary fights
This path generally takes too long and is not as PUG friendly as the others – what makes it even less popular in LFG

Gyler.8150:

FGS Exploits, with walls and stuns and heals!!! One thing they did right was not skip cut scenes. Long live the immersion.

Would have been seconds of difference at the most had they not used FGS and just had the Guardian use Hallowed Ground and Wall of Reflection on Sparki and then just meleed Slick anyway – and no more than 2 minutes for all the other bosses combined.

Did it yesterday, loved it.
Finally some enemies that feal like having some AI and normal skills doing condi damage and using boons.
Good mechanics and the puzzles are ok. We do not need more CoF p1 people, there are already enough of them!

sternenstaub.8763:

Did it yesterday, loved it.
Finally some enemies that feal like having some AI and normal skills doing condi damage and using boons.
Good mechanics and the puzzles are ok. We do not need more CoF p1 people, there are already enough of them!

i wish more people would think that way.

Yeah, because there are no other mobs using boons / conditions in dungeons / fractals.

Dredge are hated for their perma-protection, the golem in CoE has boons and encourages reflections / boon stripping, the hotw p1 “I am anti-every-playstyle”-final boss also has boons etc.

I admit that there should be more things like mobs giving themselves fury or so. Moreover, this game lacks heavy condition damage regarding bosses. The only one I can think of is the first boss of SE p3 and, to an extent, the spider queen in AC which immobilizes and gives weakness, lowering the DPS of the players.

Risen Gorillas on the other hand … perma-weakness is kinda dumb.

Acerola.6407:

Yeah, because there are no other mobs using boons / conditions in dungeons / fractals.

Dredge are hated for their perma-protection, the golem in CoE has boons and encourages reflections / boon stripping, the hotw p1 “I am anti-every-playstyle”-final boss also has boons etc.

I admit that there should be more things like mobs giving themselves fury or so. Moreover, this game lacks heavy condition damage regarding bosses. The only one I can think of is the first boss of SE p3 and, to an extent, the spider queen in AC which immobilizes and gives weakness, lowering the DPS of the players.

Risen Gorillas on the other hand … perma-weakness is kinda dumb.

Well, my experience with boons are exactly like you described. Perma boons… pretty brainless, as no build will actually stop them from using it. The enemies in TA actually put on boons and stack them over time. Stripping them or corrupting them etc. actually shows success while leaving them on enemies makes them stronger by the second. Therefore boon stripping/conversion is helping instead of just doing nothing and further ruining different types of gameplay/builds that are not full in your face dps.
Same goes for Condition damage. You get loaded, you cleanse and are not loaded instantly again. This finally makes for some counterplay and opens up paths. While you are right, that conditions are not really used by enemies at all.

I am not saying it is perfect, I say it is a step into the right direction. Perma Boons from some statues standing around bosses and respawning after 5 seconds if killed while requiring 10 seconds to get killes is not the right direction and simply wrong. Especially when there are 4 of them…