Guild Wars 2

Finding it hard even with GW2LFG to get into this place, why?

CoF is currently the most profitable dungeon and requires the least amount of effort, so general PuGs will likely gravitate towards that. I generally don’t see PuGs posting for CoE unless they want to path exploit or someone actually has the patience to go through that with PuGs. There’s a lot of mechanics where inexperienced and/or uncooperative players can ruin the run for everyone else, making you spend a really long time in there when it should only take about 20 minutes to finish the paths.

I personally like doing CoE with a coordinated team. I do it quite frequently with my group of friends.

gw2lfg always has groups wanting to do it, unless you want the set for the skin or feeling lucky for charged lodestones, it’s not really worth doing.

Well, from what I can tell it’s because it’s not fun and doesn’t have any rewards. I just got my scepter pre-cursor and I will likely sell it since I don’t see much of a way to convince anyone to do that dungeon with me again and it’s nearly impossible to do. No fun/too difficult + no rewards = no people to play it. Storm for sale here . . . thanks . . .

Well, from what I can tell it’s because it’s not fun and doesn’t have any rewards. I just got my scepter pre-cursor and I will likely sell it since I don’t see much of a way to convince anyone to do that dungeon with me again and it’s nearly impossible to do. No fun/too difficult + no rewards = no people to play it. Storm for sale here . . . thanks . . .

I run CoE regularly. I find it good fun. Like others will say, it’s just not as profitable as CoF, hence everyone rushing to that instead.

Granted lfg’s for CoF1 are off the hook but people still post for CoE. I haven ’t ran it much but what I saw I liked.

I only started running CoE, but it’s probably because it requires quite a bit more skill and time. Subject Alpha itself is a hassle, especially route 2 and 3 if you stack against a wall. It does sound like a good lead-in towards Arah, though, when things get serious.

I’m just doing it now for the dungeon title, and probably put the tokens towards a berserker scepter before I hit Arah.

My favorite dungeon, we run it daily with the guild.
As to why it’s not played much on gw2lfg, I can’t say, probably because you can’t dodge while 100b.

Von.2731:

Well, from what I can tell it’s because it’s not fun and doesn’t have any rewards. I just got my scepter pre-cursor and I will likely sell it since I don’t see much of a way to convince anyone to do that dungeon with me again and it’s nearly impossible to do. No fun/too difficult + no rewards = no people to play it. Storm for sale here . . . thanks . . .

I actually do it daily because it is fun and it’s one of the easier dungeons. The part I find that PUGs have trouble on is the console on path 1. Subject alpha is a breeze on path 2 or 3 once you learn to count to 2 or 3 and then dodge when you see a ton of red circles.

Yes, it has its tricks and things won’t go smoothly unless most of your party is familiar with them but this can be said of almost any dungeon.

That being said, unless you get lucky with lodestones/cores you are right that it is one of the least rewarding dungeons because it does take a bit of time (about 30 minutes per path with a PUG) and you don’t get the raw gold drop that other dungeons get (CoF1 has a raw gold drop of 25 silver from bosses each run).

My core team which ranges from

4 Wars / 1 Mes
5 Warriors
4 Wars/ 1 Guard

Kills Alphas is under a minute, under 2 minutes maximum for end Alphas.

Its just zerker warriors flock to COF, but round em up for COE and you have similar results

SE is the dungeon nobody wants to do. Especially path 2. Especially story mode.

running CoE regularly. Between 4PM (Uk time) and midnight, there’s normally about 5-6 groups on GW2LFG looking for more constantly. When I put out my LFG’s it takes about 5 minutes to get the team.
CoE is a difficult dungeon. I enjoy high difficulty, but not a lot of people do. If you need money and not skins, you’re better off farming CoF, if you feel that difficult runs are fun and want some skins that are rarer to see.

That’s because CoE is a sedative of a dungeon and the hardest part of it is not falling asleep on golem, the middle alphas and destroyer.

why would you wanna do something that takes so long and is broken? I just did COE for my dungeon master title its too long and not worth it subject alpha is harder than lupi in arah and is a pain

subject alpha is harder than lupi in arah and is a pain

Excellent joke, old chap. 10/10, made my day.

Iehova.9518:

subject alpha is harder than lupi in arah and is a pain

Excellent joke, old chap. 10/10, made my day.

ive died on subject alpha more than on lupi.

monkeydluffy.7896:

ive died on subject alpha more than on lupi.

That doesn’t mean alpha is hard, it just means you can’t dodge.

I don’t know, I run CoE a lot with my guildies, it’s a fun dungeon and very very fast. Also it’s the second easiest dungeon after CoF and comparable in speed, except for cof p1 which is way too fast, the other two paths are quite similar in speed if you know what you are doing. I dare say CoE p3 is faster than CoF p3

Iehova.9518:

monkeydluffy.7896:

ive died on subject alpha more than on lupi.

That doesn’t mean alpha is hard, it just means you can’t dodge.

lupi is still easier

monkeydluffy.7896:

lupi is still easier

Can I have what you’re smoking?

Iehova.9518:

monkeydluffy.7896:

lupi is still easier

Can I have what you’re smoking?

no it just means for me i have an easier time with lupi than subject alpha

Iehova.9518:

Can I have what you’re smoking?

Solo him if he’s easier.

haviz.1340:

Solo him if he’s easier.

You funny guy.

I could say you’re being tedious.

I AM being tedious. Two runs of sedative CoE in a day can do that.

haviz.1340:

Iehova.9518:

Can I have what you’re smoking?

Solo him if he’s easier.

Lol, he’s not hard to solo. He only ever has two attacks at any one time, used in the exact same rotation every single time, only ever breaking away for crystallisaton, and any profession with teleports and invulnerabilities can get through those safely. So far I’ve carried bad teams by 80-90% soloing him on Ele, Thief and Guardian. He’s the most predictable enemy in the entire game, barring perhaps…Ettins?

Do it on proffesion without teleports just with dodging.

CoE hard? lolwut?

Von.2731:

Well, from what I can tell it’s because it’s not fun and doesn’t have any rewards. I just got my scepter pre-cursor and I will likely sell it since I don’t see much of a way to convince anyone to do that dungeon with me again and it’s nearly impossible to do. No fun/too difficult + no rewards = no people to play it. Storm for sale here . . . thanks . . .

Start your own lfg and just do path 1 here and there. Path 1 is a faceroll for the most part. I have 3 pieces of armor on my warrior alt (the most costly ones) and have my Gift of Knowledge. It’s not that bad, keep trying.

If anyone is on a European server and wants to run it, feel free to add me as I’ll run it if I’m not currently in another dungeon.

maddoctor.2738:

I don’t know, I run CoE a lot with my guildies, it’s a fun dungeon and very very fast. Also it’s the second easiest dungeon after CoF and comparable in speed, except for cof p1 which is way too fast, the other two paths are quite similar in speed if you know what you are doing. I dare say CoE p3 is faster than CoF p3

Nah, SE p1 is comparable. I personally love CoE with a good party that knows it. It’s quite fun but hard to find any groups for it.

CoE isn’t a bad dungeon and has plenty of good/fun features but it isn’t run that often. It looks great. Ignore the typical forum chatter saying that everything is easy and anyone who doesn’t find everything easy should learn to play. CoE is one of the dungeons that will eat you and spit you out if you don’t know the tactics. Plenty of groups go into CoE with partial knowledge of tactics and still find it pretty hard. Specific reasons why people don’t go into CoE might be:

- the gate can be contested and you can lose 15-30 minutes opening it
- there’s a jumping puzzle and that’s trivial for some and impossible for others
- Subject Alpha – repeated boss who is different on each path – a tough boss
- plenty of champions who are not difficult but have way too much health
- puzzle/tactic bosses that can take a long time to get right
- runs take longer than the fastest paths elsewhere
- experienced players can’t keep new players alive

Stooperdale.3560:

CoE isn’t a bad dungeon and has plenty of good/fun features but it isn’t run that often. It looks great. Ignore the typical forum chatter saying that everything is easy and anyone who doesn’t find everything easy should learn to play. CoE is one of the dungeons that will eat you and spit you out if you don’t know the tactics. Plenty of groups go into CoE with partial knowledge of tactics and still find it pretty hard. Specific reasons why people don’t go into CoE might be:

- the gate can be contested and you can lose 15-30 minutes opening it
- there’s a jumping puzzle and that’s trivial for some and impossible for others
- Subject Alpha – repeated boss who is different on each path – a tough boss
- plenty of champions who are not difficult but have way too much health
- puzzle/tactic bosses that can take a long time to get right
- runs take longer than the fastest paths elsewhere
- experienced players can’t keep new players alive

1. The gate contesting can be avoided by having players guest around, and find a open server. Much like COF runs are done atm.

2. The jumping puzzle requires 2/5 members to be across the lasers. A far cry from the 3 , at the same time, that COF requires. Again, this puzzle can be trivilized by a mesmer who has portal.

3. Yes, hes tough arguably. I used to dread CoE. He still kills me after 100+ runs. The key is pure dps, since he 1hits, you m ust burst him down ASAP. Most players are more ranged/defensive oriented and are using bad specced gear on him

4. Most champions can be skipped or avoided. Imo, its not skipping, if you dont aggro it to start. I.E. Champ Icebrood, Skippable and let spire run past. I.E. Champion abomination after bomb room, Avoidable, let him pass by. I,E, Champion Destroyer Crab – Skippable by running and not standing in her Lava AOE

5. Yes, tactics can be hard to communicate to newer teams. Even when I explain things p[eople dont listen. However its not much different then CM P2 Bomb Part or COF P3 Torch Part etc.. Nothing “harder” than exisiting “Hard” content in other dungeons

6. It provides more loot though. Source: Farmed my legendary in coe alone w/some cursed shore (pre nerf). People who cant farm it properly, sorry your missing out bra!

7. True. So many times a player runs out of corner, unreachable by me. So many times I have them 9/10 Ressed and AOE hits and they die totally just 1 sec before I can res them. Its unforgiving.

You have some good points, but most are really players cant “run random builds, tactics, and need to learn to play”. Which is sad if thats what stopping people.

I run all paths daily on 3 toons without glitching. (Anyone who suggests so and throw tantrums will be reported and kicked.) There are 5 people in a party. Everyone guests to a different server, find an uncontested entrance, enter. OR all guest to 1 server and uncontest it together. It’s not an issue.

SE, CoE and Arah are among the more entertaining dungeons. With a good party the run can be really fun with a few downs and no deaths. Newbies are cool, only if they listen. And for those who keep saying ‘uncontesting is a waste of time’, you ARE playing a game. If you’re in a rush you should only be doing CoF P1 like the rest of the farmers!

Some people do go to the Crucible. However, as stated by the others, it takes a lot to get it open, and it suffers from all the things that make dungeons not fun.

What? I thought for sure that removing the ability to WP res and making enemies more time consuming would make people flock to things like CoE. Shocking, truly.

CoE is my favourite dungeon in the game. I’ve done it for the full set and seen groups walking through the dungeon or wiping at alpha over and over. Alpha, especially in path 2, provides a good challenge, because it forces players to pay attention. Bad timing on the dodge results in downed state. Downed players need to be rezzed quickly, otherwise Alpha will finish them off. That’s why CoE demands more teamplay and individual “skill” than most other dungeons. It’s unforgiving for lazy players.
CoE is even better than Arah. It’s short, but demanding. In contrast to Lupicus, Alpha doesn’t have such a large health pool and provides a constant threat to all players without a boring phase 1 and 3.
To answer your question: CoE is short, if you’re experienced and skilled, but tedious with inexperienced PUGs. Most people don’t bother due to the lazy alternative of running CoF 30 times a day.

Just tried path 2 in this today. The Alpha is impossible when you have a group that can’t manage to rez a downed person, or dodge. After 3 hours we gave up on the last battle with the Alpha. Granted, we are a crap group. We are a group of friends who play on Sundays to do do dungeons. We have a beefy necro, a glass cannon engi, a burst specced warrior, me ( a ranger that will either go berserker or condition specced, whichever is needed) and another friend who brings either a mesmer or another engi.
Doing dungeons with this group can be a kitten, even with all of us on Skype.
This one, I am not looking forward to doing on yet another weekend.

Same here. The ice AOE circles cause some slowdown which messes up my timing for dodges, which is fatal against a boss that requires you to dodge perfectly all the time. Never again. I’ll just stick to Path 1, Path 2 and 3 aren’t worth it.

I do not understand why so meany people whine about coe being ‘not fun’ or ‘too kitty hard’. Yesterday was the first time i’ve done it and i have to say all 3 paths went pretty fast (not cof1 fast, but not se slow) and easy. I wasn’t doing it in speed groups or whatever, just some pugs (4 groups). Basicly if you know your class, you can rez and dodge you will be doing well there.

And after 4 runs i had 4 charged cores so i consider it not that bad a reward too.

Also try not to compare dungeons to cof p1. If you want to make some gold go for cof1, if you want to have actual fun playing a game go do some other dungeons (and yeah you never know with pugs).

I try to do CoE several days a week, because I’m after the armor. I can understand that people don’t like path 2 or 3, since Alpha is extremely annoying in these paths, but path 1 is super easy. I haven’t done all dungeons yet, but I think CoE is way more fun and easier (at least path 1) than TA or AC, which I personally hate. I always manage to find a party via gw2lfg. This month however it’s more difficult for me, I guess everyone is busy with SAB. :P

I am currently doing CoE around 3-6 times every day I hav time to play, so all paths on two toons.
It nets you a fair amount of charged cores, exctos from traded in rares, has way less elitist people going for it than CoF and also less noobs. The dungeon ist really easy once you know what to do. It can be a little tricky at the beginning but after 2 runs of each path you should be fine. There even is trash that you don’t skip because the loot is good.

I usually have success finding groups for CoE on LFG, and I’ve done a few runs recently. I think CoE is one of the more entertaining dungeons. The armor looks nice as does the dungeon itself. Getting charged cores is good too.

My biggest complaint would be the destroyer laser part in path 3. Running back and forth between the boss and lasers just feels tedious. I don’t like the “do some fixed action simultaneously to make the boss vulnerable” mechanics. There’s no interesting decision making or timing involved but there’s plenty of idle/running time waiting for people to get in position. It’s like the boring CoF P2 end boss.

I also think it’s a bit bland to have so many Alpha fights in all of the paths. The tactics for P3 and P2 are identical. In P3, I think it would’ve been better to replace the destroyer boss with Alpha and bring Kudu from story mode back in some form as the end boss in P3.

I think it a morale issue. I ran it with a guild group yesterday. Path 1, no problems, smooth run. Decided to do path 2 as well, didn’t go so well :p.

Funnily enough I made a mistake right at first alpha fight and died in first 10 secs (dodge fail into block) It was the fact that people went down so much that sapped their enthusiasm. Once you go down in some of the fights there isnt much time to recover unless you know the timings. I’ve ran it quite a lot and I can still have a bad day. I still love it though

Alpha is soo much fun for my ranger. It’s all about experience and like many said, bringing in beginners is great ONLY if they listen to directions. I’ve had a PUG party that was new to p2 and 3 and listen to every direction I said, no downs, great fun.

I also agree with Void, P3 boss is kinda boring. The mechanic is awesome and different than other bosses but execution flawed.

CoE is still my favorite dungeon but it’s difficult getting competent players. By competent I mean people that can listen and know the basics about dodging. About 95% of groups that do fail is because they lack this.

I’ll also add that Alpha tends to choose only one person to cast the ice blast (slow forming ice) attack on. If they move away from the group then everyone else can just facetank him. You just have to make sure that player doesn’t grab aggro and can blink out of the prison.

It used to get alot more attention, now it’s getting pretty hard to find people to run it. Last night I was trying to find a group to run with and there was only 3 posts on LFG, when it used to be like 10~15. I guess people just wanted to farm a easy berserker gear and moved on to CoF1, because it doubled the size in the last week.

Hmm. My guild usually clear full CoE twice a day, often taken beginners with us. Alpha is really easy to dodge, simply count to “2” and dodge, negates ALL AoE dmg. Bringing mesmer/guardian also make the runs go much smoother due to their buffs in the fights.
Our usual group is Necro, Ranger, Mesmer, Guardian and Warrior, but we have run it with any kind of group and still finish it fast and smooth.

People stopped doing CoE for one reason and one reason only… you can no longer 3in1. The ability to 3in1 a run in 40min let people, that knew how to run it, farm faster than CoF. Now that this is not possible CoF is faster and there is no more reason to farm CoE.

halfsquelch.3465:

People stopped doing CoE for one reason and one reason only… you can no longer 3in1. The ability to 3in1 a run in 40min let people, that knew how to run it, farm faster than CoF. Now that this is not possible CoF is faster and there is no more reason to farm CoE.

doned all 3 path in 45 min yesterday (2 ele 2 war and 1 guard) coe can be farmable and ofc is less boring then farm cof p1, when got time i do all 3 path with all my 3 pg