Guild Wars 2

AuranX.7214:

The devs need to add an 80 exclusive mode for people who want more challenge, rather than making a level 35 dungeon only cater to 80s. I personally am a casual player who can’t do well in these dungeons if they are very hard, so I can’t complete my monthlies this way, hoping to find an alternative later before I can’t finish them at all.

And developers can create two types of tokens, for 80 lvl gear, and for 35

Lexandro.1456:

Teleniel.1809:

Honestly … if you’re a brand new player and you want to push to do “end game” (scaled dungeon story/explorer) as soon as you can, I would expect you to make a point to not only learn how to use your skills, but also look online to figure out how to participate in the content. And I would also expect you to invest in having the proper equipment for the situation.

I’ve got nothing against people wanting to do things as soon as possible, I just don’t expect content should be “walk up and face roll it without needing to study, prepare or come properly equipped”.

Join a guild, level up, get some equipment, read about what you want to do before you just jump in.

Where does it say that AC is “end game content”? You get a message at 30/35 to tell you its opened to you. This is what people just dont get. It is most certainly not end game content, its a lvl 35+ dungeon.

If you were talking about Arah and making the same point I would concur with you 100%. However its AC, and it is not end-game content, its an early game intro to dungeons.

Let me repeat that again, because it seems like people keep making the same mistake;
AC is not end-game content.

As to a further point made earlier about players not acting as a team; I currently have an ele @45 who was playing AC pre-patch and having fun doing so. Being new to the ele class and wanting to “tune up” my casting skills so that switching became normal I played it a lot with icebow and FGS so that on any mounds the team has the firepower to take them out fast. My play came from using them when needed and backing up the team with AoE fire damage and a bit of water healing. Things worked great, I made friends easily. Hell that ele did AC explore mode path 1 at level 33.

LVL 33! Because I knew the mechanics, I had the skill, and I geared my char I was able to pull my weight in the team and not get spanked every 2 seconds by the mobs and bosses. I had FUN! right up to lvl 45 and the patch hitting.

Same ele, better geared, higher level, with a competant player at the controls (me) with 2 condition removals and a stun breaker utility skills; Post patch = wipe, wipe and wipe again. Not even fun, never mind FUN!

The difficulty has been skewed to far towards experienced and hardened players. Do that for Arah or CoF but doing it in AC is a a terrible idea.

Anet has been seen on many occasions saying that the end game begins at level 1, so I am afraid you are wrong. AC IS end game content. My guess, and hopes, are that all dungeons will be revamped in a manner that AC was so that they feel more satisfying. Let me also point out that End Game =/= Max Level. In WoW it does, but not here. End game means that you are doing difficult content, working toward achievements and gaining prestige in the server. GW2 is trying to make leveling a by-product of doing end game rather than a means to do it. Did you ever wonder why they have massive world events in all the starter zones? Is that not end game?

Old AC was not fun and not satisfying. If you were wiping that much then it was probably because you and your party weren’t working as a team and were instead following that “lone wolf” mentality that old AC and many of the dungeons seem to encourage. Old AC was a joke. The only chance of dying was against Kholer, H. King and Rumblus and all of them had laughably easy skills to dodge. New AC is still fairly easy, albeit more challenging.

I am new to GW2 (and to GW universe in general). I’ve started playing about a month ago. The first time I got in a dungeon was couple of weeks ago with a party of lvl 30~50 (my ele had the highest level of 50ish). We went to AC story. Due to the lack of explanation we wiped a few times and we just gave up.

Couple of days ago I’ve reattempted to in a dungeon. AC again. This time I was lvl 80 with rare gear. My d/d build was completely ineffective (switched to staff). At first I’ve been dying a lot. But we managed to pull it through. My next few runs of AC (exp) were semi-successful and I was improving. Until the patch came along

After the patch I was in a party with all lvl80 ppl. We managed to get to Ghost Eater relatively easy. However we were completely unaware what to do. “Charge the traps” it said. For a game which mechanics mostly includes spamming the ‘F’ key it wouldn’t give too much details how to “charge” those traps nor what is their functionality. We’ve read a few forum/wiki posts and voala. But alas – no. It bugged. The ghost eater didn’t aggro on anything, not moving … I filed a bug report.

Today I tried again (I needed one more dungeon run for my monthly). We tried it with a group from the guild with good coordination. p3 it was. Up until the end – no major upsets or issues (it was hard but not impossible). The boss fight. We wiped dozens of times. Yet again we had to read wiki to get how to do it. Even with that spoiled knowledge we managed to get Colossus Rumblus to about 20% of its health. The d?mn thing was spamming those seismic attacks so much that it wasn’t even funny.

We tried another path (p2) that according to someone was doable. Same story – difficult to get the boss, impossible to beat it, especially when it bugs up. Initially Tzark bugged and did not build the traps (we had to leave her to die in order to get it restarted). Then the Ghost Eater bugged out on the north trap.

I had to do AC story mode again just to get my monthly. I agree – I am not the most experience player, I am not a die-hard dungeoneer, and I do not use exotic armor … But I don’t find it compelling to go into AC. I agree that mechanics beyond beat’em’up on bosses is a good thing, but not on the first dungeon.

The other thing that boggles my mind is – How this dungeon passed testing? Three out of four runs for me it bugged out! Didn’t anyone checked if the changed that were done were working as intended and are OK for a release?

Regards,
Arcopix

Teleniel.1809:

Honestly … if you’re a brand new player and you want to push to do “end game” (scaled dungeon story/explorer) as soon as you can, I would expect you to make a point to not only learn how to use your skills, but also look online to figure out how to participate in the content. And I would also expect you to invest in having the proper equipment for the situation.

I’ve got nothing against people wanting to do things as soon as possible, I just don’t expect content should be “walk up and face roll it without needing to study, prepare or come properly equipped”.

Join a guild, level up, get some equipment, read about what you want to do before you just jump in.

I shouldn’t have to level up more than 35 levels to do the first dungeon, and I should be able to learn as I go on the designated “beginner” dungeon. Now those options are gone, and I’m seeing very little reason to even bother. All I ever do right now is WvWvW and the personal story, and this is because I have a limited amount of time to play. Why, when I’m supposed to learn the “how-to” on this dungeon and no longer can, should I waste that limited time on dungeons at all? Especially when other games that will hopefully not have such incredibly short-sighted and poor design decisions regarding their dungeon content are coming?

After reaching level 40 I decided to do my first dungeon, AC. I joined a pug and did story mode. After completing that I wanted to try exp mode. I’ve been in 15 or so pugs today and if I’m lucky, they will not kick me because of my level. Of the 5 that kept me, none of us completed much of anything before everyone gave up and quit.

I have gone from being “excited” about this new phase in my GW2 game play to totally disappointed and discouraged.

I really doubt that all the posters in this thread that claim it’s easy or that they’ve run it 5 times today have done so with level 35 or level 40 or even all level 50 toons. And if you reply and say “its for level 80 characters” you are wrong. The dungeon entrance window says “level 35”. That should end the argument right there.

Overall the mechanics are a lot more fun and interesting and challenging.
The problem is the gave EVERYTHING knockdown. It’s worse than orr was before they nerfed that.
The other problem is that people are experiencing huge drops in fps when there are several gravelings around (which is always). I have run AC several times before this patch and never had this problem. Don’t know what it is but I’m going from >35fps to <10fps when theres any sort of graveling group around.

I have no issues with the AC revamp other than the rampant framerate drops. Wasn’t even bothered by the knockbacks, since I run with a short CD stun break and two separate sources of constant health regeneration. Just have to get used to the fact that gravelings other than scavengers are actually a threat.

The knockdown is also pretty long.
Or when they immobilize.. you are not able to do anything, you have to watch yourself die. (And yeah, you do not always have a condition removal ready round the clock)

Yeah, and the fps drops doesn’t make it any better, because sometime it got such laggy/ delayed that I am not able to cast my skills. Whereas enemies do their damage and kill me (while I try do get through one single skill). ^^
Not amused.

I’m sort of ambivalent about these changes. I do agree it makes the dungeon more engaging. But I have to wonder, did it really need to be? I think there is some value in having one low level, easier, introductory dungeon. Plus it’s nice to have an easier dungeon in general for everyone, especially one that offers pvt gear which can be a bit of an intro exotic set as well.

I only did path 1 and 2 and didn’t find it as hard as some here are making it out to be, though I did go with a guild group.. though we did have one lvl 35 with us. He got downed a bit more but not too much.

My only issue was on path 1.. Holy Knockbacks Batman! Seriously, a bit overkill with those. It got irritating. Getting chained knocked back whilst protecting an npc isn’t fun.

Path 2, ghost eater.. points for creativity. Once we figured out the tactic, it was fun enough, but I’d seriously hesitate doing this with a pug. Coordination is all good and well, but with this game lacking voice communication I’m not sure it’s the best idea. One bad point is him getting stuck on the traps.

Maleioch.1907:

After reaching level 40 I decided to do my first dungeon, AC. I joined a pug and did story mode. After completing that I wanted to try exp mode. I’ve been in 15 or so pugs today and if I’m lucky, they will not kick me because of my level. Of the 5 that kept me, none of us completed much of anything before everyone gave up and quit.

I have gone from being “excited” about this new phase in my GW2 game play to totally disappointed and discouraged.

I really doubt that all the posters in this thread that claim it’s easy or that they’ve run it 5 times today have done so with level 35 or level 40 or even all level 50 toons. And if you reply and say “its for level 80 characters” you are wrong. The dungeon entrance window says “level 35”. That should end the argument right there.

Honestly I haven’t seen a mmo until now that simply doesn’t care about this issue. They are just ok that people give up often. Name me another mmo that has a high point of entry for dungeons like GW2? GW1 was 5 times easier. Also any combo of class makeup should be able to complete dungeons, otherwise one should have just stayed with the trinity, since one way or another you are forcing classes and builds for success, what’s the difference?. Somebody wake up.

I could write a book on why I dislike the new AC, like helping lvl 80 elitists or forcing players to play a specific role etc and why. But if any of you Anet guys are reading this all I want you to know is that AC was fun to me and now it is not. It is content you are taking away from me, not because I could not manage to succeed in it, because I did, but because it is not fun. FUN (do you guys remeber when you cared about doing fun content?)

I went through the revamped AC with guildies and while Ghost Eater was a pain because he would not move or get stuck at a trap, we adapted quickly to what must be done and did one trap at a time. Voice coms help in dungeons why I only run with the guild in dungeons.

Nnene.7231:

They problem is not that it’s hard and challenging for lvl 80 team. The problem is that it is SUPPOSED to be the EASIEST and FIRST dungeon that you do at LVL 35, to LEARN how to do dungeons and mechanics and teamwork, and all that. What was wrong with the other AC ? It was easy, of course, for lvl 80 people who had done it a hundred times, but it was still hard and challenging for lvl 35 begginers, so it was the way it SHOULD be, right ?

So why change it ? Just why.

I agree. It’s strange that people argue that if you are level 50 you are to low for level 35 content.

If level 35 content is to easy for level 80 players, isn’t that a hint for a problem with the scaling system??

Who at ArenaNet thought it was fun to have chain knockdowns from a hallway of trash mobs that have an AoE knockback/knockdown skill? I was just with a group with a couple 40-44 toons that couldn’t make it through the graveling tunnel before the Howling King so someone made us kill them. We did it, but it felt exactly like everything I hated about Diablo 3 – strafing the whole time, running back, dodging, strafing, running, dodging, strafing. Not because they did damage, but because five or more of them were chaining a knockback skill. It killed a couple of people that got caught in it (their fault) while the rest of us kept strafing. I quit Diablo 3 because I hated this, I don’t know why they ruined AC by shoving CC down our throats. Didn’t they just nerf Orr because it was packed with this garbage? Dodging the AoE circle isn’t the issue, why make us dodge 5+ of them in a tunnel AND make the mobs evade (with no animation to add to it) 80% of the time? It’s kittening frustrating.

I hat this AC patch more and more every day. It used to be a dungeon I enjoyed running. I pug a lot and I often left groups because they didn’t do Kholer, it’s true it’s easier than other dungeons, but I enjoyed running a dungeon with some skill required with a group of people. It’s part of why I bought an MMO. I always used to do all three paths. Now my groups disband after path 1 and I honestly don’t care. Path 2 is garbage and this dungeon is just tedious and not worth the time any more.

I always had the option of speed clearing CoF (as boring as it is) if I wanted money. I usually chose AC because I could learn how to play all my characters (I have six level 80s and my final two classes were going to start learning the ropes when they were AC able in a few more levels, kitten that now) in a group environment and I got to play with other people while making a decent profit (dramatically inferior to other areas, but the balance of things I got out of AC was worth it, it’s a game after all). It’s still early days but already I’ve seen enough wreckage from this patch to make AC a much less enjoyable place for me. As much as I love some of the changes (path 1 boss, path 3 boss when it doesn’t get gimped, I always enjoyed Kholer) overall I think this patch has killed AC for me. The average skill level of a pug team is just too low, especially if I get sub 80s (I used to take them with me in the past, I won’t do that any more, not that I’m going to keep running it anyway). If this is the future of GW2 dungeon balance, I might have to quit the game while I’m ahead, while some things worked well, too much of this patch has ruined the dungeon for me compared to the stuff that worked.

Levistis.8356:

Agree with IamDuddits and Dog. People are so used to not thinking during the spider queen/howler/rumblus that they cannt adjust to change. These new paths are a representation of what every GW2 dungeon should be like, and I hope the devs do not give in to the massive uproar.

You mean a broken mess?

FPS drops up the wazoo and bugged end bosses barring completion.

Ya boi!

Robert has made his strategy clear. He is waiting a week or two for all of the immediate reaction to disappear and then will take stock using feedback garnered after that time. There is no point complaining until then.

I am.. very curious where these devs get their ‘feedback’ from. Or who they are getting it from. Lately most of the changes in place and reasons ‘based on feedback’ sure as hell didn’t feel like it was from our community.

And he says ‘trust me’. Real shady

This design decision reminds me very much of the Ghostcrawler/Cataclysm debacle. I like to play the game with friends ho may not be as awesome at dodging as me, or might just be a melee class that experiences latency. Making every dungeon an enormous pain in the kitten is not solving the problem. If you feel experienced folks are running it to often for rewards, tweak the reward structure, don’t make the experience a punch in the kitten.

The new changes to AC are welcomed, and does not make the dungeon hard at all. You all need to re-evaluate how you are playing and work as a team. This goes for boon stacking and using your combos.

Most of my group was inebriated and chatting it up and were able to do all 3 paths easily.

I think whenever Anet put new content in, they assume everyone is lvl 80 and kitted out to the maxium and has the reactions of a olympic athlete.

In short they just cater for a elite few and alienate the vast majority of there customers.

New players especially they seem to forget about…after all won’t alot of new players need to run AC to kit themselves out in exotics…after being kicked, treated like rubbish by more experienced players and wiping for the 100th time is it any wonder why they quit the game or refuse to step a foot in a dungeon ever again?

The changes in AC are awesome. I really miss dungeons in GW1 that took a few hours and you have to take them slowly and methodically (like Duncan the Black, Urgoz, The Deep, etc). We did AC path three last night and it wasn’t that difficult at all. Once you learn the changes it’s pretty simple. Yes having a team that listens and works together is always a plus too. Dungeons are meant to be difficult, they are not supposed to be easy, run through, hack/slash, & grab reward.

@Meglobob
And no, when we did a couple runs the other day with pugs, not everyone was 80. And it was still a blast.

Why can’t path 1 be easy, path 2 be medium, path 3 be hard. Give out 10 tokens, 30 tokens, 60 tokens respectively. You please the people who just want easy dungeons and they people who want a challenge for hard dungeons. That’s the issue with a dungeon like CoF. You already have the easy p1, medium p2, and hard p3. Yet it’s the same rewards to it’s easier to just run p1 over and over again.

fantasy.8395:

Time and time again i go from mmo to mmo and I find that devs feel the need to change something that was working or people enjoy

Well, a lot of people complained about it beforehand, so criticize them and not ANet, they just did what these people called for.

Iruwen.3164:

fantasy.8395:

Time and time again i go from mmo to mmo and I find that devs feel the need to change something that was working or people enjoy

Well, a lot of people complained about it beforehand, so criticize them and not ANet, they just did what these people called for.

Really? I literally know of no-one who ever complained about AC exploration needing to be change…

AC got harder, its doable (ive done p1 and p2), but more chalenging…

I however do agree that is ludacris for a lvl 35 dungeon, that is supposed to be the 1st u walk into….

if u you run it w people in lvls 60+ is a tad longer than it used to be, but perfectly doable. groups under lvl 60… bad idea

i like the new mechanics and all but people that claim that is too hard for a lvl 35 dungeon, are right…..

by lvl 35 u dont know the ins and outs of your class, have hardly anything on your trait tree… and are poorly equipped to manage mobs that spam knockdowns and knockbacks and hits for 200h at a time…. if You cant handle that at lvl 80 well… study a bit… but at lvl 35 -60 you are still getting about your toon.

As I said before, it is as if they designed the first lvl 35 dungeon for downscaled lvl 80 characters.

The simple reason they upped the difficulty of this dungeon – and inevitably will update the difficulty of all the others in a similar fashion – was to keep them from being farmed for such easy gold.

After all – they want people to buy their gold via gem exchange from the Trading Post. Too many people were getting too much gold far too easily to just make the exchange back to gems and get the goodies without paying the Piper.

What someone else said earlier in this thread is true: everyone who wants to make gold quick now had better hurry up and knock the stuffing out of CoF runs, because the axe will come down there (and with the other dungeons) just as it did with regard to AC.

Follow the money, folks.
Follow the money.

Oglaf.1074:

Iruwen.3164:

fantasy.8395:

Time and time again i go from mmo to mmo and I find that devs feel the need to change something that was working or people enjoy

Well, a lot of people complained about it beforehand, so criticize them and not ANet, they just did what these people called for.

Really? I literally know of no-one who ever complained about AC exploration needing to be change…

Many people said the bosses HP needed to be lowered and special attacks/more abilities should be added. People complained that trash was too easy and just tedious due to high HP – now the hp have been drastically lowered and the trash now have stronger abilites.

yeah…. BUT they have to be careful with the balance, hey for me they could throw a dungeon with a Lupi that spawns Subject Alpha’s as mobs, id wipe till i pass that MoFo… but if content gets too hard, people will start bailing on the game, people that otherwise consumes and helps expand game recognition, and thus attracts more market, which in return become more possible spenders of the gem…. its not so easy as buff dungs, so people no farm

Levistis.8356:

Oglaf.1074:

Iruwen.3164:

fantasy.8395:

Time and time again i go from mmo to mmo and I find that devs feel the need to change something that was working or people enjoy

Well, a lot of people complained about it beforehand, so criticize them and not ANet, they just did what these people called for.

Really? I literally know of no-one who ever complained about AC exploration needing to be change…

Many people said the bosses HP needed to be lowered and special attacks/more abilities should be added. People complained that trash was too easy and just tedious due to high HP – now the hp have been drastically lowered and the trash now have stronger abilites.

To be fair, that extends to every boss and silver mob in any dungeon ever. Hopefully they all get the same treatment (sans bugs).

EverythingXen.1835:

Levistis.8356:

Oglaf.1074:

Iruwen.3164:

fantasy.8395:

Time and time again i go from mmo to mmo and I find that devs feel the need to change something that was working or people enjoy

Well, a lot of people complained about it beforehand, so criticize them and not ANet, they just did what these people called for.

Really? I literally know of no-one who ever complained about AC exploration needing to be change…

Many people said the bosses HP needed to be lowered and special attacks/more abilities should be added. People complained that trash was too easy and just tedious due to high HP – now the hp have been drastically lowered and the trash now have stronger abilites.

To be fair, that extends to every boss and silver mob in any dungeon ever. Hopefully they all get the same treatment (sans bugs).

Wut??? maybe CoF need a revamp too…. but for the love of all leave Arah alone…. its sufficiently demanding as is

How to do AC now without exploits? Someone help.

Anet’s idea of making content “challenging” is to create more adds and give them more cc. Rinse and repeat. What a surprise.

Lazy, uncreative game design at its worst.

Getting constantly knocked down by trash mobs and being unable to fight back is frustrating as hell, not fun or challenging. It’s RNG death, not a challenge. You only have two evades and a few stun breakers on long cds, and mobs can and will knock you down at the end of an evade. I can think of better forms of entertainment that involve lying on your back. This is not one of them.

The old saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” applies here. The new changes have made this dungeon near impossible for PUGs, especially those with lower level members.

I can’t imagine how any dungeon can be fun after you’ve done it dozens of time, let alone one’s as poorly designed as the ones in this game. So let’s be honest here and admit that for many of us, dungeons are just farms to get gear for WvW. As such I don’t want to waste any more time on them than I have to.

In a dev post earlier it said they were looking into revamping basically all dungeons, I’m guessing kinda like they did AC. This will most likely raise the difficulty of all dungeons, and make them require smart thinking and teamwork, kinda like Arah does now.

Oglaf.1074:

Iruwen.3164:

fantasy.8395:

Time and time again i go from mmo to mmo and I find that devs feel the need to change something that was working or people enjoy

Well, a lot of people complained about it beforehand, so criticize them and not ANet, they just did what these people called for.

Really? I literally know of no-one who ever complained about AC exploration needing to be change…

I never complained but I like the new AC more than the old one. Ghost Eater, Rumblus and the screamer guy were just lame. Not only that, but I think the general difficulty has been toned down overall.

Oglaf.1074:

Iruwen.3164:

fantasy.8395:

Time and time again i go from mmo to mmo and I find that devs feel the need to change something that was working or people enjoy

Well, a lot of people complained about it beforehand, so criticize them and not ANet, they just did what these people called for.

Really? I literally know of no-one who ever complained about AC exploration needing to be change…

I believe the changes to AC are just a hint as to what we should expect from the other dungeons in the near future. Since it’s the first dungeon players will encounter it makes sense that it will be the first to be updated.

Now to see what kind of changes they will put on the rest of them

Dog.1472:

People are putting way too much importance on level and numbers, especially when level 80s get scaled down into the ground.

It’s worth noting that, even when scaled to the ground, Lv 80s enjoy a significant advantage over Lv 35s – completed trait lines, access to high level gear, more access to skills that can be switched up to fit the situation.

I’ve personally enjoyed the dungeon changes, but I also understand it would be a much different experience for a Lv 35 than for a Lv 80.

Levistis.8356:

Oglaf.1074:

Iruwen.3164:

fantasy.8395:

Time and time again i go from mmo to mmo and I find that devs feel the need to change something that was working or people enjoy

Well, a lot of people complained about it beforehand, so criticize them and not ANet, they just did what these people called for.

Really? I literally know of no-one who ever complained about AC exploration needing to be change…

Many people said the bosses HP needed to be lowered and special attacks/more abilities should be added. People complained that trash was too easy and just tedious due to high HP – now the hp have been drastically lowered and the trash now have stronger abilites.

Exactly.

azureai.9764:

Dog.1472:

People are putting way too much importance on level and numbers, especially when level 80s get scaled down into the ground.

It’s worth noting that, even when scaled to the ground, Lv 80s enjoy a significant advantage over Lv 35s – completed trait lines, access to high level gear, more access to skills that can be switched up to fit the situation.

I’ve personally enjoyed the dungeon changes, but I also understand it would be a much different experience for a Lv 35 than for a Lv 80.

I haven’t tried it as a 35 but I plan on doing it to see how doable it is. I agree they need to work on scaling, though I think the changes indirectly helped with this by making the extra stats less important. Exotics aren’t going to save you if you stand in spider queens AoE and mobs are still going to die pretty fast even without exotic weapons and traits.

From reading map chat and forums I get the impression that the people complaining the most about this are the same people that would farm CoF/AC for easy gold/exotics and then complain on the forums that GW2 has no end game content. You can’t ever satisfy them.

Even in WoW not everyone could do the current raids and that’s what made the gear prestigious. It wasn’t just the stats on the gear, it was the prestige that went with having the gear.

The only difference here is that GW2 offers other options for getting exotic-quality stats besides grinding dungeons. If all you are looking for is the stats then do yourself a favor. Make the exotics yourself and run six AC paths for the monk runes (instead of ~24ish for the set). It’s easier than complaining on the forums that you can’t speed run an intro dungeon anymore.

I actually really enjoy the new AC.
I hit 30 (and 35) the night before the patch dropped, and running AC story at that point was, honestly, kind of a joke. Most of the time I didn’t even realise we where in a boss fight until the chest had popped up.

Now, however, my runs have ranged from ~30 mins to literally 4 hours trying to clear path 1.

I’m not against that. In fact, downing Lieutenant Kohler (spelling?) for the first time felt so rewarding that the 20+ attempts to get him was worth it.

However, there are a few bugs that need to be fixed.

In the Lieutenant Kohler fight, when he Scorpion Wires the whole party into an insta-down if you don’t dodge, the Scorpion Wire is still targetting me from stealth. I feel like this isn’t intentional. I’m absolutely fine with the damage it deals, but the idea is that you’re supposed to evade the wire, and the mechanics that can do so SHOULD do so.

For the ‘Graveling’ event in p1, the 5th burrow (the one in the corner next to the gate, opposite the side of the room with the dirt floor burrow — Everyone in my group, including myself, was having problems with the walls. As a thief, sometimes, for no apparent reason, I would appirate behind a gate that I could not return from, usually causing a wipe. I have a feeling this has a lot to do with the Knockback the Gravelings’ possess, since my Necro friend (who has no teleports/leaps) was also getting stuck in walls. The warrior in our group also had the same problem. This needs to be fixed, the event is hard enough as-is (although we learned to compensate by all going ranged to nuke that burrow, its still a flaw).

IamDuddits.1692:

I haven’t tried it as a 35 but I plan on doing it to see how doable it is. I agree they need to work on scaling, though I think the changes indirectly helped with this by making the extra stats less important.

I’d love to see your feedback once you run that. I’m guessing if 5 people who are actually spec’d at level 35 equip themselves with no greater than Masterwork gear and similar traits that would be available it’s going to either be a wipe or a very long, frustrating experience.

Don’t get me wrong, I like AC and I can run a path in about 20 minutes even after the update, but I’m full 80 exotic. This dungeon is not a level 35 dungeon. They need to make this particular dungeon easier so that people who actually are level 35 can run a dungeon if they want to. Right now, most would be lost (and hopeless) entering AC @ level 35.

harbinger.2698:

IamDuddits.1692:

I haven’t tried it as a 35 but I plan on doing it to see how doable it is. I agree they need to work on scaling, though I think the changes indirectly helped with this by making the extra stats less important.

I’d love to see your feedback once you run that. I’m guessing if 5 people who are actually spec’d at level 35 equip themselves with no greater than Masterwork gear and similar traits that would be available it’s going to either be a wipe or a very long, frustrating experience.

Don’t get me wrong, I like AC and I can run a path in about 20 minutes even after the update, but I’m full 80 exotic. This dungeon is not a level 35 dungeon. They need to make this particular dungeon easier so that people who actually are level 35 can run a dungeon if they want to. Right now, most would be lost (and hopeless) entering AC @ level 35.

I’ll be sure to post my feedback if it’d be useful to people. If it’s as bad as you say, they either need to weaken 80s scaling or nerf the dungeon a bit or both. After the patch I ran it with my Lvl 80 support spec’d Guardian with Full AC exotic armor… and two level 30 MW rings. We were all 80s, three were pugs (myself included) with the other two in a guild together. We wiped a lot. Wiped on Kholer ~6 times over two paths and skipped him on path 3. Wiped at other various bosses. Maybe 12-15 wipes over all three paths. Our wipes I felt had more to do with failure to learn mechanics and work as a team and less to do with gear/levels.

If changes like these force people to learn things like playing your class properly, ressing teammates, dodging, working as a team, avoiding AoEs, damage mitigation, timing support skills to help allies, and changing utility/weapon skills for different encounters then I see this as a boon to the community. It encourages creativity with your class skills and team work, which from my experience with pre-patch AC is something that is generally lacking in the community.

kenzuro.1073:

The new changes to AC are welcomed, and does not make the dungeon hard at all. You all need to re-evaluate how you are playing and work as a team. This goes for boon stacking and using your combos.

Most of my group was inebriated and chatting it up and were able to do all 3 paths easily.

Was your entire group level 35 – 40 toons? If not, then I don’t see your point in posting about how easy it was.

Dear A.net please make all dungeons this hard. Then give them an additional harder hard mode that has unique dungeon (edit)SKINS* that drop from chests and more complex mechanics.

Dear A.net please make dungeon progression so that I have to complete a dungeon to unlock a harder dungeon (elite dungeon) for the week or something.

Dear A.net also make dungeons scale everyone up to 80 rather than down to the appropriate level. This gives all dungeons a simultaneous baseline that they can all be balanced off of instead of having to guess how powerful a level 50 person is going to be for TA. Fractals already does this yes?

Dear A.net… please make your aggro system just be that monsters attack the closest damaging target and take out all the bells and whistles that adjust this behavior on 99% of enemies so that we can have a reliable aggro system that we can plan around and also allows you to make more interesting encounters that have better fight mechanics and less chaos and chance.

IamDuddits.1692:

I’ll be sure to post my feedback if it’d be useful to people. If it’s as bad as you say, they either need to weaken 80s scaling or nerf the dungeon a bit or both.

Disagree on the first sentiment – a beginning level dungeon should be pretty cake for a Lvl 80 exotic toon, otherwise, what’s the point of getting the gear? I’m not saying I should 1 shot everything, but in a beginner dungeon, I should absolutely roll pretty much straight through. Which, is generally what I do in most groups so I’m ok with that.

After the patch I ran it with my Lvl 80 support spec’d Guardian with Full AC exotic armor… and two level 30 MW rings. We were all 80s, three were pugs (myself included) with the other two in a guild together. We wiped a lot. Wiped on Kholer ~6 times over two paths and skipped him on path 3. Wiped at other various bosses.

That’s odd. Our experience was that we kind of half-wiped in the spider room the first time because the hatchlings were so much more powerful than before that it surprised us, but after that, we took things slowly and made it without wiping. Which is what I would expect the full level 80 exotics ought to buy you. Not necessarily guarantee a win in a beginner dungeon, but certainly provide a huge advantage.

Again, if people want a challenge, they should not be looking for it in a beginner dungeon unless they’re beginners in the first place.

Rump Buffalo.2594:

Dear A.net please make all dungeons this hard. Then give them an additional harder hard mode that has unique dungeon skills that drop from chests and more complex mechanics.

Seriously, people need to re-learn the definition of the word “beginner”. This is the beginner dungeon for people to learn on. It should not be so overtly difficult for a party of true level 35 that they constantly wipe and grind. Also, it should be pretty simple for a group of full exotic 80’s to get through and not struggle much if they have any sort of skill.

If this were true, then this would accurately reflect the qualifier of “beginner”. Not every dungeon should be created equally difficult so that every person from every level will struggle, that’s not realistic.

Right now beginner maps such as Wayfairer Foothills are much easier than Frostgorge Sound and there’s a good reason. The same should be true of Dungeons so people who are lower/mid levels have dungeons where they can farm them without it being a ridiculously frustrating grind of expense and death.

OK, so I’m not really the whining type… and I like some of the changes in AC… BUT… Colossus… that’s just not fun. Despite what was posted on forums that the Cave In ability is interruptable, it certainly isn’t. And none has any chance of survival with 3-5 overlapping AOE effects… so I have to say the revamping here isn’t what I’ve been expected.

Where does it say it’s a beginner dungeon? It gives lvl 80 exotics.

Savant.5276:

The simple reason they upped the difficulty of this dungeon – and inevitably will update the difficulty of all the others in a similar fashion – was to keep them from being farmed for such easy gold.

After all – they want people to buy their gold via gem exchange from the Trading Post. Too many people were getting too much gold far too easily to just make the exchange back to gems and get the goodies without paying the Piper.

What someone else said earlier in this thread is true: everyone who wants to make gold quick now had better hurry up and knock the stuffing out of CoF runs, because the axe will come down there (and with the other dungeons) just as it did with regard to AC.

Follow the money, folks.
Follow the money.

The problem with this is that they also made it nigh impossible to run as a beginning dungeon. The implementation of a “hard mode” and elimination of being able to farm the exploration mode for gold and tokens would have been so much smarter. Now it’s a level 60+ dungeon by most people’s reckoning. I’m 35 levels in and bored to tears with “dynamic events.” They’re better than quest chains, but not by much. So now, looking at content I was looking forward to completing and it looks suspiciously like I will not be able to do for at least 25 more levels, the only aspect of this game I enjoy is WvWvW. That sure as hell won’t be enough to keep me playing when newer, more interesting games come out, and judging by the number of complaints I’m seeing on the forums I’m not the only one who feels this way.