Guild Wars 2

Compared to other less than 80 dungeons? It plays almost as difficult as Arah. Or maybe I’ve just gotten bad groups?

TA is easy. You’ve just gotten bad groups.

If you find good players they can carry you pretty easily.

I seen pug pretty much 3 man the ooze fire room. Or 2 man the last boss when 3 of us are on the ground in 2 minutes. There is also the guy who pretty much did the electric room without getting hit once.

Obviously there is also the time where group just fall apart and everyone quit before the dungeon end.

laokoko.7403:

I seen pug pretty much 3 man the ooze fire room.[…]

Well, judging by this,

Compared to other less than 80 dungeons?

OP doesn’t seem to talk about the aetherpath.

An average PUG dies at Malrona, because they don’t know about getting poisoned by her grants a massive DPS boost against her, thus greatly shortens the battle and therefore the risk or they simply don’t dodge her AoE, which is a one-hit down against most zerker-wearing classes. (I admit that it keeps happening to me. I better start calling myself “Scrubby McScrublord” from now on)

Bad PUGs often fail the skip to lauren’t elite guard, because they don’t dodge the knights, don’t use stability or don’t use any condition removal against cipple.

A really, really bad PUG doesn’t even bother to range-cleave the blossoms (with Guardian’s Staff AA, for example), which hurt alot.

^These^ are the only bare minimum of what i’d call “threats”, i can see in TA.
There are enough great guides (as text and video) for each dungeon and path out there, so if you’re having trouble with specific parts about a dungeon/path, look them up.

The average pug group ranges Malrona. I hadnt heard of that perdatory swiftness buff before your post. From now on I’ll look slightly differently on the people that go and melee her, even if most of them get downed pretty often. Perhaps some of them know about the buff.

Kedarrian.2905:

The average pug group ranges Malrona. I hadnt heard of that perdatory swiftness buff before your post. From now on I’ll look slightly differently on the people that go and melee her, even if most of them get downed pretty often. Perhaps some of them know about the buff.

I didn’t knew that too, just up until a few weeks ago.

wauwi.9162:

Kedarrian.2905:

The average pug group ranges Malrona. I hadnt heard of that perdatory swiftness buff before your post. From now on I’ll look slightly differently on the people that go and melee her, even if most of them get downed pretty often. Perhaps some of them know about the buff.

I didn’t knew that too, just up until a few weeks ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F9al5SbDDc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwljZutTpvU

That second video was from back when you could reflect her massive attack onto her (like what people do now with WoR and Lupi).

RoseofGilead.8907:

That second video was from back when you could reflect her massive attack onto her (like what people do now with WoR and Lupi).

Yeah, i’ve learned the hard way, that it doesn’t work anymore.
Mesmer’s iWarden (non-traited) still seem to be able to absorb her AoE tho.

wauwi.9162:

RoseofGilead.8907:

That second video was from back when you could reflect her massive attack onto her (like what people do now with WoR and Lupi).

Yeah, i’ve learned the hard way, that it doesn’t work anymore.
Mesmer’s iWarden (non-traited) still seem to be able to absorb her AoE tho.

They fixed that. iWarden no longer absorbs unblockable projectiles.

spoj.9672:

wauwi.9162:

RoseofGilead.8907:

That second video was from back when you could reflect her massive attack onto her (like what people do now with WoR and Lupi).

Yeah, i’ve learned the hard way, that it doesn’t work anymore.
Mesmer’s iWarden (non-traited) still seem to be able to absorb her AoE tho.

They fixed that. iWarden no longer absorbs unblockable projectiles.

Thanks for clearing that up. I thought her projectiles were at least blockable.

wauwi.9162:

spoj.9672:

wauwi.9162:

RoseofGilead.8907:

That second video was from back when you could reflect her massive attack onto her (like what people do now with WoR and Lupi).

Yeah, i’ve learned the hard way, that it doesn’t work anymore.
Mesmer’s iWarden (non-traited) still seem to be able to absorb her AoE tho.

They fixed that. iWarden no longer absorbs unblockable projectiles.

Thanks for clearing that up. I thought her projectiles were at least blockable.

Unreflectable is not a thing in GW2, Unreflectable happens when they put the Unblockable tag on something. So they are one in the same. It used to be that wardens ignored this and ate up any projectile, that as fixed a few months back. No more eating up Malrona/Spider Queen/Subject Alpha/Old Tom or any of those attacks. . . I miss it

There are a few more things average pug doesn’t know about TA. Usually they will target the archers in forward path (not calling target, just clicking them) and thus making them evade and prolonging the fight unnecessarily. Also, they won’t use blocks to go through the bubbles in the following encounter.
Honestly, once you get to know the basics of the dungeon, it becomes a pain to run it with pugs (even with most guilds). The only runs of TA that don’t make me rage out insanely are those of speedrun guilds I get to see on YT. Outside of those, you probably won’t see people using proper tactics in this dungeon.
Nonetheless, merely finishing the dungeon should be not a problem to even the terrible pugs. If you fail at skips, bring in a thief for stealth or something like guard/ele for destroying blossoms.
As for malrona, this is probably the simplest fight in all of GW2. Don’t forget she alternates regularly between the attacks, making her very predictable. Given that, there is no point in ranging her, melee does more damage anyway.
In any case, I wouldn’t liken TA to Arah by any means.

There are 2 things you’re gonna need for doing a decent TA run: Someone to destroy the blossoms and a way to skip annoying content that’s not necessary for the dungeon completion (stealth, swiftness). Stability also helps a lot because some mobs might knock you down. So basically Guardiand thief helps a lot but are not a must.

Now, most important is to run with people who knows what they’re doing and have a good DPS. The dungeon is not hard… Arah is not hard (just very long in some paths)a ll the content becomes easy if you and you’re party know what they’re doing.

I have to admit that I can be a pain, when it comes to dungeons.
I assume that a lot of people hate me for expecting too much of certain pug.

Just a little story out of my life.
The last time I went TA with a pug. It was a casual run. Nothing outstanding.
—
The guardian didn’t bother cleansing the petals. So I did it. I think it’s important to react to the situation, if your party members don’t do what they are supposed to do – do it yourself and if that isn’t possible – play it safe.

Well anyways. I had a thief in my group. 14k AP. It’s a group game and your in the dungeon with a group so giving support to your party members is a nice extra – at least if you ask me. So I asked him to equip shadow refuge – because blasting smoke fields or blasting in general seemed be an impossibility with this lovely group.
However he didn’t do so – he went first, pulled everything. Which isn’t difficult for him to pass of course because he can simply use his bow and port forward. My two fellow party members got downed and one nearly died because of this thief running first – doing a solo mission.
So what I had to do was change two sikills and weapon to save him from oblivion. I was expecting it so it was nothing special to me.
So I told him that it would have been easier for the others if he had just used stealth.

Funnily enough after the dungeon he sent me a PM and told me that how in the world I could ask a thief for changing his utility slot for a skill like shadow refuge – which would have made our lives easier.
Then he told me I don’t know how to play my class and blocked me.

The best advice I can give you is to join experienced ‘zerk’ groups especially these which are asking for gear.
I can’t tell but it seems these party descriptions nowadays are the only way to get decent groups.
And no body is perfect. Everyone does mistakes myself included. So not every dungeon run will be a SC speed clearing one. enjoy the game – that’s most important.
Also watching videos can help a lot I’d say.

Good luck

I thought this thread was going to be about Aetherpath.

TA isn’t difficult at all. The general mechanics are mainly heavy condition base, this is not the norm in PvE so I can see how a lot of meta PvE’ers might find it more difficult than some of the other dungeons.

A skilled Guardian or Thief could carry an entire party of PUGs or newbs through any of the two level 55 paths.

laokoko.7403:

If you find good players they can carry you pretty easily.

I seen pug pretty much 3 man the ooze fire room. Or 2 man the last boss when 3 of us are on the ground in 2 minutes. There is also the guy who pretty much did the electric room without getting hit once.

Obviously there is also the time where group just fall apart and everyone quit before the dungeon end.

And people that we soloed the entire path, except the electricity room because it needs the 4 platforms to be used

Aetherpath is quite easy as long as you have the brain to think “oh, there is mechanics in the fight, I should not only attack”. And of course, you need the time to learn those mechanics, not to expect to faceroll the dungeon in 20 minutes; that would be ridiculous.

The other paths, I honestly find them harder (because i did run them twice, as opposing to 450 aether runs) and I believe the OP is talking about them. If you never donde Up and Forward and nobody tells you what to do, you can’t adapt in mid-fight, it’s too punishing.