Guild Wars 2

I’ve spent the last two weeks doing the boss of the Jade construct Meta event chain in Bloodstone Maw entirely airborne. It looks like the fight was designed to be fought that way, and it’s certainly a lot easier than all that mess on the ground around it.

There are two uplifting air currents, and either can be used for an out and back foray over the fight, depending on where the Unbound Guardian winds up. I do about 5-6 seconds out and use my reverse key to do an abrupt 180 turn, and fire away back to the lift. Rinse, repeat.

Skill 1 has to be set to autofire if you desire, and resets to non autofire any time you touch ground. I usually manually fire it, and intersperse skills 2 and 3 during the flight.

I’ve done this more than 10 times now, yeilding the 4 blood rubies each time, so I know it works. I see a few people taking it up, but only 2 or 3 persevere to the end. Why not try it? It’s easy, and a lot safer than down below and a ton less aggravation.

Shouldn’t need to touch the ground unless people on the ground are dong a terrible job positioning it.

This is also true for the story step that takes place in the same area although it can also result in some strange things like having white mantle spawn mid air. :P

The champion mauler is also done better this way since you don’t have to deal with the bajillion exploding elementals.

I mentioned touching the ground only because occasionally you get knocked out of the sky, or forget to turn back in time to reach the lift before you glide into the ground. I was surprised it would not stay on auto fire after I set it the first time.

I also have long set my ground targeting so that when I push the key down, the green appears, and releasing it fires the skill. Holding it down allows one to position the damage burst over the Guardian, or over some annoying white mantle attacking peeps from behind. Similarly for the heal (skill 3) and it’s very wide, and produces a bloom of heals rising off the ground when it goes off.

Michael.9403:

I mentioned touching the ground only because occasionally you get knocked out of the sky, or forget to turn back in time to reach the lift before you glide into the ground. I was surprised it would not stay on auto fire after I set it the first time.

I also have long set my ground targeting so that when I push the key down, the green appears, and releasing it fires the skill. Holding it down allows one to position the damage burst over the Guardian, or over some annoying white mantle attacking peeps from behind. Similarly for the heal (skill 3) and it’s very wide, and produces a bloom of heals rising off the ground when it goes off.

If you hold down the 1 key it auto-casts the 1 skill. I use an MMO mouse so that’s what I tend to do.

I find it funny (perhaps its just on the maps i was on) that people used to yell at players that stayed airborne using the new skills when the map was new, and yet now its excepted (or possibly even expected). That aside, Id rather do the fight in the air using heals and cc than clustering on the ground. Interesting change in public opinion.

The primary reason not to fight in the air is because standing in the green circles gives you a special action that massively amplifies your damage for a few seconds. If everyone did that properly, the fight would go much quicker.

Fay.2357:

The primary reason not to fight in the air is because standing in the green circles gives you a special action that massively amplifies your damage for a few seconds. If everyone did that properly, the fight would go much quicker.

I understand the green circles. However, getting to them from elsewhere in that ground fight is problematic. Then there are the wandering seekers, physical impedimentia to progress in the fight ground area, respawning white mantle behind you and the boss itself wanders all over the place. Looking at the logs, I would not be too sure that the airborne crew doesn’t do as much damage per person as those on the ground. Perhaps more.

If I think about it, I’ll try to pass over the green circles to see if they increase airborne damage as well.

Michael.9403:

Fay.2357:

The primary reason not to fight in the air is because standing in the green circles gives you a special action that massively amplifies your damage for a few seconds. If everyone did that properly, the fight would go much quicker.

I understand the green circles. However, getting to them from elsewhere in that ground fight is problematic. Then there are the wandering seekers, physical impedimentia to progress in the fight ground area, respawning white mantle behind you and the boss itself wanders all over the place. Looking at the logs, I would not be too sure that the airborne crew doesn’t do as much damage per person as those on the ground. Perhaps more.

If I think about it, I’ll try to pass over the green circles to see if they increase airborne damage as well.

You make it sound so difficult. It’s really not that hard to just walk to the circles when they spawn, seriously.

Fay.2357:

You make it sound so difficult. It’s really not that hard to just walk to the circles when they spawn, seriously.

I played the fight daily on the ground for a month before I discovered I could stay airborne the whole fight. I really do understand the fight, but I hate the ground clutter in some of ANET’s fights. A comment above made me think that the general view that airborne folks are viewed as slackers, just riding on other peoples efforts has me off checking damage delivered both ways. I observe what would be credible damage from up there, and far more healing than I ever do in a ground fight, so I’ll do a few weeks check and see. Unless you are prone to motion sickness, you should check it out for yourself.