Guild Wars 2

I run AC alot, I like to consider myself fairly competant when doing this dungeon. Kholer can be hard for those who don’t know his tell. I know it and prior to the last large update I almost never missed a dodge of his AE.

For the past week I have run AC well over 15 times. Almost every kholer encounter I have missed dodging his pull 2-3 times per encounter. There are some when he does his charge up I will dodge and still it fails, other times he will spin without even doing his pull.

Was this purposely added in? Or was a bug introduced? Or did I just develop suck syndrome. ?

No sometimes it just bugs and you can dodge but he’ll still pull you in.

He’s one of my fav fights in the game so stick with it. He’s worth the fight.

I have the feeling that he uses his special ability way more often.

Drew.1865:

He’s one of my fav fights in the game so stick with it. He’s worth the fight.

The way point is always worth it, but some people are lazy and think running around him is actually better.

He’s my favorite in AC because he’s the newbie-killer of the game.

Newbies will almost always start at AC first, and Kholer will be one of their first Epic bosses, and that pull+whirl combo will always eat them alive.
I remember being level40, and having to tolerate trakittenalk from an 80, only to find out its his first time in a dungeon and watching him get downed repeatedly. It was hilarious.

I love the Kholer fight! Its even more fun when you fight him in the room with the adds like he was intended to be fought! On his pull, I’ve found that you can reliably predict when his pull is coming by watching the pattern of his attacks, he also stands still for a while just before the pull. The timing on dodging the pull is very forgiving to the point where you can dodge well before the actual animation and still get the evade.

Kholer is easy it gets boring. It gets even more frustrating when running with pugs who constantly get downed by his pull.

I’ve not done AC since the update, but my guild has had issues with Kholer before with dodges/blocks not working. There was one incident where the pulled the entire party despite standing in a Feeback and with at least 3 having Aegis. I had used either Retreat or my active Virtue right before he did the wind-up, and my guildmate put feedback up at the same time. Even through our unintended redundant blocks, his skill still worked.

Dodgeing seems a bit off in general. I’ve lost count of how many I’ve been hit while clearly in the middle of the dodge animation. It’s most apparent with attacks that knockback/push/pull because you can actually see the dodge animation get interrupted. It’s not just a damage number popping up, where you can’t quite be certain you dodged in time.

I usually get the troll and kholer to fight, then kill both for the loot :P

Good times

kohler.. he’s like a vast toilet your hp goes spinning down down down.

I love fighting him, but it’s things like this that I feel should have some kind of clear explanation about what works against him.

Stability, Arcane Shield, Mist form all prevent the pull. Does Swirling Winds? Does Magnetic Aura? Does Wall of Reflection? Does Aegis? Does stealth? I would intuit that they do, but I am guessing they don’t. And it’s not intuitive that the projectile can pull you through a wall when there’s not even line of sight.

I don’t understand why if I use Arcane shield after the pull, I still get downed just the same as not using it.

I think Kholer is the funniest boss in whole Ascalonian Catacombs, it saddens me when people just want to skip him.

And no, I have no problems dodging his suck-in spin.

My favorite trick people do with Kholer is kite him to the Troll if that spawns. Watching those two duke it out is a good time, and things get crazy when one breaks aggro.

Last time I ran AC the troll broke off to attack me and mid pistol whip I seen Kholer come flying through the air behind it to cleave the Troll in the head…and then they were back at it.

As for dodging his pull, I only really get caught by it when I am trying to res someone or all of the particles and ’splosions around him make me miss the backswing animation. I can dodge the wires themselves on reaction when I see them coming, but not with 100% consistency like I can if I see the backswing and know they are coming.

I’m always surprised when groups skip him…he’s so easy. He raises his hand and glows yellow before he pulls/smashes. How is this hard to miss and/or dodge? I don’t get it.

Exactly the same as usual. I’ve ran a lot of AC these past few days, and I always state prior to entering that if we are skipping Kholer or Troll, that I’ll gladly take my leave.

Though the other day, my party died when Kholer was at half health. As a Guardian, I proceeded to spend the next eternity pecking away at his health, alone.

Fortunately, I succeeded. Unfortunately, one of the dead dudes proposed.

Clark Skinner.4902:

I love fighting him, but it’s things like this that I feel should have some kind of clear explanation about what works against him.

Stability, Arcane Shield, Mist form all prevent the pull. Does Swirling Winds? Does Magnetic Aura? Does Wall of Reflection? Does Aegis? Does stealth? I would intuit that they do, but I am guessing they don’t. And it’s not intuitive that the projectile can pull you through a wall when there’s not even line of sight.

I don’t understand why if I use Arcane shield after the pull, I still get downed just the same as not using it.

Wall of reflection does work, aegis does work, and you can line of sight the wires. Guardian’s shield bubble will absorb the wires so I would assume that means that swirling winds works as well.

Clark Skinner.4902:

I don’t understand why if I use Arcane shield after the pull, I still get downed just the same as not using it.

Arcane Shield Expoldes and stops Blocking after 3 attacks. using it if you get pulled gives you just enough time to dodge back without taking to much dmg.

Lieutenant Kholer is one of the best bosses in the game and fighting him is always fun and funny, even very experienced Kholer fighters get caught out, weather that be running out of dodges or used all your blocking skills or just not paying attention to him, you can still get away from a pull if your quick enough, CC, Blocking, Dodging is your friend here, like any Champ you should try to burn down there Defiant as this will allow you to control them more.

Kholer by far is my all time Fav Boss/Champ in GW2 and to tho’s people that solo him are GWAMM’s its no small job to do this so heres my Congratz to them,

Also in need of congrats is Anet for getting the Champ Lt Kholer Encouter Right in every way you could of. (Apart from pulling through walls)

P.S Dont Change/Nerf/Buff Him

Pyrotechnic Hell.3209:

Also in need of congrats is Anet for getting the Champ Lt Kholer Encouter Right in every way you could of. (Apart from pulling through walls)

Depending on the wall you are referring to that might not be his fault! One of walls is only partially there. You can walk into the wall itself as well. That is a problem with the wall rather than Kholer.

I have no problems dodge him at all. In fact, I wave at him every time I walk right past him.

This is one fight that I wish Anet would change to make it where you CAN’T skip him. He’s an easy fight, plus it’s a waste of 9 Tears and 3 drops of karma when you do skip him.

Khisanth.2948:

Pyrotechnic Hell.3209:

Also in need of congrats is Anet for getting the Champ Lt Kholer Encouter Right in every way you could of. (Apart from pulling through walls)

Depending on the wall you are referring to that might not be his fault! One of walls is only partially there. You can walk into the wall itself as well. That is a problem with the wall rather than Kholer.

Oh, sure, blame the helpless wall!

Personally I can’t definitively vouch for any changes in Kholer. My static group relies more on abilities to prevent his grapple skill than on dodging. I can verify that those abilities (stability appliers, projectile reflect/block, etc) still work just as well as they always did.

I did notice a few times when all of us dodged and mid-dodge animation, we get pulled (even had the evade message show up and still got pulled). It’s not an all-the-time thing though, the next few times we did it he didn’t do that. Considering many of us have been getting lots of latency lag and d/c’s lately I’d attribute it more to that than anything else. When responding with half a second reaction time all it takes is a touch too much latency lag to throw the whole thing off and ruin your day.

Zookeeper.2513:

This is one fight that I wish Anet would change to make it where you CAN’T skip him. He’s an easy fight, plus it’s a waste of 9 Tears and 3 drops of karma when you do skip him.

can only aggre on this, i often have to ask my group to actually do him, if i dont they rather skip him, and not only dies he drops tears and loot, but he gives a wp that can be usefull too, more so on some of the paths than the others, the one with the graveler burrows down some staris with firetrap right beside kholer that wp can be really nice to have specially. Hell i almost argue its harder to get up those fire trap stairs than it is to kill kholer :P

It seems to me that Kholer has been spamming his spin to win attack way too often. Maybe its just me, but I doubt it.

No it’s not any more often. Stability/aegis/dodge/projectile reflection/stopping works. What’s actually really nice is that the guardian’s shout stand your ground is on almost exactly the same recharge time(i have the 20% recharge trait) as kholer’s pull. So you just time it everytime works just fine

I have trouble dodging him when I can’t see him due to the overwhelming particle effects. It’s a general problem I have with dungeons. A lot of boss tells are really hard to see because of guardian fire, mesmer spells, elementalist spells etc.

I do like the variety of ways to counter this. You can dodge it, you can use stability to become immune, you can use Feedback/Wall of Reflection/Whirling Axes/other reflection skill to reflect it, or you can block it with a shield, aegis, ranger greatsword 4 etc. It’s one of those fights that has something very threatening, but most classes have more than one way to counter it. To me that’s a lot more interesting than “harder” bosses that require precise dodges from OHKO skills, Kholer makes you think about your tools and rewards multiple choices and options that most classes have access to, failing that, you can always dodge.

Also, on my 80 Guardian, his pull/spin kills me only about half of the time. The other half I’m able to dodge away from it with less than 10% hp but I still live.

Nay of the Ether.8913:

I did notice a few times when all of us dodged and mid-dodge animation, we get pulled (even had the evade message show up and still got pulled).

My guild had one run where this happened to all of us. I remember seeing two evade messages from the pull wires, but I still got pulled in. I have no idea if the double evade notice was a bug, or if he had actually fired two (possibly three, as two were evaded) projectiles at me. This could also explain instances of aegis not working, as it only blocks a single hit.

Aside from unusual/buggy behavior like this, Kholer is a great boss. He is very capable of wiping an unprepared/unaware group, but you have multiple options to deal with him. Much better than other boss fights where running out of endurance/energy means practically unavoidable death.

Shiren.9532

I have trouble dodging him when I can’t see him due to the overwhelming particle effects. It’s a general problem I have with dungeons. A lot of boss tells are really hard to see because of guardian fire, mesmer spells, elementalist spells etc.

This is a big problem in a lot of dungeon fights. Kholer’s size makes it quite a bit easier to see his skill use, but bosses that are normal size human/sylvari can be difficult to see, and asurans completely vanish in the effects. Playing as a melee guardian in the non-boss fights with 5+ enemies is very blinding, as well. It can be difficult to keep track of where my own target is even standing, and watching for attacks incoming from other enemies is just not happening.

only when i get stuck on a crack in the floor.

ZeroArmada.9426:

It seems to me that Kholer has been spamming his spin to win attack way too often. Maybe its just me, but I doubt it.

yes he spins much more often than he used to. i’ve noticed it as well.