Guild Wars 2

Ascalonian catacombs with full group everyone over level 30. Died at every champ.
Horribly bad design, how did this get through open beta?

I’m never doing a dungeon after this horrible experience. Going downed and running back is almost guaranteed, CC doesn’t do crap, enemies run faster than you in combat, do insane damage, stack conditions

Worst dungeon experience of any MMO

And what do you say to all the posters who figured out its nuances and declare it not to be difficult?

You must be new to the game. Welcome.

That being said, beating dungeons is about learning how to dodge, how your character works, how to get everyone to work together, etc. You cannot approach the mobs in dungeons the same way you do the standard PvE mobs.

Practice, practice, practice.

Here’s how I imagine your run went:
No one marked anything to be focused down.
There was no communication done in the least.
People were dodging attacks that didn’t need to be dodged and not dodging the things that actually needed it.
Most, if not all, of the group was in glass cannon spec/gear.
Was your first time through.

Read the link in my sig.

coglin.1496:

And what do you say to all the posters who figured out its nuances and declare it not to be difficult?

We are all wizards of course!

Dungeonmancers of the worst sort, no wait, Hackermentalists.

dont do dungeon on lvl 30 + !! its pointless !
when u get max lvl start do dungeons for gear + weapon , till then they usless for u

Artorous.8573:

Here’s how I imagine your run went:
No one marked anything to be focused down.
There was no communication done in the least.
People were dodging attacks that didn’t need to be dodged and not dodging the things that actually needed it.
Most, if not all, of the group was in glass cannon spec/gear.
Was your first time through.

Read the link in my sig.

Well yeah. Naturally that is the games fault and horrible dungeon design.

AvivKing.5863:

dont do dungeon on lvl 30 + !! its pointless !
when u get max lvl start do dungeons for gear + weapon , till then they usless for u

Thats not true, they gives you a kittenload of exp, i have been running AC 3 times a day on my ele since her was 35, now im 60 and have something like 400 badges.(or more)

AvivKing.5863:

dont do dungeon on lvl 30 + !! its pointless !
when u get max lvl start do dungeons for gear + weapon , till then they usless for u

I finished this dungeon with a group all at or under level. This is not solid advise.

Fell free to do the dungeon at level. Just keep in mind it will, as he points out, be much easier at higher levels with better gear.

At level though, the dungeons are very doable.

You went to a dungeon for the first time and died alot? Is that bad?

AvivKing.5863:

dont do dungeon on lvl 30 + !! its pointless !
when u get max lvl start do dungeons for gear + weapon , till then they usless for u

I did AC at lvl 29 on my Thief, no issues.

It’s not about level really, OP is just a traditional MMO player who didn’t yet understand dungeons in GW2 are nowhere near the ezmode joke of other MMOs and actually require skill/active brain.

AvivKing.5863:

dont do dungeon on lvl 30 + !! its pointless !
when u get max lvl start do dungeons for gear + weapon , till then they usless for u

ever heard of playing a game for fun? not everything has to be about getting rewards.

LOL. U have not been to other dungeons yet.
But seriously, practice makes perfect. Go look for Youtube videos on how to get the dungeons done.
Doing dungeons at lvl 80 is much more easier with the right gears.

OP, just an FYI, if you’re invested in the story at all, in order to complete it you have to do the final dungeon (Arah) of the game. In my opinion Ascalonian Catacombs is easy and short compared to some of the things you have to go through in the final dungeon. And I repeat, it is required to beat the storyline.

I am also willing to bet that people did not upgrade their gear. Gear matters!
AC is VERY manageable especially if you pony up a few silvers and buy yourself a set of rare (yellow) gear at 35 for explorer mode. It cheap and it makes a big difference in your damage output as well as survivability.

Swap out skills that provide boons (buffs) for the party. EVERY class has boons that bennifit the party.
Swapping out skills based on each encounter.

Weapon swap where appropraite to maximize their effectiveness.

IT was mentioned that you can dodge attacks but many weapons allow you to BLOCK attacks (which means you take 0 damage) as well. Hightly useful. Same with BLIND. It makes the next attack miss. Again for 0 damage.

Different game requires different approach to dungeoneering.

PS. Artorous guide(s) for dungeons are VERY well done. (+1! )

I felt the same way after my first dungeon run. However I gave it another chance with a group of people who actually knew what they were doing, and we did story mode + all 3 explorable modes in 1 shot, never died once, and it was brilliant.

So be sure to play with people you know

AC is one of my favorite dungeons, by far. I’ve run it dozens of times with pickups of all sorts of professions and level ranges.

If you let us know where you’re having trouble and give us some details on how the encounters went down, maybe we can help? It’s really pretty easy once you get the strategy down.

but Anet is just another dev team in a long line of idiots that cant manage to learn from the failings of other

How is this fundamentally any different from players who can’t manage to learn from their own failings? AC is very manageable once you have the strategy down. That’s kind of the whole point of dungeons, which separates it from open world leveling. You need some coordination, or you’ll be crushed.

but thats the one instance that should be holding hands

Why? Thousands of people accomplished it just fine without being hand held. We should change that for the select few who cannot learn it over time?

Someone link the mega man teaches you to play video for the gentleman, please.

@ OP

I tried AC at 33. I was the youngest, it was a pug group, it was a fail. We kept dying OVER and OVER on the twin bosses.

I swore I would never do another dungeon again.

I hit 80. Went to finished my story line. Became INFURIATED that I had to do a dungeon to finish it. Dungeons are crap! They are horrible! They suck. I really wanted to finish my story.

2 days later, when I had time, and actually found a group to go. Completely random compilation of players I might add. We went.

We finished the first boss. No wipes. Finished the second, no wipes. Made it to a mid segment and the dungeon glitched. We griped and moaned and groaned, and left, remade the party, and re-entered. Did the beginning all over again.

No wipes. Got past the previous glitch. Reached a location where we kinda just split up, we wiped. It was the only time…

After that, we stuck together, finished it, and communicated. A completely random group.

And you know what?

It was the BEST dungeon I have ever played in a game!
It was epic, it had story! It had twists and turns! You had to do different things, and solve puzzles! It was amazing!

When I finish the content I’m currently working on, I’m psyched to know that I can go back and see what other amazing things they have done with dungeons!

I was like you when this started. Trust me, wait it out. When you get to 80, and you do your story, find a group with at least one person who has done it already, just so you have some direction. It’s worth it. Don’t get discouraged like I did!

nerva.7940:

Lol I can’t help myself…
Gw2’s dungeons aren’t a face roll. Sorry!

With a group of non-idiots they sure as kitten are.

Problem is finding the non-idiots

Played baseball once. Stood at the plate and swung at the ball three times. Got sent away, someone said I was “out.” Horrible game, never played it again. Can’t see why anyone would want to.

Come on guys. You don’t have to be nasty about it.

He had a bad experience. All you guys are doing by acting the way you are is giving him another bad experience. Why don’t you actually give helpful advice instead?

IJS

I have full AC gear, like literally the only thing im missing is a sword but im debating if i should get it or not.
AC is hella easy, if you dye a lot thats… your problem :|

All I have to say is learn to dodge

zaxziakohl.5243:

Come on guys. You don’t have to be nasty about it.

He had a bad experience. All you guys are doing by acting the way you are is giving him another bad experience. Why don’t you actually give helpful advice instead?

IJS

I agree with you on that and I would not flame him myself. His thread title does incite rage in certain people though. You shouldn’t be surprised by people’s reactions.

He had a bad experience. All you guys are doing by acting the way you are is giving him another bad experience. Why don’t you actual give helpful advice instead?

Replies often reflect on the manor of the OP’s post. He simply stated his experience. Didn’t want help or advice, basically threw his toys out the pram. I admit, my first dungeon story experience was quite crazy and it also happened to be AC Story. I probably died about 3 times with quite a few downed states simply because we weren’t sure how punishing the mechanics were or how they worked.

If you want to improve your dungeon experience, you have to play accordingly to the situation which is totally different from the open world or most dynamic events. Switching utilities, using the appropriate weapon and making sure your gear isn’t too heavily focused on being a glass cannon can do wonders for your own well being. Dungeons become much more pleasant once you do this.

Story mode AC. First dungeon.

Wow. Just wow.

The first few trash pulls were an eye opener.

However we worked out where to stand, how to pull mobs apart, which mobs to target, the importance of dodging… even if some of the boss kills were done by death zerging.

Thank goodness we were a guild group and using teamspeak.

But we learned it.

This is what we get after a decade of MMOGs offering everything up on a silver platter. Everything is faceroll, click your 3 macros while watching television in MMOGs anymore. GW2 brings back the great challenge of dungeons from the early days of MMOGs, content that requires skill and team work and intimate knowledge of your profession and while some of us praise Anet for their fantastic dungeons, others cry out that they are broken, horribly designed messes. Yes, everyone has their own opinion and to each his own but my god this is what we should expect after the popularity of EZ-Mode MMOGs.

Now, I’m not bashing on the OP entirely, so here are some tips;

1: Don’t do pug dungeons accept perhaps story mode because early on at least you’re likely to get people who don’t know how dungeons work and get trashed, repeatedly. Find a guild that likes to run dungeons and go with them. You’ll learn a lot and discover the dungeons are ‘very’ fun and many extremely well designed.

2: There is no tanking, and no macro mashing. You have to stay on your feet, aware of your surroundings and know your class and learn the fight for each boss and encounter.

3: Have a little patience, enjoy the challenge. Attitude changes everything early on. You should expect to get your kitten handed to you the first time or two you run explorable mode of any dungeon.

Most GW2 dungeons are indeed a bit weak, but not because they’re hard, just because the bosses are boring. The locations have a lot of potential but then the bosses just stand still or chase random players doing the same thing for the 4 or 5 minutes it takes to burn through their huge HP pool.

To use CM as an example, the “door guard” (and the room he’s in) has a lot of potential. He could cut a chain and make the chandelier fall (forcing players to run to the edge of the room), shake the walls and make books fall (forcing players to move to the middle of the room), run to the fireplace and throw out embers (forcing players to hide behind the furniture or go up the stairs), etc..

Instead he just swings his sword hitting whoever is within a circle (even if they clearly weren’t hit by the sword).

It’s simplistic and boring (same as 90% of the other GW2 dungeon bosses / champions).

But hard? Not really.

Exactly Polle. If you had a bad experience playing Dark Souls because you kept dying over and over it must make the game horrible. Game of the year awards? Those mean nothing. I mean that is the sort of logic the OP is trying to assert here.

please dun blame the game if you do not have the ability to clear the dungeon.

the difficulty of the dungeon has been greatly reduced by the way.

Give it a chance. First time thru for everyone probably blew unless they were with someone who did it before of read up on it. Watched a youtube of a betaweekend group trying to do the room with one boss and all the spike traps in it they didnt know to get across and pull the chain. They kept dying. Point is they hadnt done it before.

First room of AC is your practice room so pull one thing at a time in there and figure it out. Update your gear at the trading post with whatever you can afford probably greens. Get stuff with vit so you dont get one shotted and put stuff in the upgrade slots. Then do your self a favour and get someone who has done it to go with you. Read the mobs description under their name. One says reflects projectiles so you can kill yourself by shooting it.

The room with all the flame throwers just run through it its pointless. Gravling burrow you go melee and make sure that you are running back and forth over it that makes uou hit it more often. Kill those necros and rangers quick. Someone must alt-t call primary target then the others know who to focus on. Unless you are very clse to a waypoint try to rez your teammates before they completly die. If you completely die dont wait to be rezd run back from the nearest waypoint.

But they are not nice agreed. Watch some vids of groups who have already done the work of figuring it out. You will have lots of fun dont quit yet.

Not that I agree with the OP’s attitude, but there is something to say for the massive skill requirement leap from world pve to dungeons. Maybe world pve needs to be harder, dungeons need to be easier or there needs to be something in-between, but I think it does alienate the not-so-hardcore gamers who had an ok time leveling when they decide to try out a dungeon and get their rear ends handed to them.

Clearly it’s Anet’s fault for not letting you create and wear 4 25% fortify your DPS of choice enchanted items letting you one shot everything and never be in any danger even when you leave the room during a boss fight and your cat takes over. Shame on them!

LOL! This is coming from a First-timer…. Ohhh i remember mine… MAssive deaths and defeat… but We prevailed…

With my Graet Guidance and Experience from GW1 tomb run (during the time when 1 monk, 2 necro, 5 ranger Barrage/pet was used and before Solo Assassins), I pulled the heck out of all the group and was like: “JUMP THEM! Jump Them! Woman, shoot him!”

hehehe >=) Dungeon ROCKS!

Brian.9125:

Not that I agree with the OP’s attitude, but there is something to say for the massive skill requirement leap from world pve to dungeons. Maybe world pve needs to be harder, dungeons need to be easier or there needs to be something in-between, but I think it does alienate the not-so-hardcore gamers who had an ok time leveling when they decide to try out a dungeon and get their rear ends handed to them.

I think you are correct here.

There will be a few different expectations players bring with them to dungeons. I imagine the main ones to be previous MMO experience and/or GW2 world pve experience. Previous MMO experience of starting dungeons are very very easy and so is the GW2 pve experience.

People will come into AC thinking it’s a starter dungeon and be handed a very painful lesson in how to get your face mashed in. That maybe enough to put an awful lot of players off who might have been willing to learn if there was a more forgiving difficulty curve introducing dungeons.

AC is the first dungeon as you level up and it’s decidedly tough for new players. However, it does make it good preparation for dungeoneering. It really is about dodging, ressing etc.

See this as a learning experience, the rewards are the same but the repair costs will go down as you learn

going down certainly isn´t guaranteed. I guess it was in story mode, which is quite easy to do if players actually play smart and good. Normally, I would have the lenience to say, well, it is the first dungeon and quite a shock to die at the first ghost, it gets way better once you understand every enemy is a deadly threat in GW2 dungeons. But with your childish “I fail, therefore the system sucks”-approach I rather choose the answer: learn to play, and yes, this isn´t the standard mmo with perpetual CC stacking, glad you figured that out now.