(edited by Jnaathra.6549)
Caudecus - Had to walk away for an hour.
Yeah I had a similar experience with Caudecus on my necromancer. Fortunately she can take a hit or two so I managed to claw my way through it eventually, but only because she’s ok at handling something that devolved into wars of attrition.
Honestly most of the time I had no clue what was actually going on because the space was so tiny and so full of AoE, spell effects and I don’t know what else that it was impossible for me to follow anything.
I found this previous thread and it doesn’t look like anyone “concerns” were ever addressed.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lwd/Caudecus-Not-everyone-is-a-Guardian/first
First off. I am a casual player. I do not and will never raid.
I came back to this game after the recent HOTS sale. I have leveled both a Ranger and a Revenant through the newer content. Getting past this boss with the Ranger was extremely hard and I was downed several times, but the Revenant was a completely different and miserable story. By the time I limped out of there I had been smashed into the ground more time than I care to count.
A combination of poor design and me not playing the perfect meta build made this a nightmare. I am echoing what other players said in the previous thread, but since you apparently did not listen I think it needs to be repeated.
1. This room is entirely to small. I am playing a Norn who is at the maximum height. If I can not see what is going on, then how can I possibly react to it? Your camera is tight spaces is TERRIBLE.
2. The small space also gives a double wammy to my particular skill selection. Which includes Vengeful Hammers. Anytime I was forced against the walls or had to move against them to avoid the countless AOE attacks, the ability was automatically deactivated.
3. The CC feels entirely to strong. One mistake can easily result in 10+ seconds of being pinged all over the room. The Jade Bow round adds even more CC to the mix and its spawn time is horrible. You get both of these kittens at the same time.
General observations and complaints.
1. All the “heroic” story NPCs in this game are idiots. If I am going to be traveling with them for countless hours, grow them a brain and design some better AI. The only thing they have been good for is picking me up off the ground. Mind you not while I am downed, but only after I am dead.
2. I had MUCH more fun with the final bosses of HOTS and your most recent chapter. Both had interesting mechanics and plenty of room to fight. I felt like I was on my toes, but not completely overwhelmed.
Have you got the ancient magics mastery line ?
A combination of poor design and me not playing the perfect meta build made this a nightmare. I am echoing what other players said in the previous thread, but since you apparently did not listen I think it needs to be repeated.
Actually, the “perfect meta build” is probably more of a liability than a boon here: while the damage output will be higher, the PvE meta is “ultimate glass cannon” — it is all about getting the maximum DPS at the expense of all survivability.
Using a build with more defensive and healing utility skills, and/or more survival stats, is probably an advantage here more than in many parts of PvE. It’s a hard fight to avoid almost all damage in, and that’s the essence of survival in the PvE “meta”.
1. This room is entirely to small. I am playing a Norn who is at the maximum height. If I can not see what is going on, then how can I possibly react to it? Your camera is tight spaces is TERRIBLE.
No argument from me on the camera pain. You might find investing in the (reusable) smallness tonic available in Lake Doric worthwhile: in the event you want to be asura sized, it’ll deliver that for you. It might help work around the pain here.
I don’t really disagree with anything else you said. Oh, I will note, though, two players in there rather than just one makes it way easier.
“Free camera” and “Adjust camera to character height” may help.
Back then I actually made my characters shorter to deal with the annoying camera.
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
Have you got the ancient magics mastery line ?
Heh. As an aside, I did this episode and fight on my mesmer shortly after coming back from about a two-year break. I had just bought HOT and had no masteries at all.
I did this fight pre-nerf with no counter magic and it was a horror. By the end my toon was nekkid and I hadn’t thought to bring one of the 17 repair canisters I had in the bank. I had to give up because I was being defeated about 5 seconds after spawning in the room.
From what I learned later, I was pretty proud I got as far as I did under those circumstances. If I’d had a repair canister, I probably would have finished it.
Did it later post-nerf and it is still a pain, but considering the big story point in this fight, and considering the insane nature of Caudecus, this fight being chaotic and difficult makes sense even though it’s annoying.
Super easy fight for me. Did not go down once. Did it with DH and Necro.
I knew this boss to be a pain based on the forum rage, one tip I found that helped me immensely was to bind “counter magic” to an easily accessible key (I picked ‘c’ as I use wasd for movement) and if in doubt just spam that during the fight, that way I managed to avoid any stuns (which only occur if you miss a counter magic, if you hit them he will get stunned).
I didn’t get any Jades though, not sure what the requirements are for those to spawn, perhaps my glass cannon thief had enough DPS to avoid those if they’re timed (even though I lost time due to being downed), or it’s tied to missing counter magic, I can’t say.
I hope that helps at least as much as it helped me.
Believe it or not, the fight you participated in is a heavily nerfed version of the initial version of the fight. The small room is still a problem, but one that I doubt they will address since they haven’t done so already. Outside of fighting the camera, if you learn the fight mechanics well its fairly smooth, someone else could probably tell you those but its been too long since I’ve done it to remember them.
Super easy fight for me. Did not go down once. Did it with DH and Necro.
This is probably true, but it isn’t particularly helpful: unless you can share why it was easy, or provide education to people who are not at the same skill level as you, then all it does is mock someone who doesn’t have the same level of skill — for whatever reason — as you do.
Instead, either focus on explaining how to improve the ability to complete the fight, or just stay quiet.
Just avoid the circles while going in a circle throwing the shards at him. DPS him when the shield during that phase and then repeat. Clear out all enemies.
I don’t see what a class would limit a player beyond DPS as the encounter is primarily mechanics based.
Just avoid the circles while going in a circle throwing the shards at him. DPS him when the shield during that phase and then repeat. Clear out all enemies.
I don’t see what a class would limit a player beyond DPS as the encounter is primarily mechanics based.
Considering the amount of effects and other things spammed at me in the tiny room I’d have to say this advice is… not helpful. Because I could barely see anything in the entire mess and for the record I finished the fight in the tiny room on my first try due to sheer dumb luck combined with the necromancer being about the only class that feels like it can survive more than one hit from anything post-LS2.
I don’t see what a class would limit a player beyond DPS as the encounter is primarily mechanics based.
Maybe not a class, but the race. I would love to see a video of this Norn fighting in the small room to get a feeling for it.
Herleve – Ruins of Surmia
Some people aren’t used to boss fights like this. If you are a decent gamer with experience from console games like Devil May Cry, God of War etc. this is easy. If not, you have to learn your movement. It’s a matter of experience and learning the mechanics.
Unfortunately, the level of frustration these days with casual gamers is low and that’s why the whole industry tones down the difficulty. At least there is a new trend with Souls and Souls-like games.
‘would have/would’ve been’ —> correct
‘would of been’ —> wrong
‘would of been’ —> wrong
They sell a tonic for karma that reduces the size of your character and still lets them fight. It’s perfect for a norn in that room. I highly recommend it.
Just avoid the circles while going in a circle throwing the shards at him. DPS him when the shield during that phase and then repeat. Clear out all enemies.
I don’t see what a class would limit a player beyond DPS as the encounter is primarily mechanics based.
Considering the amount of effects and other things spammed at me in the tiny room I’d have to say this advice is… not helpful. Because I could barely see anything in the entire mess and for the record I finished the fight in the tiny room on my first try due to sheer dumb luck combined with the necromancer being about the only class that feels like it can survive more than one hit from anything post-LS2.
Circles can easily be seen as shown in the video below. “Barely able to see anything in the entire mess” is a bit of an exaggeration.
Here’s the wiki explaining the fight:
I don’t see what a class would limit a player beyond DPS as the encounter is primarily mechanics based.
Maybe not a class, but the race. I would love to see a video of this Norn fighting in the small room to get a feeling for it.
Race wouldn’t impact the fight visually as none of them are large enough to impact your view. It’s not like jumping puzzles where you need precision.
Just avoid the circles while going in a circle throwing the shards at him. DPS him when the shield during that phase and then repeat. Clear out all enemies.
I don’t see what a class would limit a player beyond DPS as the encounter is primarily mechanics based.
Considering the amount of effects and other things spammed at me in the tiny room I’d have to say this advice is… not helpful. Because I could barely see anything in the entire mess and for the record I finished the fight in the tiny room on my first try due to sheer dumb luck combined with the necromancer being about the only class that feels like it can survive more than one hit from anything post-LS2.
Circles can easily be seen as shown in the video below. “Barely able to see anything in the entire mess” is a bit of an exaggeration.
Here’s the wiki explaining the fight:
I don’t need a video to know what it looks like. I did the fight and got through it. I know what happens. It doesn’t change my experience one bit. It was a messy spam in a too tiny room that made it difficult to see anything and I was doing my best to spot the usual AoE warnings.
Super easy fight for me. Did not go down once. Did it with DH and Necro.
This is probably true, but it isn’t particularly helpful: unless you can share why it was easy, or provide education to people who are not at the same skill level as you, then all it does is mock someone who doesn’t have the same level of skill — for whatever reason — as you do.
Instead, either focus on explaining how to improve the ability to complete the fight, or just stay quiet.
No need to be hostile my friend! I was not putting anyone down or shaming anyone. Just sharing my experience.
All you have to do is dodge at the right time, and use your skills wisely. I mean it is just a dance, and all you have to do is pay attention. Not sure what else I can tell you. Maybe my massive amounts of time playing WvW helped me?
It’s PvE which is generally very easy. At least for me….
Just avoid the circles while going in a circle throwing the shards at him. DPS him when the shield during that phase and then repeat. Clear out all enemies.
I don’t see what a class would limit a player beyond DPS as the encounter is primarily mechanics based.
Considering the amount of effects and other things spammed at me in the tiny room I’d have to say this advice is… not helpful. Because I could barely see anything in the entire mess and for the record I finished the fight in the tiny room on my first try due to sheer dumb luck combined with the necromancer being about the only class that feels like it can survive more than one hit from anything post-LS2.
Circles can easily be seen as shown in the video below. “Barely able to see anything in the entire mess” is a bit of an exaggeration.
Here’s the wiki explaining the fight:
I don’t need a video to know what it looks like. I did the fight and got through it. I know what happens. It doesn’t change my experience one bit. It was a messy spam in a too tiny room that made it difficult to see anything and I was doing my best to spot the usual AoE warnings.
The video was to show that it’s easy to see what’s going on during the fight despite what was being claimed.
Just avoid the circles while going in a circle throwing the shards at him. DPS him when the shield during that phase and then repeat. Clear out all enemies.
I don’t see what a class would limit a player beyond DPS as the encounter is primarily mechanics based.
Considering the amount of effects and other things spammed at me in the tiny room I’d have to say this advice is… not helpful. Because I could barely see anything in the entire mess and for the record I finished the fight in the tiny room on my first try due to sheer dumb luck combined with the necromancer being about the only class that feels like it can survive more than one hit from anything post-LS2.
Circles can easily be seen as shown in the video below. “Barely able to see anything in the entire mess” is a bit of an exaggeration.
Here’s the wiki explaining the fight:
I don’t need a video to know what it looks like. I did the fight and got through it. I know what happens. It doesn’t change my experience one bit. It was a messy spam in a too tiny room that made it difficult to see anything and I was doing my best to spot the usual AoE warnings.
The video was to show that it’s easy to see what’s going on during the fight despite what was being claimed.
Which I looked at and all it did was show me again how much of a mess that fight is, but I’m not claiming to speak for others here mind. Just for myself.
It was a messy spam in a too tiny room that made it difficult to see anything and I was doing my best to spot the usual AoE warnings.
The fight was designed to distract you. All the little AoEs that spin around the room can be entirely ignored by simply standing in between them. When the boss shields, you ignore him and watch for the walls to stop spinning, at which point a door will open the adds will come out. Kill the adds, then break his shield. Once broken, he’ll start doing his counter magic teleport, and except for that, he will almost always focus on the NPCs who should be on the opposite side. Simply fight him right in the center, using counter magic to position him where you want, and always dodge backwards after his teleport just in case he immediately opens with his sword frenzy. Stay at his back in melee, but not too close since his attack area starts from his back and don’t stand next to the other NPCs since his targeted bloodstone is an AoE
It might look like a mess from an overview, but there’s actually very few things that are actually important going on at once.
Ignore the walls and particle effects, just spam F to throw shards at caudecus. The circles are bright orange. If you can’t see them you are at fault and should adjust your screen’s brightness. No height is high enough to make the place hard to see.
i repeat: It isn’t sightseeing, it’s a fight. Don’t look at the walls or explosions or whatever. Just avoid the suns on the ground and spam F.
Bind and react on time with the sp. action key. This can maybe take some getting used to, but i wouldn’t know because i didn’t die against caudecus.
I can apply over 3 stacks of bleeding.
I got up to this one this morning and now understand why GW2’s popularity circled the drain.
Wow. Just wow.
For starters – only a very teensy, tiny minority of players (eg. raiders) enjoy this style of content. Supposedly kick kitten evil champions who are strong but cannot deviate from a stupid pattern. And you locked solo story content behind this. Not clever, ANet. Not clever.
Secondly, it doesn’t need tuning so much as a swift kick to the nads. Even just the first white mantle ambush is nuts. Then Adrienne is absurd. Your companions do very little to help and there’s so many adds.
Die, wait a minute or so while a companion rezzes me, instantly – yes instantly – die again. Repeat. Repeat. Exit mission to repair armour (which is plenty good btw). And again.
Part of my problem is likely location. Australian latency means I have a good 200-250 ms handicap when it comes to getting out of attack telegraphs. Adrienne in particular is impossible to avoid. I see her attack, attempt to dodge but am hit by the attack anyway.
I’m disinclined to attempt it again. Even if I get persevere and get past it, games are meant to be enjoyable. This is not enjoyable and I have to imagine that there’s more content like this beyond it.
This game’s initial and substantial success was built on being the very opposite of this.
I got up to this one this morning and now understand why GW2’s popularity circled the drain.
Wow. Just wow.
For starters – only a very teensy, tiny minority of players (eg. raiders) enjoy this style of content. Supposedly kick kitten evil champions who are strong but cannot deviate from a stupid pattern. And you locked solo story content behind this. Not clever, ANet. Not clever.
Secondly, it doesn’t need tuning so much as a swift kick to the nads. Even just the first white mantle ambush is nuts. Then Adrienne is absurd. Your companions do very little to help and there’s so many adds.
Die, wait a minute or so while a companion rezzes me, instantly – yes instantly – die again. Repeat. Repeat. Exit mission to repair armour (which is plenty good btw). And again.
Part of my problem is likely location. Australian latency means I have a good 200-250 ms handicap when it comes to getting out of attack telegraphs. Adrienne in particular is impossible to avoid. I see her attack, attempt to dodge but am hit by the attack anyway.
I’m disinclined to attempt it again. Even if I get persevere and get past it, games are meant to be enjoyable. This is not enjoyable and I have to imagine that there’s more content like this beyond it.
This game’s initial and substantial success was built on being the very opposite of this.
I don’t raid, I don’t like raids and I don’t particularly like boss fights. If you died repeatedly before the end you need to learn the game better.
I can see dying a couple of times, maybe, but if you know what a break bar is, and you have your special skill unlocked, I can’t imagine how you found it that hard.
Don’t run out into the middle of groups., pick them off from the edges. Use the landscape. Pull a few at a time.
The NPCs won’t help kill them but they do help tank. Enemies will stop on the NPCs letting you kill the guys around the edges. Every time some die, pull a few more.
It’s not impossible. It’s not even hard. And it’s nothing at all like raid quality.
The last boss has definite issues though, even though I have little problem doing him on most professions.
If you died repeatedly before the end you need to learn the game better.
kitten.
I’ve had no problem playing any other part of the game. Without any help at all.
This particular piece of content is both poorly conceived and broken.
Adrienne – like nearly every raid boss ever – is a certifiable idiot. Even after she sees that you can break her shield, she just twirls around the room so you can do it again. And again.
Had she even a modicum of intelligence she would put her shield up and stand in a corner.
But worse than just boring and stupid, this content is ridiculously overpowered.
Don’t run out into the middle of groups., pick them off from the edges. Use the landscape. Pull a few at a time.
Saying this you reveal that you’ve never played this content.
It’s a small enclosed room (i.e. there is no landscape) and there’s an endless swarm of mobs who go for you. Plus Adrienne whose mega attack hits you before you have any chance to dodge. And that’s the truth. Australians have a 250+ ms latency handicap and while I can cope with that in every other part of the game, her attacks seem to have a shorter delay.
Then once you’re dead, that’s it. The companions rez you but the moment you’re back up, all of those mobs plus Adrienne are on you again. I die instantly – and not just go down but fully die – without having any opportunity to move, dodge or activate any abilities.
Over and over and over and over.
In all my several decades of playing MMOs I’ve never seen a piece of content this bad. ANet should be severely embarassed to have released it.
I’m not wasting any more of my time on it and if that means I can’t progress any further in GW2, so be it.
I’m not wasting any more of my time on it and if that means I can’t progress any further in GW2, so be it.
Well you don’t need to finish that episode to progress further and these days you can look stuff up on youtube to know what happens later in that episode so there is that. Won’t need it to do the next expansion either so. Granted seeing it on youtube isn’t the same as doing it yourself.
I only got past Adrienne because my necromancer is a minion master and I could pay her back for her minion spam with my own minion spam. That and having minions makes my necro tougher to kill so… Not as much latency plus lots of luck did the rest.
I had camera issues too and playing glass really didn’t help me having a fun time while not being able to perceive all that was going around me.
The tight space and camera was definitely annoying. Maybe people with bigger resolution and sturdier builds had less problem, but I can relate to what was shared here.
Well you don’t need to finish that episode to progress further….
Oh, right. I forgot these are discrete episodes and you can switch between them. There is that at least.
Onto the next ep with that character. Or perhaps not? If there’s more content like this that would be a waste of time.
I only got past Adrienne because my necromancer is a minion master and I could pay her back for her minion spam with my own minion spam. That and having minions makes my necro tougher to kill so… Not as much latency plus lots of luck did the rest.
If I can ever be bothered to try it again this is probably my only option. With Adrienne’s big attack being unavoidable I need her tanked. Maybe bow ranger. Don’t know if bow’s stealth would be effective at shaking off the adds, with the companions doing so little damage, but it might.
Well, I havnt even got to the final room yet, after about 20 tries, so just gave it away as not fun.
Unfortunately , there are usually only 2 types of answers to threads like this .
One is " I did it so you can ."
And the other is its total terrible design.
Games are supposed to be fun, and this sure isnt , but it doesnt fuss me , as you can do what you like in an MMO , and ignore what you like .
I just move on and do something that is fun instead.
Tbh I did the fight on 1st try but I have to admit that during it I was thinking to myself how annoying it is and that for many people/char builds it may be a little too hard.
Cramped up space doesn’t add any meaningful gameplay experience at all, regardless if it’s easy or not.
Well you don’t need to finish that episode to progress further….
Oh, right. I forgot these are discrete episodes and you can switch between them. There is that at least.
Onto the next ep with that character. Or perhaps not? If there’s more content like this that would be a waste of time.
I only got past Adrienne because my necromancer is a minion master and I could pay her back for her minion spam with my own minion spam. That and having minions makes my necro tougher to kill so… Not as much latency plus lots of luck did the rest.
If I can ever be bothered to try it again this is probably my only option. With Adrienne’s big attack being unavoidable I need her tanked. Maybe bow ranger. Don’t know if bow’s stealth would be effective at shaking off the adds, with the companions doing so little damage, but it might.
Not much experience with rangers so I can’t say for certain. I’m not sure I want to try it out with any other class either. Might just start the episodes to unlock access to the zones and not bother with it beyond that because so far I haven’t really gotten much of a reason to bother with it.
I’m with you on this, OP. The first was filled with flashing lights and spinning circles. I couldn’t see much at all.
I have just come back from several months away, and have been playing through this latest LS. The Caudecus battle was annoying, though, as I main a necro, it might have been easier than, say, trying this on a thief. For me anyways.
I actually was able to do it…er…stumble through it…on a power necro since I can’t be bothered with the ever-changing metas. Did go down once and got resurrected by one of the NPCs (will wonders never cease).
Wow. That was a riveting tale.
And incredibly irrelevant. If you want to engage in hostile rants about other people’s preferences may I suggest tumblr first?
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
for there you have been and there you will long to return.
(edited by ArchonWing.9480)
Personally, I main rev and didn’t think this fight was nearly as bad as a lot of other Story situations you get tossed into as a class without cleanses… The Counter Magic Mastery goes miles towards defending against our biggest weakness—THE CONDI BOMB. (Everything else in there has breakbars, blockable attacks, and counterable cc.)
Don’t want to go into strategy/build tips tho…
What I do want to say is that Caedecus has been a major villain in the game—even since the original Vanilla story. Shouldn’t his final showdown be somewhat challenging and have an epic feel to it? I mean, anet could have went the opposite way and just had him get one-shot and die because he’s a coward and uses others to fight his fights for him and, while anticlimactic, that would at least work on a story level I suppose.
But really, would you rather just have another easy boss fight to get your story done and unlock the ho-hum reward of a jangley chest and 10 achievement points, or would you rather have a memorable showdown with this total kitten who’s been plaguing you with his crap for the entire season… A fight that’s not just memorable, but causes you to run to the forums to seek tips on how to beat it, or at least to vent your rage… A fight that when you finally get through it, gives you a feeling of triumph?
If you died repeatedly before the end you need to learn the game better.
kitten.
I’ve had no problem playing any other part of the game. Without any help at all.
This particular piece of content is both poorly conceived and broken.
Adrienne – like nearly every raid boss ever – is a certifiable idiot. Even after she sees that you can break her shield, she just twirls around the room so you can do it again. And again.
Had she even a modicum of intelligence she would put her shield up and stand in a corner.
But worse than just boring and stupid, this content is ridiculously overpowered.
Don’t run out into the middle of groups., pick them off from the edges. Use the landscape. Pull a few at a time.
Saying this you reveal that you’ve never played this content.
It’s a small enclosed room (i.e. there is no landscape) and there’s an endless swarm of mobs who go for you. Plus Adrienne whose mega attack hits you before you have any chance to dodge. And that’s the truth. Australians have a 250+ ms latency handicap and while I can cope with that in every other part of the game, her attacks seem to have a shorter delay.
Then once you’re dead, that’s it. The companions rez you but the moment you’re back up, all of those mobs plus Adrienne are on you again. I die instantly – and not just go down but fully die – without having any opportunity to move, dodge or activate any abilities.
Over and over and over and over.
In all my several decades of playing MMOs I’ve never seen a piece of content this bad. ANet should be severely embarassed to have released it.
I’m not wasting any more of my time on it and if that means I can’t progress any further in GW2, so be it.
I’ve -played the content. I was responding to the line that states “even the first white mantle ambush…”
Clearly you had problems other than the last room. The last room itself is another matter. However I’m in Australia and I have soloed it a couple of times, though I usually play with my wife.
Accusing me of not doing the content is just silly. If you want, I’ll do it with you in game and show you how it can be done. Shrugs.
The last room was a pain but certainly not impossible. Not knowing what to expect I certainly didn’t go in prepared for that so I went down quite a few times. Luckily the NPCs didn’t seem to have a problem picking me up. Like narcx said, the fight was meant to be difficult. It certainly could have been designed a little better but you’re fighting Caudecus on his turf when he’s all jacked up on bloodstone steroids. There’s supposed to be a sense of futility about it.