Guild Wars 2

It would depend on the path. His attacks are slightly differnet depending on whitch path you are doing.

http://gw2dungeons.net/CoE1

http://gw2dungeons.net/CoE2

http://gw2dungeons.net/CoE3

Depends on the path you’re doing (as stated by Talyn.3295) and the class you’re playing.
E.g. I usually play a guardian in CoE, thus having access to enough blocks, vigor and invulnearbility to easily overcome Alpha.
To prevent getting imprisoned, you need access to stability. As long as everyone fights him in melee range (which is strongly recommended for this boss), crystal prisons should go down in no time due to AoE/Cleave damage. In addition, you can teleport/shadowstep out of them.
If you play a class with less access to evades/blocks, you might consider using a superior sigils of energy on one or even both weapon sets, granting you one extra evade after each weapon swap.
Last but not least- make sure your party brings enough dps. The longer the fight lasts, the bigger the chances are you run out of evades, blocks, etc. or simply make a mistake.
Once you get used to this fight, it’s one of the more fun encounters in GW2 imo

Check the weapons your class has, some have skills with evade on them so you can use those when your endurance is low.

Btw, there is a bug when someone gets imprisoned, others break the pink crystal but the stun stays with full duration. Couldn’t get rid of it until downed. Any trick to deal with this?

@Jayden: I think stability prevents the bug, else it seems to trigger most when the crystal is killed too quickly so waiting a second or two before breaking it might help?

While fighting Subject Alpha, as soon as you see the red circles on the ground, you want to count to 3 and then dodge. Additionally some classes have their own defensive skills that they can use (for example, Ranger has Signet of Stone, Lightning Reflexes and GS #3).

If your group isn’t stacking, you need to destroy the pink crystals that trap your teammates as soon as you can. If your group is stacking you will probably get the crystals down anyway due to all the cleave/AoE.

And that’s pretty much it. The boss also spawns fingers but generally those aren’t really a threat.

Edit: I think in P1 the boss also does occasionally a long range spike attack. If you’re far away you can easily dodge it, but you can also avoid it at melee range if you’re fast enough. I can’t remember how often he does it but I think it’s in between meele attacks and the big red circles. Again, I’m not 100% sure so don’t quote me on this.

on thief: pistol whip every time I see the red circles. maintain DPS and evade everything.
on mesmer: Vigor on Crit, sword skill 2, dodge like you are covered with burning ants.
on guardian: aegis chain, soak it (using zealots/clerics, your mileage may vary)
on warrior: warhorn, vigor, endure pain.
on ranger: immunity signet, protect me shout. timing with GS skill 1 evade (experts only)
on anything else: have one of your friends bring the above warrior

Davey.7029:

While fighting Subject Alpha, as soon as you see the red circles on the ground, you want to count to 3 and then dodge. Additionally some classes have their own defensive skills that they can use (for example, Ranger has Signet of Stone, Lightning Reflexes and GS #3).

If your group isn’t stacking, you need to destroy the pink crystals that trap your teammates as soon as you can. If your group is stacking you will probably get the crystals down anyway due to all the cleave/AoE.

And that’s pretty much it. The boss also spawns fingers but generally those aren’t really a threat.

Edit: I think in P1 the boss also does occasionally a long range spike attack. If you’re far away you can easily dodge it, but you can also avoid it at melee range if you’re fast enough. I can’t remember how often he does it but I think it’s in between meele attacks and the big red circles. Again, I’m not 100% sure so don’t quote me on this.

And if you are out of dodges, try getting out of the range of the red circles if you can.

And knowing of those one shot hits, try to avoid using dodges except for those one shots.

Here’s a quick tip:

When you see all the circles, count in your head “one mississippi, two mississippi” then dodge.