Guild Wars 2

Hi all.

I played GW for about a month or two at release. I got two professions to level 80, tried some dungeons and what not, and got bored. I will admit – I sucked at the game.

My biggest gripe was the dungeons seemed too hard. I’m sure if it was my friends and I not knowing what we were doing or what, but we couldn’t seem to complete much “end game” content.

I’m just curious if this has changed at all. Are the dungeons and level 80 content hard to do with a pick up group of strangers? Does anyone do it like this or is everyone in a guild by this point?

I’ve missed all the content, since I only played for a little over a month after release. So why should I come back?

Thanks.

There are people who find the dungeons so easy they can solo them. I’m not one of them but they’re out there. There’s PUGs, guild groups, groups of friends. You probably should have hung around and kept trying.

Its up to you if you want to come back or not. You bought the game, after all. And the way Anet have set up the content delivery will make seem like you haven’t missed much at all.

The dungeons haven’t been changed but a lot of players do find them quite easy now. As Zenleto said some people are even able to do them solo. It’s pretty much just a matter of knowing the mechanics of each fight – which attacks you can afford to take and which ones to dodge, what order to fight enemies in…and if you’re looking to do a speed run which parts you can skip completely and what skills to use to run past the enemies.

Many people do use PUGs. They added a Looking For Group tool (under the contacts list menu) and there’s always groups being advertised. Personally I like casual, everyone welcome groups so I tend to advertise my own and they always fill up quickly. Other people prefer to wait a bit longer for specific requirements, like people with specific professions and builds or certain numbers of achievement points. But it’s up to you what type of run you want to do and who you want to do it with.

There are also guilds dedicated to doing dungeons, and general purpose guilds where members will form groups for dungeons, if you prefer to go with a specific group.

When I started (in November 2012) people were still having some issues with dungeons and wiped pretty regularly. Nowadays they are very easy to do even when you have a few newbies in the group. People have figured out the tactics now instead of just running around like headless chickens. I always PUG and I’m not the best player by far and I barely ever wipe anymore and that’s only when someone doesn’t know what to do but kept quiet and tried to wing it.

So if you’re hesitant to come back because of the dungeon difficulty, I would advice just to try it out for yourself as it’s a very different experience now.

Just yesterday I did Arah Path 1 for the first time with a group of whom nobody did that path before. We finished it after about 2+ hours, however Arah has a reputation for being long and somewhat harder than common farmed dungeon paths. But this shows that even random people can do such dungeons. For a starter to get back into dungeons it would probably be the best to do Citadel of Flame path 1 or 2, Ascalon, Twilight arbor or Sorrow’s Embrace path 1 or 3. These are all fairly short and not that difficult. Then once you are getting a better hang of it or simply want to do a bigger dungeon you can do the Aetherblade path in Twilight Arbor, or Arah.. etc. Honor of the Waves dungeon is also not that hard to do with random people.

A few things in dungeons have actually been changed, one of the Twilight Arbor paths was completely replaced by a much nicer path (the Aetherblade path). Citadel of Flame has had various small changes (mostly against farming and exploits). Ascalon has had alot of the bosses slightly changed or reworked completely. Sorrow’s Embrace also had paths changed. I can’t speak for the other dungeons though as I don’t remember if they changed them over the 2 years.

I was in the same position you were in. I played for about two to three months when the game first launched and eventually left. I resumed playing about three months ago and it’s been fantastic. First day I was back I PUG’d CoF P1 and we managed just fine. I also saw a warrior wrecking mobs in there and felt far inferior in my Soldier’s armor running sword + shield and a shout healing/condition removal build, so I messaged him asking for tips and builds and explained I was a returning player. In short, I got a guild invite and now run with regular dungeons easy and have great gear. The game has been immensely fun and I’m really happy I returned.

I would just recommend finding a guild once you get back. There are a lot out there that are recruiting, and many players will be helpful if you ask questions. Best part- it’s free to redownload and give another shot.

I too quit playing a few months after release and didn’t come back again until recently.
I can’t say it was a good decision, but the game has given me something to do while waiting for the release of the next new MMO to try (I’ve played sooo many).

As for the dungeons, I can’t say too much. I’m in a guild of 2, myself included, have been since launch. We play together most of the time, and we have been able to 2-man several of the dungeons without many wipes or downs. I think we work together better than most and do so from the same room, but if we’ve managed with two then an actual full group with some of the people have at least a little skill, should do alright. I have never played with anyone else but my single friend/guild mate on the team, so I’m at a loss for personal experience to pull from.