Guild Wars 2

This fractal really separates the bads from the skilled people….Seems like every time I run this fractal at least half the team goes down at the cannon stage. I don’t understand how this stage is so hard? You avoid the red circles that show up on the ground. Don’t stop and try to rez people as you will most likely go down too.

Seems like after every cannon stage I end up having to pick people up and it shouldn’t be this hard to run around.

I have had to leave countless groups because of this stage because it ends up taking hours and the reward is not worth it.

I myself haven’t done it as a fractal but I did it during Living Story, and it’s really easy.

I don’t think it was hard to avoid the circles at all.

One reason could be that people play on rather crappy computers, and that phase could cause some FPS drop for them.

Have to agree with OP.
This fractal is really simple but it appears to be a real challenge for some people. I can’t explain why though. Ended up being the last man standing several times by now…really not a fractal that you want to run with pugs.

Just had that one, and it was horrible.

My whole team except me wiped around 6-7 times because of the cannons. Jeez, most of the time you can even run around the circles and not press the dodge button once. ITS SO SIMPLE.

Never pugging again

If you’re a warrior, you can make this a cakewalk for your party with the right traits and weapons.

I never go down in the cannon phase, but for some reason Mai Trinn really has it in for me. I drop a lot. (Not from shadowstepping either)

Seriously, the Molten bosses fractal feels much too easy and Mai Trinn much too kitten the same level.

The fight is soloable. I’ve done it several times after my team goes down.

Sir Isaac The Great.5341:

Seems like after every cannon stage I end up having to pick people up and it shouldn’t be this hard to run around.

If you end in a group with pugs, don’t run around. Avoid AoE’s by stepping just outside their circles, try to move as least as possible. It’s usually AoE’s aimed at other people that kill random puggers.

And it;s just after barrage that is a real pug killer. When people try to ress those that died to aoe’s, and get oneshotted by Mai Trin teleport attack.

I find it boring mostly. Never liked the fight (you get an achievement if you finish it under 15 minutes? No boss fight should last 15 minutes to begin with!) and it’s still too long. Also, I really don’t get why that champion was added before it.

Content should be short and challenging…dragging it out doesn’t do anyone any favors. The cannon phase was shortened, I know but it’s still a tad too long. With a party just running around waiting until they can finally get back to actually playing the game again.

Short? How short? People complained about Liadri and the whole fight took only maybe 2 minutes.

That beins said, it’s extremely easy to avoid AoE.

Nick.6972:

Short? How short? People complained about Liadri and the whole fight took only maybe 2 minutes.

That beins said, it’s extremely easy to avoid AoE.

Well, less boring then. Once you get the hang of avoiding the circles, it’s just a long wait during which nothing really happens. At least let us still attack the boss while dodging. Might make it a bit more challenging for those groups that want to speed things along.

I like the ‘new’ boss fights… though they require more attention and pugs tend to screw up. But in my personal experience pugs have already gotten better at it. The first day I got the molten bosses and we wiped 6-7 times. Even now in a bad team that frustrates me, it takes only 3-4 times. I only got Mai Trin a couple times and we never fully wiped, although there are always people failing the cannon barrage. It just takes long if people wander about in random directions and fail to make her vulnerable. Practice makes perfect, I guess.

I’ve always pugged and patience is part of the pugging game^^

There is nothing wrong with having dungeons that separate the good from the bad. The cannons are pretty easy to learn and far more intuitive than most other fractal bosses.

Astralporing.1957:

If you end in a group with pugs, don’t run around. Avoid AoE’s by stepping just outside their circles, try to move as least as possible. It’s usually AoE’s aimed at other people that kill random puggers.

THIS. It’s usually not the person who dies fault that they go down, it’s usually the idiot that ran past them and their cannons overlapped and that player had no where to go.

The trick is to spread out and just do a little dance in your corner without getting near anyone else. If you overlap anyone there is a really good chance you are going to kill them.

I think everyone is exaggerating about it being “extremely easy”. Yes, it’s nice that some people can do it using their feet to move their mouse. But for the average player, this is above-average difficulty.

When I first did it way back, I went down a couple of times (the duration was longer then I believe), and this time at lv 1 I didn’t. But in both cases, at least 2 others went down during cannons. Some classes have more vigor and endurance than others. Some have more swiftness, some have blocks, health, regen, armor, toughness. There’s more to it than just “I do it well so it’s easy and people who died shouldn’t count.”

Pandabro.8743:

Astralporing.1957:

If you end in a group with pugs, don’t run around. Avoid AoE’s by stepping just outside their circles, try to move as least as possible. It’s usually AoE’s aimed at other people that kill random puggers.

THIS. It’s usually not the person who dies fault that they go down, it’s usually the idiot that ran past them and their cannons overlapped and that player had no where to go.

The trick is to spread out and just do a little dance in your corner without getting near anyone else. If you overlap anyone there is a really good chance you are going to kill them.

So far, I can’t stand this fractal, and I just can’t do it with a random pug… I’m normally very good at dodging and getting away from aoe, but I’m finding that most of the time there just isn’t anywhere for me to go and end up getting killed. (Both characters have low HP, so it’s particularly bad for them).

Can I really chalk it up to other players causing that just because they were near me for a second or two, or do I just need to quit sucking so hard at the game?

Next time I’m in there, I’m going to give just moving slightly out of the aoe a try, hopefully it helps me out.

Sir Isaac The Great.5341:

This fractal really separates the bads from the skilled people….Seems like every time I run this fractal at least half the team goes down at the cannon stage. I don’t understand how this stage is so hard? You avoid the red circles that show up on the ground. Don’t stop and try to rez people as you will most likely go down too.

Seems like after every cannon stage I end up having to pick people up and it shouldn’t be this hard to run around.

I have had to leave countless groups because of this stage because it ends up taking hours and the reward is not worth it.

It’s not easy, when you’re necro with just 2 dodges without any vigors or higher endurance regen, when you don’t have blocks and invulnerabilities and even full DS goes down instantly.

i’d take this fight any time over the Molten one with some of the instabilities. I was complaining before how the Maw had become super boring after months of playing it. Now I find myself wishing we had gotten it.

knbBlackTemplar.3059:

Sir Isaac The Great.5341:

This fractal really separates the bads from the skilled people….Seems like every time I run this fractal at least half the team goes down at the cannon stage. I don’t understand how this stage is so hard? You avoid the red circles that show up on the ground. Don’t stop and try to rez people as you will most likely go down too.

Seems like after every cannon stage I end up having to pick people up and it shouldn’t be this hard to run around.

I have had to leave countless groups because of this stage because it ends up taking hours and the reward is not worth it.

It’s not easy, when you’re necro with just 2 dodges without any vigors or higher endurance regen, when you don’t have blocks and invulnerabilities and even full DS goes down instantly.

Thats why your group plays bad, i do main warrior all the time, so for mai i do take horn to buff swiftness and vigor to group, i can do it fine without both of them, but its easier to do for rest of mine fractal group who does not have mine hp or armor.
Its just ppl who wont use different weapons or utilities to make it easier. Even guardian can buff swiftness to group.

I haven’t done the fractal version of Mai Trin boss fight yet but during the AR dungeon i had extremely hard time seeing the AoEs on the floor due to my color blindness.

Has anything been done to change that or is it exactly the same as it was back then?

Last time I did it, I swung the camera a bit too high, and suddenly the ceiling was blocking my view of the floor. Death resulted before I could readjust, lost another game of player vs. camera.

It depends really on the players skill for the Mai Trinn fight and it can be either frustrating as hell or a fun bossfight. What I see in many pugs is that the players are wasting their dodges on the first cannons and then are helpless when the have to dodge.

First advice is. Don’t waste you dodges, use them only in a situation where you are surrounded by cannonfire and can’t go out of the AOE. In this phase dodge is the last thing you use. After I told this my group they survived the cannon phases much longer

Second. Don’t rezz. Use rezz skills if one player is downed but don’t go to the player and rezz him, the only exception is when you have a skill that makes you immune to damage.

And for Anet. Please remove the defiant crap from Mai Trinn, at least as long she has her shield. The shield mechanic is a good mechanic to make Control useful, but the defiant buff destroys this possibility. Let us pull her or knock her to the electric fields with our skills, it would be much better.

What annoys me is the fact that the barrage phase will kill (not down) my whole team, and then they also expect me to pick them up with Mai Trin going around one-shotting people. I don’t like this sort of design. There’s no retry for any of them, simply because they failed to dodge a red circle. And there’s no way for them to get back up, and rejoin the fight. They are basically forced to watch me try to solo Mai Trin for the rest of the battle. And maybe I make it, maybe I don’t. Necromancer aint exactly the sort of class that solos these kind of bosses well. But this will make pugs actually angry at me, for not ressing them, or wiping, so they can have another go (and die at the barrage phase again). I just don’t like this kind of design.

knbBlackTemplar.3059:

Sir Isaac The Great.5341:

This fractal really separates the bads from the skilled people….Seems like every time I run this fractal at least half the team goes down at the cannon stage. I don’t understand how this stage is so hard? You avoid the red circles that show up on the ground. Don’t stop and try to rez people as you will most likely go down too.

Seems like after every cannon stage I end up having to pick people up and it shouldn’t be this hard to run around.

I have had to leave countless groups because of this stage because it ends up taking hours and the reward is not worth it.

It’s not easy, when you’re necro with just 2 dodges without any vigors or higher endurance regen, when you don’t have blocks and invulnerabilities and even full DS goes down instantly.

You don’t need infinite dodges. A lot of the time you can just walk out of the circles.

knbBlackTemplar.3059:

It’s not easy, when you’re necro with just 2 dodges without any vigors or higher endurance regen, when you don’t have blocks and invulnerabilities and even full DS goes down instantly.

You just need to walk for the most part really. WASD will suffice, I don’t even use my mouse sometimes.
It was satisfyingly challenging at first, but once you’re used to it it’s really not bad. I find the Molten duo to be more challenging, though once again when you get used to the jump timing it isn’t that hard.

I find it’s mostly a case of people not knowing what to do in the fight. To those people, here’s how to make it much easier:

Setup:

Bring lots of condition removal. Blocks and skills that grant Vigor are also helpful. Long-distance res skills can be useful during the cannon phases, but more often than not the guy who goes down will be killed before you can get it off.

Important things to know:

1. Mai Trin has Captain’s Shielding that makes her take 10% less damage for each stack she has. The only way to remove her Shielding is to have her stand in the electric fields fired by Horrik.

2. Mai Trin will automatically res Horrik if he is killed, so there’s no point to killing him unless you’re after the achievement. Note that there seems to be a bug where as long as you damage Horrik during the fight, you’ll get his achievement at the end anyway.

Battle Phase:

During the battle phases, stay close to Mai Trin. She always shadow steps to the person furthest away from her, so keeping your distance is a BAD idea (you will always get targeted). There’s no need to stack on her (that just lets Mai Trin get her 15 stacks of Bleed on your entire party); just move in small circles around her but stay close enough so that you can easily keep her in Horrik’s electric fields. Use your condition removal if Mai gets lots of Bleeding on you. Warriors with Shake it Off!, Rangers with Healing Spring, and traited Guardians/Eles can make this fight much easier.

It’s difficult, but possible to dodge Mai Trin’s shadowstep. You can also block the attack, which results in Mai Trin remaining in her old position. Reflecting her projectile will actually teleport YOU to her. (At least, that’s how it used to work during the initial dungeon. Not sure if that’s still true.)

Cannon Phase:

At 75/50/25% health, Mai Trin and Horrik will teleport up on the platforms and start raining down cannon barrages. The best tactic for this part is to have everybody split up and go to a different corner of the room. (The 5th person can remain in the center.) This is because each player gets his own set of AoE barrages; if players are too close together, the barrages overlap and leave you with no room to move.

If players are split up, the barrages are light enough that you can mostly sidestep the AoE’s. Dodge if necessary, but try to avoid moving into another player’s zone.

If somebody goes down, use a long-range res skill if you have it, but if they die, don’t try and res them. That just results in you going down as well. Instead, move the fight with Mai closer to the dead person and res them while avoiding Mai’s attacks.

TLDR: In battle phases, stay close to Mai. In cannon phases, split up.

knbBlackTemplar.3059:

Sir Isaac The Great.5341:

This fractal really separates the bads from the skilled people….Seems like every time I run this fractal at least half the team goes down at the cannon stage. I don’t understand how this stage is so hard? You avoid the red circles that show up on the ground. Don’t stop and try to rez people as you will most likely go down too.

Seems like after every cannon stage I end up having to pick people up and it shouldn’t be this hard to run around.

I have had to leave countless groups because of this stage because it ends up taking hours and the reward is not worth it.

It’s not easy, when you’re necro with just 2 dodges without any vigors or higher endurance regen, when you don’t have blocks and invulnerabilities and even full DS goes down instantly.

I know necro isn’t very mobile, but I can’t say i’ve ever had a problem with this on my necro and i’ve done it multiple times both in the LS and now in the fractal. And since I can do it as a necro then I know every other class can do it easier.

Zaxares.5419:

It’s difficult, but possible to dodge Mai Trin’s shadowstep.

Is it? From what I’ve experienced, it seems to completely ignore evade frames.
That’s what annoys me the most about this Fractal.

That PUG learning curve… as the meta expires and time goes on, pugs will get better at this fractal.

Walhalla.5473:

And for Anet. Please remove the defiant crap from Mai Trinn, at least as long she has her shield. The shield mechanic is a good mechanic to make Control useful, but the defiant buff destroys this possibility. Let us pull her or knock her to the electric fields with our skills, it would be much better.

This please. Mai’s fight is a perfect situation for making control skills fun and useful in a challenging boss encounter. I can’t understand why it was left to dodgy aggro mechanics to get her into a circle when we have a pile of skills designed to do just that but which we cannot use.

Did this with a PUG Friday night with no deaths for the party, and finished easily. I admit it was a good PUG though…we face-rolled the entire set of fractals and afterward were exclaiming to one another how good the group was…it is a beautiful thing to do a 30+ run with a PUG that just feels easy…

I’ll admit I was stupid and found this fight a bit difficult on fractals level 33, I kept using ash legion spy kits to try and rez people after the cannon phase and mai trin would tele to me and one shot me every time (again because I was being stupid and not facing her). on other fractal levels I haven’t found it to be too difficult though.

Kraljevo.2801:

My whole team except me wiped around 6-7 times because of the cannons. Jeez, most of the time you can even run around the circles and not press the dodge button once. ITS SO SIMPLE.

Quoted because I was going to say the EXACT same thing, almost word for word.

What’s so difficult amount remaining close to Mai and then stacking within melee range right before Horrik uses his debuff attack? It’s not like his attacks are random and the debuff removes the stacks really quickly unlike in the living story version.

Ayrilana.1396:

What’s so difficult amount remaining close to Mai and then stacking within melee range right before Horrik uses his debuff attack? It’s not like his attacks are random and the debuff removes the stacks really quickly unlike in the living story version.

I’m actually quite lucky: Mai ALWAYS goes for me, during 95% of the battle, no matter what group I’m in.

I’m not being sarcastic, I consider this lucky. Her attacks and pattern are easy to read, and shes cake get to stand inside the blue-electric field as long as shes chasing me.

Every now and then, I get lazy and she drops 3-4 stacks of bleed on me. Woo. Press #7 to clear, and collect my lewt. I’ve soloed her from 75% (the first cannon phase).

I’ve also solo’d jade maw, cakewalk…. for some reason 1 guy DC’d, and the other 3 quit….?!?!?

I remember wiping on that encounter 4-5 times at the original release before mastering it. You’re probably playing with people who hadn’t done the fight at all so you get to experience the wipes all over again with people new to the fight.

I’m confident the success rate will go up the longer it is available. Practice making perfect and all that crap.

Really guys, this ain’t hard. My pug wiped around 5 times, 2 of them on the first cannon volley. Dodge circles, don’t touch the walls, and don’t res.

Morsus.5106:

Really guys, this ain’t hard. My pug wiped around 5 times, 2 of them on the first cannon volley. Dodge circles, don’t touch the walls, and don’t res.

Don’t touch walls? I’m confused. Do they do something special?

Ayrilana.1396:

What’s so difficult amount remaining close to Mai and then stacking within melee range right before Horrik uses his debuff attack? It’s not like his attacks are random and the debuff removes the stacks really quickly unlike in the living story version.

Idk, maybe the melee cleave that will wipe your party minus the heavys, along with multi-stack of bleeds, and the lightning arc that hits everyone? Removing the shield isnt hard, just kite her into the electric. Its more the fact, your going to lose people during cannons. Afterwards, you have to go rez, she teles to you and now 3 are down/dead instead of 1.

Even w/o agony shes tough on pugs. I usually give the group 3 wipes then leave. Its sad bc once I see that fractal its prob a -50% chance ill end up getting the drops.

I just did this fractal today for the first time ever on 32 and it was super ez. Didn’t even get close to downing. Although its pretty long, even when you get her shield thing down it still seems long. Wish they would reduce time on cannon phase and reduce her health a bit.

OMNIBUS.2913:

i just did this fractal today for the first time on 32 and it was super ez. Didn’t even get close to downing.

I beat it today on level 50 in 5 minutes. Super “ez”.

Becka Williams.4978:

OMNIBUS.2913:

i just did this fractal today for the first time on 32 and it was super ez. Didn’t even get close to downing.

I beat it today on level 50 in 5 minutes. Super “ez”.

in 5 mins? her cannon phases added up seem longer than 5mins. r u trolling or something lol

Nikku.3562:

This please. Mai’s fight is a perfect situation for making control skills fun and useful in a challenging boss encounter. I can’t understand why it was left to dodgy aggro mechanics to get her into a circle when we have a pile of skills designed to do just that but which we cannot use.

There was a boss similar to this when the Crown Pavilion was closed and you had to open it back up (I think). I forget the details, but you had to pull, CC, knockback, etc the boss into an aoe to damage him/her/it.

It was incredibly fun and a refreshing mechanic.

I’m getting sick and tired of everything being defiant.

Yeah it’s pretty easy if people relax about it. I see others running around frantically too much during the aoe everywhere stage. Just relax, take a couple steps foward, stop, rinse, repeat, don’t stop to rez. Usually don’t even need to dodge that much during those phases.

What annoys me most about that boss is people spreading out so much causing Mai Trin not to be in the shield draining aoe most of the time.

Ethics.4519:

Nikku.3562:

This please. Mai’s fight is a perfect situation for making control skills fun and useful in a challenging boss encounter. I can’t understand why it was left to dodgy aggro mechanics to get her into a circle when we have a pile of skills designed to do just that but which we cannot use.

There was a boss similar to this when the Crown Pavilion was closed and you had to open it back up (I think). I forget the details, but you had to pull, CC, knockback, etc the boss into an aoe to damage him/her/it.

It was incredibly fun and a refreshing mechanic.

I’m getting sick and tired of everything being defiant.

Yeah that was one of the phases for Scarlet in the funhouse or playhouse. You could just stack on her and get the same effect too.

OMNIBUS.2913:

Becka Williams.4978:

OMNIBUS.2913:

i just did this fractal today for the first time on 32 and it was super ez. Didn’t even get close to downing.

I beat it today on level 50 in 5 minutes. Super “ez”.

in 5 mins? her cannon phases added up seem longer than 5mins. r u trolling or something lol

I don’t count the cannon parts.

rozcinana.7249:

Yeah it’s pretty easy if people relax about it. I see others running around frantically too much during the aoe everywhere stage. Just relax, take a couple steps foward, stop, rinse, repeat, don’t stop to rez. Usually don’t even need to dodge that much during those phases.

What annoys me most about that boss is people spreading out so much causing Mai Trin not to be in the shield draining aoe most of the time.

I actually rezzed during it. If a person is completely downed, they are no longer a target…so I was able to take a few steps out of the circles….rez….take a few steps….rez…..take a few steps….rez, always staying right around the downed person in safe areas. I had them up before the cannon phase was over.

Here is the strategy my group uses when we fight her. It has worked flawlessly up to lvl 25 so far, not sure about any of the fights above 25.

When the phase starts we mark one of our party member. Then we play follow the leader going counter-clockwise around the outside of the room. We also use team-wide swiftness skills just for this fight, (I.E. Retreat) All the bombs should all fall behind your team, and your team will be safe from anyone dying. It’s so easy even a pug could do it!

Hope this helps save some of you guys some frustration.

This fight can be solo’d, and Its almost stupid easy if your a ranger with skill. Also, the Cannon phase is the easiest part of the battle. Move as a group, use swiftness, and stay out of the red circles, or, scatter apart, so the cannon shots are spread apart, and stay out of the circles. Either way, so not depend on your dodges unless you absolutely freaking need to use them! its too easy!

Also, I am loving these titles we give to GW2 characters, since so far, we got Mai Trin & Captain Horrik Destroyer of Pugs, and we also got Scarlet Slayer of Lores!

I just stand still looking pretty for the most part (with sunglasses on) and step slightly to the side between rings most of the time. o.O
You don’t even need to run around XD