Guild Wars 2

I thought I’d try my hand at soloing in explorable mode, but I haven’t played dungeons a whole lot since around release and I suspect the details I do remember may be obsolete. I tried searching here and google, but most information seems to be either very old or focused on Arah. I did solo a few bosses in Arah earlier, but I suspect it’s not the best place to get started.

Which dungeons and paths are easiest, or a good place to start for whatever reason?

What kind of builds are people having success with? I get the impression it’s mostly offensive reflect-heavy phantasm builds, which is great as it’s what I personally prefer.

Any skills that are non-obviously useful for certain bosses? (Now that the old Mimic is gone.)

Anything else people wish to share?

I’m not necessarily looking for a full guide, but just a good place to start so I don’t end up in a dead-end.

Edit: Which dungeons and paths are easiest?

Path 1 is the easiest, in general (bar Tar, hehe that rhymes).

Path 2 is the easiest for Mesmers.

P1 is easy because it’s fast.

P2 is easy because it’s made for Mesmers.

For Belka, you’ll probably want to cheese and stop her from teleporting. This will let you practice staggered Wardens. If not, you’ll want to reset if you get too low, although on a Mesmer if you get too low without any condi-removal, you’re dead even if you ooc.

For Abomination, you can do any of the standard spots (close, far, just not middle). If you’re new, clear out the Drake near the wall before you go in (if he’s not the Champion, cross fingers for RNG). Your goal is to survive. If you can get 3 max-range Duelists out, as well, that’s perfect. It’s harder to pull this off after the iLeap changes/nerfs, but it’s possible. To survive the Abomination, simply learn his animations and then always stay behind him. Roll on his jump and use a rifle when it’s time.

For Lupicus, there are plenty of guides.

Alphard, untraited Warden stagger or pull her to the stack corner. If you’re doing the stack-corner, make sure to roll back (or stand back) when she gets close. Don’t stand directly on her or your reflects won’t work properly. Use all of your reflects and get the timings down.

Brie, be careful on this one. It’s very, very hard to do phase 1 and phase 2 on a Mesmer. I would highly recommend inviting friends to help you finish this path, although it’s entirely possible to do it solo.

Wearing full Ascended in the most optimal personal DPS setup, you probably won’t have the dps to do it. The best strategy to do this solo would be to finish the first half, then rotate onto the waves of mobs spawning. Try to take as long as possible on the first half of Brie because she will despawn all of the Risen waves. Don’t take too long or you’ll die.

All of the runs can be done on Mesmer solo with both exploits and legitimate running. Retraiting is unnecessary but good for beginning runners.

Things used for running:
Mantra of Recovery (if using Mender’s Purity)
Ether Feast (if not using MP)

Decoy + Blink

Condition removal Mantra or Veil (Mantra for first run, Veil for second run, stab Mantra for fourth run).

Mass Invisibility.

First run is to Belka.

Second run is to Abomination.

Third run is to Alphard.

Fourth run is to Brie.

Alpkittenly requires Torch and Blink. Underwater is recommended to use Stability and Condition Removal Mantra.

Questions, concerns, comments?

I haven’t successfully completed a full solo run, although I have fully soloed each of the bosses, except Brie, on my Mesmer.

I have also done all of the runs on my Thief, Necromancer, and Warrior without help. Necromancer can solo the Risen Waves at Brie the easiest, in my opinion.

The main reason why I stopped trying to solo is because my internet hiccups. After the feature patch I lose the instance, so… it’s not fun.

. It’s harder to pull this off after the iLeap changes/nerfs,

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I have never used iLeap on abom, just dodge forward to get back to him

One dodge’s distance will not place you close enough to guarantee a max range Duelist that won’t be killed after a Leap.

My point with the iLeap was that you could do iLeap, let the clone die as you run away to spawn the Duelist, then swap back in to maintain combat.

If you don’t mind the Duelist dying, then by all means, the change won’t have affected you.

There are other methods of getting Duelists out, but that was the easy way I found. I’ll have to play around more to get the timing on Duelists right, but it’s been a while since I’ve actually gotten to Abomination without dcing, so I haven’t had much practice (solo) after the patch. I also tend to duo, which means I don’t have to hold the aggro while I drop Duelists.

One dodge’s distance will not place you close enough to guarantee a max range Duelist that won’t be killed after a Leap.

uh………………..

Mmmm… it’s been a while. Maybe I was just picky at my spot placement. Glad to see I can still improve.

@Esplen, thank you, that’s very helpful!

I realize now that my post reads like I’m only asking about Arah. It’s the only place I’ve tried to any real extent, but it was intended as an open question. Which path in any dungeon would be the best place to start?

Looks like I’ll be giving Arah another shot too regardless

Start with AC Story , CM 3, CM1, SE story (need help of a friend for the Defend Zojja event), CM Story, SE 1 in that order (in my opinion). Eventually CM 2, TA Up, TA Fwd.

I tried CM 3 but got stuck on the way to Vallog, with the enormous amounts of bandits.

It seemed like I would be able to kill a few at a time to grind them down, but it would take a very long time and it was late already.

I haven’t run this path with a group in more than a year, so I don’t remember if there’s a trick to avoiding most of them (other than the first room after the trap corridor by going over them on the ramp.) Anything I’m missing?

Equip PU and chain stealth to avoid them all. Take breaks on safespots to recharge the cooldowns. Oh, and Harpy Feathers

Ok. I tried stealthing but didn’t find any safe spots. Good to know that it’s possible at least – will try again!

CM 3 done! Vallog was a real pushover once I managed to get there.

Thanks for the tips. CM 1 next, then!