Guild Wars 2

I don’t understand it. I’m usually a great gamer. However, with this game, I feel like I’m horrible in dungeons. I constantly die from AOE, casters, traps, etc.

With AOE, I feel like I’m dodging every single time it’s up (which is quite often since I have the endurance on crit trait) and I still get hit with stuff that two shots me. Not to mention how hard it is to see those thin red circles in certain places. It guarantees a death for me.

Traps are my worst enemy. I’ll time it perfectly so they only activate after I’ve passed them and they still get me. It seems people get through these easily with movement boosting abilities but what do we have? Oh yeah, Blink, on a 30 second cooldown.

I was just in AC EXP path 2 and I died 5 times trying to get through those trap hallways, and I died multiple times during trash and boss fights, even when I was dodging and avoiding things like they were on fire. Eventually, people started calling me out for being a “baddie” and a “lowbie” (I was 43). We finally finished path 2 and the leader asked if we wanted to do path 3, so we agreed, but then guess what? I was kicked. That was the first time I’ve ever been kicked from a group for my (lack of) skill in any game.

Really, what am I doing wrong? It’s frustrating beyond belief soloing groups of veterans easily out in the world, but then getting into a dungeon and being roflstomped. Any advice?

Like any PvE dungeon skill is important but knowing the dungeon is equally if not more important. (IE boss abilities, trap locations, and mob spawn points.)

Traps have static spawn points. Once you know where the traps can be it becomes much easier. Also the trapped halls in AC2 (and just about all dungeons) are not races, stay calm, watch where the traps spawn, and look for the timing. There is always a way through if you keep a level head.

As far as getting hit by Bosses, it just takes practice to learn their abilities and dangers. All players, no matter skill level, will get hit sometimes, the RNG will own us all now and again. The trick is to go into the encounter armed with knowledge of what the boss can do and minimize the chances of getting stuck in these bad situations.

Group kicked- Your group should have known up front, by bringing a lower level character, your production or dungeon specific knowledge could be less than an 80. I frequently allow non-max characters in group if they need it. Keep in mind though, bring lower level party members usually equates to bringing less production of the group as a whole (compared to bringing an 80).
So while I understand why they might have kicked you … I greatly disagree with the way they handled the situation. Some explores take higher damage and/or group knowledge to clear. IMHO AC 3 takes more than AC 2-1.
The point is the abuse you received from them as “baddie” and the “kick” should have been handled better. Unfortunately allot of PUG groups have 1-3 of these net-bullies in them. My best advice to counter this is to find some friends or a guild with like interests and have some fun.

In a nut shell just take your time, keep a cool head, and practice the dungeons. You’ll get better as you become more comfortable with said dungeon.

Hi mate

Was about to give you an answer but then read Mortayas post and felt I dont have alot to add exept that im keep getting impressed by how lovely and helpfull the mesmer community are. Ppl like you Mor is as good reason to pay the class as ever. Then the fact mesmers are the most flexible and fun profession in any mmo I played help aswell.

If I add anything to the help you got infinitims then I add that I keep find shatter number 4 the immune to dmg, to be a life saver. especialy cmbined with al shatters reset at 50%.

Also bring friends as Mor say, I spent a full evening wipe in Nightmare instance with my guild on a beer and instance evening, mabye the most fun I had in any instance. To do a new instance with a guild or friends give you room for mistakes and time to learn without stress.

Ps hope ppl someday understand to treat new players with a little more respect. Just think back on your own misstakes…

even I do

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=plcp&v=4p4ykqYhnIg

/ hide in shadows Osicat

A suggestion when dealing with netidiots in GW2 (and quite possibly the only use for achievement points in the game)

If you’ve been playing a while, odds are you have more achievement points than most of the people you run into, or at the very least, enough to show you’ve been playing the game long enough to at least know how to tie your shoes (TRICK QUESTION! You can’t tie your shoes in GW2)

So when someone starts ragging on you about not being level 80, simply tell them to mouse over and check your points. Or make your mom jokes about them. Really, you can go either way in that situation.

That said, I’m pretty sure everyone has died in either the spiky hallway or the flame staircase in AC at least once. And once you get killed once, it seems to just keep happening in that run. I tend to make really snarky comments about tripping over my shoelaces (cuz I can’t tie them) which means while I might be slowing down the group, at least I’m entertaining them.

I find that my mesmer survives the best in dungeons out of all my characters rofl! Mesmers have some great survivability but they are very niche. Rather than just about your skill its more of ur play style whether you can operate in a way where the mesmer is super effecitve in ur dungeon situation.

Mesmers have a ton of utilities to get out of tricky situations, decoys, blinks, are all super important. I even been running sword lately and been jumping in and out of melee no problem, blurred frenzy can be used defensively even bc u get invulnerability. so you have blink, two dodges, if u run with a staff, a phase retreat and blurred frenzy to stay out of danger. you could even distort shatter if you have the instincts for that. I even have a sigil on my sword/focus for pve that gives me 50% endurance back on weapon swap, so i get my dodge back.

As you know mesmer is a kitey class and jumping in and out like a ninja kinda style, so even when not dodging like you said i’m strafing left and right, making circles and stuff, just kinda keep moving, you’ll practically dodge most of the damage just from walking around so things miss u or ur not in it for long.

for traps, everyone gets killed in them… all classes. lol i’ve seen teammates go down. all classes. i practiced enough to get the rhythm/timing. with sword focus i have swiftness to run thru half of it, and then blink the last half. i’m also traited for farther manipulation skill so i have a blink with a range that i actually instinctively expect.

AC and all dungeons including Arah explore and yes lupicus has been easy with mesmer for me. Of course the group is so important. the group needs to know the dungeon well and knows all the shortcuts or easy spots to go, what mobs to ignore, which targets to focus on etc.

AC has been tough on any class tho if u run it with an appropriate level like lvl 30-40, so i think deaths with that level is expected.

Part of it could be because you’re still not at 80, we are a profession that shines as we gain more trait points. I would suggest your play-style is not terribly bad if you’re able to solo veterans! Those trap hallways in AC are pretty tough actually, I’ve done a lot of dungeons / fractals and finally decided to try AC last week – they got me too, so did some of the bosses and I’m wearing full exotics. Ignore the mean people as best as you can, I find that they’re the exception and not the rule when it comes to this game. Add me in game if you want to talk about mesmers at all and I’ll share what I know!

Mesmers are solid in dungeons, I just solo’d the Ascalonian Fractal at difficulty 16 without skipping anything because I was bored. I doubt you will see alot of classes saying that without skipping content. Just keep learning you will get better and better at it.

Mesmers are great support in dungeons. We have a lot of utility skills that shut down enemies like feedback and null field on enemies/bosses that buff themselves (arcane thievery is also great for stealing huge might stacks). Portal can be used to bypass segments and chaos storm can grant aegis. Clones are also good because dungeon mobs do so much damage even if a clone only absorbs one hit its still useful.

All that being said one person doesn’t make the team. If you have a bad team, even if you are all lv80 you can fail a dungeon (though you’ll still have an easier time at 80). My advice would just find a group that knows the dungeon and can teach you.

may I ask you, what weapons are you using?

first of all, i think you are not THAT good at this game yet, but you do want to get better which is great.

AC bosses are quite easy, but you gotta know them to succed, for example using staff vs Kholer will make your life so much easier!! got pulled? BAM! Chaos armor + Phase retreat = you are alive and got some boons and a clone up.

the last boss from path 3, has a little trick with the falling rocks, if you see that a rock fell, go stand there cause no rocks will fall in that same place for a while, so you can move from point to point and completelly avoid that attack, also allways stay behind the boss, ALWAYS

and that’s all! as for other dingeons you just gotta learn the mechanics, think fast, try to adapt to diferent situations and comunicate with your team!! that way you wont fail as much.

hmmm i don’t know what else i can tell you, oh! avoid glass cannon builds, they are not that good, the dps diference is NOT that big… what else…

well i think that’s it, in my experience I tend to be the last man standing when my team wipes, just keep going, you will eventually get the hang off the class, dont mind if you cross paths with kitten groups, getting into a guild is a nice way to avoid them

As a mesmer take advantage of distortion and utilities such as decoy/blink

One thing you can do is be sure to tell people it’s your first run or that you’re inexperienced with the dungeon. I will repeat that I’m a newbie for a particular dungeon over and over until it sinks in that if they go racing through things without explaining what they need me to do, I’m likely to end up not doing it.

If they say they want to go fast, just bow out and wait for another group. Don’t feel bad about it. You’re just not a good fit for each other. If they do take you, don’t let them rush you. Tell them you need time and detailed instructions. “Come here” and “Run through this” for instance are horrible instructions.

Conversely, one of the things I dislike a LOT is when someone just silently pretends to know a dungeon well and joins a group where everyone (including me) knows every little nuance of speed-running through it. If the player had just let us know, we could have taken some time to educate them and gone slow enough to let them see what to do or simply passed on inviting and waited for another experienced player.

I run with some people that can be extremely impatient at times, though. I see this more and more in GW2. It really is not anywhere near enough to simply blurt a terse order and dash off when you have a newbie with you. It’s even more counterproductive to blame the newbie for not understanding your incomplete instruction. You really have to take a LOT of time to let the new person look around at things and internalize what you described.

Patience with new folks pays off hugely in a smooth run, a player that feels good about what they just did, and who can now start thinking about how to do things faster next time.

AC exp is rough at 42, a lot of 80’s still die a lot. helps to have a support tank or ele etc in the group. I tend to suck at traps (more so the balls in cof and lasers in coe etc) , so I use the trait for longer manipulation skills, i can blink right up that trap hallway and up those stairs with the flames

I can’t kill lupicus as mesmer, but can kite it nearly indefinitely as elementalist. Don’t know why.
:C