Guild Wars 2

I must ask the ranger community – do you find the final fight of “The head of the snake” LS, Caudecus, hard?

The general consensus on the forums seems to be that the the encounter is way to hard, and players die left and right.

I’ve tried it three times by now; ranged kiting, ranged kiting with pet on passive (as in inactive during the whole fight) and melee with sword & dagger, and have yet to die in this fight.
Is it simply a matter of our class carrying us hard through this so that this fight is easy for rangers, or are players simply building too glassy while not mastering their glassy builds (I’m running my lazy “works everywhere” choice – celestial armor with a mix of trinkets)?

The room where the fight takes place leaves a lot to wish for, but other than that, it’s a pretty straightforward fight with easy mechanics. So, what’s the deal here?

My mother killed it post-nerf on her condi ranger without dying once, and that was with her missing half the special action keys.

I killed it on a viper’s necro pre-nerf with only one death. (would have been 0 if shroud hadn’t bugged)

Mother aside the general consensus in my guild is that the post-nerf fight is a total joke now on any class.

Nah, that fight was actually really fun.
I’m about 1/3 zerk, 1/3 marauders, 1/3 commanders with defensive shouts & signets.
I’d have run even glassier for pve, but I don’t feel like making a new set of armor and that one works well enough for the pve content.

~ Kovu

Druid heals did save my butt a couple times in the final room but it wasn’t really that hard.

People are just mostly terrible at the game to be honest. Hell, doing the bloodstone golem events makes me feel like I’m the only one throwing shards at it while everyone else is dying around me to easily avoided damage trying to melee the kitten thing.

It’s not hard to see why many people find it to be “too hard”.

I ran it on my Necro. Honestly, it should be easy regardless of class if you have a ranged weapon. Tough to melee, though.

Substance E.4852:

Druid heals did save my butt a couple times in the final room but it wasn’t really that hard.

People are just mostly terrible at the game to be honest. Hell, doing the bloodstone golem events makes me feel like I’m the only one throwing shards at it while everyone else is dying around me to easily avoided damage trying to melee the kitten thing.

It’s not hard to see why many people find it to be “too hard”.

You can’t heal stupid. :P

nah, our pets dont do squat to Cadicus (too lazy to spell it right) but main ranger are used to hardcore(if you play competitive with druid\ranger), so cadeicus (still lazy) that demands some dodging or kitting rekt idiots.

nothing to do there: the encounter is good, i’d like it harder more raid style. Farmers (what anet call casuals) are used to easy farm hit 1 and this is a change of pace.

i go full zerker and i die if i’m not careful enough. Even to simple trash mobs, however o still find it easy as i should be forced to put some tank in there at least the first times.

And i dont play raids, but a lot of wvw.

I killed it without dying once pre-nerf with my condi druid. Didnt even know till recently that the fight was nerfed but it was hard indeed.

finished the whole story without dying once while running zerk/marauder GS/LB remorse build. You just really have to be in the habit of going in and out of celestial form as often as you can.

Crinn.7864:

My mother killed it post-nerf on her condi ranger without dying once, and that was with her missing half the special action keys.

I killed it on a viper’s necro pre-nerf with only one death. (would have been 0 if shroud hadn’t bugged)

Mother aside the general consensus in my guild is that the post-nerf fight is a total joke now on any class.

Thank you, I think. :/ Yes, as the aforementioned mother, I survived the fight as a condi druid wearing carrion armor. I don’t run full glass as I have a less than optimal internet connection and a joint condition that slows my reflexes a bit. Dedicated casual would best describe me—I love the game but don’t have the time to play and research builds, tips, mechanics, etc. that more serious players do. Therefore, I don’t raid and I don’t do ranked PVP.

This fight was the toughest I’ve done, but oddly the most fun. I quickly realized I needed to keep moving no matter what and keep tossing those bloodstone shards.
And yes, I missed the special skill several times and was downed more than once, but never killed. So he is beatable even if you have a less than perfect fight.

I think having a repair anvil in the main hall with the fireplace would be a great addition, as a lot of people seem to be having trouble and it is a tough fight. And if you have lag issues, running a full glass build is probably not a good idea.

Bring Rampage as One elite skill and Signet of the Wild utility, and Signet of Renewal you’ll thank me later. Also take Healing Spring as it is a very cond iheavy fight.

As your last utility slot you can bring either a glyph to daze to help with CC on Jade Wall when his green bar pops, or you can play safe and take signet of stone or Protect Me.

It’s a fight where you want to take utilities that reduce your damage intake when you’re knocked down or stunbreak you out of those knockdown chains while also protecting yourself from the conditions.

Kill adds quickly, especially the sharpshooters and Jade Wall.

DO NOT TRY TO OUTLAST BY PLAYING PASSIVELY.

You never win the outlasting game in Guild Wars 2, it’s why tanky gear sucks. You will never outheal or successfully turtle incoming damage. You have to kill the mobs before they kill you and not get hit by CC and the special attack skill.

Tanky gear is especially made useless because they put a ton of condition attacks on the boss to make sure toughness gear was rendered useless.

anduriell.6280:

that demands some dodging or kitting rekt idiots.

In my experience, depending on how you play, you don’t have to dodge a single time in this fight.

If you do the running around and range him, you can do that without having to dodge at all. If you go melee you’ll have to be a bit more careful.

The adds are not a problem either, I ignore them completely. If the jade pops, I tend to take it out, but I don’t think that’s really necessary either. Beware of confusion stacks.

I killed him pre-nerf on my full viper condi druid, and I downed several times but didn’t find it unmanageable. Like others have mentioned, I just ran in circles tossing shards to cc, made sure to pop the counter magic every time it showed up, ignored most adds, etc. I also laid down constant burning, bleeding, and poisons so that did a lot of the work for me as I ran nonstop.

I found the fight a ton easier on my condi cancer thief though. Endless evades that simultaneously laid down heavy condi pressure – didn’t even down once, pre-nerf.