Guild Wars 2

In my opinion:
- The idea of speedruns is fine.
- Skipping packs of normal mobs, if possible, also fine.
- Skipping bosses: sketchy terriotory – If presented like Lt. Kholer > Hodgins thats fine,
If exploiting walls and stuff to skip, not fine with that.

Basically any exploitation is what I’m not fine with.
Skipping bosses / Cheap Boss Kills (ala old CoF) via exploitation.

I am sad there are so many unhappy / disappointed feelings towards this jumping puzzle.

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I felt this was THE best jumping puzzle I’ve encountered in the game so far.
It’s the only jumping puzzle that has an emphasis on speed.
The group running gave it a sense of ‘rat race’ where the weak perish and the agile survive.
Along with the speed gave the event a lot more fun than others because I’d often be there alone and just take my time.

True if you die early you have to wait longer than if you survived.
But it’s not that long.

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And peoples complaints about not being able to see their characters I find unfounded.
You can easily know where your character is because your character is in a fixed point on your screen.
Combine that with the maximum jump range you can easily traverse jumps until the mass has fallen to the Rising Goo.

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I just feel if your looking at your character for the need to accurately determine jumps then you’re going too slow anyway.
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- BEST JUMPING PUZZLE SO FAR!
My Run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBa-tJj0Iao

I think having others in there at the same time gives it a sense of ‘rat race’.
Where the weak perish and the speedy race upwards.

I enjoyed it.

I’ve never quite understood peoples issues with the Charr and Norn.
Your character is in a fixed point on your screen, you can determine your position and jump based on that and maximum jump distance.

Besides which when the ‘fat has been trimmed’ there’s only a few that make it up high.

Contrary to opinions in here:

I have found this Jumping Puzzle to be the best in the game!
It’s the only one I’ve encountered that has an emphasis on speed which I thoroughly enjoyed.
It’s true if you fall off very soon you’ll be waiting longer than if you survived longer but it’s not that long.

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I thought the design of the puzzle was Great and I applaud the creator.

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The fact that you can’t see your character at the early stage isn’t so bad as you can easily jump around because your character is in a fixed position on the screen, judging your jump becomes second nature based on the max distance of jumps.
(Asura here)
And besides as soon as the ‘fat has been trimmed’ you’re left with only a few players making it up high.

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Speed buffs!? Pahh, you’re a fool if you think they’re gonna help you.
Firstly you DO NOT need them to complete it.
Secondly they’ll make you go faster so it makes all your jumps harder, as jumps are often built around maximum jump distances.

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Please stop your moaning, challenge is a good thing.
Otherwise you’d have just done it and forgot it….

I do Dungeon Guides and I can’t wait to have a go at it.
But the gate seems to always be bugged so I’m finding it hard to get in…

Here’s my Dungeon Guide for CoE – Exploration – All Routes.

http://youtu.be/VPXBCPyfqgY

Hi there,
I’m KingBlackToof and I’ve been doing Dungeon Guides for several of the dungeons now, I’m going to put them all into one thread.
I try to put as much effort into them as possible and I hope it shows.
I hope you find them interesting, clear and useful.

Ascalonian Catacombs – Exploration – All Routes
http://youtu.be/apShme6FWg8

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Twilight Arbor – Exploration – All Routes
http://youtu.be/L_FV3bTFf3s

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Caudecus’s Manor – Exploration – All Routes
http://youtu.be/nQ3AWAb3_pU

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ADDED
Crucible of Eternity – Exploration – All Routes
http://youtu.be/VPXBCPyfqgY

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CoE is probably my favourite dungeon so far, closely followed by Ascalonian Catacombs.

Next Up – The Ruined City of Arah

Thanks for watching.
Feedback is always appreciated.

I don’t know if it’s worth putting a video here just for Subject Alpha.
I made a quick and easy guide to him. Hope it helps clear any trouble for people.

Slithan.4380:

It actually takes longer to cast this than it does to res someone up. Can you say worthless?

I think the only reason it’s good for something is to ress someone from ranged now, so you don’t risk getting downed yourself.

Ressing 3 allies with Earth sounds good but is highly unlikely to have 3 allies downed at the same time.

I agree, it’s pretty much useless now for me.
Here’s hoping they’d change it back sometime.

On a second thought, the removal of this aspect would probably remove a lot of hassle involving exploitations involving moving NPC’s with Air Teleport and stuff.

Which I’m all for. But still

So, The latest patch update has changed one of my most favourite Utility Skills – Glyph of Renewal.

It now, no longer resses Fully Dead Allies!

That’s such a painful nerf to the glyph (Or bug removal if you see it as that.)
I personally thought it was a great addition to prolong team fights that made a mistake, the fact it seems to take 3-4 seconds to cast itself means it wasn’t the easiest thing to catch them whilst down anyway.

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It allowed for a team member/s to return to the fight if they get 1 shotted by say – Subject Alpha AoE (Which Downs and Kills) without the running.
Usually usable only once in a fight, Unless the fight took ages for large health reasons.

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3 downed allies for Earth spec will happen occasionally, quite rare though.
I see it being changed from a permanent spot on my Utilities to a Temporary one now.
As a support role Elementalist, It was invaluable to me and my teammates.
I’m sad to see it gone.

How do you feel about the change?

Hi there,
I’m currently looking for a Dungeon running Guild myself.
I make Exploration Mode Guides and am finding it hard to get groups, let alone one that know how to play or don’t exploit.
See here for examples:
AC-Exploration: http://youtu.be/apShme6FWg8
TA-Exploration: http://youtu.be/L_FV3bTFf3s

Anyway, I’m currently on Piken Square, I’ll transfer if I can join on in on the ‘chillin’ ’

Lvl 80 Elementalist.
Active.
I’m serious about dungeons but not in a mardy, girl scream whining way, I prefer to enjoy my trek through dungeons having a laugh. I’m serious about keeping you alive Dawg!

I agree with the poster above me ‘Tetsuo’

It does seem more like 5 individual players (with the exception of downed) most of the time.
And people who think ‘Holy Trinity’ was brainless are ignorant.
It’s not just about:
- Grab Aggro and soak up dmg.
- Heal tank
- Kill boss.

The tank had many other tasks such as:
- Positioning the boss (Back towards group),
- Kiting the boss (Away from AoE for example),
- Switching aggro to different tanks,
- Keeping aggro (Which used to be an issue in PUGs but not now it seems).

And thats not to mention any unique boss mechanics that would involve timing, movement co-operation etc.
Healers would have to he the tank and the party which the right heal for the job whilst micromanaging his mana. Also watching his movements.
Even in ‘Holy Trinity’ games people moan when it’s just tank and spank.

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I’m not saying we should have a ‘Holy Trinity’ in this game though, but there’s no need to jump people who like that more stable / controllable mechanic.

I feel you could get similar results within this system if the bosses were designed with it in mind slightly better.

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I’ll use Kasha from AC-Story as an example again:
Avoid rings and kill VERY weak adds before she steals health (Which seems so small anyway)

Instead they should have made the mobs silver so they’re hard to kill, and when she begins stealing their health with the beams, the mobs should walk around the room in a circle.
The beams should be deadly, even to dodge, and this would cause the beams to rotate and the players would have to kill the mobs whilst running around to avoid the beams.

My main point here is to bring GW2’s main mechanics into view (IE: running whilst fighting) in a controlled way that isn’t run away from mobs and CC them even if the bosses don’t like being CC’d due to their defiant buff. ( 1 in 5 CC gets through)

Draeka.5941:

I actually enjoy not having healers, and you can actually tank in this game. It’s just not really advised most of the time, but by utilizing the proper skills and combo fields, you can easily faceroll many a boss. Remember, the chaotic nature will arise from people not communicating their build. I know that before every fight I make sure everyone knows what I’m using (utility-wise), and a general idea of the fight.

I’ll be honest, I find the static bosses the most fun.

Even the bosses where you CC them around I don’t find particularly engaging.
Or the point of CC’ing them isn’t an interesting part of it, I enjoyed Kholer pull dodging.

I prefer bosses that do definable 1 shots that are telegraphed, I kinda wish the dodge wasn’t so invincible and downed states are in. Because I feel that’s a reason why things can’t be so do things ‘100% right or die.’

I’m going to join you and bear my neck ready for biting.

I also think World of Warcraft does a good job in boss design.
I think some bosses have elements of good design, some are great!
For example last boss in CoF – Story was really fun.

Pretty much all the bosses in CoF – Story were good to me.

But if we took Kasha in AC-Story for the other side.
Dodge the red circles and kill adds which die too easily.
(She steals helath from them in a beam, it’d be a lot better if the beam were deadly, the adds took a lot more to die and they walked in a circle, so the beams rotated.
Effectively making you move and kill the adds)

Just my thoughts.

It’s not impossible, I PUG’ed it.

We were on that bit for about 30 minutes. The communication wasn’t hard it was killing the mobs at the same time so we were all free at the same time which kept catching us out.

Hi,
I was going through TA Exp and someone ordered us to follow what they do when the Boss Nightmare Vine appears.
This prevents the boss from hitting you, even with the spit and you can attack it until it’s dead.

Method
There's a ramp on the left hand side of the section with some rocks that give you a higher position overlooking the Nightmare Vines. If you walk backwards so you're touching the wall instead of on the ledge, the nightmare vines can't reach you, and they were able to attack it still.

I had a little moan at them and left the party.
(I’m very Anti-Exploit – Sorry to others who feel differently.)

Not to be a ninja or anything but wouldn’t video more like this be considered more ‘Video Guides’?

Twilight Arbor – Exploration
http://youtu.be/L_FV3bTFf3s

Ascalonian Catacombs – Exploration
http://youtu.be/apShme6FWg8

Just saying, If you want these links removed just ask and I will edit my post.

Umm you mean the door to the instance?
You need to escort a guy called Razen from Liberation Hold to the gates and fight for control of the bridge to open the door.

This isn’t a bug…

Although how to get him to start, I’m unsure, although I’m never usually waiting for more than 5 minutes.

@ Lutinz + @ Kopipoki

Thanks for your feedback on that matter, It’s very useful to me.
I’ve been weighing things and I believe I am from the other camp.
I will be arguing FOR gear progression in the next week with a serious video on the matter.

I will be delving into it very deeply and taking all points into consideration.
I look forward to your opinions on my solutions.
I know it will cause some knee jerk backlash but I’m hoping people will take the time to take the points into account.

Cheers

Haha, The same thing happened to me.
I was in TA Exp for the 7th time and this group decided to run past 3 of the worms that pop up just before the spiders prior to Fyonna.

I was a little dumbfounded by the decision to skip these pesky guys and realised they must be ‘speed running’ it. So I ran past them too and engaged the spiders after.
But we were still getting pelted by these in the back.

A couple of them died and found it hard to get back so we had to go back and kill these worms anyway.

Time saved: -5 minutes haha.

@Kopipoki

Can I ask why you’re against Gear progression.
I am very interested to know your point of view on the matter please.
Cheers.

http://youtu.be/apShme6FWg8

From what I understand it’s an absolutely huge 180 degree semi circle from his face.
Max range, stay to his back or dodge behind him I think we’re the intended solutions.

Aristio.2784:

I have a problem with raids, and I don’t think it would fit.

5 mans are the perfect combination of challenge being conquered by teamwork. The problem with “raids” designed for 15+ people is that these encounters were based around one solid, always true, fact. Tank/Healer

One, two, maybe three tanks would hold the attention of the giant instanced dragon, while two or three other healers would heal them. This is not true in this game.

I do agree with you on that point but disagree overall.
I’ve been giving raids / dungeons and content a LOT of thought over the past few weeks.

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I think you’d want to keep the numbers down, 8 or 10 people seems right. (25 man would seems a lot to zergy for co-ordinated mechanics imo)

Whereas fighting a single dragon with 3 tanks and 3 healers and DPS isn’t going to work you would have to adapt the raids to fit guild wars 2 system.

Some simple examples:

Boss 1:
Two platforms each with a Boss on. The raid splits into 2 teams of … 5 say and targets a boss each.
The players get a large damaging debuff from their boss which makes them have to switch bosses every now to remove it.

Boss 2:
A single large chained up dragon fights a group of 10 players.
Occasionally the dragon would summon minions in the corners of the room which extend the chains, giving the dragon his full strength.
Players must split apart and defeat the minions in each corner and activate the Interactive item to pull the chains back up.

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It’s basically about co-ordination between a large group of players.
I think they could work well if designed well.

They’d have to keep the bosses from being a complete uncontrollable mess.
The examples I gave would be stationary bosses.

I understand what you mean, sometimes on Lieutenant Kholer it was really hard to see if he was charging his ‘Pull’ move because there was so many spell effects and pets attacking him.
(No thanks to me as Elementalist using all my AoE)

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Although I try to refrain from referencing World of Warcraft as much as I can, The bosses in that game are Obscenely large, this does have the added positive that you can see when he’s doing a unique animation with ease.
I understand it doesn’t make sense in this more realistic game.
But Collossus Rumblus is quite big and is quite easier to see. (It seems to work well on ‘creature’ bosses as they can be scaled without ruining immersion.)

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You could always give smaller human bosses audio cue’s, but taking Kholer as an example here, that would probably nullify the challenge of that part perhaps?
You hear: “Get over here!” :P
And you’d know what was going to happen.

However!
I don’t know if anyone’s fought the boss ‘Shade of Aran’ in World of Warcrafts ‘Karazhan’?
He has audio cues for all his moves (Granted he has about 4-5 unique devastating moves)
But that fight was very fun.

…Master Ranger Nente in AC-Story has audio cue’s for his teleport to and from the platfrom.

I’m just really ‘into’ trying to solve issues people have with GW2.

matjazmuhic.1649:

I don’t like the idea that much. No offense. What I do like is the timer-reward idea.

I would really like to se something like in gw1 factions where that competitive missions had the name of the group (guild, alliance? Can’t remember) of the team that completed it the fastest. The name appeared when you clicked on the outpost.

They could do the same when you enter the dungeon. A popup of somekind (notice) to show you tkittenest times and the names of the people maybe. Or maybe just 1st best time.

You’d have to be careful about this, You know some team will get the fastest time by using glitches and exploits.

On the point of the Tower of Bosses.
Sounds good but probably not good in practice:
- You’ll focus everyones attention on the tower because it’s easier than running other dungeons.
- Token count would be seemingly giant compared to other dungeons, or scaled so low (Nearly 2 per boss) that it might not be worth doing.
- Bosses take quite a while to create: code, balanace, vary etc. That it’s not a very useful use of ANet’s time to make 25 bosses and lump them in 1 tower.
- There would seemingly be no story or ‘emotion’ behind these bosses.

Now don’t get me wrong, I DO like the idea.
You’d want to make it so if the team dies once on any given boss, they have to start over. So they only get 1 shot.
This would stop it being a cake-walk and you’ll hopefully find players progressively reach higher levels as the knowledge of the bosses become more well known.

The most feasible way is to put in bosses already in the game, since it’s less work on manufacturing new ones and it tests your real ability to do the content.
But it’d also be a bit boring knowing that you’ve likely faced them all before anyway.

But, my honest opinion, is that it’s not the way it’s going to happen.

I’d also like to say that I’m on standby if you’ve got any questions.
Don’t hesitate to message me here or on my channel or wherever.

Hi Belak,

I was in a similar position when I first started dungeons in this game.
I remember clearly uttering to myself “That’s impossible!” & “What the mega-f***” haha.
Exploration Mode just gets harder. But I like it.

Although it’s not necessary, It helps to know bosses before hand. (Coming from a WoW background yourself, it’s usually standard that you learn bosses before doing them, well at least with raid ones.)
Not that I want to self-advertise but I have done some Dungeon Guides for Exploration mode which is useful to watch. If you don’t want it spoilt watch it to find out which is the easiest route so that you can ‘ease’ yourself to it, aswell as trash priority.
Youtube: KingBlackToof
Although I say it’s not necessary as I went blind into Twilight Arbor – Exploration and came out as winner and a MAN!

Here are some areas to consider:

- Trash mobs in this game are hard, they can kill you pretty easily, it’s definitely a case priority order.

- Do talk to your group about what they experienced during a boss fight to better understand it, if you fail. Providing your figuring it out for yourself.

- There might be some boss special moves that are hard to spot. (Since you’ve done 2 Story modes, I imagine 1 was Ascalonian Catacombs? Well we died a lot against King Adelbern due to his FoeFire rings, being hard to spot on the light blue floor.)

- Do be flexible with your Utility skills, make sure your party is too.
Don’t go all damage skills, have a condition removal skill on your bar at all times.
Maybe a CC skill and I like to have a reviving skill as well.
(As Elementalist – Glyph of Renewal: 3 second cast (Whilst moving) in Earth attunement revives 3 allies! AND revives them from Real Complete DEATH!!!)
It’s Amazingly useful.

Hey,
I’m aware that there have been textual guides on how to do this dungeon and possibly video guides aswell.
Well I made one too, I put a lot of effort into it and I hope it shows in both quality and clarity.

Story Mode
http://youtu.be/8OBCsNQYXqs

Exploration Mode
http://youtu.be/apShme6FWg8

Thanks,
KingBlackToof

I had this issue.
A group of 5 of us were running Ascalonian Catacombs – Exploration Mode.
We were on the Howling King Route and were on the missing scepter fragments event before the Final Boss.

2 People left the party, because they had to go.
(We kicked them, they didn’t use ‘Leave Party’)

3 of us left. 2 remained inside, I went outside the instance to LF2M.
I got 2 players and when we entered we were in a brand new instance. Seperate from the other 2 I was with before hand. Even though we were all 1 group.

We tried leaving the instance and returning, Leaving the group and returning and Reloging. And all combinations within.

Thanks for your time.