Guild Wars 2

Well, I must confess I’ve run path 1 a few times with success now. Is it “hard”? Yeah, I definitely have to pay attention, and the entire group did wipe a time or two, but it’s definitely doable. I’ll also say the groups I ran with had at least 3 80’s in them as well. I was happy to help how I could, continue learning about how my profession works in group play, and be along for the ride.

All in all, I like for dungeons to be challenging like this, but I do think it’s weird that the lowest level dungeon in the game is this challenging. But yeah, if Explorable mode is intended by ANet as the highest level of PvE content, then I can’t complain about it. As long as I understand that is their intention I’m fine with this dungeon, and have plans to conquer the other 2 paths.

Jamais vu.5284:

I’m a casual player and I love the new difficulty. The notion that casual = averse to difficulty or unskilled needs to die.

Also keep in mind explorables were supposed to be the “elite” content. Story mode, with all it’s issues and feel of being kinda neglected, was to be the beginner difficulty for dungeons, even at the lower levels.

If ANet’s intention is for Explorable Mode to be considered elite content, I can get on board with that. I’m totally fine with continuing in story mode dungeons. I’m thinking I will be sticking to story mode with PUG’s, and maybe only try explorable with guildies.

That said, is it true that ANet’s intention is that Explorable Mode is considered “elite content”? What does that mean, exactly?

Hello,

I am by no means an advanced player. I am a “new” or “inexperienced” player. My highest lvl toon is a 50 necromancer. Three nights ago, I ran through AC Story with a random group and had a great time. I think we had 2 80’s, and I was on my necro (lvl 44 at the time). It was a lot of fun.

Last night, I decided to try getting a group together. Our group consisted of a lvl 80 warrior, a 69 guardian, myself (49 necro), a 49 ranger, and a 39(?) mesmer from my guild. Three or four of us had only been in AC once or twice (myself included). 2 of us had never done an Explorable mode dungeon (myself included).

So we did Explorable mode, and picked path 3, not knowing the difference (we’re normal, inexperienced players, just wanting to experience the game). We never made it past the room with the respawning graveling burrows, where you have to protect the two collector thingies.

We wiped about 5 times on the Spider Queen, and once or twice in between her and the room we never got past. We wiped several times in the respawning graveling burrows part, trying several different strategies.

We ended up just giving up. Everyone had a good attitude, and we were working together to come up with different ideas about how to beat it, and just couldn’t do it (probably about 2 hours spent). We just decided to disband, and we were all on good terms with each other.

My point is, I don’t see how the new AC Explorable Mode is a good starting out dungeon for newer/inexperienced players trying to get their feet wet in the world of the GW2 dungeon experience. Do I think we had an “advanced” player in our group? Probably not. Do I think we had a bunch of noobs that didn’t know anything? Nope. Could we have ended up beating it if we kept trying? Honestly, probably not last night. Maybe if we kept regrouping over a few nights we could, if we tried respecs, and optimizing our gear/spec according to what the new AC Exp calls for.

But is that what the new AC Exp should be? Personally, I think a random group of inexperienced to moderately experienced players that are actively communicating and having good attitudes should be able to beat the first dungeon in an MMO. Just didn’t happen for us last night.

Just some food for thought from me. Thanks for reading!