Guild Wars 2

Hey, a lot of posts, awesome. Let me take care of those questions:

dmt.3490:

Also, why did you decide to not do story mode guides? Did you think they were too easy?

Ehhhh, I wouldn’t say “too easy.” I’m not a fan of blaming someone for not happening to have already played a ton of MMOs and have the reflexes, etc. I just thought that explorable mode guides would provide more help to more people.

There’s also the fact that most people tend to run story modes only a handful of times per character, whereas explorables get farmed, so even smaller optimizations are useful there.

Svarty.8019:

This fell off the front page. I would like to use this bump to thank all of the people involved in the expertly crafted and wonderfully informative videos. You have produced a beautiful piece of work.

Just me, actually. Well, me, a lot of ice water, and about twenty cans of various sodas once I hit crunch time on a particular video. I wonder if they’d consider a sponsorship deal…

shaktiboi.5194:

Heartfelt thanks for the hard work I know it takes to produce guides of this caliber. I know it can be easy to get burnt out on such work, and that doing such work for the community is a labor of love. Just know that it’s work like this that can make the difference in helping entire guilds either enjoy and be successful at dungeons, or deciding internally that “dungeons suck in this game and aren’t worth bothering with”.

Thanks, I appreciate it. These videos (my first one especially, for AC) are basically giant holes that I throw days of my time into with little clue about how much good it will or won’t do. It’s only productive if people watch it and use it, so posts like these show me that, yes, folks out there in the GW2-verse are benefiting and having a better time. Cheers.

LNCXerro.9513:

Hey Kethas, do you mind sharing your spec with me?

http://www.gw2builds.org/create/bwe_1/guardian#0.0.2.0-3.7.18.16.2-30.25.5.0.10-3.2.11.2.1.6

I use a combination of that and a (mostly) power/precis/conddamage/MF set. The thinking goes something like this:

• I can improve my survivability by better play, knowing mechanics, dodging correctly, etc. It’s much harder to improve damage.
• Any time I am NOT aggro’d, I want to be in a glasscannon build.
• Any time I am NOT in an instance, I want to be in a glasscannon build.

My current set is probably too far towards glass cannon, though. I did the tons of AC runs to prep for the video back when DR was bugged, so I was shortchanged 300+ tokens and only bought one Power/Tough/Vit piece (the chest). I have, I think, FOUR pieces of Power/Precis/Conddamage CM gear + a greatsword.

Nyte.9457:

So…is there a point to max level?

At 80 you unlock the last three explorable mode dungeons. In terms of PvE, if you enjoy dungeons, there’s your answer. If you’d prefer challenging large-scale PvE (read “raids”) then no, there’s no point.

Jia Shen.4217:

stuff

You are conflating “challenging PvE content that involves more than five people” with “boring grind.” It is possible to have one without the other.

Hi, Lambros. It’d help us help you if you could be more specific about what exactly is causing your party problems. Which enemies, exactly, are oneshotting you? Is it keeping the party as a whole from progressing, or is your frustration that you keep dying?

If it would help, I recently finished a CM explorable video guide – the forum thread is linked in my sig. I’d be happy to answer questions, too. 99% of my dungeon runs are with pugs, so don’t worry – if I can do it, you probably can too. It’s just a matter of knowing how to handle the instance.

It’s possible you’re being oneshot by the “Bandit Rifleman” enemies. They have a sniping attack where they kneel, take aim at you, pause for a second or so, and then shoot, dealing massive damage (and likely oneshotting you) IF you’re moving when the shot connects. You can tell when you’re being targeted by Snipe because a flashing red reticle will show up at your feet.

ThunderStorm.3140:

Instead of telling me to play better (you don’t even know me or how we tried this part so many times), tell me how YOU do it. If you want to help.

I do very much want to help.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Explorable-Mode-Video-Guides-Wiping-is-Overrated/

That’s a link to my guide thread, which includes a 45 minute in-depth video guide to Ascalonian Catacombs explorable. Take a look, and if you still have questions, I’d be happy to answer them.

Other posters have already covered the most likely cause of being being “twoshot” by “some gravelings” (Graveling Scavengers’ pounce-and-chew; slot stability) and missing burrows (this is definitely a bug that should be fixed, but keeping your character moving will fix the problem 90% of the time).

It’d help to know exactly where your party is breaking down and having trouble progressing, though.

Edit: I accidentally a word

I cover the door event pretty thoroughly in my video guide:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Explorable-Mode-Video-Guides-Wiping-is-Overrated/

Quick summary:

• You can have your entire party grab kegs without aggro’ing the bandits, before you actually dash to the door. That’ll save you 2-3 seconds, and time is critical.
• If you simply have everyone run straight for the door, even if you all make the run safely, bandits will be on you 1-2 seconds after you arrive. Instead, have one player drop a keg ~20ft from the farthest-out bandit as everyone else starts running, and then pick up a replacement keg along the way. All of the bandits will run to where you dropped the keg before pursuing, meaning you have 5-6 seconds at the door instead of 1-2.
• The Guardian skill Sanctuary can give you six free seconds at the door, which is kind of a big deal. Another game-changing ability is the Ranger elite Entangle, which can root all of the bandits for 20 seconds.
• The circles are very finicky about whether a barrel is “inside” them or not. Be sure to stand directly in the center before dropping your keg.
• If you screw up somehow, it’s probably best to just run out and reset the event.

Hope that helps.

Regarding the door event on CM exp, Seraph path: a Ranger friend pointed out the Ranger elite Entangle, which can root all the bandits for 20 seconds. If you have a Ranger in your party, the event should be trivial.

Hi folks. A couple weeks ago I released an Ascalonian Catacombs video guide that was well received. I just finished the next one, covering Caudecus’s Manor, and I’ll be doing an entire series covering all eight dungeons.

These aren’t just recorded dungeon runs with accompanying voice chatter. These are edited, narrated strategy guides that lay out for you how the dungeon works and how you can best defeat it, and many (many!) hours go into each one. I know how frustrating it can be when a dungeon party just isn’t working out, and making sure you have the knowledge you need to succeed and have fun is the entire reason I’m making these. I hope you find them useful.

Ascalonian Catacombs (full video)

Hodgins’s Path (link)

• The six burrows in the first event on this path are not equivalent; they form two spawn chains of three burrows each. By killing the correct three burrows first, you can get down to one active burrow, and cut down the graveling spawns, earlier.

Detha’s Path (link)

• Do not revive Detha mid-combat during the waves of Ascalonian ghosts. A new wave spawns whenever Detha starts or resumes repairs on a mortar; revive her with a wave up and you could be facing a double spawn.

Tzark’s Path (link)

• Unlike the Howling King, Colossus Rumblus has a fixed order to his abilities. He alternates between the rockfall and his scream, and will use at most two abilities before burrowing. Use this to know when you can move about freely and when you need to focus on staying behind him.

Caudecus’s Manor (full video)

Asura Path (link)

• For Gunpowder Morgan, have four party members dash across the barn and up to where the adds spawn while a fifth stays in the cutscene. When his cutscene ends, you’re already in melee and can kill them before the ranged damage becomes an issue.

Seraph Path (link)

• For the door event, have the party grab kegs without aggro’ing, then stack right outside aggro range and count down + pop Swiftness. One player drops their keg (which makes all the bandits run to where the keg was dropped), grabs a new keg, and runs to the door. The other four simply dash to the door and place their kegs. Area knockbacks and Guardian wards+Sanctuary can buy you more time.

Butler Path (link)

• The traps in the corridor after Wahlen don’t activate until Wahlen dies, and they’re deactivated by getting far enough into the next room, not killing the bandit trio there. Just park a guy next to the door before Wahlen dies, then have him cancel the cutscene, dodge/Aegis/Blind the bandits, jump onto the rock face, and run ten feet along the ramp to disable the traps.

A Twilight Arbor guide is next on my agenda. Safe travels in Tyria.

Wolfgang, I’d encourage you to check out the AC explorable guide in my sig. Most of the “guides” so far are just people recording and uploading their full dungeon run; I’ve actually edited together a strategy guide that will tell you the bosses’ abilities, show you strategies to defeat them, etc. I hope you find it useful.

I’m currently about 60% done with the Caudecus’s Manor guide; it should be up in a couple days.

Ehhhhh… yeah, if you’re saying AC is harder than Arah/CoF I’m guessing this is probably a troll post too. In case you’re serious and you’re really having trouble with AC explorable, then you’d almost certainly benefit from taking a look at a guide video – you’re probably having problems that are common/serious enough that they’re covered. (May I humbly suggest the one in my sig?)

If you’re still having trouble, or if it doesn’t answer your problem, post again – with SPECIFIC things that are going wrong, or specific points at which the group seems to break down – and we can help.

Either way, best of luck to you.

Are cross-server groups supposed to be able to do dungeons together? I’ve had a couple people from offserver ask to join groups. /invite and /join work just fine, as does party chat, but when the party zones into a dungeon anyone not from my server ends up in a different instance.

After ~five minutes googling I can’t find anything authoritative – the wiki doesn’t seem to specify whether this functionality exists, and the only relevant Google hit is this post that goes unanswered, the rest being chatter about a possible cross-server LFG channel (so I’m guessing cross-server groups are supposed to work, but with free transfers that’s not a given).

TLDR:

1) Are cross-server dungeon groups supposed to work?
2) If so, are they actually working?
3) If they’re bugged, do we know anything about the status of a fix?
4) If they’re bugged, do we know any workarounds?

Thanks.

If one of the paths in AC explorable is really you/your group more than an hour, then you’d almost certainly benefit from taking a look at a guide video – you’re probably having problems that are common/serious enough that they’re covered. (May I humbly suggest the one in my sig?)

If you’re still having trouble, or if it doesn’t answer your problem, post again – with SPECIFIC things that are going wrong, or specific points at which the group seems to break down – and we can help.

Either way, best of luck to you.

Ender.3508:

stuff

What exactly (which skills, what cooldowns) do eles bring in terms of area control?

Crippled in particular is one condition I’ve had to essentially relearn. After several of my early AC explorable groups couldn’t cripple/immobilize Kohler for beans, I assumed that Crippled was a really valuable and expensive condition to apply – something like slot a utility skill with a minute cooldown for 3s cripple.

Surprise, it was just inexperienced players. e.g. Warriors have several weapon skills that cripple with ~50% uptime.

Just a heads up: there’s been so much construction near where I live that it’s been hard to record decent audio. The Caudecus’s Manor video is mostly done and just needs voiceover work; expect it within a couple days. I’m confident a lot of folks will find it helpful.

Highlights:

• On the Butler route, instead of trying to navigate the trap corridor from start to finish with Riflemen oneshotting you, park a party member (ideally someone with self-swiftness and some kind of projectile reflection) by the door as the boss in that room gets low. When he dies and the door opens, that person can make their way up the rock face, then ramp, on their right, disabling the traps.

• On the Asura route, the Sure-Shot Seamus fight can be frustrating because of the enclosed corridor. You can skip it by running in with Traffa alive, tagging the last asuran artifact, running through the door and into the western yard, and group-stealthing with the Mesmer or Thief abilities or an Area Stealth combo. Just don’t wipe before Bloody Victoria dies, spawning the waypoint in the barn.

• On the Seraph route, the easiest way by far to handle the door-blasting event is to run in as a group, grab a keg each, run to preassigned keg-dropoff circles, and drop them together. Guardians are great for this (group swiftness, group regeneration, group stability, two group Aegis’s).

His scream is a roughly 180 degree arc centered at his midline.

Yes, you are immune while dodging. I’m not aware of any attacks that hit dodging players other than environmental dungeon traps.

The best advice I can give is that he alternates between his channeled rockfall ability and his scream, and he stops turning for 1 – 1.5 seconds prior to his scream. When he finishes his rockfall – or starting as soon as he unburrows, if he used rockfall immediately prior to burrowing – pay attention, stay in melee range, and be ready to dodge behind him. Executed correctly it is possible to dodge 100% of his screams.

A lot of misinformation here.

Each time Detha initiates repairs on a mortar – either from starting on a new one, or resuming repairs after being downed – a wave of four ghosts will spawn.

I believe – but am not positive – that if you revive Detha while you’re currently in combat with a wave and her current mortar isn’t fully repaired, she’ll resume repairs, spawning an additional four ghosts. I’ve been in okittenup where, again, I believe but am not 100% positive this happened. It sounds like the OP’s group did something similar.

Edit: Apparently the obscenity filter doesn’t like “1 group.” This results in everyone reading this post having that word on their mind… self-defeating much.

Hi folks. After watching more than my share of pickup groups have trouble trying to learn instances as they go (with Lieutenant Kohler being Exhibit A), I decided the best way to help as many people as possible have an enjoyable dungeon experience was to bite the bullet and make a video guide. Several days later, here it is!

I hope you enjoy it, and I hope it helps you avoid some frustration and have a smoother time in Ascalonian Catacombs. A Caudecus’s Manor Explorable Mode guide is next up, so stay tuned.

Stay safe in Tyria. Remember, the pointy end goes TOWARDS the bad guys.