Guild Wars 2

I agree very much with the things a lot of you are saying. Blood Red Arachnid, I’ve been in that situation so many times. You have a few ppl who absolutely insist you skip past all the trash in a pug where a newer player is less experienced and/or isn’t as good with skipping. You then proceed to wait a half hour when you could have killed the trash and had a chance for a little extra money. I’ve encountered the same mentality with exploiting the bosses.

The Howling King reference I make in the original post is a good example. Pug group insisted we do it, then made fail after fail in attempts to pull him up there. Good 20+mins is spent on this and nobody wants to listen when I say we could have killed it properly and been done 18 minutes ago.

I want to play the game, not just earn free rewards. Sure, with a coordinated group it can be great to save time if you know how to avoid trash mobs. I’m okay with skipping as an option if the group prefers it, but am never okay with purposely exploiting as in examples players have already brought up in this thread.

We need incentives for 100% mob kill in dungeons, fixes to current exploits, and a stronger stance from Anet, giving penalties for engaging in exploitive behavior to really change what has become the “standard” dungeon runs in our community.

I have a melee ranger build that I have found performs quite well, providing damage and utility. Will be posting it to ranger forums in next day or two; I’d like to provide video footage.

I am much more understanding of running through/skipping trash mobs, and I think that this is a way speed runs can be distinguished from a more casual and/or completionist run. A key difference between skipping the trash mobs and the boss exploits I mention above is that the trash mobs can still do damage to your group, still knock you down, and kill you. If you choose to skip, you need to keep with the group, know exactly where you’re going, when to dodge etc.
If you want to maximize your group potential/DPS and get through the dungeon quickly with experienced players that’s fine. I do not agree, however, with using obvious exploitive tactics to do it.

I love gw2 and am here to stay. I enjoy playing games while conducting myself with honor; I wish to play the game as intended. I want to seek the challenges dungeons can provide and overcome them.

How dungeons are currently ran by the community conflicts with my beliefs. This is in reference to things like taking The Howling King in AC up the stairs to the gap and range killing him down while bypassing all of his fight mechanics among other encounters where you can be 100% safe from the boss while successfully killing them.

I have voiced my opinion that these tactics are exploitive, and I have heard all the arguments to counter it. “It’s just using the terrain.” “It’s easier this way.” “Anet has had time to change it and hasn’t.” I understand what these players are saying, but in my eyes that doesn’t mean that these excuses make it right.

Does Anet view these as exploitive as well? Is running through half the trash mobs imtended? Am I way off-base and these were intended tactics for the community to find? Are there other players who feel as I do on this subject?

I would love to have an official answer on this and will accept it whichever way it goes. Please gw2 community, feel free to express your opinion on the subject. Thank you.