Guild Wars 2

Soloing and duoing dungeons is something I personally enjoy doing. All my runs are non-glitch/non-safespot/non-stack runs aswell.

I absolutely hate the fact that some dungeons arent soloable simply because they have a trigger event that requires 3 people to flip a switch.

I personally play elementalist, so all of the following is my experience in soloing different dungeons without the use of glitches, safespots or any kind of guides.

AC p1 and p3 are soloable, however
p1 would be really tough without having excellent burrow destruction on your class (the first 2 burrows are the hardest), you also need to be able to aggro off hodgins and heal him through some means.
p3 just requires the ability to get aggro off a single collector and keep kiting.
I’ve tried p2 but havent figured out a way to do the traps event without glitching, still working on it.

CM is entirely soloable, projectile reflects and blinds are quite handy.

TA u/u and f/f are soloable, might require some clever pulling/rooting though.
aether path sadly has a 5man trigger event near the end.

SE is entirely soloable, p2 is pretty long though.

CoF p1 you can do by glitch-climbing over the gate via the torches (otherwise it requires more people).
in p2 mag will die to assassins – havent figured out a way to do it
p3 has a 3man trigger event – so no solo :/

HotW is quite difficult without glitching, mainly the p2/3 boss fights, especially the p3 bossfight hits like 7 trucks shot from the moon directly at your face. I’ve had some success pulling him to land and fighting him there.
in p2 you gotta look out for his dash when he points his spear at you and dodge straight through him, else it pretty much oneshots you.
p1 boss fight is hard too but its more of a kite&spank

CoE has that boring 3man trigger event, this essentially kills all potential for soloing this dungeon. (would love if this was changed to a single switch on the other side of the lasers)

Arah is possibly the hardest to solo without glitching, especially p4.

If you want to start soloing dungeons, I recommend CM p1 and p3, they only require you to play pretty well and theres no specific annoying event, in p2 theres this keg event that can be hard if you dont know what you’re doing. After that, possibly TA u/u and f/f. then SE p1 & p3. My personal favorite is AC p1 and p3, but I play elementalist so that makes sense.

Thats all that comes to mind right now.

tldr; soloing dungeons is fun

I like my guard in a rather simplistic armor :x

Taking stop frames has made me appreciate the beautiful animations even more :x

I always loved soloing ac p1 before they buffed the gravelings up (back then you could just rush the burrows with meteors/icebow and hodgins wouldn’t take much of a dent). It was one of my favorite passtimes, I’d do it almost daily.

I started playing again recently and decided to give ac p1 a shot solo.

This is the video of my first succesful attempt at the hodgins research room.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQFaDT3rbtE

Didn’t feel like speeding up the video so feel free to skip ahead, basically I just kite around the table while resetting his hp between the burrows.

Naglifar.1684:

some runs I swear the near fire slimes make B-line directly for the black slime and everything goes downhill from there.

The trick is to pre-set the slimes to the back of the room by repeatedly killing the ones that spawn close.

Both the left and right side only spawn 3 at a time – so you move each of their spawns to the very back of the room.

Otherwise they will indeed just murder your ooze even just when you’re bringing the first one across to the left side. All the close spawn elementals will aggro nearly all the way to the start of the puzzle, and they will pick the ooze over your pal, in this video the ones he’s holding are the back spawns, and just as I enter aggro range with my ooze buddies the elementals are killed off.

Even better if you have reflects or blinds just incase (:

Set out to duo the new TA path, this room was quite fun.
Just wanted to share the clip, maybe it’ll help someone who is struggling with it.

-don’t care didn’t click- :
Get all the elementals to spawn at the end of the room (keep killing the ones that spawn near the start).
Get both the oozes on the left side, have one person gather up and damage the elementals till they’re low on hp, then get the oozes moving,
Kill the elementals (they have around 20-25 second respawn), then just move the oozes to the door and one of them across the fire.

We did eventually got to the electric floor room – but could not stand in 4 places at once ;(

ps. if one of you anet devs is reading this:
Please stop making the 5man trigger events in your dungeon paths, they’re really limiting to those of us who love to duo/solo dungeons. Thank you!

awesome! I like them a lot (:

guard:

You challenge me to test your resolve?
This decision of yours I will not absolve.

I summon the weapons of old,
as you stand there so bold.

The Bow of truth, show me the way,
Must I kill this soul of shame?

Sword of Justice brings forth the flame,
This is your chance to tell me your name.

You attack me, without bowing?
your ignorance, ever growing.

The hammer of wisdom shakes off it’s rust
it’s about to turn you back into dust.

I have no choice, I will end you now,
Please be at peace, that much I allow.

This mighty blow, will banish my foe,
Now you lay, on the ground so low.

Upon your end, contemplate;
this huge mistake, that you just made.

thief:

I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
my home, my heart, the end of your breath.

The sting of a blade, you whip around,
nowhere to be seen, blood trickles down.

Obscurity, gloom, penumbra of doom.
Your torture, now about to resume.

The devourer awaits, I’ll steal your soul,
leaving your chest, with an empty hole.

Mind your step, it’ll be your last,
make your move, it better be fast.

You may try to run, thats not too smart,
The blossom of death now seeks your heart.

Splatter of blood, like a deadly art,
flows through me as I tear you apart.

Breath slowly fades, there is no light,
only the chill and darkness of night.

…The shadows…, my friend,
will guide you to your end.

ranger:

With the power of beak, teeth and claw,
I make my suggestion for you to withdraw.

the howl of a wolf, the roar of a bear,
the creatures of the wild, whose home we share.

the rustle of leaves, a sudden growl,
choose your path or be devoured.

the eyes of a hawk, the whispers within,
meet the spirits – now bow and begin.

a quick shot from the shadows, a leap of faith,
the moon is my witness, as you take my bait.

a trap sprung, a vipers bite,
the venom runs deep with all its might.

the circle of life, never-ending,
however yours, now impending.

mesmer:

Let me introduce you to a new form of insertion.
you’ve never experienced this, based on your exertion.
I can tell from the heavy breathing
and your heart still beating.

Am I causing confusion, with all this intrusion?
Have I left you dazed, surely you’re amazed?

let me just tag myself in and blow your mind,
our fates will forever be – intertwined.

engi:

I’m often underestimated,
but I’ve built you a grave, let me designate it.

Stand right there, get vaccinated.
Glueshot to the foot, soon to be fumigated.

Enough banter, we’re getting procrastined.
A million ways to kill you, just not very motivated.
Maybe a shot to the face? hardly innovative.
I’ve got tools to test – why wont you be cooperative?

You stepped on a mine? how unexciting
I need a new subject – this wasn’t delighting.

necromancer:

In a shroud of death I make my approach,
with corpses and souls I will break your bones

With blood and corruption,
I bring forth destruction.

From the pits of the dead I summon horrors,
to devour your mind and your sorrows.

A swarm of insects to render your flesh,
they like their meals ripe and fresh.

With the following allurement you will be beat,
I call forth a golem of power and meat.

- It’s ready to eat -

You’re crippled and bleeding,
no use in pleading.

Your life may be over, but this is not the end,
Your corpse is mine, now serve and lament.

dd ele:

With burning speed and the flash of lightning
I summon the elements, so very frightening.

Amidst the chaos that is about to ensue
your life will be forfeit and all efforts doomed.

Running wont help, so I will make a suggestion:
stop, drop and die to my winning complexion.

Thought I’d share the safe spot I found in the room, makes him even easier than the previous incarnation. Enjoy.
http://youtu.be/1qi2DPa7m30

Chancer.3716:

@Shotaiken Aha didnt realize this before I read your post and tested it, Shall update the guide later on to rectify the fact that obsi focus only affects Meteor shower, Healing rain and ether renewal.

Does not affect Healing Rain.

Does effect Churning Earth though, if you want to put that in.

Chancer.3716:

I would say you could swap this out for Obsidian Focus which gaining a significant toughness while channeling a spell is quite nice, especially considering a lot of staff skills are channeled.

Obsidian Focus only affects meteor shower and ether renewal.

No other staff skill is considered to be channeled, rather, they just have a long’ish cast time.

The PvP Browser’s “play now” button is supposed to match me up with people of my own rank. The problem is, more often than not, the game will try to push me onto 8v8, and I want to play 5v5 instead.

Sure enough, I can pick a 5v5 server myself, but most of the time I will end up with rank 10’ish people, and handily kill them and make them quit, which will make me feel really bad and quit as well.

It often takes a long while to find people of my own rank or approximate skill level to play with, and those servers tend to empty pretty quickly as well.

So I’d appreciate it very much if the “Play Now” button would let me choose 5v5 as my preferred “game mode”. This way the lower rank people can have their training matches and I can have a clear conscience for not killing baby seals.

This wasn’t fixed in the latest patch either.

Arheundel.6451:

Sorry but it’s not broken , if you read on top of glyphs icon, you’ll see that they cannot be used while transformed :" You cannot use skills while transformed" what the message say

So you’re saying it’s intended functionality that if you use the skill during mistform,
it locks out permanently and can not be used again?

May I inform you that all skills that can not be used during mistform lock themselves out of use, such as weapon skills.

On the video you can clearly see he is not in any way “transformed” when he tries to use it again, he’s simply locked out of his elite entirely and can not cast it ever again unless he dies.

Also, said lock out did not happen before this update and the skill worked fine.

The fact that you think it’s intended functionality baffles me to no end, I can’t see any way or form anyone could ever think that a skill is supposed to permanently lock out of use in any situation ever.

Yes, ether renewal, along with all the other skills seem to work just fine with mistform.
It’s just the elementals that are severely bugged.

If you use Glyph of Elementals or Glyph of Lesser Elementals during mistform,
the elemental wont spawn, the skill will lock itself up and it wont let you cast it anymore.
if you die, the skill will unlock, but start the full CD.

This wasn’t happening before the patch.

Minoru.1237:

This needs to be fixed immediately! I too am losing 3k hp while in ride lightning. Will I down myself if I use it to escape a fight?

Been testing it and if you’re low on hp it will reduce your hp by a smaller amount, like 200-300. Hard to accurately test with combat npcs.
In any case, you cant kill yourself with it. not sure if you can be downed while having lower hp and getting hit by someone else though.

I’m pretty sure it used to be 5 seconds.
Now the tooltip states 4 seconds.
My stopwatch is also getting around 4.

Wasn’t mentioned in the patch notes though, curiously.

Its entirely possible to duo each path of AC as long as one person in the party is an elementalist.

What can I say?
Frost Bow 1 – burrow 0

Duoing AC brought me to an interesting discovery however, as my partner in crime got disconnected during our AC path 1 run.
I decided to continue solo to see how far I could go.
Turns out that it’s entirely possible to solo AC path1 in its entirety with a sylvari elementalist.
However, it takes a great deal of luck in the Hodgins research room, and hence I’ve not been able to capture a fully succesful run at it on video.
This is also due to being quite demotivated as of late, as I was doing said videoing attempts a day before the EA nerf (r.i.p) and decided that I’d try again post-patch, as I assumed we would be getting fixes. However as this was not the case, I’ve not tried it since. I see no reason though as to why it would not still be doable.

This is the closest I’ve come to getting a succesful run on video:

Started playing again recently and felt like writing some new poems.

Would love to see other peoples poems too so feel free to post them here if you want (:

staff ele: (wrote this pre-EA nerf when staff could get ridiculously good healing from blast finishing into waterfields repeatedly)

If you nerf the healing,
please increase our damage dealing.
It’s a staff not a spear,
yet only in melee range do they fear.

Why must I use all this CC,
just to land a bit of bleeding?
Under my feet I place the eruption,
greed will be their own destruction.

High is the price of playing bait,
my face is melting, but so is your fate.

Healing rain will mend my pain,
Soon… you shall be slain.

With the swipe of my hand I set you ablaze,
escape you will not, from this place.