I think it comes from the fact that the players are frustrated with the grind-like nature of having to farm drops from these bosses day in and day out, and want to do it as quickly as possible, so they get annoyed when the situation isn’t optimal.
Not right, but understandable considering how much repetitiveness is in the end game farming. Would drive anyone a little batty.
Ignore them, or don’t look at the chat window at all. Then they can’t hurt you.
I think you’ve definitely hit part of the reason. I find world bosses fairly boring; I mostly enjoy content that has some level of required person skill and small-team skill, and where both are actually noticeable. World bosses aren’t challenging in that respect. However, they are the absolute fastest and most reliable method of obtaining dragonite ore; sPvP is very slow comparatively, WvW is slow on average but also with wide variance depending on the current situation, and EotM is fairly reliable but still slow. WvW Keep/SM taking, and EotM still suffer from the same issues as world bosses for me, though. Due to the lack of other reasonable options for efficient dragonite ore obtainment, one is effectively forced to do world bosses if they value their time, and if you feel forced to do content that you probably wouldn’t otherwise be doing as much (or practically ever) just because you value your time, you’re probably going to want it over ASAP.
Another part of the issue is organizational. Anyone in your map instance and not participating is taking the spot of someone who could participate. Not only does this lead to a slower completion, meaning more time expended and less chance of hitting bosses that are close together on the timer (side note: does ANYONE like playing on a timer?), but it also increases the probability of failure of the event. People doing map completion aren’t just not participating, they’re hurting you, because they’re taking the spot of someone who could help you (or, you know, your buddy who really wants in the instance, but can’t get in because it’s full, even though say 20% of the whole map isn’t participating). This is a fundamental issue with the design of world bosses, amplified by megaserver change.
Legendary weapons should be what they were always intended to be. A fancy skin, and that’s it.
The stat swapping on legendary weapons should carry over to all ascended gear. Your sigil swapping idea should carry over to all ascended weapons, and all ascended armor should be capable of rune swapping. All ascended gear should also be capable of infusion swapping.
As it is, getting a full set of ascended gear isn’t that much of a grind; it’s within the realm of reasonable grind IMO. Getting a full set of close to optimized ascended gear for dungeons and fractals in a team setting is a colossal grind. Getting a second set of ascended armor with Strength runes for solo and uncoordinated group play is an additional grind, but it’s not as bad as getting a ton of ascended weapons (even if you more or less skimp and just get say force/frailty, force/justice, force/night, and force/undead combos, along with a bit more weapons you normally won’t use for situational purposes).
Then we’ve got WvW, which is going to demand at least one different set of gear, because you’re probably not going to want the same stat combinations you would in PvE, nor are you going to want the same sigil/rune combinations. And we’ve got WvW infusions, too, which can make a noticable difference when taking things like fully upgraded camps with a lowish number of people. And we must consider that hey, perhaps someone might want to run different builds in WvW, and in many cases, this again demands another set of gear…
Let’s not forget people with multiple characters, who want to do lots of different things with those characters, either.
For example, I might really want to play a condition warrior in WvW in addition to what I normally play there. It could be very fun for skirmish-style play. But I’m not going to invest in a set of rabid gear with runes of the krait, and some weapons with doom/earth sigils to do it. Especially not ascended gear, which due to WvW infusions (what does one typically do in small group WvW play? Take camps. NPC damage reduction and damage increase helps.), and a few percent damage reduction over exotic gear, and ~6% damage increase, would really shine here. I’m sure it’d be fun and interesting to play. But is it worth even the time cost of doing it in Exotic gear, much less Ascended gear? Not even close.
One of the appeals of Guild Wars for me, was the ability to run an optimal (as best as I could determine it) setup on any character I wanted with relative ease, allowing for a great deal of fun experimentation playing different builds with the same class, even different classes, and knowing that it was my player actions that dictated success.
Lots of grind to play different builds and classes? Not fun. Extreme tediousness of managing all the items? Not fun. I thought that ANET said grind wasn’t fun, and they didn’t make grindy games. Well, the grind for ascended isn’t too bad, until you factor in how compounded that grind gets for multiple builds and multiple characters, and it’s really unfortunate. As far as I’m concerned, this is mostly a design oversight on their part. An oversight they really should fix.
Hello everyone, welcome to my path-by-path Guardian guide for dungeons.
Change Log
May 14, 2015 – Guide posted
June 12, 2015 – Minor errors and omissions corrected
June 24, 2015 – Significantly updated for Core Specialization patch
July 7, 2015 – Updates for HotW P2 and P3 end bosses now that FMW can be used underwater
July 31, 2015 – Fixed some forum formatting issues.
Other Links to Guide
Google Docs Folder: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BzxepX_hOPgNfmk1NVpqNm5aYUIwMTNsaGZxWjNBbE1KUF9wakxTN0FvT3dWMWt5My04VmM&usp=sharing
Google Docs Zipped Folder (Download): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzxepX_hOPgNMUU3RGxkd1JuRTA/view?usp=sharing
DnT Forums: http://dtguilds.com/forum/m/6563292/viewthread/21894470-playing-guardian-in-dungeons-detailed-pathbypath-guide/page/1
Content Index
Introduction (Read First): https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063810
Ascalon Catacombs
AC P1: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063812
AC P2: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063814
AC P3: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063815
Caudecus Manor
CM P1: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063816
CM P2: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063817
CM P3: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063819
Twilight Arbor
TA Forward: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063820
TA Up : https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063822
TA Atherblade: Not included
Sorrow’s Embrace
SE P1: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063827
SE P2: Not included
SE P3: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063829
Citadel of Flame
CoF P1: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063830
CoF P2: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063831
CoF P3: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063832
Honor of the Waves
HotW P1: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063834
HotW P2: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063836
HotW P3: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063837
Crucible of Eternity
CoE P1: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063838
CoE P2: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063841
CoE P3: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063842
The Ruined City of Arah
Arah P1: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063844
Arah P2: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063848
Arah P3: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063851
Arah P4: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Dungeons/5063855
(edited by Zui.9245)
It’s almost like you’re asking for timely fixes of critical, progress-blocking bugs, and a rewards scheme that’s both well designed and well implemented. Based on ANET’s track record with GW2, I think you’re (sadly) asking for too much from them. I can only hope this is wrong, and they’ll actually do something meaningful here…
Goat, you need to understand the motivations of both sellers and buyers, and consider how easy it is to find a normal group via LFG.
Some people sell exclusively for the money. Many though, I’d say, are doing it partially for the fun of soloing, with the gold being an added benefit (this is about the epitome of GW2 rewarding player skill right here! Some of us like being rewarded for demonstrating player skill!). With how long it takes for some runs to fully sell (or they don’t even fully sell), I’m actually pretty sure that mindlessly farming SE P1 without the last boss for the champion bags is only slightly worse in terms of gold:time, except that SE P1 is insanely easy and takes practically no time to learn, whereas soloing a dungeon path in a respectable time takes considerably longer and is much harder.
Many people who buy paths are doing it because the groups they found couldn’t complete the path. And they want the AP/title from dungeon master, but would never run the dungeon themselves (in some cases, never run ANY dungeon otherwise). Or they want the tokens to unlock skins. They don’t value running the dungeon enough to actually run it. They value other things. These are the people who either run the dungeon once ever for DM, or just say the skins aren’t worth their many runs and forget about it; at best, they stop running once they’ve unlocked what they want, and never run it again. These aren’t the people who will regularly join LFG groups for long periods of time.
Also, let’s be honest here, how long does it take an LFG for any Arah path PUG to fill? I think the longest I’ve ever waited was about 5 minutes. There isn’t a lack of people doing the dungeon. Anyone who bothers to post their own LFG can almost certainly find people. If LFG for PUGs was very slow, or almost never worked, your argument may have merit. It does not. And it demonstrably does not.
Your rebuttal to the elder wood comment makes me think you’re just trolling, but in the case you’re not,you can go solo your own dungeon path too. You’ll just need to make the same type of investment people who currently solo that path made. Lots of time, effort, and repeated failure.
We’ve suggested this sort of thing since day 1. It was a good idea then. It’s a good idea now.
It’d also be nice if you can’t actually get to a location because the pathing won’t let you, that instead of not really going anywhere, the game detects it beforehand and just doesn’t let you use the skill, or similar… Because nothing is worse than using Blink or a similar skill, to get to somewhere that’s basically on flatish perfectly passable ground from where you are, only to stay in place and burn the cooldown on the skill. This has been suggested for a good long while, too…
Hello everyone, welcome to my shard-by-shard Guardian guide for fractals.
Change Log
June 19 – Guide Posted (plus minor updates after posting)
June 24, 2015 – Significantly updated for Core Specialization patch
July 31, 2015 – Updated Volcanic with an excellent video of Champion Grawl Shaman Aegis timing. Fixed some forum formatting issues.
September 10, 2015 – Minor updates.
Other Links to Guide
Google Docs Folder: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BzxepX_hOPgNfnFhWlJQYU1JNW5yNnZScDBhMk53bWF5bnI1a0JnTlVoc3lJcmVYOURnWGc&usp=sharing
Google Docs Zipped Folder: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzxepX_hOPgNdHh6ZWx4d1lZanM/view?usp=sharing
DnT Forums: http://dtguilds.com/forum/m/6563292/viewthread/22610642-playing-guardian-in-fractals-detailed-shardbyshard-guide/forum/m/6563292/viewforum
Content Index
Introduction (Read First): https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Fractals/5170286
Tier 1 Fractals
Swampland: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Fractals/5170294
Aquatic Ruins (Krait) – Not included
Uncategorized (Harpy): https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Fractals/5170301
Urban Battlegrounds (Charr): https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Fractals/5170297
Tier 2 Fractals
Uncategorized (Harpy): https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Fractals/5170301
Urban Battlegrounds (Charr): https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Fractals/5170297
Molten Furnace (Weapons Test): https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Fractals/5170322
Snowblind: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Fractals/5170330
Cliffside: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Fractals/5170313
Tier 3 Fractals
Cliffside: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Fractals/5170313
Atherblade: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Fractals/5170332
Volcanic (Grawl): https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Fractals/5170334
Thaumanova Reactor: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Fractals/5170341
Underground Facility (Dredge): https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Fractals/5170338
Tier 4 Fractals
Solid Ocean (Jade Maw): https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Fractals/5170343
Captain Mai Trin: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Fractals/5170350
Molten Duo: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Playing-Guardian-in-Fractals/5170345
(edited by Zui.9245)
Get out of my dungeons I don’t wanna “look” for people that are trying to rip me off my money. YOU want to charge people for letting them into your party? Sure form you party outside the dungeon. If I want to earnestly look for other players I don’t want to find parties that will kick me if I don’t pay their fee, seriously this is a problem. Let us live you petty thieves preying on naive newbies.
Dungeon sellers charge people for completing the entire dungeon path, with zero participation of the buyer required, and minimal time of the buyer required. This is a service worth compensation. If you don’t want to pay in exchange for the service, just don’t join. Advertising a legitimate service is not an attempt to rip you off, just like a car wash hanging a sign saying they’ll wash your car for a certain price isn’t some attempt to rip you off.
Dungeon sellers aren’t charging you a fee for you joining their party. They’re charging the fee for you joining the party and getting the end boss reward without you having to participate in any way. If you don’t pay, they will kick you, just like any group that advertises with specific requirements will kick you if you do not meet those requirements.
Dungeon sellers are not “stealing” the gold of anyone. This is a voluntary transaction both parties think is fair. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be making the transaction.
Dungeon sellers do not prey on “naive newbies”. I sell a fair amount of Arah, and nearly all of the buyers have over 3k AP (in fact, about half of them have more AP than I do). Some are buying for Dungeon Master, and are doing it because they don’t want to do the dungeon, or because they haven’t been able to complete it with a group after many attempts. They’re happy to pay the price. Some are buying tokens for skins they want, or so they can get Dungeoneer. Again, they’re happy to pay the price. If they weren’t happy to pay the price, they wouldn’t voluntarily join and pay.
We had this death camera before. ANET removed it because it was trash. ANET has put it back in the game with the NPE patch. Odds of re-removal? Slim. It’s probably in the chineese client, and they want to keep the code bases as similar as possible…
ANET – making GW2 a worse game, one patch at a time.
I’d especially second this for Sinister armor, too. Some people want Sinister armor, but can’t stand annoying braindead open world grinding, and would love to pay the people that like that stuff some gold in exchange of just being able to dungeon.
Note to participants: see my most recent post regarding a change of date/
It’s been awhile since the last community meeting, and a good number of things regarding instanced content have changed. As such, I propose a new community meeting. Here’s my proposed agenda. Please feel free to suggest additional agenda items, or even suggest that some of my proposed items do not need to be discussed.
1. Fractal records.
Due to the massive overhaul of fractals, a fractal record reset (and record overhaul) is needed, which, due to past discussions, requires a community meeting. I see two viable ways to create a new system:
(a) Every fractal scale is record-eligible. This would allow for anyone to compete, regardless of AR. However, it would also likely lead to people doing multiple scale records for the same shards.
(b) Only the highest fractal scale for each fractal shard is record-eligible. This would effectively restrict competition to only those with heart of thorns and high AR. As such, it would go against past precedent when fractal records were at level 49, due to the AR to compete at level 50 being considered prohibitively expensive. But of course we can go against precedent, and this would prevent a group from say, doing every Mai Trin shard and posting records for each scale.
2. Legendaries in sub-80 dungeons.
With the introduced scaling changes, legendaries are not being downscaled as they once were. As such, having a legendary weapon can increase damage by 10+% in some dungeons. Do we prohibit legendaries from being used in records, or do we leave it as-is?
On one hand, prohibiting legendaries would allow the competition to be more egalitarian, just like prohibiting gem store items. After all, it requires a considerable amount of gold and time to obtain a legendary, which is a barrier to entry that the ruleset has historically tried to minimize.
On the other hand, those with legendaries would have make and use lower tier items, and it would be impossible to verify no legendaries were used unless more rigorous video requirements were put in place (which slightly goes against precedent of the system being based on trust, since there are numerous ways that someone could cheat).
3. Raid records.
Implementing raid records makes logical sense, but we’ll still need a meeting to decide how these should be set up. Some questions that need to be answered are:
(a) Should records be full-wing, specific events inside a wing, or both? If events, should all events be considered, or only those that grant legendary insights at their completion, and LI-only, should Trio be excluded because it’s a timegate which can only be sped up by killing Narerlla faster?
(b) Should low-man raid records be considered, or only full 10 man records?
4. Boss records.
Should the record ruleset be expanded to include boss records (e.g. Lupicus), and if so, what should the rules be?
5. Solo/Duo Record Ruleset (reg. consumables)
In one of the solo records awhile back, there was a discussion regarding this, and it seems like there’s still some differences of opinion regarding these. Should a split solo/duo ruleset exist that fully aligns with the trio+ ruleset? Should we even discuss this?
For attendees, players/guilds that hold and have previously held records (up to 5 per guild) are encouraged to attend and vote. I say “players”, because obviously some of the guilds that currently hold records aren’t around anymore, but the players are all still around and in a different guild. Furthermore, it’d be nice to have players who hold/have held solo/duo records attend if we are going to address #4 and #5.
If you’re interested in attending, please shoot me a PM.
As for a time, I tentatively propose Sunday, May 29th at 5:00 PM UTC (i.e. 17:00 UTC).
(edited by Zui.9245)
Why is this another huge gold sink? 300g? Why not make it something like 3000 badges of honor? At least you know someone worked to earn their tag, more than had extra gold to buy it.
Unless they feel WvW players are too rich as it is.
There exists a Gems → Gold feature.
There exists no Gems → Badges feature.
Things that cost gold are good for the bottom line. Things that cost gold and mostly appeal to the poorest players are even better.
People don’t fail raid fights because of the timer, so I’m not sure how a special raid instance without any timers would help things.
So you didn’t skip any mobs in Arah?
Not even in Path 2?
Because there’s this one area in Path 2 with infinitely respawning mobs that you have to skip by design. I wonder how you got past it.
Are you really claiming that all skips, even skips you’re forced to do by the design, is “counter intuitive to the design and idea of the devs when looking at dungeons”? Also, if not for skipping, why does stealth exist in PvE, and do you really think ANET didn’t think players might use it to bypass mobs they allowed you to bypass with it?
You’ve made many excellent points. To summarize a bit, and emphasize (and add on to) some points…
1) The reward structure for achievement chests is poorly designed. It’s not all that rewarding, not progressively rewarding even though as you get more and more AP it gets harder and harder to get more AP, and just generally locks some stuff out at unrealistic levels.
2) Many achievements are very poorly designed/implemented. Giant slayer? You have to be kidding. Most of the WvW achieves? Even more of a joke.
3) It seems you’re mostly a PvE player. Imagine how it must feel for mostly WvW and/or sPvP players who also might like to some day get the cool AP-related skins, but who simply are not rewarded (i.e. very poorly rewarded) for playing their game mode in terms of AP, and also don’t really get anything really cool or interesting for what you might consider their own version of AP (WvW rank; sPvP rank), and certainly not anything prestigious like the AP armor skins.
It should be noted some of these are especially egregious, given they’re noted as thing you can do on the the extended formatting hints page https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/faq/.
Of course, expect no change. Apparently they hired an incompetent forum contractor that they got rid of, but they’re not replacing that forum contractor because it’d cost money and because they’re vaguely pondering moving to a different forum system at some indefinite point in the future so anything they spend on making the forum currently not suck would be “wasted”. Source: a red post awhile back (that I can’t find because the search feature is broken) stating as much.
I agree, MMR should be visible. Once upon a time, it even was.
We can only speculate as to why ANET removed visible MMR. Part of the reason may be that some fraction of the user-base are petulant children. Part of it may be the criticism they got regarding people who played 10 games and shot into the top 50 of the SoloQ ladder. Again, literally, who knows.
If you’re feeling like you want to kill yourself in real life, please find the appropriate number and call it NOW: http://www.suicide.org/international-suicide-hotlines.html
Note to the moderators: this thread relates to a raid reward for wing 3. As such, it belongs here, and not somewhere else. Please don’t move it.
The concept of the White Mantle Portal Device is great—an alternative, reusable, portal item replacing teleportation guns (consumable, open world only) and watchwork portal devices (consumable, works in dungeons/fractals). On concept alone, it’s an extremely cool raid reward.
However, the execution of the item is less than stellar. Given the high cost of the item, I actually regret buying it. I’d first like to compare it to Watchwork Portal Devices.
Both unequip if hit. The White Mantle Device can be equipped in combat, whereas the Watchwork Device cannot. The White Mantle Device has a 30 minute cooldown (can be reduced by 27 minutes with Adrenal Mushrooms), whereas the Watchwork Device has a 90 second cooldown. Both set Mesmer portal cooldown to 35 seconds (can be used to reduce portal cooldown… clearly, not a lot of thought went into this initially for Watchwork Devices, and this was just copied over for the White Mantle Device).
The White Mantle Portal Device is worth a gold-equivalent (using +5 Power Ghostly Infusion as a value reference) of 453 gold. A player can make 105 Watchwork Portal Devices for this price. Sans cheesing the cooldown with Adrenal Mushrooms, that means a player would need to play for at least 52.5 hours (assuming they use the WM device on cooldown) to get the same value out of the White Mantle Device that they would out of Watchwork Devices.
Basically, I’d suggest that Watchwork Portal Devices have better value than the White Mantle Portal Device. Especially given that you can make them slowly, and use the remaining gold (assuming you’re making them with gold obtained from selling a +5 Power Ghostly Infusion) to profit on the TP. And it should be noted, no one uses Watchwork Portal Devices because of their unquestionably terrible value, so it’s pretty bad if they have better (or even similar) value/perceived value to the White Mantle Portal Device.
In order to make the White Mantle Portal Device feel worthwhile and useful, here are my suggestions:
1) Reduce the cooldown to 5 minutes. 30 minutes is far too long for the item to be and feel useful. I would imagine that most of us buying this item are raiders (duh!), and plan to use it to help people out within other instanced content (dungeons and fractals), but the 30 minute cooldown is extremely prohibitive to this purpose (unless we go find a adrenal mushroom between every dungeon and fractal… or two adrenal mushrooms, which is an annoying and silly workaround).
2) Remove the unequip on hit from the White Mantle Portal Device. Half of the use of this for me is to help people get past skips in dungeons, which they can’t get past on their own, without swapping to a Mesmer (or without putting portal on your bar as a Mesmer, when you really want different skills without waiting for the CD because your party was inexperienced). The unequip on hit, along with it replacing weapon skills, makes it a lot less useful for this purpose.
3) Allow us to uneqip the White Mantle Portal Device after an entrance portal is placed, and then re-equip it later on to place an exit portal (within the 60s window for placing an exit portal, of course). If no exit portal is placed after 60s, do not put the portal entrance skill on cooldown.
And of course, in order to prevent unintended behavior, have it works as follows with respect to Mesmer portals: if portal CD > 35 seconds, do nothing; else, set Mesmer portal CD = 35 seconds. Might as well copy this change to the Watchwork Portal Devices as well.
(edited by Moderator)
Introduction
About This Guide
This guide assumes that you, as a Guardian, are capable of making your own decisions regarding what traits to bring most of the time. If you’re unfamiliar with what meta trait setups for Guardian are, I suggest you check out Obal’s guide (http://dtguilds.com/forum/m/6563292/viewthread/12501056-dnt-guardian-build-12715).
This guide also assumes that you are capable of making your own decisions about what roles you most need to fill as a Guardian within a given group, as well as that you’re capable of figuring out what utilities you can safely burn at various fights.
Furthermore, one thing the guide doesn’t always mention is that if you can be buffing allies with Swiftness (Staff #3), you should do that, and if you can help blast (Hammer #2) smoke fields and fire fields, you should quickly swap to hammer to do that. Consider this part of your role throughout every fractal.
I am not telling you that you have to play in any specific way. Play how you want. If you don’t want maximum efficiency, but still want more efficiency, learn what you want from this guide and ignore the rest for all I care.
How To Use The Guide
There are a bunch of ways you could use this guide. I think one of the more effective ways would be to have it up on a second monitor, or print it, and quickly refer to it the first few times you’re running through a fractal. This will help you create “good habits” regarding your actions and utilities, instead of possibly forgetting something and getting in the habit of doing something that’s suboptimal.
Another suggestion is that you carefully read the guide, and try and figure out what certain things are suggested. You might want to consult www.gw2dungeons.net if you’re having trouble figuring it out. If you still can’t figure it out, feel free to ask me.
Credits
Author: Zui
Proofreading and Suggestions: Cracked, Enko
Champion Grawl Shaman Aegis Timing Video: Card
(edited by Zui.9245)
Order
Tier One – First Fractal
- Swampland
- Uncategorized (Harpy)
- Urban Battlegrounds (Charr)
- Aquatic Ruins (Krait) – Not covered in guide
Tier Two – Second Fractal
- Cliffside
- Uncategorized (Harpy)
- Urban Battlegrounds (Charr)
- Molten Furnace (Weapons Test)
- Snowblind
Tier Three – Third Fractal
- Cliffside
- Atherblade
- Volcanic (Grawl)
- Thaumanova Reactor
- Underground Facility (Dredge)
Tier Four – Boss Fractal
- Jade Maw
- Mai Trin
- Molten Duo
(edited by Zui.9245)
Swampland
Running Wisps
Role: Swiftness (Self), Aegis (Self), Stun Break (Self), Condition Clear (Self)
Weapons: GS + Staff
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Retreat, Stand Your Ground, Purging Flames, Renewed Focus
Mossman
Role: Aegis (“Slice” autoattack; if team is not dodging “Gouge”, the double axe raise attack, try to provide Aegis for this as well even though you’ll only prevent one of the hits), Projectile Defense, Get and hold aggro, DPS
Weapons: GS + M/F for most groups; GS + M/(F→T) for highly organized groups
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Retreat, Shield of the Avenger, Wall of Reflection, Renewed Focus (most groups) or Feel My Wrath (highly organized group only)
Other: In order to get aggro, you should be the first to run in and hit Mossman. Mossman’s aggro is highly based on first hit and highest toughness. If experienced and in an organized group 1-3 pieces of Knight’s armor to get the needed toughness. In a PUG or if you’re inexperienced, it is best to run full Knight’s armor
Bloomhunger
Role: Projectile Defense (Place WoR in center of hitbox, ideally placing it while jumping in mid air), Kill storm spirit, DPS, Quickness
Weapons: Sc/F + Sc/T
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Wall of Reflection, Retreat or Purging Flames, Shield of the Avenger, Feel My Wrath
(edited by Zui.9245)
Urban Battlegrounds (Charr)
Start
Role: Swiftness, Stability, Blinds, Projectile Defense, DPS
Weapons: GS + M/(F→T)
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Stand Your Ground, Wall of Reflection or Bane Signet, Retreat, Feel My Wrath
Note: If your team has access to stealth, blast it and go right. Stack and pull the monks. If your team doesn’t have great access to blinds or high DPS, it’s a good idea to replace Mace/Focus with Hammer, and CC the monks with Ring of Warding (Hammer #5).
Dulfy + Gate
Role: Stability, Aegis, DPS, Quickness
Weapons: GS + M/F
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Stand Your Ground, Wall of Reflection or Bane Signet, Retreat, Feel My Wrath
Note: If you anticipate your team having a hard time with killing the oil, run Scepter instead of Mace.
City
Role: Group mobs together (if not LoSing), Projectile Defense, Stability, Blind, DPS, Quickness
Weapons: GS + M/(F→T). You can use Hammer or Staff for the CC if your group has trouble with the mobs and is LoSing them.
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Stand Your Ground, Wall of Reflection or Bane Signet, Retreat, Feel My Wrath
Note: If you have a Thief, it is faster to stealth through the city than it is to fight. If your team has enough blasts (and access to a fire field) to stack might and stealth, and also have good DPS, you can kill the gate to the city center and then stack behind it to kill the mobs (if the furthest north gate, mobs will not follow so no need to stack).
City Center (Capturing)
Role: Projectile Defense, DPS, Stability (while running), Swiftness (while running), Aegis (after pull), Blind, Quickness
Weapons: GS + M/(F→T). Swap between Hammer and Staff for CC instead of Mace/(F/T) if group lacks blinds.
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Retreat, Wall of Reflection, Stand Your Ground or Bane Signet, Feel My Wrath
Note: In an organized group, you can pull both trash packs on each side.
Ritual (Defending)
Role: Group mobs together, CC mobs if low DPS, Aegis (heartseeker), Projectile Defense, DPS, Quickness
Weapons: GS + M/(F→T)Swap between Hammer and Staff for CC instead of Mace/(F/T) if group lacks DPS.
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Wall of Reflection, Retreat, Bane Signet, Feel My Wrath
Captain Ashym
Role: Projectile Defense (FGS phase), Aegis (Flame Blast while in Staff. See note.), DPS, Quickness
Weapons: GS + M/(F→T)for a high DPS team or GS + Sc/(F→T) for a lower DPS team
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Wall of Reflection, Retreat, Bane Signet, Renewed Focus or Feel My Wrath
Note: Depending on group DPS, your ping, and your skill, you might be able to aegis both pulses of the flame blast (high DPS group where he’ll only use it once), or only one pulse. If you can provide aegis for only one pulse, it’s better to provide it for the second pulse as it has a larger AoE than the first, and if someone downs because they didn’t dodge the first pulse you have a bit of “free” time during the second pulse and its aftercast to resurrect them. In any event, always let your team know what you will be aegising before the fight starts, so they know when they need to dodge, and when they don’t need to dodge.
(edited by Zui.9245)
Uncategorized (Harpy)
Harpies (First Jumping Section)
Option #1: Skipping (w/ Stealth)
Role: Swiftness, Help Blast, Provide Aegis/Reflects/Stability if stealth ends
Weapons: Hammer + M/F
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Retreat, Wall of Reflection, Stand Your Ground, Renewed Focus
Note: You can blast from many platforms with the hammer leap providing you stand in the right places, face the right way, and angle your camera properly (Looking down/up: shorter leap; Aligned with your character’s axis: longer leap). Practice makes better.
Option #2: Fighting
Role: Projectile Defense, Stability (Orbs), Aegis (Orbs), DPS
Weapons: GS + M/(F→T)
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Wall of Reflection, Shield of the Avenger, Retreat or Stand Your Ground, Indomitable Courage (Virtues X), Renewed Focus
Holding Area (Rabbit, Bandit, Ettin, Shaman)
Role: Projectile Defense (vs. Shaman, Ettin’s Bellow for damage), take Ettin’s aggro, kite Ettin (while other mobs alive), block tank Ettin (when only Ettin is left), DPS
Weapons: GS + M/F or Hammer + M/F
Recommended Skills & Traits (GS): Shelter, Wall of Reflection, Shield of the Avenger, Retreat, Renewed Focus.
Recommended Skills & Traits (Hammer): Shelter, Wall of Reflection, Shield of the Avenger, Retreat, Renewed Focus. Hammer is superior only for teams where it’s relatively obvious that someone else in the party has extremely high toughness, causing the Ettin to try and ‘split’ its aggro. You can generally regain aggro when you lose it by immobilizing the Ettin.
Note: Ettin’s aggro is highly based on toughness and first hit. In an organized group you can run a piece or two of Knight’s armor and maintain aggro. In a PUG or if you’re less experienced, a full set of Knight’s armor would be useful. When your team is on Rabbit/Bandit/Shaman, kite the Ettin. Once the Ettin is left, stand still (except for stomps, which you generally ought to dodge) and block tank him to allow your team to safely melee from behind. If you’re unable to survive while kiting the Bandit and/or Shaman in addition to the Ettin, make sure you assign team members to get their aggro; with that said, you can survive while kiting any combination of the bosses with practice and skill, so this is not absolutely necessary.
Harpies (Before Stair Trap)
Role: Projectile Defense, Group Together (Binding Blades), DPS
Weapons: GS + M/(F→T)
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Wall of Reflection, Retreat, Shield of the Avenger, Renewed Focus or Feel My Wrath
Stair Trap
You can block or evade the lightning pulses. They can also be reflected with wall of reflection (they remain player-hostile after being reflected), which is best done near the top of the stairs so that players can safely run up the stairs to the reflect, and then safely run jump up to the side to reach the top.
(edited by Zui.9245)
Uncategorized (Harpy) – Continued
Old Tom
Note: As a Guardian you’re no longer able to tank Old Tom’s spin due to the removal of Tome of Courage; your party should use an Earth Elemental and/or stand in the perfect center of Old Tom’kittenbox. If your party has lower DPS, you should even use the fan.
Role: Projectile Defense (Chain Lightning, Launch Fist), Aegis (Launch Fist), DPS, Quickness
Weapons: GS + M/(F→T)
Recommended Skills & Traits: Signet of Resolve, Wall of Reflection, Bane Signet, Purging Flames, Feel My Wrath
Harpy Hunters (Second Jumping Section)
Option #1: Skipping (w/ Stealth)
Role: Swiftness, Help Blast, Provide Aegis/Reflects/Stability if stealth ends
Weapons: Hammer + M/F
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Retreat, Wall of Reflection, Stand Your Ground, Renewed Focus
Note: You can blast from many platforms with the hammer leap providing you stand in the right places, face the right way, and angle your camera properly (Looking down/up: shorter leap; Aligned with your character’s axis: longer leap). Practice makes better.
Option #2: Fighting
Role: Projectile Defense, Stability (Orbs), Aegis (Orbs), DPS
Weapons: GS + M/(F→T)
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Wall of Reflection, Shield of the Avenger, Retreat or Stand Your Ground, Indomitable Courage (Virtues X), Renewed Focus or Feel My Wrath
Raving Asura + Golems
Role: Projectile Defense, Group Golems with Binding Blades (when all activate), Stability (when all activate to prevent CC), Aegis/Blind (Mittens – slow right arm swing “slash”, as well as vs. the spin), DPS, Quickness
Weapons: GS + M/(F→T)
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Wall of Reflection, Stand Your Ground, Shield of the Avenger, Feel My Wrath
(edited by Zui.9245)
No.
The LS is short, relatively low quality, extremely low replayability type content.
An expansion ought to contain much higher quality content, with decent replayability, and an impressive amount of content.
Another key difference is the LS can’t be genuinely difficult, because then parts of it would be too hard for most of the players, and the LS is something everyone should be able to complete. An expansion can add genuinely difficult things.
Unfortunately, it seems ANET is going in “let’s give them low amounts of low quality content that has near zero replay value” direction, also known as living story, instead of the expansion direction.
This is simply a learn2play issue from the zerg. AFK range 11111ing does terrible damage. It wastes your time, and the time of everyone else, as well as increasing the possibility of failure (what you just experienced).
It would be nice if ANET simply removed the box, but I’m sure that after enough regular fails of the golem that the zerg will start to learn2play and actually melee the golem. It’s not like melee is really all that difficult for this boss anyway, providing you’re paying a tiny amount of attention and thus not effectively playing AFK.
Cliffside
Archdiviner (First)
Role: Projectile Defense (Wall in center of his hitbox for large DPS on spin), Get Aggro, Block Tank, DPS, Quickness
Weapons: GS + M/F (typical) or GS + M/(F→T) (organized)
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Retreat, Wall of Reflection, Purging Flames (Fire Field) or Bane Signet (DPS) or Shield of the Avenger (Aegis + Projectile Defense), Renewed Focus or Feel My Wrath
Note: Don’t expect any projectile defense to reliably protect you from the projectile spin. You should still dodge every time. Aggro is largely based on toughness and first hit for this boss.
Skip To Ankle Seals
Role: Swiftness, Stability (if whoever has the hammer doesn’t know to use the #3 to prevent the stun), Aegis (maintain)
Weapons: GS + Sw/F. Use Staff #3 early on in the skip for extra swiftness.
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Retreat, Stand Your Ground, Save Yourselves, Renewed Focus
Ankle Seals
Role: Blind (Autoattacks), Aegis (if serious lack of party blinds), Stability (if whoever has the hammer can’t/won’t use Hammer #3 to prevent stun) DPS, Quickness
Weapons: GS + Sw/(F→T) (Sword only because the very inferior cleave is beneficial here)
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Retreat, Stand Your Ground, Purging Flames or Bane Signet, Renewed Focus or Feel My Wrath
Skip to Chest Seal
Role: Swiftness, Stability (vs wind traps), Aegis (vs wind traps)
Weapons: GS + M/F. Swap to Staff for extra Swiftness.
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Retreat, Stand Your Ground, Save Yourselves or Merciful Intervention, Renewed Focus
Chest Seal
Role: Projectile Defense, Blind, Aegis, Binding Blades (mobs that are ranging and easily pulled), DPS, Quickness
Weapons: GS + M/(F→T)
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Wall of Reflection, Shield of the Avenger, Renewed Focus or Feel My Wrath
Skip to Arm Seals
Role: Swiftness, Stability (if whoever has the hammer doesn’t know to use the #3 to prevent the stun)
Arm Seals
I will refer to the first seal players encounter as the near seal, which is the seal the game calls the “left” seal despite it being on the right arm of the colossus, and the second seal players encounter as the far seal, which is the seal the game calls the “right” seal. Always make sure your team is on the same page with regards to strategy before starting the arm seals.
Option #1: PUG Strategy
Role: Projectile Defense, Condition Clear, Blind/Aegis (autos), CC chanters if needed, DPS, Quickness
Weapons: GS + Mace/Focus. Swap to Staff/Hammer for Line/Ring of Warding to CC chanters as they come in if needed.
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Wall of Reflection, Retreat, Purging Flames or Shield of the Avenger, Renewed Focus or Feel My Wrath
Strategy:
1. Kill chanter at the near seal. Hit the near seal.
2. Kill chanter at the far seal. Hit the far seal.
3. Kill another chanter at the far seal. Run to hit the near seal.
4. Stack at the far seal hallway stack spot. Continuously pull chanters that spawn at the far seal and kill them.
5. Alternate hitting seals. The near seal will die first. After which, continue to focus on the far seal.
(edited by Zui.9245)
Cliffside – Continued
Option #2: Organized (No Thief, No Necro, No Mesmer)
Note: This plays nearly identical to the “PUG Strategy” above. The only difference is it’s a bit faster, requires slightly more coordination to execute, and requires everyone to be on the “same page” (and thus not killing both chanters at each seal because people are confused).
Strategy:
1. Kill chanter at the near seal. Hit the near seal.
2. Kill chanter at the far seal. Hit the far seal.
3. Kill chanter at the near seal. Hit the near seal again.
4. Move to the near seal hallway stack spot. Continuously pull chanters that spawn at the near seal and kill them.
5. Alternate hitting seals. The far seal will die first. After which, continue to focus on the near seal.
6. If the lone chanter from the far seal follows you to the stack spot, your team needs to immediately move around the corner to break LoS and lose its aggro. Do not kill this chanter.
Option #3: Organized (Thief or Necromancer) – Shadow Trap or Flesh Wurm
Role: Projectile Defense, Condition Clear, Blind/Aegis (autos), Binding Blades (chanters while fighting on seal), DPS, Quickness
Weapons: GS + M/F
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Wall of Reflection, Shield of the Avenger, Retreat or Purging Flames, Renewed Focus or Feel My Wrath
Strategy:
1. Kill chanter at the near seal. Hit the near seal.
2. Kill chanter at the far seal. Hit the far seal. Thief/Necro drops Shadow Trap/Flesh Wurm out of the way of the remaining chanter.
3. Kill chanter at the near seal. Put up reflects and pull mobs in (fight in the open). Drop hammer for Thief/Necro to pick up; Thief/Necro picks up hammer.
4. Thief/Necro gets a charge, activates Destroy Shadow Trap/Necrotic Transversal, and hits far seal. Team holds a chanter or two at low health; team may need to retreat to the near seal hallway stack spot.
5. Thief/Necro returns to near seal as quickly as possible, gets a charge, and hits the seal.
6. Run to the other side.
7. Kill the chanter and hit the far seal. If executed too slowly, you may need to drop reflects and hit the seal an additional time.
Option #4: Organized (Mesmer) – Portal
Note: This plays nearly identically to Shadow Trap / Flesh Wurm strategy above, except it is much faster.
Strategy:
1. Kill chanter at the near seal. Hit the near seal.
2. Kill chanter at the far seal. Hit the far seal.
3. Kill chanter at the near seal. Put up reflects and pull mobs in (fight in the open). Drop hammer for Mesmer to pick up; Mesmer picks up hammer.
4. Mesmer gets a charge, drops portal, enters portal, and hits far seal. Team holds a chanter or two at low health.
5. Mesmer returns to near seal, gets a charge, and hits the seal.
6. Team spasms interact in case the portal is still open. If done properly, the portal should still be open. Otherwise, run to the other side.
7. Kill the chanter and hit the far seal.
Skip to Archdiviner (Second) / Final Seal
Role: Swiftness
Archdiviner (Second) / Final Seal
Role: Projectile Defense (Bone Fiends, Chanters at hammer phases), Get aggro and block tank, Group chanters together (use Binding Blades, standing “in” but a bit behind and to the left of the front of the seal to pull all 4 chanters), DPS, Quickness
Weapons: GS + M/F (typical) or GS + M/(F→T) (organized)
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Wall of Reflection, Retreat, Shield of the Avenger, Renewed Focus or Feel My Wrath
Note: Aggro largely is based on high toughness and first hit. If you want to be fancy, after you kill the chanters at the start you can swap to Sword, teleport in with #2, then swap back to Mace. If you want to be even fancier, you can use Indomitable Courage before you do this. When pulling chanters, you should pull all 4 during the first 3 seal phases, and in the last seal phase only pull 3 to the seal (leaving one remaining away from the seal).
(edited by Zui.9245)
Molten Furnace (Weapons Test)
Starting Mobs
Role: Projectile Defense, Stability, Aegis (Resonator’s Earthquake, Oscillator’s Uppercut, Brawler’s Leap and Uppercut), DPS, Quickness
Weapons: GS + M/(F→T)
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Retreat, Wall of Reflection, Stand Your Ground or Hallowed Ground, Feel My Wrath
Note: You should fight these where they spawn. It’s faster than LoSing behind the rock, and just as easy. Just be careful not to kill any of the mobs before the portal spawns or you can bug the fractal (this is difficult to do unless you try to do it and have high DPS, so don’t try).
Tunnel
Role: Projectile Defense, Blind, Aegis (running into each room), Stability (rockfall), Group Mobs Together, Condition Clear, DPS, Quickness. See mechanics run down for more detailed information.
Weapons: GS + M/(F→T)
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Wall of Reflection, Retreat or Purging Flames, Stand Your Ground or Bane Signet, Feel My Wrath
Mob mechanics/strategy run down:
Cave Bats – Group together. Blind.
Cave Spiders – Group together. Blind. Cleanse conditions after death.
Earth Elementals – Guardian runs in first and baits high damage attack with blocks, then blinds them. Drop Wall of Reflection when they are reflecting.
Embers – Group together. Use blinds and projectile defense. Cleanse conditions after death.
Devourers – Group together. Blind. Cleanse conditions after death.
Murellows – Group together. Blind. Cleanse weakness and conditions after death.
Red Oozes – Group together. Use blinds and projectile defense.
Tar Elementals – Group together. Use projectile defense.
Toxic Oozes – Group together. Use blinds and projectile defense. Dodge as Muddied Ground is about to end.
Note: You can attack the mobs through the wall using Staff #1 (thus running GS + Staff). In a more organized group (which will rapidly blind Earth Elementals and Embers), this is ideal. Otherwise, it’ll probably lead to your group wiping due to the Earth Elementals or Embers.
Post-Tunnel Mobs
Option #1: LoSing
Role: Projectile Defense, Stability, CC mobs with Ring of Warding, Aegis (maintain), DPS, Quickness
Weapons: GS + Hammer
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Retreat, Wall of Reflection, Hallowed Ground, Feel My Wrath
Note: If you’re fast, you can swap Hammer on top of GS, time Ring of Warding, and then rapidly swap GS back in place of hammer, thus allowing you to take GS + M/F.
Option #2: Fighting In The Open (Organized Group)
Role: Projectile Defense, Stability, Aegis (maintain), DPS, Quickness
Weapons: GS + Mace/Focus
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Retreat, Wall of Reflection, Hallowed Ground, Feel My Wrath
Note: This will only work if your team has high DPS and sufficient access to blind.
NPC Roleplay
Role: Swiftness (on NPCs)
Weapons: Staff (#3), Hammer (Blasting), Focus (Blasting)
Weapons Test
Role: Projectile Defense (First test, Third Test, Cannon Test, Fire Tornado Test), Knockback Protector (Second Burn, Third Burn), DPS, Quickness
Weapons: GS + Hammer (for launch only)
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Purging Flames (lacking fire field) or Sanctuary (lacking projectile defense), Wall of Reflection, Shield of the Avenger, Feel My Wrath
Note: You don’t need hammer if someone else in your party can be trusted to reliably knock back the molten protector. In this case, you’re better off taking M/F. If you stand next to the thermal core on the exit door side of it, you can reflect/absorb the cannon projectiles with Wall of Reflection, Sanctuary, or having them collide with you in mid air while blocking them; Shield of the Avenger will not activate during the test phases. The same is true of the fire tornado test.
Weapons Test Engineer (Final Boss)
Role: Projectile Defense, Aegis (Impale), DPS, Quickness
Weapons: Unable to change from Weapons Test section.
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Purging Flames, Wall of Reflection, Shield of the Avenger, Feel My Wrath
(edited by Zui.9245)
This isn’t WoW, though. Full damage gear is very easy to get. It’s so easy to get there’s no excuse to not have it. And if you have it, in instanced PvE, there’s no excuse not to use it.
Rationalizations like “yeah, I contribute a lot less to my team, setting them up for more probable failure, but I am the last man standing and sometimes get to save the day because I set them up to fail” are pretty weak. It’s like justifying a healer guardian that does 10x less DPS than a good build, and justifying it because fights are going to last a long time and people might need healing because of it. Well duh, if you set your team up for a specific mode of failure, they’re more likely to fail via that specific mode. It’s not a strength of what you’re doing, so don’t pretend like it is.
Snowblind
Skip to Ice Wall / Fire
Give Swiftness.
Ice Wall / Fire
Note: Power (including Might), Quickness, and repeatedly stabbing the fire even if already lit make this event go faster. Make sure your party knows this. As another note, having one player (you) kite the Svanir allows the event to progress faster than kamikazing repeatedly or letting a Thief solo. With enough practice, you’ll reliably be able to do the Kiting (Hard) strategy without dying, although it’s not a major issue if you die as long as you last long enough.
Option #1: Kiting (Easy)
Role: Kite the Svanir and keep them away from the fire
Weapons: Staff + Hammer
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Retreat, Wall of Reflection, Shield of the Avenger, Renewed Focus
Note: Wear Knight’s armor to make surviving and maintaining aggro a bit easier if needed. Drop Wall of Reflection and Line of Warding when the Svanir spawn, and make your way over to the ice wall. Stack in the corner there, and use Ring of Warding when the Svanir get close. Use your blocks and dodges to run past the Svanir when Ring of Warding ends, and continue to kite them (if you think you might die, lead them directly away from the fire).
Option #2: Kiting (Hard)
Role: Kite the Svanir and keep them away from the fire, Quickness (extra difficulty)
Weapons: GS + M/F
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter or Signet of Resolve, Stand Your Ground, Hallowed Ground, Wall of Reflection, Renewed Focus or Feel My Wrath
Note: No need for Knight’s gear. Run a bit towards the Svanir at the start to make sure you get their aggro; Binding Blades can’t hurt.
Elemental Source
Role: Stability (Wind Gust, Lightning Strike last hit), Projectile Defense (Ice Shards), Blind (Ice Elementals), Group Aggroed Elementals (Binding Blades), DPS, Quickness
Weapons: GS + M/(F→T) if possible
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter or Signet of Resolve, Stand Your Ground, Hallowed Ground, Wall of Reflection, Indomitable Courage (Virtues G-B), Renewed Focus or Feel My Wrath
Skip to Shaman Lornarr Dragonseeker
Role: Swiftness, Aegis, Help Blast if stealthing or stacking swiftness
Weapons: GS + Sw/F. Swap on Staff and Hammer as needed for swiftness and blasting.
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Retreat, Free Slot, Free Slot, Renewed Focus
Shaman Lornarr Dragonseeker
Role: Get Aggro, Block Tank (Dodge Icy Breath), DPS, Quickness
Weapons: GS + M/(F→T)
Recommended Skills & Traits: Shelter, Retreat, Bane Signet, Purging Flames (for fire field), Renewed Focus or Feel My Wrath
(edited by Zui.9245)
People continually make these asinine posts about how they deserve to play whatever they want and have 4 other people do the work for them. Do what you want but at least tell other people you have no desire to complete content.
Pfft. What’s gonna happen? You’ll wipe and the dungeon will boot your party out? Nope, you get infinite lives, and mobs don’t respawn. The only thing that can make a dungeon fail in this game is loss of morale (you could argue Agony as well, but that’s pretty much the only thing that creates an artificial barrier and has no baring on gear type). If you want a perfect team, why are you pugging in the first place?
You can do content in Soldiers, or Carrion or anything, and be successful. You don’t need to use meta tactics. Anet hasn’t altered the dungeon, adding codes that prevent nonmeta builds from being successful.
Some people don’t enjoy involuntarily spending large amounts of additional time because someone refuses to use optimal gear, and/or an optimal trait setup/skill setup, and/or optimal tactics. Enough sub-optimality, and to a large enough degree, can even lead to an actual inability to complete some encounter with the existing party setup.
If someone is bad enough that they’re demonstrably not pulling their weight, or are a huge liability to the group, they deserve to be kicked. The time and effort of one person does not outweigh that of four other people, especially since that one person evidently does not value their time and/or effort all that much. If you are leeching, and people who are sub-optimal enough compared to the rest of their party are by definition leeching while attempting to create an illusion (usually a very unconvincing one) of substantial contribution, you do not deserve the same rewards (or the same probability at the same rewards) as your team mates. You deserve to be kicked.
Pugging is not the problem in these instances. The problem is that there’s effectively very little way to sort out before a run who is appropriately skilled and appropriately built, and who is not. There is also practically no way to sort out who has the same mindset as you. The closest there is to any of these things is group descriptions, which very few are capable of even reading, and arbitrary requirements that don’t really mean anything like pinging gear or some Achievement Point barrier which is also not useful. Pugging can be very enjoyable, and you can meet new friends, or get in a run when no one else you already knew (or not enough people) were around to fill a full group. Just because a group is a pug does not mean that all members are obligated to cater to the most suboptimal players joining that group. That’s just silly.
Most dungeons can be soloed. However, they’re designed for a full party, and thus are extremely difficult to solo. They will be even more difficult with suboptimal builds, and even more difficult still if you don’t know the dungeons and all of their mechanics like the back of your hand.
Not all of these are soloable by all classes. The difficulty in soloing each of these will vary hugely.
AC Story (great starter solo dungeon for any class), AC P1, AC P2, AC P3, CM Story, CM P1, CM P2, CM P3, TA Story, TA Forward, TA Up, SE Story, SE P1, probably SE P2 but it’s buggy as hell and the last boss fight would be very hard solo, SE P3, CoF Story, CoF P2 (theoretical), HotW Story, HotW P1, HotW P2, HotW P3, CoE Story, Arah P2, Arah P3, and Arah P4. Many fractals, especially at lower levels, are readily soloable as well.
So basically, everything except TA Atherpath, CoF P1, CoF P3, CoE P1, CoE P2, CoE P3, and Arah P1 are soloable. At least by some class, or at least theoretically.
Now that all of your concerns in the OP have been explained to essentially be invalid…
You make some post about how none of that pertains to class stacking, which you didn’t even mention in the OP…
Shifting the goalposts much, are we?
Why do you think we care about anything you mentioned in your post?
Focus is gem store and living story, since gem store is revenue, and living story is mediocre quality extreme low replayability type content in a game that’s starving for new highly replayable content, BUT living story gets people logging in more. The more people log in, the more likely they’re going to use that gem store!
Because you’re joining farm-type groups for the dungeon, who just want to get it out of the way ASAP because they’ve been playing it as-is for literally years. So, since a non-80 unfortunately contributes a lot less than an 80 due to full access to traits, lower levels aren’t very welcome, since they’ll just slow down the run. Same goes for inexperienced players (although, don’t get this forum started on how inexperienced most of the people in “experienced” only groups are…).
Try making your own, all welcome group. In my experience, such groups usually fill quite fast. Heck, you can even put something in there like ‘first timer, wanting to learn’ or similar. Again, you’ll very likely find helpful people joining your group. Want to watch the cutscenes? Add ‘watching cutscenes’. It’s really pretty easy and painless to make a group in this game. Give it a try!
Selling a run is perfectly legal; don’t report it. Selling an exploited run is not; please report that. Pretending to sell a run and scamming people is also not legal; please report that.
If you’re looking for a group and don’t see one posted, try posting one yourself. Don’t be so lazy that you can only join groups other people have started.
Allow me to translate your post into honest:
I am a complete kitten, and intentionally ruin games because other people can vote for different maps than whichever one I want to play. PvP community who abhors such detestable behavior, want to help me figure out how to ruin the maximum possible number of games so I can be an even bigger kitten?
To which, the PvP community here replies:
GTKO and never play PvP again.
(K as in Kitten, of course)
Unskilled players still get Arah tokens without path sellers. They join LFGs, and leech, and/or they spend 2+ hours on a simple path 2, and do it repeatedly, or they do sPvP (where pseudo-afk leeching is PERFECTLY FINE). Anyone can get any dungeon skins with absolutely zero player skill.
All dungeon runners do is let people get their tokens faster, let them get their dungeon master faster, and most importantly, keep them out of groups where they’re probably not wanted. (And to be fair to buyers, some of them could be perfectly welcome in a good group, but just have way more gold than time).
In return, they actually get an appropriate reward for their skill and effort. It’s a fair trade, and one of the areas of the game where skill is actually appropriately rewarded, in a game that often rewards content requiring zero skill equally or better to having actual player skill.
(edited by Zui.9245)
Permanent to temporary item cost ratio:
White Mantle Portal Device -105
Permanent Bank Contract – 339
Permanent Black Lion Merchant Contract – 115
Endless Repair Contract – 105
Permanent Hair Stylist Contract – 52
Permanent Trading Post Express Contract – 98
Interestingly, the WM portal device is literally at the median value for permanent item to temporary item cost ratio. As a note, it’s also more difficult to obtain, given that those other items are all obtainable with only gold, which can be earned from literally anything in the game, whereas the WM Portal Device can only be obtained with raid currency by those who have beaten the 3rd boss of the 3rd raid wing.
As such, it’s already comparable in cost to all of these items listed above. I’m not sure why it would then make sense to take actions to further increase its cost to justify it having less of a cooldown, given that it’s already in the same league as these permanent items which share the same cooldown as their temporary variants (and as such, by this reasoning, the cooldown ought to be a mere 90 seconds, not the 5 minutes suggested in the OP).
Furthermore, the Executioner’s Axe Toy is much cheaper than the White Mantle Portal Device, and has a mere 3 second cooldown on the #2 skill, which is a skill that can singlehandedly outclass the combined movement skills of any class in the entire game.
Given this information, is it really too much to ask for a 5 minute cooldown on this item? Really, is it?
just because you win against someone doesnt mean they are bad. maybe youre just a lil better than them. or they having a bad day. i was in a match when i defending a home point but i decided to type something to my team then a thief came and burst me while im not looking and died. then he type in chat noob. did that make him good and me a bad player? we won that match also.
Thief never beats a DH that’s not kittened and who is paying attention. If you’re kittened, you’re bad. If you’re not paying attention, you’re probably bad. It’s a very safe assertion that any DH that dies to a Thief 1v1 is bad.
A Thief will never kill a DH if the Thief is just a little better than the DH. The DH has to be bad for the Thief to win. And honestly, most extremely subpar DH players will still manage to win against even excellent Thief players. You have to be REALLY bad to die to Thief while on DH.
In your case, you were not paying attention to the map and your surroundings, AND you were typing and as such practically “AFK” while being bursted. Maybe you’re not a bad player overall, but at that moment your play was indistinguishable from that of a drooling idiot with zero awareness and zero mechanical skill, which is synonymous with saying that at that moment, the ONLY reason the Thief won was because you were playing poorly.
If you weren’t playing poorly, you would have recognized that the Thief was or could be rotating to your position, and you would be watching for that. You wouldn’t have been caught unaware. You could have sent your message early, and actually pressed buttons instead of just dying. And of course, if those things were true, and you were good enough at DH to randomly press buttons in some random order (I’m assuming this is the case. It’s the case for virtually everyone.), you’d have a near-zero chance at losing to that Thief. The chance would be actually zero if you pressed buttons somewhat intelligently, which you probably can because you’re smart enough to post on the forums AND smart enough to be able to type in team chat during a game.
You mean a RNG-based rewards scheme is generally a poorly designed one, especially when the RNG-rewards are extremely low probability, and should one be lucky enough to get a reward, they go through yet another level of RNG?
It’s almost like the whole fractal rewards design (and implementation) is atrocious, in addition to fractal reward levels being atrocious.
I don’t think your fix goes far enough to fixing fractal rewards. The rewards need a complete redesign.
He didn’t reset. He healed. Read over the mechanics at gw2dungeons.net
Or you were somehow coordinated enough to immobilize/chill him in the bubble phase while at the same time uncoordinated enough to spend 10 years fighting the elementals, to the point you somehow all got OOC with him and he reset. Odds heavily in favor of the aforementioned scenario, and not this one.
You can infuse the rings and back piece. You can get 30 AR just from trinkets with +5 infusions, and then you can slot a +8, another +8, and a +9 into the Agony Infusion slots of Infused trinkets. This gets you 55 AR, enough to do level 49 (and since it’s on trinkets, it means you can do 49 on any character!).
Then you’d need 3 other +5 infusions somewhere else (ideally: armor, and not headpiece) to be able to do level 50.
Alternatively, you could go for all +10’s on your infused trinkets, meaning you’d only need 2 +5’s from armor. Decide for yourself if this is worth it over the alternative of 8, 8, 9.
I don’t think that knowing how to play your class relatively effectively in a team-oriented (albeit not necessarily terribly coordinated) manner, knowing the mechanics, and being appropriately geared for PvE are terribly high standards at level 49 fractals. Nor are they terribly high standards for say, a dungeon group that asks for such things.
I agree that the LFG tool is for everyone. I have no problem with everyone using it, as that’s what it’s there for. It’s not terribly good for finding like-minded players, and this is compounded by the fact that many players misrepresent themselves through the tool, totally ignore the description for the group they’re joining, or both. There’s also the fact that group descriptions don’t explicitly state everything, most players know this, and some players ignore it; a level 49 fractal group ought not need to state they only want people using relatively decent builds who have an understanding of common tactics and the encounter mechanics. A “P# FAST” dungeon group need not state they’re going to be skipping trash. People looking for a moderately quick run (certainly, not anywhere near as fast as an actual well-coordinated speedrun, but casually fast) don’t join “P# no skipping take time and explore” groups and expect everyone to conform to their preferences, and if they did, they’d rightfully be kicked. There should certainly be no problem with the reverse, either, where a person joins a “FAST” group, but is wearing masterwork quality Soldier’s gear and doesn’t know any of the skips or mechanics and therefore gets kicked, right?
She goes invulnerable and disappears both when she reaches 50% life (from a higher % life), as well as on a 45 second timer if below a certain % life). Let’s just say that certain % is 65% (maybe it is, maybe it isn’t).
So if you take her from 65% to 50%, she disappears eventually (you can get her below 50%… with very high DPS you can even kill her outright before she disappears). She heals while doing this. If you are very slow at kiting the sparks, and/or don’t get her down much below 50% life, she can heal above the threshold (which we’re calling 65%). Then, once you get her back to 50%, she’s going to disappear. This can cycle if you continue to be slow at kiting sparks and/or don’t get her down much below 50% by the time she disappears.
This is not a bug. It’s a feature. ANET saying is that your group’s coordination is unacceptably poor, and you can’t pass go, your group’s DPS is unacceptably poor and you can’t pass go, or both.
ONE PLAYER in full damage gear can output enough damage to do this, providing one other player helps kite sparks. A full party ought to be able to output greatly more damage, and kite the sparks much faster.
I love it when people use dark magic to bring dead threads back to life for absolutely no reason. It’s almost like they simultaneously can and cannot read.
Thieves and warriors are optimal on full berserker given that the full trait setups push both to ~80% before fury, or 100% critrate after, already. He’s probably speaking from that point of view.
It sounds like you’re unaware that Warriors currently benefit from the head, chest, and legs being Assassin’s, and the rest being Berserker’s. I’m guessing you also haven’t done any math, but are just ballparking what you feel is possibly a correct answer and pretending like it must be correct?