Guild Wars 2

Swagman.9013:

Yea no part of that example is what I’m talking about at all. I haven’t ever had an experience like you described. All the bosses I fight can and do hurt you and the more I play the better I get (and others get) at not only avoiding damage but applying proper conditions, like blind and weakness, and using proper boons like protection to mitigate as much damage as possible.

To go along with what you’re saying though, that’s exactly what ANet meant when they said they were going to wait a few months for people to get use to the dungeons. Sure, the first time through with an inexperienced party you’re going to die a lot but as you start to get use to it they start getting easier and easier. No need to nerf the dungeons, people just need to unnerf their brains.

Asura, because brains > brawn. Have you seen what we built? You think those gates would exist without us?! We would have a colony in every galaxy if Asura were real.

Agree with Shoots, what you did should be reported as a bug so they can fix that. It’s not how it was suppose to be done which makes it an exploit.

There are 2 tabs for each vendor. The first tab has the non-unique looks, the second has the exotic armors which are unique. If you buy from the first one, they all look the same.

If you’re just gearing up for dungeons and aren’t yet experienced with them then I would recommend Knight’s armor as it has Power/Pre/Toughness. I also like the Invader WvW gear, or the AC exotics, as it has Power/Vit/Toughness. If you’re running with a good group, know the dungeon, and can avoid deaths then you can get away with Berserker’s but that will leave you very weak.

Don’t just think you have to be in full exotics to run them either. Masterwork/Rare quality works just fine and masterwork quality is extremely inexpensive and gets the job done while you save up for the good stuff.

Haven’t logged in yet but are you sure you’re in the second category where the exotics are located at?

Aesthetics.2671:

I’ve been spamming map chats in LA and in CoE and not 1 person and asked to join. I don’t know if the server just really doesnt want to do CoE or what. the only runs that seem to be happening is SE.

As one of the above posters mentioned, you may have to start the group yourself and don’t just limit yourself to 1 dungeon. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and do something else to get the people you need for what you’re actually after. I play on Northern Shiverpeaks and I generally don’t have a problem starting groups, normally I try to run them with my guild of course. Once you get a decent friends list built up it shouldn’t be too hard to form groups down the road. A lot of people just aren’t willing to run with people they’ve never been with before, especially if they haven’t done the run before as they know just how painful they can be as they don’t want to teach anyone else, sadly.

@Recently, they may change the leashing adds on that boss so I always find it better to just go with completing the encounters the way they were designed for. If they fix it and you’re not use to dealing with them as well then you will have an even harder time later on. That goes for any boss tbh. ;-)

In my head that went along with the spec portion, but I can see it being worth it’s own section. ;-) If anyone else comes up with anything else then feel free to post it as well.

Yeah. I do love water fields. I tend to do Healing Rain then Arcane Blast. Regen + AoE Healing + Damage to mobs = WIN!

One giveaway for this boss’ yank attack is he’s almost always moving and doing something unless he is getting ready for his pull. If you see him stand still and do nothing, dodge asap. Other than that it would be nice if you had an option to only show your spell effects sometimes.

Agreed with the rezzing. To many people focus on doing nothing but DPS so when someone goes down all they are thinking is “I must kill target” instead of “I need to make sure my entire team is up or we might wipe”. lol

Ari Kagura.9182:

Nice tips! I do agree that communication is KEY! No matter if you’re with guildies or with some random PUGs, you need to communicate with each other or your face will get rolled.

If you do nothing else you should at least do that. ;-)

Yeah,most dungeons aren’t all that difficult if you do the basic teamwork thing. Too many people try to avoid that which makes runs really rough. I’m with ANet when they said give it a couple months and as people grow accustomed to the challenge people will QQ less and less. Of course they still have bugs to fix, but overall the dungeons have been completed by thousands upon thousands of players already so they are doable if you adapt. :-)

Kurz, the forums are full of the vocal minority. It’s this way with EVERY SINGLE GAME IN EXISTENCE. If you expect everyone to play 24/7 like they do on release then you’re also crazy. I still log in and am sent to the overflow servers in some zones, I play on Northern Shiverpeaks, so that in and of itself means there are plenty of people playing.

Sure, sometimes some events are bugged but generally they’re not. I did Lyssa earlier today, as well as Grenth. Melandru is a pain, but I did that one yesterday and I saw people doing it today when I was gathering my Orichalcum. I’ve also done several escort quests that worked just fine, actually have yet to come across any that are bugged and same goes for defending events. The only bugged event I’ve come across is one of the towers for Lyssa couldn’t be destroyed but that was patched with the last patch they did and has yet to bug since then. I haven’t explored the northern zones so I can’t comment on Jormag. That’s no where near 90% of events, unless you only do 10 events.

I’m not being a fanboy. I admit that there are bugs and ANet is patching them. You say 80% of the population agrees with you but the forums are a super small minority of the game and not even 80% of the forum goers agree with you. If you find a bug, report it. No game is perfect and no game ever will be perfect. If you don’t like that then go and be like the rest of your guild and leave. If you ever expect a game to retain the same population as it does upon its release then you’re not very bright.

If you ignore the crystals and just burn him it’s easy. I just don’t think that’s how they anticipated killing him, then again maybe it is since you only have to do worry about crystals from 100-75% then 25-0%. I’ve just been going with crystal spawn times are bugged and spawning too fast until they say otherwise.

Kurzick.6375:

SiNoS.2147:

omino.4302:

SiNoS.2147:

omino.4302:

I didn’t mention any difficulty anywhere, 1 reply saying pugs and another saying it. I said Fun, big difference.

And the dungeons are fun for the crowd they were/are intended for. Most of the “Feedback” You see complaining about difficulty is infact by puggers which the dungeons were not designed for. You said they should listen to feed back. Well issue with that is the feedback is not by the intended crowd. Now those complaining about bugs. Thats completely different.

Ermm there not fun for me, I’m sure they were intended for me too.

If there not fun for you. Move on then. Point of the game is to not do what you dont find fun. Content you dont find fun in the end is not ment for you.

Edit: Also since my clicking seems to be ahead of my typing. What would make it fun for you. And if you tell me look at the feedback frankittenhat would put you into what i view as the pugger or give it all to me now crowd.

Too bad 80% of the player base disagree with you even some of the non puggers think its pointless waste of time which lacks a good reward to effort ratio and full of bugs and broken mechanics you think it will be fun if majority of the players “move on” and leave the game?

Also point me to this “move on to another content” you mean the broken world events in the lvl 80 zones? 90% of the level 80 zones are broken so where should i go next? please point me the way ohh so mighty “PRO GAMER” my guess is you farmed CoF pre patch and got all the gear you want

And point me towards the part where they say that some parts of the game will not be accessible to puggers on the box of the game or the manual or the advertising they did, because if a person does not read the Guildwars 2 forums they will not find any information about ohh the dungeons are not meant for the casuals and even then you have to have that in mind and search for it, how many normal players are gonna think that “hmmm I am buying a new game I better read the forums and look to see if there are content that i won’t be able to play”

Too many fanboys defending a broken system isn’t going to help fix this game what will happen though is a small community of fanboys left if the game doesn’t get fixed

Oh, so you have statistical proof that shows 80% of the GW2 population agrees with you? I’d like to see that.

Edit: And, please list the 90% of the max level zones that are broken. I’ve managed to complete jsut about every event and have 100% map completion on all of them. Sure, some of the events were/are bugged but no where near 90% of the zones are anything near broken.

The only time I die in a dungeon is when I’m teaching a new group that has never done it… Ok, I die a LOT in TA due to those god forsaken death blossoms respawning under me, but I have it on good authority that that’s being looked at atm.

The first time you go through, especially if it’s the first time for your group, then expedt to die. Expect to die over and over again. The next time through will be less painful, and the time after that even more so. If you give up before the first run is over and cry for nerfs then you are doing it wrong. Learn to adapt to the mechanics and you’ll enjoy the dungeons a hell of a lot.

Yep! I agree! I only play the game fore the epic phat loots!

I’m still under the impression that the crystal spawn times are bugged and spawn to quickly. If they were slowed down a bit you could actually do the fight like it’s suppose to be done, destroy crystals then dps boss, but the way it is you have to just go crazy on him and ignore them.

Rafkin.8923:

People generally do things based on risk vs reward and right now dungeons are a money sink.

Maybe your first time through and with a group of enexperienced player. After you get accustomed to the dungeon and learn what’s going to happen you may spend a few silver on repairs but you make some pretty decent coin. I took a group of guildies through AC last night. I was the only person that had actually cleared it, first time for everyone else. We wiped a few times, as is to be expected, but in the end we all made more money then we actually lost on repairs.

Marking Targets
Again, this is a problem you come across in a large amount of pugs. No one wants to focus fire, everyone wants to be a BAMF and take on a mob by themselves. You need to call targets to focus down using Ctrl + T. Start with ranged mobs because you can’t really kite them so there’s no real way to avoid that damage, unless you’re using you abilities to blind them and such wink wink. Keep melee mobs CC’ed using snares, stuns, blinds, whatever you can and kill off those ranged guys asap!

If you’re fighting a boss that has adds then you should focus those adds down first. The boss can wait, the adds will be the things that kill you more often than not. Remember the kill order goes like this: Ranged adds > Melee adds > Boss. Follow that and laugh at their corpses.

Dodging
Learn what moves to dodge and what moves don’t need to be dodged. If you’re wasting your endurance on every attack that comes your way then you’re not going to have it when you actually need it. Mobs tend to do a fairly obvious animation when they are going to do something you need to dodge. Trolls will rear their arms back while they get ready to smash the ground, guys with swords will bring the sword back, like a bat, while they are powering up that massive swing, some even tell you what they are going to do, like during the Priest of Melandru fight where the lady tells you not to look at here because when you do you’re going to be dazed until you look away.

Once you learn what needs to be dodged and what doesn’t you’re going to find yourself staying alive much, much longer. Sometimes you will be short on endurance and won’t be able to dodge an attack. That’s what downed state is for though. You’re not going to be able to avoid downed state forever, sadly, just try your best and make sure your teammates are bringing you back asap!

First Timers
This really isn’t a tip, necessarily. If it’s your first time through, or the majority of the groups first time, then expect to wipe a lot. That’s NORMAL! As you learn the encounters you will find you die less and less. I am not completely sure if it’s possible to avoid at least going into the downed state once or twice, but as you get better you will spend less and less time dead. If you are expecting to fully clear things with no wipes when it’s your first time through, then you’re crazy. Everyone dies their first couple of times. Stick with it, get better, and don’t just cry for nerfs because the big bad pixel monster killed you.

I’m sure there are more things that can be added and if you have any other tips then add them as well. There are bugs and balance tweaks that need to be done, that much is a given, but if you use some basic thought and at least try to adapt then there isn’t a single dungeon out now that can’t be beat. Don’t cry for nerfs because you died. Try and figure out how you can avoid that death instead.

I’m get tired of seeing the same posts over and over again about how hard things are so I decided I would make a nice little post with some helpful tips.

Communication
ANet said, before the game was released, that dungeons were meant to be challenging content for a coordinated group of individuals. Notice that key word, coordinated. If you are going to do a dungeon then expect to communicate with your party. This does not necessarily mean you need a voip program, using the in game chat works perfectly fine. If you aren’t at least willing to communicate with your group for the very basics then don’t expect to clear the dungeon. It’s that simple.

Food/Potions
I’ve run far to many dungeons and seen far to many players go through a run without using food or potions, it’s actually depressing tbh. You can buy an hours worth of food buffs for a couple silver, same for potions.

Food buffs, depending on the type, can increase your damage or defense a hefty margin. I, myself, love using the Fire Salsa as it gives me 100% downed health and 20% downed damage which is great! The damage isn’t really useful, most of the time, but the 100% downed health rocks. That gives my team more than enough time to rally me which prevents a death.

Potions are also a hell of a good thing. If you are running TA then grab a few of the Potions of the Nightmare Court. That’s going to reduce the damage they deal by 10% and increase your damage by 10%. That’s a HUGE deal! Unlike food buffs, these do not persist past the downed state, luckily they are very cheap and you can get more than enough for a few silver.

Combo Fields
I don’t really think a lot of people fully grasp just how helpful combo fields are. They can make or break a run like no other. For some help with the combo fields you should read up on: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Combo Once you get them down you will find you live longer and kill things much faster than you ever could before! A blast finisher inside a water field is going to do a nice bit of healing, if you use it in a fire field you’re going to get a nice boost from the might stacks. They are huge benefits.

Spec/Armor
Too many people go into dungeons with glass cannon specs and berserker gear. If you’re going into a dungeon then you need to plan properly. If you’re in a good group and can pull off being a glass cannon, or you just don’t mind the repair bill, then by all means, stick with it. However, most players really need to get some gear to help live longer. I suggest using Knight’s Armor with some form of defensive upgrade, I love Soldiers crests. Knights armor has a hefty dose of offense and defense, which is fantastic for dungeons. You don’t need full exotics for this. Get a set of masterwork quality and laugh as mobs try to kill you in 1 hit. You’ll spend ~20s for a full set, if that.

At 80 it costs 3.5 silver to respec. Make sure you’re going in with a decent spec that has survivability as well. As an ele you don’t want to run in with a 30/30 Fire/Air spec as that has next to no durability. Make sure you have some in Earth and Water for the added toughness and vitality. Make sure you’re bringing some defensive utilities as well.

Quick Edit: Also, make sure your gear is up to date. If you’re an 80 running around with level 60 gear you’re not going to get very much use out of it. Spend a little gold to keep nice and updated and you shouldn’t spend a lot of time dead.

Rezzing
If you see someone go into the downed state don’t just stand there dpsing the target, go rally that player. If they die that’s 1 less person for a good bit of time. If they are in the middle of AoE then DON’T attempt a rez as 1 death is better than 2. If the player dies then you should either have them respawn at the check point or wait until the area is cleared. Again, Fiery Salsa gives 100% more downed health which can be a huge deal in times like these.

If you are on a boss and people are constantly dropping left and right, do NOT continue to bum rush the boss from the waypoint. Instead you need to stop, regroup, find out what you were doing wrong, and start over. This will save loads on repair costs as well as ensure a much faster fight. If you’re not willing to do that then you deserve high repair costs. Now, if you’re really close to the boss and he’s almost down and you can make it back in time without worrying about dying, go ahead and do it. Play it smart and you’ll find you’re saving a large amount of gold in no time.

1: I make 50s-1g from loot drops, not including final rewards for a complete clear. Sometimes i make more than that if I get lucky. Considering it takes ~30 minutes to do a full clear, if you have a good group, that’s a pretty decent return for the little time I spend in there. Plus I get my 60 badges.

2: If you are zerging the boss down after you die then you’re doing it wrong. Sure, sometimes it’s ok to do that, but if you’re doing that over and over again then STOP, regroup, figure out what you’re doing wrong, and start over from the beginning. I know, gasp, resetting a boss takes precious time, but guess what, you’re going to spend less time if you figure out what you’re doing wrong and fix that instead of bum rushing from rez. You can clear them with any comp if you’re actually willing to learn what you’re doing wrong. I find it hard to believe that you were in a top 50 guild if you can’t grasp this simple concept.

3: Mark a target to be focused down for trash. If they are going to do a dangerous move, they are going to start sparkling to let you know hey, I shouldn’t be in this dudes way. If you are just dodging every stupid attack then you deserve to die. Learn the attacks you need to dodge and you’ll find that trash is simple. I spend 1-2s a run, if that, on repairs, except in TA because the Hell Blossoms get me a lot more then they should.

4: Bugs I can agree with you on. ANet is working to fix them though so give it time. I’ve only had it happen to 1 person and all he did was re-enter once and bam, he was in with us. If you find a bug report it in game, or in the bug reporting forums.

5: I’ve gone dagger/dagger on my ele so I have to be pretty close in order to get anything done. If a boss is going to do something dangerous it’s easy to see. Generally they are going to stop and wind up while sparkeling. If you can’t see it then turn the animation, I think that’s what it is, down in the visual options to make it easier for you. If you see a guy with a sword start to pull it back, chances are you’re going to need to move quick.

6: I would like it if they had some form of DR on trash abilities to make it where you can’t be chain CC’ed. It does suck when a group seems to do nothing but CC 1 person over and over again. Then again, if they’re getting you they aren’t after anyone else so it’s kind of a good thing. ;-)

@Xetelian, you shouldn’t be trying to dodge everything. Only certain things are worth dodging. Learn them and save your endurance for them. If a guy is shooting you with an arrow, don’t dodge that. If he starts pulling back for a huge attack, get ready to dodge. If you waste your endurance on the basics you’re going to end up dead from lack of endurance.

If someone in your party goes down, go revive them before they die. Don’t do that if it’s not safe to do it. If you’re having a huge problem with stuff like that, get some of the Salsa food buffs to give you more hp whien downed. I have 100% more hp when downed and 20% dmg increase. That’s generally more than enough time for my team to revive me. Also, get the potions. If you’re doing TA then get the potions that reduce damage from the Nightmare Court. That’s 10% less damage to you and 10% more damage to them. They’re extremely cheap too.

Don’t go in with glass cannon specs. Those will get you killed over and over again. If you’re in a good group you can pull it off with berserkers, if you’re not then have Knights armor for the added toughness. I love using Soldier crests as they give power/vit/tough which goes nicely with my knights armor. I’m working on getting the AC armor set as I love that it has power/vit/tough on it! I’m an ele and I have over 16k hp and 1k toughness, toughness might be higher as I’m not logged in atm. If you’re going in in berserkers gear with ruby crystals, or something similiar, then you’re going to die. That’s not ANet’s fault.

Learn your combo fields. They will save you time and money!

Rpgtabbycat.5869:

I wouldn’t be surprised if eventually groups that have the explorable mode dungeons down don’t start offering to run people through them for a fee. In a way, I’m surprised it hasn’t happened already.

I usually go with 2 guildies and 2 pugged players. We show them how easy it can be so they can, hopefully, pass it on. The only time we die a lot is thost god forsaken death blossoms in TA! Once you know the dungeon and have the patterns down things become easier and easier. It’s just a matter of trying to learn them instead of getting mad when you die once. If memory serves me correctly, ANet said they aren’t going to do any nerfing, instead they are going to let people adapt to the difficulty, much like they did for GW1.

I don’t multibox and i dont know anyone that does, but I’ve yet to play a MMO that said doing so was against their ToS. Using a bot program to automatically do everything with you not needing to be at the computer is not the same thing as multiboxing as ou still have to control the characters, even if it is with a 3rd part program.

Metal Sage.9703:

Artorous.8573:

I could just imagine the added QQ on the forums for people crying for nerfs if they put a LFD style tool in. These dungeons are meant to be run with a coordinated group of players. Most, not all mind you, pugs are hardly capable to doing that as it stand already. This type of tool is not needed in this game. If you want to run dungeons you can easily start a group yourself in chat or join a guild that does them.

Now a chat specifically designed for this, maybe. /map works just fine for me but I guess something like a universal map would work… but then the gold spammers would start there. :-(

How could people complain about a group finder?

Did you even bother reading what I put? I said even more people would QQ about how “hard” dungeons are, even more than are complaining now.

Yeah, the LoS issues do need fixed. I generally have them when in air attunement against death blossums from hell in TA.

I could just imagine the added QQ on the forums for people crying for nerfs if they put a LFD style tool in. These dungeons are meant to be run with a coordinated group of players. Most, not all mind you, pugs are hardly capable to doing that as it stand already. This type of tool is not needed in this game. If you want to run dungeons you can easily start a group yourself in chat or join a guild that does them.

Now a chat specifically designed for this, maybe. /map works just fine for me but I guess something like a universal map would work… but then the gold spammers would start there. :-(

I’ve tried helping people out but most people just don’t seem to want to learn, sadly. They’d rather just have everything nerfed instead. And generally they’ll toss the “elitest” word around when you try and show them just how easy something is and why it doesn’t need nerfed.

You lost like 20 silver worth of items to a bug that few, if any others, have had and are mad because ANet wont give you those items back. If it was a legendary weapon then you’d have my sympathy, but for what you lost I find it pointless to complain. I’ve spent several gold trying to win at the gambling center but you don’t see me complaining.

How many people actually read quest text in MMO’s like WoW? It’s an extremely mall percentage of actual players. The majority see an exclamation point over a NPC’s head, click accept, then go finish the reqs so they can do it all over again. The way it works in GW2 is you’re actually trying to stop an invade horde of enemies from taking over a town. Sure, the end result is the same but the delivery is different.

I find questing, in games like WoW, to be trivial barriers that are there to waste your time. In GW2 the hearts make me feel like I’m actually helping whether it be reviving soldiers on the front line, beating back the enemies, or collecting supplies to aid in the fight. Sure, it is still a kill x or collect y, but the delivery makes it feel more than that.

Yeah, my fav field is water + blast. I generally use Healing Rain + Arcane Blast to get some nice healing for the group. Second fave would be fire + blast for might stacks.

wookie slayer.4259:

Barbarka.9362:

Or you could just fight them with your friends cause you think it is fun? If you do any kind of crafting and understand that Karma is basically your reward and epic drops are supposed to be rare. Quit thinking u need Ecto drops off every mob.

Ya cause killing a super hp monster that doesnt do much really is so much fun lol, and the dragons aside from the sunless dragon are not really much fun and dont reward u at all i usally wait till the boss is about to die to one whirling wrath to it and get a gold medal

Then do something else?

1: Learn your Combo Fields. Combo Fields can make/break a run. For a little help you can visit http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Combo to learn more about the different sorts of fields/finishers. Once you get the hang of these you can breeze through dungeons in no time.

2: Make sure you’re not in a glass cannon spec. If you’re only geared/specced for damage with little thought to durability then expect to be in downed state, or worse, the majority of the time. If you’re in a good group then you can easily get by with Berserker gear, but seeing you’re posting here I’m betting you’re not so you’re better off with Knight’s gear.

3: Bring Food buffs and Potions. Potions, at 80, reduce damage of a specific type by 10% and increase your damage by 10% against that mob. There are multiple levels of these potions and they can be a huge asset. Potions only last until you are downed, but they are cheap so you should be able to afford a LOT of them for next to nothing. Food buffs are a tremendous help as well. I like using the Salsa’s while doing dungeons as I get 100% downed health and 20% more damage while downed. The damage itself is useless to me but the extra health means I have more time for someone to come and rally me.

4: Communicate with your team. This doesn’t mean get Vent or something similar, it just means use the chat. This is perhaps the biggest reason pugs fail. They go in with little knowledge and never speak to each other and when they wipe they just continuously die over and over again without trying to figure out why that happened. Then people come to the forums and say X is too hard and should be nerfed.

5: Don’t dodge every possible attack that comes your way. There are loads of attacks that aren’t going to really do much to you and if you waste your endurance you’re not going to have it when you actually need it. Most 1 shot attacks have a nice animation that gives it away. Use your dodge then. Learn which attacks need to be dodged and which don’t. Once you get these down you’ll find yourself staying alive a LOT longer.

My pizza just got in so I’m going to leave it there. Those tips should help you out a lot, but they will do nothing if you’re not willing to learn to play better. Dungeons are meant to be challenging content for a group of coordinated individuals. If you don’t want to work as a team then don’t expect an easy clear.

I am not going to say the dungeons are perfectly balanced and don’t need some tweaking, I’m looking at you TA with your death blossoms of super quick respawn times that seem to always be “obstructed” from my attacks even when I’m right in front of you. When you adapt to the challenges you’re going to find these dungeons to be a breeze. Give it some time and actually try to improve before saying everything is too hard.

Have 1 person focus on defending Hodgins then have the rest stay together and destroy burrows 1 by 1. After each burrow is destroyed kill all the mobs that that burrow spawned before moving on. Kill order should be Burrow > Breeder > mobs with KB > rest > repeat. If you aren’t focusing things down as a group you’re going to get overrun and wipe.

Same premise should work for the other path as well, I generally only do path 1 though. If you know your combo fields they become even easier.

For path 1 I think it’s bugged and spawning crystals far too fast. Sure, you can burn the boss and ignore them, if you can deal enough damage, but if you try and do it the “right” way and destroy the crystals you will find youself not actually being able to get the boss below 99%.

Does this potion work for Ghosts as well? I can’t seem to find any potion that is labeled for ghosts but I’m not sure if Ghosts are classified as Undead like Orr mobs are.

ChairGraveyard.2967:

Moakist.5268:

Also, define what an area constitutes? How big of an area are we talking about?

The people saying you can just go to a different area or travel a circuit through a zone to avoid the DR are simply wrong/lying about it. It can hit you regardless of moving through an entire zone.

Also, it seems to be bugged in weird ways, because sometimes you will hit it very quickly, other times not as much or not at all.

In any case, it’s a massive problem and it seriously impacts a lot of people. I don’t play the game solely to “farm” things, and in fact by most people’s definition I NEVER farm anything (staying in one spot the whole time killing one mob type), but it was unequivocally better when I could simply play and have decent loot by the end of the session, without having to structure my entire play time around this arbitrary and invisible system (i.e., before they put the loot DR system in).

See, I’ve yet to come across this mystical anti-farm code. I think you people just hear about something and assume since you’re not getting rares/exotics or the mats you want every few kills that it’s the anti-farm code instead of RNG. Even if you’re fully stacked with nothing but MF gear you’re still not guaranteed the drops you’re after. Had they not mentioned anything about this anti-farm code no one would be complaining about.

It works the exact same way it did in GW1 and next to no one complained about it there. If you don’t like their design decisions, go play something else. It’s that simple. There’s no sub fee so you’re free to come and go as you please.

Now this one I can agree with. I think it is bugged atm and spawning too many crystals too fast. If they were all somewhat close together I could wipe them out with a MS, but generally they are spread too great a distance. By the time you’ve destroyed a few of them he’s already spawning more. I know you can beat him if you go flat dps on the boss and ignore the crystals themselves, but I don’t think that’s how they want the fight done.

BurningLobster.1953:

If the game doesn’t have build VoIP, then it is not a tool that should be required in order to beat a dungeon. I have an expectation that the game will provide me will all that is necessary in order to be able to overcome any PvE content provided. The minimum level, for example promises that a challenge will not be impossible or otherwise awfully frustrating past a certain level. Before that point, I do not have all of the “tools” necessary to over-come the challenge. (Hit points, armor, elite skills, etc.)

Good thing in game chat works just as well. I’ve yet to use anything like vent/mumble since the game was released and yet I can still clear dungeons with minimal problems. If you aren’t willing to communicate, even with chat, then go play a single player game where it’s not needed.

Midnight Fire/Sapphire dyes.

Frostbite.8459:

Sorry to sound rude but I find the OP’s post to be mostly useless rambling. You should’ve explained in more detail why you found dungeons to be unfun, that way it would lead to a more constructive discussion. Personally I don’t think there are enough interesting enemy mechanics.

I’ve run explorable paths in different dungeons mostly with PUGs, and as long as:
a) at least one person has had experience beating the dungeon
b) everybody reads the party chat
c) everybody has half a brain
then you should be fine.

Also, about the “overpowered trash mobs”. Maybe you should change your mentality. Maybe the ENTIRE dungeon is meant to be difficult, nothing is meant to be taken lightly.

Really the only thing frustrating about dungeons is when there’s a mob that has way too much HP, especially if it doesn’t do a ton of damage. Other than that, I find explorable dungeons to be very rewarding (not talking about in-game rewards), moreso if my party members didn’t do anything I found exploitative.

I do have to say that Story Mode dungeons should be a little easier, albeit with less reward if done more than once. Then there’s the problem with explorable mode rewards, but I won’t get into that.

Exactly. There are things that do needed to be better balanced, but even with how they are now everything can be completed if you’re willing to improve and play better. Sadly most people don’t want to improve they just want it brought down to their level.

Disconnected.9253:

Artorous.8573:

ANet said multiple times, before the game was release, just what they thought about dungeons. They want them to be challenging content for a group of players that is willing to communicate among themselves. That does not mean using vent as it can easily be accomplished with the in game chat.

If you don’t want to communicate and expect everything to go smoothly, then that’s your fault. Try actually getting better at the game instead of QQing on the forums. A full Arah clear nets me 1.5s in repairs because I communicate with my group, mark targets to be focused down, and I don’t just go in with the highest DPS spec/gear makeup.

The majority of the pugs I’ve joined go like this: Group of 5 mobs agros > Everyone picks random mob to solo because they’re bamf’s > Group proceeds to wipe > After rezzing I start marking targets to be focused down > Mobs die, players live, dungeon complete.

I like how you assume that this is what this entire thread is about. Or that everyone plays like this pug you describe.

Gratz on your arah farming, thanks for lack of any constructive input, bye

If people weren’t playing in PuG’s, or at least communicated and tried to improve, then the forums wouldn’t have nearly as much QQ about difficulty. Every dungeon path has been cleared so that is proof they are all possible. If you can’t do it then that’s not ANet’s fault. Improve yourself and try again. Eventually you’re going to clear your way through it and each run after that is going to get quicker and quicker as you grow accustomed to the difficulty. If you want easy modes then go play a Single Player RPG, or WoW as both are extremely simple.

Ars Valde.8693:

OP makes valid, well thought out points, and I’m surprised by the lack of peoples ability to read what he’s saying and comprehend it.

He’s stating that the current curve makes it difficult, if not impossible, for people who cannot commit large continuous chunks of playtime to the game.

He’s asking to make it more casual friendly. Not to dumb it down and let every have their pretty toys because they suck, but to give everyone the option to have a toy, if by earning it through different means.

Just about every dungeon path in this game can be completed in 30 minutes, naturally if you’re going in with a PuG that doesn’t want to communicate or actually function as a team it’s going to be longer. If 30 minutes is too much time for you then, as an above poster said, go play something other than a MMO.

The whole point of dungeons is to get unique skins. The items themselves have stats that are identical to crafted gear sets as well as karma rewarded sets. If you want the super awesome unique look that only a few others have, then spend the time to get it! Don’t come and say, “My RL priorities are too vast and I can’t spend but 10 minutes playing a video game and due to me being horrible I can’t clear the dungeon so they should be nerfed so I can get everything!”

If you actually better yourself as a player then you can fly through the vast majority of the dungeon paths in a minimal amount of time. Will you get the gear as fast as someone who spends hours a day playing? Nope. Will you get the gear regardless? Hell yes! Unique looks are meant to be unique. Legendary weapons were meant to be just that, legendary. If you don’t like it then you’re playing the wrong game.

ANet said multiple times, before the game was release, just what they thought about dungeons. They want them to be challenging content for a group of players that is willing to communicate among themselves. That does not mean using vent as it can easily be accomplished with the in game chat.

If you don’t want to communicate and expect everything to go smoothly, then that’s your fault. Try actually getting better at the game instead of QQing on the forums. A full Arah clear nets me 1.5s in repairs because I communicate with my group, mark targets to be focused down, and I don’t just go in with the highest DPS spec/gear makeup.

The majority of the pugs I’ve joined go like this: Group of 5 mobs agros > Everyone picks random mob to solo because they’re bamf’s > Group proceeds to wipe > After rezzing I start marking targets to be focused down > Mobs die, players live, dungeon complete.

No, you can do it anyway if you are willing to communicate, mark targets, basically adapt. They did it one way, we did it another, you yet another way. You’re just not willing to better yourself whereas we are.

No, expecting to achieve everything without putting in the work required is entitlement. Everyone has access to top end gear by crafting. If you want the unique look then put time into getting it. If you don’t have the time, or don’t want to put the time in, then don’t expect it to be handed to you. There are already plenty of games out there willing to hand you everything with no effort, we don’t need another.

@Prophet – You can’t buy them now because no one has one yet, and even if they did they wouldn’t be the ones selling it. Notice how you can select Legendary from the Quality section? Legendaries are Pind on Use which means if anyone wants to make one and sell it they are free too. That wont happen for a pretty good while and they are going to be asking huge sums of gold, but if you don’t want to spend the time crafting it yourself you can save up the 500+ gold I’m sure they will be asking for it. Don’t like it? Who cares? They are legendary skins which are meant to be legend, wait for it, dary. Not everyone is going to have one because not everyone is meant to. They are for the most dedicated players.

Looria.8019:

Artorous.8573:

I really wish they would have made explorable mode 10 mans so people would get out of the mindset that they’re suppose to be pug friendly 5 man runs. They are meant to be difficult but too many players played games like WoW/Rift where 5 mans meant easy mode.

Well this isnt WoW. And this isnt Rift either (which is just WoW in new coat). Devs said that this game will be as different from other MMOs as possible. Every 5 men explorable dung is much harder than any raid in those other MMOs thanks to one thing. There is much higher pressure on you. You need to make sure to do the best because there are only 4 other ppl. If you had 9 other ppl to cover for you your mistakes are not so severe.

You’re right, it’s not WoW or Rift. I didn’t say it was in any way. I said too many people have the mindset where 5 mans should be easy and mindless, but that’s not how GW2 works. The Devs stated that 5 man explorable modes were not meant for pugs. They were challenging content for a group of 5 that uses coordination. If you go in there and just try to AoE everything down while using a glass cannon spec/gear then you’re going to wipe. Don’t come to the forums and QQ about it.