Guild Wars 2

Awesome HoD Golem attack

I’ll throw out an idea.

I agree with Saulius; Not everyone reads the forums. What I found useful is to take the initiative and ask my party, “Is this anyone’s first time?” Many beginners have had bad experiences and may be a little gun shy to say it is their first time.

If you take the initiative instead, I’ve found that the newbies are quicker to reply that it indeed is their first time.

Think of it this way; When the game first came out, whoever ran dungeons had to experience them themselves in order to learn how best to do it. There were no guides or video walkthroughs during Beta or the first days of the game.

Maestro’s group was experienced, and there is no doubt that it wasn’t the first time they were doing the AC EXP path. However, they were Lv 35s and not Lv 80s. Therefore it may prove:

• You can do AC without full exotics or even rares
• You can do AC without having to have all 70 trait points

So the biggest overall factor of successfully doing a dungeon is : Experience

A group experienced in AC EXP will be able to complete it faster than a group that is not experienced.

However, a non experienced group that is willing to die/wipe multiple times will most likely finish an AC EXP path, even if they take hours to complete it.

Xavori.3768:

I saw that thread. Instead of level 80, maybe I should have titled this thread “Are new players not allowed in dungeons?”

There is no way a group of new players is completing any AC path when they hit 35. It is likely no group of new players is completing AC no matter what level they are

I suppose the only way to find out is to actually document a group of 35s that are new and haven’t been in the dungeon. I’m sure it would be easier said than done though and would require extensive runs and trials. For example, how does one accurately monitor having a group of fresh Lv 35s doing AC Exp for the first time? Would letting them read guides/walkthroughs or videos be acceptable? In order to accurately prove it one way or the other, we need to have multiple runs under the same set of rules.

While this does sound interesting, I myself wouldn’t have the time (or care) to conduct these experiments. It would be extremely hard to make sure every group of Lv 35s would adhere to a universal set of rules in order for the experiment to be conducted right.

What I mean is that we cannot say AC is “Impossible” or “cannot be done” with fresh new Lv 35s. We also can’t assume that it “Can” be done with fresh new Lv 35s.

Bottom line is, until we have proof that a fresh new group of Lv 35s can complete AC, we will never know.

The question becomes how do we record a fresh new group of Lv 35s? Or rather, who would take the time to do that?

I’m not saying your argument is invalid, but saying there is “no way” or it is “impossible” is a very strong statement.

Xavori.3768:

I took a new-ish group on path one last night. It took three hours even though I know exactly what to do and even took time to explain things. There was more wrong than just the difficulty (ie. Kholer by himself ending up culled at least once because of the sheer amount of particle effects from two necros with wells, guardian symbols, marks, mesmer clones, etc), but the big problem is that you’re asking new players to play perfectly. If you miss a dodge, you die. If you miss Kholer’s sparkly hand, you die. If you miss getting out of the way of Howling King’s scream or lazer, you die. If you burn up all your endurance dodging and another graveling starts you on the chain-knockback, you die.

Obviously, each dungeon has a learning curve. Unless they experience things for themselves and problem solve in order to finish the dungeon, it will take a while to finish a path.

tl;dr:

I think the question you are trying to ask is “Can a group, regardless of level, complete an AC EXP path without ever experiencing it?”

In my opinion, the answer would be YES. It would just take the group longer than a group who is experienced.

But we will probably never know until actual experiments using brand new Lv 35s doing AC EXP for the first time are conducted.

A week or so ago, a group of players with Lv 35s attempted to finish a path of AC Here and succeeded. I think it shows that even at Lv 35, understanding what strategies and tactics to use when and where trumps gear and levels.

I admit, the knock backs have made the dungeon a bit trickier, but not by much. As far as I know, every single class has either a utility skill or elite skill that produces stability in order to counteract knock backs. As far as I have experienced, path 1 is still fast to run, path 2 is fast with communication and knowing how to debug the NPC/Ghost eater, and path 3 has gotten trickier unless you really know what you’re doing.

edit: As far as CM goes, I haven’t run that in a while so I cannot give any input in that area

It can be difficult to find a dungeon group without the external site, and if one does not have access to a guild or a time where all ones’ friends get on , the other alternatives would be:

• Go to the map/waypoint nearest to the dungeon and ask chat (Which you probably don’t want to do)
• Use the LFG option in game using the (Y) button an selecting the second tab on the left

However, I barely use these options and always use the external site. I know it can be a pain to have to go to the site, but after a while, you get used to it. I mean, all I do is go to the site and

• Highlight the character’s name listed
• Press (CTRL + C) to copy the name
• Alt Tab to GW2
• Click on the little party button on the upper left of the screen
• Press (CTRL + V) to paste the name
• Click Join

Yeah, it can seem like a hassle, but it can take ~10 seconds to do. I see your point though.

This website is great for finding/creating dungeon groups : http://gw2lfg.com/

And here’s a good overview of dungeons in general

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dungeon

edit : Dungeons in GW 2 are more challenging than the usual MMOs, so don’t feel bad if you die a lot before you get used to them.

My advice is to read up/watch videos like These so you get a basic understanding of what to expect and such.

It probably is extremely difficult if all of your party members are lagging at the fire balls part. If you’re lagging, you might want to try decreasing the graphics options by pressing F11 (At least, that’s what it is on my laptop).

Yes and no. If you want to start the Explorable dungeon path for your group, you have to do story mode. If you have someone in your group who already has done Story mode, they can open it for everyone, including you.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dungeon

Home World: Blackgate
Guild Name: Naughty Magic Cookies [NMC]
Guild Website: http://nmc1.forumotion.com/
In-Game Contact: Danireathorn.2814
Focus: Dungeons
Quick Notes: Newly formed guild, looking for people to fill up leadership positions. Raidcall is available. Always willing to help in any circumstance. New players welcome. We run dungeons most of the time, but we like to relax with WvW/Farming/etc

Reflect Projectiles, especially the Guardian’s Wall of Reflection, can be a lifesaver when killing the Spider Queen in AC. Not so much the Queen herself, but from the little spiders who gang up and rapidly wipe a party.

We just finished CoF path 3 as well, and it was a heck of a grind. We had to do the torch event 3-4 times, but we finished it without too much of a headache. However, during the “Protect the Hall” event, we weren’t so lucky. Nevertheless, we kept at it and I have never felt as much satisfaction in clearing the event. After having to tough it out with my fellow party members, it was amazing in a “Not Quitting” sort of way!

Yeah, it wasn’t a speed run, but we were so happy

Sarmach.1547:

SliceOfHam.2419:

Kite him away from Grast when possible. Don’t bother interrupting howl; save CC for getting him away from Grast instead.

But what do we do when we are using the bubble for shelter and the boss is tearing us appart inside of it?

I find that if Grast throws up the bubble, using a stability skill while inside the bubble helps prevent the knockdown that the Colossus does. If you cannot do enough DPS while the bubble is protecting you and the Colossus attacks, you might want to consider having someone with blocks/aegis to protect the group. In my experience, unless we’re doing specific guild runs to figure out the mechanics, pulling the Colossus into the little cave to the east will negate the Colossus’ rock fall attack.

Hey, add me in-game. I’d be happy to help both of you guys out.

Fatfox.4915:

As an extra bit- what profession do you guys recommend using to defend Hodgkins? I think we have all but mesmers available as we’re still leveling them. Generally the party is one ele, 1-2 rangers, guardians and 1-2 warriors depending on mix up.

As a Guardian, I can only offer you the Guardian aspect of my experiences. A Guard is great to defend Hodgins because of

• Stand Your Ground (Stability Buff + Stun Breaker)
• Save Yourselves (Stun Breaker + tons of boons)
• Contemplation of Purity (Stun Breaker + conditions convert to boons)
• Virtue of Courage (Aegis)
• Renewed Focus (3 seconds of Invulnerability + Virtues are recharged)

I use SYG, SY, and Retreat instead of CoP since I’d rather have a shout that gives me aegis and swiftness and my current build uses Soldier runes to have any shout heal conditions, but it all depends on what works best for you.

Of course, I am sure other classes have their benefits for guarding Hodgins too.

Good luck! I look forward to watching the run.

In addition to what Icp said, a helpful tip for the Burrows in Path 1 is for the kiter as well as the rest of the party to stay away from Hodgins as much as possible because of the Graveling AoEs. I find that kiting the Gravelings around the pillars on the east side of the room works well.

^
Well said, I forgot about the trinity mindset.

Croatoan.8426:

1. AC has now went from a lvl 35 dungeon to a level 80 dungeon. Most groups will insta kick you if you are sub 80 and trying to level. They don’t want the task of dragging you threw a dungeon that has been revamped for lvl 80 characters.

You’ll find that some groups will do as you said and kick you if you are sub 80. From my experience, the majority do not unless they specifically ask for Lv 80s. My advice for you is to use http://gw2lfg.com/ and see which groups will allow a sub 80 and which do not. It is a great website to organize dungeon attempts.

Croatoan.8426:

2.Most teams are “pugs” and when you put more challenging tasks like the new Ghost eater,teams will have alot of difficulty doing perfect teamwork that have never played together before to stay alive/activate trap/burn him down. Basically making it a guild or friends dungeon that know each other and it is highly unfriendly to nubs/pug groups.

I have had the amazing opportunity to always join a PUG group because I use the lfg website. Unfortunately, many of my friends are not on the same time I am and my guild is not too focused on dungeons. 99% of the time, I join a PUG group because of these circumstances.

What I do is ask the group right after I step into the AC portal, “Who has done this path after the new updates?” and proceed to inform my fellows who need info. I don’t do this in a bossy manner, since you don’t want to alienate yourself from the group by putting them down and such. PUG groups are all I’ve ever been a part of, and I have had great opportunities to run with a multitude of players.

Croatoan.8426:

is heading down a slippery slop which ends at all dungeons being lvl 80 to “provide more challenging experince”. Why not make a “Elite Explore” mode that is just for lvl 80’s in dungeons that allows them to play for more money/loot. Instead of taking it out on everyone in the game?

The “Elite Explore” idea is interesting, and who knows? This might happen sometime in the future. However, you don’t have to be Lv 80 to complete AC. I’ve ran it with PUGs as low as 44 and groups with only 1-2 Lv 80. Nearly all those occasions have been smooth sailing on account of communication and understanding what to expect.

Croatoan.8426:

4.We understand dungeons are supose to be hard but seriously who wants to grind for 1200 tears to get the AC armour set “not including weapons” if one path takes 30 mins to run? That is alot of gameplay and that is if you have a good team.

For me, my mindset was kind of wrapped around this “Instant Gratification” mindset of many other MMOs. When I understood that many aspects of GW2 revolve around long-term goals, It made me appreciate what Arenanet is doing with GW2.

If you are able to get every single item of armor/weapon/gear that you wanted extremely quickly, many players would be bored with the current endgame of GW2 which revolves around WvW/PvP. I like the fact that you can’t “finish” everything you want in GW2 in a matter of weeks/months unless you go hardcore mode, but this is just my opinion.

Croatoan.8426:

5. Not everyone are farmers… I have a level 80 and I do enjoy the story but dungeons are one of the quickest funnest ways to level… I shoudn’t have to go out and "explore"the world multiple times.

You’re entitled to enjoy the game as you see fit, and there is no fault to that. The great thing about this game is that there are many ways to level.

Leveling ideas:

• Dungeons – Use the http://gw2lfg.com/ website, it’ll help a lot
• WvW – Able to kill/help your server while leveling at the same time!
• PvP – Killing to level
• Exploring – It’s alright if you don’t like it, you don’t have to do it
• Crafting – You’ll have to explore at least a little bit
• Dynamic Events – A bit of exploring to get from one place to the next unless you stay in one zone

When you think about it, you’ll need to at least explore a few zones in order to level up. I mean, you can just finish your starter zone, head to WvW/PvP and level if you wanted to. You could also just go to different zones for the sole purpose of dungeon Waypoints.

IndigoSundown.5419:

The problem with the current state of the art in MMO dungeon design is the learning curve. People who enjoy the learning curve quickly master the mechanics and then say the dungeons are too easy. People who dislike the “pain” associated with the learning curve complain the dungeon is too hard.

I hope every single person who does dungeons will eventually figure this out. What you just said sums up the main idea of a GW2 dungeon. It’s all in the learning curve, especially for the new AC dungeon paths.

As Indigo stated, there will always be people who master the mechanics and say the dungeon is easy, and there will always be people who dislike the learning curve and say the dungeon is too hard.

I think the problem is not the dungeon itself, but the fact that in GW2, dungeons are not based on the idea of having the best armor and weapons to successfully finish the dungeon. Obviously gear helps, but communication and knowing what to except vastly trumps the gear aspect. In another thread in this forum, Quam made a great analogy regarding dungeons and learning : https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Fun-or-Just-a-Waist-of-In-Game-Money/first#post1597274

Like all things in life, you need to learn how to do something in order to understand how to achieve something. This is just common sense. The more you practice something, the better you will be at it.

One final note that I forgot to add,

Erector.1458:

dungeons can really affect your character’s currency. Do you know how expensive it is to fix armor in a dungeon? VERY expensive, accounting from getting your butt kicked several times from the overpowered dungeon enemies.

I can’t tell you how protective I was of my in-game currency :P

When I finished my Personal Story, I had a combination of Green/Yellow armor and weapons with roughly 5g in actual currency. I thought that I was never going to gain more than 10g because of the pace that I played at.

I died quite a few times in dungeon runs, and I can tell you first hand that the reward trumps the risk. If you finish an AC dungeon path, you will receive at least 50 silver in money alone. Factor in all the drops you receive from monsters and chests, and you can safely assume that you will make 1g or more.

These are low ball figures and you’ll make much more in the upper level dungeons in one run.

My tip for you is to read or watch a few dungeon guides BEFORE going into a dungeon. If you need a walk through or any more tips, feel free to add me in-game

Strife’s guides make for a great head start in any dungeon (Up to Fractals): http://www.youtube.com/user/strife025

Great topic! Here are my two cents.

I think dungeons are what makes Guild Wars 2 great.

Coming from years of playing other MMORPGs (Shaiya, Aion, WoW), I’ve always been 85-90% focused on the PvE aspect of MMOs. I had my mindset wrapped around the idea of grinding countless hours to hit the max level in order to join my friends and clans in the endgame dungeon/raids/bosses. I’ll use Shaiya for an example since that is the game I spent so much time (and money) on.

In Shaiya, there were different dungeons for different levels; One for Lv 15-25 roughly, One for 31-45, and so on. The thing about Shaiya is that no matter what level you were, you could walk into an dungeon. Of course, walking into the endgame Lv 50+ dungeon as a level 1-49 would be a near insta-kill situation.

However, once you reached the level cap (It used to be 60, but now it’s 70), you could help your friends/clans in the lower dungeons by simply massacring every single mob and boss with a few hits. A max level player with decent (equivalent to greens in GW2) armor and weapons could easily clear a dungeon of a lower level, leading to power leveling as a sort of way to make money.

This also lead to many of the lower level dungeons being overrun by top leveled players simply

• Killing the boss for rare loot
• Leveling/Powerleveling friends or those lower
• Clearing a dungeon so fast that they could run back and wait for all the mobs to respawn

This basically lead to the max levels dominating the dungeons and the lower levels that were not part of the max levels’ guilds/friends list were unable to experience the dungeons.

What I love about Guild Wars 2 is the level scaling, moreso in the dungeons. You’ll find that any level 80 can die in any dungeon in Guild Wars 2 if they are not careful. In many GW 2 dungeons, cooperation and communication beats having the best gear that one can buy.

I LOVE this!

I was so nervous to do dungeons in GW 2! I waited until I was 80 to even attempt the story mode of AC. I remember that it was such a different experience to have to actually rely on dodging and communication instead of my gear. I got by butt kicked in story mode. After a while, I got more and more experience in each dungeon (thanks to many great players who took it upon themselves to explain the situation each dungeon brought).

Now, I love playing the dungeons, because I have to give them my full attention and not AFK while doing them. My friends and I are able to clear many dungeons very quickly and have a blast doing so. However, a few mistakes still can lead to dying for a team of 80s (I love this aspect!).

For example, not dodging Lieutenant Kholer’s pull in AC will either one-shot you or drain almost all of your health. This is true regardless of your level.

To sum it all up, Guild Wars 2 has a great dungeon system that takes some getting used to, but will actually challenge you!

Calae.1738:

Everyone I meet in AC are very bad at this game. It’s not like this game is hard too. I see players that are not even dodging. They’re just standing still auto attacking. Is there anyone out there that is any good still playing?

99% of the time I use gw2lfg. I dunno if you’ve just had groups in your home world or if you have use gw2lfg, but sometimes your experiences will be limited if you’re always running with people in your homeworld.

Remember, there THOUSANDS maybe even tens or possibly hundreds of thousands of players playing at any given time, so take that into consideration. You’re bound to get groups that are extremely experienced, not so experienced, and players in between.

What you can do, however, is try to ask if your group has done AC pre/post patch ever and give them tips and hints on what to expect. You might sound bossy, but it’s better to sound bossy than to have your party wipe numerous times.

Like Fay said, AC just requires communication. Communicate and you’ll come out on top most of the time.

edit:

To the OP: Also, remember that everyone has a different view on how “hard” the game is. “Hard” is a relative term, and the very first accessible dungeon is bound to have players who have never run a dungeon before.

This link might help clarify interrupts : http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Interrupt

Click on the Daze, Fear, Knockback, Launch, Pull, Push to see which skills each class can use.

Again, the Grast bug has been experienced and I am sure that something will be tweaked.

It’s understandable that GW 2 is different from WoW and also from GW 1, and you should play whatever you feel like playing. I think the great thing about GW 2 is the fact that you spend money one time to buy the game and you don’t have to pay monthly so you can take however long breaks you wish.

Hopefully this one experience won’t deter you from playing other aspects of GW 2!

Hey there,

There are a few different threads on this topic already, but here’s one of them:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/New-Colossus-Rumblus

And here’s a thread on the overall changes of AC:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/the-NEW-AC/first

It’s possible to take off the Colossus’ 4 stacks of defiance and then interrupt it before the rock fall animation. Also, fighting him near the southern pillars/ruin might help a bit too. Yes, Grast sometimes does his attack instead of throwing up the bubble, so it might help stabilizing/healing him while another person aggros/tanks the Colossus.

I agree it is a little difficult to finish Path 3 at the time, but not impossible. In my experience, I usually run Path 3 with PUGs, so my experiences are all different. Sometimes we are able to have Grast throw up the bubble just fine and the run takes 10-15 minutes, and other times we were unable to protect him but still able to finish the run in 60 min or under.

edit: I forgot to mention that I stay clear of Path 3 at the moment, since there are some bugs. I’m sure Arenanet will tweak something though, so we all just have to be patient

sucre.9310:

detha still bugged ,yesterday!

event was not start.

someone know how to treat it?

What we do is we bring the gravelings from the bottom of the stairs into the room to aggro and kill Detha.

I’ve been running AC quite frequently, so from those experiences I can tell you that it’s still relatively fast and easy (Path 1 is the fastest in my opinion). Just remember that the first completion of any dungeon path each day will give 60 tokens, and runs after that will give 20, then 15, then 10 tokens. If you switch dungeons, you’ll get 60 tokens for your first path again and then 20, 15, 10.

I think a full exotic Lv 80 set of P/V/T in AC is like.. 1380 tokens.

I think overall, AC depends greatly on your party. Unless you run it with the same people, you’re bound to either have a great run of 10-20 minutes to runs that end up being 30-60 minutes or even more (The first day or two, it was pretty common to have to spend 60+ minutes on the paths).

I PUG all parts of AC and it seems to me that as the days go on, more and more players are learning the new mechanics and how to quickly and easily run all three paths. Like Mr. Hrouda said, the first few days/weeks of getting used to the new content will be the biggest hurdle. The best thing to do in my opinion is to ask if anyone in your group has done AC after the update. If you do that and tell the new players what to do and what to expect BEFORE starting the Spider Queen, you’ll be able to solve many, if not all of the problems/wipes that each path can lead to.

From my experience, Path 1 has been the fastest to finish, Path 2 is the second fastest, and Path 3 takes longest. But even so, I’ve had a few Path 3 runs that have finished in 10-15 minutes due to the Colossus being wedged up against the Ruin Pillars and Grast safely throwing up the bubble.

Here are my experiences and tips for the three paths:

• Usually, we don’t deal with the Troll because it doesn’t spawn, but if you decide to just watch out for his AoE and his Hulk Smash ripples.*

Spider Queen:

Taking out the Gargoyle heads + Spider Hatchlings help tremendously before attacking the Spider Queen, especially the Spider Hatchlings that spawn right as the Spider Queen spawns. Avoid the red circle AoE and make sure to attack the spider from the sides/behind if you do not have aggro. The spider web immobilize can be seen charging up and it is best to dodge it by simply not staying in front of the Spider Queen.

Kholer:

Not too bad. We tend to focus on Kholer solely and not his adds. His charge up to his pull/spin is not too fast and can be dodged. Sometimes, we pulled him down the stairs and could use the columns to hide behind as he charged up.