Guild Wars 2

I think TA rocks and I farmed 2 full sets of gear from there using gw2lfg. I dont find TA particularly hard but it can challenge some groups. People run TA for the gear/skins or lodestones so it should still have plenty of traffic. The best time to run TA is just after dungeon reset.

Honestly, what are my chances of being able to PUG to fotm 26? Because for the most part my groups havent been very good and now that I’m reaching fotm 16 I definitely see groups struggling. Its not that the content is too hard but the players just aren’t very good. Bad gear, no consumables, most of them running some pvp spec because they are to lazy to find a good pve one. Do I have a snowballs chance of hitting 26?

Xorcerox.4807:

I’d say: Thieves are good, if you can play them correctly, but most players just do not know how to play thief in PvE. Also: If you see players saying that, just do not join them. Impatient + unfriendly leader = No thanks!

I think in general that a guardian would be the better choice to add to the group but I’m running fractals in the high teens now and I still have yet to group with a decent guardian.

Thanks for the replies. Yes that does make sense when you say that. Thanks for the help!

Personally both Guardian and Warriors are at the top of the “want in group list”. Guardian for a tank and Warrior for dps. I notice a lot of warriors saying glass cannon is ok but I dont know much about them. Warriors tend to last longer than other glass cannons and its not like you res’ them much.

So I’m on FoTM 15 and working on progression. If I do a FoTM 16 do I still get credit for the daily even though I’m not actually up to that level yet?

haviz.1340:

Can I have rare aquatic weapons? Or blue aquabreather?

Get the green aqua breather for a little karma out in Cursed Shores

Hmm.. I suppose if you had enough people this would be great. I’m in a max’d out guild and was in another max’d limit guild before that. Neither one would have enough people to run something with 10 people I dont think. Its usually a challenge to get 5 together from guild. I know thats amazing that out of 500 guild members you can’t even get 5 people together but I guess a lot of those are alts or casuals? If it wasn’t for gw2lfg I’d never get groups for anything!

I’ve tried condition build in PvE and I’ve group with many players who were condition builds. Its not very good in PvE due to the mechanics of most bosses and even trash mobs. So its good in PvP but not in PvE. Its just the way the game is setup and maybe perhaps down the road they might add PvE content that would favor condition builds. But for now you should just focus on a direct damage or support build if you really want to contribute to a group.

Ioflux.4369:

Guardian/Mesmer (reflects) > Harpy Fractal
Guardian/Mesmer (reflects) > Volcanic Fractal
Guardian/Thief (reflect/stability/stealth) > Dredge Fractal
Warrior (battle standard)> Ascalonian Fractal
Durable Keyboard (facesmashing) > Swamp Fractal
Guardian (stability)> Snow/Svanir Fractal
Guardian/Mesmer (stability/portal) > Cliffside fractal
Guardian/Mesmer/Ele (sinks) > Underwater Fractal

You get the pattern. Make a guardian or find a good guardian friend, I guarantee you, your fractal life is that much easier.

As a mesmer I find that guardians hate to share there reflections OR maybe the ones I group with forget they have them skills… you know.. "pew pew … wha reflect? wall?… no like to pew pew… " In just about any content I almost never see any guardians using them. Granted I PUG all the time but really?

Erebus.3897:

I think wearing magic find inside a dungeon is bad manners….its a matter of etiquette with your fellow players.

I’m actually happier not knowing if someone has all magic find gear on in a group. If I knew it would make me feel like the rest of the group was carrying the player with all MF gear…. .which they would be. Soooo I try to ignore it and think happy thoughts. I know its happening but nothing I can do about it. Its how Anet made the game.

Guardian gets my vote easily. A high dps warrior can make things nicer just depends how glass cannon he’s setup as to whether or not he can keep from dying. Mesmer brings many good things, some of which are appreciated and some which aren’t so apparent.

Generally thinking of all pve content I keep coming down to a Lupicus test. Try Lupicis with a good guardian tanking him and see how painless it is. Then try it with a group with a mix of any other class. The fight becomes considerably harder. It becomes more of a “who can survive Lupicus running wild” kind of event. Anyways thats my 2 cents.

I run dungeons all the time and never discriminate against any class. Engineers may well be a decent dungeon character but the ones I’ve had in my group dont bring much to the table. Then again I rarely see anybody in PUGs play decently. I’ve been in fotm’s with 2 guardians and never one of them is using wall.

My advice is dont let it get you down and keep plugging away. At higher levels though I hear groups can be quite selective. But you can probably make it up into the 20’s if thats your goal.

Well… pugs are just that bad. In my opinion 5% know what they are doing and really try. 10% are elitists who dont know what they are doing. 50% dont know what they are doing or care whether they contribute…. they just want there shineys. I had 3 fail groups in a row trying to get my daily fotm 10 done. Its was a pittiful display of what PUGs can be like.

Robert Hrouda.1327:

I’m Designer Hrouda, and this is my favorite thread on the forum.

…

……

That being said, we are always looking at our reward tables. I agree with you that a blue is very unsatisfying of a reward for GL and other instances. Part of our Dungeon work coming down the line is going to involve changing reward tables and whatnot, so please be patient as we work through things as fast as we can.

Thats good to hear. IMHO when I first ran dungeons I thought “wow these chests dont have very good loot”. But then I started to understand that the reward was the 60 tokens at the end with which you could buy the gear that players could specifically choose. This method is much more preferable than running a dungeon 20 times trying to complete a set only to have another “light armor wearer” win a roll against you on only his 5th run. Then of course he boasts about it being his 5th run then you really feel like mud!

Its a different system. I have to admit I like it. It doesn’t bother me that chests dont have a lot of loot. A little more gold would be nice but thats a different matter

Oh no I love magic find particularly when in a group with terrible dps.

Again with this topic. Trash mobs have far too much hp and drops are horrible. This is why skip. Generally people who complain about skipping have recently had a bad experience because they weren’t able to make it past skipped trash mobs. It does take a skill of its own particularly in something like Arah. Even the Dev’s have said the dungeons were designed so skipping trash was optional.

Yes agony can kill you at 10+ with no resists. You can dodge agony from everything but Jade Maw. When you get ascended rings you can buy AR and put it in the upgrade slot for 5 AR. Then you can upgrade the rings to infused with gives 5 for infusion but you’ll have to add another 5 AR from the vendor bought item because infusing a ring destroys anything you had in the upgrade slot previously.

There are good guides out there but from what I read general rule of thumb is you need -5 AR the level your running. i.e. if your running fotm 20 you should have around 15 AR. So thats 2 ascended rings and backpiece all with the vendor bought AR item.

lol… agony only comes into play at 10+ Truth is even at 10 most people haven’t had a chance to get AR yet either so its a mix of people. I’ve run it 8 times so far and just did get 5 AR

I read posts about fractals and watched some videos but it doesn’t give the average player enough information. I believe Fractals is very easy content now that I’ve been running it for a bit. But I recall when I first entered fractals and asked good questions I rarely got answers. For the most part I learned by doing. So be it. But I made mistakes and occasionally still do.

Its easy to put the blame on someone else. Happens all the time in dungeons. Elitists pointing fingers yet they dont know the content themselves. Most players comprehend just fine so when they say “I dont know this” or “my first time doing this” they are perfectly ok when someone takes 60 seconds to explain the event or boss.
The only time this fails is when there is a language barrier which does happen.

Ultimately the best answer is to group with the same people all the time but some of us dont have that luxury. I mean that sounds simple enough but it can be very difficult to find that steady group.

I thought there was thread that documented Lupicus tosses more poison jars in the evening… when he’s happiest?

fragnot.8073:

Do you play one yourself in Dungeons?

Or do you often face a Guardian in your group, if so – what do you think?

In PvE… I think they are good… but I’ve been known to be wrong.

I’m in a similar position having to run lvl 10 for a couple rings. I’ve never had a run fail so far BUT I’ve had plenty of undergeared pugs who made the runs much longer than they needed to be. I’m in a nice guild that I thought was big in PvE but as it turns out I dont think any of them are running fractals that I know about. Its too bad because I’d love to run fractals with the same group as well. Althought I dont play after midnite

I love Lupicus. He throws more mason jars of happiness now.

haviz.1340:

You used word “tank” 3 times too many ;P

I goofed…

There is no way to get ascended gear pre-10 unless you upgraded a triforge amulet. Rings only come from daily chests lvl 10 and higher. You could get a back piece and upgrade it to ascended but thats 1850 fractal relics and some other stuff. Really your just looking for a little AR like me.

I have no AR and have run lvl 10 half a dozen times and gotten 2 rings that I can’t really use. Having no AR I do get downed occasionally. As a rule of thumb I should have 5 AR for lvl 10 or to progress so I’ll do a few more runs then buy a ring if I have to. I’m figuring I’ll need 15 AR to run fotm 20 so thats 2 rings and a back piece.

Dunno I did Lupicus this morning and he was working fine. Was your group mostly ranged with no tank or a poorly played tank? Sometimes with no tank Lupicus runs around so quickly its easy to get out of range and possibly reset.

Dungeons in GW2 are almost too easy. With the exception of a few dungeon bosses the dungeon experience would be a real snoozer if it were made any easier. Its only a struggle to sub-80, poorly geared and poorly played players. Any player can run CoF or AC to get geared once they hit 80 with those 2 dungeons being incredibly easy and farmable. You can still do AC exp at lvl 35 if you want but you will have a tougher time with it than a fully traited 80 with some dungeon experience.

As for the waypoint issue I dont even think about it. In other mmo’s you dont get any waypoints so what are you complaining about?

I dont know why but I always get a bit of a laugh when I watch people killing themselves in TA when Vevina puts confusion on them. I always warn groups but I still see 2 or 3 people going down right away. My last TA run 4 people in the group died so quickly I had to run out and reset the boss. That was just after I mentioned “watch out for confusion on this boss”.

Well guildies are generally better but if you can pve with the same group of people its safer. I’ve been in some real doozies with PUGs. Just this morning I ran Arah and 2 dudes were talking elitist smack the entire run….. guess who the 2 worst players were in the group? They spent two thirds of the Lupicus fight dead so we pretty much 3 manned Lupicus since they only contributed during phase 1 and those grubs.

Coast.5162:

You can still pug easily.
Started playing fractals 2days ago or so and alrdy up to level 9.
Agony at level 10 aint that bad neither…

I’m still pugging lvl 10 working on my rings and AR. Admittedly some pugs the worst gear and aren’t very good at there class so it makes for very time consuming runs. But sometimes I get in pretty pro groups.

Oh and agony at lvl 10 downs me from full health on jade maw unless I have cd’s up to mitigate it. I dont mind being downed due to agony. I dont think my team mates mind reviving me. I go down due to agony but they go down due to other parts of that event.

I was a late starter by about 2 months after the game was released. I was playing another f2p game. I watched video’s and read up on strategies. Even that doesn’t get you enough info but its at least a start.

I think you’ll its a mix of people. Some helpful some not so much. I notice that in my guild many unexperienced players group together to run explore modes they’ve never done before. It takes em awhile to get thru but I guess they like learning it together.

cryingthebigtears ty

So the group I was in killed Jade Maw at 7:04 which means we missed the reset from the previous day doesn’t it? So I’ll have to wait until the next reset to do the daily?

OP is right. I remember when I first started playing GW2 the forums were littered with posts about how useless and underpowered mesmers were in pve/dungeons. Thats not the case though.

I dont think you can condemn gw2lfg scrub groups so quickly. I’ve had guild groups that were horrible. But like you mentioned it is hard to find server groups depending on when you can play. Even an LFG tool in game isn’t going to be perfect. I remember how selfish and really sucky WoW groups were when they introduced that tool.

So your choices are find a group of people you like and do dungeons with them all the time (I’m never this lucky) or PUG it and make the best of it. Having said that I’ve been in some terrific PUG groups. Its hit or miss.

Pinch.4273:

Spreading out all over the place is generally not a good idea. If you do get downed far away from your team, they can’t come to your aid right away. (This is a really bad thing to do on Subject Alpha)

Emphasis on this.

Pay attention to your party members and stay close. If you see someone getting low on health, keep an eye on them and get ready to res them if you have to. There is almost no excuse for having someone downed more than a few seconds if everyone is prepared.

Depends on the boss imho. For instance you dont want to be grouped together doing Lupicus but its a good idea on the Nightmare Tree.

Getting downed people should be a priority if you can do it and not die yourself. Sometimes I got to revive someone and get boss aggro so then I change to kiting the boss and try to pull him away so others can revive. It sort of works sometimes :P

I never knew people were getting booted at last boss for whatever reason but I’ve helped people down last bosses before…. usually guildies. I dont agree with booting and selling spots.

Good to hear this is getting looked into. I did this yesterday after the patch lvl 10 with 0 AR. We tried Rab the old methods and then tried pulling him out of the room where he just resets. But interesting insights about the respawns by the cart. So I guess you can pull Rab to a corner to keep from getting add waves.

We did the ice elemental and wiped once. Just wasn’t expecting agony to be so wicked at level 10! Geez. This is the level at which you just start to get chances at rings. Anyways we finished him on the second attempt. I was voted to work the levers and nearly downed many times. Null Field helped but its on such a huge cd. Maybe I need to start bringing regen food or look at my build to compensate for the harsh agony.

You would have best luck asking in Lions Arch for something specific or try gw2lfg.com

I’m hoping for the plush Lupicus backpack soon!

OMG we need a hint for what those changes are!

Omg border peep. Is that like tiny easter chicken?

Just have to take it with a grain of salt. Yes there are some bad players. There are some good ones too. Best thing to do is move on as quickly as you can and find another group.

Grouping with guildies isn’t always an option. I’m in a pretty large guild now and rarely group with them because nobody has much of a repoir with each other. Ideally you would want 4 or 5 guildies to do dungeons with regularly but thats hard to find even in a big guild. At least its been that way for me. Besides I’ve been in some fantastic PUG groups that I wish I could group with those guys all the time. Its just the nature of PUG’s. You never know what you will get.

I guess I dont understand why people are so offended by warriors facerolling CoF p1 to there hearts content and being elitists about it. Anybody can make a group for p1 and just say “not speed run!” on lfg. Having said that there are sooo many bosses in the game that are just HP sponges and warriors rule yet again but that doesn’t bother me either. I think Anet watches and new content wont have as many of those. I’ve been wrong before though

Fresh 80’s in bad gear who only have that one level 80 toon would struggle in AC. I think our view is jaded by the fact that a lot of people have multiple 80’s and AC isn’t hard to anybody with exotics. Not trying to justify people doing whatever in AC.

Kaede.9314:

Lupi takes practice, but once you get it down he’s easy. And Actually, the huge AoE isn’t bugged. The missles he fires out have a very irregular flight path, so often you will get hit by one in the air.

Indeed. Its more like he’s flinging poison mason jars of happyness in your direction. The circles sort of show where they were directed originally.

treborIRL.4521:

…. i actually love this fight. i’m working on a second arah set for my mesmer

I’m still contemplating this. I love Arah but the light armor set looks so aweful. I know its a bit of a status symbol showing you did Arah a lot but I dunno….. I might go for Bifrost someday so I should at least farm up the gift from arah.

Conner.8713:

I’ve toyed to play Arah, but every time I come to lupicus, my team gets wiped, and decides to leave. The simple way to fix this, is fixing the aoe attack, that’s does in phase 2. The aoe does simple not hit where the red circles show. It’s so frustrating, when you really want Arah gear.
Please make the developers see this.

When you say “your team” do you mean guildmates you know and run content with or do you mean just people who dont know how to do Lupicus but there are in your group?

I love the Lupicus event and wish GW2 had more that were as entertaining. Its not faceroll easy or just a matter of burning thru a ton of HP. You actually have to move and think.

The thing I found about Lupicus is once you’ve done it a few times and understand the fight its not too bad and its a lot of fun. I’ve also found that a decent tank who knows what he’s doing can make this fight much easier. Most tanks don’t.

Its hard to argue that warriors do the best dps when played well. But even a poorly played warrior is way better than any other class played poorly. Odds are you’ll get more dps from any old kitten of a warrior.

Myself I take any profession in a group but when I see 4 warriors in my group I know that stuff WILL die quickly even if they have not so good gear or experience.