Guild Wars 2

I would like to thoroughly thank you all for your efforts and the video. I thought it was great. The most remarkeable thing I thought was that you killed (almost) all the mobs on the way. It looks much more like a daunting adventure you’re undertaking than what dungeon runs are for most people – a rush and in the old ACs case a bit of a walk in the park.

I’ve only been playing dungeons for the last month or so and to be honest, the way I’ve learned them was exactly the way I would not have liked to in hindsight. It’s all skipping mobs and rushing through content as fast as possible.

I believe your video proves multiple points:
- with cordination and an understanding of how party members compliment each (combos, buffs, debuffs etc.) the dungeon is absolutely possible even for the minimum lvl (which will not be the average, I mean you will be lvl 36 by the time you completed the first path)
- patience is this missing virtue that most players lack
- dungeons can be challenging and lot of fun

Speaking from my own experience I find it remarkable that it can take a lvl 80 only pug group, with the average rate of communication for such a setup (i.e. little more than – skip kohler?) just as long, or even longer to complete this dungeon, if the endeavour doesn’t fail entirely, say due to the party leader or too many members rage quitting.

At the same time you have killed almost all the mobs in the dungeon and didn’t wipe once. I bet the loot and gil you have received thus was quite considerable from a level 35 perspective.

I’m taking from this experiment the following: I will re-evaluate what I want from dungeons and I will try to follow your example and attempt to find like minded people for my next runs who want to actually experience the content, that was worked on for so long, I shall see how that’ll work out.

Best of Luck for the other paths, I hope Grast doesn’t bug out too much on you.

- I find staying behind her as much as you can in melee most effective, since that keeps you save from the web.
- The poison circles are much deadlier in combination with the web, because then you can’t dodge out
- if possible try to res people even when they’re out. you have to watch the poison circles, but it is possible to heal with one person, while the rest keep the spider busy.
- I would take out the statues as quick as possible (if possible before queen spawns) else melee will be a pain.

For warrior I’d recommend the following,
- condition removal through traits if possible
- Warhorn (especially traited) also makes for great support, call to arms grants vigor to the team (more dodges) and charge removes immobilize. if traited you can also remove a condition and turn them into a boon twice.
- for dmg I either go GS or Sw/Axe or both, I imagine Axe/Axe would be good too, this however leaves the statues to someone else
- use healing banners to support everyone

I like your approach, I’m trying something similar with mine after the AC finally made me realise how squishy my initial build was.

I think the good thing about shouts/banners is that you can adjust on the fly and change your traits and utility skills how you need them (although i do favor banners in a party)
My suggestions:

- go for full Monk runes, you get a 5% chance to heal when hit on the 4th, and you get Aegis every time you use singnet of rage (or another elite skill if you really want to) 165 healing power

- instead of getting 15% boon duration from that water rune, use Chocolate Omnomberrie Cream (20% boon duration + a whopping 40% magic find when you have boons active)

- boon duration: 30% (trait) + 15% (monk) + 20% (food) = 65% which combined with Signet Mastery means you can have Swiftness, Fury (crit chance plus 20%) and Might 5+ (at least +175 on Power and CD) on constantly (cooldown 48s vs. duration 49 1/2 sec)

- if you’re going for warhorn, I would definetely invest in quick breathing (the faster cooldown again means you can have perma endurance (16s coold down vs. 16 1/2s duration) and you can use both skills to turn a condition into a boon for you and your allies every 16 1/2 sec.

- I would also go for banners instead of shouts, banner of discipline for example then regenerates, grants a healing power buff and gives you 10% more boon duration, giving you a bit more leeway for boon reactivation

- finally I would definitely get rid of the second Sigil of Water as it’s a waste of space (they don’t stack and they both share the same cooldown anyway, which is why you shouldn’t equip two crit hit sigils at the same time) I would go for restoration (heal on kill), water (heal on crit) and Life (stack heal power on kills).

It might just be my personal experience, but i ran all paths multiple times with pugs now and only once a person quit. Everyone else tried and eventually succeeded to see it through in the end.

Path 2 seems fine now, and Grast still seems to be a little buggy, but it might just be Colussus hitting him at the wrong time. Other than that it seems harder at times, but at least that means it challenges you.

Allthough I liked that AC was a quick and easy dungeon, this more challenging version is much more rewarding in the end. The boss fights are completely different from each other now which is nice and also forces people to think about how to approach the fight. And actually talk as well. In comparison, previous runs where never as vocal for me. There was almost no talk, apart from “skip kohler?”.

It also completely changed my view on the warrior class for example and forced me to really look into what option I have to actually benefit myself and the party.

So all in all, yes they take longer and they might be a little frustrating at times for now, but I think the changes are improvements. The dungeon is more fun than before.

As for the lvl 35 problem, I think it’s just a made up one, admittedly a level 35 only party will find it tougher than a lvl 80 exotic, but that just makes sense anyway, and it will feel like a real achievement to finish the dungeon. The fact that some people don’t want to play with non 80-exotics is out of the hand of Anet anyway. I for one have no problem playing with a non maxed party and I’m sure it’s the same for many others.

So thank you Anet, for me AC is now less convenient, but more challenging and rewarding and in the end, just better. (Who you gonna call?…)