Guild Wars 2 - Spelunking Club (The Arah Initiative)

Work permitting, I still want to do AC story. Have yet to run a dungeon. Will log in ASAP.

Heretk wrote:

Work permitting, I still want to do AC story. Have yet to run a dungeon. Will log in ASAP.

Yeah, I couldn't get on over the weekend but I still want to run this as well. Stop Bit does too.

My 3rd character is now ready for AC, so if I can get on, I'll join you guys.

I should be on tomorrow night. I'd be up for:

AC explore
CM explore
TA explore

AC story is a tough sell for me since it can be a slog, but if you guys really need a fifth, I might be convinced.

Just curious since I've never done it but what makes AC story so bad that people avoid it? Really long or difficult or some thing? Reminds me of my early days of WoW trying to find groups for Gnomeregan.

Severian wrote:

I should be on tomorrow night. I'd be up for:

AC explore
CM explore
TA explore

AC story is a tough sell for me since it can be a slog, but if you guys really need a fifth, I might be convinced.

Without spoiling too much, the other two dungeons you named are harder imo.

JeremyK wrote:

Just curious since I've never done it but what makes AC story so bad that people avoid it? Really long or difficult or some thing? Reminds me of my early days of WoW trying to find groups for Gnomeregan. :P

I don't know how others feel, but for me it dragged on too long - easily over 2 hours - and one of the boss fights (the twins) was just annoying as all hell. Other parts of it were actually quite fun, and it's possible that my experience of it was tainted by my newly 30 level-ish thief at the time being very squishy.

Hmm... I figured when I ran it a second time we did it in around 1:15. And I was inexperienced as the leader so we had probably twice as many deaths as my first run. Maybe my memory is fuzzy?

Do the guys who ran it with me (djori vran) remember roughly how long we took? I think elycion was one of the group members... For the life of me I can't remember the others because I keep thinking of the people I ran explorer mode with mooosicle.

I've run AC story 3 times now. The first time was 2hrs. The next two were closer to 1:30. It made a difference when you know what is coming and what to do and especially when there is a designated person pulling and calling targets.

JeremyK wrote:

Just curious since I've never done it but what makes AC story so bad that people avoid it? Really long or difficult or some thing? Reminds me of my early days of WoW trying to find groups for Gnomeregan. :P

AC story suffers because it's the first story mode dungeon, meaning that regulars have done it once, twice, three times already. It's hard to entice people into doing it again because it takes a while (90mins) and yields essentially no reward (the rewards for doing a story mode dungeon for the second+ times have been significantly nerfed). ANet has said they are working on figuring out something to give incentives for running story mode again, but I dont know what that will be or when it will happen.

My friend, Stop Bit, can't make it (family responsibilities) and I want to run it with him so looks like we're out. Sorry about that. Seems like some thing is always coming up for someone when it comes to this instance. D'oh.

I've run AC story twice and each path of AC explorable once. AC path #3 I have yet to complete but the other two paths have netted me practically a full level of XP in the late thirties and early forties.

I ran path 2 last night with gwjers which was at times frustrating but the highlights were really strong and we ended up ruling the day. One of the biggest highlights was running around in the spikes with my other warrior groupmate. (I don't think that is too much of a spoiler)

The other highlights were just making some really good saves (timely revives that turned a sure wipe into a full recovery). We may have eventually wiped but it was the difference between making some progress and no progress.

We had 2 warriors with one, me, being under leveled and having average gear. The rest were a necro, engineer and thief so we had a lot of squishies and hence many downed states. I almost think being in a downed state a lot helped since the warrior has a ranged knock down skill when downed. I know for sure I prevented a few whirlwind of deaths with that skill as well as helped get that last sliver of health on a tough target.

It was really interesting because I was weapon swapping between almost all of my weapons. The tactics just demanded it. There were times were I needed my mace/shield despite putting me at a much greater risk of dying. This happened a lot when I would respawn and run back as the party was struggling past the half way point on a boss or mini boss. Switching to mace/shield, I only lasted for ~20 seconds but with the daze, knock down and stun, we were able finish them off.

Likewise, longbow was the weapon used the most. The combo effects of the fire field cannot be ignored. And the numerous aoe skills helped whittle down summons. There would be many times where I would assist on the main target yet all of my ground targeted skills would be used against the adds. (though I would try to maneuver so that it would hit the main target as well) That was a lot of fun positioning myself for those fights.

Anyways, though I'd share some stories from last night =)

I am looking for AC story (2nd run) and am just about a lvl away from being ready for AC explore as of today (Monday).

BTW Stones are useful my friends. Use the stones, Luke!

I will say that the targeting on the mounds seems to have gotten worse. Either that or they have double their hit points because they are even more of a pain to kill now. So AC explorer path 3 should be even more ridiculous now.

Teneb, the story mode is fun but it is much more productive to do the explorer modes if given an option. I've only done AC story because gwjers have wanted to do it. The explorer modes are as fun an require a smaller time commitment. (40 minutes vs 90 minutes)

My Mesmer just reached 30 and would be up for an AC story run. My Guardian is now lvl 80 and could potentially be up for anything- although it make take bit to find some of the higher level dungeons as I haven't been to some of the far reaches of the map yet.

My Ranger is 24 and could be 30 by Thursday. So she'll probably be looking to join up for AC story then.

fangblackbone wrote:

I will say that the targeting on the mounds seems to have gotten worse. Either that or they have double their hit points because they are even more of a pain to kill now. So AC explorer path 3 should be even more ridiculous now.

Teneb, the story mode is fun but it is much more productive to do the explorer modes if given an option. I've only done AC story because gwjers have wanted to do it. The explorer modes are as fun an require a smaller time commitment. (40 minutes vs 90 minutes)

I am there then!

The character's name is Thursday Tenebrous and I am usually on by 8:00 Central.

Alright we have Thursday night coming up.

My guardian is level 60 now, so I can have a decent supporting character to pitch in for any of the earlier dungeons. I may still be looking to do Arah story mode with my level 80 ranger.

Please speak up if you are interested in running a particular dungeon. It makes it easier for people to connect.

I'm working tomorrow night, but I could do a dungeon run this weekend. My ranger is 65 at the moment and the last dungeon I did was CM, so I have a bit of dungeon crawling to catch up on.

I should be available for any dungeon, level 70 or below, tomorrow night. My preference is for Citadel of Flame story (level 70), but I'd do any lower level dungeon explore as well. Story if people just need a fifth.

Stop Bit & I (Skarro) should be on at 8:00 eastern if anyone is going to be around for AC story mode?

My ranger is ready after an extreme power session last night. (6 levels in 4-5 hours)

I won't be home until 5:30 pacific so if you guys can wait until 8:30 eastern, my 30 ranger will be there for AC story. I am tempted to run with shortbow/longbow instead of shortbow + axe/torch. I know aoe is important in dungeons but I just feel that it will draw too much aggro and get me killed way too much. I will still have the burn trap which is very effective aoe no matter which weapons I equip.

8:30 est is fine for me.

My Mesmer is finally 30, so I can run AC if you need a 5th.

I haven't played ang games for a week! :0

I'll probably be on around 9PM.

Thanks for the AC story run last night. Very educational to say the least.

Yeah, I thought it went rather well all things considered. Two people that hadn't run it before, no heavy armor classes, etc... It was fun.

LASTxCALL wrote:

Thanks for the AC story run last night. Very educational to say the least.

I had to bow out of actual participation last night (GF working late needed the good PC). Glad to see another wave of people got through AC story.

Yeah it was fun to get my second character through that dungeon. Slightly different experience going through as mesmer instead of guardian.

Although one thing that didn't change - splendid chests still seem to give out only greens of armor and weapons that your character can't use.

I got a couple of weapon upgrades and a new hat at the end but the rest was, yeah, not for me =P

It was a good run. The lovers more often than not takes 2 wipes instead of 1 and at least twice as many downs/deaths. I will seriously take a 1 wipe lovers battle as quite an accomplishment. (and to top it off with 2 in our party new to the dungeon)

It was really interesting because I thought I was finding some use for the longbow in the dungeon. The vulnerable shot and knock down was put to good use. The problem is the main attack is cut in half at short range and the channeled shot just can't make up for it. The shortbow's poison spread and positional bleed was so much more effective on the high hp and hardened targets.

Also, while I love me some fire trap, the snake (poison) trap was much more devastating.

edit: also if you didn't notice, you get about 40-50% of a level for all of the fights and then like 75% of a level for completing the dungeon.