User:Valento/DarkAlley

This page will contain all "speedy methods" to run dungeons, it's a proof of how broken dungeons currently are. Most points also apply to overall PvE.

Common techniques

• Berserker Equipment - Since strategy and support are really lacking factors in 99% of the game's dungeons, people prefer to run berserker equipment (+power, +precision, +ferocity) due to its offensive attribute setup and almost 100% chance of avoiding damage by killing opponents before they can do anything. This also touches on how broken GW2 AI is: intelligent behavior is a major lacking point for overall PvE experience, and it's a huge letdown for avid gamers or anyone desiring challenge.
• Might stacking - It's a common behavior to maximize damage before jumping into battle, so the burst (i.e. first wave of damage) from the party is enough to literally melt down foes' health bars, or at least lower it to a ridiculous amount.
• Ice Bow - Having elementalists conjure ice bows is another common technique to speed the run. After stacking might, the elementalist conjures an ice bow on the ground while they're still wielding one, having two ice bows on hands simply unleash Ice Storm - a heavy damage channeled ground-targeted AoE skill that also applies bleeding to all affected foes.

Non-direct harmful points

• Stability - Guardians add up to all previous combos with Hallowed Ground or "Stand Your Ground!". Stability is needed because some encounters will be composed by enemies which can pull, knockback, stun, daze, or apply any kind of interrupting skills.
• Reflecting skills - Again, guardians excel with these damage-preventing skills. Many encounters have mobs which fire projectiles, having a way to nullify such damage is another way to avoid worrying about your health bar and focus solely on damage.

Unintended behaviors

• Skipping - Players will always skip everything they can to maximize gold per time production, so trash mobs are left behind 99% of the time. One point, though, is that there is no advantage about killing them, but it's funny if you consider other MMOs with raids. MMO community would always be forced to clear the trash mobs, and sometimes one of them would drop something of value, at a very low chance.
• Zerker meta - Although this isn't all that common anymore, there are a lot of parties which require you to ping your gear so they can check if you're zerker, therefore being "fit" to run with them. This is clearly a matter of idiocy, if you run a Scepter/Dagger Celestial Elementalist with Persisting Flames (my case) for example, you will greatly empower your party and make encounters as easy as it would be if all of them had gone zerker.

Dungeons

Most encounters can be stacked, but some are utterly gross in terms of how broken they are. I will list those.

Ascalonian Catacombs - The NPC mess

First off, this is the mostly run dungeon because it's relatively easy and small. We have these three NPCs and they have something TERRIBLE in common: they trigger the next step into dungeon progress, AND like to engage in combat. This means that, for the dungeon to progress forward one of them must TOUCH a certain area to trigger next conversation, or encounter. For example, Hodgins will only start "searching" for the documents in Archive of the Resting after he descends the stairs and reaches the room, only then he'll start talking and trigger graveling mounds to show up. Having this "triggering behavior" in mind, it's easy to see how this could lead into creepy bugs:

Path 1

I've never seen this bugging out too often, and Hodgins is cool because he casts Healing Rain. But like all NPCs he likes to fight whatever mobs which may show up, slowing progress because he walks toward enemies instead of walking into his triggering area. This usually happens when he's trying to reach The Reliquary to search for the 2nd scepter. Most parties choose to take left way so ooze don't pop up, if someone goes through the middle and ooze appears Hodgins will stop and fight them. The party will HAVE to kill all ooze so he walks into the triggering area. Sometimes he WON'T trigger the next part if ooze showed up, thus making the party disband and re-start the dungeon.

Path 2

The most abused. She's very helpful because she rezzes downed or defeated players, and is eager to fight off mobs. People circumvent the spike traps part by stacking over the trap closely right of Detha and smashing damage while someone assists by triggering that trap from above. After reaching the hall where Detha builds anti-ghost traps, the process can be sped up by using rezz skills. For this to work at least two people must have a rezz skill (Renewal of Water, Signet of Mercy, Battle Standard, etc), and goes like this: stack in middle, while still avoiding aggro let the mobs kill Detha, rezz her (she'll build trap to FULL now), quickly rush and kill adds, head back to middle, wait for Detha to die again (2nd trap will be built to full once more), rezz her, quickly rush and kill adds. For 3rd and last trap simply kite mobs while she builds the trap. This speeds up the process because she doesn't take two runs to build all three traps, but only one instead. Somehow, rezzing her bugs something internally forcing her to build the trap to full. To finish this in great style, trigger boss and let her die. Now charge only ONE trap and using the stacking techniques explained above, boss' hp will be literally melt down and dungeon's done.

Path 3

Another buggy path. After first room with graveling mounds, there will be a corridor full of spiders before reaching the main hall. It's becoming common to have someone warn "don't kill last spider, it's our safeguard in case NPC bugs out". This happens because after destroying all mounds in the hall and finishing this part, Tzark may bug out and not proceed because he's "stuck in combat" (pretty much like Hodgins). People ask not to kill last spider because if Tzark bugs out, it means he's close to that spider, and someone can lure that spider to Tzark and kill the spider, effectively fixing the bug. The same can happen with Warmaster Grast. This may also happen if one of them dies. Having Grast die BEFORE reaching the boss is simple to fix, just head back, kill adds, and rezz him (killing adds is necessary because he won't move out once aggroed).

Sorrow's Embrace - Funny terrains, and the power of stacking

The problem with dredge is (blindness immunity + too much protection + frequent dazes) * 10. Seriously, they got really sick skills and come in large groups, but then they can be stacked against and killed with ease. If you consider dredge fractal when people have to stand on buttons, dredge are really harmful depending on the party. Here are my experiences on this dungeon:

Path 1

Nothing really buggy here, except from the beginning. Some groups like to rush and bug "through" first wall to speed up battle against first boss - the Golem. The problem is that this may bug out Fergg as he won't be able to move forward, requiring dungeon reset. The three-golems encounter used to be challenging, until they discovered might stacking + stability + ice bow + reflect. It became a piece of... cake. People sometimes farm these three bosses' bags in what they call "bag farming", because it can be super easy to get to the end.

Path 3

After killing first boss, people get down the slope (near spiders) to speed up getting to the next boss. Instead of going through all mobs, they take a very thin path around the corner and safely reach the boss, effectively skipping all adds in between. This is where "No, no, no!" meme comes from btw. Once this boss is killed, players go to next part where an armored carrier will pop up from the ground. There is a safe spot players can stand below the upper part, it's common to call this "Facebook time", because people leave on auto-click and go afk to do something else, coming back 5min. later when the carrier is already destroyed. The very last boss also used to be quite challenging, but for the reasons explained in three-golems encounter from p1, this one became "stackable".