Twilight Arbor impressions

22 Monday Oct 2012

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I remember that I saw the Twilight Arbor walkthrough just before the Guild Wars 2 release. It was a PC Gamer video, if I’m not mistaken. I did not watch it whole because it was boring.

So while in game I approached this dungeon with certain doubts. I got even more strange feeling about TA when I realized that almost noone is doing it. I mean, it’s very hard to find group (even a PUG) for plain Story mode run. Maybe it’s just my server (Whiteside Ridge), I don’t know. I spent two days trying to find a proper company and, yes, I was playing at the prime evening time.

And so it happened!

I was surprised. Pleasley surprise. Some things I liked about the Twilight Arbor:
– It’s linear. It’s almost impossible to get lost in this dungeon and that’s the reason why it had to be the very first dungeon in the game.
– it looks cool. And that’s another reason why TA is MUCH better than dull Ascalon Catacombs.
– it has good variety of bosses. There is a simple “NUKE IT!” bosses and bosses with some tricks. And they not too hard to frustrate the common player group. Even if you’re newcomer you will figure out the winning tactics after the several tries.

Yeah, there are some tricky parts. Those necromancers and agressive flowers with AoE attacks can be annoying. But it’s okay. Dungeon designed to be challenging.

Ascalonian Catacombs impressions

07 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by Iaroslav in PvE, Ramblings

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Ascalonian Catacombs, challenge, Dungeons, Guild Wars 2, impressions

Finally I reached the level 30 and instantly went down to the Ascalonian Catacombs. It was tough experience and I liked it.

I liked that dungeon is actually hard. Somehow it reminds me the very vanilla World of Warcraft where you had to pay attention to every trash mob in the dungeon and progress forward slowly, step by step. It’s a shame (I don’t know why this surprise me, but anyway…) that people simply regret to accept the challenge and learn the game. I’ve read a lot of baby cries about dungeon are too hard and thus broken.

There is no holy trinity in the Guild Wars 2, as you might already know. It’s not a big deal in general PvE – I mean, exploring the map, doing hearts and events, farming in groups, etc. But dungeons are very different.

Yes, Guardian is still a tank. It’s a best tank-like profession in the game. However, GW2-tank cannot rely on support of dedicated healer because there is no such healer in game at all. Tank should heal himself and hope that other party members help him with various support abilities.

And that’s why if you – for instance – play as elementalist (mage, in common terms) you can’t simply stay behind the group and nuke the target. You must contribute in many other ways as well. Healing, creeping, blinding, buffing, interrupting and so on. Guild Wars 2 dungeon are real group activities.