Not a fan of the new dungeon because of the lenght.
I barely run Fractals because they can take forever.
This is why Cof 1 is still the king of dungeon IMO, even if we've all ran it a million times.
*shrug* I actually think CoF1 is a really solid path, but that's not really because it's ludicrously short, it just happens to be. It's good that there are things throughout the game of many different lengths and levels of commitment required. Once we get better at it I think the new TA path will actually be a very enjoyable daily run.
Same exact situation here. Our group first followed what Caithe said and stuck to melee only in order to avoid the gears, but the boss kept completely wrecking us. So then we switched to ranged and had a lot better results, except we'd get to a point where the gears were obliterating us. Finally we settled on a hybrid where we'd used ranged when he had his shield, and short range when we took that down. Once we did this the fight was easy as cake.
I can't imagine what possible advantage there could be for melee while his shield is up, but it's DEFINITELY good when it's down. Learning the tells makes him a lot less threatening. Knowing where the platforms are for the electricity as well. The stray gears are definitely the toughest part of the fight, if you get downed near one it's just a bloodbath.
Also, someone else mentioned it, but I totally agree that introducing mechanics (such as kiting the ooze) BEFORE using it in a boss battle was fantastic.
Old school learning-by-doing, can't get enough.
I'll be honest, I'm at a point in the game where I really don't want or need anything. I have the characters I like and they're geared with what I want. I don't need to grind for anything in particular. I could go for ascended, but I don't care that much. So for me, I'd rather have a longer dungeon with fascinating mechanics that's fun to play than something I can grind for quick gold. Also, for what it's worth, I don't think this dungeon is that long. I think what took the longest was just all of our wipes. I think an experienced group could knock this one out fairly quick.
All of this times five thousand. Even when it comes to the the stuff I do want, such as fleshing out two more sets/specs for my Ele, I'm going about it a kind of leisurely exploratory pace even though I could afford to knock it all out in an hour at this point. I guess if I really wanted a legendary badly I would have a lot still before me to "work toward," but I'm not
that into any of the current ones.
It's a testament to GW2's moment-to-moment gameplay design, combat, and controls that I can still enjoy running COF1 at
all after the 744th time when it has essentially become rote. Hell Cravens has substantially more achievement points than either of us, even more impressive.
But with new releases coming at a rapid pace, when "getting stuff" isn't really a primary concern for me anymore, I value content that is
fun, interesting, challenging and finally
rewarding, in descending order of importance.
If something isn't fun for me, I'll simply ignore it altogether (i.e. looking for dragon teeth one by one).
If it's fun and interesting but not challenging, I'll play and enjoy it and help others with it if needed, but have no desire to repeat it personally (I'd offer Scarlet's Playhouse as a good example of this).
If it's fun, interesting and challenging, I'll play, enjoy and repeat it gladly simply for the sake of the challenge; even if that means knowing I'll need to block out a couple hours to learn a new hard dungeon path or help coordinate 80 plus members of SBI to take down a boss. I'll play this kind of stuff as often as I feel like it until I get bored, regardless of the rewards. (Spent a TON of time replaying various fights in the Queen's Gauntlet on different characters, unrelated to Deadeye farming.)
Content that meets the final criterion of "rewarding" just ends up becoming part of the "stuff I do when I login" to play the game on a regular basis.
Short, rewarding content is already in abundant supply throughout the game and they aren't averse to adding more of that kind of thing with LS releases either (Crown Pavilion). There's nothing wrong with more stuff like
this coming too.
) it's probably best to just tell them not to kill the strikers at all. Long as he can be lured by someone who does know what to do they're better off just keeping themselves alive until it's damage time. Of course dodging the cogs and just learning his tells can't really be taught, just have to get that stuff over time.
