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[Zangi]

I would have loved a Mass Effect/KOTOR option to make decisions.. or interrupt people...  in one story instance, a certain commander goes on about.. "Its never been done and it'll not happen on my watch."
This is where I skewer the Charr on my Greatsword and take command myself.  Dissenters to my command will be immediately put to the sword with brutal efficiency.  For the greater good.  (And possibly Great Justice, maybe...)  EDIT: Actually, yea, it will be for Great Justice.  Because I said so.

[Ozyton]

Take off every zig.

I still want to do guild stuff with guildies. I'm level 47-ish so I should be able to play alright with mot of the guild members...

[Zangi]

I wouldn't mind doing group PvE stuff if someone semi-organized one.  Thanks to WvW, I've skipped a lot of zones since I level like 3-5 levels a 'day' on it alone, so yea, I'm pretty free to do some PvE exploration.

[penguinofhonor]

I played through the Ascalonian Catacombs yesterday. I have to say, that was definitely the least fun I've had playing this game.

There are two ways to design a boss. One option is creating a unique enemy with its own mechanics and patterns, forcing the players to adapt their playstyle and take advantages of the boss' weaknesses to defeat it. The other option is to take a normal enemy and pump up its stats a bunch. This option is the most uninspired, lazy, and uninteresting way to make a boss (see: Skyrim).

I've seen dungeon bosses in WoW. The warriors spam all their attacks and health potions as fast as possible, the mages spam all their spells and mana potions as fast as possible, and the clerics spam all their heals and mana potions as fast as possible. This goes on for about five minutes and then the boss dies. These "war of attrition" bosses actually work pretty well in WoW, it would seem. Unfortunately for GW2, the mechanics of their game are pretty radically different. There are no health potions. There are no mana potions. There are no clerics. This makes these kind of boss fights doubly frustrating.

So I was supremely disappointed to find out that almost every boss in the Ascalonian Catacombs was an uninspiring, super tanky war of attrition type boss with no real strategy required to beat it besides "don't die". Most random events have more nuance than this. The most interesting thing most of the bosses did was summoning minions.

There was one exception. The necromancer boss has a neat mode where she's powered up while some minions dance around her, and you have to kill those before you focus her. This was fun. We had to switch our focus when this happened, and even that little bit of strategizing made this boss fight a lot more dynamic and interesting than any of the others.

There was one that was almost an exception, but still managed to fail. The lovers are a pair of bosses that are more powerful near each other. How do they get powered up? More tankiness. Seriously the most boring way you could possibly make a paired boss like this. They didn't even bother to give them a combination attack or anything.

Another thing that ruined this fight is how stupidly difficult it is to get the two mage bosses apart from each other. They're both ranged, so they don't really need to move much to attack you. So get this: the bosses whose entire strategy is based on getting them to move around don't move much. This could have been pretty easily solved by, say, making one of them melee. Or maybe just making the bosses more mobile.

I'm imagining it now. A thief/ranger combo boss. They're both very agile, jumping around a lot. Your goal isn't to lure them apart and hit them for five minutes, it's to coordinate your attacks for when the bosses naturally move apart. This theoretical boss fight is already way more interesting and I haven't even thought up anything cool for them to do when they're together.

tl;dr: Basically this dungeon was four boss fights that were basically "I am tanky and deal AOE damage" and one that was only slightly more interesting than that. This is my biggest gripe with MMO games. They tend to get the idea that they can be lazy with design since you'll care less since you're playing with your friends. GW2 has dodged this bullet in a lot of other areas, but I hate to see it happening here.

[Sirian]

About the Ascalonian Catacombs dungeon, i found it hard but there are strategies beyond spamming attacks. The ranger can be kited (and his pets ignored), the lover mesmer summons high damage/low hp illusions that must be focused in priority, the lover elementalist deals aoe that can be evaded, the necro uses strong damage over time (dot debuffs) that can be removed (cured), and the king uses high damage aoes ("foefire" zones) that can be evaded/escaped/navigated, plus a pull that you can partially counter by staying far enough. Sure they all have high HP, or they wouldn't be bosses, but for the most part you have to actually pay attention and use your head if you want to survive and do things efficiently.

Also you can throw boulders at the lovers to make them move and split them apart (and possibly break their shields).

[Zangi]

First time, I applied boulders liberally, to knock the bosses down, a lot of dying was involved too. 
I really havn't been in a dungeon since then.

[Bluerobin]

Have you guys done the Catacombs on Exploration mode as a comparison? I'm curious if boss mechanics change at all on the harder difficulties or if it's just a stat boost.

[Fikes]

Turns out every site has sold out of digital keys for Guild Wars 2.

Weak.

[hemmingjay]

CJS keys, a place I have purchased from 7 or 8 times before has keys available, and delivery is usually 2min-1.5 hours if there is some delay has it at a elevated price of 55GBP or 71 Euro or $86 USD. I assume it's due to the crazy demand for them right now. Usually they are 30% cheaper than other places.

[Zangi]

Weak?  It means GW2 is doing pretty durn good... but then, its still launch, will see how badly numbers drop in a month or 3.

[majikero]

I'll give it a few months and see how much the price drops. I wonder if my dinky laptop can run this?

[Gunner-Chan]

Spoiler: Let it be known that Asura are damn perverts (click to show/hide)

[Jimmy]

Have you guys done the Catacombs on Exploration mode as a comparison? I'm curious if boss mechanics change at all on the harder difficulties or if it's just a stat boost.

I have. I posted about it a few pages back. I completed AC Story at level 30, and attempted AC Explorable at 35.

AC Story is a walk in the park compared to Explorable. There are different bosses in Explorable. We faced off against a sub-boss Lieutenant in the center ring where the king spawns first, and his attacks instantly kill you. No joke, if you get hit with his spin attack, you're dead. It took us all about an hour of repeatedly attacking him before we realized he does a charge up beforehand that's about two seconds long. If you dodge at the end of the charge you can avoid his pull, and when he spins in spot for five seconds he's a sitting duck. Fight was finished 10 minutes after we learned that.

Second challenge we encountered was in the Lovers Crypt. Graveling burrows pop up and your party has to beat them down before the spawns swarm you. Didn't have enough time to complete this one, the time we'd spent on the first boss meant our party dissolved.

Overall I'd say the Dungeon mechanic is well designed. Personally I don't enjoy PvP in any aspect, either WvWvW or individual maps. I much prefer PvE, and the harder the better. I want to be rewarded for coming up with clever strategies to beat the designer's boss, not simply have a guild large enough to zerg and crush a point on a map. It's the high risk intensely prolonged fights against a seemingly unbeatable boss that make me happy. Don't like Dungeons? Don't play them. I'm looking forward to trying again myself, but I think first I'm gonna work on leveling up my crafting to make some better gear first.

[hachnslay]

The WvW is actually fun if most players are active. That is when the worlds are just re-paired ... or 1AM in my Timezone for Ehmry Bay.
This weekend i will actively try to create some PUGs and actually capture some stuff.
Did i mention that i had problems getting the Survivor Monthly Achievement?
An organized group improves your survival in WvW greatly. i hit 49.2k before dieing in 2 hours.

[Zangi]

*snip*
Overall I'd say the Dungeon mechanic is well designed. Personally I don't enjoy PvP in any aspect, either WvWvW or individual maps. I much prefer PvE, and the harder the better. I want to be rewarded for coming up with clever strategies to beat the designer's boss, not simply have a guild large enough to zerg and crush a point on a map. It's the high risk intensely prolonged fights against a seemingly unbeatable boss that make me happy. Don't like Dungeons? Don't play them. I'm looking forward to trying again myself, but I think first I'm gonna work on leveling up my crafting to make some better gear first.

Actually, organized guilds(at least the one I run with) rarely do the zerging... and if we do join a zerg fight, its to support our zerg by flanking and hitting their siege weapons/from behind to great effect.  Also, organized siege defense is well... vastly more capable with a concerted effort to place siege equipment and building em...  not to mention sorties off the walls to hit them while they are all attacking the gate and/or paying attention to the people on the walls.

Sure, there are times when we attack the same points with the zerg, but that is just the nature of the flow of battle and when we do, we choose to for tactical reasons(or just simply loot), not cause everyone else is doing it.

Zergs tend to not look at the tactical situation... and not really capable of taking advantage of tactical stuff even if they do notice or have an opportunity, since they are unorganized.  EDIT: But they can be nudged if you know how to...

From the looks of it, there are a few other guilds now trying to organize for WvW.  So far I just know of [GH], which a few of us B12ers run with and now [DARK], which is still fairly new from what I can tell.

EDIT 2: It is most satisfying to litter a chokepoint with the bodies of our enemies...  We don't get a chance to everyday, but when we do... its great stuff knowing that we did it with lesser numbers then they.