How to: Ascalonian Catacombs

[Zazey]

Alright people, going to do a quick how-to on this because for some reason people were complaining this place was too hard. Got news for ya: It isn't, it's a pushover if you know what you're doing.

I did this on a warrior and here was my build, I reccomend having atleast 1 player running a Support/tank build / offbuild.
Main Weps: double axes
Secondary Weps: Mace(for stun/slow/block) and warhorn (swiftness/endurance regeneration/Weaken enemies) *warhorn is amazing*
Always kept warhorn abilities on CD. Swap to axes to fight, if I have aggro, swap to mace/warhorn and use block, and then bash followed by pulverize. Swap back to axes to aoe/dps and build adrenaline. Heres where the rotation changes. If I am fighting a boss, I use all adrenaline on Dual axes eviscerate, If I am fighting trash, all adrenaline on mace stun.


I'm going to start off with Story Mode, but I will Update this post after I eat with Explorable.



Notes before we start off:

-ALWAYS RELEASE AND RUN BACK IF YOU DIE!!!!

-Bring atleast 2 people capable of playing ranged dps

-YOU CAN BRING MULTIPLES OF EACH CLASS! For example, our story mode group consisted of 2 rangers 2 warriors and a guardian.

-MAKE SURE TO RUN SUPPORT/HEALING/TANK SKILLS!!!! I.E. Banners,heals,shields,stuns. For example, on my warrior I ran healing signet, Ignore pain, Banner of Tactics, Banner of Defence. USE THESE AT ALL TIMES **WHEN FIGHTING ANYTHING**! Trash hits hard. (If you run banners dont forget to pick them up and use their abilities, replant them when abilities on cd. Banner of tactics is OP with the group Heal.

-Res Downed Players is a priority, if they die make sure they run back.

-Res the NPCS after each fight.

How to handle the trash:
The trash can either be easy, or wipe your group repeatedly, luckily, it doesnt reset.
Kill Priority: Rangers(they can knock down) > Elementalists (heavy aoe/dmg) > Necromancers (Fears) > Mesmers (shields) > Melee
ALWAYS LoS INTO A ROOM AWAY FROM LEDGES!
Use stuns / ccs on Cooldown, however this isn't really necessary.



First Boss: The Ascalonian Captain
He is directly after killing the Troll where you find Eir.

Abilities and Strategy:

He is basically a tank and spank with adds. When you start the encounter, 15 Non-veteran/elite adds will spawn, your goal is to kill/aoe these down as soon as possible before engaging on the boss. Note: The boss will be attacking you as well.
The best way to do this is to drop all of your banners/Defensive abilities at the start, and burst/aoe them down as soon as possible. Damage will be fairly high here, so dropping guard bubbles/tactics banner with the on use heal is very useful. Note: if you die there is a res point literally 5 seconds away outside the doorway, so again, if you die run back immediately.

The boss itself doesn't really do much. Don't stand in Red Aoe and spread out around him so that only 1 player will have to move at a time.

All players should be in full DPS gear. To help with the initial pull a warhorn would be useful to handle random fears/stuns but it isn't necessary. We did this with 2 Dual axe warriors, a greatsword guardian, and 2 Shortbow rangers.


Second Boss: Master Ranger Nente

Quite possibly the easiest boss in here.

He will be standing on a pillar with a circle staircase around him.

Abilities and Strategy:
Ranged have a pretty big advantage here, since melee can only attack him when he teleports to the party.
What you want to do is spread out along the staircase behind him, and have the ranged constantly be focusing on the boss. Melee will need to go around and pick up boulders and throw them at the boss to do dps to him, and force him to teleport to the staircase for a short time. When he teleports to the staircase he will also spawn a wolf add to fight for him. Melee should be cleaving the boss/wolf combo but primarily focusing on the wolf while ranged continuously kills boss. Neither of them hit to hard.

The boss shoots random Red AoE patches around the staircase which you can honestly just stand in, they don't pose that much of a threat. Best spot for banners is in the center of the staircase so that its aura will reach all players on the staircase. If you happen to fall down, theres another staircase that will bring you back to the fight.


Third Boss: Ralena and Vassar

This boss has given some people trouble, but in all, is a very simple fight. However it is very unforgiving in the sense that if you mess up, you will take a lot of damage.

Abilities and Strategy:
Both bosses have a white circle around them for their aura.
The Aura: Whenever both bosses stand to close (I.E. Their aura is overlapping the other boss) they do significantly more damage.

How to deal with this: This is why having 2 ranged players is good. You don't really need 2 but it makes it a whole lot easier to split damage.
Ranged will be DPSing Ralena and pull her to the left side up the stairs (you can LoS behind the 2 flame braziers). Note, don't stand next to her, she does random AoE Lightning fields, just get out of them, however it does seem to also damage anyone standing in her aura.

Melee will dps Vassar and pull him to the right side, you don't really have to LoS because he is melee.

Both bosses will periodically summon adds, which don't hit very hard. Just have one person, preferably whoever is closest to them, turn and kill it. They die in 1-3 hits.

This was the easiest way to do this boss for us, however you can set one person on Ralena and the rest on Vassar and just nuke him down, but we put our 2 rangers on Ralena to split damage evenly.

You may have to do a lot of reviving/ressing on this fight if you don't split them fast enough. If someone else gets aggro, just move them apart, that is the key to this fight. But as long as they stay apart, you will down this fight easily.


Fourth Boss: Kasha Blackblood

Tank and spank, probably on the same difficulty level as the Ranger boss.

Abilities and Strategy:
All players should be in full DPS gear.
Ranged should spread out, all she does is a lot of random AoE around the room, just move out of it if it spawns on you. Other then that, just kill her and GG.


Final Boss: King Adelbern

He spawns back where you killed the first boss.

Abilities and Strategy:
This boss is also easy, but can be annoying.
He does 2 abilities:
-He periodically will suck everyone into him and stun/knockdown you for 1 second.
-He will throw his sword in front of him, knocking you back and doing a lot of damage (can one shot you).

How to deal with this:
Stay behind him the entire time. He will target a player and start attacking in their direction and throwing swords, all you do is get behind him. His attacks aren't directed at the specific player, but instead at their direction. So just constantly stay behind him and when he sucks you in Dodge to get behind him and you'll be fine. Res point is directly outside of the room.


Explorable Mode: Coming soon
-Most optimal group comp: Guardian with full defensive traits and weapons. Necromancer. Elementalist. Dual Axe + Mace Warhorn warrior with full DPS/Discipline Traits. Warrior With Dual Axe/Greatsword weapons and full DPS traits. - Reasoning. Most damage output and most self/healing + support abilities to make this go as smooth as possible. NOTE: IT IS FULLY CAPABLE TO DO THIS ENTIRE DUNGEON WITH ANY COMP, INCLUDING 5 OF ANY CLASS!

Hope this helps you guys!

[ddsad2212]

Nice little guide, dont want to sound elitiest but i dont understand how this is consider to hard, i had a guild run of explorable modes so called hardest path(the guild was throw together , this was basically a pug), and we found it fairly easy tbh, we had to leave early(well me and one other so we called it) and that was the only real challenge.

Also am i the only one who hopes they stop allowing people to run back? It just feels to cheapen it imo.

[Zazey]

Oh I agree with you as well. I did this in a full pug with everyone being a first timer and we managed to easily clear it. And yes I hope they do take out ressing. Some people said this place took them 2+ hours, which is ridiculous, only took us 30 mins.

Also, this is PvE content, all elitists are welcome.

[barackopala]

Something to keep in mind that worked for me from AC to the Twilight arbor:

-Do not try to res a player who is downed on an AoE, massive fight, you'll end up risking your own life, there might be no hope for your downed friend, it's sad to say but... sometimes you are more important than your friend.

For the ralena event i'd recommend you using a player 100% dedicated to throw rocks at one of the bosses you want to have lockdown and burst the other boss down.

[Deleted]

For Ralena and Vassar :

Pull, run back in the corridor, close the doors between them. Burn down one, open the doors, burn the other. Very easy fight.

[barackopala]

For Ralena and Vassar :

Pull, run back in the corridor, close the doors between them. Burn down one, open the doors, burn the other. Very easy fight.

it sounds like an exploit more than a tactic.

[Zazey]

Yeah I don't recommend doing R&V like that. It is currenly an exploit and even if nothing happens to you for doing that, it will eventually be fixed.

[Herecius]

The thing that makes AC truly tough for a lot of folks hasn't been the tactics (which are really quite simple), but the reaction times you generally have. Many of those abilities have sub-1 second reaction times before you start taking damage (and a lot of damage at that). Most folks aren't really used to that kind of thing.

[otro]

I was expecting a video /sad panda

[Zazey]

That is true, Herecius. the main reasoning for the post was because i was noticing a lot of people on my server and other forums complaining about not knowing what killed them, what abilities bosses do, etc. I just wish there was a sub forum for GW2 PvE content.

---------- Post added 2012-08-31 at 11:45 PM ----------

I will be making a video of explorable mode and that should be done later today! I will also make videos of future dungeons as I come to them.

[Deleted]

It may be an exploit but we reported it since Beta when they first introduced the dungeon and it's still there.
It's also the only corridor with switches to open/close the doors and they didn't limit the fighting area like the necromancer.