Zaitan Help

[Goosebump]

Greetings

I've finished levelling my first character (Sylvari Ranger) up to 80 about 2 weeks ago and have thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The story quest was the item that drove me on and kept me coming back - loved it.

However, I've been given the quest entitled "Victory or Death" and it seems to be a bizarre flip in format of the story questline from being somthing you can do solo to needing what feels like 50 player group. An area called "The Narthex" feels utterly impassable. There is either some event there with a risen wizard raidboss and some mobs or when he's not there, there's what seems to be a hundred mobs of the most annoying mix coupled with trebs pummling the ground and some sort of grasping vines or something. Either way - it appears to be an impassable zone for the solo player.

The obvious thing here is get a group. So I asked in chat multiple times and get told "lol go solo it noob - how bad are you?" etc. I don't mind window licker statements like that - used to seeing them in WoW but they did make me think that maybe I'm missing something hugely obvious and am approaching that area all wrong.

I've tried to join an active guild too but nobody seems to be remotely interested in this area and after that, the kill Zaitan quest. If this is simply just a mechanism by Arenanet to cockblock you unless you're in a really active and helpful guild, then it's the end of my time with GW2. But I come here in hope that some knowledgeable soul can give me some advice in case I'm "doing it wrong" etc and it might indeed be soloable?

I play on the "Whiteside Ridge" EU server if that's at all relevant.


Thanks for reading.

[Karizee]

This chapter of the story requires completion of the story mode of Ruined City of Arah dungeon. I did it ages ago, not sure if it can be solo'd now but definitely needed a group back then.

Also, it sounds like the entrance to the dungeon is contested, you can try guesting to another server to find an uncontested entrance, but depending on the time of day that can be difficult since everyone is running invasions now.

Your best bet is to find a group on gw2lfg.com to open and run the dungeon.

[Cowt]

The quest 'Victory or Death' is played out in the story-mode of the dungeon The Ruined City of Arah. Its entrance is within The Narthex.

The Narthex is designed to be reached by deactivating the god statues that make up the Promenade of the Gods.

You do this by conquering the temples around Orr. With each statue deactivated, one effects is removed (the grasping vines, for example).

Now, that is the intended way. That doesn't mean you cannot survive running through with some of the statues active. However, if you just want your quest done, you can use GW2LFG.com to find a group for the dungeon.

If you are in the zone when somebody in your group enters the dungeon, you get the option to do so as well.

[Goosebump]

Hmm never heard of that site - I'll give it a look.


Thanks for the answers.

[Pacumeni]

It's been a while since I've even logged into the game, but I think I remember doing this on my Warrior not too long after hitting 80 but before any of the updates to the game happened. Isn't this the final chain in the story-line quests? If so, I remember that to even open the gates to get to the dungeon required a large group to do all of the Events that popped up throughout Orr; specifically, there were events that lead from a certain city to just outside of The Narthex. Also, there was only about 2-3 hours for how long the doors would remain open, until you had to fight your way back in.

Have they changed any of this in one of the updates?

[Deleted]

Have they changed any of this in one of the updates?

As far as I know - but I'm only semi-active myself - they implemented the statues, which weren't there initially. Meaning if a temple is contested the respective statues get active and spread a debuff in their area. Like poison (Grenth), crippling (Melandru), AoE-meteors (Balthazar), etc. And the stairs of Arah are littered in all of the statues to hinder players going through additional to everything else that already was there. However if you run down straight in the middle you can avoid most of them (the statues are lined up at the sides, like a big corridor).

Also it seems like the dungeon itself is now always open. But they waypoint isn't. Also of course mobs and hostiles lurk around if the entrance isn't conquered. I guess they opened it up after people stopped doing the events as much as they did initially after release. At least on my server neither temples nor Narthex get freed. At most one per day or so.

[Pacumeni]

As far as I know - but I'm only semi-active myself - they implemented the statues, which weren't there initially. Meaning if a temple is contested the respective statues get active and spread a debuff in their area. Like poison (Grenth), crippling (Melandru), AoE-meteors (Balthazar), etc. And the stairs of Arah are littered in all of the statues to hinder players going through additional to everything else that already was there. However if you run down straight in the middle you can avoid most of them (the statues are lined up at the sides, like a big corridor).

Also it seems like the dungeon itself is now always open. But they waypoint isn't. Also of course mobs and hostiles lurk around if the entrance isn't conquered. I guess they opened it up after people stopped doing the events as much as they did initially after release. At least on my server neither temples nor Narthex get freed. At most one per day or so.

Ah, well, I suppose that was a decent change. Even when I was playing regularly, there would only be one or two openings per day, even though everyone was always in Orr. That might make it easier to bring friends through to see the dungeon if they decide to go back to the game.

Thanks for the response, good info to have.

[Durzlla]

Be warned, the Zhaitan fight is still bugged heavily, sometimes he will use his skills and give you a run for your money, and other times he just sits there like a pathetic puppy that you just keep kicking and doesn't fight back...

[Deleted]

Be warned, the Zhaitan fight is still bugged heavily, sometimes he will use his skills and give you a run for your money, and other times he just sits there like a pathetic puppy that you just keep kicking and doesn't fight back...

Oh gawd, that's STILL ingame? Did they really fix ANY kind of bug since release? Funny as hell, I just went back to the game some days ago after not logging in for months and I already found heaps of bugs that were already there since release... no wait... in reality it's frustrating and not funny at all

[Cowt]

Oh gawd, that's STILL ingame? Did they really fix ANY kind of bug since release? Funny as hell, I just went back to the game some days ago after not logging in for months and I already found heaps of bugs that were already there since release... no wait... in reality it's frustrating and not funny at all

Out of curiosity, care to share some of these bugs, as long as they cannot be abused for personal gain?

[Deleted]

Out of curiosity, care to share some of these bugs, as long as they cannot be abused for personal gain?

Mostly annoying stuff like events that get stuck, personal story that gets stuck. Missing sound files/synchronisation in cutscenes in certain languages (whole lines are missing, you see the text and animation ingame, but no sound). Mobs that get stuck and turn invincible (mostly underwater).
All of those I could reconfirm after getting back into the game. I saw the same frigging Bugs in the Alpha and Beta of the game (and reported them).

So yeah - hearing that even Zhaitan is still bugged like he was after release is well.. depressing. I guess there's no reason at all to even report those bugs.

[Durzlla]

Oh gawd, that's STILL ingame? Did they really fix ANY kind of bug since release? Funny as hell, I just went back to the game some days ago after not logging in for months and I already found heaps of bugs that were already there since release... no wait... in reality it's frustrating and not funny at all

Well he's not bugged AS badly as he was at release, it seems to be about a 25% chance of him not using ANY skills, a 50% chance of him only using his breathe attack, 20% chance that he will rip his heads off his body and throw them onto the boat, and a 5% chance that he also summons CC heavy risen who will throw you off the zep.

[Deleted]

Like the first reply said gw2lfg is the best place to find a group for this at the moment, you can invite players cross server so the combined reach makes it far better than trying in map chat.

The dungeon itself isn't very challenging but fairly lengthy, it takes anything between 40 mins and 3 hours depending on how good your group is. The story inside the dungeon itself is a culmination of the previous story mode dungeons, so it will make no sense at all if you haven't done the other story dungeons that you get mail for as you level. Some very good players have "soloed" the dungeon, but it still needs 2 people to stand on the platforms to open the first door.

The reason it's hard to get a group for this particular dungeon is it's quite long so nobody really does it for pleasure. Most people just do the one run to finish their personal story. Make sure you don't join a group for the explorable paths 1-4, which are easy to find a group for but won't help with your story and are for experienced players to farm.

[Dundebuns]

I remember trying to get to the WP for Arah on my warrior. Was quite literally hell to do. All the statues were up, and I couldn't kill things quickly enough to get to the catapults to destroy them, and then progress up.

The story mode dungeon itself is pretty easy, although it can take a while to do. The hardest part is definitely getting there!

[Deleted]

I remember trying to get to the WP for Arah on my warrior. Was quite literally hell to do. All the statues were up, and I couldn't kill things quickly enough to get to the catapults to destroy them, and then progress up.

The story mode dungeon itself is pretty easy, although it can take a while to do. The hardest part is definitely getting there!

As a warrior? Had no trouble getting there through all statues myself, was wearing only green items at the time too.

So in case it helps: I really like the one-handed sword skill #2 for moving around fast. It's a charge-skill with a pretty quick cooldown. So just target a mob in the direction you want to move and charge ahead. Can help you to move out of sticky/crippled situations and/or running across the map fast. Especially when combined with the 25% movement speed buff you can have as a warrior while using melee weapons you're pretty agile even in combat.
Just ignore the mobs and keep running, the armor of a warrior keeps you alive. Try to stay in the middle, that way you have the least exposure to the statue-debuffs.

Should've no trouble running up the stairs and to Arah that way. But I can see light armor users having trouble there, if they do a wrong step they might find themselves swarmed and quickly downed. Rangers can send out their pet to distract the mobs and thieves can just stealth their way through