During this past weekend's limited press closed beta of Guild Wars 2, we had the chance to check out one of the dungeons players will have the opportunity to play through. Check out what we thought of the Ascalon Catacombs and then leave us your thoughts in the comments.

Right away you get an eerie feeling. The environment was very well done. Broken rubble was everywhere, the floor was dirty, and the signs that life once walked through these halls littered everything. Things weren’t very cut and dry either, as just like the world outside of the dungeon, there were multiple layers of elevation. Both enemies and bosses were able to hit me off a ledge. There was one time though where I embarrassingly rolled out of an attack to evade it, right off the cliff to my death! Go ahead and laugh. If that doesn’t amuse you, I did it in front of a two developers who were guiding us though! There, you’re probably laughing now.

Read more of David North's Guild Wars 2: Ascalon Catacombs The Dungeon Experience.

Holy trinity                          Chuck Norris

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                             ArcheAge  -- -- -- --  GW2

^^

Agreed.

Looks like it is shaping up to be a very good game and I am really looking forward to it!

Wasn't too happy to see a person have to confront the last boss with no armor on because of the broken armor thing. He couldn't leave to repair because it would have locked him from the instance.

Take note trolls- THAT is a serious issue the game has.

How many players can be in a dungeon party?

Originally posted by Bunks

Wasn't too happy to see a person have to confront the last boss with no armor on because of the broken armor thing. He couldn't leave to repair because it would have locked him from the instance.

 

Take note trolls- THAT is a serious issue the game has.

This is true.  Hopefully they'll just put an armor repair person near one of the portals, or allow people to carry kits with them.  Because it's not about being hard at this point, but being brutal.

Honestly, the fact that the dungeons are THAT difficult is going to be an issue. I can see them scaling them back in difficulty and later adding a hard mode. The dungeons sound a little too "hard core" for the mainstream player base. I think there should be a certain amount of difficulty, but people who play well should be able to finish a dungeon without dying. If a death is "guaranteed" to happen, I think that's a serious design flaw. Most people that play games want to enjoy themselves and not have a negative experience every time they enter some part of the game. It's fine if it happens as a result of bad play, but I don't think that's fine if it's an intended part of game play. I'll reserve judgment for when I get to play my first dungeon on my own however. One thing my experience as a gamer has taught me is that what you often hear versus what you actually experience are often two very different things. 

Originally posted by protomunk

The armor thing may or may not be an issue. You have to die (not downed) at least 5 times before something breaks.10 times before it ALL breaks. There has to be some penalty to death. People need to realise there IS a chance of failure in dungeons and its not based on DPS/HPS.

 

Tthat is not fun for most people and these games are first and foremost about fun.  We're not talking about raids here, they are dungeons meant for the general population.  Make them too harsh and you'll have most people avoiding them like the plague.  I do find it odd, because ANet tends to think of little things like this and it doesn't bode well that they forgot or don't intend there to be repair kits or personnel within the instances.

And to imagine Explorable Mode is supposed to be even harder.

Originally posted by BillMurphy

Originally posted by Bunks

Wasn't too happy to see a person have to confront the last boss with no armor on because of the broken armor thing. He couldn't leave to repair because it would have locked him from the instance.

 

Take note trolls- THAT is a serious issue the game has.

This is true.  Hopefully they'll just put an armor repair person near one of the portals, or allow people to carry kits with them.  Because it's not about being hard at this point, but being brutal.

I hope so, because I am all for brutal, but Im also for brutal fun. having to carry extra sets of gear and packing like a boyscout to run a dungeon is more annoying than fun.

The first thing that jumped to mind when reading the posts about the dungeon being too hard? "you're all a bunch of whiney pussies."

Then i realized that you're either too young to remember games that were difficult and that you died in a lot which added value to your successes, or you're too jaded and lazy to appreciate doing something well and carefully.

its as simple as Greater consequences, greater rewards.

I wonder if dungeons are going to be PVP. I remember in DaOC when the different factions could control a dungeon.

Was the dungeon instanced? Or could you come upon it in your travels? Or was if found through a quest?

Originally posted by steuss

The first thing that jumped to mind when reading the posts about the dungeon being too hard? "you're all a bunch of whiney pussies."

Then i realized that you're either too young to remember games that were difficult and that you died in a lot which added value to your successes, or you're too jaded and lazy to appreciate doing something well and carefully.

 

its as simple as Greater consequences, greater rewards.

 

It's a game..

Safe that for real life.

Originally posted by Alot

And to imagine Explorable Mode is supposed to be even harder.

Definitely needs to be esp. for Explorer mode. That mode needs to cater to the type of player most interested in v challenging PvE-structured content. It also works to contrast with the slower paced, perhaps less defined/more flexible (objective/timed etc) and more regular PvE staple.

Esp. if the various prof combinations make for interesting challenges to completing it. : )

My mind is blown at people complaining about dungeon difficulty and the masses.

I'll say this until i'm dead: I don't want easy content that i can complete in 2 weeks.

Rift's original expert dungeons took 2-3 hours to complete. People raged and they got nerfed. Hopefully Anet doesn't listen and i don't think they will since there's no monthly fee.

Originally posted by protomunk
The solutions would be to have backup gear or coordinate well enough to avoid deaths. Tip 1. Rez downed teammates.

I understand the concept of fun, but do you really think the community is looking for easymode dungeons with no chances of failure?

A group of players who just have very little experience with the game found it difficult. They also did complete it. I hardly think this is cause to call for a revamp yet.

See, that would annoy me, having to carry around extra gear just in case someone says, hey lets go in here.

I am all for gear repair kits costing more than the loot you get from a run, making doing it wrong a costly adventure, but it's pure pebble in the shoe stuff like having to carry stuff around for no reason.

It's great that the dungeons are hard.

This squashes the opinions that the PvE content is 'easymode', plus adds that extra challenge to the game. :)

I wonder though if it would be feasable to just have an NPC at the entrance inside each dungeon who can repair your equipment and sell you supplies if needed? That and make it so that players can rejoin dungeons so long as they are still in the group (or reinvited should they dc for some reason).