Ascalon Catacombs – Dungeon Primer
February 22, 2012
The Ascalon Catacombs is the first of eight release day dungeons in Guild Wars 2, and is designed to be tackled by level 30 players in groups of up to five players each. Since the game has done away with traditional party roles, any combination of classes can team up and take on this five-boss PvE instance.
Watch this Ascalon Catacombs opening cinematic to learn of the dangers lurking in the haunted dungeon:
Go check out the new Ascalon Catacombs page to read it all! You don’t want to miss it!
What to Watch Out For
Puzzles
A carry-over feature from the original Guild Wars, environmental puzzles in Ascalon Catacombs involve relatively simple tile activations. Coordinate with your teammates to unlock the path to the deeper sections.
Traps and Cliffs
The dungeon routinely activates environment maps that are often lethal if you do not disable or avoid them. You can also fall to your death. Watch out for knockback attacks and be aware when evading so you don’t roll off a cliff. (This is in contrast to player hubs like Divinity’s Reach where gaping chasms are guarded with invisible barriers for your own safety.)
Repairs
If you haven’t heard yet, Guild Wars 2 doles out systematic armor breakage with each death. Rack up enough, and you will be forced to play naked and without gear buffs. Your team will need to be vigilant in keeping allies alive, especially since anyone can hand out support spells and channel heals when a teammate is in the downed state.
Not Completely Predictable AI
The developers have been trumpeting the downfall of the tri-class system, and one of the thrilling boons this has given us is that boss fights are a tad more unpredictable — and fun in that “this dude will wipe us if I’m not paying attention” kind of way. Bosses in Ascalon Catacombs, and the whole game in general, react to a whole set of stimuli aside from threat and uses this intel to launch attacks.
Mob packs
True to the dungeon’s eerie environments, much of the enemy spawns here are wrathful Ascalon soldiers who died on the eve of Foefire. The more sinister mobs are the so-called gravelings, which attack in a seemingly endless swarm unless their mound pit is located and destroyed.
