A couple months back I did a “traditional’ MMO Co-Opportunities on Guild Wars 2. The overarching theme I highlighted about the game was how it encouraged people to work together. Even if players aren’t grouped, they can still get credit for quests/events, and get loot off the mobs they work to kill together. Instead of a competing against other players for PVE (player versus environment) content, Guild Wars 2 players are encouraged with work with them. For this month’s column, I decided to do a follow-up - or a “part 2, if you will. This time I’ll focus on the PVE “end-game” of Guild Wars 2.
After playing the game from release (over two months now!), I’ve gotten two characters to max level and geared out. My guild primarily focuses on PVE, and so the cooperative end-game for us is dungeons. Some of you may play Guild Wars 2, but haven’t quite capped out your character. Others may be interested in the game, but haven’t picked it up because they’re curious about what the end-game content is like. Hopefully I can give you a picture of how it plays.
A nice view in the Arah dungeon
Dungeons are scattered across the world and are available throughout the levels. When your character reaches the appropriate level for one, you’ll receive a nice in-game mail notifying you of this and a helpful link to show you where it is on the map. Each dungeon has two types of mode: Story and Explorable. Story mode will take you through the story of the dungeon and upon completion will unlocked Explorable mode for your character. The first time you complete story mode you’ll also get a rare hat of the appropriate level for the dungeon. Explorable mode is balanced for five levels after story mode, and provides multiple paths which each have their own bosses and unique mechanics. While explorable modes become unlocked only five levels after the story mode, they are clearly intended for level 80s (the max level), as completing them puts you on the track to purchase level 80 exotic gear. Before I get to all that, though, here’s a list of the Guild Wars 2 dungeons, and their recommended levels:
Ascalonian Catacombs (AC) - Story at 30, Explorable at 35
Caudecus’ Manor (CM) - Story at 40, Explorable at 45
Twilight Arbor (TA) - Story at 50, Explorable at 55
Sorrow’s Embrace (SE) - Story at 60, Explorable at 65
Citadel of Flames (CoF) - Story at 70, Explorable at 75
Honor of the Waves (HotW) - Story at 76, Explorable at 80
Crucible of Eternity (CoE) - Story at 78, Explorable at 80
The Ruined City of Arah (Arah) - Story at 80, Explorable at 80