Windswept Haven Capture Advice

Eight of my guildmates tried to capture Windswept Haven Guild Hall, but couldn't get past the first (of 5) bosses in time. The veterans seem to be much, much tougher than the ones in open field. I've heard that smaller groups (5) have it easier because of scaling. About 6 of our group were experienced players. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Smaller, my guild did it with 30+ and it was a pain but we eventually got it after several trial and error...then I went to another large guild and they tried for 3 hours finally having everyone leave and just 5 manned, first try.

Edit: Almost forgot it was all warriors

Tried it 3 times.
1st time: We had 4 people - chrono, reaper, druid, and power ps berserker. Lost the first 2 fights, won the next 5 running, though one of those was with only 3 seconds left. Final legendary boss just melted.2nd time: 5 people - druid, (my) power ps berserker, mirage, vanilla ranger, and a necro. Had the 3rd fight glitch, otherwise we would have powered through all 5 fights without problems. Final legendary boss just melted.3rd time: 9 people - Tried it with both my chrono and when we decided we just needed more DPS, switched to my power ps berserker. Necro, couple of rangers, guardian, and a couple of ele's. Could. Not. Kill. A. Single. One. Wiped twice without winning a single fight.

if you're going to try to capture the guild hall will more than 5 people, everybody needs to be able to function, in MY opinion, at Raid DPS and performance levels if you want to have any hope of success. If you can only do "dungeon-level" performance, only take 5 people. A druid that can do group condi-cleanse is really helpful. Alacrity from a chrono is really helpful.

Great comments, both of you. Very helpful.

You don't need raid dps.

If you want to do this stupidly simple bring 15 people. Split int 3 groups of 5. Get your respective fights to 33% each and wait for confirmation from the other groups, then simultaneously kill the defenders from 33% to 0. Move to next location and repeat.

The final phase is even less an issue, just kill the two bosses. Break their bars and kill.

This is actually very different from what I've experienced.When my guild captured it we were 9 people, 3 inexperienced players including myself, and it was pretty much a faceroll, so maybe it came down to good rotations and buffs that the experienced players were throwing out? But yeah, we also found that 9 people is the sweet spot for the scaling problem so that might be somewhat useful for you

I was part of a PuG for a small guild to get this hall. I believe we were 8 strong, diverse group. We had at least 2 Power DH, myself included. I'm not a top tier player either; my PvP/WvW/Raid/Fractal experience is almost nonexistent. We managed to pull it off with about 5 seconds left in the last fight, and I would attribute it to two things.

1. About half of the group was experienced with this fight, having claimed the hall with other guilds and watched some strategy videos. They had clinch moves at exactly the right time in the final battle. The first boss went down a little rough, but the second one was like clockwork.
2. One of the experienced players stepped up to a "commander" position, tagging targets and calling out group strategy. That direction over Discord kept the effort organized and effective.

My DPS wasn't spectacular, but it was good. I was happy to contribute. Ultimately, the success was due to the people who knew what to do and were willing to direct the team effort. I hope you're able to claim the hall in your next attempt.

I had helped someone take this guild hall and we steamrolled through it with just 5 people. Granted, that was when Scourge was still bugged to proc Dhuumfire on every F5 hit, but since I was the only Scourge, that still doesn't account for how rapidly they all went down.

5-9 people seems to be the sweet spot for this guild hall. Scaling seems to be insane.

My guild and I took two attempts. The first attempt had about 7 people (we failed spectacularly). We all went out of the hall to discuss ways we could better survive the onslaught, adjusted our builds a bit, then went back in. We didn't need Raid DPS, just communication. We had one person as commander, announcing where the next wave would be at, then made our way there.

I think what made our second attempt easier was really communicating on Discord. When someone joined the chat, we invited them to capture the guild hall and they jumped right in. Whenever someone was downed, two people rez'd the person (faster rez'ing), then went back to fighting. There was no delay, no confusion. Mind you, we did not run a Scourge; in fact, we all played the builds we wanted to with a few adjustments (boon-sharing and group-oriented skills). Our second attempt had 8 members.

You can do this, OP! Be sure to communicate with your guildies to say where each wave is at. If you fail a wave, don't feel defeated. Calmly make your way to the next wave and make sure you defeat that one. Ah, you probably know this, but at every third of the bosses' health, its minions come out to protect it. Be aware of when the bosses' health is at 66% and 33%. Might help with getting things done quickly and efficiently.

We have tried with groups of 4 thru 8, and have been successful on a few waves, but not all the way. We use Teamspeak, and communication is good. Many combinations of professions and builds. When you adjusted your builds, what is more important? Condition removal? More DPS? More survivability? Melee or range? It seems we are close, but we just aren't there yet. What are we missing? Any thoughts?

We failed the first time mainly because of disconnection issues with several of our members. I was using core ranger the first time, but realized that although I was surviving, that didn't help out our group as much. So, I switched over to Soulbeast so that I could share my boons with Leader of the Pack. I think what most of us were thinking as we adjusted our builds was how we could benefit the group more. Truthfully, what made it easier for us was cutting the commute time short by announcing where the waves were and getting there as fast as possible. During our first attempt, we burnt almost 30 secs each time we had to travel to a boss. When we had someone announcing, travel time was cut almost in half. I also remember that having the boss reach 33% before 1 min and 30 secs almost always guaranteed success for defeating the wave.

You'll definitely need a lot of CC skills for the break bars, but probably out-DPSing the boss and its minions might do the trick. Ignore the other enemies, just focus on the ones with icons over them. We had a good mixture of melee and ranged and everyone had a condi-cleanse, though those who COULD share did so.

My guild did it just yesterday with 2 Soulbeasts, a Holomancer, a Guardian (I forget which elite spec), and a Scourage. It is very doable with adequate communication (GET DISCORD! It is free and easy to use) and we did it in just one run. Ignore adds, kill the shielders and the main bosses. You can do it.

Edit: this is the build I was running if it helps.http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAV4fjEqQNLWwCmrAVLWMEsmOQwqFwEAGdnu8q72d8WixjD-jRhPQBqU5H1U/hY6eAw+DvUJIpAeUZF-e

8-9 people would be nice. it seems like you don't have enough dps for the timer. the scale is only appear if you have more than that of like 15 ish.and >21 would make it scale to 3 champs at 3 different locations. one dead champ, the other 2 start scale up. which make it hard to finish regarding good dps or not.on the other hand, groups with low dps, may have a hard time to finish within the time limit.our first time was 24 peeps, it was bad cuz scaling. our second attempt, it was 9 people and we are all experienced, as in raiders, wvw and spvp players. we just dps with about 30s on every champion timer. no need for a healer or need survivability. plus, having 9 peeps are nice for the 2nd phase . if you can't survive this 2nd phase, you'll have to start over.

i wrote a guide somewhere on reddit the second day we captured it. but that was quite a wall of text. lol.the vets are tough, you're right. so any condition builds would be in favor here. you'll just damage them and ignore their armor.also mobs have a lot of boons, every few seconds, so any classes with boon corruption is what you should bring into the encounter.for boons and buffs, just any class that can pump out some might, fury, and quickness would be nice. to increase over dps of the whole squad.if your squad have more than 5 people, consider to divide them into 2 different sub for the boonshare to work better.you don't have to bring condi cleanse if you can dodge the champ attack. he'll have a large aoe ring on the ground. and about 2s later, the ring grows darker and start applying condis just like well of corruption on a necro. if you want to be on the safe side, however, have a scourge in each sub. they have a condi cleanse every 4s. can't beat that.stay max melee range for boonshare, condi cleanse and heal each other, if need be.and if you go all condis, it'll synergize better since your scourge could epidemic the rest of the mobs too. so you just focus on the 2 vets, back at boss. rinse and repeat.remember the goal is to kill champs, and champs go invulnerable at 66%, and 33% and spawn 2 vets, so you only need to clear 2 vets for him to get back to the fight, ignore everything else.when you finish a boss, use your mount and run to the middle, just to cut down traveling time especially if they spawn at the other ends of the map.

2nd phase, and also last phase. there'll be 2 legendaries. they're leggies but they're much easier than the champs tbh. they'll have random debuffs, just like when you do a champion bounty. so ping those debuffs in the squad and make sure everyone read it. if it's the spinning orb, don't stand near it of you'll lose bodies and dps.but other than that this phase has a lot of time for both bosses. so you should be fine.if you need a hand, i could come. i'm online a lot, mostly parking. lol. but whenever people ping or whisper me, my keyboard does the thing. so i notice =]

Curious. Are you maybe trying to down all the mobs? The vets and normal mobs can cost you precious time.

I've been involved in two successful and one failed capture now. There wasn't anything special about the successful groups, both were PUG groups, no voice coms, one a group of five and the other of six. All we did was get to the spawn as fast a possible and then focused on the canids (icon overhead) and then the champ, repeat until dead and wait for the next spawn. We got knocked around plenty but managed each spawn with 10-30 seconds left.

The last fight was one legendary that was easier to down than the champ groups.

Classes for the successful groups:Group 1: 2 Dragon Hunters, 2 Scourge, 1 Weaver, and 1 Soul Beast.Group 2: 2 Dragon Hunters, 2 Berserkers, and 1 Scourge.

I can't speak for the others setups but I just went to metabattle, took a raid build and tweaked a bit to my liking.

For what it's worth .. the failed group was a four man of 2 Dragon Hunters, 1 Weaver, and 1 Soul Beast.

Appreciate your thoughtful insights. We've tried 4, 5 , 6, 7 & 8 person groups. Various combinations of 2 DH, Mesner, 1-3 Rangers, 1-2 Thiefs, Revenant, Warrior, 1-2 Elementalists. I think we understand the basics - focus on the canids then the champ. We get to the spawn asap. Sounds like a Scourge is helpful. Conditions instead of power? Maybe more focus on group skills rather than individual? More or less range?

Conditions are definitely useful against enemies with high armor values like these, area of effect skills for combo fields will take out adds without you paying them much heed, and make sure to have a good bit of boonstrip and condi cleanse. The champs and legendary absolutely love to slow and poison you with AoE’s right at their feet. This is the one scenario I found myself in wishing I had bear stance over troll ungent or healing spring.

Edit: For any of the other Soulbeasts put there, Dolyak stance will be useful for fighting the Legendary at the end. He has a fairly long knockback/down that is rather inconvenient

Thanks to your advice, our guild was able to get through the 5 set of spawns without too much difficulty. Some things that helped:

1. The scaling does not appear to be a problem for 8 people, and 8 is better than 4 or 5. Except for the number of Legendaries.
2. Conditions are key. Our group switched to condition based characters or skills (ie. Firebrand instead of DH Guardians).
3. Having the first person who spots the new spawn call it out helpedWe've yet to get through the Legendaries. Some people say this is easier than the rest, which wasn't the case for us. Any advice on that would be appreciated.

How many people will result in facing 2 Legendaries as opposed to only one? At 8 people we faced 2 Legendaries.

Yeah, the legendaries were the hardest part of the run for my group. We only won that part due to our guild leader (I forget what character he played) focusing on rezzing the downed and dead and a stubborn and resilient Soulbeast (me) pumping out condi’s and taking as much aggro as I possibly could away from party members.

Two years late, but we've just claimed Windswept Haven and I couldn't find any guides so thought it worth posting some observations. We've tried 3 times before being successful.

1st: Party of 7. Mirage x2, holosmith power DPS, reaper power DPS, ele (not sure of the build), soulbeast, warrior DPS but with significant cc. Medium organization via discord but we were still figuring out what we were doing. We seriously struggled to take out the initial waves within the time limit-- I suspect part of this was travel time and part of this was communication/coordination.

2nd: So, we went out, modified our builds and party comp a bit, and went back in with a bit more of a plan. One of the mirages swapped for a dragonhunter (radiant GS), we assigned cc duty to the warrior, had the soulbeast seriously focus taking the aggro, and had one person calling the shots over Discord/tagging. Also started off the fight in the middle of the hall, which helped with time massively. We were still VERY down to the wire on time mostly due to people not always paying attention to the commander, failed a few waves, but made it through in the end. Then we hit the first legendary, miraculously got him to half health, then wiped in a hot second with no idea what happened. We really felt like we had no idea what we were doing in that fight-- there were orbs floating around, couldn't figure out what they were for, and in the end never got to figure it out, because--

3rd: Party of 6. Mirage, dragonhunter, holosmith, reaper, soulbeast (instead of the ele), druid (instead of the soulbeast). Chilled in the middle of the hall on raptors to cut down travel time, and communication-wise/damage focus was epic. Specific party roles: the dragonhunter used "Save Yourselves" to pull conditions from that horrible AoE from party members; the soulbeast did a lot of boon stripping and party DPS enhancement; and the druid spec'd into healing (and also rezzed downed members since it wasn't much of a DPS loss). Somehow, our DPS output was massive compared to the previous two runs-- not sure if this was due to scaling (doubtful, since we were just one person down?) or communication and stacking. We also felt ourselves getting downed far less frequently than the previous two attempts, which saved us a lot of time on not having to res. We got lucky with spawns in the same places and if we didn't have to travel we finished the wave with 1min to spare (if we did have to travel it was about 10-20s left). We only failed 1 wave, and as far as I can tell only had one legendary to fight after (everyone on this forum has been talking about 2?) This one wasn't too bad once we figured out the mechanic-- the hand icon means stand still and the dude running icon means strafe/keep moving. Helpful to have range for this fight in case you get stuck standing away from the boss (the mirage had a lot of trouble here). The main concerned seemed to be survivability rather than DPS for this fight.

Anyone late on making a guild/claiming a hall, I hope finds that helpful! But, I was also super curious to find out the mechanics of that one boss we couldn't figure out in the second run.

@"MaddieRook.7893" said:Two years late, but we've just claimed Windswept Haven and I couldn't find any guides so thought it worth posting some observations. We've tried 3 times before being successful.

1st: Party of 7. Mirage x2, holosmith power DPS, reaper power DPS, ele (not sure of the build), soulbeast, warrior DPS but with significant cc. Medium organization via discord but we were still figuring out what we were doing. We seriously struggled to take out the initial waves within the time limit-- I suspect part of this was travel time and part of this was communication/coordination.

2nd: So, we went out, modified our builds and party comp a bit, and went back in with a bit more of a plan. One of the mirages swapped for a dragonhunter (radiant GS), we assigned cc duty to the warrior, had the soulbeast seriously focus taking the aggro, and had one person calling the shots over Discord/tagging. Also started off the fight in the middle of the hall, which helped with time massively. We were still VERY down to the wire on time mostly due to people not always paying attention to the commander, failed a few waves, but made it through in the end. Then we hit the first legendary, miraculously got him to half health, then wiped in a hot second with no idea what happened. We really felt like we had no idea what we were doing in that fight-- there were orbs floating around, couldn't figure out what they were for, and in the end never got to figure it out, because--

3rd: Party of 6. Mirage, dragonhunter, holosmith, reaper, soulbeast (instead of the ele), druid (instead of the soulbeast). Chilled in the middle of the hall on raptors to cut down travel time, and communication-wise/damage focus was epic. Specific party roles: the dragonhunter used "Save Yourselves" to pull conditions from that horrible AoE from party members; the soulbeast did a lot of boon stripping and party DPS enhancement; and the druid spec'd into healing (and also rezzed downed members since it wasn't much of a DPS loss). Somehow, our DPS output was massive compared to the previous two runs-- not sure if this was due to scaling (doubtful, since we were just one person down?) or communication and stacking. We also felt ourselves getting downed far less frequently than the previous two attempts, which saved us a lot of time on not having to res. We got lucky with spawns in the same places and if we didn't have to travel we finished the wave with 1min to spare (if we did have to travel it was about 10-20s left). We only failed 1 wave, and as far as I can tell only had one legendary to fight after (everyone on this forum has been talking about 2?) This one wasn't too bad once we figured out the mechanic-- the hand icon means stand still and the dude running icon means strafe/keep moving. Helpful to have range for this fight in case you get stuck standing away from the boss (the mirage had a lot of trouble here). The main concerned seemed to be survivability rather than DPS for this fight.

Anyone late on making a guild/claiming a hall, I hope finds that helpful! But, I was also super curious to find out the mechanics of that one boss we couldn't figure out in the second run.

If memory serves, going with 6-7 is actually a bad idea due to the way scaling works. I think you want either 5 or I believe it is 10. If you go with 7, it scales the same as it does at 10 for example, so that often causes problems for groups.

I may have the exact tiers wrong, but the principle should still be the same

Two years necro'ed thread, eh.

All guild halls are designed to be capturable with a party of five. It takes a bit of luck, and you may have to die many times to memorise the fight, and having someone on full Minstrel's and max outgoing healing% to keep your entire group alive helps alot.