Guild Wars 2

With the advent of of Fractured, there is a large influx of people that have no experience with agony. The resistance numbers don’t mean anything directly and there is no good way to know how much resistance you should add. Next to fractal level and personal reward level, could you add the agony damage per tick or some other measure so that people have an idea of the kind of defense they’ll need?

The table in below link is not intuitive, and even then the fact that a tick is 9 seconds and that at 12% a tick you’ll lose a full hp bar … Somehow build some clarity into the game here.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Agony

I will explain how to use the wiki table. The first column is the Agony Resistance, the next column are the range of difficulty. From level 10 to 19 the Agony is the same, from 20 to 29 the agony is the same, etc.

The % number inside the table is the damage per tick per second. Its a % of your total hp pool, meaning that it doesn’t change anything that you have 11k hp or 30k hp. Overall, low number hp combine with good healing is the best defense against Agony attack. It doesn’t mean that everybody should go for low vitality and high healing power (because its not a good idea), but against agony specifically ya it would be a good idea.

Normal agony attack during fractal last for 3 second and can stack. I don’t know if there is a limit of stack, but usually you won’t see more that 2-3 stack at some specific boss. For example, the Mossman in the swamp fractal give you agony with a axe that can bounce several time on you giving you stack each time it hit you. But don’t worry, multiple stack are not that common in most of the fractals.

At each fractal final boss (Jade Maw, Mai Trin and Molten Duo) you gonna have some special agony attack that fill the entire room (you cannot do nothing against it except take the dmg and have enough AR). This attack have only 1 stack and last for 9 second.

Now like you said if you have 12% dmg per tick per second the big 9 second attack will take out 108% of your hp pool. That don’t mean that you will die since you can heal yourself. You have a 9 second window to heal you. If you have already low hp and you healing skill is on cooldown, then you gonna down. So you need to make sure you are ready for the big attack (if you don’t have enough AR to have 1% dmg per tick per second).

So what level of AR i need to do certain fractal level? Obviously if you can bring the Agony dmg to 1% then its the best. But if you want to know the minimum you need.
With 6% dmg per tick per second normal agony attack with damage you of 18%, 36% with 2 stack of agony. The big attack form boss, will take out 54%. You will be conformable for all the fractals. The only place you gonna have some difficulty could be the Molten Duo. This boss give you a big 9 second Agony, then follow up with different source of 3seconds agony from both bosses. Just be cautious at the beginning while your life or healing skill get back to normal and you will be fine.

With 12% dmg per tick. You gonna need to dodge most of the agony attack or you will down rather quickly in some fractal (i’m looking at you Volcano). Each normal agony attack will take 36% of your Hp and for 2 stack it will be 72%. Most of the Agony attack is simple to dodge and you should learn to do so rapidly, so even if the number are getting bigger, Agony should not be an issue here for skilled player. The problem again its for the Molten Duo. Here you gonna die if your not really good, and you certainly be death for all the fight if its the first time you do it. With the other new final boss Mai Trin, you also begin to have some problem. Huge barrage of agony aoe will down you in a position where you cannot be revive by the other before you die. If you have swiftness and your group is organized, you will still be fine, but the learning process gonna be hard.

Overall if you usually have a hard time to dodge and don’t think you are particularly good at fractal. Then make sure you have these level of AR before going into a level.
Level 10-19 : 10 AR (don’t go higher than 19 if you enter in this category)

If you know a bit about the Agony Attack and are able to doge some of them at least. Or you consider yourself as a average players that want to go into fractal for the first time. Then use these level of AR as minimum.
Level 10-19 : 5 AR
Level 20-29 : 20 AR
Level 30-39 : 35 AR
Level 40-49 : 50 AR
Level 50 : 65 AR

You can still have less AR than that if you want. All fractal except final bosses don’t really need AR since you can dodge, blind, block, etc ALL OF THEM. For the Jade Maw you need at least 1 people in your group to have enough AR, but this will take sometime for him to rez everybody. For the Molten Duo have at least 3 people with enough AR, but this begin to be a bit stupid since some people will be useless for pretty much all the fight.