Guild Wars 2

What would the ideal raid party look like?

4-2-4 is meta for most bosses.

So the 4s would be PS Warrior / Druid / DPS / DPS
the 2 would be Chrono and Rev

The Hypnotoad.1740:

4-2-4 is meta for most bosses.

So the 4s would be PS Warrior / Druid / DPS / DPS
the 2 would be Chrono and Rev

Awesome, thanks a lot! Do you also happen to know what dps professions are in the meta right now?

Tempest is still top dog, even after the nerfs. Thief and Guard are probably next on the list.

If you need Condi DPS, Engi is best followed by Necro, and Necro gets better if you can get 2

http://gw2dnt.enjin.com/forum/m/37173123/viewthread/27286030-raid-team-composition-guide-52516

Worth a read,
Some of the information is slightly out of date due to the most recent patch. But the base is very solid.

Notable patch things:
Tempest with Staff is still top dog damage wise as long as you have at least a mid size or larger hitbox.
Dagger / warhorn/focus Tempest got trimed more than we would probably like it to be but still very good. opening up the slot for thief.
Thief / Daredevil Competes extremely well with damage on mid to small hit boxes and simple rotations. Staff AND Dagger/Dagger are both good.
Guardian having always been good just slow on the “pugmeta” uptake edged up a bit and has 3 weapon builds that are all competitive.
Everything else is around the same, But Testing is being done on Power Engineer as it potentially may be competitive Damage.

Bottom line.
When building a raid team, make sure your buffs are covered. Might, Fury, Quickness, Grace of the land, ETC. (Chrono, Warior, Herald, Druid)
and fill in the extras with anything you like. Almost every class has at least 1 to 2 dps/utility builds to raid with

10 people who know what they’re doing.

Ropechef.6192:

Everything else is around the same, But Testing is being done on Power Engineer as it potentially may be competitive Damage.

Testing’s been done. It’s pretty much on par with condi engi, so it’s competitive, but not entirely remarkable.

I’d say that if you need a DPS slot filled and someone prefers to play engi, thief, guard, or ele, there’s not really much reason to ask them to swap to something else, unless it’s related to something boss/group specific (i.e. you need ranged add clearing from staff ele, protection from hammer guard, break bar help from thief, etc.). However, with the exception of add clearing from a staff ele, you probably should try to get the rest of your group to adjust before asking for a swap, such as by asking a rev to pulse prot, telling people to L2BreakBar, and so forth.

This is probably the most even playing field we’ve seen for the DPS role in quite a while and raid leaders need to understand that there’s a limitation to how much improvement you will really get from min/maxing party comp. At a certain point, your group will just perform better by having players stick consistently with the same profession so that they can maximize their own performance, both with ‘rotations’ and fight mechanics.

“At a certain point, your group will just perform better by having players stick consistently with the same profession so that they can maximize their own performance, both with ‘rotations’ and fight mechanics.”

That’s the ticket right there. Sums it all up nicely!

What is “best” depends largely on what boss you are facing, but in general the accepted best is some kind of 4-4-2 comp with

1: Druid, Warrior, X, X
2: Druid, Warrior, X X
3: Chrono, Revenant

Where the Xs are filled out with your desired DPS/utility classes. This is typically some combination of elementalist, necro, guardian, and thief depending on the boss.

Also popular is the 7-2-1 (or 6-2-1-1) which can drop a warrior and (if desired) druid for more DPS/utility classes at the cost of spreading your group buffs more thin.

With a 4-4-2 comp, are the druids usually dps? If so are there difficulties with healing? What if you’re in a group that isn’t the most skilled and gets hit by mechanics a little more than they should?

My group usually runs 7-2-1 with a magi’s druid for heals, but I’d be interested in trying out comps that give more dps.

Fluffy.1932:

With a 4-4-2 comp, are the druids usually dps? If so are there difficulties with healing? What if you’re in a group that isn’t the most skilled and gets hit by mechanics a little more than they should?

My group usually runs 7-2-1 with a magi’s druid for heals, but I’d be interested in trying out comps that give more dps.

That’s exactly where the 2 druid thing shines. With less experienced groups you can run 1 magi druid and 1 condi druid or something like that. You get extra burst heals (and buffs) from the condi druid taking pressure off that Magi druid who often has to heal in 2 places at once.

My group tends to be on the lazy side. Even with 4-4-2 comp, we usually do 2 magi druids and still one shot every bosses with plenty time left on the timer. Many time when someone kitten ed and we had to 9-man the encounter early, the two healing druids don’t really detract from our smooth experience. Furthermore, it’s a good setup for our people to rotate between roles and learn them. For example, we’ve been having our PS swap to chrono/ druid, main chrono to druid/tempest, main DPS to PS/different DPS… etc. But we only started doing so after having a solid foundation and satisfying execution of our main classes. For new raiders, stick with one class and become good at it before switching.

Fluffy.1932:

With a 4-4-2 comp, are the druids usually dps? If so are there difficulties with healing? What if you’re in a group that isn’t the most skilled and gets hit by mechanics a little more than they should?

My group usually runs 7-2-1 with a magi’s druid for heals, but I’d be interested in trying out comps that give more dps.

For the average groups there’s more flexibility with two druids. In the ideal world a full DPS geared Druid can keep up with the healing that is required in an encounter (from damage ticks, pulsing damage, etc). With only one druid that player almost has to be decked out in Healer gear in order to cover mistakes (miss a green being the most common example). With 2 druids you can cover mistakes more easily, and even with full DPS gear the Healing modifiers you get from traits and nourishment still provide some serious heals for the team when needed.

Ultimately though, it depends on the group and the encounter. For something like VG both druids can be Zerk or Vipers (Viper Druid can then go to red during the split), and you have plenty of heals assuming that green circles are in check and no one is face-tanking a seeker. If you have a less experienced group you may opt to have one druid go with more healing based gear, but having both do that may be overkill. In the case of more aggressive fights like Xera and Matthias you’ll probably want more healing to begin with

The assumption is that you’re bringing along 2 druids for more uptime on damage boosting buffs as well as ensuring that all 10 members are buffed rather than 5. So, in a sense, both druids make up for their lack of damage by buffing the team through the roof. Now, if you have a good team that frees up both druids to take more offensive gear? Well, that’s just free damage you’re getting.

Since starting the practice of 2 full healing druids and totally ditching the idea of squeezing DPS from the druid of my group(s), there are a couple of advantages I find worth considering:

• You can outheal the damage and totally ignore some mechanics that help improve the total group DPS. Cases in point,
  a. You can totally ignore the green circle and floor rotation at VG.
  b. You can ignore the break bar of Gorseval and your group can still DPS under the druid’s babysitting.
  c. You can ignore the cannon at Sabetha while hugging the champions.
  d. You can somewhat ignore the incoming threat of the green poisonous area if your friendly slub gets cleaved down accidentally.

• You can dispatch the druid to deal with the side mechanics:
  a. Have druids take turns to eat the mushroom at Slothasor
  b. Have one druid take care of CC the Saboteur
  c. Have one druid go to red boss during split at VG and keep the necro’s minions alive.
  d. Each druid takes the role of either escorting corruption/well carrier or healing the group. Free your reaper from taking Blood Magic. More CC power and group wide stun break.
  e. Have one druid taking flak at Sabetha while the other keeps a higher uptime of the buff on the group.

• You can have one druid tank and more focus on tanking.
  a. VG
  b. Gorseval
  c. KC
  d. Xera

Fluffy.1932:

With a 4-4-2 comp, are the druids usually dps? If so are there difficulties with healing? What if you’re in a group that isn’t the most skilled and gets hit by mechanics a little more than they should?

My group usually runs 7-2-1 with a magi’s druid for heals, but I’d be interested in trying out comps that give more dps.

I really depends on two things:

1.) How good is your squad at avoiding damage? If going magis means you keep up the scholar bonus for significantly longer on your allies then you will gain damage by taking it. Having a player go down is obviously also a huge DPS loss.

2.) What is your goal? I have seen lots of groups that scoff at the idea of doing anything but the highest DPS strategy. There is some defensive merit to this, as a shorter fight means fewer opportunities to die, but the reality is that 99% of the time there’s no reason to go for anything other than consistency. For comps in general this is at a middle ground between DPS and survivability, and for druid in particular it often means just running magis/clerics and going full ezmode if you think your group will have trouble otherwise.

It’s worth noting that even with full healer druids the 4-4-2 comp generally is higher DPS because druid buffs are out-of-this-world insane and you can keep up the scholar buff more consistently. But if you’re trying to squeeze more utility there’s nothing wrong with 7-2-1 or 6-2-1-1, and in fact in some fights like matthias that kind of squad organization is probably better.

Iris Ng.9845:

• You can have one druid tank and more focus on tanking.
  a. VG
  b. Gorseval
  c. KC
  d. Xera

Hopefully this doesn’t cause too much of a kittenstorm from the chronotank lovers but in my experience druid tank is in fact much much better than any other tank for every fight besides VG, at least in terms of consistent kills.

The Hypnotoad.1740:

Tempest is still top dog, even after the nerfs. Thief and Guard are probably next on the list.

If you need Condi DPS, Engi is best followed by Necro, and Necro gets better if you can get 2

Incorrect. Thief has the highest DPS in the game againts small/moving targets. Ele is only good againts Gors and KC. Maybe Xera, but people are using DH now solo clear the fragments while bringing thieves.

Here is the dps tier list. https://m.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/4v76gq/qt_updated_guides_and_dps_benchmarks_for_all/

with wash the pain nerfed.. :P it is GOOD IDEA to take two druids hehehehe.. xD

I like the 4,4,2 composition even with chrono 100% boon, a pro rev is good to have.

Depends on the context of the question being asked.

4,2,4 is meta

But are you asking because you’re curious?
Or, are you asking because you’re looking at making a group/ reforming your group?

bump to see more raid comps

4-3-2-1
A simple variation of the usual 4-4-2. We just take one of the tempests, put him into his own group and have him take healing gear. This gives us 3 sources of healing (2 druids and the tempest) and is much more defensive comp. Amazing against encounters like Mattias, where DPS is a non-issue, but the group is under heavy pressure. Sacrificing just a little bit of DPS (we still finish with like 1 min left on the timer) allows us to have much smoother kills and make up for potential mistakes. Can’t remember the last time we wiped on Matt with this comp. 1st try kill everytime.