Guild Wars 2

Hi, I am a novice raider with low LI. Seeing as raid PUGs are asking for 200+ LIs these days, I want to ask:

• How many LIs can you farm a week?
• What is the best way to farm LI?

1. 13 LIs per week/account

2. Start with the easier encounters like Escort (Wing 3 – Boss 1), Mursaat Overseer (Wing 4 – Boss 2) and Samarog (Wing 4 Boss 3)
Vale Guardian also is a first encounter for many people because it is the first boss of the oldest wing 1. Go ahead with Trio, maybe Cairn, Gorseval and Keep Construct when you know the mechanics and you are at least decent to good with your class.

At best go into training runs, make friends, use your guild or the other 4 guild spots to get into raiding with people you know, you can trust and make sure that they can also trust you.
There’s a lot of help there: Raid training guilds/communities, LFG with advertised training runs and it can help too if you ask for in the Lion’s Arch Aerodrome.

As a person who pugged 99% from 1 to 200 li i have some really important advice to make your life easier.

1) Start is gonna be really slow so be patient. Farming basically everything except Mat, Xera, Deimos, mb SAB. Basically you join w/e u can on lfg and hope for the best.Especially on weekends groups dont tend to ask for a lot of LI but a lot of groups will fail at clearing bosses cause…weekends.
2) If u can buy a tag and make your own groups. It makes a world of difference.
3) Learn to play Chrono tank like it is a second nature.It will net u entry not only in statics groups, but generally groups with higher Li than u got.

That’s decent advice, the only thing I’ll say about it is that chronotank carries in a lot of fights so you have to know how to play it well. Which takes time. Personally I’d start with an easier class like ele or condi ranger

Easier classes are filled easily and aren’t on demand, the best way to get into raids is sink or swim. Take war or condi ranger for example. These rolls are usually filled within seconds after the lfg appears.
I tried to practice my cps last week and couldnt get in a single group cause everyone already had 2.

That’s true, all I’m saying is it’s best to get some experience in the fights beforehand in my opinion before jumping into chronotank, It took me a long time to get the hang of chronotank, and when I would screw up the team suffered more than if others screwed up. Being directly responsible for a win feels amazing. But being responsible for a loss is just awful. but I do also agree with your perspective.

you can earn a maximum of 13LI/week (not per account since you can’t share them).
Now, some bosses are easier than others, but they’re all designed for an organizer group, and not a PUG, so I will try to list them in order of difficulty (when played with an organized group)
Escort
Vale Guardian
Gorseval
Cairn
Mursaat Overseer
Trio
Sloth
Samarog
Keep Construct
Xera
Sabetha
Deimos
Matthias

(This is a personal order of difficulty, others may experience it differently, but it gives a rough edge. if you start at the top of this list you should be able to get a solid 5 LI/week)

The one to Rule.2593:

That’s true, all I’m saying is it’s best to get some experience in the fights beforehand in my opinion before jumping into chronotank, It took me a long time to get the hang of chronotank, and when I would screw up the team suffered more than if others screwed up. Being directly responsible for a win feels amazing. But being responsible for a loss is just awful. but I do also agree with your perspective.

Another possibility for the OP would be to start as a “dps chrono”. You can get familiar with chrono and the fight in general.
If you make a mistake as dps chrono, it’s not as bad as if you make the mistake as chronotank.

Nearly all lfgs are either looking for a chrono (tank and/or dps), a druid or special jobs (kiter). If you can fill one of these roles, you may even get a spot if you don’t meet the LI requirement as long as you know the fight. Just ask nicely if that is ok for the commander.

I Also pugged most of my LI here some advice:

1- if you don’t have an ascended set, Just buy a full magi exotic ecquipment for your druid.
In most encounter magi druid is Just the easier class to play, you don’t have to care about nothing if not heal teammates and place spirits.

2 Then as people said before start with easier encounter. Watch videos in YouTube about the encounter you have to do, with possibly the PoV of your class. Also read guides if possible, so you can know things that maybe you don’t see in the video.

3 Try to always to be in the same pixel of where other people are.

4- Just don’t lie about your LI or your experience… If people Ask you to ping don’t use fake codes, Just be honest. People tend to kick liers and are more incline ti accept someone that is honest

5- Once you get a decent experience on some encounter and you are confident with them, buy a tag a make your own groups. People usually never Ask for the Commander to ping Kp or LI. But again, do it if you are confident with the encounter, basically because is not a nice thing make other people carry you while them expect you to bè good, and aslo because if people spot you are inexperienced they Will leave the group or kick you next time they see you.

lucadiro.4519:

I Also pugged most of my LI here some advice:

1- if you don’t have an ascended set, Just buy a full magi exotic ecquipment for your druid.
In most encounter magi druid is Just the easier class to play, you don’t have to care about nothing if not heal teammates and place spirits.

2 Then as people said before start with easier encounter. Watch videos in YouTube about the encounter you have to do, with possibly the PoV of your class. Also read guides if possible, so you can know things that maybe you don’t see in the video.

3 Try to always to be in the same pixel of where other people are.

4- Just don’t lie about your LI or your experience… If people Ask you to ping don’t use fake codes, Just be honest. People tend to kick liers and are more incline ti accept someone that is honest

5- Once you get a decent experience on some encounter and you are confident with them, buy a tag a make your own groups. People usually never Ask for the Commander to ping Kp or LI. But again, do it if you are confident with the encounter, basically because is not a nice thing make other people carry you while them expect you to bè good, and aslo because if people spot you are inexperienced they Will leave the group or kick you next time they see you.

Is like to amend to that. It worked out really great for me when I had very little LI. I told them “he . I only have 10 LI, but I am a quick learner” or “I already killed it once before” especially when you’re low on LI save your KP’s. They’re a valuable interchange. 1 KP is worth more than 30 LI

What is KP?

If it is the special decoration item dropped by each bosses, then I might have messed.

voidvector.2780:

What is KP?

If it is the special decoration item dropped by each bosses, then I might have messed.

KP = Kill Proof

Can be guild decorations, minis, titles, special items, boss specific weapons and armor etc.
Things that prove you have beaten a boss.

Vinceman.4572:

voidvector.2780:

What is KP?

If it is the special decoration item dropped by each bosses, then I might have messed.

KP = Kill Proof

Can be guild decorations, minis, titles, special items, boss specific weapons and armor etc.
Things that prove you have beaten a boss.

yea, and the reason they are worth more than LI is because
Someone with 50 LI can have never beaten a specific boss
but someone with 15 KP has beaten a specific boss 3 to 15 times (since drop rate is random 1-5)
There is one exception which is the Bandit Triate, which doesn’t drop any KP.
so every boss drops 1LI, and 1-5KP, and the KP part is specific per boss, so it’s a much better measurement of experience. Use them to fill up the lack of LI.

When i do VG, I rather have someone with 10LI, and 15 Vale Guardian fragments, than someone with 50LI and 0 Vale Guardian Fragments

Amaimon.7823:

yea, and the reason they are worth more than LI is because
Someone with 50 LI can have never beaten a specific boss
but someone with 15 KP has beaten a specific boss 3 to 15 times (since drop rate is random 1-5)
There is one exception which is the Bandit Triate, which doesn’t drop any KP.
so every boss drops 1LI, and 1-5KP, and the KP part is specific per boss, so it’s a much better measurement of experience. Use them to fill up the lack of LI.

When i do VG, I rather have someone with 10LI, and 15 Vale Guardian fragments, than someone with 50LI and 0 Vale Guardian Fragments

The problem of insisting on a certain number of KPs would exclude many players. For example I’m one of three ppl raiding in our little guild and we’d like to have all gold statues. This is why I don’t collect them personally rather than spending them to the guild vendor.
Additionally you can buy a single run, get a KP and according to your system, you’ll have the key to every group then. That’s why ppl demand LI + KP because LI show that you have at least dealt with raids. Ofc you have to look at the numbers. 50 LI have almost 0 meanings nowadays while in a group with a requirement of 200+ LI it is more likely that your group will succeed. Exceptions confirm the rule (I by myself saw a group with 100 LI requirement disbanding at Trio last week ^^).

Vinceman.4572:

Amaimon.7823:

yea, and the reason they are worth more than LI is because
Someone with 50 LI can have never beaten a specific boss
but someone with 15 KP has beaten a specific boss 3 to 15 times (since drop rate is random 1-5)
There is one exception which is the Bandit Triate, which doesn’t drop any KP.
so every boss drops 1LI, and 1-5KP, and the KP part is specific per boss, so it’s a much better measurement of experience. Use them to fill up the lack of LI.

When i do VG, I rather have someone with 10LI, and 15 Vale Guardian fragments, than someone with 50LI and 0 Vale Guardian Fragments

The problem of insisting on a certain number of KPs would exclude many players. For example I’m one of three ppl raiding in our little guild and we’d like to have all gold statues. This is why I don’t collect them personally rather than spending them to the guild vendor.
Additionally you can buy a single run, get a KP and according to your system, you’ll have the key to every group then. That’s why ppl demand LI + KP because LI show that you have at least dealt with raids. Ofc you have to look at the numbers. 50 LI have almost 0 meanings nowadays while in a group with a requirement of 200+ LI it is more likely that your group will succeed. Exceptions confirm the rule (I by myself saw a group with 100 LI requirement disbanding at Trio last week ^^).

i dislike the amount continuously going up all the time. makes it impossible to catch up.

Vinceman.4572:

The problem of insisting on a certain number of KPs would exclude many players. For example I’m one of three ppl raiding in our little guild and we’d like to have all gold statues. This is why I don’t collect them personally rather than spending them to the guild vendor.

• I deposit all decoration tokens for my guild.
• Whenever someone asks for KP in a pub I join, I just show them an equipped mini from that boss instead. It’s impossible to fake and has worked every time.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Vinceman.4572:

The problem of insisting on a certain number of KPs would exclude many players. For example I’m one of three ppl raiding in our little guild and we’d like to have all gold statues. This is why I don’t collect them personally rather than spending them to the guild vendor.

• I deposit all decoration tokens for my guild.
• Whenever someone asks for KP in a pub I join, I just show them an equipped mini from that boss instead. It’s impossible to fake and has worked every time.

This, there are so many alternatives to LI’s, if you just take the time to present them, most parties will accept them. No one goes out of their way to fake link something so unconventional. I recently got to link my crystalline heart, since it can’t be obtained except by clearing the hardest bosses. And people tend to accept it very well. I joined 200+ groups, just spamlinked the heart, and it was fine for them. Other alternatives would be linking unique ascended items, since they’re rare drops (like Zane’s Memento) or pieces of Envoy

Ofc I know these alternatives as well just wanted to point out that collecting guild decorations and insisting on them is not the gold standard.

- 13 LI every week
- join guild and be good. Pugs won’t take you, too many elitists that blindly follow meta but are actually bad and want to get carried.

Cynz.9437:

- 13 LI every week
- join guild and be good. Pugs won’t take you, too many elitists that blindly follow meta but are actually bad and want to get carried.

pugs will take you if you’re honest and polite. Really, I’m sorry you ran into a lot of bad apples, but the barrel isn’t spoiled just yet. If you take 1 apple and it turnt out be bad, don’t condemn the rest of the barrel. I have been with so many pugs I can say it’s about 50/50 when it comes to normal people and toxic elitists. You just needa be patient and give them a try. You can always leave if they turn out toxic

Amaimon.7823:

Cynz.9437:

- 13 LI every week
- join guild and be good. Pugs won’t take you, too many elitists that blindly follow meta but are actually bad and want to get carried.

pugs will take you if you’re honest and polite. Really, I’m sorry you ran into a lot of bad apples, but the barrel isn’t spoiled just yet. If you take 1 apple and it turnt out be bad, don’t condemn the rest of the barrel. I have been with so many pugs I can say it’s about 50/50 when it comes to normal people and toxic elitists. You just needa be patient and give them a try. You can always leave if they turn out toxic

1 apple? 1!!??? apple? I have raided since last summer and majority of pugs are the same. Bring meta, bring 12380128301823 LI or get kicked. Meanwhile most of them are bad and can’t avoid simple things or follow simple mechanics.

Cynz.9437:

Amaimon.7823:

Cynz.9437:

- 13 LI every week
- join guild and be good. Pugs won’t take you, too many elitists that blindly follow meta but are actually bad and want to get carried.

pugs will take you if you’re honest and polite. Really, I’m sorry you ran into a lot of bad apples, but the barrel isn’t spoiled just yet. If you take 1 apple and it turnt out be bad, don’t condemn the rest of the barrel. I have been with so many pugs I can say it’s about 50/50 when it comes to normal people and toxic elitists. You just needa be patient and give them a try. You can always leave if they turn out toxic

1 apple? 1!!??? apple? I have raided since last summer and majority of pugs are the same. Bring meta, bring 12380128301823 LI or get kicked. Meanwhile most of them are bad and can’t avoid simple things or follow simple mechanics.

“ahem, cough cough”
I have been with so many pugs I can say it’s about 50/50 when it comes to normal people and toxic elitists. You just needa be patient and give them a try. You can always leave if they turn out toxic

so, sorry that you have run in more than 50/50 toxic groups. yes, in the description they say Bring X, and why, because parties have compositions, asking for a specific class is nothing toxic. You don’t hire a herbalist to fix your computer. The earlier you join a group, the more freedom you have in bringing a class you prefer. And as was my whole line of comments: many pugs will ASK for X LI, but if you have less than X LI, just say say so. Tell them what experience you DO have.

But I do agree on your last point, I have joined many elitist groups only to find out that I can trust some newcomers of RTI better than them…

Cynz.9437:

1 apple? 1!!??? apple? I have raided since last summer and majority of pugs are the same. Bring meta, bring 12380128301823 LI or get kicked. Meanwhile most of them are bad and can’t avoid simple things or follow simple mechanics.

Lol, you are exaggerating so much. If you are not rude, are able to play your class, don’t miss mechanics and are a good teamplayer there’s almost 0% chance of being kicked or insulted at all.
The few times I got kicked during my pug runs were either somebody just joined right before me and took the spot (certain class) I wanted to bring and that one time my connection was bad and I couldn’t use all my spells which was a deserved kick imho because I wasted 2 solid runs with no need.
And sorry, I can understand ppl going mad if team members cannot avoid waves at Samarog at all or not knowing how to tank and lay down poison in an exp run for Sloth. Those ppl deserve to be sorted out because they are preventing others from a safe and solid kill.

I also do not encounter problems with mechanics and simple things in groups with 150 LI+. Below you can find everything: The 0 LI magic group stomping through a whole wing or the 50 LI escort run disbanding after 3 messy and disastrous tries. But that’s lottery so I rather stick to the higher LI runs which guarantee a more likely chance of having success.

Amaimon.7823:

But I do agree on your last point, I have joined many elitist groups only to find out that I can trust some newcomers of RTI better than them…

And I have experienced the opposite. I am helping newcomers every week here and there at certain bosses after getting my kills but I don’t run with them at first because most of those attempts need 5-10 tries to get a boss down. That’s too much of a time investment for me if you are able to oneshot most of the bosses with decent players. I don’t want to raid all week in GW2 as there is other content I also like to do.

This is so not true. When i had below 100 LI, it was near impossible to find a group. I had the KPs, i had the experience and multiple geared classes but it was pointless. Unless i ran with the guild, i had to beg pug groups to take me and kick me on one mistakes, most wouldn’t agree and just kick before we even attempted encounter (god forbid i joined VG group with my 50 LI) or even if they took me, they would kick even though it was someone else that messed up. Once i reached 200+ LI, suddenly nobody has issues with taking me in their groups.
So let’s not pretend the issue is not there. OP asked the question and i gave him the answer based on my experience, considering i have been in exact same situation as OP.

@OP: i would also suggest you to gear a druid or a mes – those are always needed.

Cynz.9437:

This is so not true. When i had below 100 LI, it was near impossible to find a group.

I call bs! Very much bs!
Friends of mine below 50 and 100 LI have 0 problems to find suitable runs for their weekly bosses. They are doing them twice or more per week. VG, Gorse, Escort, KC, Cairn, MO, Samarog, sometimes Trio, even Sloth and Sabetha. 0 fricking problem! The difference is: Not all attempts are leading to a kill!
These are 10 out of 13 possible bosses while it’s obvious that people want more experienced raiders for Matthias, Xera and Deimos due to reasons. Just try a run at these with 50 LIs and I tell you in almost all cases those attempts will fail because people are just too unexperienced for those. Nothing to blame for, ppl will get better with time and will also succeed there but not in the first weeks at the start of their raiding career (raiders coming over from other games not taken into consideration).

Also worth mentioning that 50 LI attempts on Sabetha and Sloth most often don’t guarantee the kill because even for those bosses you need to have a decent skill level and react fast enough. A thing many ppl that are able to bring VG, Gorse, Escort, MO and Samarog don’t bring along. 50 LIs is not experienced in raiding nowadays because only with some bosses you’ll have that number quite fast in a few weeks.

That’s why I personally don’t join these anymore, only for training. It’s definitely not the case that ppl with 50 LIs get the mechanics straight and throw bombs when they have to while fighting Sabetha or deal with tanking, tantrum, shake and poison at Sloth.

Cynz.9437:

I had the KPs, i had the experience and multiple geared classes but it was pointless.

See above, there are enough runs with less requirements, every day. Maybe not at midnight but for prime time, yes! Definitely yes!
In addition 1 KP is nothing, you could have bought the run, got carried due to lucky circumstances (Sloth with no poison + no tanking + not chosen to be a slubling) or just have faced 2-3 trainings and one kill. With that in mind I don’t want you to have in my group when I’m on my weekly first kills.

Cynz.9437:

Unless i ran with the guild, i had to beg pug groups to take me and kick me on one mistakes, most wouldn’t agree and just kick before we even attempted encounter (god forbid i joined VG group with my 50 LI) or even if they took me, they would kick even though it was someone else that messed up.

I never had to do that. There is a word called “patience”. You have to wait some minutes and not thing that raiding is like running dungeons and fractals where you can hop in right until the LFG pops up.

Cynz.9437:

So let’s not pretend the issue is not there. OP asked the question and i gave him the answer based on my experience, considering i have been in exact same situation as OP.

There’s no issue unless you just want to get kills and are not willing to climb the hill up because you think you deserve to be picked up by every group.

I am just saying how it was for me and i came to only conclusion that with low LI your only chance is joining a raiding guild.

Cynz.9437:

I am just saying how it was for me and i came to only conclusion that with low LI your only chance is joining a raiding guild.

Nobody said it is easy to get kills when you start raiding. Keep in mind that every experienced & successful raider had hours of hours of wiping before he got successful. There is no need that ppl coming later to the party get all the good things served to them on a silver plate.

Vinceman.4572:

Cynz.9437:

I am just saying how it was for me and i came to only conclusion that with low LI your only chance is joining a raiding guild.

Nobody said it is easy to get kills when you start raiding. Keep in mind that every experienced & successful raider had hours of hours of wiping before he got successful. There is no need that ppl coming later to the party get all the good things served to them on a silver plate.

Define served on silver plate? If player comes knowing mechanics, with proper geared character, plays well and all, how is he any different from a player with 250LI? At the end both of them would produce same result – killed boss. The only difference is that player with low LI would spend hours and days trying to find a group that wouldn’t instantly kick him where 250 LI player could even afk and still get carried in the fight without getting kicked (had too many of those).
Honestly, what a logic.

Amaimon.7823:

Cynz.9437:

Vinceman.4572:

Cynz.9437:

I am just saying how it was for me and i came to only conclusion that with low LI your only chance is joining a raiding guild.

Nobody said it is easy to get kills when you start raiding. Keep in mind that every experienced & successful raider had hours of hours of wiping before he got successful. There is no need that ppl coming later to the party get all the good things served to them on a silver plate.

Define served on silver plate? If player comes knowing mechanics, with proper geared character, plays well and all, how is he any different from a player with 250LI? At the end both of them would produce same result – killed boss. The only difference is that player with low LI would spend hours and days trying to find a group that wouldn’t instantly kick him where 250 LI player could even afk and still get carried in the fight without getting kicked (had too many of those).
Honestly, what a logic.

everyone seems to forget one basic thing:
Raids were never designed with pugs in mind, they were designed for organized groups and guild. So if you don’t join a guild or make a group yourself, then you’re cutting off your own foot and then complain you have trouble walking. I honestly don’t mean to sound rude here, but please, if you’re not yet in a raiding community, get in one. And if you have trouble to get in one, start with guilds like RTI who have zero requirements and are pure training/beginners with some pros mixed in.

Read my initial post before posting… -_-’

Cynz.9437:

Define served on silver plate? If player comes knowing mechanics, with proper geared character, plays well and all, how is he any different from a player with 250LI?

The key word is “IF” here. Many of them are not very good, some are even wannabes and convinced of themselves as hell.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

Cynz.9437:

At the end both of them would produce same result – killed boss.

At the end this will rarely happen and you know it.

Cynz.9437:

The only difference is that player with low LI would spend hours and days trying to find a group that wouldn’t instantly kick him where 250 LI player could even afk and still get carried in the fight without getting kicked (had too many of those).
Honestly, what a logic.

If you really think you can carry your own weight then build your own squad, ffs!
You cannot blame me and others that I’ve no trust in ppl with low LI because over hundreds of attempts it has demonstrated they aren’t able to get things straight. The overall player with 0-50 and many with 50-100 LIs are not as good as you want us to believe.
If you are such special snowflake, good for you because you will be able to make social/raid contacts very fast and get access to static groups way easier than the average pug.

- Surely many are not good but you don’t need to be qT member to beat the encounters however that is what most pug groups require (which is unrealistic) nowadays (bring 24820480238 LI, have golem dps in real encounter yada yada). If player performs bad just kick him, judging players before they could even prove themselves is just stupid (same as AP requirements in dungeons).

- Um, it really depends on leading and how dedicated players are. I had for example better Xera runs with “noobier” groups (we had some players with only 20? LI and that have never done the boss but we took time to explain them their roles) than with 250+ LI groups.

- I have made own groups. The joke is, it is actually hard to find players if you make a LFG like “Deimos, 50 LI….”, i tried. Waited for like 30 min just to find 2 more players. The moment i made changed post to “Deimos 200 LI….” the group instantly filled. The community is so brainwashed, you can’t get away from it, even if you make own groups.

- I am in a static group (although we are not full 10 man yet so still have to pug few) and i have enough LI and Kps now so i can get into any group but it doesn’t change my experience i had when i started to raid (i had geared characters, i know encounters and i am plat/legend player so i would say i have decent class knowledge/awareness etc.) and had to go through a lot of trouble getting into any groups. The OP will have the same experience mostlikely hence why i suggested to join a raiding guild asap if he actually wants to clear bosses every week.

everyone seems to forget one basic thing:
Raids were never designed with pugs in mind, they were designed for organized groups and guild. So if you don’t join a guild or make a group yourself, then you’re cutting off your own foot and then complain you have trouble walking. I honestly don’t mean to sound rude here, but please, if you’re not yet in a raiding community, get in one. And if you have trouble to get in one, start with guilds like RTI who have zero requirements and are pure training/beginners with some pros mixed in.