Guild Wars 2

I finally have enough AR to run lvl 20-29 without taking any significant damage. Do they change at all by this level? For example, once you reach lvl 10 Old Tom in the Uncategorized Fractal requires you to power the fan with the Tears of Dwayna. Do the other levels change mechanics like this? I’m asking because I have ran lvl 10 several times with some people running straight in getting themselves killed by the poison, and I do not want to be this guy in the higher difficulties.

In terms of mechanics it won’t be changing after the level you’re currently on, most mobs will just increase in level and numbers. Plus you know the agony will become stronger.

No events change mechanics after level 10, they just get harder by spawning more enemies at higher levels.

Nope, don’t get harder, they just get more irritating and can take longer to complete. Did FoTMs 26 tonight. 2 gold drops, one was a pile of vile essence.

Did Teq in Sparkfly, took 5mins, got 3 golds and 8 ectos from them. A bit unbalanced on the loot may be?

Myth Shaia.4856:

Nope, don’t get harder, they just get more irritating and can take longer to complete. Did FoTMs 26 tonight.be?

Level 26? Dude?

It will get harder after certain level but 26 is still a walk in the park.

Shadow.4871:

Myth Shaia.4856:

Nope, don’t get harder, they just get more irritating and can take longer to complete. Did FoTMs 26 tonight.be?

Level 26? Dude?

It will get harder after certain level but 26 is still a walk in the park.

no 26 its (or maybe was prepatch….as said every patch they stealth buff mobs in fotm) the first huge spike.

there is far more difference between 24 and 26 than between 26 and 38…imho

I run 26 in full MF armor on every fractal and with 0 AR for bosses (except maw) because I’m too cheap to buy infused MF rings. It’s a walk in the park, seriously. I MF even the 30’s. The only time I run serious-business armor is in the 40 tier where enemies are level 83-84, something like half of your attacks against them are glancing, there are a few dozen of them (here’s looking at you, Dredge!), or their AOEs deal 8k-12k dps. Even then I still MF the Ascalon fractal because it’s just that good.

I’m not trying to say I’m hot stuff or whatever, but FotM 40 is about the only tier I’d say is challenging to any real extent. Even then, it’s very doable reliably and without wipes (even against the Grawl boss). If a scrub like me can run things in MF armor and come out of a run in an hour and a half with no wipes, then anyone can do it. All it takes is getting used to the content and knowing what to expect and how to adapt.

P.S. I hate Mossman.

EDIT: OP

Actually, yes some do but not by much. They only really get more irritating than harder. Have only done up to 30 (and prolly won’t go further till it is more interesting) and it doesn’t change much other than have more enemies to kill and of course the Agony adjusts again. But this doesn’t make it harder or a real change, just more irritating.

From what I can tell, the x6 (and x0) levels seem to have the most noticeable spike in difficulty, or the amount of mobs in each map.

This probably has to do with the amount of relics bumping up at this point.

So Rising Dusk, you mean you don’t get 2 hit in Grawl / Asca?

How much armor are you running?
What class are you running?

I’m not saying its impossible to do f26 without wiping, I think its just hard enough with exotic armor and ascended accessories and full tank gear.

In f26 – the party I run periodically wipes maybe once or twice in a full fractal set. We are very lucky if we have no deaths at all. Keep in mind we are experienced fractal players with several alts to f20+ and have done over 500 fractals.

I really am curious as to your build and team build so I can emulate it and go easy mode on f26.

….

You shouldn’t be wiping on 26. You can run a full glass cannon party and not wipe at 26 if you know each fractal’s mechanisms.

For example, many people forget in the ascalonian fractal that npc’s make or break the encounters. You have to play around their presence, not the other way around. Bring condi removal for cliffside, because those cultists only really spike lethally if you let them stack vulnerability. Bottleneck them in the tunnel to aoe them easier and more safely in between spawn waves.

In the ice fractal, run behind the houses as you make your way to the set waypoint (bonfire you were first grouped at) and you won’t aggro elementals that way.

In the asura fractal, have someone kite the asura around one of the pillars while the group dispatches the golems. In the grawl shaman, learn to dodge arrows and keep the elementals grouped by staying together as a group.

We do the above – I’m just trying to illustrate a point – the fact that if you aren’t speced and geared to tank you can’t take more than 1 hit, even if speced if you don’t mitigate damage from vet or normals you can still get 2 hit. Tactics I understand is very important in fractals, and 1 slip can still wipe a team of veteran players. This is what f30+ is. f26 is more forgiving, but not much more.

I’m also trying to assert f26 isn’t a cake walk like Rising Dusk claims, and that unless you are a pro with an entire special team build and only run with that team, you SHOULDN’T take magic find armor. In f26 I wouldn’t be caught dead without my soldiers / knights / cavaliers / cleric armor on. The only part i would go MF would be maw level.

But I suppose Rising Dusk is being passively elitist :P

I do 48 dailies and the occassional 38 every day. Mostly with PuG’s, just me and a guildie. And we complete several of those without wiping.

Strategy is important.

Only a few fractals present situations where the party may have to wipe. One is with ascalon if the NPC’s feel like running into the circle after the siege and aggroing all the groups, so you have to suicide to get the decimated npc’s back, and the dredge require that two players be defeated in the plates because they can’t move and have to tank 3-4 mobs that hit stupidly hard.

Pretty much every other situation can be done with good group coordination. And especially good DPS and reflection skills. Adding a warrior or two to the party and a guardian and a mesmer will do wonders. You can still run an all ranger party, though I expect it to be disastrous on grawl shaman due to lack of DPS, but it should be doable for every other fractal.

VoxShatterfall.5470:

We do the above – I’m just trying to illustrate a point – the fact that if you aren’t speced and geared to tank you can’t take more than 1 hit, even if speced if you don’t mitigate damage from vet or normals you can still get 2 hit. Tactics I understand is very important in fractals, and 1 slip can still wipe a team of veteran players. This is what f30+ is. f26 is more forgiving, but not much more.

I’m also trying to assert f26 isn’t a cake walk like Rising Dusk claims, and that unless you are a pro with an entire special team build and only run with that team, you SHOULDN’T take magic find armor. In f26 I wouldn’t be caught dead without my soldiers / knights / cavaliers / cleric armor on. The only part i would go MF would be maw level.

But I suppose Rising Dusk is being passively elitist :P

And this is the problem with the current system of FoTMs. Realistically at FoTMs26 you should have run over 200 fractals – if you have bothered to do them as a learning experience (not being carried, not using exploits, etc). As such I expect players to know their profession, the tactics, how/when to dodge, and to have some AR.

I have been lucky recently to have found another couple to run FoTMs with and hopefully we have found our regular 5th now as well, and we did 26 last night, got the Shaman as the second fractal and one-shotted him and completed the whole run in an hour and a bit. We don’t have the optimal party either – 2 Rangers in the mix and we don’t see that profession as a problem, we use its abilities to our advantage. Yes, we do have a guardian but it isn’t a tank-or-healer-wannabee, I run PPT with Soldier Runes. We have a warrior that runs PPT as well, and so far even with a 5th PUG of any profession we have managed through the higher 20s just fine.

TBH, running a ‘tank’ build is limiting your experience imo, you shouldn’t be minimizing the dmg you take from a hit first, you should be minimizing being hit in the first place and then understand how to adjust for a situation where you will get hit. Yes those whirling charge warriors in Charr fractal are a pain but using the NPCs to deal with them is more fun, personally I find the ‘invisible’ mage bolt more frustrating.

VoxShatterfall.5470:

So Rising Dusk, you mean you don’t get 2 hit in Grawl / Asca?

How much armor are you running?
What class are you running?

I’m not saying its impossible to do f26 without wiping, I think its just hard enough with exotic armor and ascended accessories and full tank gear.

In f26 – the party I run periodically wipes maybe once or twice in a full fractal set. We are very lucky if we have no deaths at all. Keep in mind we are experienced fractal players with several alts to f20+ and have done over 500 fractals.

I really am curious as to your build and team build so I can emulate it and go easy mode on f26.

I run a Necromancer in FotM with no bonus Toughness / Vitality. Furthermore my MF armor is Masterwork because I’m supremely cheap, so my armor is reduced significantly. My groups pack sufficient reflects that it isn’t a big deal, however. Those reflects coupled with proficient dodging mitigates 9 out of every 10 hits, and fortunately the Necromancer can mitigate a few more through Death Shroud. Also, don’t get me wrong, I run normal armor for most bosses because magic find for the bosses is irrelevant. The MF is only for the trash that drops loot (Krait, Ascalonians, Jade Creatures, Dredge, etc).

Our setup is typically:
- Me (Necromancer)
- 2 Guardians
- 1 Mesmer
- 1 Whatever (Doesn’t matter)

Keep in mind that whoever doesn’t open the instance can (and frequently will) change characters to use an alt that better suits the event we’re on. (ie. For dredge many times one of the players will switch to a Thief)

It’s important that you don’t melee enemies, and that you’re extremely cognizant of tells, dodging, interrupts (I use fear to interrupt Ascalonian Mages regularly), and things that prevent damage. If you’re not, and you take too many hits, you will melt fast. These runs can be done on 48 with only 1 Guardian, though having a second makes an enormous difference. Being able to alternate reflect walls and shields simplifies a lot of the content enormously.

Furthermore, I’d be happy to do a run with you to show you what’s up, although I must confess I mostly do L48 because I prefer the higher level loot and getting a skin/ring practically guaranteed every run.

EDIT:
I also want to mention that AR for most bosses isn’t even necessary. Many times I will switch to my 0 AR Guardian to assist with the Grawl boss on L48, and let me tell you: if he hits you with agony and you have 0 AR, you down and die. However, I never get hit for a number of reasons (Aegis / Dodge / Reflects / Absorbs). Skill is a massive part of being able to tackle the higher levels with less constraints on gear, more so than many realize!

Well with the above I can understand how people don’t wipe.

Because of time constraints the team I run with use melee weapons for a majority of the fight and don’t normally kite – due to this we clear mobs much faster but have major issues when multiple people do down. On asca when I run my mesmer its noticeably smoother since I pull aggro and go invuln right before rush or their whirling blade – I can see that as a way to absorb damage.

The other thing we don’t yet do is alt swapping – I’ll from time to time swap from my warrior to my guard and to my mesmer, but most of the time the other players dont swap out. In fact a few friends I have done fractals in scoff at me swapping out at times and claim we shouldn’t need to do so.

We do have alot of Aegis / Reflects but we don’t normally do alot of dodge (I think its just that my teammates do not want to waste time and get out of melee range).

So 26+ you’d say stop using melee and focus on ranged? Is it prudent to rebuild our 2G face tanking build which works well in dungeons just for this reason? Or should we simply just add in ranged more? How do you achieve enough healing with kiting? How long are most mobs supposed to take to kill and how long is one supposed to last without robust healing (thinking of my mesmer here)?