Guild Wars 2

I was fortunate to have a mentor of sorts early on, but since they are not always available, it was up to me to take the initiative and press on. I’m presently at Fractal 21, and so far I’ve seen no shortage of players whose inclination is to complain about the slightest mistake or hold up. I’ve only been on the receiving end of this once or twice, but I’ve watched it aimed be aimed at others too.

Having spent no shortage of time in a game like FF14:ARR, I’m no stranger to a community that loathes its new players, so I suppose this isn’t unexpected. Hell, I was even one of those people. The thing is, dungeons in FF14 were a horrid slog if you had new players. The low dps turned what could be 10 minutes of your life into the next 30+ minutes instead, and since you’d run the content hundreds of times before, you didn’t want to be there any longer than necessary.

Perhaps this is the same issue happening here, but with these low end fractals it would take very little effort to help players avoid problem areas and mistakes. Thankfully most of the fractals are fairly self explanatory, or become a no brainer after having done it once before. Only a few are less forgiving. That being said, suddenly going over into 21 I’m seeing a whole new level of elitism. The only major change is the agony, and I’ve got that covered thanks to a heads up from my mentor.

I guess I’m just wondering if some of you out there have had similar experiences and if so, how did you cope with it going forward? For the moment my only ambition is reaching 25, but I don’t know what the future holds.

It’s indeed very sad when elitism comes out at low levels, 60- I’d say, they’re pretty easy with just some more toughness in bosses/higher AR req.

Teaching what to do doesn’t take that much time, however there’s one thing that I don’t tolerate either: when n00bs come in and don’t say a word (“hey, I’m new here, what am I supposed to do?” it’s not that hard to ask), even when they’re addressed.

I know that some of them are scared by the fact that real-life frustrated elitists snap-kick them out of the party, but still, in a group with 2-3 elitist they’ll be kicked out nonetheless, if they ask to be teached or not, so asking should never be a problem.

Not everyone is a moron (on one side or the other).

Fractals in the <50 range actually seem a lot more casual now that they are easier and less time consuming. The community is a lot more chilled and welcoming. I hardly see ‘exp’ or ‘meta’ in listings now. People are more likely to just leave a party when things don’t go the way they like, from what I’ve seen.

That said, there’s no real incentive to accommodate random strangers. It’s a nice gesture but in no way an obligation. You also have to consider that this is old content and has been significantly nerfed. PUGs have a reasonable expectation that anyone who joins knows what they’re doing. This might seem rude and elitist, but I find that players’ perception of time changes with experience. Run a dungeon a few dozen times smoothly and you’ll probably have far less tolerance for interruptions than you do now.

Since now you know what fractal island you get, it’s easier to learn the mechanics beforehand, and some people expect it (especially with 20+). Unless you join “all welcome” or noob groups.

That said, I’ve pugged maybe 100 fractals in the range 1-50 since HoT, and mostly the people were nice. They definitely didn’t complain about small mistakes, but some complained when a player had no clue at all. I’m from EU; in NA things might be different.

Edit: The only thing that really kittens people off is, if you mindlessly run ahead. If you don’t know what to do, try to stay back, and see what the others do.

Why these kittenkittens even use lfg tool? I would think that they are in guild if they are so pro?

If I want “2-10-xx fast daily”, I expect ppl to be fast and not carrying new players or waiting for beginners any longer than needed. There will be one single chat command and the next step afterwards is a kick vote attempt.
With these low rewards nowadays it is a big waste of time to let players studying fractal golems in Dessas’ lab during the daily or not pressing “Return to Dessas’ lab” immediately after a boss fight.

I’ve only seen this happen once to someone since fractal change. I do them every day now (up until 50), and always pug. Before the change, I would verry rarely run them because the lfg looked mostly like this: “exp zerk only!”
Even thoug I know the fractals, I avoided (and still do) these groups. That’s because I’m human and make mistakes sometimes, and I don’t want to get flamed when I do.

My advice would be, don’t join the exp zerk groups and you’ll be fine. Say hello when you enter and be honest if things are unclear, most people will help you.

Don’t mistake elitism for pure jerks, please. People who have been running fractals, especially in high skill groups/guilds, since the dawn of time couldn’t care less what gear you wear and how well you know a given fractal as long as you don’t kitten up real badly. In fact, very big portion of those people would either give you tips on what to do or just carry you through without saying a word.

The people you describe sound like the people that were taking 3 hours to complete a level 50 fractal pre-expansion. Now, with the absolutely nerfed fractals level where a level 21 is in fact … level 3?, those people feel like absolute gods of FoTM. kitten ’em, if you come across such group just leave it and look for another one or start one yourself.

Also, if you’re in Europe, drop me a message if you can’t find anyone to run fractals with, I’d say I have a pretty decent idea of how fractals work and I enjoy passing on knowledge to other people. <- This offer goes out to everyone reading this topic who might be shying away from fractals because of a handful of LFG jerks.

To be honest, I’am tired of the Fotm random players. Normaly if the fractal allows it and is under 30 I run it solo as far as possible and then start looking for players. Most of the time I’am still faster as some PuG runs I had.
One thing said: If the group searches for “Meta/exp/etc. players”, don’t join if you don’t know what to do! They want to run as fast as possible through the instance and if you slow them down they have a good reason to be annoyed.
If you don’t find a party just open a new one, it normaly dosn’t even take 2 minuts to fill it and most “elitists” won’t join normal partys. So chances are you have a more casual friendly run.
But the best way is: Join a guild that has some fractal players in it. They normaly be glad that there is someone who is eager to increses his AR and level, so they have a bigger playerpool. Beside it is way more easier to explain something in TS than in the chat.

Well, try to post on lfg need help with “x” fractal and see how many players are actually willing to help You out instead of complaining. Ull b surprised. Ive always seen stuff like that, people helping people who asks for help. But IF u dont ask, then ure supposedly to be a know it all fractal dude who cant do mistakes. This way u wont have this kind of elitista coming to your group.

If you are looking for guidance for particular fractals, there are people will to teach the mechanics. Personally I love teaching them and helping people raise their personal levels. Take the time to help and teach and we, as a community, will have more people available for groups.

@OP, what Galandil said.
You can probably encounter many different people with different mindsets. Alot of parties I see are quite relaxed tho.
We take in 2-3 pugs few times a week for fractals 1-49 and its mostly fine. Even if it takes longer.
One of the biggest problems with newbies is that they mostly never talk. Either shy, or no English, or they are rude if you require anything at all from them, and can’t take any feedback/advice either.
For example, I have kicked people who cant respond to four greetings in the chat for half of the run, and Ill probably never stop doing it. They are unresponsive, unfocused and rude.

And when you encounter certain amount of such players, you become quite sensitive to certain behaviour that just causes you frustration.
I think alot of people got to the point where they just don’t give chances.
My advice is talk to your group on join. If you get kick, forget about it the second it happens and start over.

because of dailies and legendary backpack high lvs have to grind low lv fractals hence why you see so much elitism

from other perspective, i ended up soloing bosses so many times (especially in reactor, could sing about it) in low level fractals because people didn’t even bother to read about fractals or even look at what boss does… you think that is enjoyable?

Up to a certain, point, people are unhospitable in fractals. Most of them are vets and have forgotten how they were mentored by a nice guy or girl that took pity on the newbie that stumbled around in the swamp(which is dreadful if you do not know how to contribute but easy if you do) or harpy fractal or are too proud to admit that.

Others have read anything to know about fractals and know things even I don´t know after having made X fractal runs, because I simply don´t care to know these glitches and stuff. I can do reactor solo because someone taught me how to do it, not because I read it in a desperate attempt to spare me the 5 minutes it takes in a regular way. I personally think that is is nice to return the favor of being taught to anyother person in need and have done it this way for years.

As Cynz stated, an experienced fractal runner can basically solo some low level fractals and carry 4 newbies with him. If the ego of the vet drives him instead of fun, just leave on your own and deny him the satisfaction to kick you. Both of you will be spared a headache in the end. Any fractal vet knows that you can draw some bad apples/total newbies if you pug low level fracs, so any complain he may have with you is completely unfounded as he should have known better instead of you.

The randoms I like least in groups are not the ones who make mistakes or don’t know what to do, it’s the ones who don’t talk. They join the group, everyone says “hi, how are you?” and they just stand there. And they don’t say a word the entire time. I want those people to go away. Give me more people who make mistakes, need help, whatever, but will actually engage in conversation. I’d much rather have those people.

Land of Cheese.2584:

The randoms I like least in groups are not the ones who make mistakes or don’t know what to do, it’s the ones who don’t talk. They join the group, everyone says “hi, how are you?” and they just stand there. And they don’t say a word the entire time. I want those people to go away. Give me more people who make mistakes, need help, whatever, but will actually engage in conversation. I’d much rather have those people.

So much that. Since the fractals update, it seems that many people just don’t bother anymore to even show the slightest hint of manners.

Hello – Bye – Please – Thanks.

Four magic words that make life a lot easier.