Guild Wars 2

ok so I took a break from the game for a bit, after leveling each class to lvl 80 I needed to step back and do other things.

any ways I noticed they re-did the structure of FotM. and my question is:

Is Berserker set still basically “required” for higher level fractals? to my understanding before the update doing defensive was pointless in fractals because in higher levels you die in 1-2 hits any ways. Can I go in set up as a more tanky build and still be useful? I’m not looking to be “optimal” here but if I have the option of Dealing a lot of damage or being able to take a lot of hits, I’d go with the second option.

Zerker is the way to go. If you know when to dodge and when to pop a certain utility, you’re bringing far more to the group than while being tanky.

Nothing else to add.

Mobs dont hit quite as hard as they did before the patch but they still hit hard enough to render tanky gear useless.

At Fractal levels of 30 and below, having some defense does make a difference. There’s a lot of people taking Berserker gear because it is the Meta, but end up lying on their face a lot, because they are inexperienced with it. I’d personally go with Knights if you are less experienced, and want some defense to go along with the damage output.

At higher level fractals, I don’t think you need Berserker, but it’s obviously faster. You do more damage. Monsters hit for less now, but until they fix the combat system, Berserker will still come out on top.

If you pug, having an anchor or a backup profession is also good at higher level fotm.

Most difficult bosses are either Insane DPS (that needs perfect teamplay and builds in order to even prevent most mechanics to even matter….) OR dps is just worthless if even one of the party is not doing his job.

I personally play with a zerk mesmer, and a celestial S/F ele as a backup….i can often recover party wipes….i obviousy log it only if i don t trust my party.

P.S. remember that is not only about the “equipment” but mostly about utilities and skills..

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

At Fractal levels of 30 and below, having some defense does make a difference. There’s a lot of people taking Berserker gear because it is the Meta, but end up lying on their face a lot, because they are inexperienced with it. I’d personally go with Knights if you are less experienced, and want some defense to go along with the damage output.

At higher level fractals, I don’t think you need Berserker, but it’s obviously faster. You do more damage. Monsters hit for less now, but until they fix the combat system, Berserker will still come out on top.

If you reduce group dps in dredge or cliffside you are much more likely to wipe when clearing trash. So no, defense doesnt really help because the best defense is a good offense.

spoj.9672:

If you reduce group dps in dredge or cliffside you are much more likely to wipe when clearing trash. So no, defense doesnt really help because the best defense is a good offense.

In an experienced zerker team, that is certainly the case. In a random pug, I think you’re better off bringing some small amount of defense. Like I said, there’s a lot of players face planting because they aren’t that experienced at playing zerker. Knights is more forgiving in that respect, and you still have a lot of damage (not as much as Zerker obviously, but it suffices).

spoj.9672:

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

At Fractal levels of 30 and below, having some defense does make a difference. There’s a lot of people taking Berserker gear because it is the Meta, but end up lying on their face a lot, because they are inexperienced with it. I’d personally go with Knights if you are less experienced, and want some defense to go along with the damage output.

At higher level fractals, I don’t think you need Berserker, but it’s obviously faster. You do more damage. Monsters hit for less now, but until they fix the combat system, Berserker will still come out on top.

If you reduce group dps in dredge or cliffside you are much more likely to wipe when clearing trash. So no, defense doesnt really help because the best defense is a good offense.

cliffside is the fractal where dps is not even so important….
That is mostly when i log my ele and keep the Whole team alive alone….

low/average HP mobs with infinite spawns and lot of condition and all you have to do is Killing one and then suriving few seconds with your skills locked…

Its possibly the best fractal to bring an anchor considering the small difference in time required.

Knights armor with zerker weapons/trinkets isn’t the worst thing in the world. Keep the ‘meta’ traits or similar ones, and you should be good for learning your way through fractals. Fractal bosses are significantly more punishing than regular dungeon bosses are, so you’ll probably just eat da poopoo 24/7 if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

spoj.9672:

If you reduce group dps in dredge or cliffside you are much more likely to wipe when clearing trash. So no, defense doesnt really help because the best defense is a good offense.

In an experienced zerker team, that is certainly the case. In a random pug, I think you’re better off bringing some small amount of defense. Like I said, there’s a lot of players face planting because they aren’t that experienced at playing zerker. Knights is more forgiving in that respect, and you still have a lot of damage (not as much as Zerker obviously, but it suffices).

True but ive been in low dps pugs with tank builds and they were wiping all over the place because of the lack of dps. I managed to get some of them to start using proper dps weapons and we started wiping less, funnily enough. :P

spoj.9672:

True but ive been in low dps pugs with tank builds and they were wiping all over the place because of the lack of dps. I managed to get some of them to start using proper dps weapons and we started wiping less, funnily enough. :P

I may have been in the same boat a few times. I’ve been in pugs that had a lot of difficulty with the Molten Facility bosses (would have helped if they learned these bosses at lower levels first), and bringing some extra DPS helped us kill the bosses faster, which ultimately helped our survivability.

And I agree that with the dredge, killing them fast really helps a great deal. Knights is fine though, since it still improves Power. But you don’t want tanks or healing builds in there. It all comes down to how experienced some one is with Zerker I suppose.

Even in the worse PUG, I would keep the best DPS coming so they can hopefully rally on enemies. The reviving game is a deadly game in Fractals, especially with Mai Trin. OMG, I hate that kitten!!!

Mai Trin is the only reason I don’t run fractals as much as I’d want. So many dead people… including me, sometimes.

Fror.2163:

Mai Trin is the only reason I don’t run fractals as much as I’d want. So many dead people… including me, sometimes.

So weird. I struggle much more with the molten bosses in pugs…

I can solo the molten bosses so I just wait until the group is small enough and then proceed. Mai Trin is harder as I just can’t see her tells, so I take most hits she does.

Fror.2163:

I can solo the molten bosses so I just wait until the group is small enough and then proceed. Mai Trin is harder as I just can’t see her tells, so I take most hits she does.

Ah okay, that makes sense.

I think my issue with molten in pugs is that they argue about which to kill first, and it doesn’t matter which is targeted. They just kill whatever they feel like.

I don’t usually get her teleport into me and I’m fine with camping close to her. But once I’m down with the cannon (sad noob), the group just gets whittle away left and right.

For molten, I always make sure the group to kill the berserker first, and it’s easy enough for low level fractal.

I can solo mai trinn just note her shot happens way before the teleport..she lift her weapon and that is the tell (no acoustic tell).

Antiprojectile will take care of it.

I’ve had more trouble with the Molten bosses in pugs, than I have with Mai Trin. I think that’s because the hardest thing about Mai Trin, is the cannon barrage phase. As long as you have a team that knows how to deal with the barrage, it is simply a matter of sticking close to Mai Trin. And she dies really fast if you have solid focused DPS in your group.

With the Molten Bosses, there’s a lot of lag going around that makes jumping over the shockwaves really difficult. Plus there’s the Berserker shadow stepping on top of players, and the occasional bug where you get launched off the platform for no reason. It seems more unfriendly towards pugs than Mai Trin is.

LordByron.8369:

I can solo mai trinn just note her shot happens way before the teleport..she lift her weapon and that is the tell (no acoustic tell).

Antiprojectile will take care of it.

Yes, but absorb, not reflects. Reflects teleports you to her. I didn’t understand it at all the first time I experienced this.

I need to note this one down. Never used Magnetic Wave on her though.

Really?! Really?! So if I try and advance my fractal lvl you all are going to kick me cause im basicly all celecstial apart from my weapon and traits..

Sarahfull.4930:

Really?! Really?! So if I try and advance my fractal lvl you all are going to kick me cause im basicly all celecstial apart from my weapon and traits..

Yes.

But no. Depends on my personal mood. My best friends in game run bad builds and gear sets and think I’m nuts for having my zerk ele in fracs…… But I tolerate it because I love RPing in the middle of …. Any fractal.

Sarahfull.4930:

Really?! Really?! So if I try and advance my fractal lvl you all are going to kick me cause im basicly all celecstial apart from my weapon and traits..

Wit dat 1.6k power? I’ll show you what my group will give you.

Oh k? Weird link…
I did forget to say my traits and weapon are “zerger”
But yes my dps isnt as high

Never heard the phrase “To get booted”. Or “boot the bearbow ranger”. This is what happens when English isn’t everyone’s first language. Jokes like this aren’t understood… Oh well.

Its Zerker*

At this point start your own group and dont ask for speed runner but keep watching what kind of players get in

1. Try and have a good build it doesnt need to be meta be but mindfull of what your teamate runs and adapt accordingly to the situation.
2. if the guy is outright terrible or have a bad temper kick it
3. if the guy is an outright elitist who wanna enforce his way to everyone becauses hes mad that no one run meta kick it.
4. Be sure you got the people to actualy DO the dungeon in the first place, this include decent AR and a team who knows how to dodge/ knows all the fight.

You got all 4 ingredient required to a successful pug right here