Guild Wars 2

Hello, my fellow Tyrians! Lately I’ve taken interest in Raids, and decided to come here to seek some advice.

Here’s some background:

I’ve clocked in around ~1000 hours, and been playing mostly WvW, but also cleared most of the ‘casual’ PvE content, such as main & HoT stories, dungeons, metaevents, etc. I haven’t really touched Fractals at all, but if it’s recommended to experience those before raids, I can do that as well.

My mastery level is at 113, with mostly Maguuma masteries. I have all 9 classes at level 80 and all 9 elites fully unlocked. I know how to play them all, some better than others, Mesmer, Thief and Guardian being my strongest classes and probably Revenant and Engi being the weakest. I am also decent on a full healer druid. All classes are running meta builds more or less, with some personal tweaks here and there. All classes have at least full Exotic armor and weapons, with most having Ascended trinkets.

So basically I have two questions; how to easily get into raids, and which class and build should I pick as a beginner? I’m not currently in a guild that runs raids, so I was thinking about just creating a free-for-all party in the LFG to begin with and just goof around and get to know the gamemode a bit. Then, choosing my class. I’d love to go Mesmer, but apparently the most useful build, alacrity/quickness Chrono is not exactly beginner-friendly with the tricky rotations. I’ve been running a power shatter burst chrono, so I’m unfamiliar with support mesmer. I could also go with my healer druid or staff ele, would those be solid picks for a beginner? What about a dps GS berserker?

If anyone could point me towards the best way of getting into raids with the info I’ve provided, I’d be very thankful. Feel free to ask any questions that come to mind, and sorry about possible typos, I typed this on my phone.

Thanks in advance!

Make sure that you have Leyline Gliding. Its not needed for most bosses, however you need it for Xera and its pretty handy for the towers during the escort event.

You should search for a guild. It doesnt have to be a training guilds since many more exprienced guild groups would take a beginners if he is willing to learn.

If you raid with beginners only i wouldnt recommend heal druid. I´ve done this once and was like: “Dude, ill shove those heals right down your throat so dont run away from me.” In more experienced groups its imo one of the most chill classes.

Power PS is also really easy if you only want to stack might. The DPS rotation however is hard. Furthermore i think Condi PS is to good to pass for a Power PS.

Guardian and Condi Ranger are some really easy so play DPS classes.
If you go for a DPS class hit the golem a few times to see how good you really are.

Icetea.3204:

Make sure that you have Leyline Gliding. Its not needed for most bosses, however you need it for Xera and its pretty handy for the towers during the escort event.

You should search for a guild. It doesnt have to be a training guilds since many more exprienced guild groups would take a beginners if he is willing to learn.

If you raid with beginners only i wouldnt recommend heal druid. I´ve done this once and was like: “Dude, ill shove those heals right down your throat so dont run away from me.” In more experienced groups its imo one of the most chill classes.

Power PS is also really easy if you only want to stack might. The DPS rotation however is hard. Furthermore i think Condi PS is to good to pass for a Power PS.

Guardian and Condi Ranger are some really easy so play DPS classes.
If you go for a DPS class hit the golem a few times to see how good you really are.

Thanks for the tips. Yes, I have gliding mastery tree fully trained.

I’ll take your advice on finding a guild, and make sure to check out some guide videos on Youtube.

Most of my classes besides Druid and my second Guard (tank healer/boonshare) are built for maximum damage output, and after tons of WvW, I’d say I got the DPS rotations well covered. I think I’ll try Dragonhunter then, but I’ll ask my future guild members on what they would like me to run.

One question popped into mind: is Teamspeak usually required for clearing raid content? I know it’s probably very much a standard and makes things a whole lot easier, but I’m not very comfortable in talking to strangers. Listening is fine though. So will this become an obstacle?

Additional tips are more than welcome!

Hevoskuuri.3891:

Thanks for the tips. Yes, I have gliding mastery tree fully trained.

I’ll take your advice on finding a guild, and make sure to check out some guide videos on Youtube.

Most of my classes besides Druid and my second Guard (tank healer/boonshare) are built for maximum damage output, and after tons of WvW, I’d say I got the DPS rotations well covered. I think I’ll try Dragonhunter then, but I’ll ask my future guild members on what they would like me to run.

One question popped into mind: is Teamspeak usually required for clearing raid content? I know it’s probably very much a standard and makes things a whole lot easier, but I’m not very comfortable in talking to strangers. Listening is fine though. So will this become an obstacle?

Additional tips are more than welcome!

DPS Rotations in terms of WvW and PvE are different tho. Seriously, hit the golem at least once.

Most groups I´ve raided with required teamspeak. Most of the groups want you in there to listen and not to talk. My current group trash talks its way through the raids.
I often see a german raid guild looking for members that runs without TS. Maybe some english speaking guilds run without ts too.

I would say that most guilds are fine with you just listening on ts, but it does help if you at least can call stuff out every now and then.
If youre on EU, RTI is a very common training guild for people to start with but you also have KOR that is somewhat new but very often does training runs.
In the event youd like to try it out without pugging or finding a guild, this is a very good option: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/5y6j9r/eu_training_raid_v23_0903/?st=j03trsy2&sh=37e0846c

you have contact details in that post, else just keep your eyes on reddit as they do weekly training runs

Discord has become much more popular than other forms of voice chat, but it’s still worth having teamspeak and mumble, in case a group is using one of those. The training group that Chris McSwag linked above me is great, really good natured, patient people commanding those raids. I recommend joining their Discord, because you will get more up to date information (for example, they aren’t posting sign ups to reddit this week). If you do run with this group, realize that some classes are higher demand, probably in this order: chrono, druid, PS warrior, DPS, so you’re more likely to be put in a group if you can play the support classes.

Icetea.3204:

If you raid with beginners only i wouldnt recommend heal druid. I´ve done this once and was like: “Dude, ill shove those heals right down your throat so dont run away from me.” In more experienced groups its imo one of the most chill classes.

Power PS is also really easy if you only want to stack might. The DPS rotation however is hard ¿ easy ¿?. Furthermore i think Condi PS is ¿ sometimes ¿ too good to pass for a Power PS.

Lol thet sounds like u are one of the friendliest, least temperamental healers I would expect to pug with. Tbh I dunno any healers that got angry at group and say something as.. contentious? as you stated there. Tho it’s amusing phrasing there. As in, do I want dem dank heals to get ‘shoved down my throat’? Thats something ill have to debate with myself there. Def seems food for thought.

But otherwise, I correct some points in ur post slightly (enclosed by ¿). Afaik tho rotation on power ps is mindless button mashing, as pointed out by general consensus. Speaking of which, I was expounding on this very thing some months ago and someone disabused me of it, which I musingly appreciated. As in, is there even a set rotation for the build, or just a priority list of skills to use when off CD? Again, food for thought here.

As far as my sole constructive tip goes, just one word (command rather): /surrender. The word can also be replace by variants such as concede or shorthand like gg, qq (official endorsed leet speak). Get to know it, it will be ur best friend in raids. U will constantly use this a lot as will ur grp. If you see teammates dying within few instants of each other, it’s time to give up (and try again hopefully). U must become well acquainted with it yeh