Guild Wars 2

With the new patch note, when I think about an overall consistent composition of a group for dungeons and fractals, I still lean towards ideally having a Guardian, Elementalist and Warrior as the starting trio and then add other two classes, as appropriate.
I feel at that point practically any class will do for the last 2 spots.
Still valid or am I missing anything here?

Hmmm, well, in general.
Today in fractals 38 we had the usual teamcomp – war/elly/guard/thief – but I wasn’t playing mesmer as I often do. I picked my necro because I was bored and we still finished the run in about 30 mins, kinda regular time – just a couple of deaths, relaxed pace.
Soooo what can I say? That is my favourite teamcomp (no, not with the necro) because it covers everything, but once you have 15-25 stacks of might/vulnerability, perma-fury, banners and the utility of a guardian and/or mesmer… oh, throw some blinds and icebow in there… the rest isn’t that essential anymore. Just have to find the balance: how many ccs, reflects and any other damage mitigation tools you need to complete the run smoothly.
That’s how I see it, at least.
…
I love being or having a thief at cliffside and harpy, stealth and blinds make everything faster and cleaner. The mesmer.. you can swap for any other class, even a necro
You can corrupt boons! /cough
/summons spoj’s spirit

Btw, I was mostly talking about fractals. You don’t need a guardian, in particular you don’t need a mesmer in most of the dungeons. They’re so easy you can melt bosses with just 2 ellys, a thief and a warrior. Don’t even bother.

My group did 3 warriors (one PS) and 2 guardians and we breezed through fractal 30, 40 and 50. Its not only about group composition but as well as teamwork and knowledge of classes. And we did fractal 50 under 40 min without trying too much.

deSade.9437:

war/elly/guard/thief – but I wasn’t playing mesmer as I often do.

[…]

That is my favourite teamcomp (no, not with the necro)

That is my favourite teamcomp for Fractals as well (Mesmer, not the Necro). As you pointed out, it covers much of the utility you’ll need, while still bringing a good amount of damage. If one of the classes was to be cut for something else, then the Thief would go, as Stealth isn’t really that needed, and the Ele can handle the AoE blinds (to an extent).

2 warriors, 2 eles and a guardian are my favorite comp.

2eles 1 warrior 1 guardian 1thief or mesmer is pretty much the best party comp for casual and records . It covers pretty much all for both dungeons and fract though i would only replace thief with mesm in dungeons, for fractals meh ,they are nice but thief and second ele are more important then a mesmer and you must have a warrior all the time and guardian (for casual easy runs^^ guard always good for every fract,dung path)

2 ele
1 warrior
1 guard
1 engi/thief (thief for longer stealth but engi is overall more utility and aoe damage with enough blinds)

This is the best fractal composition in my opinion

Had the best experience with guard, war, 2 ele and engi.
The engi is the wild card here, you can pretty much run what ever you want instead. Toss in a thief, mes or even a ranger and you will breeze through fractals without a problem

Mesmer/Thief – Guardian – Warrior – Ele – Ele

Painbow.6059:

2 ele
1 warrior
1 guard
1 engi/thief (thief for longer stealth but engi is overall more utility and aoe damage with enough blinds)

This is the best fractal composition in my opinion

^

5 ele’s. screw everything else. bbf for life

Ele still sucks in fractals. Nothing has changed that.

hybrid.5027:

Ele still sucks in fractals. Nothing has changed that.

So why 3 eles on fotm 49 grawl shaman? xD

To make entertaining videos.

But seriously, the biggest contribution an ele makes in fractals is Fury from Persisting Flames, and you only need one ele for perma fury. Adding more eles won’t improve the smoothness or speed of your runs.

Imo ele is the 2nd important class in fotm, right after the guardian.

Sure, because you need ele for perma-Fury. But much like you only need one warrior for banners you only need one ele for fury.

I do find it funny how quickly people forget the fractal tournament. Remind me how well the ele heavy comps did there?

At least one elementalist is vital to having a smooth fractal run regardless of which fractals you get, not just for the perma-fury but Deep Freeze is extremely valuable in fractals. More often than not you’re forced to play conservatively as most enemies will one-shot you at higher levels, by using Deep Freeze correctly you can safely get bursts of damage in that significantly speed up encounters. Glyph of Storms is actually quite valuable as well for either blinds or vulnerability. And staff just brings tremendous DPS with very little effort and some niche utility as well.
A combo of a D/F ele and a staff ele is still how I’d go about optimizing group DPS for fractals along with a guardian, warrior and thief/engineer.

hybrid.5027:

Sure, because you need ele for perma-Fury. But much like you only need one warrior for banners you only need one ele for fury.

Let’s see if I can give a go at this:
You only need one thief for stealth
You only need one ranger for spotter
You only need one guardian for reflects
You only need one mesmer for portal
You only need one engi to prove that Guang was wrong
You only need one necro to show that Anet does not care about PvE
How did I do?

Darox.8069:

hybrid.5027:

Sure, because you need ele for perma-Fury. But much like you only need one warrior for banners you only need one ele for fury.

Let’s see if I can give a go at this:
You only need one thief for stealth
You only need one ranger for spotter
You only need one guardian for reflects
You only need one mesmer for portal
You only need one engi to prove that Guang was wrong
You only need one necro to show that Anet does not care about PvE
How did I do?

That sounds about right, the case for a second ele is only slightly stronger than the case for the rest of those.

Secret team comp : Staff Ele – PS war – Guard – Mesmer – Thief.

I’d take a 2nd ele for Deep Freeze, Ice Storm, Glyph of Storms (vuln/blind), and LH synergy with the staff ele. PS warrior is not needed at all in organized groups.

Pro Tip: one ele can make two deep freezes.

Pro Tip: two eles can make four deep freezes.

Miku Lawrence.6329:

Secret team comp : Staff Ele – PS war – Guard – Mesmer – Thief.

Me and my buddies use to run this, may not be optimal, but sure makes for a nice easy mode of anything.

Miku Lawrence.6329:

Pro Tip: two eles can make four deep freezes.

oh man with 4 eles and one head shot spamming thief that mossman won’t be doing anything. best comp.

Elementalists have the highest aoe damage along with a lot of other support such as blinds and swirling winds. They got the strongest might stacking and realistically without having a phallanx warrior + an ele you wont be at 25 might stacks a lot in fractals, but a phallanx warrior has low damage. Once you got a guard, engi, war, ele, you take something with good support and damage options. No other support is necessary so why take any other class over ele which has a lot of support and damage, rangers have low aoe damage, mesmers have much lower damage, a second warrior is pointless, the engi+ ele provide enough blinds.

hybrid.5027:

Miku Lawrence.6329:

Pro Tip: two eles can make four deep freezes.

oh man with 4 eles and one head shot spamming thief that mossman won’t be doing anything. best comp.

Nice hyperbole, DF has a CD tho.

hybrid.5027:

Miku Lawrence.6329:

Pro Tip: two eles can make four deep freezes.

oh man with 4 eles and one head shot spamming thief that mossman won’t be doing anything. best comp.

I know some people who needed 3 anchor guardians in order to get past Mossman anything in 70+

I’m actually clueless since I didn’t really watch the fractal tournament (limited computer access, phone hates twitch)

what compositions did the, idk, top 5 teams use?

I just finished a 50 with 1 guard, 2 ele, 1 necro in 30minutes.

Fractals:

• Bloomy
• Molten Facility
• Trollmanova
• Molten Duo

According to (un?)popular opinion we had 3 bad professions in this party but still managed to finish it quick.

maha.7902:

I’m actually clueless since I didn’t really watch the fractal tournament (limited computer access, phone hates twitch)

what compositions did the, idk, top 5 teams use?

DD: War, War, thief, ele, guard
RtG: War, war, thief, guard, guard
iV: War, thief, ele, mes, guard
Baum: War, thief, ele, guard, guard

Nikaido
Sanderinoa
Particlar
rfdarko

^My kinda dream team, given the ease when running with them.

Darox.8069:

hybrid.5027:

Sure, because you need ele for perma-Fury. But much like you only need one warrior for banners you only need one ele for fury.

Let’s see if I can give a go at this:
You only need one thief for stealth
You only need one ranger for spotter
You only need one guardian for reflects
You only need one mesmer for portal
You only need one engi to prove that Guang was wrong
You only need one necro to show that Anet does not care about PvE
How did I do?

You need Sandy to solo almost everi- the champ while res the group.
Wait, why no one says anything about thief for removing defiant stacks?

Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867:

hybrid.5027:

Miku Lawrence.6329:

Pro Tip: two eles can make four deep freezes.

oh man with 4 eles and one head shot spamming thief that mossman won’t be doing anything. best comp.

I know some people who needed 3 anchor guardians in order to get past Mossman anything in 70+

I don’t. Maybe you should name them?

Iris Ng.9845:

Wait, why no one says anything about thief for removing defiant stacks?

Cuz mesmer does it faster.

Multiple eles is still superior. Theres just a higher skill requirement for it. The safe compositions won the fractal tournement because the multiple ele groups made mistakes. And from what i saw those multi ele groups had eles that dont main that class in fractals.

Its pretty easy to understand why stacking eles is superior if you ignore skill requirement and have everything else covered. Highest damage, highest aoe. Multitude of utility and flexibility. Strong CC’s and boon/condition support. Eles can cover everything defensive wise apart from group stab and aegis. But they can use selfish blocks and invulns for those situations. Conjures plus blinds is enough of a reason to stack multiple eles.

Hmmm…. I’d say stack multiple warriors for warbanners to ress someone, right spoj?
3 warr 1 guard 1 mes! yayyyyy!

Miku Lawrence.6329:

Iris Ng.9845:

Wait, why no one says anything about thief for removing defiant stacks?

Cuz mesmer does it faster.

Xukk >> Sandy.

Hmm… I’m trying to imagine a situation that isn’t very forgiving to multiple ele stacking… Like 3 eles at most. Hardly see 4 eles very viable without ending up killing everything… hmm…