Guild Wars 2

Is there a way (besides laurels) to get Agony Resistance before having to deal with it? From what I understand you get Pristine Fractal Relics to buy Ascended gear for fighting the Jade Maw, but the Jade Maw deals Agony. Will I have to fight the Jade Maw (and deal with passive Agony) before I can get a decent amount of Agony resistance? I was hoping to do FotM 10 before I have enough laurels to get the Agony down to a managable amount (1%) and losing 6-12% of my health a second is a lot. Thanks for the help, Morsus.

You could save up Laurels to buy an Ascended accessory from the Laurel vendors, and then buy a Simple Infusion from the Fractal Relic merchant. That will give you +5 AR, which actually helps quite a bit. (EDIT: though I read your post again, oops. No, there’s no other way.)

Otherwise, it is very possible to just fight the Maw at level 10 with no AR. You just have to stand somewhere safe in case you get downed and heal yourself as much as possible. That’s the only situation in which Agony is unavoidable- for other bosses, you just have to be good at dodging.

Falunel.7645:

You could save up Laurels to buy an Ascended accessory from the Laurel vendors, and then buy a Simple Infusion from the Fractal Relic merchant. That will give you +5 AR, which actually helps quite a bit. (EDIT: though I read your post again, oops. No, there’s no other way.)

Otherwise, it is very possible to just fight the Maw at level 10 with no AR. You just have to stand somewhere safe in case you get downed and heal yourself as much as possible. That’s the only situation in which Agony is unavoidable- for other bosses, you just have to be good at dodging.

Id like to see anyone besides the most seasoned of pro’s dodge the Lava Bird’s Agony Arrow always. To say a total newcomer to fotm (If you have 0 ar you are) can simply “dodge agony on all other ocasssions” is a true, but highly unlikely.

Secondly, the bosses also can trig agony if you melee, if he is a melee class, he will get agony way easier. To dodge agony on per say, Captain Ashym, he would be forced into ranged combat.

This is also assuming he makes perfect use of endurance, and for lets say Dredge Suit end boss, where you need to double dodge everytime to avoid agony, if he dodged 1 time before that, he would be applied agony.

Sure its POSSIBLE, but your team will be 1. carrying you 2. you will be burdening them slightly if you die

Defianatly doable, but why make the game harder for yourself?

You can actually craft a backpiece in the Mystic Forge before reaching lvl 10.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_ascended_equipment#Back_Items

The only thing you require from Fractals is a single Vial of Condensed Mists Essence which drops from foes in Fractals lvl 1 – 9.

JJBigs.8456:

Falunel.7645:

You could save up Laurels to buy an Ascended accessory from the Laurel vendors, and then buy a Simple Infusion from the Fractal Relic merchant. That will give you +5 AR, which actually helps quite a bit. (EDIT: though I read your post again, oops. No, there’s no other way.)

Otherwise, it is very possible to just fight the Maw at level 10 with no AR. You just have to stand somewhere safe in case you get downed and heal yourself as much as possible. That’s the only situation in which Agony is unavoidable- for other bosses, you just have to be good at dodging.

Id like to see anyone besides the most seasoned of pro’s dodge the Lava Bird’s Agony Arrow always. To say a total newcomer to fotm (If you have 0 ar you are) can simply “dodge agony on all other ocasssions” is a true, but highly unlikely.

Secondly, the bosses also can trig agony if you melee, if he is a melee class, he will get agony way easier. To dodge agony on per say, Captain Ashym, he would be forced into ranged combat.

This is also assuming he makes perfect use of endurance, and for lets say Dredge Suit end boss, where you need to double dodge everytime to avoid agony, if he dodged 1 time before that, he would be applied agony.

Sure its POSSIBLE, but your team will be 1. carrying you 2. you will be burdening them slightly if you die

Defianatly doable, but why make the game harder for yourself?

before laurels were out we ALL ran level 10 without resistance. And it wasn’t considered “being carried by the team”. When I run level 10 dailies I don’t specifically ask for experienced people, so a lot of the times we still get people running it first time. And it’s fine.
Plus if he ever wants to run really high level fractals it’s a good practice to learn to dodge agony.

Nikaido.3457:

JJBigs.8456:

Sure its POSSIBLE, but your team will be 1. carrying you 2. you will be burdening them slightly if you die

You do realize it’s how it works at lvl 48? I did the dredge mining suit the other day, the one that requires a double dodge to avoid the agony. No one in the group had enough AR to survive it (and I don’t think there is such a thing as enough AR at this lvl to survive that one at lvl 48), we dodged ALL of his agony shots except for one member of the party, the guy who pulled the levers, he couldn’t really handle it but we pulled through (using insta rez signets, elite banner etc on him).

How is having no AR at lvl 10 burdening your group, you have to learn how to kitten dodge at some point because at lvl 40+ your gear will not help you.
The type of kitten who ask for a minimum AR at 10/20/30 will just get completely steamrolled by 40+.

Asking for any amount of AR for a simple lvl 10 run is inane.

This. Winner winner chicken dinner.

To the OP: You absolutely don’t need AR at lvl 10, and anyone expecting it is a kitten.

JJBigs.8456:

Id like to see anyone besides the most seasoned of pro’s dodge the Lava Bird’s Agony Arrow always. To say a total newcomer to fotm (If you have 0 ar you are) can simply “dodge agony on all other ocasssions” is a true, but highly unlikely.

This really isn’t that hard, the player need only read up and know what to do. To be honest, if you can dodge GL’s projectile attack, you can dodge lava shaman’s arrow. Furthermore, if you have a projectile reflect or absorb, you can take care of it that way.

Anyway, I agree with some who posted above. I ran with 0 AR up to fractal level 28 because I had never gotten a ring, and it was only at that level where I had enough relics to put together a back piece. Just the other night a team of a couple people I know and some pubs succeeded at beating the Grawl fractal on L48 while I was on my Guardian who only has 5 AR. If I had been hit once, I would have died. I was never hit. I’m not trying to say I’m hot stuff or whatever, I’m trying to say that this is all totally possible for anyone to do, and if you ever intend to do high level fractals, you darned well better learn to dodge incredibly well, or you will not succeed.

When I run FotM 48, I don’t ask for any AR requirements. What matters is dodging, not your gear.

At level ten, it is very well possible to do without agony resistance. No agony attacks should be a guarenteed death, so keep your health up between boss attacks and you should be just fine, even if you get hit.

If you really want agony resistance and have a lot of money, you can make a backpiece that can be slotted with agony reaistance. It requires 250 of one of the tier 6 crafting materials (like powerful bloods) and 50 ectos, along with some skill points and a vial of mist essence. All of this can be gathered between levels 1-9.

The recipe should be findable on the wiki, just search for ascended backpieces.

However, the burden of not having AR is not high enough at level ten to really be an issue.

At 10…

Dredge
- Mining suit : Double dodge when he raises hand
- Ice Elemental : Dodge out of red circles

Grawl
- Fire Elemental : Strafe left and right to avoid arrows or dodge when they pull on bow string

Cliffside
- Arch dude : Dodge when “protection” icon appears. Occurs at <50%.

Harpies
- Insane Asura : Dodge JUST as the first of the 3 orbs are about to reach you to avoid all 3. Avoiding early will have the last 1-2 hit you.

Swamp
- Mossman : follow mini-map and stay the hell away if aggro is on you
- Bloom : avoid the circles, stay on land to see the circles more clearly

Ice Fractal
- Svanir : Avoid circles!

Water Fractal
- Jellyfish : Stay outside melee range to avoid the nom nom move

AC
- Captain : Stay at 1200 range to avoid or dodge as when he’s bent over like he has constipation

Maw
- … Maw… : Humm you don’t avoid it, you just heal like mad, not like you die at 10 anyways.

You can make the backpack without being on FOTM 10+.

The obtaining of ascended accessories is independent from FOTM as well, so you can get one of those with laurels/guild comms and then put one of the +5 AR infusions from the vendor in one.

That said, I wouldn’t sweat it and run FOTM 10 anyway. Agony on 10 isn’t really a big deal even with 0 AR. On Jade MAW if you’re full on hps when he does the agony attack and you have no AR at difficulty 10, just casting a heal on yourself during the ticks is enough to stay alive.

If it does down you, it should do just that, down you. Not kill you. Be in that “safe corner” people like to hang out at (Just to the left of the entrance) when the agony is going off so if you get downed people can get you back up without any problem.

Only time people dying at jade maw annoys me is when they go and die in the middle of the playing field, or up by jade maw or something. If you go down near where the party is hanging out, people don’t really care.

Kirbyprime.2645:

AC
- Captain : Stay at 1200 range to avoid or dodge as when he’s bent over like he has constipation

Lol. (Schfiftyfive )

You do understand many people who played when fractals were first introduced got to 20 with 0 AR, and you understand that many people who do 40+ dailies up until recently took more agony damage then you would at level 10 with 0 AR, and people who did 50-80 before the soft cap basically played with 0 AR.

You don’t need AR for anything other then jade maw, everything else is more of a crutch if you don’t know how to dodge agony attacks.

Most of the stuff that inflicts Agony are attacks that you probably should be making an effort to avoid anyway.

Only place where you can’t avoid it outright is on Jade Maw, and in the 10-19 bracket, as long as you’re near full health, you can just use your heal when you’re at about 50% and survive.

Strifey.7215:

You don’t need AR for anything other then jade maw, everything else is more of a crutch if you don’t know how to dodge agony attacks.

I basically find agony handy because I can play a bit more lazy 10 AR at fotm 10 means I can ignore all those lag prone projectiles and just take it. If you have the job I do, you really don’t want to bother with dodging small things.

That’s why I stay at fotm10 though. Not interested in rising until I have the AR to cover my lack of care.

you don’t really need AR on level 10.

its small agony damage that can be negated by heal skill or regeneration.

Going to echo what others have said. You don’t need AR for level 10. In fact it’s better to go without it. I did at least 10 runs of level 10 with 0 AR and as a result I learned how to watch out for the mechanics and dodge them early on. I have little trouble now doing level 40.

When you have AR you get lazy. You don’t have to dodge agony if agony only does 156 damage per tick. When I do level 20 I don’t bother dodging since agony does negligible damage to me. You’re just shooting yourself in the foot when you outlevel your AR requirement later on.

EDIT: But to answer your question, there is no way other than Laurels to get Ascended that you can slot AR into before encountering the agony mechanic at level 10 onwards.

lcpdragonslayer.7895:

EDIT: But to answer your question, there is no way other than Laurels to get Ascended that you can slot AR into before encountering the agony mechanic at level 10 onwards.

You’re incorrect, there are 3 different ways now to get AR before FOTM lv10.

Method 1: Laurels, as you already stated.
Method 2: Mystic Forge, crafting an Ascended back piece.
Method 3: Guild Commendations, buying an ascended accessory.