Since I’ve seen threads lately on people saying it’s impossible for newer players to get into raids, I’d thought I’d share my story and provide a checklist for what newer players or players new to raids should do to maximize their chances of getting a raid kill.
I bought the game when it first came out, then set it aside basically until about a month and a half ago because I raided in Star Wars the Old Republic. Once I quit that game, I wnt fullspeed into GW2, and got my elementalist from 40 to 80, started learning dungeons, got him full exotics and weapons with the right runes and sigils, got my ascended trinkets and built my ascended staff.
I wanted to get into raids. The guild that I rep has wonderful knowledgeable people, some of whom have killed the bosses in the various wings, but doesn’t have a static raid group and isn’t raid focused, and I wanted to try the raids. So I kept LFG open for a while, and I found one that didn’t specifically list kill experience required. I had read guides and videos ahead of time and checked leading raid guilds’ websites to learn the loadouts elementalists use on Vale Guardian. I watched Fennec’s video on the dagger/warhorn rotation to learn it the best I could get. I did all this before stepping into an LFG raid.
Before I joined that raid’s squad, I whispered the person advertising the raid and let him know that I knew the strat, was properly geared, but had never actually been in there before. I asked for the opportunity, but said it would be no hard feelings if they didn’t want to take me. They took me, I joined their teamspeak, I said thank you, I learned, I died too much, but I learned a lot and seeing it that first time helped a great deal. I repeated this process a few times that day and the next. I watched some more VG videos from an elementalist perspective. On all my attempts I was stocked with the best in slot food for my class.
On day 3, I felt confident enough to post in the LFG “LFR VG exp tempest.” I felt that after 30 or so pulls, I could post that i was experienced, because I knew the fight, knew what was required for my role, even though I hadn’t actually killed it. There was a separate squad that was looking for a tempest for VG but wanted 10 LI, and I purposefully did not join that squad because I didn’t have what they required and I didn’t want to try to be someone I wasn’t. It turned out that that squad saw my entry in LFG and invited me. I joined, but said immediately, “Just so you know, I didn’t join you in the first place because I don’t have the kill and want to be honest here. I’m properly geared with proper food, know the fights, know my role, but I don’t have the kill. No hard feelings if you want to kick me.” Then the group was looking for a voice chat. And a conversation ensued. They asked me if I was running dagger/warhorn meta build. I said yes. They asked me if I had at least exotic gear and ascended trinkets. Yes on both counts. So I offered to host the group in my guild’s teamspeak if they would take me, but said no hard feelings either way. So the commander said ok fine, your job is damage and don’t die, so let’s give it a go.
The group was obviously experienced. We wiped a few times at first, and fortunately the mistakes were unrelated to my role, and the leader noted the dps was fine, so no one dwelled on the fact I hadn’t killed it yet. Between pulls while people were discussing, I asked if anyone noticed anything I could do differently, and asked a few questions about parts of the phases. After a player or two switched classes, and about 6 pulls total on that run, I got my first VG kill. I was so excited that I forgot to friend everyone before they quit the squad and left teamspeak
Was I helped by an experienced group? Absolutely. Did I make mistakes? Sure. Did I get lucky? Somewhat, but I did things to make luck possible, and that leads me to the checklist for people who want an experience like mine.
TL;DR
1. Prepare in advance as much as you can by helping yourself as much as you can. There a lot of resources out there. Learn what gear, weapons, runes, sigils, builds and food are best in slot for your class and role for the specific boss you want to kill and get them. No excuses. Have at least exotic gear and weapons and ascended trinkets. No excuses. Have the right food and enough of it to last a couple of hours. No excuses. Watch the videos and know the strategies ahead of time. No excuses. I used qT and LoD’s websites and DeKeyz’s videos to learn the builds and other videos to watch the fights.
2. Attitude. There are always jerks everywhere, but as a whole this community is awesome compared to other MMOs. Clarify with your group what they want you to do and do it. If the raid leader tells you to do something, do it no questions asked. It’s his/her raid and you’re a guest. If you want to ask about why, save it for after the raid. This leads to a related point which deserves its own number.
3. Raids are about the team, not about you. You don’t get to play how you want, you must play in a manner that’s best for the group to get that specific kill. It’s not elitist for people to expect you to run a certain build, equip certain weapons or to slot specific skills. It can obviously be very helpful to understand why a certain loadout is the best, but the time to get into those issues is not during the raid. Talk to people after the raid or PM them later. Or better yet, look in the Players Helping Players subforum, look for the sticky, ask to join the guild called “Noob” as a student. Then reach out to the class specific mentors (who at least for elementalist are awesome), ask them about tips for your class before you even get in a raid, and ask them why a certain build is used. The raids have been out for a long time and people have spend countless hours testing everything out. That time and effort must be respected if you’re new to raids. Just run the meta builds until you’re experienced enough to know when to tweak them. It’s not elitist for people to expect you to run them. No one should be required to discuss this with you or argue with you about it during a raid.
4. Have voice chat programs and use them and get a headset and a mic. You at least need to be able to listen. I get that people are shy and don’t want to talk, but it would be best if you could actually talk because typing during a raid is a pain and takes too long. In my case, having a teamspeak that others could use was likely a factor in my group taking me in the first place.
5. Don’t misrepresent what you have done and what you haven’t.
Hope all this helps. Yes, you will have to work, spend a lot of time in LFG if you can’t find a dedicated raid training guild, and make a dedicated effort. It all depends on how bad you want it. But with a right approach and the right attitude, it’s all within reach. If you have the right approach and the right attitude, I think you’ll find the raiding community as a whole to be accepting of you. It just happened for me, it can happen for you.