Guild Wars 2

The only parties I think to avoid is ones with multiple warriors in, people who only play warrior are usually worse and need to learn to be more useful instead of providing no utility since the other warrior can bring both banners. Other than that it’s more the player than the class which is important.

Painbow.6059:

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people who only play warrior are usually worse
—

:(

Wethospu.6437:

Painbow.6059:

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people who only play warrior are usually worse
—

:(

So much hate on warrior mains :/

I don’t get how this thread got to grow given:

a) it’s 5 months old
b) opener stated clearly his party thought he was doing the harpy attack (in pve!!). There’s no rational explanation neither for their stupidity, nor the fact how someone this kittened could get to lvl 50 fractals and still not know that you can’t attack another player in pve..

Never underestimate the power of forum necros.

They are watching you…

My bad for “necroing” this thread. I thought twice about it but it so obviously pointed out the issues. There may be others that are more current but this popped up, I saw it and having an unusually passionate moment I clicked reply.

No Pulse.2967:

Wethospu.6437:

Painbow.6059:

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people who only play warrior are usually worse
—

:(

So much hate on warrior mains :/

Much love for all the great warriors out there. Much hate for all the warriors who are to kittening lazy to pull out their warhorns and give my mesmer some swiftness… kitten those guys… making me use hylek pots… kittens.

Jerus.4350:

No Pulse.2967:

Wethospu.6437:

Painbow.6059:

—
people who only play warrior are usually worse
—

:(

So much hate on warrior mains :/

Much love for all the great warriors out there. Much hate for all the warriors who are to kittening lazy to pull out their warhorns and give my mesmer some swiftness… kitten those guys… making me use hylek pots… kittens.

Where is your Centaur rune armor set? :o

Zackie.8923:

oh so if someone doesn’t play well he should be kicked?

if someone doesn’t use meta builds he should be kicked?

Um, absolutely…

Why wouldn’t this be the case? If everyone else in the group is using a build that is proven effective and contributes to success, why should you be exempt? And more importantly, why are they the bad guy when expectations about the current meta are clear?

As always, start your own group if you don’t want to run the right builds.

Gnat.9405:

Zackie.8923:

oh so if someone doesn’t play well he should be kicked?

if someone doesn’t use meta builds he should be kicked?

Um, absolutely…

Why wouldn’t this be the case? If everyone else in the group is using a build that is proven effective and contributes to success, why should you be exempt? And more importantly, why are they the bad guy when expectations about the current meta are clear?

As always, start your own group if you don’t want to run the right builds.

I second that. Because i sure didn’t spend 80 gold on runes and 500 gold on my armor and weapons so i can carry people in dungeons or fractals till 4 am.

Lindbur.2537:

Never underestimate the power of forum necros.

They are watching you…

Hey, necros have to be used somewhere amirite?

Oxidia.8103:

Gnat.9405:

Zackie.8923:

oh so if someone doesn’t play well he should be kicked?

if someone doesn’t use meta builds he should be kicked?

Um, absolutely…

Why wouldn’t this be the case? If everyone else in the group is using a build that is proven effective and contributes to success, why should you be exempt? And more importantly, why are they the bad guy when expectations about the current meta are clear?

As always, start your own group if you don’t want to run the right builds.

I second that. Because i sure didn’t spend 80 gold on runes and 500 gold on my armor and weapons so i can carry people in dungeons or fractals till 4 am.

Then you shouldn’t have used him for your first 2 fractals and then kicked him. You should have asked for gear to be linked before starting the run instead of wasting people’s time.

To the OP, Imbued Shaman is an AoE critical fight. Ranger is bar none the class with the worst AoE in the game. By lv49-50 if your party doesn’t have a coordinated guardian and strong aoe DPS, your chances of success are greatly diminished.

It’s just how they design their crappy PvE. Everything gibs you with autoattacks = higher difficulty.

Who said i kicked him? I only kick afk-ers and rude mouthed people, but mostly don’t kick baddies.

Yeah, warrior and thief have more aoe And reflection capability than ranger. You’re right on the nail there /sarcasm.

-I say this as an ex-gwscr admin (if you don’t know what this is then /lol) who was a huge part of a similar toxic community in GW1.
I myself run meta builds, and if I want my party to be running the same, I ask them to tell me what build they have and to link their gear.

I think its funny to watch people in this thread and in game say “we need dps” and then the person that lived the longest and can therefore keep doing damage is kicked.
A ranger in the grawl shaman fractal is somewhat penalized due to it’s lack of AoE. That being said, if the team hasn’t got a Guardian or Mesmer in it anyway that can handle the reflects needed it’s not going to be a good experience.
It can also tag a lot of mobs with cripple from barrage which allows for self rally and some CC. One of the other crucial parts of the boss fight if people get downed is killing a target to rally. This is something a ranger can do from ranged very well. It also does dps on the shaman so i’d never call a ranger “useless” in fractals.

I’ve watched full zerker teams get rekt on Mai Trinn and I’m left soloing it on my Warrior. Sometimes swapping off full zerker for a particular boss fight is better than dying over and over because the team coordination isn’t as good as it could be, some peoples skill expertise might be in a different area of the game, or 10 other reasons that taking too much damage in long fights means zerker isn’t always the best option.

People saying “you’re a noob” or whatever because you’re running a build that isn’t “meta” is terrible frankly.
Oh you spent 100g+whatever else on your gear? Good for you. Did your LFG message say “meta full zerk only?” “did you ask for my gear/build?” “no? kitten then”

I run meta builds a lot, but I change them up depending on my situation and most importantly WHAT WORKS FOR ME

I used to run Feline Grace on my thief until I was more comfortable dodging in some dungeons. Is that part of the Thief Meta? It is not. Did it mean I wasn’t dying all the time? Yes. Did it help me learn when to dodge? Yes. Did it mean i was able to contribute to the whole fight? Yes. Did it make me a worse player? No.
Some people are of the opinion. RUN THIS BUILD OR LEAVE.

What they actually mean is. RUN THIS BUILD WELL, WITH THIS GEAR AND DO THIS EXACT ROTATION TO PUT OUT THE MOST DAMAGE ASURANLY POSSIBLE OR YOU’RE BAD CUZ YOU CANT DO THIS AND WE ALL CAN (even tho most ppl running meta builds just spam 2 and think they are doing it right.)

Sounds pretty boring to me. Having to run the same rotation over and over with the exact same skills/build as everyone else all the time. Oh this boss has projectiles? YAY I GET TO USE WALL OF REFLECTION THIS TIME GAIS!!!

I’m unsure why people say this “As always, start your own group if you don’t want to run the right builds.”
The right builds? What? Just what? This is the toxic side of the community that this game could really do without.
I don’t want to name and shame on a forum, but some members of one of the high end dungeon pve guilds has joined a few runs I started over the last few weeks.

Purely from LFG, and all my LFG message was “p1p2p3 80s”

So I’m not expecting anything particularly special.

In some of these encounters, these members have been the first to die, then rage at everyone in the party because they didn’t stand in the right place?
I’m sorry what? This is where every group I’ve been in has stood.
In some of these encounters, these members have said “why are we attacking from range, lets go melee” so we go melee and they are the first to die. Then the team wipes. The team is called noobs and they then proceed to leave.
In some of these encounters, it’s “why are you using this weapon? LOL?” then they proceed to leave OR even better, request kicks for that person. Hence why I now always run with a friend so we can kick people like this.

TL;DR

Get of your toxic high horses. If you want to play with ONLY meta builds. You specifically state that in your LFG messages. You don’t join groups and leave because YOU have a problem with it. Don’t tell other people how to kittening play a game. Or that they aren’t allowed to play how they want in a “FoTM 50s exp” lfg group.

BECKAFACEISTHATYOU

ITMIGHTBEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

+1 Arietta.

Maybe the PHIW ppl have their toxic ppl, but we also have our share too.

Amen Arietta, though I do leave groups when I get frustrated enough. I don’t ask anything of my group but when I join a dungeon I expect to have fun, if I’m not, then I leave.

Good post. On the one hand, there’s l2play.

On the other, there’s l2adapt.

Both are important.

I don’t see how their deaths put you at fault, if anything you’re better than they were because you survived. It is true that Ranger, Necromancers, and Engineers are the least wanted classes. I for one don’t care what profession you play, as long as you know how to play it and can listen to what I’ve got to say. I hate people who play meta builds, then blame people for doing poorly, the build means nothing. You’ll just have to find a party who are nice enough to not be jerks about silly things. Feel free to add me if you wish for that experience.

PS: For the person on the first page saying to blame the dev’s for the game being bad. The game works just fine thank you very much. It’s the community that’s lazy and want no fun just rewards to cover up as “fun”.
I run dungeons with minimal corner stacking and I get the same rewards you do and 10 times the fun.

Riku.4821:

It’s the community that’s lazy and want no fun just rewards to cover up as “fun”.
I run dungeons with minimal corner stacking and I get the same rewards you do and 10 times the fun.

Thanks for telling people that they’re having fun incorrectly. I’m sure it will be appreciated.

Riku.4821:

I don’t see how their deaths put you at fault, if anything you’re better than they were because you survived. It is true that Ranger, Necromancers, and Engineers are the least wanted classes. I for one don’t care what profession you play, as long as you know how to play it and can listen to what I’ve got to say. I hate people who play meta builds, then blame people for doing poorly, the build means nothing. You’ll just have to find a party who are nice enough to not be jerks about silly things. Feel free to add me if you wish for that experience.

PS: For the person on the first page saying to blame the dev’s for the game being bad. The game works just fine thank you very much. It’s the community that’s lazy and want no fun just rewards to cover up as “fun”.
I run dungeons with minimal corner stacking and I get the same rewards you do and 10 times the fun.

Oh kitten , and all that time I was sure I was having fun. Thanks for telling me that in fact I never had fun and I was only there for the reward.

Oh and how is august 2014? I suppose its where you from because here we don’t stack in corner or kick engineer and ranger anymore.

Leave it to the people who think CoF1 and AC are endgame content. Apparently what works in PuG AC groups applies to all the other stuff that doesn’t blow up in seconds.

I run dungeon with minimal corner stacking, omg i’m such a hipster!
not.

Hint: FGS was nerfed long ago.

Corner stacking is useful for other things not just FGS. Other ele skills like StaffFire 4 are a lot more effective if used against a wall. (or at least to my knowledge it is I rarely play ele)

Generally the most important thing is the fact the boss / mobs don’t move around so much. I mean even fighting Alpha in the open can be a pain (not difficult just annoying) when he’s moving further and further back from you for no apparent reason. It enables people to use their AoE more effectively too.

Furthermore it allows people to use skills and have the whole team benefit from them. If people just stand where they want they might miss the Hallowed Ground or the Wall of Reflection. With stacking this doesn’t happen so much.

The real issue is there are a lot of varying degrees of tactics.

In gw1 DoA GW1 for example we had;

Frostway which was the generic pug tactic. This allowed for Hard Mode completion in around 1:20
DoASC Duo tank which was the generic DoASc easy mode build. This allowed for 40-45 minute runs.
DoASc kitten Trench which become the norm for DoASc guilds. This allowed for 30-40 minute runs.
DoASC 4 lord which evolved to become the norm for the majority of DoASc guilds. This allowed for 25-30 minute run.

There were then record tactics that allowed for theoretical 15 minute runs that never got fully tested.

Now these all had some tactics in common, however some were vastly different. Some were for less experience players that still wanted to do the dungeon in a fairly effective fashion. Others were for the best of the best players that pushed for records.
Some of the tactics in Frostway and even in proper DoASC duo tank builds were changed up to make it easier for less experienced players. Sometimes certain skills were taking for people Learning roles.

Did this make them not viable? No.
Did this stop them completing the instance? No.

So while it might not be “optimal” or the fastest way possible. If it works for the group, then why the hell does it matter?
So what if someone isn’t as experienced as YOU. Why the hell do people seem to think they need some sort of medal for calling others less experienced.

“Oh you’re not as good as this game as me? You shouldn’t play because you’re bad. You should L2p SCRUB!!!”

I’m sorry are you that starved for attention that you look for it in game? Go and be good at something in real life and get the praise for it there. Don’t ruin other peoples gaming experience just because you think everyone should be as good as you.

People play this game for different reasons why on earth do you (idk who the ‘you’ is here.) but it could so be done without.

I realize this has actually evolved into a really sort of hateful post about elitist attitudes… so I apologize now it just sort of came out.. :| Also I’m fairly sure that Chrome is correcting my English to American.. so there is that.

Staff4 Ele got nerfed with FGS, and Burning Speed, it was a sad day for Eles, FGS I was kinda understanding on, but the others were disappointing.

Also for Alpha, p1/p3 Alpha has the Mordremoth Teeth, that conic set of circles expanding out in a single direction. If you go in a corner, everyone will be eating it together if they don’t properly dodge and the timing on it is a bit tough. If you fight in the open and surround him, only one person will take it at a time, less potential damage to the group.

It’s not about “ohh you noob, you should do it this way it’s faster” all the time. often it’s simply trying to make it easier. There is a certain level of ease in having full control, having a completely stationary target and dodging into walls, sure there’s a comfort, but often it’s a waste of time and effort doing so, and like with Alpha more dangerous!

That all said, I don’t disagree with the tone of your post, There are plenty of jerks out there that deserve any verbal beatings they get, so keep at it, just figured I’d explain a few things if you were willing to accept a little commentary.

To add though, I long for the day when every guard will understand the power of Hallowed Grounds and Wall of Reflection, at least in SEp1, why so many pugs still run down at Nokk when we often have 2 guardians in the party… ugh. That’s not a skill thing, that’s simply them never being taught or never wanting to learn that those two effects can completely nullify anything that you’d want to be afraid of Nokk for, gimme those and I’ll have him dead myself when I play Ele.

Sorry, was a necessary last rant

No no I like the feed back. I personally like being against a wall on my warrior at Alpha for the GS3 into a wall that allows for the extra dodge and the damage. (I feel it does pop a nice amount.) While it is true that the dragons tooth can be fatal to teams, I really don’t see it happening when stacking for Alpha. I think its more dangerous to have the team spread out so that if someone doesn’t dodge the AoE death move (yeah that’s what i’m calling it :c) they can get rezzed easily and doesn’t wipe the team.

I really just dislike people that join other peoples runs and try to dictate the terms and tactics. It just doesn’t make any sense to me :v

the teeth attack only gets dangerous when the attack overlap and you repeatedly get hit by 2 of them at once.

Robinschultz.9652:

When is this kitten ever going to end? So I like playing my ranger, does this mean I become the blacksheep of the group as soon as something goes haywire?

So I joined this level 49 Fractal group, First and second fractal went just fine, then the third was Legendary Imbued Shaman aka the Pug killer.

Being a ranger, I prefer the longbow on this boss for the strong ranged dps and stealth for those annoying grubs that spawn.

So what happens is that everybody in my group went down because we didn’t have enough dps to take down the army of grubs that spawn. I was the only one standing and tried to kill some of the grubs to rally my teammates, this didn’t work out and suddenly I was standing in Lion’s Arch again.

This all really started on the second fractal when apparently the electric orbs the Harpy shoot that knock you down, Is now a ranger skill and I got told not to use the electric orb skill? So at that point they started hating at me, gentle but still.

I guess this story also fits for other classes such as Necromancer and Engineer these days. Pathetic really. I just wish people would look at their own faults and failures from time to time and stop pointing fingers at the ’’inferior’’ classes.

My 2 cents for today.

When I join PuG fractal groups I dont get kicked cause im a engi. Its more the bad mood I sometimes in after work cause life :s

Did a lava shaman fractal lvl 29 last week. Playing on my warrior and teamed up with another warrior, a guardian, a necro, a ranger. (Yep, I live on the edge)
When we finished the first fight with the shaman, I asked if the guardian knows the reflect rotation for shield phase. His reply “just range him”….Naturally we got mobbed during the shield phase, 3 times. Now, I generally don’t have a problem with people playing how they want with whatever gear they want, provided they support the party. After failing 3 times, the warrior left, the necro (who was really quite good) swapped to his guard and advertised for another member. Another ranger joined which the guardian wanted to kick, but we kicked the guardian instead and got a mesmer. Subsequently caned the lava shaman.

If you play badly and screw around, I will have no mercy and boot your butt. I won’t discriminate against classes but I will discriminate on badness

So, what IS the reflect rotation for shield phase? This is the first time I’ve heard of that.

Zaxares.5419:

So, what IS the reflect rotation for shield phase? This is the first time I’ve heard of that.

I guess it isn’t much of a rotation so much as it is knowing how to mitigate the mobs during the phase

(I might get some of the skill names here mixed up as I don’t main a guardian, but have watched my guild leader do this so many times he can do it in his sleep.)
When shaman goes into his shield, every runs underneath him and guardian drops Shield of the avenger to soak up the elementals’ immobilising attacks. Party has to knock down the shaman bubble in that time. As a back up, the guardian might add in Sanctuary, but with a good team Shield of the avenger is more than enough.

Once bubble bursts, everyone dodges the big AOE towards the guardian and s/he drops wall of reflection. Everyone then has to take down the elementals as fast as possible. If you can get them to stack up, eles will rip them apart, but warrior longbow combustive shot with arcing arrow is also a good combo to go with on short notice.

I can help clarify a bit more.

You drop shield of the avenger first, and then shortly after the bubble breaks you’re going to want to drop wall of reflection, some ways away from where your shield (and the shaman) is located (i.e. you dodge back). You ideally want to have him slowed enough that you don’t need to reposition the shield, and can cleave down most of the elementals before you break the bubble; it’s better to deal with them when you don’t also have to worry about him.

If you have someone else in the party who can and will provide an initial reflect as the bubble phase occurs, let them and then start channeling shield. If you don’t, you need to precast it to try and get the first activation to line up with the start of the bubble phase (too soon, your shield can be killed; too late and the elementals will destoy you and your team). You should avoid using the command function of the shield during this time (one of the tiny handful of times you don’t want to do this), unless you desperately need to try and reposition it.

Generally speaking, you’ll want to be on mace/focus (or if you must range, scepter/focus) with your weapon swap to GS up when he phases. Make sure you get a mace 2 down, and your focus 5 (if it’s up) off before swapping to GS for the elementals. You will generally want to avoid using Binding Blades until you have your Wall of Reflection down, so that you can pull any remaining elementals to you.

You don’t want to run Sanctuary. Run Retreat (along with Shield and Wall) instead. The extra Aegis can be extremely useful, in both good teams and especially so in bad teams. You can run either Signet of Resolve or Shelter for your heal. Shelter is superior if you have a very good team and the floor doesn’t bug (thus repeatedly applying some burning… even when you’re moving and it shouldn’t apply burning). Otherwise, Signet of Resolve is superior (and if it’s really bad, you might even trait reduced signet cooldown). Definitely make sure you have spirit weapon mastery traited, as the reduced shield CD is very important.

As a note, you should always communicate (if possible) regarding your CDs. Especially in a group with less organization, you don’t want to phase him before you have both wall and shield ready to go (or when someone has dangerously low health, etc.). In a coordinated group with enough antiprojectile skills, you could phase him without wall/shield being up and be absolutely fine (with the exact same idea in how they should be used), it’s just riskier (and probably not worth the risk to phase him deliberately in this case).

Reflect rotation is simply chaining reflects/projectile blocks on top of shaman and then away from him so you can burn the elementals down in complete safety while removing his shield stacks. You move away from him for the later reflects due to when his shield pops he will cast his aoe on his location.

The elementals are what really gets you killed and high fracs they’re not only high level, there are a lot of them too.

Depending on how good your guardian is, a mesmer is sometimes a handy backup or in desperation a thief smoke screen. Whatever happens, you’re going to be dependent on your team cleaving down the elementals fast. It’s important to have your party together or the elementals will go around the shield.

Azrael.4960:

Zaxares.5419:

So, what IS the reflect rotation for shield phase? This is the first time I’ve heard of that.

I guess it isn’t much of a rotation so much as it is knowing how to mitigate the mobs during the phase

(I might get some of the skill names here mixed up as I don’t main a guardian, but have watched my guild leader do this so many times he can do it in his sleep.)
When shaman goes into his shield, every runs underneath him and guardian drops Shield of the avenger to soak up the elementals’ immobilising attacks. Party has to knock down the shaman bubble in that time. As a back up, the guardian might add in Sanctuary, but with a good team Shield of the avenger is more than enough.

Once bubble bursts, everyone dodges the big AOE towards the guardian and s/he drops wall of reflection. Everyone then has to take down the elementals as fast as possible. If you can get them to stack up, eles will rip them apart, but warrior longbow combustive shot with arcing arrow is also a good combo to go with on short notice.

naw, sanctuary is crap.. you toss out a WoR, when it disappears you use SotA, and when SotA disappears WoR is back so use it once more. if the eles last longer than that your party is prolly having trouble. and if youre being forced to WoR during burn phases cuz someone or 2 cant dodge thats bad news too.

the other things to be doing are get under the shaman (cuz stacking is winning for stationary reflects) and toss a scepter 2 under the shaman to eat up shield stacks. when you run out of things to do in scepter, gs 5 some eles or spin to win against shield, stuff like that.

3rd utility… prolly retreat to help you or your friends not suck at dodging.

insanemaniac.2456:

Azrael.4960:

Zaxares.5419:

So, what IS the reflect rotation for shield phase? This is the first time I’ve heard of that.

I guess it isn’t much of a rotation so much as it is knowing how to mitigate the mobs during the phase

(I might get some of the skill names here mixed up as I don’t main a guardian, but have watched my guild leader do this so many times he can do it in his sleep.)
When shaman goes into his shield, every runs underneath him and guardian drops Shield of the avenger to soak up the elementals’ immobilising attacks. Party has to knock down the shaman bubble in that time. As a back up, the guardian might add in Sanctuary, but with a good team Shield of the avenger is more than enough.

Once bubble bursts, everyone dodges the big AOE towards the guardian and s/he drops wall of reflection. Everyone then has to take down the elementals as fast as possible. If you can get them to stack up, eles will rip them apart, but warrior longbow combustive shot with arcing arrow is also a good combo to go with on short notice.

naw, sanctuary is crap.. you toss out a WoR, when it disappears you use SotA, and when SotA disappears WoR is back so use it once more. if the eles last longer than that your party is prolly having trouble. and if youre being forced to WoR during burn phases cuz someone or 2 cant dodge thats bad news too.

the other things to be doing are get under the shaman (cuz stacking is winning for stationary reflects) and toss a scepter 2 under the shaman to eat up shield stacks. when you run out of things to do in scepter, gs 5 some eles or spin to win against shield, stuff like that.

3rd utility… prolly retreat to help you or your friends not suck at dodging.

Bolded the important part for you. The majority of guardians I play with in this level generally know what to do as do most ppl in the party. Channel skills don’t work on the shield, they count as 1 hit, stops skills like rapid fire, hundred blades, etc being OP

Azrael.4960:

insanemaniac.2456:

Azrael.4960:

Zaxares.5419:

So, what IS the reflect rotation for shield phase? This is the first time I’ve heard of that.

I guess it isn’t much of a rotation so much as it is knowing how to mitigate the mobs during the phase

(I might get some of the skill names here mixed up as I don’t main a guardian, but have watched my guild leader do this so many times he can do it in his sleep.)
When shaman goes into his shield, every runs underneath him and guardian drops Shield of the avenger to soak up the elementals’ immobilising attacks. Party has to knock down the shaman bubble in that time. As a back up, the guardian might add in Sanctuary, but with a good team Shield of the avenger is more than enough.

Once bubble bursts, everyone dodges the big AOE towards the guardian and s/he drops wall of reflection. Everyone then has to take down the elementals as fast as possible. If you can get them to stack up, eles will rip them apart, but warrior longbow combustive shot with arcing arrow is also a good combo to go with on short notice.

naw, sanctuary is crap.. you toss out a WoR, when it disappears you use SotA, and when SotA disappears WoR is back so use it once more. if the eles last longer than that your party is prolly having trouble. and if youre being forced to WoR during burn phases cuz someone or 2 cant dodge thats bad news too.

the other things to be doing are get under the shaman (cuz stacking is winning for stationary reflects) and toss a scepter 2 under the shaman to eat up shield stacks. when you run out of things to do in scepter, gs 5 some eles or spin to win against shield, stuff like that.

3rd utility… prolly retreat to help you or your friends not suck at dodging.

Bolded the important part for you. The majority of guardians I play with in this level generally know what to do as do most ppl in the party. Channel skills don’t work on the shield, they count as 1 hit, stops skills like rapid fire, hundred blades, etc being OP

im just saying ive never seen a good guardian take sanctuary… or even a bad guardian. i dont think you should recommend it at all.

insanemaniac.2456:

Azrael.4960:

insanemaniac.2456:

Azrael.4960:

Zaxares.5419:

So, what IS the reflect rotation for shield phase? This is the first time I’ve heard of that.

I guess it isn’t much of a rotation so much as it is knowing how to mitigate the mobs during the phase

(I might get some of the skill names here mixed up as I don’t main a guardian, but have watched my guild leader do this so many times he can do it in his sleep.)
When shaman goes into his shield, every runs underneath him and guardian drops Shield of the avenger to soak up the elementals’ immobilising attacks. Party has to knock down the shaman bubble in that time. As a back up, the guardian might add in Sanctuary, but with a good team Shield of the avenger is more than enough.

Once bubble bursts, everyone dodges the big AOE towards the guardian and s/he drops wall of reflection. Everyone then has to take down the elementals as fast as possible. If you can get them to stack up, eles will rip them apart, but warrior longbow combustive shot with arcing arrow is also a good combo to go with on short notice.

naw, sanctuary is crap.. you toss out a WoR, when it disappears you use SotA, and when SotA disappears WoR is back so use it once more. if the eles last longer than that your party is prolly having trouble. and if youre being forced to WoR during burn phases cuz someone or 2 cant dodge thats bad news too.

the other things to be doing are get under the shaman (cuz stacking is winning for stationary reflects) and toss a scepter 2 under the shaman to eat up shield stacks. when you run out of things to do in scepter, gs 5 some eles or spin to win against shield, stuff like that.

3rd utility… prolly retreat to help you or your friends not suck at dodging.

Bolded the important part for you. The majority of guardians I play with in this level generally know what to do as do most ppl in the party. Channel skills don’t work on the shield, they count as 1 hit, stops skills like rapid fire, hundred blades, etc being OP

im just saying ive never seen a good guardian take sanctuary… or even a bad guardian. i dont think you should recommend it at all.

Sanctuary has its niche uses, but Imbued Shaman isn’t one of them, for sure.

It’s nice to have an FOTM character, and then toons for everything else.

I got 2 mining toons, I got 1 fotm toon, I got 2 dungeon toons, 2 world boss toon and a pvp/wvw toon

It’s nice to have 1 of each and be prepared for anything

The system is not that great when it comes to fractals/dungeons.. It has been getting worse and people do not want to play it. .If you do not have a certain build/character you will get kicked a many time before you can get on a team that will play it. It definitely will not please a new player that made the wrong choice of character that just finally hit 80 thinking they are going to do these types of events with that character.. The whole system tends to push more players away than entice them to play. Short of joining a Guild that they might not want to even be part of or to do the research on what character to play the game with. and new players should really not have to research what characters are deemed acceptable for certain content in game..

jdkentucky.2871:

The system is not that great when it comes to fractals/dungeons.. It has been getting worse and people do not want to play it. .If you do not have a certain build/character you will get kicked a many time before you can get on a team that will play it. It definitely will not please a new player that made the wrong choice of character that just finally hit 80 thinking they are going to do these types of events with that character.. The whole system tends to push more players away than entice them to play. Short of joining a Guild that they might not want to even be part of or to do the research on what character to play the game with. and new players should really not have to research what characters are deemed acceptable for certain content in game..

Don’t join lfgs asking for what you don’t have and you’re fine, really.

jdkentucky.2871:

The system is not that great when it comes to fractals/dungeons.. It has been getting worse and people do not want to play it. .If you do not have a certain build/character you will get kicked a many time before you can get on a team that will play it. It definitely will not please a new player that made the wrong choice of character that just finally hit 80 thinking they are going to do these types of events with that character.. The whole system tends to push more players away than entice them to play. Short of joining a Guild that they might not want to even be part of or to do the research on what character to play the game with. and new players should really not have to research what characters are deemed acceptable for certain content in game..

So make your own group and specify exactly what you want.

oxtred.7658:

jdkentucky.2871:

The system is not that great when it comes to fractals/dungeons.. It has been getting worse and people do not want to play it. .If you do not have a certain build/character you will get kicked a many time before you can get on a team that will play it. It definitely will not please a new player that made the wrong choice of character that just finally hit 80 thinking they are going to do these types of events with that character.. The whole system tends to push more players away than entice them to play. Short of joining a Guild that they might not want to even be part of or to do the research on what character to play the game with. and new players should really not have to research what characters are deemed acceptable for certain content in game..

Don’t join lfgs asking for what you don’t have and you’re fine, really.

Then I would suggest that ANET tells players up front what to build.. Most of us already know what the lfg system looks like…and it is very limited to say the least for certain builds.. because some players starting out with one of the 3 undesirable characters are rarely going to find a LFG that will accept them…

Zaxares.5419:

So, what IS the reflect rotation for shield phase? This is the first time I’ve heard of that.

GS #3 (to leap into him) WoR (ideally places so he runs along the WoR) gs #5 to pull adds in so they die to aoes aimed at breaking shield. gs #2 for sheild + add murder.

So:
GS #3
WoR
GS#5
GS#2
<whatever else till shield breaks>
Dodge away.
shield of the avenger
Kill leftover adds.

Note: water staff 4 on ele for the chill goes through shield which helps keep him in the WoR.

I’m sure there may be better rotations, but I like this one.
Edit: this assumes everyone goes into melee and hides in the WoR so the adds suicide on the WoR.

Optionally, an ele can chill the boss to a crawl while in shield and you assing a quick attacking class to take off the shield while the rest of the group quickly wipes the adds after binding blades.

It’s just a really badly designed fight that mandates the presence of a class with reflects, and especially a guardian because mesmer reflect is a lower duration skill compared to guardians, whose reflect skills can be chained and last longer.

That’s the single fight in the fractals where not having a guardian can royally screw your group over. The rest of the bosses are certainly harder without a guardian, because guardians are broken OP in fractals and pretty much anywhere else, but the presence of a guardian is nowhere near as critical as it is to the fire shaman.

Mostly because they put in a ton of adds that do instnt ranged damage that hits like a truck and immobilizes and the AI targeting system in this game is o horrendous to the point where these mobs can choose to all shoot at a single person and immediately down them.

GW2 is known for its gimmicky PvE, why do you think there is no real progression raider presence in this game. The closest this game got was Death and Taxes.

I think the Imbued Shaman is a well-designed and interesting fight. You do not need reflects of any kind to be successful, at any fractal level. Having a skilled Guardian or Mesmer makes the fight significantly easier, but you definitely don’t need one in your party to succeed.

Proof reflects aren’t needed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rS94J9AdIw and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9rGB2J4t0Q and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS5WEJt8vOA

And of course, you’d be hard pressed to find a worse group comp (only way I can think of making that group comp worse is maybe adding Necromancers? I’m not even sure of that, though.). Literally any reasonable group comp has more than enough utility for the fight.

It’s certainly a lot more punishing to errors than most fights, but that’s part of what makes it so good.

Did you really link me a vid of 5 warriors, literally the class with the best cleave ingame outside staff ele, as proof the fight can be perfectly done without a guardian?

Because I’d like to see a class that doesn’t have 18k baseline hp and the most OP heal in the game. With endure pain and a banner elite.

I mean, please. Show me the video with 5 rangers doing that crap, or 5 eles for that matter without conjured frostbow cheese. Hell, I’ll take the 5 necros.

And then let’s compare that experience in a public group versus the group that has the heavies in them.

You asked for a video with a group with NO guardians, and Zui delivered. And then you decide to brush it aside with that comment.

Alright then.