Guild Wars 2

Me and my two other friends are coming from a mythic raiding guild on wow. We are interested in fractals and could use help understanding a few key points.

1. We have seen that it is possible to lowman the fractals with as little as three players (which is perfect for us). Is it possible to fully clear fractal runs with only a trio?
2. If so, what classes or certain aspects are needed to do so? (stability? ability to might stack? high power builds?) all in all, What specific things need to be present to accomplish this.

Any help or information from those who have experience with this would be greatly appreciated. We’re excited to join the gw2 community!

1. It is, but since i doubt you have much experience ingame (like dungeons, that’s like a training for group content) and fractals, i think it would be better to 5-man it, you can find groups almost instantly or start your own in lfg and it fills up within minutes.

2. This is too extensive to answer, seasoned players can do it with whatever builds, it depends how capable are you and how much time are you willing to sacrifice per run. More dmg=shorter run=squishy and so on. Necros and druids are popular because you can faceroll. Food and utility and fractal potions also help.

Fractals also have instabilities starting lvl 20 i think, so there’s that. Just run them in order you’ll get in a hang of it. And don’t forget about agony resistance, the higher the lvl, the more you need.

Follow up question: In terms of running a 3man fractal which comp would be optimal:

Guard, Necro, PS EA warr or Guard, Necro, Chrono

would condi warr be nice for epidemic synergy?
is 25 might stack > alacrity in a small man group?

I think that your questions approach this from the wrong angle: it really, really depends on the skill and learning curve of your players.

For the mathy question at the end, you should be able to calculate that one yourself if you really care, but if not I’d say … whichever you prefer, but probably PS Warrior if you have to ask.

(why? it’s less squishy than chrono at lower skill levels, and might is less timing dependent on the part of other players. so it’s going to be more forgiving which, if you need to ask, you probably still benefit from.)

ps: you know there is a raid, right?

brawson.8260:

Follow up question: In terms of running a 3man fractal which comp would be optimal:

Guard, Necro, PS EA warr or Guard, Necro, Chrono

would condi warr be nice for epidemic synergy?
is 25 might stack > alacrity in a small man group?

not trying to look down on you or anything but, to 3man fractals to lvl100 you would need to know your class(es) and all the weapons they use and skills in order to find the suiting build and weapon combo for your group.

Doing pve content like dungeons or world bosses or little wvw would help. Might stacking, condi synergy aclarity you don’t need to know that yet on lower lvl’s, you’ll ick up things along the way.

Just because something is meta doesn’t mean it’s the best for you, you need to know you can pull your own weight and learn fights in order to to something little more risky like glass canon, and by learning i don’t mean watching yt videos, just do all the fractals from 1-100 with no skipping, you’ll learn it that way best.

Try to 3man it from lvl1 with your friends and see if you can do it, if not you can always run it with 2 extra pugs.

Oxidia.8103:

brawson.8260:

Follow up question: In terms of running a 3man fractal which comp would be optimal:

Guard, Necro, PS EA warr or Guard, Necro, Chrono

would condi warr be nice for epidemic synergy?
is 25 might stack > alacrity in a small man group?

not trying to look down on you or anything but, to 3man fractals to lvl100 you would need to know your class(es) and all the weapons they use and skills in order to find the suiting build and weapon combo for your group.

Doing pve content like dungeons or world bosses or little wvw would help. Might stacking, condi synergy aclarity you don’t need to know that yet on lower lvl’s, you’ll ick up things along the way.

Just because something is meta doesn’t mean it’s the best for you, you need to know you can pull your own weight and learn fights in order to to something little more risky like glass canon, and by learning i don’t mean watching yt videos, just do all the fractals from 1-100 with no skipping, you’ll learn it that way best.

Try to 3man it from lvl1 with your friends and see if you can do it, if not you can always run it with 2 extra pugs.

I dont think you’re condescending! thats ok! We’re all level 80. We’ve played the game since release for the first year +- then quit. We have a strong understanding of the classes we’ve played, outside of the changes to traits since then ( which i do agree is extensive in some areas). My question was intended to gain information about fractals and what the meta is and why. Not how do i work on endgame before actually playing the game. Also, I did say 3man, but not level 100. I dont believe you can actually run a 3man to 100? I could be wrong but the highest i’ve seen on farm is 50. As far as “meta doesnt mean its the best for you” i guess i agree that because something is meta doesnt mean a person or group of people can make it work, but mostly i believe meta is in place because its a structure that works more often than not for various reasons. I was just asking to gain that information. All in all, i think i will just talk to some people in game and go from there. Thanks for your post.

I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t complete all fractals with just 3 people. Swampland requires exactly 3 people to complete the first puzzle, so you’re good there. Higher levels of Aetherblade fractal requires accessing 4 terminals to unlock a puzzle, but it’s definitely possible to do with 3 people as long as you have condi cleanse and can quickly navigate around the electric fields (I’ve done it myself with an Engineer, so no worries). Heck, you might even be quicker than relying on a pug to navigate the electric fields as they always seem to die in that puzzle.

As others have said, just know your class and the fractal mechanics. I sometimes carried and/or solo’d bosses as some pugs don’t really know what to do (rangers typically earn the annual “wtf are you and your pet doing” award). With a group of 3 competent people, it should be easy. With 5 competent people, you would just steamroll through fractals effortlessly. So you and your 2 mates can play fractals together, then just add 2 pugs as cannon fodder if you want the extra support (FYI, you can keep an open party even when you play fractals, pugs will join in whenever).

IMO, a good composition would be 2 offense + 1 support. Something like a Revenant for boons and some offense, Warrior/Elementist for raw offense, and Chrono for quickness and alacrity. Or just all roll an Engineer and be self sufficient for any situation

Some tips:
1. Hard CC (stuns, knockback) are useful in any fractal, and are required in the Nightmare fractal. Soft CCs (chill, imob) are OK as extras, but might not be enough without hard CCs.

2. Reflection is nice to have. Some fights are made dirt easy when you reflect attacks. Mostly useful in Uncategorized Fractal, Snowblind, and Molten Boss.

3. Stealth would make doing some of the Swampland puzzle easier (Engineer, Thief, or Mesmer), but it’s not required.

Yeah, I’m pretty confident you could do them all – it’s gonna be hard around 100, but it’s gonna be pretty reasonable at low levels. Heck, if I can muddle through them with some guildies, an organised group will be fine.

We were not cough particularly organised.

There is one fractal that is impossible to complete with just three people, and that’s the Chaos fractal. There is an ice storm section that requires the group to light 4 fires at certain points, and each player is allowed to light only 1 fire each (the special popup skill for lighting fires disappears after lighting one until/unless the attempt fails and the party wipes) so you’ll always have to bring at least one extra for that one.

Think that’s the only exception though. Starting puzzle for Underground might be tricky, but I think you can use Portal to make sure the person that went to stand on the first switch can rejoin and stand on the last two switches.