Guild Wars 2

I have a rough idea how normal dungeons work but kinda confused how to go about doing fractals.

At what level do they start? Or can I go at any level and if so how does that work? Do I gain experience there, where are the entrances?

Any info I can have would be much appreciated.

You can find useful information there: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fractals_of_the_Mists

It doesn’t really say what level I can start, only fractal levels.

You can start at lvl 1 if you want (you’ll be scaled to 80) but basically you won’t find a group to begin with. So wait till you reach lvl 80, get some decent gears and start doing fractal

Character Level: You automatically get leveled up to 80. However, your gear will still be your normal gear and the party will still see you at your character level. A lot of PUGs will refuse to run with non-80s. Even guild groups will prefer you to be 70+ so you can get rare gear and have a lot of your traits

Fotm Level: You have a personal reward level for fractals that starts at 0. Evey time you completely a fractal level at your level or higher, your level goes up. The mechanics of fights change after level 9, and 10+ starts to introduce agony.

Agony and Agony Resistance (AR): The higher the level of fotm you do, the higher your AR needs to be. Bosses start to have agony at lvl 10, which you can avoid sometimes. Jade Maw has two automatically (ccan’t dodge, avoid, etc) agony attacks that acts as a hard AR check. You get more AR by getting ascended items and upgrading them in the forge and/or adding +5 AR that you can get with fractal relics.

General Info: The rewards get better (arguably) as you go higher, but agony starts to hit more. For instance, you can get infused rings (means ascended + 5 AR built in) after level 26. However, if you have 0 AR, agony hits for 12% of your health every tick 10-19. Agony hits for 30% of your health every tick in 20-29. So you need more AR to progress to those higher rewards. 20 + you start to get fractal skins RNG in the daily chest. There is a daily chest for each time you defeat maw, once per level area. Those level ares is 0-9/10-19/20-29/30-39/etc. Which means you can do two 48s in one day, bu tyou will get one chest. You can do a 48 and a 38 in one day, and will get both chests.

The fractal is made up of 3 rounds. There’s swamp, cliffside, water, dredge, shaman, etc. It’s randomly 3 out of the choices. The maw is the 4th round, but only on even fractals. However, the maw is where you get the daily chest. So if you’re trying to level from say 5 to 6, and don’t care about rewards, it would be better to do a lvl 7 than a lvl 6.

The last disclaimer is that you can only do the highest fractal level that your group can do. If you are level 2 and somebody in your group is 48, you can do 48. If you’re level 2 and the next highest in your group is 6, you can only do 6 or less.

Edit/tl;dr: You can start fotm at any level, but it’s hard to find pugs to take non-80s. Fotm gives little experience because there aren’t as many events as there are in other dungeons.

Ethics.4519:

The last disclaimer is that you can only do the highest fractal level that your group can do. If you are level 2 and somebody in your group is 48, you can do 48. If you’re level 2 and the next highest in your group is 6, you can only do 6 or less.

I always want to know. If I’m the person with highest fractal level, but someone else start the instance, can I change character or leave mid-run? I never experiment with that. Sometimes my guildies group want to do even level to level up and get chest but the highest person is on odd fractal level. If I can join, let them start the instance, then leave for someone else, that would be handy.

Afya.5842:

Ethics.4519:

The last disclaimer is that you can only do the highest fractal level that your group can do. If you are level 2 and somebody in your group is 48, you can do 48. If you’re level 2 and the next highest in your group is 6, you can only do 6 or less.

I always want to know. If I’m the person with highest fractal level, but someone else start the instance, can I change character or leave mid-run? I never experiment with that. Sometimes my guildies group want to do even level to level up and get chest but the highest person is on odd fractal level. If I can join, let them start the instance, then leave for someone else, that would be handy.

The person who starts the run cannot leave. Anybody can start the dungeon at any level, as long as that person with the highest level is in the map (aka, doesn’t work across servers or overflows).

So lets say you’re level 28 and there’s a level 37 in your group, in LA on your server. You can start the level 36, and that person can change characters, log out, leave etc. However you can not change characters. You can log out, but the second you change your characters or leave the party , the instance is destroyed and the party is kicked.

Edit: I reread what you said. Yes, just be in LA at the time in their map, and they will be able to join. You can then leave party and they can add somebody else. It’s fine if they are say, level 35, and you start a lvl 38 for them. However, if you start a 38 and they are level 28, they will only get lvl 28 rewards (not 38). They will still level up to 29 though.

OP if you pug fotm with any consistency, start with a guardian.

mosspit.8936:

OP if you pug fotm with any consistency, start with a guardian.

Probably better advice than my wall of text.

Ethics.4519:

Afya.5842:

Ethics.4519:

The last disclaimer is that you can only do the highest fractal level that your group can do. If you are level 2 and somebody in your group is 48, you can do 48. If you’re level 2 and the next highest in your group is 6, you can only do 6 or less.

I always want to know. If I’m the person with highest fractal level, but someone else start the instance, can I change character or leave mid-run? I never experiment with that. Sometimes my guildies group want to do even level to level up and get chest but the highest person is on odd fractal level. If I can join, let them start the instance, then leave for someone else, that would be handy.

The person who starts the run cannot leave. Anybody can start the dungeon at any level, as long as that person with the highest level is in the map (aka, doesn’t work across servers or overflows).

So lets say you’re level 28 and there’s a level 37 in your group, in LA on your server. You can start the level 36, and that person can change characters, log out, leave etc. However you can not change characters. You can log out, but the second you change your characters or leave the party , the instance is destroyed and the party is kicked.

Edit: I reread what you said. Yes, just be in LA at the time in their map, and they will be able to join. You can then leave party and they can add somebody else. It’s fine if they are say, level 35, and you start a lvl 38 for them. However, if you start a 38 and they are level 28, they will only get lvl 28 rewards (not 38). They will still level up to 29 though.

Thanks for the explanation. It is great. It can be used to both level up and get the chest.

Jeremlloyd.6837:

You can start at lvl 1 if you want (you’ll be scaled to 80) but basically you won’t find a group to begin with. So wait till you reach lvl 80, get some decent gears and start doing fractal

On the contrary, a lot of people are afraid of doing fractal because elitists spread this crap everywhere.

You’ll be able to find people willing to do 1-10 fractals at any level, if you specify “first timer” in your description. Any class can do fine there.

AntiGw.9367:

Jeremlloyd.6837:

You can start at lvl 1 if you want (you’ll be scaled to 80) but basically you won’t find a group to begin with. So wait till you reach lvl 80, get some decent gears and start doing fractal

On the contrary, a lot of people are afraid of doing fractal because elitists spread this crap everywhere.

You’ll be able to find people willing to do 1-10 fractals at any level, if you specify “first timer” in your description. Any class can do fine there.

LOL!

Guilds are great for fractals, especially if you’re new. We’ve had several low level members in our guild who were brought along for low level fractal runs and they were a blast. =)