Guild Wars 2

so, I spent all day today trying to figure out how to get into a raid. It was quite a learning experience.
First I went to the staging area and asked how I do I do a raid, never having done one before, I was told to join a training group in the LFG. so I did that, and was very quickly kicked for not knowing “rotation” or my skills. So much for a training run. That was disheartening and I almost logged out with some choice expletives. But I asked again in map chat. How do I train for a raid, if the training group expects me to know everything already? I was told read up on it on the internet, or/and join a Raid Guild.

Ok. where is the list of Raid Guilds? I then went to google, typed in “spirit vale walk through” found a couple youtube videos. Watched the fight although I couldn’t see anyone’s skills except the pov. and he was an Engi. I can’t play Engi. Ok, so now I know, get into the green circle. Went to dulfy’s website, looked at her guide. Didn’t see anything about skills there either. Just classes. I feel like I am reading shakespear, I kinda get the idea of what is written, but the sentence structure seems off, and alot of the words don’t make sense. Maybe I am just too stupid to do raids. I do have a BS though…

Ok, so it’s like 9 pacific time now and if I went back into the raid staging area, I still wouldn’t beable to answer the question the so called training raid asked me. What is my rotation?

Force players to do research on the internet before they can even attempt to fight them. Simultaneously encouraging players to insult the player who is new to raids.
I don’t have time for this, but I am trying.
I think raids need less deterrents, and more support from the game itself to get people into it. The content can still be hard.

OK, what sequence of numbers must I push, in order to convince 9 other players to allow me the honor of doing a raid with them?

http://qtfy.eu/builds/

thats usualy what they mean, click of the icon of your class then scroll down to if your power or condition speced.

Both builds got a green button with written rotations.
Edit
If you can come close to 60-70% of what they do and your 9 team mates do aswell it shouldent be a problem.
Edit 2
About the green circles groups usualy make 4 people go to those since rest need to melee focus boss.

to hell with those apes.

if you want to learn raids, and practice your class, mail me in game. I’ll take the time to help you figure out meta builds/rotations/strats and learn the basics of a few raid bosses.

I’ll be eventually setting up a static too (not soon, I can say that I’m afraid)
And I welcome anyone willing to sit down and at least try.
I don’t promise you a clear, but I can promise you will learn.

Reanne.5462:

so, I spent all day today trying to figure out how to get into a raid. It was quite a learning experience.
First I went to the staging area and asked how I do I do a raid, never having done one before, I was told to join a training group in the LFG. so I did that, and was very quickly kicked for not knowing “rotation” or my skills. So much for a training run. That was disheartening and I almost logged out with some choice expletives. But I asked again in map chat. How do I train for a raid, if the training group expects me to know everything already? I was told read up on it on the internet, or/and join a Raid Guild.

Ok. where is the list of Raid Guilds? I then went to google, typed in “spirit vale walk through” found a couple youtube videos. Watched the fight although I couldn’t see anyone’s skills except the pov. and he was an Engi. I can’t play Engi. Ok, so now I know, get into the green circle. Went to dulfy’s website, looked at her guide. Didn’t see anything about skills there either. Just classes. I feel like I am reading shakespear, I kinda get the idea of what is written, but the sentence structure seems off, and alot of the words don’t make sense. Maybe I am just too stupid to do raids. I do have a BS though…

Ok, so it’s like 9 pacific time now and if I went back into the raid staging area, I still wouldn’t beable to answer the question the so called training raid asked me. What is my rotation?

Force players to do research on the internet before they can even attempt to fight them. Simultaneously encouraging players to insult the player who is new to raids.
I don’t have time for this, but I am trying.
I think raids need less deterrents, and more support from the game itself to get people into it. The content can still be hard.

OK, what sequence of numbers must I push, in order to convince 9 other players to allow me the honor of doing a raid with them?

Why do you feel entitled to have people teach you?

Training runs are generally to learn the mechanics of the fight, not the class. If you come into the fight with a clerics chronomancer, they’re going to boot you.

Someone else already posted the qtfy site, which is good. We can help too, if you listed what class you were trying to join on. But if all you want to do is complain, then complain away.

@Absurdo.8309

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAs+dnsnBlfiFoB+fCEgilejyMAOtM6cE6gWreUb1XF-TRBVABAo8bG9CipEEyXC/9HoU/hUABOTD-e

I am not complaining, I am describing what deters me from doing raids, and probably others also.

tbh I don’t want someone who has done it to train me, I don’t like being told what to do. But I don’t see any other way of learning how to do raids. I would prefer to play the game, to learn to play the game, independently. Not do research on the latest cookie cutter build and copy paste my play style from a guildwars obsessive with a website.

and now that I have spent my weekend, not playing guild wars, but instead trying to find non kitten non-elitist websites that actually explain why I can’t play my Necro, but instead an Engineer. That also don’t contradict the previous website I just read.

thank you for the links, I will check them out

I have a question, have you done other types of instanced content in this game?
Most builds used in Raids are the same as the ones used in dungeons and fractals, especially the dps builds

Oh. My dear friend. I understand now.
You want to play raids with your favorite class and build.

I will still say that my invitation stands.
Only instead of metahumping dribble and classes you want nothing to do with. I’ll show you various ways to make your favorite class an asset.

That goofy chrono build I linked is actually my group’s MT.
If you do join us oddballs, I only ask that you bring a sense of humor and some determination.

Raids are not the usual MMO content. They way they work is like this:

1. When the raid launches, players who jump into it right away get the joy (pain?) of learning from the content. Of course, most of them are already using builds that are considered the best in other instanced content. However, they at least get to learn the mechanics by playing through the encounter.
2. At some point after this, the preferred tactics and builds get published. At that point, most pick up groups expect people to research the published material if they don’t already have first-hand experience.
3. Latecomers to raids can still get the learn-in-game experience, but for the most part they have to find a party of latecomers to do it with, or at least a party which includes experienced raiders who have the time, energy and patience to go yet again through the learning process with someone else. This is likely to be harder than finding a learning party on the release date, when no one knows the encounters.

OP it is hard to help you when you are so vague. Lets start with terminology.

dps: damage per second

There are 4 general roles in raids. DPS, healer, tank, buffer. Although specific bosses may have other specific roles, and some bosses do not have a tank.

What they do:

tank: Whoever has the highest toughness draws the ‘agro’ or attention of the boss. The boss will move to the tank (if the boss is mobile) and so the tank moves the boss around and faces the boss away from 9 other members of group. 99% of the time, the tank is a mesmer (with chrono spec), it is not uncommon for a tank to wear very high toughness gear such as minstrels/nomads, but some people prefer to go more glassy, with 1401 the lowest toughness most tanks will run with in unorganized groups, although speed clear guilds may run as low as 1085 toughness (last I checked). The tank is also responsible for all sorts of utility such as sharing boons, providing defense (through distortion), and group up enemies with pulls.

healer: The healer is responsible for healing the group after they take damage. Typically a ranger (with druid spec) fills this role. Many groups have thier healer bring a lot of healing power with magi/cleric or sometimes minstrels gear. The majority of damage is avoidable however (although not all of it), and so very skilled groups choose to bring more glassy healers such as vipers druid instead. Most groups you join, especially early on, will have magi druids.

dps: Their main objective is to attack the boss, do damage, and ultimately kill it. There are 2 main variants of damage that can be done; Power damage (also called direct damage) and condition (or condi) damage. Some bosses heavily favor one form of damage over the other, and so in order to give yourself more versatility early on, you must be careful which class you gear up for this role first. Typically this role is filled by elementalists, rangers, thieves, and engineers, but groups will also sometimes have necros,guardians, and even occasionally mesmers fill this role.

Warrior is a bit of an odd ball. Pretty much every raid group brings a warrior or two, and that warrior’s main job is to attack the boss like a dps role. However the warrior is brought because in addition to decent dps, the warrior brings several group buffs such as banner of strength. So warrior is a bit of a mix between dps and buffer role.

Buffer: This role buffs the dps classes and allows them to do more damage, by giving them boons. In particular the boon they give is quickness, as this role is pretty much exclusively filled by a mesmer. Usually groups bring 2 mesmers. The first mesmer is the tank (if the boss requires a tank). That mesmer is responsible for both tanking and buffing the group. The second mesmer is responsible buffing the group, but does not have to tank. Particularly skilled mesmers can also manage to do some damage while providing buffs to the group.

So, OP which of these roles do you want to play in a raid?

Reanne.5462:

tbh I don’t want someone who has done it to train me, I don’t like being told what to do. But I don’t see any other way of learning how to do raids.

Here’s an idea: set up your own group. I bet there are many players like you out there. Gather them up and figure the fights out yourselves. I personally enjoyed the experience when I did it with my guild on W4.

Reanne.5462:

I am not complaining, I am describing what deters me from doing raids, and probably others also.

tbh I don’t want someone who has done it to train me, I don’t like being told what to do. But I don’t see any other way of learning how to do raids. I would prefer to play the game, to learn to play the game, independently. Not do research on the latest cookie cutter build and copy paste my play style from a guildwars obsessive with a website.

and now that I have spent my weekend, not playing guild wars, but instead trying to find non kitten non-elitist websites that actually explain why I can’t play my Necro, but instead an Engineer. That also don’t contradict the previous website I just read.

thank you for the links, I will check them out

Feel free to create your own group of 10 people who dont wanna check any guides or dont do any proper rotations or play w/e they want and dont like to be told what to do on top of that.
Also feel free to spend hours upon hours upon hours of wiping just because the group will be a complete mess and people will start to leave as soon as they joined.

Raids are all about organizing, running meta builds and comps is a way to shorten the amount of time u need to kill a boss IN PUGS.
The way u describe it is: u wanna go into a raid with zero knowledge and learn through trial and error while hoping that someone or at least half the group know what they are doing to make up for people like you who dont actually care about self performance/contribution or team composition but still expect to kill the boss regardless.

Stop being so self-centered, it’s first and foremost a team effort.

I am going to assume some good faith here and assume that someone somewhere really do wonder how to get into raids, but is confronted with all the barrier to entry that exist.

Step 1: find someone who can teach about the fight and the role that you want to do. To learn it the hard way (by trial and error) just takes too long that it is unlikely that you find 9 other people who want to do it. Thankfully there is a bunch of people who do enjoy teaching raids to people, mostly located in those “Raid Guilds”.

Optionally you can try to find training raids in LFG, but it is more of a gamble since training can be everything from completely new to raids to people who done raiding for years but want to test out a new character. As soon you join one be sure to instantly say that you know nothing about raids and have no idea about what build to use. Do not delay, be honest, be direct, and download the communication tool that the group use.

A more guarantied way to find 9 people is to join a raid guild that regularly runs training raids. To find one, ask in map chat (since the answer depend if you are NA, EU, and which time zone and days you are online), or ask in the “looking for…” section here on the forums.

Step 2: Listen to the one teaching the raid and be honest when they ask you for information. Youtube videos, rotations, equipments and builds are all secondary to good communication with someone who want to teach you raids. As a bonus you might find a new friend, share a laugh, and enjoy all those things which is part of being in a guild.

Step 3: Have fun and don’t be discouraged. Raids might not be for everyone, but few things in the game can be as fun as finishing that first kill.

thrag.9740:

snip,lots of text, lol

Awesome info Thrag! It should be added to every raiding guide. Thank you for putting all that info out there for those that could really use it, hopefully the OP will!

protip 101 to get started

1. Get optimal gear, it doesn’t even have to be ascended (it helps, but its far from necessary). Make sure you have an armor set with runes that complement. QTFY has optimal compositions.
2. Get a training guild. if you’re on EU, try RTI.Enjin.com
3. Practice at least a rough rotation, skill comes with time
4. Buy the second-best type of food, Buying the best is a waste of money if you don’t get kills, the second best is more than good enough, and costs only 10% of the best food.
5. Patience, be patient, in quiescence your mind must be. You won’t kill a thing your first week, I didn’t kill a thing my first week, Jessica didn’t kill a thing her first week, and neither did Jeremy or Bob.
6. After you’ve killed a few bosses, try joining LFG pugs. Once you have like 30-40 LI’s, you can start joining 50-100 parties. Just keep all your KP’s (Kill Proofs) and show them as proof for missing LI. Most parties will have a 30 LI with 5 kills worth of KP over a guy with zero KP, no matter how many LI’s they have.

When you start joining parties, always be honest, don’t lie about your LI’s, say you’re familiar with the boss, you got several kills, and in most cases, you will be welcomed. (some may say they give you one or two chances to not screw up, but just pull your weight and no one will notice you’re being carried)

The game provides everything it should to help players get into raids, the issue is that you’re trying to pub and not play as part of a guild, and pubs expect a certain level or knowledge and awareness. This is a people problem, first and foremost.

That said, everyone else’s suggestions are good. Get the right gear stats (exotic at least), use the [qT]-recommended build for your class and be mindful of the difficulty of that class and the roles it is expected to do, study the encounters via YouTube videos for the PoV of the class you’re playing, and then look into actually doing it. This is made significantly easier if you use the Looking For subforum to find a guild that you can join which does raids.

Hopefully this helps, and good luck out there!