Guild Wars 2

Ok, so I don’t like all this “omg meta” nonsense. It takes the fun out of the game for me, so when I list in LFG and I’m with Necro/Druid players, I get 25minute or longer wait times! This is outrageous and rediculous!

Why do we have to take the “meta” setup just to complete a simple fractal? Probably because they’re too difficult otherwise and take too long. So why is nothing done about this?

The game should be FUN not a chore.

Also, I think the rewards from fractals are a joke! Completing all the daily tier 4, rewards me some potions I don’t need and/or Stabilizing Matricies. The effort-to-reward ratio is WAY out of balance here. Opening 4 chests from a T4 daily, and getting 4 Matrices is a joke! What happened to Ascended rewards?

Back in the day, before the loot was completely ruined, we used to get ascended drops fairly regularly. You’d at least get rings as drops, plus a good chance to get weapons/armor. I’ve geared many alts from fractals. But these days, getting a ring is super duper rare, and getting and ascended weapon/armor piece is like getting a precursor drop!

No ones forcing you to run the meta and you cant force people to join your party if they dont think your comp is good.

First, 4 necros & 1 druid isn’t meta.
Secondly, I never have to wait more than 5 minutes when it comes to T4 daily. Actually my lfgs are filling faster than that during prime time.

Loot is awesome. In a good group you will make roundabout 10g (this is fixed, dunno what you are doing with your encryptions and other stuff) within 25 minutes + a chance of asc materials, asc boxes and stuff with less value.
My average pug times are about 30-35 minutes. Together with one or two friends I’m faster.
Over the last 17 days I got 4 asc chests and the endless fractal tonic on top – I would call it lucky but it shows that the possibility is there.

Have you considered finding a guild that does fractals, and playing with people who are not random players, looking to be carried by other people, or otherwise kitten-headed?

Rentapest.6503:

The effort-to-reward ratio is WAY out of balance here. Opening 4 chests from a T4 daily, and getting 4 Matrices is a joke! What happened to Ascended rewards?

They can’t just give ascended every time someone does 3 tier-4 fractals.

Start collecting data for your next 20 days of T4 triple dailies. Let us know what you find and we can compare to the expected averages. If it’s out of whack, I’ll help you to demonstrate that.

In the meantime, before saying you are just getting 4 matrices, remember to include the value of encryptions (24s on TP, 40s if you open them), junk, rares, exotics, and other drops.

Rentapest.6503:

Back in the day, before the loot was completely ruined, we used to get ascended drops fairly regularly. You’d at least get rings as drops, plus a good chance to get weapons/armor. I’ve geared many alts from fractals. But these days, getting a ring is super duper rare, and getting and ascended weapon/armor piece is like getting a precursor drop!

The fractal loot is substantially better since the last significant update to it. [KING] did plenty of controlled testing at many points before and after. The chest called “master” was a bit better before, but when you get a “master” chest now you also get the three others, so the overall odds are far, far better.

Vinceman.4572:

First, 4 necros & 1 druid isn’t meta.

If by “meta” you mean “optimal,” sure. If by “meta,” you mean “what lots of people are running,” then you might want to look again at PUGs.

Regardless, fractals doesn’t require a meta, even if some people want one to make their lives simpler. Understanding the mechanics is the most important; it’s the entire difference between a smooth run and an hour of frustration.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

If by “meta” you mean “optimal,” sure. If by “meta,” you mean “what lots of people are running,” then you might want to look again at PUGs.

Regardless, fractals doesn’t require a meta, even if some people want one to make their lives simpler. Understanding the mechanics is the most important; it’s the entire difference between a smooth run and an hour of frustration.

At least in EU it is split between 4 necro + druid and a 5 man zerker group in lfgs at the moment. I also saw several lfgs with “no necro” over the last attempts.

There are more than enough groups out there that don’t care for some (wannabe) “meta” composition, so I don’t really understand the issue. It’s especially funny when a group is looking for some “meta” classes and takes 5-10 minutes to fill up. A reasonable group is close to finishing the first fractal by then.

As to rewards, the OP needs to pray more to RNGsus. ANet could fix the overabundance of gloves/boots/shoulder boxes compared to head/leg/chest boxes, but that’s more or less a minor issue.

i dont agree at all that the rewards are poor esp since the fractals are basically dailies and you spend 1 hour of your life for said loot and how come you w8 so much for necro groups? i mean all the pugs run necros its wierd how you w8 for so long

Whatever the reason, those necro-drood groups often have to wait for quite some time before they fill up. At least that’s what I see when checking the LFG.

CptAurellian.9537:

Whatever the reason, those necro-drood groups often have to wait for quite some time before they fill up. At least that’s what I see when checking the LFG.

yeah cz running full neccro and druid is kittened and has nothing good to offer and ppl have found out and moved on

People really have short memories. The ‘heavy only’ fractal groups were a big thing a couple of years ago in fractals. PuGs do not organize based on the highest damage or the fastest complete times. They organize based on the current flavor of the month (FotM pun intended) class that can deliver decent results while being as hard to mess up as possible.

A brain dead viper necro spamming scepter 1 and running epidemic while specced into parasitic contagion is very hard to mess up until you do CM100. And in PuGs you always have to assume the worst – that the player you will be grouping with will only be able to press 2-3 buttons total. So you go with lowest risk classes (which atm is the condi necro).

I have zero doubt that a competent power group or optimized condi group will do several times the damage of the kittenty 4+1 group. But when PuGing, you just can’t assume that your groupmates will be competent. And playing with glass eles/thieves/guards that can’t stay alive is a lot more painful than with an unkillable if braindead necro.

On topic: doing the 3 T4 fractals should net you 5-10g easily + matricies + chance at ascended mats + chance at ascended equipment. As much as I hate RNG of it, over long periods of time fractals offer one of the nicest rewards in the game.

Zania.8461:

PuGs do not organize based on the highest damage or the fastest complete times. They organize based on the current flavor of the month (FotM pun intended) class that can deliver decent results while being as hard to mess up as possible.

This is pretty much the best way to sum it up I think.

Whether it was the “warriors/guards only” meta, the “heavies” meta, the “zerker” meta, there’s been plenty of these switches. What is basically boils down to is people saying “I would rather wait ten minutes for another [insert current meta here] than have to spend five extra minutes in a dungeon with [insert non-current meta here].”

Don’t get me wrong, there are some builds that just don’t work, but 9/10 times it’s totally based on skill-level, content knowledge and each player’s level of enjoyment. Many people who strive to play whatever is “meta” may tend to do worse if they are only playing it for that reason – not because they enjoy it.

80% of the LFGs I see are just listed with the numbers. I do on occasion see “t4 condi”, but I just don’t join those, one of the problems of only having one character able to do Fractals that high. I’m out of touch with what is meta, usually because I just play the best way I can, and don’t care about how we complete content… So long as it’s completed

I think the total value of T4 dailies is about right, although I prefer less randomness (like the dungeon token system). However the reward method with keys and boxes etc is stupidly convoluted, and just feels bad to me. F50 pre-hot felt better to me because it was just simple. You didn’t have obnoxious extra load screens between every fractal (or worse, reforming the group every fractal), you didn’t have to open 12 chests, etc. It was just simple and fun.

Also, the fractal meta absolutely includes:
1 war who claims to be ps but can’t even keep up 5 stacks of might
1 druid who is actually good because he waited 3 years to finally get to be healer
1 power axe necro who uses epi
1 chrono who camps greatsword because ‘its the only ranged dps weapon’
1 ele who tries to prestack might and fury, but everyone runs past the fire fields

thrag.9740:

Also, the fractal meta absolutely includes:
[…]
1 druid who is actually good because he waited 3 years to finally get to be healer
[…]

Are you sure about that? I always thought it was a bear bow turned druid, but still at the same level of usefulness.

I guess I don’t worry too much about that guy you get every once in awhile who calls out every little mistake and drops group halfway through the run because we aren’t completing every encounter in the specific way he thinks we should. Obviously, he’s used to an organized group and has no business joining a pickup group through LFG in the first place.

The rest of us just show up and do what we do and try to have fun with it. For the most part, even T4 fractals aren’t difficult enough to require that everyone bring a specific build, fill a specific role, or even be totally pro at playing their class. And for most groups I’ve entered so far, we complete the fractal and nobody complains. No big deal.

I was worried about it at first due to the way people talk about this on the forums. But so far, it’s been all fun and games showing up to upper tier fractals with my celestial tempest auramancer. I don’t die much, even while I don’t put out zerker damage. I throw my boons and heals around like I want to and we finish the fractal and get loot. No problem.

AliamRationem.5172:

The rest of us just show up and do what we do and try to have fun with it. For the most part, even T4 fractals aren’t difficult enough to require that everyone bring a specific build, fill a specific role, or even be totally pro at playing their class. And for most groups I’ve entered so far, we complete the fractal and nobody complains. No big deal.

I was worried about it at first due to the way people talk about this on the forums. But so far, it’s been all fun and games showing up to upper tier fractals with my celestial tempest auramancer. I don’t die much, even while I don’t put out zerker damage. I throw my boons and heals around like I want to and we finish the fractal and get loot. No problem.

yeah tbh was starting to get bored with the game affter a while and now im just running fractals with whatever weapons i feel like (gs mesmer xD ) and so has everyone for a while but i just dont bother hiding it i just want a smooth run so i can get my dailies done and log out and since its a pug whats the bad about it.

Only groups I avoid are comps which clearly have no damage or boon generation.

1 necro is good for condi manipulation, but I don’t want to join a group where I don’t have 12+ might most of the time.

I also don’t want to join a group with a mesmer and druid in them. The damage is going to suck unless you have 2 eles and a warrior in them.

Unfortunately Anet doesn’t balance for PvE, they just do it for spvp and PvE is the side game they use to milk cash out of PvE players to fund their crappy spvp esports scene.

The classes are not balanced enough to the point where you can bring whatever class and have all your bases covered for similar performance outcomes.

Some classes are dramatically better at dealing damage, and some classes have dramatically better utility in boon generation. You can’t go without those.

A good mesmer is a boon to any group with alacrity, quickness and all the utility they have. There’s just one problem, I rarely see good mesmers in fractals. Most are people who don’t seem to know at all what wells, focus #4 and quickness are about. And of course, quite often they camp GS in addition to the aforementioned issues.

CptAurellian.9537:

A good mesmer is a boon to any group with alacrity, quickness and all the utility they have. There’s just one problem, I rarely see good mesmers in fractals. Most are people who don’t seem to know at all what wells, focus #4 and quickness are about. And of course, quite often they camp GS in addition to the aforementioned issues.

Sure, but there have to be DPS classes to prop up to begin with. You are really going to feel the mesmer’s abysmal DPS if you get a group with a druid, mesmer, power necro, and ele without might to prop him up.

The other problem is mesmer tools have skill cap, especially iWarden usage and continuum split, on top of the fact that mobs are wont to disrupt your combos by one shotting the clones unlike raid bosses who rarely target clones.

A guardian can achieve reflect and protection/aegis for the group while also providing quickness bursts, only missing alacrity but being massively easier to play and bringing much, much more personal DPS.

Zenith.7301:

CptAurellian.9537:

A good mesmer is a boon to any group with alacrity, quickness and all the utility they have. There’s just one problem, I rarely see good mesmers in fractals. Most are people who don’t seem to know at all what wells, focus #4 and quickness are about. And of course, quite often they camp GS in addition to the aforementioned issues.

Sure, but there have to be DPS classes to prop up to begin with. You are really going to feel the mesmer’s abysmal DPS if you get a group with a druid, mesmer, power necro, and ele without might to prop him up.

The other problem is mesmer tools have skill cap, especially iWarden usage and continuum split, on top of the fact that mobs are wont to disrupt your combos by one shotting the clones unlike raid bosses who rarely target clones.

A guardian can achieve reflect and protection/aegis for the group while also providing quickness bursts, only missing alacrity but being massively easier to play and bringing much, much more personal DPS.

Don’t forget that the mesmer requires awareness from the group as well since possitioning the wells for maximising the quickness/alacrity can mean the difference between mediocre and fast runs so both the mesmerhas to place the well properly as well as the team to not run out the moment he does becaue they got agony kittenblocked xD

Zenith.7301:

A guardian can achieve reflect and protection/aegis for the group while also providing quickness bursts, only missing alacrity but being massively easier to play and bringing much, much more personal DPS.

And if you’re a Guardian like me and drop radiance for virtues, you also can cleanse 3 conditions from people as well as stack 25 personal might 100% of the time.

You know, I think the daily rewards are pretty nice for fractals. But the rewards outside of the daily are really lacking (fractal 40 farm aside). It’s sort of difficult to find groups for fractals outside of the dailies as a result. I wouldn’t mind seeing this addressed in some fashion.

Fractals are a lot of fun, but if you want to run more fractals once your dailies are done you either have to bring your own group or end up running the same daily fractals over and over. If they bumped up the loot I’ll bet more people would be willing to run fractals other than the daily.

It is funny, because there are so many opinions based on reward. I have friends who have been playing far less time, that have received more reward than I.
I have determined, along with my friends, that my account MUST BE cursed!
I get the laughs as they get ascended armor and weapon chests from Fractals, AND various other game modes, only to see me get the junk gold rewards and truly unadmirable stuff! They laugh and laugh; however, even the laughter has ceased lately as my friends and guild have started feeling sorry for my several years of bad luck in getting good loot, particularly Fractal loot in the means of ascended chests.

So Anet…what is the formula? Can someone be THAT unfortunate to get NOTHING as others reap reward! In the guild I most frequent, and as the longest time player of GW 2 &1 for that matter; I have been the most unfortunate in reward! More magic find, more everything, but FAR less reward to the point the guild starts feeling pity LOL!!!!

All in fun, it is just a game after all; however, it does get a little annoying that after many years of dedication, my new guild mates that have played less than a year are reaping MANY more rewards than I, doing the same thing, even though I have played since launch. It is like I am Grandpa, leaving a family fortune in LOOT LUCK at the expense of my recruitment to the game/family.

Anyway, would like to get a few rewards for the many years of dedication, but having fun with my guild family nonetheless. Perspective perhaps that the MATH does not always work out for the masses.

blackmac.2685:

It is funny, because there are so many opinions based on reward. I have friends who have been playing far less time, that have received more reward than I.
I have determined, along with my friends, that my account MUST BE cursed!
I get the laughs as they get ascended armor and weapon chests from Fractals, AND various other game modes, only to see me get the junk gold rewards and truly unadmirable stuff! They laugh and laugh; however, even the laughter has ceased lately as my friends and guild have started feeling sorry for my several years of bad luck in getting good loot, particularly Fractal loot in the means of ascended chests.

So Anet…what is the formula? Can someone be THAT unfortunate to get NOTHING as others reap reward! In the guild I most frequent, and as the longest time player of GW 2 &1 for that matter; I have been the most unfortunate in reward! More magic find, more everything, but FAR less reward to the point the guild starts feeling pity LOL!!!!

All in fun, it is just a game after all; however, it does get a little annoying that after many years of dedication, my new guild mates that have played less than a year are reaping MANY more rewards than I, doing the same thing, even though I have played since launch. It is like I am Grandpa, leaving a family fortune in LOOT LUCK at the expense of my recruitment to the game/family.

Anyway, would like to get a few rewards for the many years of dedication, but having fun with my guild family nonetheless. Perspective perhaps that the MATH does not always work out for the masses.

Ever thought about guild mates faking their rewards in front of you because they know that you are getting upset everytime someone is rewarded instead of you?