Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, please can you tell me from your experience what is the most useful profession for fractals 50-100? I used to play guardian but I quite uselessly changed his gear into cavalier/knight/zerk for vale guardian (I still hope there will be more bosses that need to be tanked so i’m not going to change it) so he is quite useless in fractals now. I have 3 ascended armor boxes and I am thinking about building the full set just for fractals. But I don’t know what to pick. High level fractals need condition and not zerk…. Should I play for engi/necro/mesmer/ something else? What stat combo would you suggest? (I’m saving up black diamonds just in case).

PS Warrior, Alacrity/Quickness Mesmer, Condi Warrior, Sword/X Herald and D/W Fresh Air Elementalist are some of the most powerful profession right now for instanced content.

So basically the same herald that is useful in raids is also useful in fractals?
Edit: what about the condition gear?

Mortifer.2946:

Hey guys, please can you tell me from your experience what is the most useful profession for fractals 50-100? I used to play guardian but I quite uselessly changed his gear into cavalier/knight/zerk for vale guardian (I still hope there will be more bosses that need to be tanked so i’m not going to change it) so he is quite useless in fractals now. I have 3 ascended armor boxes and I am thinking about building the full set just for fractals. But I don’t know what to pick. High level fractals need condition and not zerk…. Should I play for engi/necro/mesmer/ something else? What stat combo would you suggest? (I’m saving up black diamonds just in case).

Someone didn’t get the memo of the toughness revamp for post 50 fractals. Condition damage is nice, but certainly not mandatory.

If you want to go all out ascended, decide which armor type first:

- Heavy
Warrior – still useful for standards
Revenant – the new faceroll auto afk class
Guardian – still nice to have in fractals

- Medium
Thief – stealth skips are less important for pugs, but useful for organised groups
Engineer – good condition damage master of all class. To bad so many suck at playing it
Ranger – they got pets, which are kind of useless.

- Light
Elementalist – good ele is great to have. They got it all, boons, damage, utility
Necromancer – still a damage beast. still not to mch utility
Mesmer – that 1 chrono can be really usefull, if the player can play the class

That being said, fractals have become seriously faceroll compared to pre HoT(not that they were hard to begin with ever since the agony changes). They increased the maximum fractal level to 100, but streatched fractal difficulty too. Basically the current fractal 50 is about fractal 30 pre HoT, current fractal 70 is about fractal 50 pre HoT. Rest are mostly minor inconveniances with 2-3 nasty fractals due to instabilities. What I’m trying to say is, every class can do the content.

Not sure how many sets of ascended armor you have. That might influence which armor type you’ll want to go for. Since you seem to own 1 heavy set, you might want to consider getting a light armor set with those boxes. Personally I value heavy>light>medium as far as overall class usefulness goes (absolute personal preference).

Condition damage versus zerkeris not that big of an issue every since the december patch, so that should not affect your decision to much. Also consider if you are puging or playing in an organised group, big difference.

My personal favorites: Revenant, Guardian and Mesmer.

EDIT:

PS Warrior, Alacrity/Quickness Mesmer, Condi Warrior, Sword/X Herald and D/W Fresh Air Elementalist are some of the most powerful profession right now for instanced content.

Agreed.

Thanks a lot Cyninja. I do know about toughness scalling up only until 50, but that nasty instability which gives mobs and bosses boons when crticially hit is something that requires the least possible precision. Is it really that easy to just faceroll that instability with full zerk? It sounds like a waste of time with all that regen, aegis and constant protection the bosses must have if you are killing them in zerk party.
Edit: yeah, I have just 1 ascended armor – heavy. The 3 boxes I have were supposed to be light. But I’m not really that much attracted to light classes :/

Mortifer.2946:

Thanks a lot Cyninja. I do know about toughness scalling up only until 50, but that nasty instability which gives mobs and bosses boons when crticially hit is something that requires the least possible precision. Is it really that easy to just faceroll that instability with full zerk? It sounds like a waste of time with all that regen, aegis and constant protection the bosses must have if you are killing them in zerk party.
Edit: yeah, I have just 1 ascended armor – heavy. The 3 boxes I have were supposed to be light. But I’m not really that much attracted to light classes :/

The instability you are thinking of is for fractal levels 41-50 No pain, No gain (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fractals_of_the_Mists) and is indeed anoying but absolutely doable in full zerker.

I would probably recommend you go with exotic armor for now. You can get quite a lot of agony resistance with only trinkets and weapons (was it 114 or so?) which would get you all the way to fractal level 78-80. Then you can still decide if or what class you want to play. Ascended armor is very expensive and only useful for the agony resistance. You should be very sure it’s the right armor type that you pick. Who knows, on your way to fractal level 75+ you might even get lucky and 1-2 ascended boxes drop.

Ehm, I feel so awkward. I was probably very tired last time I checked that table with instabilities. I though No Pain, No Gain is also on high level fractals, but it is just that boon thieves one which is not that brutal. Okay, thanks for this advice and enlightment . I think I don’t need to get any gear to get above my current fractal level 43

Single class: Mesmer. A well played mesmer can boost the parties dps more than any other class due to near perma quickness and Alacrity. In additon, they can bring reflects which are always mandatory.

For jokes, they also can bring portal to help inexperienced players run wisps in swamp. After all, Swamp is the only fractal being Run consistently in 50+

Heavy
Warrior: Still used do to Banners aswell as easy might access.
Revenant: Outshines Warrior in most if not all aspects. Getting 17% dps nerf 26/1 though.
Guardian: You know more about this class than I do. Anyway, I never want one in my team.

Medium
Thief: Mediocre dmg. Minor utility outside of perma blinds on Cliffside.
Ranger: Just a hassle with all the bad players that cant control their pets.
Engineers: Highest dps outside of burnzerkers which are getting nerfed. Great utility aswell as GREAT carry potential. Hard to play though.

Light
Mesmer: Great class for quickness and alactrity. Alactrity nerf 26/1. Wont be as usefull. But I’d still take one in my team.
Elementalist: Staff zerk tempest has the second highest DPS with a Chronomancer in the team. Great class, great utility and incredible ways for breakbar management. Good for carrying.
Necromancer: Good solo dps, good solo might uptime and good at breakbar management.

If you’re an experienced player I would advice you towards Engineer or Elementalist. If not, Mesmer or Revenant is probably your best bet.

Alot of people miss this cause they wanna be “elites” or something, but Druid Healer hands down is one of the best. Carried so many fail PUG’s on 90+ as druid healer it’s not even funny. I often join teams in higher levels to relieve boredom cause nothing much left to do in-game and going as druid healer, no one dies, etc, +35% outgoing damage to team with buffs, perma prot, regen, heals heals heals… and the team can DPS to their heart’s content due to little chance of going downed or dying.

I haven’t ran Rev in fractals, do you run it as Zerker or condi?

I can see where condi is handy to have on higher levels with some power in there too,

I cannot see how people do higher level Snowblind that first boss fight is a pain, ive been in so many wiped parties at that part, and now that the boss resets I haven’t seen it beaten yet.

As for full zerker at 41-50, level 42 is the only 1 that was super difficult, that jelly fish boss with retal is devastating, the level 48 boss is also nasty.

Ok I Did It.2854:

I cannot see how people do higher level Snowblind that first boss fight is a pain, ive been in so many wiped parties at that part, and now that the boss resets I haven’t seen it beaten yet.

It’s only tricky at level 74 but the lack of agony damage on this boss is giving you the opportunity to take any char you have with defensive gear without any infusions and you can almost facetank it, depending on the class. We ran it with 2 guards, I wore Soldier’s gear and we had no problems at all.

While you are seeing 42 and endboss 48 as super difficult you may have reached your personal skill level.

And NO to condi Revenant!

Just play whatever you want… I ran with reaper, herald, DH in 50+. You really should take the best what you can play if you go for 60+. You rather take a good herald player which is easier to DPS than a bad Engineer (I am not really good as Engi, but it’s fun to play).

Vinceman.4572:

Ok I Did It.2854:

I cannot see how people do higher level Snowblind that first boss fight is a pain, ive been in so many wiped parties at that part, and now that the boss resets I haven’t seen it beaten yet.

It’s only tricky at level 74 but the lack of agony damage on this boss is giving you the opportunity to take any char you have with defensive gear without any infusions and you can almost facetank it, depending on the class. We ran it with 2 guards, I wore Soldier’s gear and we had no problems at all.

While you are seeing 42 and endboss 48 as super difficult you may have reached your personal skill level.

And NO to condi Revenant!

Oh I run the high end fractals 80+ but the players you get in your team at 40-50 are vastly different in skill level to those at 80+.

The bosses in the 2 levels I mentioned themselves aren’t the problem its people not knowing how to deal with the instability, ( I should have explained it better sorry )

Ranger/Druid is actually really decent. Spotter, Frostspirit, Sunspirit, Grace of the Land + good damage in both (power/condi) setups.

^ Ranger is a great class for fractals cause of this.

I ran a 99 once with a party of 5 tempests. So goooood ^^ I think there’s so many viable comps though. If people know their class well/do excellent dmg, doesn’t matter to me. Chrono alacrity is insane boost to dmg, of course.