Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

I’ve recently started to get interested in running fractals. My fractal level is 3 or 4 right now so I’im still very new to it.

I’ve done some research on the different fractals so I know a bit about the mechanics and stuff.

But I would still love some pointers from more experienced people.

couple of questions:
how/when is the best way/time to get a group for fractals? is the in-game lfg tool the best way? I’ve noticed its quite hard to get a nice pug for fractals, is it because very few people do them? or are there times when there are more people online?

I’m on the EU server Fissure of Woe

cheers

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtmrC91LQfu5-hlj9Mh2dfwqN57qE3VXU

Short guides for every fractal. These vids are amazing, I recommend you watch them all if you haven’t already.

haven’t seen those guides thx will check it out

Fractals are quite a bit less popular than dungeons, not only because of the higher challenge that they present to a group but also the lesser monetary rewards. All the best loot you can get from fractals revolves around account bound skins, ascended armor/weapon chests and the coveted fractal tonic.
As far as getting your feet wet as a newcomer to fractals, I see someone has pointed you towards Zip’s guides which are great and contain a wealth of useful tips that will put you in a position to succeed.

Concerning getting a group through the LFG tool, this of course depends on your playstyle preferences and many other factors, but expect to find quite a bit okittenward situations and groups that struggle to beat certain fractals. My advice would be to use your fractal relics to buy as much agony resistance as possible so you can quickly jump onto higher tiers and perhaps come across people that know the content well and you could learn from.
Alternatively, you can sign up for [Noob] which is a non-rep guild devoted to pairing experienced players with people who wish to learn more than they currently do or newcomers to both dungeons and fractals and get in touch with a fractals mentor (I think Particlar is the only fractals mentor who’s currently active these days).

something important to know is how to choose what level to run.

a good rule of thumb is to run the highest level you can according to your agony resist. if youre making an lfg post with the intention of pugging some party slots, its a good idea to run levels 9, 19, 29, 38, 40, 49, or 50. in your case, (because you prolly dont have any agony resist yet) youll want to do level 9. the reason to do this is threefold: 1. the higher the level, the better the drop rates, 2. agony resist break points, and 3. a wider audience (example: if you run 22, who is your potential lfg audience? people w/ enough AR for 20+, but only have personal reward level <22... people with reward level 23-29 could run with you but wouldnt want to cuz they wont get a level out of it).

once you reach personal reward level 10, you need to make a decision. either:
1. keep running level 9s until you have enough pristine relics to buy a ring and get more agony resist. (or buy other trinkets with laurels, or craft a weapon or armor)
2. start running level 19 if you have 10 AR.

you will have the same decision to make after each level breakpoint (9, 19, 29, 38, 40, 49)

finally, when you hit each breakpoint you need an additional 15 AR. heres a list of AR requirements:
1-9: 0
10-19: 10
20-29: 25
30-39: 40
40-49: 55
50: 70

now, these are of course not hard requirements. you can enter any level at any time (if someone else opens it for you). i highly recommend entering a 40 or 50 once just so you can see why you need agony resist for the high levels. and keep in mind if youre 5 AR below the requirement for each level set, you can probably do that run just fine, but basically youre subjecting your party to your gearcheck failure which is kinda rude. if youre 10+ AR too low, dont do it cuz you will die a lot.

hope this helps~

those are some great pointers, thx a lot

One final question though: I’m a bit confused on the topic of agony resistance.
Are there normal infusions with agony resistance or can I only put agony resistance infusions on Infused rings and backpiece?

The agony resist you can buy on the TP can only be put into “infused” items, so rings or back items. Infused means it has a second AR slot, and that’s where the tradeable AR goes. Any other ascended item will have the standard AR slot. For those you need to go to one of the golem merchants in the FOTM starting area (the one furthest from the entry point) and buy the “versatile” infusion with fractal relics.

awesome I got 5 AR now XD