Guild Wars 2

Hey there, having gotten quite a few FOTM runs under my belt and progressing on the L40s atm, I thought I would compile a list of a tip and tricks I have learned from doing the fractals with my groups.

While most of the FOTM is fairly self-explanatory, there are some little here and there that may make alot of difference. Hopefully you will find them useful as well and feel free to add any other tips you may have.

It is a bit lengthy so use the navigation menu at the top!

http://dulfy.net/2013/01/07/gw2-fractal-of-the-mists-fotm-guide/

Thanks! Much appreciated, as always

EDIT: "How much agony (resist) do I need? "

Rage The Numbers.7943:

Thanks! Much appreciated, as always

EDIT: "How much agony (resist) do I need? "

Fixed

“Daily chests can be obtained from Jade Maw starting at Fractal L10”

You get a daily chest for 2,4,6,8 as well.

Nice Guide.

However, “Agony is only associated with the end boss of each fractal starting at L10.” is a little misleading as the first fight in Cliffside has agony too.

I have a couple other tips that aren’t on their right now (that don’t involve the known exploits), I can post in here or tell you later so you can add them.

BaconCatTheGreasy.9542:

Nice Guide.

However, “Agony is only associated with the end boss of each fractal starting at L10.” is a little misleading as the first fight in Cliffside has agony too.

Oh Cliffside is an exception that I mentioned

dulfy.1493:

BaconCatTheGreasy.9542:

Nice Guide.

However, “Agony is only associated with the end boss of each fractal starting at L10.” is a little misleading as the first fight in Cliffside has agony too.

Oh Cliffside is an exception that I mentioned

^_^ You also seem to have forgotten to mention the fact the Thief can solo the bomb path on the Dredge Fractal. Since they only pick up the bombs if they are aggroed, a Thief can use stealth to run up, plant a bomb, then run back.

Best way I’ve seen this done is to use Hide in Shadows first, pick up a bomb, drop a shadow refuge and wait for it to stick, then leg it like Horus himself is after you, plant the bomb and run the hell back. The 50% speed boost trait when stealthed is needed to do this though (I think), and the extra second of stealth Trait is also useful.

It’s the only thing thieves are good for in FOTM tbh!

Without a Thief, I would highly recommend doing the bomb run naked or with looted blues. You will wipe a LOT if you do the good ol’ bum rush and you don’t want broken armour.

Oh, and the Dredge Power Suit’s Agony can be blocked entirely with any skill that blocks 3 attacks, such as a Guardian’s Shield of Wrath (Focus 5) or an Elementalist’s Arcane Shield.

And OOOOONE MOOOOOORE THIIIIIIIING </uncle>, dropping a Shield of the Avenger directly on top of Old Tom totally eliminates his poison bolts, although Wall of Reflection and Feedback don’t work.

BaconCatTheGreasy.9542:

dulfy.1493:

BaconCatTheGreasy.9542:

Nice Guide.

However, “Agony is only associated with the end boss of each fractal starting at L10.” is a little misleading as the first fight in Cliffside has agony too.

Oh Cliffside is an exception that I mentioned

^_^ You also seem to have forgotten to mention the fact the Thief can solo the bomb path on the Dredge Fractal. Since they only pick up the bombs if they are aggroed, a Thief can use stealth to run up, plant a bomb, then run back.

Best way I’ve seen this done is to use Hide in Shadows first, pick up a bomb, drop a shadow refuge and wait for it to stick, then leg it like Horus himself is after you, plant the bomb and run the hell back. The 50% speed boost trait when stealthed is needed to do this though (I think), and the extra second of stealth Trait is also useful.

It’s the only thing thieves are good for in FOTM tbh!

Without a Thief, I would highly recommend doing the bomb run naked or with looted blues. You will wipe a LOT if you do the good ol’ bum rush and you don’t want broken armour.

Oh, and the Dredge Power Suit’s Agony can be blocked entirely with any skill that blocks 3 attacks, such as a Guardian’s Shield of Wrath (Focus 5) or an Elementalist’s Arcane Shield.

I love when there is a Thief that solo’s that part. However when there isn’t a Thief, I find what works well is assigning 2 bomb runners and everyone else fights and takes aggro. Go until all the bombs are gone, then run to the bottom until more bombs respawn. Yes it’s a little slower but I find we wipe much less or not at all.

Thanks for those, I added them in

BaconCatTheGreasy.9542:

dulfy.1493:

BaconCatTheGreasy.9542:

Nice Guide.

However, “Agony is only associated with the end boss of each fractal starting at L10.” is a little misleading as the first fight in Cliffside has agony too.

Oh Cliffside is an exception that I mentioned

^_^ You also seem to have forgotten to mention the fact the Thief can solo the bomb path on the Dredge Fractal. Since they only pick up the bombs if they are aggroed, a Thief can use stealth to run up, plant a bomb, then run back.

Best way I’ve seen this done is to use Hide in Shadows first, pick up a bomb, drop a shadow refuge and wait for it to stick, then leg it like Horus himself is after you, plant the bomb and run the hell back. The 50% speed boost trait when stealthed is needed to do this though (I think), and the extra second of stealth Trait is also useful.

It’s the only thing thieves are good for in FOTM tbh!

Without a Thief, I would highly recommend doing the bomb run naked or with looted blues. You will wipe a LOT if you do the good ol’ bum rush and you don’t want broken armour.

Oh, and the Dredge Power Suit’s Agony can be blocked entirely with any skill that blocks 3 attacks, such as a Guardian’s Shield of Wrath (Focus 5) or an Elementalist’s Arcane Shield.

And OOOOONE MOOOOOORE THIIIIIIIING </uncle>, dropping a Shield of the Avenger directly on top of Old Tom totally eliminates his poison bolts, although Wall of Reflection and Feedback don’t work.

Great guide. If anything this deserves a sticky. ^-^

Here are some additional comments on the fractals:

Underwater:
For Jellyfish, the one thing that I never see people do (unless I tell them) is to interrupt the Jellyfish’s Agony attack.

Skills like Guardian and Mesmer Anchor skills and whatever the Ele has that sinks/raises mobs are not subjected to Defiant. If you cast it right when the Jellyfish starts his upward spin to show that he is beginning his agony attack, it will interrupt it and use it’s recast timer meaning you will skip an agony phase. This is obviously beneficial since you will always be doing full damage instead of minimal damage while someone is being eaten.

The timing has to be pretty quick so you need to cast it right when you see him beginning his agony attack, also if you are targeted for the agony attack it won’t work for some reason, so usually you want at least 2 people doing it. On my guardian at least, the cooldown for the sink skill is up by the time he does his next agony attack.

Dredge Bombs:
I feel like most people don’t know about this either, only the very first dredge group at bombs keep respawning based on time (think 5 of them are in the first group). All the rest can be cleared and do not respawn until 2 bombs explode. Every 2 bombs more respawn and stack with the previous group. It takes 7 bombs total to clear the door.

If you are in an organized group, it is easier to clear all the dredge except the 5 that keep respawning obviously, plant 3 bombs and run out (meaning only one large group respawns since you did not hit the 4 bomb threshold for 2 groups), then clear that one group out while the bombs respawn. Then you grab 4 bombs and plant them at the same time with your full party at the door, they will blow up, the full group can run in and de-agro the other 2 groups that will spawn from the 4 bombs you just planted. This makes this part very easy. Up to 39 on my guardian, I’ve had no trouble doing it this way with no wipes provided you have enough dps to keep clearing the one group that keeps respawning.

Also use walls to LoS the dredge in both cannon and bomb paths.

Cliffside: Can also use stability skills before the 30 sec debuff tick to negate it.

Harpy: The reflected lightning things at the staircase from skills like Wall of Reflection actually don’t damage your party since it becomes “friendly” after being reflected, although you can still do it to “psych” people out.

Someone already mentioned Old Tom and Shield of the Avenger on Guardian so you can stack melee, but you can also go inside Old Tom’s body in melee and not get hit by any poison bolts while he spins even without SoA. It’s easier to get inside his body for positioning before he starts spinning.

And again, with alot of reflects, it’s much faster to stay melee for the last Asura boss since it’s agony attack is negated by reflection/null range skills. Maybe just mention his agony attack can be reflected.

Bloomhunger: If you are in melee range the only thing that can hit you is his agony attack if you are inside his body. The storm spirit is the spirit that puts retaliation on him, you can ignore the others (and even ignore that one depending on your group comp). For his agony attack, just get behind his body and dodge if you are in a red circle, if you are in front of his body you will get hit by agony even if you don’t see a red circle for some reason. When I run this, usually everyone stacks melee, even if you are a ranged class.

Also Wall of Reflection reflects his 6 sided shockwave attack, you can reflect 3 of them for 15k damage which is what I use it for, and not his agony attack.

Ascalon: Captain’s phase 3 only happens if someone goes in at melee range. You can keep him in phase 2 the entire fight by keeping everyone ranged after phase 1, which is usually easier since the only thing you need to watch out for in phase 2 is the hail of fireballs.

Also this applies for normal dungeons and various fractals, but is apparent in Ascalon, LoS, LoS, LoS. Number one simple strategy that pugs don’t do. Stack on the corner of a wall, not only does it group up all your NPCs to instantly attack the veterans, but it allows you to group up all the enemies without pull skills. When they get around the corner, you can hit them with interrupts and blinds and then evade out if you need to. Even if you’re ranged, LoS first. You kill faster, agro NPCs quicker, and it’s safer assuming you have a blind or interrupt or daze or something which every class does.

I need to update my videos for high lvl fractals but waiting until that January Patch so I can get set people in on specific classes easier :x

taking bets on when half of these strategies get “fixed” and become impossible.

Good guide. Although most was already familiar for me, it is really useful for people who are just starting out. I would add one piece of advice, in what I think is the hardest Fractal.

Volcanic Fractal:
As you mention, the lava elementals are the hardest part of this boss, and in my experience, the moment where most party members get downed (and die). What I see way to often, is when party members try to get them up, they get owned by AoE attacks.

What I prefer to do as soon as I get downed, is target a close lava elemantal that is low on HP, basically signalling to my party to kill him. The elementals go down fairly quickly, and this can be done from a long distance. As killing an enemy gets you out of your downed status, this is both faster and safer than actually ressurecting.

Thanks for those, they are quite neat! I added them in

Strifey.7215:

Here are some additional comments on the fractals:

Nice guide. At the swamp level, there’s small rocks nearby where you can stand without being hit by the skelk, you still aggro them up there though.

Haven’t done much fractals, so dunno if they can bypass that at higher levels.

I love your website! it is very informative, and i enjoy the links and pictures! i was able to find my dream armor and efficiently go about getting my exotics!

Thanks, Dulfy! you are a life-saver!

You’re soft dulfy, you should have made a list of all the exploits so we don’t have to teach the newcomers.

Tip for all classes: always have at least one type of weapon you can use in your inventory.
have ash legion spy kits. they are pretty useful in many situations. use them when rezzing someone. as rezzing someone sometimes makes certain mobs/bosses aggro you.

Cliffside: I personally run as a supportive warrior using warhorn traited with convert conditions to boons. makes the part where you have to cycle between two seals easier and i keep my team on constant swiftness/vigor and turn the 25 stacks of vulnerability into protection. and on the statues that blow winds/mini exploding path you can just use stability skills and walk right past.

Urban Battlegrounds: The warriors get a blue icon swiftness when they will use charge that can usually one shot anyone who doesn’t dodge (which is always their opening attack) can be blocked by guardians line of warding.

Aquatic- Deep path: there is an alternate path near the end where a luminous plant is on top of a pillar. Use that path to zigzag your way and thin the krait numbers. So you dont get immobilized with thier nets when you travel to last two plants. I cant really explain this in detail without pictures or a video.

Underground: On the part when fighting Rabsovich thieves bountiful theft is pretty useful here to steal the dredge’s really long protection and regeneration boons. also useful on the jellyfish and someother instances.
Sometimes if you are doing lava buckets and even if you dont attack the boss Ice elemental/Legendary dredge battlesuit you will still aggro them. just pop an ash legion spy kit as soon as you see them heading towards the platforms.

Uncategorized: On the guitar hero staircase area. one or two people are enough to activate all switches just have remove condition skills to remove immobilize and you can activate two or three switches.

thanks for this, Dulfy! i definitely need to run some more fractals.
looking forward to putting these to good use.

Fractal relics are capped at 15 per chest.

rion.3528, thanks for those tips, I will add them in

Nebula.9017:

Fractal relics are capped at 15 per chest.

Do you know the relics from the jade maw chests are also capped?

Yep, 60 from Maw chest, 55 from daily (havent done 80 daily yet though, so that might actually be 60).

Every class can soloing bombs on Dredge by using Order of Whispers Spy Kit http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Order_of_Whispers_Spy_Kit. When activated its give you only 3s invis but you can move unlike Ash Legion Spy Kit. Trick is in stacking (you can use many kits quicky in row and stack invis duration). Its need a little practice.

Kits coast some copper but I think its a bit cheaper then repairs and less frustrating then dying:-)

Rozbuska.5263:

Every class can soloing bombs on Dredge by using Order of Whispers Spy Kit http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Order_of_Whispers_Spy_Kit. When activated its give you only 3s invis but you can move unlike Ash Legion Spy Kit. Trick is in stacking (you can use many kits quicky in row and stack invis duration). Its need a little practice.

Kits coast some copper but I think its a bit cheaper then repairs and less frustrating then dying:-)

You can actually move while in stealth with the Ash Legion Spy kit, although you have to move slow and can’t run. Just seems worth to mention.

Wow, very nice guide, though I already knew most of it but still quite useful, especially to newcomers.

Just a note, for Svanir Shaman (Ice Fractal) :

There is a safe spot on the wall where the agony circles won’t hit you. Stand there when the shaman port up to do his agony circles.

You can delete that, it was stealth fixed, there is no more safe spot.

KratosAngel.7289:

Wow, very nice guide, though I already knew most of it but still quite useful, especially to newcomers.

Just a note, for Svanir Shaman (Ice Fractal) :

There is a safe spot on the wall where the agony circles won’t hit you. Stand there when the shaman port up to do his agony circles.

You can delete that, it was stealth fixed, there is no more safe spot.

I thought the patch fixed the little cubby hole on the left wall people used to bug the boss, was the safe spot removed in the same patch as well?

Edit : after another try, that safe spot is still there yeah. Still, you should take it out as it will be fixed, probably with January update.

Great tips, thanks for that. Parts about agony attacks are really helpful )

KratosAngel.7289:

Edit : after another try, that safe spot is still there yeah. Still, you should take it out as it will be fixed, probably with January update.

There is another ‘safe’ method of avoiding these things, and really easy if they are ‘following’ you. Just stop, let the ones land behind you and then dodge into that area. In other words, dodge in the direction your were running/coming from. Even if there is an overlap, your dodge if timed correctly gets you out of it completely or gives you an evade if mistimed.

This really should be stickied.

Added a couple more tips I gathered!