Guild Wars 2

Hi, I’m a new player, haven’t been in a dungeon or raid yet. Been playing for a while, also have some exp in other MMOs.
My question is: when should I start raiding/going instances?
I’m playing Necro (I’m trying to go Power Reaper), I have some gear, working on ascended and all that, in the testing grounds I only can reach about 5,2k DPS on plain, weak golem (which is probably incredibly low). Should I start going now, or wait until I gear up/get better?

Also, I’ve read that people normally do about 25k even 30k dps? How?
I mean, I am a noob, but my gear won’t get 5 times better (I looked up the ascended gear it’s not THAT big of a difference with exotic, not 5 times better), my build is essentially the first on Meta builds, so I must be doing something terribly wrong here.

Throw at me some advice. Pretty please.

First off, don’t worry about those dps numbers you keep reading about. Those are full ascended, fully raid buffed damage numbers on a target golem (and occasionally close to raid boss numbers) and thus not comparable to solo dps. Though with 5k you do have some room for better gear/traits/utilities.

If you absolutely need to compare, go to the training golem in the raid area (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Special_Forces_Training_Area) and give it a go.

I’ll assume you are level 80 since you did not mention your level. Normal dungeons are easily doable in rare gear and above. The biggest issue here will be that most people run skips or shortcuts which can be quite confusing to a new player. Best is to make a new group or join a group where people know you have no experience and go at it.

Fractals are a difficulty increasing dungeon type which in general are shorter than normal dungeons, but get increasingly harder (scale from 1-100). You can easily join a group here and start at fractal level 1. Most people on that level will be beginners, it wouldn’t hurt to tell people that you are inexperienced though.

Finally there is raids. The endgame 10 man content. You definately want to be all exotic geared to enter here. I wouldn’t worry to much about raids yet, or if you absolutely wont to give them a try, join a guild that does casual raids and enter with them (once you are geared out).

If you need some pointers or advice, check metabattle or better yet quantify (http://qtfy.eu/builds/) what endgame builds are run in the current meta.

I was testing the dps output in the training area, I’ve read it’s a good place to test builds.
Yeah, it would probably be best to start a noob group/guild, I suppose it could still be possible to replicate the progress experience, even in low end 80 content.

Thank you very much for your advice.

(btw is there a new player server like in WoW?)

Aris.4231:

(btw is there a new player server like in WoW?)

Not that I’m aware of, it would also make no sense since GW2 is running a megaserver system for most/all of its pve maps and you can enter all instances of the same reagion no matter which server you are on (https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/introducing-the-megaserver-system/).

The only area of the game where server still matters is wvw and which side of a pairing you play on. For pve it’s mostly moot.

Np, gl and hf.

Besides what Cyninja said:
The main thing that makes dungeons, fractals, or raids difficult for most people is the mechanical aspect. Learning the fights matters more than specific builds (although some builds are much better suited to those mechanics, of course).

You can definitely choose to teach yourself dungeons and low-level fractals; I recommend it. However, there are also plenty of resources online, including the wiki, Dulfy, Deroir/KING, among others.

Higher-level fractals are harder for some folks, but they can still be self taught. Besides the above guides, Quantify also has some great vids and descriptions, as well as what you can find via google.

Like Cyninja said, do those things first, then come back and ask more about raids. There is a thread in the foums with a list of raid guides and helpful guilds, as well as gearing /build suggestions.

Good luck and please post again when you’ve made progress or you need some new ideas.

Ok, learning the fights sounds very reasonable.
I will work on that.
Thank you very much for your advice as well.

Since noone have mention it yet, and it is a commen mistake I see many do when looking at their dps:

If you test your dps on the training golem (in the aurodrome) Make sure to apply the normal buffs to yourself (fury, 25 might etc) and the normal 25 vuln on the golem. The difference between having buffs and not having them is like night and day.

Besides that, as already mentioned by others, know the fights or be honest and let people know that you are new. Since knowing the fight is 90% of any raid/fractal/dungeon in gw2.

One last thing, and this is sad news, power necro is… not the best dps’er in gw2, to put it mildly. Hopefully patches/expec will help on this. And they have plenty of dmg (if played right) to do the job in any raid. But you cant semi afk and presume to automaticly be highest dps in the group.

Well, I don’t need to be highest dps, I just don’t wanna be a drag when I decide to do group content. I will definitely look up the fights.

You say power reaper is not in the best shape now. How often is GW2 balanced? I know that in other MMOs I played it took even years to get sub classes to get their shiny spot for a while.

Aris.4231:

You say power reaper is not in the best shape now. How often is GW2 balanced? I know that in other MMOs I played it took even years to get sub classes to get their shiny spot for a while.

about 4 times a year atm, changes abit. Power reaper/necro have however never been top (or even close to top) dps. The problem is other factores of you class. Like the extra tankyness from death shroud. This make it hard to increase the damage potential without making them totally OP in other game types (like PvP or WvW). In both PvP and WvW power necro/reaper have several times been THE damage class, since they have been able to run less tanky gear and still survive. Where in PvE (both open world and instanced) everyone (assuming you now the fight and how to dodge) can run full glass, the necro dont benefit from the extra tankyness.

All this said however, dont take it to hard. Power reaper can do ok dmg (condi reaper abit more), and enough to do any of the fights. And the tankyness will make it abit easyer in the beginning where you make mistakes to not insta die from said mistakes.

If your only doing 5k dps I can pretty much guarantee your not putting group buffs on yourself. Your testing solo dps, which is irrelevant mostly.

You need to interact with the panel and give yourself the following boons:
-fury
-25 might
-quickness
-2 more, usually regen and swiftness

Then give yourself the following profession specific buffs:
-warrior: banner of strength, banner of discipline, empower allies
-ranger: 5 grace of the land stacks, spotter, frost spirit, sun spirit
-engineer: pinpoint distribution
-mesmer: Alacrity

Finally, you need to give the golem conditions, just give the golem all conditions.

These are the standards used for testing.