Guild Wars 2

I’ve noticed that parties often advertise specifically for the swamp fractal.

The hardest fractal in the game. I’ve almost never seen a group able to complete it. In fact I think I’ve only seen it finished once since Fractals came out.

Why is this one the popular choice?

Is there some gimmick to doing it that I’ve had the strange luck of never seeing?

It’s hard for inexperienced, uncoordinated groups, but for veteran players, it is by far the fastest fractal of the first set.

Well swampland is the fastest fractal in the game as long as you have an idea what to do with the wisps and preferably have bloomhunger. The wisp event only takes about 30 sec to complete, and bloomhunger is just a punching bag if you have some reflects.
Mossman can be a pain in some groups, this is true, but in a relatively experienced team he’s still much faster to take down than doing an entire other fractal.

I suggest looking up some videos or written guides on how to do the wisp event consistently and you’ll find yourself liking the fractal more.

Swamp is fast and relatively easy providing you either roll Bloomhunger, or have a moderately competent group. The speed and ease of Swamp is also less group composition dependent than Uncategorized (Harpy) or Urban Battlegrounds (Charr). I didn’t even mention Aquatic Ruins (Krait), because no one likes underwater combat.

What part of the fractal do you find to be difficult, and can you describe your team setup? I’d be glad to help, and I’m sure others would too.

Random groups. And the wisps. I’ve only ever seen one group that can get past the wisps at the start.

The walls move as you run back, traps snare people, half the time somebody aggros the champion. etc. All sorts of reasons. Groups just give up anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour into repeating the wisps…

Kichwas.7152:

Random groups. And the wisps. I’ve only ever seen one group that can get past the wisps at the start.

The walls move as you run back, traps snare people, half the time somebody aggros the champion. etc. All sorts of reasons. Groups just give up anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour into repeating the wisps…

Keep in mind that most of the people in here have been running these fractals for nearly 3 years. A significant portion of the fractal playerbase has simply memorized each event (e.g. paths for wisps, etc) in every fractal/dungeon.

You may find this helpful, especially for running the wisps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb47RZU_F28

Also a little advice, if you want to familiarize with the position of traps, how to climb the walls, …, you can open the map and train a bit alone inside. Running the whisps is pretty easy as long as you know the path to take, and use appropriate skills (speed buff, condition removal or stability in case of a mess)

As everyone was saying, swamp is by far the fastest map possible. Only problem is if you go only with people who have no idea what they’re doing, as you need 2-3 players who can run the whisps. That problem mostly only happens at low levels.

But well, if you go with people who don’t know how to run the whisps, get ready to explain many of the fractal mechanics, because those people probably don’t know much about the maps and what you have to do on each one.

if i’m not confident with the group i always say skip it.

yes, for the experienced, it is the easiest fractal, but if you’re carrying newbies, that could be the most frustrating one…

You can always swap out for stun breakers and speed buffs. I usually don’t mind and run all over the traps and just use them and voilà: success!

swamp is by far the quickest set 1 fractal: it only takes 3 people to get halfway through, and learning the paths for the whisp event is a matter of watching 5 minutes on youtube and a lil practice beforehand. as for the bosses both are relatively simply kite n kills, no big flashy mechanics or annoying invincibility (cough cough Arch Diviner)

Nevaahe.6308:

this is by far the funniest thing i’ve read all week

Why? Is it that surprising someone inexperienced would not really understand how running the wisps or mossman works? Please think back to when you started. Did you figure all the paths out easily by yourself, did you fully understand all the mechanics of both bosses without a bit of practice? If you say “yes”, are you lying?

Sorry, but attitudes like yours just seem quite dishonest to me. They seem like an attempt to make yourself seem grandiose, as if you’re superior, but again, it just comes off to me as someone who likes to brag and lie. If you truly took only a week or two to master this fractal without any advice from others, props, but I just highly doubt that is true.

They simply state that they’ve never seen it pulled off since fractals came out, that was awhile back, so it’s not like they are new to fractals.

Seeing humor in something doesn’t mean I feel better than someone or grandiose, those are your perceptions. I remember exactly how my first fractals went and those after, and did not comment anything on any inexperience or lack of knowledge of the mechanics whatsoever. How I was being “dishonest” is definitely a mystery, as I all I said was it was a funny read, which I found it to be. If you find that rude, or something alike, that would be more fitting. I didn’t say I pulled if off alone or without help, again, that’s your perception.