Guild Wars 2

Why do people run fractals? I started running them recently with some friends, but I’m not sure what the benefits are. Seems to take around an hour to complete a fractal and its pretty decent loot I suppose, nothing spectacular. Is the point to just get additional ascended mats and go for the long grind to get ascended rings? If that’s the only reason, what are additional ways to grind for mats and currency instead of fractals? Thanks.

I was doing some googling and couldn’t really find what I was looking for, but sorry if this was asked before.

~Salty

I ask myself the same question when i look at the rewards after a fractal 50 run.

Because it’s fun and I feel good when I finish one set of 4 with friends ?

Fun

Really that’s about the only reason I run fractals.

As for unique rewards, you have fractal skins at higher levels (higher chance the higher you go). Along with Fractal Tonic.

Then you can also get ascended armor/weapon chests

Then of course Rings being the cheapest/best way to get those.

As far as monetary value, if you can get them down pretty efficiently it’s not bad with all the loot, but far from great.

The average run takes 25* minutes (for 50) in an experienced organised group with good synergy, a lot slower in less organised groups however (40-50 min and 45 ish+ for average pug). For that you get several materials, rares, a chance for exotics and 1.4g from the end chest. You also get a chance for fractal weapon skins, armour/weapon chests, and last but not least the tonic. Furthermore, fractals are fun!

But at the end of the day dungeons are more profitable than fractals, however the loot in fractals is not as rubbish as some believe if you add up everything from the run.

For fun (because dungeons are boring) and for that last elusive skin.

Painbow.6059:

The average run takes 25* minutes (for 50) in an experienced organised group with good synergy, a lot slower in less organised groups however (40-50 min and 45 ish+ for average pug).

again this guy with his 25 minutes on lvl 50.

Oxidia.8103:

Painbow.6059:

The average run takes 25* minutes (for 50) in an experienced organised group with good synergy, a lot slower in less organised groups however (40-50 min and 45 ish+ for average pug).

again this guy with his 25 minutes on lvl 50.

well many people lurking here are one of those youtube people.

I see quite a few of people here posting youtube video regularly.

and some are in hardcore dungeon guild, and if they don’t do good they get kick, so they have to be good.

I want the tonic q.q

laokoko.7403:

well many people lurking here are one of those youtube people.

I see quite a few of people here posting youtube video regularly.

and some are in hardcore dungeon guild, and if they don’t do good they get kick, so they have to be good.

Oh there is the problem i don’t watch those “youtube people” so i have no idea who they are. My apologies.

And, can’t imagine anything more fun then fearing for your kick every time you do something with your guild running the meta zerk builds on everything because somebody else barked the commands. But… if people like it who am i to say anything.

Anyway, 25 min on 50 is possible uf you get lucky with fractal selection which rarely happens. Some fractals require more time than others simply because there is alot running/waiting then dealing dmg.

So 25 min, SOMETIMES, but allmost never standard running time. What it bothers me he said it, not once, that is standard time for a good run, and anything else is below average. If he makes yt videos that doesn’t make him entitled to proclaim average running time on 25 min just because he’s manicly speed clearing it because he’ll get kicked if they have 26min clearing time.

Maximizing might, maxing vuln, using blocks/reflects efficiently and everything melts away. Take the time to look up [KING] on youtube and see how they burn through fractals regardless of the selection. Painbow even has a convenient link in his sig.
I wish more people would watch their fractal videos then maybe I wouldn’t get so many yolo phiw people when i do pug.

I did fracs cuz I wanted skins + elusive armor chests (zerk). And the tonic. But yeah I pretty much get nothing but bad rings lol so I stopped.

Muffin Nook.5923:

Maximizing might, maxing vuln, using blocks/reflects efficiently and everything melts away. Take the time to look up [KING] on youtube and see how they burn through fractals regardless of the selection. Painbow even has a convenient link in his sig.
I wish more people would watch their fractal videos then maybe I wouldn’t get so many yolo phiw people when i do pug.

You forget that they skip everything remotely skippable, which also shaves off a considerable amount of time.

@Oxidia – Last time we brought up fotm 50 time completion up it went kittens. But 25 for an orginized group like stated is totaly a fair estimation, not sure what you’re on adout. He said “an experienced organised group with good synergy”
@Op – Fractals are fun to run !

Having a good time with Friends, mostly.

Other than that, there are 2 skins I’d still like to have, but… well… rng. So default back to reason one.

Back in the days, I did them because they were new and the primary source of obtaining ascended stats.

These days, I only rarely do them and then mostly for the karma and with people I know. The heavily RNG-kind of rewards just don’t appeal much to me. I never quite get the drops I would consider useful (usually stats I don’t need or a skin I already have). It is rather ironic that the most reliable way to get ascended gear is outside of fractals these days.

Oxidia.8103:

laokoko.7403:

well many people lurking here are one of those youtube people.

I see quite a few of people here posting youtube video regularly.

and some are in hardcore dungeon guild, and if they don’t do good they get kick, so they have to be good.

Oh there is the problem i don’t watch those “youtube people” so i have no idea who they are. My apologies.

And, can’t imagine anything more fun then fearing for your kick every time you do something with your guild running the meta zerk builds on everything because somebody else barked the commands. But… if people like it who am i to say anything.

Anyway, 25 min on 50 is possible uf you get lucky with fractal selection which rarely happens. Some fractals require more time than others simply because there is alot running/waiting then dealing dmg.

So 25 min, SOMETIMES, but allmost never standard running time. What it bothers me he said it, not once, that is standard time for a good run, and anything else is below average. If he makes yt videos that doesn’t make him entitled to proclaim average running time on 25 min just because he’s manicly speed clearing it because he’ll get kicked if they have 26min clearing time.

You’re ok there buddy. Seem a little tense. All fractal except cliffside can be done in 5-6min or less. So it’s will always be around 25min, except if you get cliffside and then, its gonna be around 30-35min. So even if you are right that 25min is not always the case, its a pretty decent estimate for it. There is 120 different combination of fractals and only one of them take longer than 25min.

And why would you assume that ppl in speed run guild kick everybody if any mistake? Like everybody else we all just play with ppl that have the same view of the game as us. How many failed attemps go into each dungeons/fractals as ppl try different strategy and tactics. If every guild would kick anyone for each mistake, there would not be much speed run guild still active.

Here is our fractal run yesterday as airplanes with cliffside and jade maw still in around 25 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Znr19XWPFrU

Also if you think we kick people for making a mistake you are very wrong, we’re actually fairly easy going and we don’t skip harpies or dredge the vast majority of the time, we even kill Mai Trin without stealth because we find it fun.

Muffin Nook.5923:

Maximizing might, maxing vuln, using blocks/reflects efficiently and everything melts away. Take the time to look up [KING] on youtube and see how they burn through fractals regardless of the selection. Painbow even has a convenient link in his sig.
I wish more people would watch their fractal videos then maybe I wouldn’t get so many yolo phiw people when i do pug.

To be clear, you can still push some really good clear times yoloing with non meta specs(I’ve been pushing 30 minutes with non meta comps). The problem that I always fine when doing it that way is with some people is that.

1. People don’t know their DPS rotations based on whatever traits and itemization they’ve chosen and maximizing it in that environment
2. People don’t know how to initiate combat properly, a common side effect from overuse of stackablez strats.
3. Skills tend to get used that have counter productive effects, I’ve had a Mesmer push mobs away with the greatsword right before I went into an AoE rotation on my ele, which could have killed everything entirely on the spot, this was right after a guardian did a GS pull, so we just wasted an anchor and a nuke for Mesmer damage.

My guild and I enjoy the challenge and the chance to increase our personal reward ranks. Many of our people are still in the teens and have yet to experience the higher level fractals. For them the randomness of which fractal you will get is exciting. For those of us who have done this many times, well we’re hoping that the expansion brings us new fractals.

As it has been said though it is all about the fun. I think outside of doing Arah this is the closest thing to doing an old fashioned dungeon crawl. imho

Painbow.6059:

Here is our fractal run yesterday as airplanes with cliffside and jade maw still in around 25 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Znr19XWPFrU

Also if you think we kick people for making a mistake you are very wrong, we’re actually fairly easy going and we don’t skip harpies or dredge the vast majority of the time, we even kill Mai Trin without stealth because we find it fun.

How did you avoid the initial stun on the last Archdiviner fight? not a huge deal but would be nice I hate that stun.

(Also who is the music? Never heard “what is love” sung like that >.<)

Stability does miracles

Gruocs.3412:

Stability does miracles

… now I feel dumb haha, thought that thing was unavoidable.

It is by Jaymes Young, he isn’t that popular but he is a great singer

ima be straight up, to me its just another grind. ive fully ascended 3 toons with fractal drops, never crafted a single piece. its just a cheap way to get some gear that i really dont NEED, but gives me a slight edge in pve/wvw.

i do fractals and pretty much exclusively fractals because it’s fun. i pug 100%. i’m just not a fan of the zerg content. Also doing it for the rewards – might not be the most lucrative thing to do, but if not for the rewards i probably wouldn’t do fractals at all. probably wouldn’t be playing gw2 much. i’ve gotten a ton of rings, the infused backpiece, and a couple of armor chests. hoping to get more chests…

I’m in the 31-40 tier currently.

Fun, only fun. And that mini vane hope to get a Fractal skin (that should drop, it’ll never be the one you really want or one you’ll need </3) Can’t see any other reason to run it, most of all at lvl 50.

Because it’s the ONLY way in the game to get ascended Zealot chestpieces, boots and pants without buying discontinued recipes off the Trading Post at impossible prices. The helmet, shoulders and gloves also drop, but you can get those off the Triple-Headed Wurm.

I am stupid enough to join as fract 43 or 39 pug group

Most people I know run fractals for either the weapon skins or the tonic. Pretty much everything else you get from them can be obtained through other means. I started running them daily myself when I first 80 on my first toon because I wanted the fractal sword. Though it seriously took less time for me to craft bolt than it did waiting for the stupid rng to proc in my favour lol.

I do them simply because I find them fun. It’s a nice change of pace from the average dungeon, it introduces players to different concepts like max melee’ing and allows me to play my favorite spec in the entire game (Dagger/Focus elementalist) without feeling guilty about it being a dps loss. It also allows people to employ clever ways of speeding up the run such as stealth/blink skips and split tactics.

And yes, the average run in an organized and experienced group is 25-30 minutes long (provided you don’t get Molten Facility and Cliffside in the same set) which still puts fractals at a loss in a time/effort vs reward ratio when compared to most dungeons hence it’s lower popularity.

Because it’s fun. It’s more challenging than dungeons and the mechanics of the fights are just generally more interesting. Of course there’s always the hope for a skin, but I pretty much got all the skins I really want already, so definitely not the main reason.

The fractal tonic…………..

This is how I roll

mage.3570:

The fractal tonic…………..

WTB 10k gold

Because KING accepted my kazul application and now I get carried by them even though I suck kitten.

Alilinke.7690:

I want the tonic q.q

I want this theoretical tonic too O_O

I run fractals because it is the most challenging 5 person instance that makes you do teamwork. All 8 dungeons is skips/stacks/exploits. You can do the same in fracs but not always. Therefore its a dynamic experience.

For two reasons: I find them fun and its content that I feel that Im good at =)

• Fun
• Increasing Challenge
• More Content in HoT
• Fractal Weapon Skins
• Back Piece
• Fractal Weapons
• Loot
• Did I mention Fractal Weapon Skins? So Smexeh!

- you can choose your difficulty level
- the difficulty level is gated through the agony system, so you find reasonably experienced players in all fractal levels
- interesting challenges in comparison to the dungeons
- loot is ok

you noobs you get your end game accessories from fractals

Gr8 b8 m8, I r8 it 8/8.

I run fractals because I want certain rewards that can only be obtain from running fractals. (i.e. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/20_Slot_Fractal_Exotic_Equipment_Box)

I find them entertaining, and the stories behind some of them are very intriguing.

King Noob IV.3560:

you noobs you get your end game accessories from fractals

you can get a full ascended accesory set with Laulers lol.

Chasing the dream of ‘high end’ content it seems. As long as we don’t get raids and hard modes – at least for 10 people though everything more than the same old 5 people parties is okay – Fractals is the only part of gameplay in this AAA that is remotely challenging witch crappy rewards.

While I like this game, they offer really nothing compared to the concurrence of games out there in this sector.