Guild Wars 2

Hello

I would like to hear feedback about how you find the fractals since all the changes. Reason for my question is that on my side, I find that they have become a lot more difficult, even for levels below 50, therefore reducing the fun at it. I am less motivated to go for it. And since I have noticed that the amount of party offers has quite reduced, it makes me wonder if it would not be a general tendency due to this increased difficulty.

Do you find them more difficult than before?

On the whole, I don’t think fractals are difficult. Finding a group that understands the mechanics and/or understands their professions and/or can work with a team… that can be difficult.

I have a guild group that runs T4 a few times each week and we have a lot of fun. The only requirement is that you have AR150 and ping your snacks.

If you’re having trouble, [KING] has some excellent videos explaining the mechanics. You might also find it easier to learn the basics in Tier 1 and then move to T4 (if you have enough AR and don’t join an “experienced only” group), then return to T2-3 for achievements later.

I do not have troubles at fractals. I did very much like to do them a while ago. I just find that the changes they have done make them more difficult than earlier times. But well, that’s only my impression.
And you are certainly right: Fact is that I go with teams via party offer, often meaning to be with persons who don’t know well the mechanics and it becomes then quite hard. I should try to find a team of persons doing it regularly and keep going with them. This would certainly improve a lot the experience.
Thanks for the feedback.

It’s hard to answer objectively. Did the revamped Swamp or Nightmare appear harder when they was first released? Certainly. Are they harder in general when you learn the encounters? I’m not really sure. They are definitely much more rewarding to play, though. And I don’t mean the loot. These became one of my favorite fractals to play.

It’s a subjective answer..
And I find they are mostly easier than before the cap raised from 50.

Fun.. Varies from group to group. For me It’s not fun taking people who try to do for example t4 fractals, but can’t do so without taking the most tanky of builds. Generally I think these people should still be doing t2 and learning basic mechanics.

With players who are reasonably capable ( either at dps, providing utility, whatever they’ve taken as their role within the group) then they are fun.

I have no problem with, and usually enjoy training people, but only if they have both the capacity and willingness to improve. But there is a time and a place for it.

Yeah, I would say this is subjective.

I never found them hard, but I also never found them fun. I absolutely hate that they abandoned all dungeon content (and nerfed them) and decided that fractals (and later raids) was the way to go. In fact, fractals are the reason I stopped playing during the entirety of living season 1 because I just hated that was the direction they were taking the game.

A lot more difficult? O_o

The only changes I am aware of made them easier …

If you find fractals hard… lower tiers exist for you for a reason.

If that for some reason doesn’t cut it then, i do not know what to tell you as most of the changes to fractals removed the annoyance and made them easier to do.

You DO have enough AR right?

There are also the fractal potions if you want to make it them easier.

I found tier 2 and 3 difficult, but now I’m on t4 I realise the fractals weren’t difficult, the people I was playing with made it difficult. I actually find t4 easier than t3 purely because most people in t4 know what they are doing.

Fractals are easy when; the group is dps min/maxed, using food and potions, has a sensible comp, knows the mechanics, and, keeps breakbars broken.

When you are dps min/maxed you can breakbar and push most bosses into their next phase with one good dps rotation.

For example trying to kill the slime in the reactor is an absolute joke when your team isn’t dps min/maxed, when you are however you can one shot him before he has a chance heal.

When I join a group I’ll aim to join one that already has a few players in it preferably being something like mesmer, druid, warrior, x ele’s. Fractals are also a lot easier with perma quickness, alacrity, boons for days, power/precision buffs, and 40k dps from 2x ele’s with heals.

I try to avoid any comp with a theif or necro purely because they offer little to zero support compared to any other class.

Itz Jay.8941:

I found tier 2 and 3 difficult, but now I’m on t4 I realise the fractals weren’t difficult, the people I was playing with made it difficult. I actually find t4 easier than t3 purely because most people in t4 know what they are doing.

Fractals are easy when; the group is dps min/maxed, using food and potions, has a sensible comp, knows the mechanics, and, keeps breakbars broken.

When you are dps min/maxed you can breakbar and push most bosses into their next phase with one good dps rotation.

For example trying to kill the slime in the reactor is an absolute joke when your team isn’t dps min/maxed, when you are however you can one shot him before he has a chance heal.

When I join a group I’ll aim to join one that already has a few players in it preferably being something like mesmer, druid, warrior, x ele’s. Fractals are also a lot easier with perma quickness, alacrity, boons for days, power/precision buffs, and 40k dps from 2x ele’s with heals.

I try to avoid any comp with a theif or necro purely because they offer little to zero support compared to any other class.

Exactly. It’s rare to find groups like this om lfg though, many are still stuck on 4 necros 1 druid meta that takes an eternity to clear the 3 dailies and are complete garbage on 100 CM.

But playing with the right comp feels good, doing things smoothly and fast just feels right.

Itz Jay.8941:

I try to avoid any comp with a theif or necro purely because they offer little to zero support compared to any other class.

Although I wholeheartedly agree with the rest of your post, in my experience it’s usually not the thieves that cause problems. Daredevils are top dps, the problem is again people, not the class. If you see a Chronomancer in the group, he better knows his role and has the very expensive setup, but you cannot know that by looking at the LFG.

I played enough fractals now (just started maybe 2 months ago) to see if a Mesmer or Elementalist is increasing my dps or if they do their 2k per second without contributing anything else (note, thief can do 14k to 18k). Also, with switching members when you do a few fractals in a row, you see if the former player sucked or not. It’s true that you need to take care of your thieves in the group more than of other classes because as we all know, dead dps is no dps.

But that’s the nature of the class. I often feel that even though I didn’t do any damage while downed, the damage I dealt before makes up for that down time more than enough compared to constant 2k dps. The more reliable dps will take long enough to experience enraged stances at bosses, and the risk of a wipe increases with it. If I have two dead members and have to choose whom to resurrect first, I usually choose dps.

On the topic: I don’t know how fractals were before, and I find most of them fun. The only thing that bothers me is that it’s hard to predict how much time you need for one because it heavily depends on the group. For Underground Facility at higher tiers, it’s easily possible that you need 30 to 40 minutes with a pug. If you get wiped, it’s even worse because some people lack the grit to start over. Last week I did Mai Trin at 73 and we got wiped 3 or 4 times. After the first wipe, 3 members just left the group without comment. With the new members we got wiped 2 or 3 more times I think, but we kept going (Mai Trin at 25% was our crux). That was a fun experience because we made it. We were not fractal grandmasters, but we stayed and finished it, so I thanked them for the good team, not being sarcastic.

I think if you could better predict how much time you need for a fractal, LFG would have more groups advertising. Sometimes you only have 20 minutes, and if you have bad luck with the group, even Urban Battleground level 1 can take longer (if you decide to resurrect people instead of just keep going). In that time you can do the Escort part of Stronghold of the Faithful raid for better rewards.

They used to be the most challenging content in the game. But ever since raid was released, it’s no longer hard for me. Because raiding has improved my gameplay drastically… and forced me to go beyond what I thought I was only capable of doing.

If you find it difficult, consider being a healer with clerics gear. I always use my druid when doing cliffside, volcanic etc. It makes things go faster, and nobody dies.

(Some groups on lfg will not want a healer because they think having 5 DPS will make things go faster… but in my opinion, having 1 healer is faster because people can worry less about dodging or ranging to stay alive).

Samnang.1879:

They used to be the most challenging content in the game. But ever since raid was released, it’s no longer hard for me. Because raiding has improved my gameplay drastically… and forced me to go beyond what I thought I was only capable of doing.

If you find it difficult, consider being a healer with clerics gear. I always use my druid when doing cliffside, volcanic etc. It makes things go faster, and nobody dies.

(Some groups on lfg will not want a healer because they think having 5 DPS will make things go faster… but in my opinion, having 1 healer is faster because people can worry less about dodging or ranging to stay alive).

You’re completely right. I always prefer to be in a “proper power comp” for T4 and 100 CM. It’s not that it’s necessary, but it makes the experience so much smoother.

If you run fractals once per month, then you can find them fun. But no, for me they are as boring as dungeons. I like the new swamp boss and nightmare, but soon they will join the rest.