Guild Wars 2

me and 2 rls have been trying to run fractals with 2 d/d sb thieves, and a p/p sb thief, all running similar builds (0/30/30/10/0), but around dif lvl 15 we are noticing this isn’t an ideal setup to run fracts with 3 thieves and are having more and more frequent 2-3 hour long fractal runs.

i’ve heard a lot of mixed opinions about this from just my server, so i just want to know for real what is the best group comp for getting up to dif lvl 30 fractals?

fyi, i have convinced two of the friends to switch to warriors, but i am debating if i should switch to mesmer, or delete my guardian’s wvw infusion (which i do not look forward to doing), or just stick with a my thief, since i am pretty good with it.

but what do you all think? help please.

I think the problem are not the three thieves. I think the problem is how you play them., in fractals you have to change your weapons very often. Daggers do a lots of damage but they are singletarget so they are not good for mobgroups and so on. What about just say what the problems are. So we can say what you can do and what you need.

A group composition like 2 guard, 1 warrior, 1 ranger, 1 ele would probably work nicely in high level fractals. All melee of course.

If you want a lazy faceroll composition, 2 guard 3 warrior.

Just add a guardian or mesmer to your 3 thieves, and it should be fine.

The reflections are really usefull in some fractals.

Also, if you have trouble surviving, you can try letting an ele/engi/guardian/mesmer run a support build.

• Engi can keep perma weakness and 25 vulnerability up, and has alot of blast finishers
• Ele can support in their notmal damage rotation, so they dont have to sacrifice much. Also has a projectile protection in a big aoe.
• Guarfian has alot of heals and protection/stability, I think. Also alot of projectile reflection.
• Mesmer has the best acces to boons (except stability and protrction), but can also keep 100% projectile reflection uptime without sacrificjg damage. (Heals and boons sacrifice damage).

thanks so far :-) if there are any other suggestions someone can add, feel free. with this much info i feel more inclined to put my mesmer as my fractal runner so far, but i am wondering if crit dmg is required to be completely useful, or is full PTV that i have on sufficient enough?

Full PTV is terrible, you might as well not even be in the party.

Just go full berserker.

Go full berserker armor and weapons, knight trinkets.

You van use rare trinkets, because youll be replacing them with berserker/knight/cavalier ascended at some point.

If you dont have much money available, you van start with rare berserker armor too, and later you can decide how much exotic berserker and knight you want.

I would avoid taking vitality, its rather useless imo.

I personally use berserker helm/shoulder/coat/skirt for dps use in all formats, and switch them with berserker/cavalier/knight trinkets. (But berserker in easy dungeons).

i’m skeptical about colesy’s suggestion, i mean, if my thief who is not even full berserker is having problems surviving at fractal 15, then how am i gonna take a mesmer to 30?

if glassier builds is the way to go though, i do have a staff ele that i am decent at using, though i messed up my build a long time ago, it being my first character, i have an ascended PTV ring that i am too stubborn to delete, lol… otherwise everything except for my back is berserker. would i have better chances getting to fractal 30 on a staff ele?

Utomneian.9013:

i’m skeptical about colesy’s suggestion, i mean, if my thief who is not even full berserker is having problems surviving at fractal 15, then how am i gonna take a mesmer to 30?

if glassier builds is the way to go though, i do have a staff ele that i am decent at using, though i messed up my build a long time ago, it being my first character, i have an ascended PTV ring that i am too stubborn to delete, lol… otherwise everything except for my back is berserker. would i have better chances getting to fractal 30 on a staff ele?

That’s the point. The higher you climb in Fractals, the less Toughness and Vitality matter, as ironic as it sounds. By then, survivability is all in tactics, movements and defensive skills.

Three thieves in a fractal party is fine – not ideal, but doable. Like any other profession going into higher-level fractals, though, you’ll each need to learn your classes thoroughly and understand where to use which skills. Being able to answer questions like “What slot skills to bring into the Old Tom encounter?” is what determines success from failure.

oh okays, so in pve survival stats isn’t important, just the abilities and tactics. with this all in mind, my one friend is borderline mentally challenged (i’m seriously not even joking) and plays left handed, doesn’t even have his hand on the mouse 95% of the time, is it safe to say he will never get to fractal 20? lol…

with all this in mind, i think i want to use my elementalist, even though i am wary about being so squishy, i have done wonders with my ele, at least in wvw, soloing thieves and warriors and once even a mesmer, with me having only 2 K armor and 15 K health. i would say i am probably the best use with either my thief or ele overall on my account compared to my mesmer, in fact, i couldn’t even solo to 80 on my mesmer, i had to craft and piggy back dungeons.

so now the better question i should be asking, do you have any elementalist advice for fractals? aside from obvious things like coordinate water fields and blast finishers. aside from having mist form for emergencies, i currently run a sort of glyph build for normal dungeons on my ele, glyph heal, revive glyph, and depending on what is asked of me, i either run one or both elemental summon glyph spells, or i have ice bow and or fire gs. i have never had people complain about me in AC or CoF, though those are childs play compared to FotM of course, so is my setup still viable for (most) fractals? and any tips you can offer?

Utomneian.9013:

i’m skeptical about colesy’s suggestion, i mean, if my thief who is not even full berserker is having problems surviving at fractal 15, then how am i gonna take a mesmer to 30?

if glassier builds is the way to go though, i do have a staff ele that i am decent at using, though i messed up my build a long time ago, it being my first character, i have an ascended PTV ring that i am too stubborn to delete, lol… otherwise everything except for my back is berserker. would i have better chances getting to fractal 30 on a staff ele?

Colesy cares about doing everything as fast and efficiently as possible, if youre not interested in that, feel fred to ignore him because thats all he can do.

Surviving comes first.

Oh, nice.

I can do that too.

“Alissah is more interested in being a carebear and suggesting inefficient builds, if you’re interested in actually playing well, feel free to ignore her because that’s all she can do”.

Surviving is perfectly possible in zerker, it just requires paying attention.

Just run your fractals, OP, with more of the very elusive and often maligned class: “The Skilled Player”

Guardian, guardian, guardian. They are pretty critical when it comes to smooth runs. You don’t NEED a guardian, but they make it a lot better (IMO).

Having one mesmer helps out a lot. However, 2 mesmers is usually unnecessary.