Guild Wars 2

I’ve just come back to the game after being gone for about 2 years. I’ve got the elite specializations totally unlocked on my Ranger and Revenant now, and most of the important masteries unlocked.

I’d like to experience the raid, but none of the people I play with currently are into raiding.

How can I go about getting into a newb-friendly raid group?

Perhaps look for guilds that are friendly towards those new to raids and willing to help.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/4y70rr/how_to_start_raiding_this_far_down_the_line/

Similar question, bunch of good responses.

I’ve always been active in GW2, got everything Ascended and all that jazz but never bothered with Raids.
If I were you I’d look at something else, Raids are nothing but a couple of hours of screaming with 9 other monkeys, I know this because my brother has a guild that Raids, or tries to.

Total waste of time, you didn’t find it curious that you cannot find anything in the LFG regarding Raids?
Unlike the popular opinion in these forums, where people swear hands on heart Raids are the best thing since the wheel and the community is strong, the truth is they’re nowhere to be found.
If you’re lucky you might stumble across a newly created guild trying to do some Raids, which is gonna be full of people that cannot keep themselves alive and blame everyone else for their shortcomings, these disband in a few weeks.

So like I said, I’ve never bother with it since day one, and I’m not saying you should do the same or anything… But you should do the same.

Sadly, I have to agree with Dean above me.

I too am pretty much maxed in terms of gear, Ascended, 150 AR, you name it, however, I can’t get into a single raid, because they either 1) Require you to have a ton of LI (which, guess what, requires you to have done tons of raids already), or 2) Ask you to pay for them to let you join. Yes, that’s right. Selling raids at the moment is probably the most profitable ‘exploit’, with prices ranging up to 150G per boss kill (keep in mind, this isn’t even the full run, not even close).

Raids as it stands at this moment, as far as I can judge from LFG/map chat in the raid area is either, requiring you to have tons of experience in those raids already, hopefully finding a Guild that hasn’t yet experienced a lot of it and is forming complete beginner-raids, or being strong-armed into paying off others.

Hickeroar.9734:

I’ve just come back to the game after being gone for about 2 years. I’ve got the elite specializations totally unlocked on my Ranger and Revenant now, and most of the important masteries unlocked.

I’d like to experience the raid, but none of the people I play with currently are into raiding.

How can I go about getting into a newb-friendly raid group?

Hi Hickeroar! Best thing I can tell you to do is to find a guild that does training runs or is looking to expand raid rosters and is noob friendly, otherwise if you are like me and play at weird times you can always LFG or start your own group. Some places that might help you get started are:

-ELRP (New Raider Discord LFG) → https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/lookingfor/ELRP-Raids-for-everyone
-The Kinghts of Jade [tkoj] →https://www.reddit.com/r/guildrecruitment/comments/4yikmi/gw2napve_the_knights_of_jade_tkoj_are_looking_for/
-Smart People Kill Dragons [SPKD] → http://spkd.enjin.com/
-Raiders of the Lost Guild → https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/lookingfor/NA-Raiders-of-the-Lost-Guild-is-open
-We Fight Together [ONE] (these guys are EU) → https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/lookingfor/EU-ONE-We-Fight-Together-teaching-raids/first#post6137651

You can also check out the following as good resources for other guilds:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/4pe4jy/can_we_get_a_directory_of_guilds_that_teach_raids/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/4y70rr/how_to_start_raiding_this_far_down_the_line/
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/lookingfor

Most groups will require you to have access and use either Discord or TS for communications. As long as you are open and up font about being new when you join/make/request a group you should have no problem finding a static

Some salty responses here. Personally I hopped into ‘Looking For’ found a guild that was offering invites to people interested in learning raids. Joined up, was carried through a couple of them once or twice and then I started PUGing in the non-LI required groups. So far I’ve been able to get most of my lockouts on wing1 and 2 the last few weeks (This week I got lucky and asked to sub for a static group which left me with not much to pug ). And even if I miss a lockout on a boss that I could potentially get down, I still hit the shard cap which is nice, I love how they give you shards on a solid attempt.

Anyways, those two salty posts, ehh they might have some truth in them, but they’re only fully true if you give up like they did. Plenty of others put their heads down and got things done.

You’re making the wrong assumption that either of us gave up Jerus. And salty, I’m sorry not everyone only highlights the good parts about the game, but rather speaks from experience about the current state. Have you opened a Forsaken Thicket LFG lately?

To dismiss the current issues with a simple ’it’s only true if you give up’ is a completely ignorant [and potentially dangerous] stance towards those current problems.

Like we both said, yes it is possible to do raids, and get a noob-friendly PUG, or a Guild that may or may not take you into their roster if they are doing raids that week. However, there are plenty of examples out there why raiding and getting a group as it is right now is a sour process.

For example, I’ve been LFGing for 8 hours today. Joined a random PUG once, things were off, people started raging at the healer, then the tank, as per usual. People ragequit, other people hang on, try to get new people to join, didn’t work, I left for dinner after. So don’t “assume” people give up without having any confirmation, and do not dismiss issues as, oh yeah you didn’t try hard enough.

Hey I love salt, I’m quite sodium rich myself a lot of the time (didn’t meant it as an insult, but more just calling it the blunt, pessimistic post that I saw it as).

And, I haven’t pugged much this week as I finished the lockouts I feel comfortable doing in LFG (no Mathias/KC/Xera, the latter two I haven’t even completed with groups willing to teach me yet though).

Honestly though, maybe it’s a time zone thing? Like, I wouldn’t start pugging until after Reset (I don’t get home from work until then) and I’ve had pretty good luck. Sure last reset night I pugged I ended up hitting like 100 shards and all I got was 1 VG kill, but then the next night I got Gors and Sloth done, and by the end of the week between pugs, and a training run I ended up getting Sab, Trio and Matthias as well.

So again I’ve been able to get most of my lockouts done the last few weeks through PUGs, training runs, and subbing in for missing players in static groups. I do end up wiping far more often than get successful kills, but I go in with that expectation.

It can be tough and grueling at times, but it’s possible, and overall I find it fun. And, only a couple of the groups I’ve been in have had anyone even raise their voice, it’s usually pretty calm and civil and people make adjustments to fix mistakes.

So, I’ve decided to come back after doing a couple of raids now myself, and I can give some tips to make getting into a raid easier for fellow players that seem to struggle finding one.

First off, it should always be without question that even if you never done these things before, you at least read into it, and/or watch a videoguide. This will help you greatly by being an actual asset to your team, and you won’t stick out like a sore thumb when you don’t seem to know what to do. Moving on, get familiar with the abbreviations used, you can check out the GW2Wiki for an overview and figure out a couple by yourself. Again, seeming to know this, will make you come across as someone who is clearly experienced.

Okay, so let’s assume you got the basic knowledge. You’re trying to get into a group, however you notice every LFG has li+a number in their description. This stands for Legendary Insight and is basically an item you get after killing a boss, and serves as ‘killproof’. As you join a LFG, they will usually ask you to link it. Now, there are two ways to get around this. The first one, is to be the LFG starter yourself. I’ve yet to encounter a PUG raid where people actually asked the group starter for killproof. To do this you will have to know valid group compositions for what you are attempting to tackle, of course. A second way is to go to Google, and look up GW2 chat code generators. Insert the Item Code for Legendary Insight, insert a number (take a random one and not the bare minimum as that will be too coincidental). Always try the Item Code out in chat yourself first, preferably in a solo Guild chat. If it works, keep it on copy/paste, and just fake it until you make it.

Do maintain some responsibility tho, and keep in mind that if you decide to ‘cheese’ it this way, you do have a basic understanding of what you are talking about and doing.

Raids can be fun, I can’t disagree with that. Hell in terms of PvE content it’s probably the only content I even consider at least a kittenallenging, which is a nice change and probably the only reason why I’m doing some PvE besides WvW now. I’m not sure Jerus if you are an NA or EU player, but on EU there seems to be a serious lack in PUG training raids. Only two or three Guilds come to mind that recruit/advertise with raiding for beginners and that actually live up to this. I’ve seen a bunch of Guilds that use raiding in their recruitment messages that do not have the amount of active players to back up those claims.

All in all, the PvE content is good, but the current lack or disinterest to teach/take newer people make raids for a lot of ‘solo’ players that don’t have a static, a once-and-never-again experience.

Fun story, although a lot of static groups aren’t willing o teach new people, chances are huge that they’ll ask you again if you fake your way in and come across as an experienced raider. This is because static raid groups are usually in dire need for experienced players, in general there really aren’t that many around. We’ve cleared Wing 1, without a single death/wipe, save a couple of downs, and I’ve been getting whispers ever since if I’m up to do some more. So if you happen to get into a group, and just do your best, and it works, you might have found yourself a static fairly quick.

Thanks for all the great replies. Sorry for my belated response. :-P

I’ll take all this into account and probably end up doing the raids for the experience and exploration of it, but I won’t take it too badly if things don’t go well. I’ll just keep an eye out in the LFG tool for people teaching people.