Disclaimer: I wrote this (more or less) exhaustive guide on how to optimally prepare for raids for one of my trainingsgroups and thought I'd share it with the rest of the community aswell. This thing is by no means a:
- Boss Guide
- Gear guide
- Behavioral guide.
It is however:
- A guide on where to find the most important information
- A general overview over class compositions and class selection
- A guide on how to set up ArcDPS
- A guide on how to correctly use the Special Forces training area
This guide is aimed at completely new players and will not hold much value for advanced players. Read at your own discretion.
So you want to get into raids and have no idea where to start between all the 3k, LI, LD, TC and PTSD. Frankly I'm not surprised, the raid scene can be.. Iffy to get into. So here are a few recommendations to where and how to start with your character, the tools and the bosses.
The most important links:
This is not a boss guide, for those the almighty Dulfy (May their website rest in peace) has the answers. http://dulfy.net/category/gw2/raid-guides/ has guides on (currently) all available raid bosses with comprehensive overviews on mechanics, strategies and useful screenshots on when to stand where. Same goes for Tekkit who did the same in video form with updated strategies as u/NEM3S1S/ pointed out that Dulfys guides are outdated when it comes to strategies.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgsiP5N-KYybRJNy1mlDDoOTpAws0LH0v
What neither Dulfy nor Tekkit go over however is builds. For those pay https://snowcrows.com/benchmarks/ a visit. SnowCrows are the authority over class setups and people will expect you to either play one of their builds or a comparable variant.
Classes and roles
So you've at least opened the website, scrolled down the list of classes and are now looking at your screen with a twitching eye and a funny feeling in your throat. That is part of becoming a raider, that feeling will become a cozy feeling of pride when you finally understand why the hell you are supposed to press this button before this other button and get closer to getting the maximum out of your class of choice. Let's go over the basics of class selections, it would be crucial to leave you alone with a selection of thirty something builds and hope for the best.
First of all, the DPS classes. With the exception of the Banner Warrior all of the classes listed on 'benchmarks' are DPS specs. While all of them are perfectly viable though, not all classes are created equal. All of them have strength and weaknesses, bosses they shine on and bosses that make you roll your eyes and sigh in frustration. These benchmarks are done on a golem in a vacuum, not on a boss. More on that later.
Let's start with basic party composition. You want to know which role you want to play in the raid when choosing a class to cater to your playstyle, don't you? Every party needs a source of boons, a source of healing and a source of damage. A raid squad consists of two parties so we will assume these three parts to be in every party (Which most players refer to as subgroup or sub).
Boons:
Options: Chronomancer or Quickness Firebrand(Quickbrand or Qb) and Alacrity Renegade (Alacrigade or Aren) or Boonthief (beef)
Job: Keeping up a steady supply of Quickness and alacrity, aswell as aegis or stability for mechanics. Mostly the tank.
A chrono can upkeep boons in it's subgroup on it's own thanks to the interaction between wells and signets. On top of that it brings utility unique to mesmer to the table: Portals, huge amounts of CC, pulls, and good survivability even on a glassy build. It also allows the Firebrigade to run more offensive builds by making up for their shortage in boon duration if necessary. The chronomancer has by far the biggest gear flexibility in game, ranging from moderate DPS to nigh unkillable tank. And you will be the tank.
So why would we run a Firebrigade (Which is the name for the Quickbrand/Alacrigade combination)? Besides sharing the responsibility of boon sharing the Firebrigade opens up the party composition thanks to their unique flexibility.
The renegade is a walking toolbox, allowing the chronomancer to drop their alacrity well in favor for another utility skill (eg. Reflects), beeing a massive help with CC and bringing huge offensive buffs to the fight that can turn the tide of a lost battle. Did I mention that they come with a heal and a damage variant? A good Diviner's renegade brings all the mentioned things to the fight while almost beeing comparable to a DPS spec when looking at raw damage. Almost beeing about half of a dedicated, well executed DPS class.
Now the alacrigade is already impressive, isn't it? It gets complimented perfectly by it's counterpart. While not boasting as much CC or offensive buffs as the alacrigade, the Quickbrand provides the party with consistent quickness, aegis, fury and stability.A good quickbrand is making the run smooth for the entire party by preventing CC on their teammates and bringing huge amounts of damage to the table. Yes, even more than the alacrigade. Yes, you occasional outDPS people. The quickbrand also comes in a power, condi and heal variant. This flexibility allows it to act as a parties healer or as DPS support for either damage types.
Now lastly the boon thief is a niche pick. Only viable on six bosses and played on four in the game it provides every buff in the game with the exeption of alacrity permanently to the entire squad, making it beyond potent. The boonthief allows the group to run two more DPS classes which can speed up the encounter dramatically.
You see that a firebrigade can't replace a chrono but work excellently alongside it. Optimally you want a chronomancer and a firebrigade or two chronomancers.
Healers:
Options: Druid AND Scourge (Heal Scourge or HSc), Firebrand (Healbrand or HFB), Tempest
Now, the druid is mandatory. It's ability to stack 25 stacks of might combined with the utility from spirits, ranger pets, offensive buffs and a wide range of boons aswell as decent CC and a large amount of healing makes it the true king of healers. You want one of these in each squad. However, one of them is enough. Stacking druids is overkill. Think of it as a jack-of-all-trades that gets complimented with barriers, boons or better healing respectively.
The Heal Scourge is a double edged blade. It's effectiveness is indisputable. Scourge is able to stack barriers worth of 50% of the parties HP while having enough ressurection power to get an entire party back from the brink of a guaranteed wipe. It's CC and condi cleanse are decent aswell, making it literally unkillable and, in the hands of a skilled player with great knowledge of the encounters and class, a power that literally denies the wipe to the party, hard carrying it to a guaranteed clear. You see why the criticism is loud, especially in trainingsraids.
The Firebrand is a similar beast. It packs amazing burst heals and condi cleanses, aegis and stability enough for two squads, group wide panic buttons and a skill for every situation oyu might find yourself in. You face tanked an attack and got twenty stacks of torment, bleeding and confusion on you? Your Healbrand has you covered. Dies in the middle of the bosses projectile spam? I'm sure your Firebrand has a reflect somewhere. Can't reflect? An absorb it is then. If worse comes to worst it will facetank the attack, rez you and live. Unlike the Scourge which is the bulldozer pushing the group around in front of it, the Healbrand packs the group in cotton to block out the agonized screaming of the boss until it eventually subsides.
Tempest, oh sweet tempest. It is the undisputed queen of healing. When it comes to pure, raw healing power, the tempest is your class of choice. The combination of constant healing and the utility of shouts makes the group impervious to the next deadly hit while healing any condition or damage they might have sumbled into. It also brings decent flexibility to the table, allowing it to suit the parties needs on the spot.
The Bannerslave (BS): Huh, what's that? Walking DPS buffs and CC on top of DPS and the guy doing all the work in the team project.. uuuh the mechanics. The BS is a power or condi warrior who is running banners as a raidwide DPS increase. You definetly want one of these.
Now we know what all the players on the lower end of the DPS meter are doing with their time. Let's get into the people who do the actual 'killing' on the boss. I will not go into detail here since, as I mentioned every DPS class is viable.The most important thing is that the bosses favor either power or condition damage. Thus: You want both. That boss that attacks a lot but dashes around like a cow in a monsoon? Favors condition damage, you're not gonna hit it a lot of the time and if you do you'll probably not be at max HP and max boons because your supports are chasing after the boss just like you.
That boss having constant phases where it shrugs off conditions and makes you break your rotation for CC constantly? Power boss. Power doesn't have to restack conditions and will thus likely be more effective.
If you want to know which classes are good on which boss, you can always check SnowCrows. Click on a boss and you see the best DPS classes with actual boss benchmarks aswell as a party composition that is highly unlikely in pugs. If you look at the actual class you are interested in it will show you which bosses favor that class and which don't.
That boss that is a literal statue not really doing anything? Both works but generally in favor of conditions due to long DPS windows. SnowCrows even provides us with an overview, which classes are good on which bosses and how much damage you can expect. Keep in mind that they are not playing pug compositions so take these with a grain of salt.
https://preview.redd.it/93hchyelmgm41.png?width=764&format=png&auto=webp&s=7e000e32c3650f47fc41ccd84cb5296145b888d6
As a rule of thumb: Choose power for burst, conditions for continuous damage and Guardian for both.
Speaking of Guardian. If you don't know what to play, bring a guard. Dragonhunter is one of the best Power classes, meta on a lot of bosses and easy to gear and learn. Condition Firebrand is one of the best condi classes, meta on even more bosses and slightly harder to learn.
However. Knowing your class is more important than playing the meta class. The difference between meta and non meta are those two thousand damage you never reach on an actual encounter anyway. So while Guardian gives you a massive boost you might not need a boost if you are already very experienced on reaper and scourge. See what strikes your fancy and see what you already have an interest, gear or a vague idea for. A class that is fun to play to you is much much more valuable to your squad than a class you are playing because someone told you to. Play what's fun, learn what's fun, then branch out, find that the other classes are less fun and onetrick your classes for all eternity or find another one that is fun and play it. Even the supports can be fun. I promise.
So what does a raid squad look like?
Chrono, Druid, DPS DPS, DPS
Quickbrand, BS, Alacrigade, second healer/DPS, DPS
You can always substitute the second healer with a heal quickbrand. If you don't have a heal quickbrand a scourge or tempest will always do the job.
Note that this is just the basic setup based on the points mentioned. Some classes rely on a Ranger buff called "spotter" to hit their crit cap for instance, which might influence the subgroups to grant them the buffs they need.
The elephant in the room: ArcDPS. What it is.. I've been talking an awful lot about damage types, boons, numbers and bosses for someone playing a game without a DPS meter, haven't I? This is because there is a third party DPS tool called arcDPS doing just that. It shows you every damage number you could possibly want from the over all boss damage down to each individual skill and how much damage it dealt. For each squad member. After the run you can also upload the run to dps.report and check boon uptimes, rotations and even watch a replay to watch your positioning. This tool is allowed by arenanet until there is an official gw2 DPS meter by anet themselves and do not validate Terms of Service as long as you're not a Jerk about it. I have never heard of anyone getting banned for using this.
There are debates about whether or not Arc has a spot in the gw2 raid scene. Popular arguments are Elitism and discrimination of people dealing subpar damage.Which.. is valid. Beeing kicked out of a group because of bad DPS or boons sucks but at the end that only indicates a lack of practice. And not every group wants to be your trainings run. Practice your rotations on the golem so you have an idea of what you are doing, have a look at boss mechanics and mechanics you might have to play. The most important thing is to see Arc as what it is – A tool. You are a new DPS and want to track your improvement on a specific boss over the weeks? Arc can provide you with the feedback you need. You want to learn a new class on the golem and check if you understood the rotation? Again, Arc is your friend. You want to flame other people for their DPS? Please don't. Not saying anything is more productive than flaming. If you have valid criticism, arc can be a tool to find the root of an issue. The DPS might have underperformed because it's boons were low. The boons might have been low because the chrono was backing up a mechanic. Think things through, low group DPS is rarely the fault of everyone but you.
How do I set arc DPS up? https://www.deltaconnected.com/arcdps/x64/(https://www.deltaconnected.com/arcdps/x64/)YouYou) download the d3d9.dll file from this folder and put it into your gw2 bin64 folder. you have to repeat this process after every major patch If you launch your game now, alt + shift + t opens this window.
https://preview.redd.it/ja8ah1tqjgm41.png?width=160&format=png&auto=webp&s=2522fc350deb1b821bc9caf9f243ddb8d5dfb75a
First of all click on logging and tell the tool to save EVTC logs after the encounter. This will allow you to upload your runs later on.
https://preview.redd.it/2cih45nwkgm41.png?width=456&format=png&auto=webp&s=3f8a6bf238c8ee655620c21c291d8dd6a42c25bc
I recommend giving it some system, in my case I tell it to save the NPC (boss) name and the player character (my character name) which you can do by ticking the corresponding boxes.
In your folder it will look like this. Once you finish your first encounter your files will be saved at the path shown.
https://preview.redd.it/sm2tm4ybkgm41.png?width=1373&format=png&auto=webp&s=44ed88c7847e832ed1c065b7d1770a4f2a3a58f4
You now want to click on Area stats, pulling open a window recording the damage of your entire party.
https://preview.redd.it/bu2ojnxhkgm41.png?width=402&format=png&auto=webp&s=6391f78944d678b689458cbebbcde09b5f32e120
Hovering over sort advanced opens a window that allows you to filter for.. well advanced stats. You can play with those if you wish, the standard setting for normal DPS shown is "none".
https://preview.redd.it/c9grmzd4kgm41.png?width=666&format=png&auto=webp&s=a70d23daa60c9cc2729799af666bae92c17e787f
The more important stat we find under Display though. Hovering over stats format shows us hich stats correspond to which number
My setup here would be cleave damage total, target TPS [cleave DPS, percentage in squad]. You can copy those if you want or create your own, I recommend having at least target DPS shown though as it is the most important stat.
Draw bars stats will colour code the professions (light blue), index numbers will number the players*, making it easy to see when you're 9 people instead of 10 and profession will show you which spec is played (Fbd – Firebrand).
https://preview.redd.it/sle1xay0lgm41.png?width=793&format=png&auto=webp&s=5e28d7d73147dd79439785f7c8b34dff361239fa
This is it, arc is now fully set up. But how do I upload files?
The website kind of explains itself. You drag the file from your arc dps folder (documents, not gw2!) into the website, it does its thing and spite a link out, like the ones shown under "Previous uploads". You can copy them and send them to whomstever you want to now.
https://preview.redd.it/kx95w2z3lgm41.png?width=698&format=png&auto=webp&s=b4d4531290abd93b40f6accdec3245d14cacaa74
If you open them, you find an overview of everyones DPS. You can filter by phase by navigating the bar on the upper side of the screen, aswell as highlight players by clicking on their icon.
https://preview.redd.it/174yc5bclgm41.png?width=1276&format=png&auto=webp&s=35446af9df8979e0bb11d7487bdb6cb0cd54ab21
Clicking on buffs shows you just that. General uptimes, aswell as who generated how much by clicking on generation group or generation squad.
https://preview.redd.it/zsgp21ijlgm41.png?width=1229&format=png&auto=webp&s=7ad59059ad61a89061352e57e2cec1d91e5458d8
The last major things (and there is a billion tiny ones, it's a fun tool to play around with) are player rotation and player mechanics. Navigating to one of the player icons and player summary – simple rotation shows you which buttons the player what pressing and even which ones were cancelled. Utilities sadly excluded.
https://preview.redd.it/tabx863plgm41.png?width=1270&format=png&auto=webp&s=e35e5f64458a5064c8e81f7a1877135937eff4e4
You can even see which mechanics were failed by navigating to the mechanics tab.
In this run I really liked tanking a mechanic called "tantrum" which might have been an issue in a different run. Figuring out which mechanic is which can be a bit tricky but is usually only a thing of thinking about it for a few seconds. This boss throws his arms on the ground and makes a crying sound while refusing to move. Clearly throwing a tantrum.
https://preview.redd.it/y327f7rqlgm41.png?width=1390&format=png&auto=webp&s=6ce661ade54a985a760fb5a6ef05194e80b4a72d
Okay, we've made it so far. Only one part left. We geared a class, we set arc DPS up and we need a place to practice. For that we go to the Aerodrome south of the fractal waypoint in Lion's Arch. Next to the bank is a portal leading to the special forces training area. You need to crate a squad for that, just press P and click create squad and you're good to go.
https://preview.redd.it/gpt8zblulgm41.png?width=345&format=png&auto=webp&s=68838e4df8a3221d2a394d9c82aaedfb3a5c9dcf
After the loading screen you find yourself in your new home. Follow the path to the asuran console.
https://preview.redd.it/ypedqvnwlgm41.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=01cbdf246ee2280a76e2be5a3970fdb188629d94
These are the current boons ran on the golem for a controlled test environment.
The console itself will ask you if you want to apply boons, you simply follow it's instructions and apply the boons needed.
https://preview.redd.it/e7151wuzlgm41.png?width=758&format=png&auto=webp&s=9234202c7e68cab670863d97b66e49775da659e5
To the left you find the golem spawner. You should train on a huge hitbox with 4.000.000 HP and all of the conditions.
From there on you can always despawn the golem if you want to reset arc DPS and get training.
https://preview.redd.it/8yd3dgw1mgm41.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=94a8f72b6db1b14b47c2a555e0af789ba26da0b9
This is everything you need to know getting into raids. With all of this you will be more than prepared for gw2 raids and I welcome you to the raid scene, commander.
A list of abbreviations - The raid terminology cheat sheet:
Commands:
cc- Crowd Control [Hard CC: knockbacks, stuns, etc; Soft CC: blind, chills, slows]
clear - killing orbs, ads, shards etc.
ads - (ad)ditional mobs the boss spawns
g2/g3 (exept Dhuum, Eater of Souls) - (sub)group 2/ (sub)group 3
stack - standing on the commander tag
Items:
LI – Legendary Insights, one obtained per week per boss in W1-4, used as indication of general experience
LD – Legendary Divinations, one obtained per week per boss in W5-7, used as indication of general experience
KP – Kill proof, boss specific guild decorations, used as indication of experience on a specific boss
Wing specifics:
Wing 2 -W2
(On Matthias): FB – Feedback
Wing 3 -W3
BW – Backwarg
Tower (chrono)/cave – The chrono doing portals
Wing 4 -W4
MO – Mursaat Overseer
HK – Hand Kite
BK – Black Kite
Wing 5 -W5
g1 / g2 / g3– green 1,2,3
SS – Soul Split
Enf – Enforcer
Skills:
SyG – Stand your Ground, Guardian shout
FmW - Feel my wrath, Guardian shout
Epi – Epidemic
Moa/grav – Moa Signet/Gravity well
![F99 Challenge Mote Siax Solo | Firebrand [6:46]](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/yZgpIm6nChFo3HVX9-b3Eef52biFmQZpRW-8GwEJcYw.jpg "F99 Challenge Mote Siax Solo | Firebrand [6:46]")
![[Art] Concept art of "The third expansion" remade and animated in Wallpaper engine](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/NqPNHamLXpa4AXqeRwa1cfd-B9bjFxISOmt7EWltDEc.jpg "[Art] Concept art of \"The third expansion\" remade and animated in Wallpaper engine")
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