New to Fractals?

Alright so I want to get into doing fractals as I have never really looked at them much before. I was wondering if anyone has any specific tips to a player new to fractals and any certain gear I should be getting? Like I saw I should get infusions with agony resistance but I don't know how to get them

One of the golem merchants in the fractal convert your +1 to higher grade infusions, you can even buy the stat ones in another tab.If you got enough money you can just buy the infusions of the tp and do higher level daily,But I would advise you to start t1 or t2 and learn the mechanics.

Definitely check out youtube guides on infusions first! These will help you immensely. You need ascended gear for the higher tier fractals, but starting out, exotics or higher would be preferred. It is best to start with getting your ascended trinkets. You will get ascended gear as you progress through fractals, so don't worry too much. I don't know about specific gear, I am running a full glass cannon ele, and I'm mostly fine, but you might want a little more survivability for the later fractals. Pro tip: dodging is essential. You will learn when to dodge as you do more fractals. Also, break defiance bars fast. Learning the mechanics of each fractal is also very important. You can either join a guild that does fractals to help you or you can research all the fractals and their mechanics so you know what to do. Or just run in there with no idea what you are doing ;)You don't need infusions for the early fractals, so just get started...that is pretty much all the things I could think of. Good luck!

You only need agony resistance past fractal level 20, and by then you should have enough pristine fractal relics (you get these from completing daily fractals) to get a pair of ascended rings which you can put agony resistence infusions in. I would also recommend infusing your rings in the mystic forge as soon as you get them to give you an extra infusion slot. This should tie you over until you get ascended armour.

Oh and I would also look at the following series of guides. Granted you won't be doing master tier fractals for a bit so some of the strats won't apply to you, but most of the boss mechanics and events are similar across all the tiers and it will give you an idea of what to expect. It's better than going in totally blind and clueless like a lot of people do.

You also need to know that you will need to convert all the +1 infusions - these drop at the end of each fractal - to make higher infusions. For example, to get a +2 infusion, you'll need 2x +1 infusions. +3 infusion will cost 2x +2 and so on. IMHO you should aim for +10 infusions, some here will argue to go for a +9+5 might or similar. They are also right, it is just more expensive. To make these infusions, you need to be a lvl 100 Artificer or there's a Golem inside the Fractal lobby that can do the conversion for you.

If you want the fast route and have lots of gold lying around, then you can just buy these straight off the TP.

You want enough self sustain as you personally need to not be downed until you learn the mechanics.

For power builds, maurauders can be a nice choice for some extra vitality. Later when you're capable of doing T4 fractals, you can then assess how much you need it. If you don't, you could then swap in berserk pieces.

Rings are cheap enough to swap say berserks, maurauders, and soldiers until you feel comfortable going more DPS.

@"Hesacon.8735" said:You want enough self sustain as you personally need to not be downed until you learn the mechanics.

For power builds, maurauders can be a nice choice for some extra vitality. Later when you're capable of doing T4 fractals, you can then assess how much you need it. If you don't, you could then swap in berserk pieces.

Rings are cheap enough to swap say berserks, maurauders, and soldiers until you feel comfortable going more DPS.

There should be a "not helpful at all" button. You'll never reach Tier 4 if you do fractals with marauder gear. People won't have you in their party because you will not contribute enough. I once had a guy in the party playing thief, and my guess is he was in soldiers/marauders gear. He said he has 20k health. He did maybe 30% of my damage (thief) but was the last to survive. His comment was that we are all too squishy...

Truth is that if he had brought to the party what he was supposed to bring, the mobs wouldn't have had any chance to wipe us. It's a better idea to go for max damage and have a healer in the party. That way you can learn the mechanics and kill mobs in a reasonable amount of time without roleplaying a carpet most of the time. 4 dps + healer is better than 5 + half-assed marauder dps.

@"Faaris.8013" said:There should be a "not helpful at all" button. You'll never reach Tier 4 if you do fractals with marauder gear. People won't have you in their party because you will not contribute enough. I once had a guy in the party playing thief, and my guess is he was in soldiers/marauders gear. He said he has 20k health. He did maybe 30% of my damage (thief) but was the last to survive. His comment was that we are all too squishy...

Truth is that if he had brought to the party what he was supposed to bring, the mobs wouldn't have had any chance to wipe us. It's a better idea to go for max damage and have a healer in the party. That way you can learn the mechanics and kill mobs in a reasonable amount of time without roleplaying a carpet most of the time. 4 dps + healer is better than 5 + kitten marauder dps.

There are a lot of groups in T4 without DPS meters and playing for fun. I've come past those too but it's not like players are not welcome in whateverest gear. He just has to watch out for the right groups and avoid those with requirements he cannot fulfill.

@Faaris.8013 said:

@"Hesacon.8735" said:You want enough self sustain as you personally need to not be downed until you learn the mechanics.

For power builds, maurauders can be a nice choice for some extra vitality. Later when you're capable of doing T4 fractals, you can then assess how much you need it. If you don't, you could then swap in berserk pieces.

Rings are cheap enough to swap say berserks, maurauders, and soldiers until you feel comfortable going more DPS.

I run maurauders every day when I clear T4s and challenge mode. Not once has anyone complained and seldom is there a wipe except maybe the first attempt at a challenge mode boss.

I think you were all too squishy or didn't know how to keep yourself up.

Full marauders thief with durability runes is only 17k, I play that in wvw.

The difference between marauders and berserker gear is (while not minimal) small enough that personal competence of the player will absolutely make up for it.

Between 2 players of absolutely equal skill, berserker will do more damage. We all know that usually never happens to be the case. For basic T4, you can almost run what ever you want by now (well anything as far as useful stat sets go). Challenge modes are a different story.

That said @TC:

• fractal difficulty determines how much agony resistance you need. See here https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fractals_of_the_Mists
• fractals are split into 4 tiers (T1 1-25, T2 26-50, T3 51-75 and T4 76-100), completing a daily from a higher tier will automatically complete all previous tiers of dailies (there is 3 alternating fractals per day)
• agony resistance if gained mostly via slots in ascended items with rings being your primary source (with 3 slots eventually), see here: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Agony_Resistance
• in general, in order to play T2 you need some ascended trinkets, for T3 you need full ascended trinkets and weapons, for T4 you need full ascended armor, trinkets and weapons. See here: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Agony
• the best approach is to get ascended trinkets via Living World Season 3 maps and use your initial fractal relics to upgrade your rings first
• your first decision should be which character/class you want to play. Try experimenting in T1 or pick gear which can be traded (berserker trinkets for example work for all power buils, viper trinkets for almost all condi builds)
• try running fractal dailies and recommended fractals (most other fractals will fill up very slow on that day) and work your way through up to T3. Then when you are ready, acquire ascended armor and start running Tier 4