Do raid-encounters need an enrage-timer ?

I personally think that the lack of an enrage-timer would take some pressure off of players that want to raid, therefor concluding in a greater acceptance of builds/classes.

Yes though I think a strict "timer" counted by minutes and seconds is not always necessary. What I would like to see more of is enrage gated by mechanics rather than time. eg. Sabetha platform health that ticks down faster the more cannons you miss or if VG greens started at 50% max hp and dealt more % damage each time you fail. This would allow players to choose whether they want to maximize dps to minimize mechanics or focus on mechanics to have theoretically infinite amount of time to dps.

Either way not having the pressure of either time or mechanics dulls the experience significantly.

There is no pressure. U can even afk for abit have it on aa and do the occational movement when needed. u can go on for go know how long and not whipe in some bosses.

All the classes can do the raids btw and prob alot of builds even. Granded u are able to perform really well even then.

if they implement easy mode, they should take it off

I think the Enrage Timer is necessary to keep some pressure on. Maybe if there were different difficulty levels (akin to wow's LFR/Normal/Heroic/Mythic setup), then it'd make more sense to not have the Enrage Timer for an easy/LFR mode.

The enrage time is what makes the ecouters require a certain amount of damage done by the group in the timeframe given, i.e. it's one of the only places in the game that demand a certain group-DPS. It is what sets raids appart from 99% of the remaining PvE content and I'm fine with it.World bosses and some meta-events technically also have this, but since it's a very casual timer/DPS-requirement, it's hardly ever a problem if ppl organize a map for the boss/meta.

One of the design goals when ANet was making raids was to present content that required players to use many aspects of the GW2 profession/build system. That dungeons did not was one of the complaints about them. The per-launch buzz on dungeons was that the explorable paths were supposed to require coordinated groups of skilled players. That failed to a greater or lesser extent. Raids are an iteration of the same intent, and an attempt to fulfill that goal.

Synergy among party members based on coordinated, cooperative play is using the build system more fully, as are encounter mechanics that emphasize party contributions other than DPS. Doing damage to bosses is a central aspect of fights. The coordination, cooperation and skill needed to generate a lot of damage are a part of the GW2 build system. Leaving a need for high damage out of raid encounters would be a step away from the design intent for raids, because it would be a step away from using the build system more fully.

Until and unless the devs can find some other way to require the coordination/skill needed for high damage, I think the timers should stay.

t4 fractals have no enrage timer, nothing is stopping 5x full soldiers group from being able to complete a t4 fractal - yet meta elitism is still in t4 fractals.most people who run t4 fractals and raids alike just ask one thing of people- a minimum dps (boon duration for supports) - and this is relatively easy to achieve, at least two dps builds exist that basically have no rotation. for both, and raids especially considering NA has raid discord (i think EU has one too, not on it so i couldnt say for sure) there are many ways to get into casual training and casual not-training completion runs.

meta elitism will exist with enrage timer or not. i think enrage timer should stay as it forces people to get a viable build or grind to buy raids from people, it forces people to complete mechanics. if people don't want to do that and want an easy mode, there's low teir fractals which have basically no mechanics and no dps checks...and if people want better rewards than t1-t2 fractals, then they'll have to get a viable build, maybe learn to play, and perhaps even join one the many raiding guilds / non-guild groups (aforementioned raid discord), many of which are definitely casual, and will accept reaper (/bricked), accept builds that arent meta, accept builds that have toughness/vitality instead of pure glass cannon stats (even if that's useless for top end PvE). i would say build elitists are only a small % of people - most people want that you can pull of mechanics rather than a meta build so long as your dps/boon share isn't so low that you need to be carried.