Fractal Profession Choice

Hey there,

Long-time lurker around these forums - and spent some... too many hours playing several professions trying to find my stride (Ranger, Warrior, Necromancer, Thief, Mesmer, Guardian) - all 80 and full exotic/some ascended stuff.

Now, I have been kind-of reluctant to dabble into Fractals after all the talk about them (with it being super meta-like) and the bottom line is, I've came down to a conclusion that I'd like to play either Thief or Warrior in Fractals - this is where I'd kindly ask you (players with experience) for some input.

From my understanding, Warriors are more wanted in Fractals due to Banners and Thieves are just a bit more "selfish" (but Thieves are more "fun" for me due to the nature of their gameplay being very active, while Warriors can be... dull). So, I have some simple questions for you guys:

• How big of a deficit is regarding Group invites in Thief vs Warrior?
• Generally speaking, if you fail a mechanic as a Thief (first-timer in Fractals, bound for mistakes), is it way more punishing compared to failing it as a Warrior? (I do not wish to be downed all the time and have my groupmates pressing F every so often)
• Since I invested quite a few resources into learning and being a good healer - how "bad" is the Druid right now? Aside from the cries of "omg nerfed", as I love playing a Healer - but I do not wish to have a "gimmicky" or not-fluid playstyle (which both Power Warrior and DD Thief offer). Taking into consideration how Harrier gear is not really easy to obtain.
• Being a Thief, does the group often ask of you to do the "skip mechanics" (as, again, I don't want to hinder the group by not knowing the Fractal)?
• How annoying is the general "Bannerslave" mechanic for a Warrior? (do you put down flags on trash mobs and have to carry them constantly? or are they simply kept for boss-fights)

Generally speaking, I'd love an abomination of usefulness of a Healer Druid, general tankiness of Warrior and fun/flexibility of a Thief. As I know that these "requirements" are perhaps even bad to ask as the general consensus will be "play what's fun for you" - all of those are fun for me in a way and just asking for these general experiences and knowledge-dropping regarding Fractals.

Thank you in advance!

Thief will probably never get invited.

Thief will die on mechanic checks.

Drop banners on boss fights, trash is irrelevant.

Knowing the mechanics involved in the fights are far more important. There are enough casual t4s on the lfg in na imo

If there is a proper choice for you, I'd choose the class that is not thief. While the class is fun and there will always be groups that don't mind, it occupies a redundant slot (anyone can be dps), has a low tolerance for bigger mistakes and is among the lower ranks balance-wise. Warrior, on the other hand, has the freedom of being either BS or taking a dps slot and forgives some mistakes that will down a thief.

Concerning druid, I haven't been able to play it so much since the patch (one run of daily fractals today), but I'd say the sky hasn't fallen. Yes, the nerf is very noticeable and you'll likely need to shake off old habits of ignoring certain attacks, but you can still properly do your job as a healer and buffer. It's just a bit more difficult and your group should sometimes find their dodge button. Be aware however that the playstyle of druids in fractals can, at times, be anything but fluid. There will be quite some times when you'll be starved of avatar energy because your party takes no damage you could heal and your own attacks don't fill the bar quickly enough. And that's usually the time when people will suddenly eat some big attacks and require big heals (Murphy's law applies).

Hi. If you want to start with fractals it doesnt rly matter what you play. Meta parties only happen at t4 an CMs and even at T4 you can find non meta group or semi meta (chrono, druid and any 3 dps classes) easily.As for warrior you basicaly play like dps class with the diference that you use banners before bossfight.

You need to understand that warrior and thief would occupy a completely different slot during a fractal run as they both provide completely different things. Warrior brings banners, EA and boonstrip for fractals where bosses get protection, which makes him essential and guarantees a spot in pretty much every run (same deal with chrono and usually druid). This leaves you with 2 "free" spots which you fill with a profession, that does the most DPS, which is currently weaver. If you take thief instead of weaver as a DPS profession, you just lose overall group DPS while gaining nothing, cripple your group and make the fractal unnecessarily longer, plain and simple.

Nonetheless, it also depends hugely on what type of groups you wanna run with. What I described is very important in CMs (shattered observatory, nightmare), because those fractals consisnt mostly of combat/boss fights and have very few and very short skippable/trash sections. In non-CM fractals, though, the case is usually the opposite, plus the boss fights are usually easy and short, which makes not having 2 weavers less painful and makes thief a slightly more sensible choice (thief is not bad for trash clearing as you have basically no DPS ramp-up time).

So if you wanna do ALL daily fractals (including CMs), I would definitely recommend staying as far away from thief as possible. Warrior is the way to go. If you wanna only do casual T4s, it makes basically no difference, you can go either war or thief, both would be fine.

I have all 9 chars in full ascended now and most of the gear I got on my thief (my first char) running T4. Other classes I regularly use are warrior/firebrand. Either warrior or thief are good classes for learning the mechanics of fractals, but its slightly easier for thief imo with its easy skill rotation and invigorating precision until you get used to things, while warrior can run defence. Once you got the mechanics down playing warrior will benefit your group a lot more than thief it will allow you to join 'meta-tag' groups so doing your daily t4's will be a lot easier. In the long run I say warrior will be better his main drawback I would say is he lacks range options.

Im thief main and ill use teef in T4 fractals. Is it best dps there? No. But one of The easiest dps to maintain that 20k dps. you have so many dodges that helps you with boss mechanics and basilisk Venom is good CC.

Warrior is better as both offensive support and pure DPS.

Use whatever you like most. Many t4 groups run relaxed, chill runs which are perfectly doable with thief or warrior. Its just that warrior is preferred in most meta comps

Thank you all for replies!

From the knowledge-dropping here, I'd say that Warrior is the go-to option according to the majority for safety and general usefulness - while Thief is good on its own, but not really desirable.

Once more, thank you for your replies and your time!

@ysnake.3619 said:Thank you all for replies!

From the knowledge-dropping here, I'd say that Warrior is the go-to option according to the majority for safety and general usefulness - while Thief is good on its own, but not really desirable.

Once more, thank you for your replies and your time!

Thief has its advantages like easy stealth skiping but you will not encounter that level of teamwork very often

I play both a warrior and firebrand in fractals. Honestly, I enjoy the firebrand a lot more, just because it has a few more survivability options (and tends to do major dps without even trying). On my warrior, it's really easy to die if I'm not on top of things.

No one really care what class you are UNLESS they are going for 99cm 100cm. Learning the mechanic is wayyy more important.

Where do Engineers fall into this please? Thx

@Selminus.1490 said:Where do Engineers fall into this please? Thx

Eng is one of the better dps options in raids/fractals (at least they were before 8.5.2018) it combine good dps with some ultility

@"Selminus.1490" said:Where do Engineers fall into this please? Thx

The answer to this question for any profession can be found at https://metabattle.com/ -- that is a community collected set of "meta" builds, or "what the community think are the absolute best". It includes a rating on them, so you can tell if they are "great", or just "it'll do", in the opinions of people who value theoretical build power over all else.

That tells us that, right now, holosmith power DPS is the only super-favored option, but there are other choices. In reality there are also a great many variations on the general themes you see there which also work, but if you want to know what "popular opinion" has to say ... there it is, collected and collated for all classes and game modes, for your enjoyment.