Newbie Raid Questions

I've never actually played a raid as I don't have any friends to play with. Before i am able to gather the mysterious 9 people that will join me in my ride to shake the land of the raid zones, I have a few questions for people of the land.

A.) I've read many posts about wiping in raid many times and it seems like a big deal. Does wiping in a raid means we have to restart everything from 0?B.) Does raid have timer that will result in a fail if we didn't finish it on time?C.) About roles and party composition, do we really have to have to play some class for some "roles" to be able to finish the raid or having 10 warriors is fine?D.) How long would it usually take to finish a raid? average time, shortest and longest.E.) How great is the drop rates in raid? Atleast how many slots do i have to empty in order to accommodate all the items? Or will it overload regardless?

That's all guys, feel free to give me anymore pro advice, i basically do not know anything yet. I'm a casual player that only plays about 2 hours everyday, I'm just hoping that a single raid run will not take over an hour in average.

A) The boss itself, not the encounter. If u kill boss 1 but wipe on boss 2 you just have to re-do boss 2.B ) Some bosses have enrage times, means they get stronger, but its may be feasable to kill them after that time, but some, like gorseval, have a insta kill so depends on boss.C) Unfortunately yes, some classes do better at certain roles than others, and at certain encounters. Eg: donna need a druid/ele to heal cause warriors dont heal.D) And entire wing, that really depends on the experience of the group. If go with a guild more likely to finish within an hour. if you pug, and pugs quit very often can take up hours.E) Drops are full of average garbage plus decorations, only thing that matters is obsidian shards, that go into your wallet automatically.

Pretty much this.

I would like to add some more.

C) you can do it with 10 warriors but it will require each of them with some insane builds like healing warrior AND it will require much more skill than doing it with specially created party of different classes. You can see things like 10 necro or 10 thieves killing bosses but it's more like a personal challenge due to difficulty.

D) unless you are very experienced and learn things insanely fast, forget about clearing raids. It will take you weeks of chipping off boss after boss to finally be able to reach and kill last one of each wing. At the beginning you will only hunt down certain bosses without clearing everything.

E) drops are only half of the true raid potential. You can get ascended pieces quite often but o top of that raids will give you magnetite shards. A currency that allows you to buy any ascended of your choice (plus some cosmetic). Another thing is a collection unlocking legendary armour crafting. And it will give you two free ascended armor sets before reaching end!

To add abit more

C) Generally you do not need special classes. But you need special "roles" to be filled. Depending on the boss, these roles can vary abit. But generally you need1 tank. In meta this is a chrono, but all classes can tank, some are just alot better at it then others.Healing, meta bring 2 druids for this, but other classes can do the same, just less good.Damage, kinda self explanatoryBuffs, mainly to make your damaga dealers do even more damage, might/fury/banners/spirits etc will make a class do 2-3 times more damage then it is able to without all these buffs.

The meta builds, and meta group composition is the "safe" way of getting all of these things. But the more you know about the game, and the better you know your group, the easyer you can change some things. You will kill abit slower then a good meta group, but you will get the kills non the less.

D) Start your raiding experience out with going for 1 boss at a time. And focus on the "easyer" bosses. So Escort (Siege the Stronghold, first boss in Stronghold of the Faithful). Make sure you have 1 chrono/mesmer with a portal. And several people with immobs. And you are golden. This is by far the easyest of the raids. And is a good place to start as a beginnner.Other good bosses to do:VG (Vale Guardian, first boss in Spirit Vale): Alot harder then escort, This fight is mainly about mechanics, damage is less importent.Cairn (Cairn the Indomitable, first boss in Bastion of the Penitent): Mechanics, but extra healing will get you far.MO (Mursaat Overseer, second boss in Bastion of the Penitent): bring a necro with epi and faceroll this boss.

To add to E), you don't need many open slots. I'd guess that 30 free bag slots are enough to clear all raid wings in one go. You get a load of bags, which stack. The rest is mostly "kill proof" decoration items, one or two rares/exotics per boss kill and the odd ascended drop now and then. Trash mobs don't drop anything.

@Alchofas.8243 said:I've never actually played a raid as I don't have any friends to play with. Before i am able to gather the mysterious 9 people that will join me in my ride to shake the land of the raid zones, I have a few questions for people of the land.

A.) I've read many posts about wiping in raid many times and it seems like a big deal. Does wiping in a raid means we have to restart everything from 0?

Wiping means people get frustrated. It goes against the mentality most people bring, which is:"I want the loot asap." Otherwise no, there even isn't all that much inbetween bosses except for here and there an event. Raids here are mostly one boss after the other.

@Alchofas.8243 said:B.) Does raid have timer that will result in a fail if we didn't finish it on time?

Nope, only tries on bosses have timers (and some events) and even those timers are very generous and sometimes not even lethal if they run out.

@Alchofas.8243 said:C.) About roles and party composition, do we really have to have to play some class for some "roles" to be able to finish the raid or having 10 warriors is fine?

Raids have introduced a pretty much hard meta depending on the fight and boss. Some bosses will require a dedicated tank, some dedicated heal and maybe some people who deal with mechanics. The pre PoF composition was:

• 2 phalanx strength warriors for banners, might, empowered allies and decent support dps
• 2 druids for spirits, grace of the land and healing
• 2 mesmer for alacrity, quickness, distortion (and one of both as tank)
• 4 dps

@Alchofas.8243 said:D.) How long would it usually take to finish a raid? average time, shortest and longest.

A raid wing (there is 4 atm) takes between 20-30 minutes with a good raiding guild. Longer with varying degree of skilled pick up groups up to not finishable due to lack of experience.

@Alchofas.8243 said:E.) How great is the drop rates in raid? Atleast how many slots do i have to empty in order to accommodate all the items? Or will it overload regardless?

Raids are 1nce a week per boss rewards. If I'd have to guess I'd say the chance for ascended items per boss is 10%. The most value and the reason people raid loot wise is for the Living Insights for the raid legendary armor. Otherwise you can get up to 150 Magnitite Shards per week (plus extra if you sell back minis or other items you do not need). Raid ascended items cost between 250 and 600 Magnetite Shards for gear.

In short, rewards are okayish but work for GW2.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Raid

this helped me out a lot

These really helped a lot guys. I didn't expect so many nice people would take their time to answer questions from someone like me.

I have a last question, I've always thought we have to defeat all the bosses in a single go for a raid to be cleared, but you guys mentioned that i should go 1 boss a a time and it will take weeks before i kill all the bosses to clear the raid.

Does that mean I can kill boss 1 today then leave the raid zone, comeback again tomorrow and pick up where i left from by starting from boss 2?

yes, the exception being matthias and sabetha. The pre-event of those two have to be re-done if you leave the instance, which basically involves killing trash mobs while moving forward.

And what's more important, each boss killed will give you both 1 Legendary Insight (Li) and some Kill Proofs (kp) and thanks to those you will have easier time later. People often asks for specific amount of both to measure player experience.If you really want to raid often, don't be discouraged at the start. Get a guild or make one (it help A LOT) and have fun!

@Alchofas.8243 said:Does that mean I can kill boss 1 today then leave the raid zone, comeback again tomorrow and pick up where i left from by starting from boss 2?

Kinda. Within the same week, yes. But every monday raids resett and you will start over.

Best advise btw: Go do raids, dont be scared and if you get into a group and they are kitten, leave and find another group. There are tons of good and nice raiders. But there will naturally also always be a few less nice people. If you run into someone like that. Leave and find another group ^^