help pick a toon for Fractal - cloth, survivality, dps

[zethra.8491]

hey all,like the title says, seeking advise based on Fractal Survival then, good dps among Ele, Mes, Necro...( ruled out Weaver due to squishiness )Thanks in advance..

[lare.5129]

or, let start from worst choose for fractal if not look cloth it or not:thiefelenecromesmerothers ..so take mesmer or necro :)

[Infusion.7149]

I would say fresh air tempest is a good pick if it's general T4 fractals. Overloading provides protection and you don't need to be in melee range , just close enough for boons.

If you are playing weaver you can run marauder armor with Master's fortitude instead of Superior Elements.

Chronomancer generally isn't preferred if there's many mobs due to the ramp up of clones (it functions more like condi) and necromancer is only good in Siren's Reef due to the cleave of scourge/reaper with the life force generation of the adds.

There's exceptions such as Sunqua Peak and Mai Trin where condi can work decently but it is less common. In fractals such as Deepstone or Twilight Oasis you want power generally to phase it (the spectral flames part and priestesses respectively).

[Cyninja.2954]

Your picks are probably between some type of damage elementalist and learning to play the class, or power reaper.

Power reaper is probably far easier to get started on and in general more tanky even if played less optimal.

[Virdo.1540]

id say power reaper is your best bet

easy to gear up ,while having great damage and sustain

[zethra.8491]

thanks all....sry,...forgot to mention,.. I'd prefer to be ranged..so, from I learned so far, this Fresh Air Tempest might work.

suggestions to make it stronger to survive ? ( I think I might not play higher than T3 )Ty again !

[Infusion.7149]

Just run marauder armor or trinkets with discretize build, for fractals you want to look at discretize https://discretize.eu/builds/elementalist/power-tempest

The metabattle one with arcane or fire attunement instead of water attunement has less sustain.

[lare.5129]

@zethra.8491 said:thanks all....sry,...forgot to mention,.. I'd prefer to be ranged..so fractal not for you. Ofc you can go t1, but in good party you will be kicked or blocked for future uninvite.GW2 fractal runner not so big community, but blocklist can will u hurt more than you think.

if you keep range - not get boon - not get boons - lower dps - lower dps - fail phases - fail - blocklist and kick.

suggestions to make it stronger to survive ? ( I think I might not play higher than T3 )keep eyes also on floor. And, yes, discretize is normal choose. Some biuld on metabale can be mind-obsolete or for true casuals.

[Armen.1483]

@"zethra.8491" said:hey all,like the title says, seeking advise based on Fractal Survival then, good dps among Ele, Mes, Necro...( ruled out Weaver due to squishiness )Thanks in advance..

1) mesmer: just don't ! I am a mesmer main but I rarely play mesmer in fractals (only mirage is good for just 1 fractal: CM100). Mesmer is very good in raids, but very bad in fractals in general, unless your group is very bad. However from t1 to t3 chrono won't be any different than others (if not better) due to long fights.2) Ele: best choice for dps in fractals. Squishiness is not a big deal in good groups if you manage mechanics and your healer does the job. Tempest for mob cleavs, weaver for bossfights, I would suggest learn weaver even if it seems difficult. You won't find many dps Tempest guides on internet, but trust me, tempest (both power and condi) are quite viable. Still prefer to play weaver in CMs.3) Reaper: very good in fractals in general (actually best pick for some particular fractals due to insane cleave, survivability and self boons/independance) up until the high kp t4 CMs where it becomes way less powerful than weaver. I would join everyone else and advise you playing reaper for now. But don't give up on ele just yet, return to ele once you have cleared some CMs.

Edit:

thanks all....sry,...forgot to mention,.. I'd prefer to be ranged..so, from I learned so far, this Fresh Air Tempest might work.

suggestions to make it stronger to survive ? ( I think I might not play higher than T3 )Ty again !

no !!! don't you ever dare thinking to go "ranged" in fractals. Even with ranged weapons you want to be stacked on each others on enemies point blank. It is safer because you are near your healer, and you deal more damage as your supports give you boons too. That will make sense once you get to t3/t4. Staying away and pew pewing with ranged weapons is a typical rookie thing. You are not safer far. Supports bump up your damage by A LOT. Difference between stacking with team and being far is too much. You do around 8k dps alone and up to 30k with boons, keep that in mind.Power tempest is good. Don't change the build (you should always go glass cannon as dps, no toughness or vitality ever), rather change your teamcomp ask a healer to join your group. For now make an lfg yourself and write smth like "t2 daily fractals, 3 dps and 1 heal" or in t4s "T4s dps, bs, hfb, alac".And btw don't be afraid of t4s. T4s are easier than t3s as you can find more ppl with more support classes. It is easier to play t4s with a team with good supports and boons, and just oneshot anything than struggling to kill an easy boss in t3 with 5 dpses pewpewing with ranged weapons forever and just getting 20% of enemy breakbar. Get to t4s asap, then it is easy.

[zethra.8491]

@Armen.1483 said:

you should always go glass cannon as dps, no toughness or vitality ever

Armen,Thank you ! for such constructive advice.... just 1 question..What's a Glass Canon dps ?

[Armen.1483]

@zethra.8491 said:

@"Armen.1483" said:

you should always go glass cannon as dps, no toughness or vitality ever

Armen,Thank you ! for such constructive advice.... just 1 question..What's a Glass Canon dps ?

Thing is that in high end PVE content (raids, strikes fractals) classes are optimized around teamplay. For dps classes that means whatever class they chose their gear should have only dps stats: for power oriented classes it is berserker gear(Power, Precision and Ferocity stats), or berserker gear with some pieces of Assassins gear(Presision, Power, Ferocity), which is basically a lil more precision stat to get to 60% crit chance. So it is based around the repartition of those 3 stats. For condis it is Viper's gear (Power, Condition Damage, Precision and Expertise/condi duration). This basically means that you will be a glass cannon, you hit hard but have low survivability (which is the healer's job). If you take let's say a damage gear with survavability.. for example Marauder's gear (which is good in WvW and open world), you will have Power, Precision, Ferocity AND Vitality. Looks good on paper, but it is actually way worse than pure dps gear for dps players. And it doesn't really help to survive either to have much defensive stats. So you should stay away from those types of gear that contain anything other than power, precision and ferocity stats (for power builds). Safer to kill enemies before they kill you. So you balance out survivability not by using toughness and vitality stats, but by playing along a healer, and doing mechanics properly to avoid damage, killing enemies faster than they hit you.So in another words a glass cannon dps is the dps class that uses ONLY damage stats gear (berserker's, assassin's, viper's).On the other hand some classes are naturally more "tanky".. example is reaper, you still gear him "glass cannon" (in this case full berserker stat gear), but the shroud mechanic of reaper along with some naturally higher vitality helps reaper to be "tankier".