Oompa Loompa.3072

If I'm going to go for classic melee, I'd rather just go for the Firebrand.

Is the Alacrity (or heal) Renegade viable with short-bow / staff?

Metabattle says the opposite (perhaps not updated?). But how strict is the meta for more casual fractalsI? don't expect to reach any high lvl fractals. From the discussion above, it seems pretty clear Firebrand is the only real viable heal/support for fractals. Do I need to max out my elite spec before I can start using it in fractals? It be a shame to have to do all the farming before seeing if I like the game mechanics.

What about fractals? Are they harder? Are there more mechanics involved? And is a full healer (firebrand)/support spec (druid) viable in a fractal group?

No this is not a complain post. :) I'd just like some advice from more experienced players on how to enjoy the game more. There is something about Guild Wars I really like that keeps me getting back into the game, but I found myself getting bored quite quickly and quitting again. Usually in MMO's, I prefer PvE content like dungeon or other group activities, I really enjoy playing roles like tank or support. However in GW2 I have found that I feel like it doesn't really matter what I do in dungeons. Most of the time it is way to easy, cause everyone is way over-leveled/-equipped (even with scaling) and experienced, and we just speed run the whole dungeon. Other times, we have a really hard time, but I cant identify why, cause I'm not really sure about my role (or others roles). I find myself missing the clear cut roles of the holy trinity meta from other MMO's, my contribution to the group and how I affect the game is very clear with such roles (if I loose aggro as a tank I endanger the group, if the healer snooze off the tank might die, if it's slow af the dps is phoning it in). I've played two characters to lvl 80, one Warrior and one Mesmer, and played all dungeons. However, I have not tried fractals yet. What can I do to get a better feeling for what I do matters in Dungeon/fractals? Is there a profession that has a more clear cut role? Or a more support type role so I could help newer players through dungeons? Or do I just need to read up more on game mechanics, to better understand my contribution? How can I get that feeling, nerve, that what I do actually affect the game? Not just optimize rotations for increased clear time? Hopefully you get what I'm after :)