Fractals of the Mists Guides (Incomplete)

This is primarily located here however I will be moving it across to ToA forums as well. It will be mainly updated there before I update it here however ^^

As ToA Forums don't have GW2 BBCode installed I will have to update that later ^^

Introduction
This Guide is intended to thoroughly break down Fractals of The Mists. It will recommend skills to use at each stage and suggest what traits to use. Obviously there may be some conflict as it will not be recommending builds. It will be going into ridiculous detail about skill usefulness and effectiveness based on previous experience with them.



Fractal of the Mists consists of nine Fractals, on odd Fractals three of the nine Fractals must be completed. On Even levels four of the Fractals must be completed. The fourth Fractal is always Solid Ocean Fractal and will give a daily chest for completion.

Within these sections I will be providing videos of multiple runs. I will be noting the good points and the bad points of each run. Generally speaking the runs will all be pug runs with maybe 1 or 2 friends that I tend to run with.
Note- [s]These Videos will not be sped up. They will be running in real time so people can get a feel for what pugs runs can be like. I will try not to post abysmal runs. That being said there is a lot that you can learn from such runs.[/s]
Note2- Silly idea, I will be uploading videos at 2x speed so people actually might watch them ^^

Aquatic Ruins Fractal
Cliffside Fractal
Snowblind Fractal
Solid Ocean Fractal
Swampland Fractal
Underground Facility Fractal
Urban Battlegrounds Fractal
Volcanic Fractal
Uncategorized Fractal

Between Fractals rating one to nine there really isn't that much that you need to know. The main point of levels one to ten seems to be to get to know the lay out of each map, there is no particular difficulty on any map and there is no introduction to Agony until level ten.

What this guide intends to do is give a thorough outline of how the enemies in Fractals work, how to adapt as the Fractal difficulty increases, what skills and traits are particularly useful within each fractal and how to counter specific enemies and bosses at higher level Fractals when Agony is particularly deadly.


Professions

This is an overall profession overview, within each Fractal I will break down each profession individually and explain more thoroughly what I believe is the best avenue or some advice for higher level fractals. I, in no way believe this is the only way to play the game. This game is totally adaptable and has a huge ability to be interchangeable.

Thief
Mesmer
Guardian
Warrior
Necromancer
Elementalist
Ranger
Engineer

Enemy Breakdown

This section is totally dedicated to countering each foe individually. It's not really intended to offer strategy more to point out how each foe works, this can be found here.

Combo Fields

Combo Fields are fairly underappreciated. I mention briefly about combo fields during this guide however there is a slightly more in depth look at combo here

Racial Skills

Racial Skills are really a minor part of Fractals. However I thought I'd put a small part about them too seeing as everyone has access to these skills and some can be more useful that people realise and this may influence character creation.

Consumables

Consumables are quite important in Fractals. Especially if you want to progress quickly and easily. I see so many teams that only pop Magic Find food. This is a slightly more detailed breakdown of consumables for Fractals

Regarding Magic Find

I've seen it less in the last couple of weeks in Fractals, however Magic Find is a real waste of a teams time. If you have Magic Find armor rather than properly geared armor then you are effectively making your character less efficient than it could otherwise be. At the end of the day you are going to get the same Relics, and the same loot from your daily that you would otherwise get. Magic Find is basically telling your team that you would rather get mad lootz than progress and help the team progress. It's selfish and really unnecessary, just from leveling my Thief up to 40 in Fractals, rarely doing repeating levels, only doing a couple of dailies that weren't my level I made 60 gold entirely off the lodestones and cores that I had drop. That is without any Magic find armor, sigils or food.
I'd much rather take someone with +250 power than +7.5 magic find or whatever it stacks up to. I'd much rather take someone with +100 precision than +15% magic find. Again I'm just throwing out numbers. I don't know the exact figures off hand (I will update this when I have looked into it closer.) But I do know that I can't see any team benefiting from taking you with Magic Find Armor. Would you want your entire team in Magic find gear and not have the DPS or the healing power to stay alive?

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Defeat the Giant Jellyfish as you fend off krait while navigating as a dolphin or exploring the dark depths



Free the captured prisoners

Explore the Deeps (Lights)

OR

Navigate the Underground Ruins (Dolphins)

Defeat the Giant Jellyfish

There isn't really much to explain for this Fractal boss. Ultimately the tactic is the same no matter what level you are. The only difference that is really in this Fractal is that more Jellyfish spawn as the level goes higher and more Agony is placed on any player that gets eaten. The easiest way and the fastest way to kill the boss is to pull the beast into the cages when they are conducting electricity. The electricity will do large AoE damage and kill the adds as well as do massive damage to the boss.
Realistically there is no faster way to do this fractal.

Useful skills for this fractal

Feedback
Time Warp

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Fight the Sons of Svanir and protect against frostbite by lighting fires



Snowblind Fractal is currently the only Fractal that has an Area effect. The first half of the fractal will have the players deal with extreme cold. Players continually acquire stacks of frostbite, which will deal progressively more damage. This will stack in the same way a condition or a boon will stack, up to 25, and at that point will kill a player almost instantly.
The effect of Frostbite will continue even while downed so if a player dies near an unlit fire try to light that before ressing them as it will usually be much easier after lighting the fire.

Find a way past the Ice

If you take the fighting approach for this fight I recommend using Powerful Potions of Sons of Svanir Slaying for this first part.

The only way to get past this wall is to light up the bonfires below. There are a few varying methods of doing this.

Presuming that you have a Thief on your team (which you should by the way) you will be able to pretty much skip this part if the Thief is confident. Using Shadow Refuge (and Spy Kits, unless you're cheap) a Thief can solo this part very quickly. This isn't really that helpful in low level Fractals but from 20 and above it becomes a fair deal more useful. Simply use Shadow Refuge over the six bonfires and light them up. Then stand next to two of them with the torch and continuously use Spy Kits until Shadow Refuge is recharged and simply repeat. This simply eliminates all the fighting.

If there is no Thief on the team then multiple members of the team can stand at the four corners and use Spy Kits if the team doesn't wish to actually fight the mobs.

Failing that the entire team stands around the bonfire and attacks the Svanir. There are a lot of torches so the entire team keeps and eye on the fires and just picks off the Svanir. This has changed from a Ranged fight to a Melee fight since the 30/01/2013 update so reflective skills are less useful.

The other strategy is to have four of the team members around the spawn area for the Svanir and have one member of the team on the fires. This means that the majority of the team can focus totally on just hitting the foes and one person can keep the wall melting as fast as possible.

Focus on Inflicting:

[Blind][Weakness][Chilled][Cripple][Vulnerability]

Focus on using:

[Protection][Regeneration][Aegis]

Useful skills for lighting the bonfires

[Radiation Field]

Radiation Field is obviously Race Specific. So unless you have an Asura on the team you wont have access to this skill. However for this section, being able to cause weakness to all the foes is very useful. These foes do dish out quite a lot of damage which in most cases will down a Scholar class pretty quickly. Applying area weakness and poison allows for degen and damage mitigation.

[Plague]

Similarly to Radiation Field, Plague is very effective for mitigation of damage. Being able to constantly blind all the mobs at the same time with multiple pulses is going to keep most of the damage off the team for 20 seconds. Alternatively using Cripple and Weakness will keep the foes away from the team and even if they do get an attack in it will likely do less damage than normal.

["Hold The Line!"]

While being able to deal damage to the Sons of Svanir is Important, being able to stay alive for this section is equally important. Hold The Line is particularly useful especially if you can combine it with Signet of Inspiration as it will protect the entire team. Hopefully you are traited to reduce Shout Recharge time to keep the team protected for longer, however at this stage it's not a huge priority.

[Well of Darkness]

Well of Darkness is primarily for mitigation of damage on this section. Preventing the Sons of Svanir from doing damage is quite important especially if the team is particularly squishy. This will usually make the fight much quicker and easier for the entire team if damage is mitigated properly. AoE blind is very useful however AoE blind pulses from Well of Darkness is much more useful as it affects foes multiple times.

[Shadow Refuge]

Shadow Refuge can be used in numerous ways here. It can be used to Stealth the whole team and thus remove the fighting aspect of this fight, or it can be used to heal member of the team, or it can be used as it's primary function; to res people when they are downed efficiently. Shadow Refuge will stealth anyone not attacking in it's ring thus making it very effective for this section.

[Signet of Inspiration]

Signet of Inspiration is perhaps the most interesting for Fractals. If the Guardian is actually running a support build, and if you have a Warrior buffing the team competently then Signet of Inspiration becomes very useful. Assuming that the entire team is within range of all the buffs, a Mesmer using this skill will double the effects of all of these buffs. For this particular part this is very useful when looking at Protection and Might buffs. The foes do deal a fairly large amount of damage as well as having a large health pool. Being able to keep the team protected for longer and being about to buff them with Might is extremely effective.

Defeat the Elemental Source

Using Powerful Potion of Elemental Slaying here is very useful.

This boss again is very simple yet people make a bigger deal out of it than they should. There are a few simple rules to follow when fighting this boss. Many people state that grouping up is a bad idea. I totally disagree. While I don't believe you should stack on top of each other I do feel that the team should be around the same fire. This means that if you die, you're not miles away for a res. If someone else dies you're not miles away to res them. It also means there's five people to keep the fire lit.

Someone should be putting down a Personal Way point (Alt + Click on the mini map) and that should be the fire that you all flock to after the Boss uses it's teleport move. This is where most people get it wrong. When the boss uses this move, you will generally be transported a fair way away from the Personal Way point. If this is the case run around the outside of the tents and rejoin your team mates, this stops all the Veteran Elementals from aggroing on to you. Lighting the fire is the first priority. Many teams stand around and degen to death while trying to kill all the Veteran Elementals (Or Ignoring them trying to DPS the boss) and wipe here. For low level Fractals there really aren't enough Veterans to worry about but as soon as you start getting up higher, even by going around the back of the tents will bring some company.

The main problem teams have at higher levels is that they try to DPS the Elemental Source and outlive the Veteran Elementals. This is usually not a good idea. Killing the Veterans off is a very effective way to simply and efficiently get past this area.
Once the Elemental Source is defeated the blizzard will pass and you will no longer have to deal with Frostbite however players will need to remove it using the fires as there is no other way to remove it other than fully dying.

Single target damage is the real way to go here. Using AoE skills or bouncing attacks is very hazardous to the team especially if you have managed to avoid most of the Veteran Elemental's. Single target ranged damage from most ranged weapons auto attack is still a lot of DPS. Just be sure that you're not using bouncing skills if you don't plan on aggroing all the Elementals.

Focus on using:

[Stability][Protection][Regeneration]

Useful skills for this section:

[Wall of Reflection][Smoke Screen][Feedback]

Wall of Reflection, Smoke Screen and Feedback are quite effective for this section. Being able to prevent most of the ranged damage from the Elemental Source is beneficial to the entire team. While it's not going to protect from all damage, it will prevent a lot of the KD and keep the tam safer than they usually would be. The reflective property from Wall of Reflection isn't particularly useful on this section however it's projectile blocking properties are.

[Shield of the Avenger]

Shield of the Avenger here is particularly useful, while allowing blocking for the ranged attacks it prevents being knocked down by those attacks. This is particularly useful when ressing. Similarly to Wall of Reflection, this skill will not prevent damage or KD from the Whirling attack from the Elemental Source or the Comet used by the Veteran Elementals however it will keep the team defended from quite a large percentage of the attacks.

[Time Warp]

Time Warp in my opinion should be saved for people that die completely. This section becomes much more difficult if it becomes 4 man and then 3 man etc. Time Warp will allow that player to be ressed much faster than usual and hence the team wont die, like they usually do, as easily as they wont be trying to res for quite as long.

[Shadow Refuge]

Shadow Refuge again is a primary ressing skill. If a team member goes down then using Shadow Refuge should keep the majority of mobs off you while ressing. However the Elemental Source's attacks are AoE and will still hit.
Alternatively if everyone is co-ordinated Shadow Refuge can be used to deagrro all of the Veteran Elementals thus speeding the fight up considerable. If the team all gets back to the fire and stacks up, the Thief can use Shadow Refuge and the team will lose the aggro and only have to fight 1-2 of the Veterans.

["Stand Your Ground!"]

Stand Your Ground is going to be tremendously useful here. Being able to give the entire team Stability will prevent ressing from wiping the team. The Elemental Source focuses on KDing the entire team. Being able to prevent this is especially useful. Combining this skill with Signet of Inspiration gives a fairly long duration for the entire team.

["Hold The Line!"]

Hold the Line will keep your team alive. Protection and Regeneration for the entire team will not only prevent 33% of the damage but it will start healing the team. One of the problems teams have is that everyone runs selfish bars. There is no reliance on other team members and this is a big downfall. Using skills that buff the rest of the team will keep them alive.

[Signet of Inspiration]

Members of your team should be using Stability and Protection as much as possible for this fight. Using Signet of Inspiration dramatically increases the effectiveness of the rest of the teams buff skills as it gives the entire team double what they would normally have. It will also apply the boons to the original users if they don't initially get the boon.

Skills to Avoid

[Dagger Storm]

While Dagger Storm is one of my all time favorite skills in GW2 it can be very hazardous in this fight. While it does reflect projectiles, cause Cripple and Bleed to all the foes in the area, it has a very large range and isn't particularly controllable. It has the potential to aggro all the Veteran Elemental's around the Elemental Source. I would recommend avoiding this skill for this fight unless you are actually fighting most of the Elemental's.

[Thieves Guild]

Thieves Guild can be useful and hazardous in this fight. While it does give you a Ranged Thief, it also gives you a melee Thief. This melee Thief can aggro extra Veteran Elemental's and bring them to the team. This can be bad especially when the team is already fighting multiple foes at once. So really it's worth being extra careful on using skills such as this one.

[Mirror Blade]

Mirror Blade will bounce between a few foes so if you throw it at the Elemental Source it has a big chance to hit the Veteran Elemental's that your team has so excellently avoided. This is really the same for all bouncing attacks. Single target damage is the real way to go here.

Defeat the Son of Svanir Shaman

This boss fight is apparently quite difficult for some people. The mechanics of it are quite simple. This boss doesn't use projectile attacks like most bosses in Fractals. Instead it uses Melee and a Channeled Attack. The only boss in Fractals in fact to use a Channeled attack, this one has a similar effect to the Fractal condition Frostbite which causes damage over time and it's usually enough to down a player as it stacks very quickly. The good news is that dodging backwards is usually the right range to get out of it. Vigor or more useful AoE Vigor is very useful for this fight as dodging is really useful as the fight is in a small confined space.

This boss will attack as I have said at melee range, however as he uses a channeled attack will stop moving for the duration of the attack and thus quite vulnerable. Well timed Time Warps as soon as he jumps down from up top are particularly useful as the majority of the team if not all of the team will be close enough to get the effects of it.

When the boss jumps up to his platform and uses Ice Storm it will create three to five big rings on the floor. From ten plus these will inflict agony. Regardless of the agony inflicted these ice storms will generally down a player if they hit. So best not get hit.
There is a safe spot after the first three have landed that most players stand and wait till he comes back down.

Mesmer's can still hit the Shaman while he is up at the top using auto attack on a great sword, similarly can Elementalist's using skill one on a Staff attuned to Earth. I'm sure other skills can hit him as well these are just the two I know of. If a Mesmer is running a condition heavy bar applying Confusion will do a fair bit or damage as each of the Ice Storms will trigger Confusion. Otherwise auto attacking with a Great Sword is still going to provide a fair amount of damage while he is up top.



This fight is actually quite easy so I wont go into a tremendous amount of detail for it. The skills involved again aren't particularly specific either. Realistically this fight is like any other Champion or Veteran in the living world other than it's Ice Storm move, which you will obviously be dodging.

The specifically useful skills really are:

[Time Warp]

Time Warp being the most powerful party wide buff is always going to have a role in boss fights. Specifically when he jumps back down. As soon as he has jumped back down ping Time Warp and then use it around yourself. The rest of the team should rally to you and get the effects. This is when other players will be spamming their most powerful skills.

[Lich Form]

Lich Form is particularly effective against bosses. Timing wise is the same as Time Warp and benefits particularly well if used during Time Warp. Raw DPS for a boss fight is always a good point.

[Battle Standard]

Again Battle Standard is a party wide buff and a good res. There is no point trying to res a downed player on a circle unless you know roughly where they are going to hit. Using ranged res skills is always beneficial in this sort of fight. That being said this skill should be used just before Time Warp and Lich Form to maximize the overall damage.

Videos of Runs

The first run is specifically just any old run. This run had the potential to be very fast however the Guardian being specced to DPS meant that the team suffered more than it needed to. Realistically most pug runs are going to be a similar quality to this run.

Hopefully I can record a very bad run and a very good run to complement this.




A standard run of FoTM 19. This run actually went fairly well for having 2 pugs.

Main things to note about this run are:

The Sons of Svanir fight went particularly well. Not many deaths and no wipes.
The Elemental fight didn't go very well. Lots of deaths and a lot of resses. The Guardian on this run was specced for DPS rather than support which let the team down.
The end Boss fight also went particularly well. Usually the boss here sees people going down quite a lot. This team however mostly lived and no one fully died.
It also shows that you can stand down at the bottom and hit the boss and is a good example of how confusion hit's on all the Ice Storm attacks.

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Defeat the Jade Maw

Defeat the first two tentacles

Defeat the Jade Colossus

Defeat the Jade Maw






40+

The 99 Res. - To my knowledge of writing this, this still works and is still practiced for 40-48 however to my knowledge from 50+ it is no longer possible and will not work.

Until people have 40 AR or higher and up until 50+ the only way to get past the Agony of the Jade maw is to use a tactic called 99 ressing.
The way this works is letting two people die completely before killing the first two tentacles. They need to die at the back in this safe spot:



When they have died completely they get ressed to 99% health.
The rest of the team heads off and kills the two tentacles as normal however the last tentacle needs to die as the rest of the team gets on top of the two dead players.

When the Agony hits, the rest of the team needs to res the two dead people as quickly as possible. Most teams use Time Warp and usually specifically ask for Time Warp ie. a Mesmer.
As soon as the team wipes the now revived members can fully res the three players killed by Agony.

-Note- The people that are ressed from 99% need to be good at dodging Agony as the safe spot isn't 100% safe anymore.

This has to be employed before/again after the Jade Colossus are killed. Pre 30/1/2013 update Blinding Blades(sp) could be used to get more crystals and this could be skipped. But since that update you now can't get excessive amounts of crystals and thus have to kill the colossus to get enough crystals to progress.

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Three wisps event puzzle, defeat Bloomhunger or the Mossman



Return Wisps to Clefts

Mossman

OR

Bloomhunger

There are many ways to do Bloomhunger. This boss to begin with is very very easy. As long as the team has proper Agony Resistance. However from 25+ This boss does start to do a lot more damage and Agony starts taking a bigger toll on the party.
Things to really remember are that, as with all Fractals, Ressing downed players is very important. Using a protective or reflective wall skill is very useful when ressing as it will keep you protected and stop the downed player taking anymore damage.

One of the tactics used involves stacking behind the Tree at the back of the map. Here you can effectively block most of the attacks and put up a constant chain of walls or protective skills that will allow 90% of attacks to be completely negated.



Useful Skills and Traits for this tactic are shown below. While many are just straight blocking moves, when a Guardian or Thief or Mesmer is on cool down then skills like Dagger Storm and Whirling Defense become very useful.

[Shield of Absorption] [Shield of the Avenger] [Wall of Reflection] [Sanctuary]

Shield of Absorption, Wall of Reflection, Shield of the Avenger, Sanctuary

[Resolute Healer] [Spirit Weapon Mastery] [Improved Spirit Weapon Duration] [Master of Consecrations]

Resolute Healer, Master of Consecrations, Improved Spirit Weapon Duration, Spirit Weapon Mastery

[Feedback] [Temporal Curtain]

Feedback, Temporal Curtain (only with Warden's Feedback)

[Warden's Feedback] [Medic's Feedback] [Glamour Mastery]

Warden's Feedback, Medic's Feedback, Glamour Mastery

[Dagger Storm] [Smoke Screen]

Dagger Storm, Smoke Screen

[Whirling Defense]

Whirling Defense

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Encounter dredge, solve the pressure plate puzzle, and defeat Dredge Powersuit or Ice Elemental



Control Room



Bomb Room

OR

Turret Room

Defeat the Dredge and Champion Rabsovich

One tactic



Another tactic



Rampaging Ice Elemental

OR

Dredge Powersuit

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Avoid the lava as you encounter Grawl while trying to defeat the Grawl Shaman



The Volcanic Fractal is perhaps my favorite and really one of the most difficult to handle with a miss matched team. However even at the higher levels this Fractal is realistically very simple.

I recommend investing in some Powerful Grawl Slaying Potions. These provide you with +10% damage against and -10% damage from all Grawl. For the first few parts of this Fractal there is nothing that compares to this Potion consumable.
Having any sort of Damage buff as a Food Consumable is again useful.


Clear the Grawl

This step is very straight forward. Just kill all the Grawl around you until the bar fills up completely. This will progress you to the next step.

As of 10+ this step is still fairly simple yet will counter a lot of the crowd control skills that the Grawl have and stop members of the team getting killed by being pulled and KD'd into a big mob. As soon as you load in run up the cliff to the right. This will allow the team to pull small groups of Grawl at a time and kill them without and trouble.

The Grawl here use mainly ranged attacks especially before pulling them around with line of sight. Keeping constant projectile reflections up is a very good defense rather than trying to out heal the damage. It will also prevent being pulled down the ledge and potentially being killed extremely quickly.



Useful skills for this area. I do not suggest worrying about traits at this point. Normal set ups are fine and these skills are just as an aid rather than a real life saver.

Guardian

[Shield of Absorption] [Shield of the Avenger]

Shield of Absorption and Shield of the Avenger are very useful. As soon as the Guardian gets attacked this will spam intermittent Shield of Absorption. Shield of Absorption will block any projectiles that hits it. This is very useful here due to the foes all using pulls and ranged attacks only. This negates a lot of the damage and crowd control. Using a Mace on a Guardian for Shield of Absorption is quite useful here however using a Great sword is a fair bit more useful.

[Wall of Reflection] [Sanctuary]

[Binding Blade]

Binding Blade is particularly useful if you're not using the cliff on the right to line of sight the foes. Binding Blades let you deal damage to foes as well as pull foes into a ball. AoE damage is always a bonus when fighting a large amount of foes.
Again the purpose here is to kill all the foes. Dealing single target damage like using a Mace is far less productive than using a Great Sword.

Shield of Absorption, Wall of Reflection, Shield of the Avenger, Sanctuary, Binding Blade

Thief

[Dagger Storm]

Dagger Storm is very useful here due to the fact the Grawl all generally use projectile based attacks. The one thing you need to watch out for here is over aggroing. Dagger Storm has a fairly long duration and a fairly short recharge compared to other Elite Skills. It inflicts Bleeding and Cripple conditions and protects the team from projectiles hence can be utilised well if the rest of the team is on cool down for walls or reflect skills. Out of all the Thief Elite Skills Dagger Storm is the best suited to this situation.

[Smoke Screen]

Smoke Screen is a good defensive skill for the entire team. Again the Grawl here focus on using projectile attacks. These include pulls. Using as many reflective and blocking walls is very important at this stage of the fractal. While not as powerful as reflective walls from the Guardian or Mesmer it is a Smoke Field and allows for combos for Area Stealth, Stealth, Blindness and Blinding Bolts.

Necromancer

[Plague] [Well of Darkness]
Plague, Well of Darkness

Mesmer

[Feedback] [Temporal Curtain] [Phantasmal Warden]
Feedback, Temporal Curtain (only with Warden's Feedback), Phantasmal Warden


Smashing the Bubble

The Champion Grawl Shaman will be initially encased in a bubble. While the team is throwing Infused Stones at him to break the bubble, Veteran Grawl will be trying to kill four hostages. If all four die then the Event will reset and the team will have to start this stage again.

This step is very easy. Lots of Infused Stones will drop during this stage and the Bubble will be down after killing two or three of the Veterans. Because of this there is no real need to equip snares or other crowd control abilities such as Frozen and Cripple.

As of 10+ Stones will drop less frequently and this step becomes marginally more difficult. As levels progress the Veteran Grawl will get a speed buff and more resistant to Crowd Control. This means that killing them quickly becomes a much bigger priority and can be much more difficult. A Guardian would be the optimal character to throw the stones as compared to other classes has less CC abilities.



Focus on inflicting:

[Cripple] [Immobilize] [Chilled] [Fear]

Using Ice Fields combined with Projectile and Bolt combo's will stack Frozen Duration.

Defeating the Grawl Shaman

The Grawl Shaman has some very powerful PBAoE attacks. This will make melee difficult but not impossible. Every 25-30% of his health he will form a protective bubble like the previous stage, however this bubble will only have 1 stack and thus means only one Infused Stone needs to be used to break it. When this bubble is up direct attack will do little to no damage however conditions will still work. So unless you have an Infused Stone close to you focus on inflicting conditions during this time.

As of 10+ this fight will get increasingly harder for even the best Guardians to keep melee characters alive for more than a few seconds. This is really a ranged fight. While this boss does not do any Agony he has a fire ball attack that can be very deadly. The terrain of this map will start falling more frequently and KDing players. As well as small red circles that will burn you if you stand in them. Reflection skills are so very useful here as most of the bosses attacks are Ranged and thus can be reflected.
If people die, res them. It's a very simple concept and will probably count to your daily too. It makes little to no sense to to res someone if they are down. Letting someone go from down to completely dead if they are not the main target of the bosses damage (which in this case is ranged and can be blocked) is very irresponsible of the team.

The Champion Grawl will maintain both Protection and Fury for the majority of the fight. These buffs usually have a long duration.
Arcane Thievery and Signet of Inspiration can be useful to make the fight faster and buff the team but I wouldn't make it a top priority.
In particular Null Field is very effective here due to the ability to rip Protection off the Boss similarly to Well of Corruption. Reflecting this bosses attacks especially at higher levels as the attacks become very powerful. They are also AoE damage similar to Fireball on the Elementalist's Staff attack so getting hit usually means multiple members of the team take a lot of damage and burning.



Grawl Shaman's Buffs:

[Protection] [Fury]

Recommended Skills (Again I do not suggest worrying about traits at this point. Normal set ups are fine and these skills are just as an aid rather than a real life saver.)

Mesmer
[Arcane Thievery] [Signet of Inspiration] [Null Field] [Feedback] [Temporal Curtain]
Arcane Thievery, Signet of Inspiration, Null Field, Feedback, Temporal Curtain

Guardian
[Shield of Absorption] [Shield of the Avenger] [Wall of Reflection] [Sanctuary]
Shield of Absorption, Shield of the Avenger, Wall of Reflection, Sanctuary

Thief
[Smoke Screen]
Smoke Screen is a good defensive skill for the entire team. The Grawl Champion only uses projectile attacks. This wall may not be as long lasting or as effective as some of the other walls it is a good substitue and useful while the other members of the team have skills on cool down. The blind effect can be very useful if a couple of team members are using projectiles from behind the wall it will keep the rest of the team slightly safer from harm as the boss will be temporarily blinded.

Necromancer
[Well of Corruption]
Well of Corruption

Legendary Elemental

Arguably the most difficult bosses in Fractals. This boss has two stages and both of which can be fairly tricky to handle. The terrain will burn you if you stand still for more than a couple of seconds so it's advised that you are moving at all times. Standing under the Legendary boss will most likely get you killed so avoid that at all times.

Powerful Elemental Slaying Potions
I recommend investing in some Powerful Elemental Slaying Potions. These provide you with +10% damage against and -10% damage from all Elementals. For this boss there really is no better Potion Consumable

Having any sort of Damage or Healing buff as a Food Consumable is again useful.

This boss has no agony until ten so it's worth watching his Fire Arrow attack and learning when to dodge it now before it starts having Agony and starts killing you. When the boss faces you, that is when it's about to use it's skill so get ready. The bosses Fire Arrow will surround the affected player with a Fire Shield similar to that created by a combo Field. However this Fire Shield will pulse AoE Burning to nearby allies and damage them if you stand to close to them. If you are surrounded by this Fire Shield make sure you avoid being close to your team for it's duration.



At 75% 50% and 25% the Shaman will go into a bubble and will take 40 attacks to get it down. This is the top priority at this stage. You need to get this bubble down or the boss will heal itself, making this fight a lot more drawn out than it needs to be.
When the Shaman goes into it's bubble it will spawn adds. At low levels it will be very few amounts of Elementals however as you progress the amount will increase. Kill these adds off as soon as possible and get back to the boss.



As of 10+ this is when this boss gets quite tricky.
Because of Agony a lot of people find that this boss can one shot you especially at 30-40+. The main thing to remember is that if someone is down, they need to be revived as soon as possible. If someone goes down stop attacking the boss if it's about to change stages. This will almost guarantee a party wipe. From 10+ more and more adds will spawn. It wouldn't surprise me if it increases the amount of adds as one per level. The main focus again is to get the bubble down as soon as possible. If someone goes down kill the adds around it. The downed player needs to call on a target and the team needs to help. Staying too far apart (unless you're a mesmer or guardian) is a very bad idea. If you go down you will most likely die as no one in the team is near you to res you. Here it's much more important to have skills such as Wall of Reflection, Feed Back, Shield of the Avenger, Dagger Storm and other reflective skills active. This will make the Elemental adds a lot more controllable. AoE is your friend here. Damaging lots of adds is a lot more effective than killing one or two. This will allow you to rally much easier if you go down.
When the adds have been killed it's a very useful idea to call out how long you have on your utility skills. Usually it's around thirty seconds (on skills like Dagger Storm) and the team should wait till you're ready before triggering the next bubble stage. Again if someone dies, wait to change the form until after you've ressed.


Conditions to watch out for here

[Burning][Immobilize]

Useful Skills for Legendary Imbued Shaman

Guardian

[Shield of Absorption] [Shield of the Avenger] [Wall of Reflection] [Sanctuary] [Binding Blade]

Shield of Absorption, Wall of Reflection, Shield of the Avenger, Sanctuary, Binding Blade

[Resolute Healer] [Spirit Weapon Mastery] [Improved Spirit Weapon Duration] [Master of Consecrations]

Resolute Healer, Master of Consecrations, Improved Spirit Weapon Duration, Spirit Weapon Mastery

Mesmer

[Feedback] [Temporal Curtain] [Illusion of Life]

Feedback, Temporal Curtain (only with Warden's Feedback), Illusion of Life

[Warden's Feedback] [Medic's Feedback] [Glamour Mastery]

Warden's Feedback, Medic's Feedback, Glamour Mastery

[Shadow Refuge]

Shadow Refuge is the most useful skill that a Thief can bring to Fractals and more importantly this part. This Skill gives an immobile player 20 seconds of Stealth. This means that if someone goes down in close proximity to the Shaman or is being focused on by a lot of Elementals then Shadow Refuge will not only cloak them, but anyone close enough so that they can have a very easy res. The one downside of this skill for this boss is that while you might get some healing from Shadow Refuge itself the Environment Effect of burning will affect you while ressing and the burning effect is long.

[Dagger Storm]

Dagger Storm Is perhaps the most enjoyable skill on this section. While providing the team with a huge defence for 7 seconds, it also provides the Thief with a large amount of rally opportunities. Not only does Dagger Storm reflect projectiles, it causes Bleed and Cripple to all the foes it hits. Thus making it one of the most effective skills for this Fractal. Depending on the team, Dagger Storm may not be recharged before the next wave of Elementals spawn so it's worth shouting out how long you have on cool down so the team can plan accordingly.

[Smoke Screen]

Smoke Screen is a good defensive skill for the entire team. The Legendary Shaman uses a projectile Fire Arrow which causes Agony. Standing behind a wall will prevent this attack hitting. While the majority of this bosses attacks are AoE rings this skill really shines when the Elemental adds spawn. Because they all use projectile attacks, standing inside the wall will give you about 7 seconds of invulnerability to the Elemental adds.

[Signet of Agility]

Signet of Agility is a very personal preference for this section. You're very likely going to be burning a lot and immobilised often.
The reason that this skill is really effective on a Thief is that it recharges nearly all of your Endurance by using it. This means that you can effectively Dodge 4 times before you run out of Energy. This is particularly useful when the Adds spawn or for evading the Shaman's Fire Arrow attack which will inflict Agony.

[Whirling Defense] [Spirit of Nature]

Whirling Defense, Spirit of Nature

[Plague]

Plague is a very useful skill for this boss if used at the correct time. I'd certainly rather see Plague on a Necromancer's bar for this boss than Lich Form. The ability to spam AoE Blind on all foes within your area is so very useful and will negate so much of the damage that the Elemental Adds spawn. Weakness is also useful from Plague due to the mitigation of some of the damage. Plague also grants stability which is useful here due to not getting Immobilised. While in Plague form, the necromancer's base power is doubled, base toughness quadrupled, and base vitality tripled. At level 80, this adds 916 power, 2748 toughness, and 1832 vitality.
This effectively makes the Necromancer the most powerful member of the team for 20 seconds.

[Well of Darkness]

Well of Darkness again is just another damage reducer. It allows for pulsing blindness over a large area which is quite handy for the Elemental section due to their immobilizing attacks. Blinding them stops the conditions being spammed as well as the

[Signet of Undeath]

Signet of Undeath is just as other res skills very useful for this area as it will rally downed team mates within it's radius. This is useful again if the Shaman is on top of the downed players and using AoE. It will also prevent the user from being burned from having to stand still to res a downed player. The burning effect from standing still has a very long duration and best to avoid.

Warrior

[Battle Standard]

For the Legendary Imbued Shaman Battle Standard is merely a safety net. If there are a couple of players are downed and underneath the Shaman then it's very risky for you to go underneath and try to res them. Using Battle Standard will give them a quick res and a buff. I'd not really recommend using it unless it's a particularly squishy team however it can be a real savior when it comes to higher levels. There is absolutely no point using this skill for the buff alone. Using this skill to res is the only real reason you would have it on your bar for this part.

[Sweet Revenge]

For the Legendary Imbued Shaman Sweet Revenge, is a very useful Traits for a Warrior. Vengeance is the most powerful of the downed skills available and this trait makes it 100% the most useful. It's pretty much guaranteed that if none of your team is around then you're unlikely to rally off the Elementals. Using vengeance and then killing one of the Elementals will make you rally and thus self res with no issue means that not only are you self sustaining, it also means that you are one of the most survivable player for the Elemental add section.

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Complete the Raving Asura's jumping puzzle



The Golems in this Fractal are considered Inquest. Powerful Potions of Inquest Slaying are optional here however as there are only 5 Golems, other postions might be preferred.

Jump to the Holding Area

Many people really don't understand the capabilities of their class. Especially when it comes to this Fractal. This is actually one of the easiest Fractals. So long as the team cycles and uses the correct skills there is no reason that anyone should fall or get knocked off at all during even higher levels.
If you are on a character that can do ranged AoE using ground targeting then for most of the Harpies you can hide underneath the platforms and not get hit at all. For the rest of the team you are pretty much going to rely on Reflective skills and blocking. Stability is your best friend from 10+ Due to the Harpies gaining the ability to shoot powerful lightning balls out and knocking everyone in its range off the platform.

The other option, rather than killing everything, is for everyone to have spy kits and providing a Mesmer or Thief has Mass Invisibility or Shadow Refuge you can skip past all the mobs and spam Spy Kits until the Stealth skills have recharged (mainly for Shadow Refuge) This is obviously only possible with a Thief on the team. It will usually take 2 to 3 Shadow Refuges to get the whole way to the top so many teams will avoid this option.

[Wall of Reflection][Shield of the Avenger]["Stand your ground!"][Sanctuary][Shield of Absorption][Protector's Strike]

[Resolute Healer] [Spirit Weapon Mastery] [Improved Spirit Weapon Duration] [Master of Consecrations]

[Blurred Frenzy][Mass Invisibility] [Feedback][Phantasmal Warden][Temporal Curtain] (only with Warden's Feedback)

[Warden's Feedback] [Medic's Feedback] [Glamour Mastery]

[Dagger Storm] [Smoke Screen] [Shadow Refuge]

[Whirling Defense]

[Well of Darkness][Plague]

[Balanced Stance]

Escape the Holding Area

Ascending to Old Tom

Old Tom

Ascend to the top level

This section is identical strategy wise to Jump to the Holding Area.

Defeat the Raving Asura

Racial Selection

Asuran

[Pain Inverter] [Radiation Field] [Technobabble] [Summon 7-Series Golem] [Summon D-Series Golem] [Summon Power Suit]

Human

[Prayer to Kormir] [Prayer to Lyssa] [Avatar of Melandru] [Prayer to Dwayna] [Hounds of Balthazar] [Reaper of Grenth]

Charr

[Battle Roar] [Hidden Pistol] [Shrapnel Mine] [Artillery Barrage] [Charrzooka] [Warband Support]

Norn

[Call Owl] [Call Wurm] [Become the Bear] [Become the Raven] [Become the Snow Leopard] [Become the Wolf]

Sylvari

[Grasping Vines] [Seed Turret] [Summon Druid Spirit] [Summon Fern Mastiff] [Take Root] [Healing Seed]

Potions

Powerful Potion of Elemental Slaying x10

1 Pile of Crystalline Dust
1 Ruby Orb
1 Sapphire Orb
1 Jug of Water

There are more elemental fights than any other foe in Fractals. This is one of the most important potions that you can buy. The dredge fractal, assuming you get the legendary elemental boss. The end battle on the volcanic fractal and the Elemental Source battle on Snowblind all have large amounts of elementals to fight. These are also some of the foes that do the most damage and potions will make a difference.

Powerful Potion of Grawl Slaying x10

1 Pile of Crystalline Dust
1 Mushroom
1 Jug of Water
1 Elaborate Totem

Powerful Potion of Dredge Slaying x10

1 Pile of Crystalline Dust
1 Orichalcum Ore
1 Mithril Ore
1 Jug of Water

Powerful Potion of Sons of Svanir Slaying x10

1 Jug of Water
1 Viscious Claw
1 Elaborate Totem
1 Pile of Crystalline Dust

Powerful Potion of Outlaw Slaying x10

1 Pile of Crystalline Dust
1 Vial of Powerful Blood
1 Slab of Red Meat
1 Jug of Water

Powerful Potion of Krait Slaying x10

1 Pile of Crystalline Dust
1 Vicious Fang
1 Jug of Water
1 Intricate Sunstone Jewel

Powerful potion of inquest slaying x10

Food

Rare Veggie Pizza - (increase condition duration by 40%, increase condition damage by 70)

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This section is a quick overview of each foe. What attack types they do and what skills counter the exact foe. Obviously their type defines what type of potion is useful when fighting. -Note- This is a repeat of what has already been said in other sections however it is a bitesize version and much easier to see and read. It has no tactics associated with it other than foe specific ones that may not have been outlined previously




Aquatic Ruins Fractal

Krait
Veteran Krait
Barracuda
Jelly Fish
Giant Jellyfih

Cliffside Fractal

Novice
Veteran Novice
Chanter
Veteran Chanter
Legendary Divine Archmage (Bottom)
Legendary Divine Archmage (Top)


Snowblind Fractal

Veteran Sons of Svanir
Veteran Elemental
Elemental Source
Legendary Son of Svanir Shaman


Solid Ocean Fractal

Veteran Irikuanji
Veteran Giant Irikuanji
Jade Colossus
Mini Jade Colosuss
Jade Maw
Veteran Jade Tentacle

Swampland Fractal

Mossman
Bloomhunger

Underground Facility Fractal

Dredge Oscilator
Dredge Bomber
Veteran Dredge
Veteran Elemental
Legendary Elemental
CHampion Russian
Legendary Dredge Mining Suit

Urban Battlegrounds Fractal

Captain Whatsherface
Legendary Whatshisface
Veteran ele
Veteran monk
Veteran cultist?
Veteran warrior




Volcanic Fractal

Veteran Grawl Shaman
Champion Grawl Shaman
Legendary Grawl Shaman
Veteran Bat?
Summoned Elemental

Uncategorized Fractal

veteran Harpy warrior things
Old Tom
Snuggles
Mitten
Cat people
Cat people #2
Veteran Ascalon
Champion Flame Shaman
Champion Ettin
Champion killer of men (White Rabbit)

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This isn't particularly Fractals specific information however I will touch lightly on Combos during the guide (and reading linearly will have touched on) Combo Fields are the most overlooked things right now. A lot of people don't understand combo fields. They are perhaps the most effective tools that the party can utilize.

Combo Finishers

First it's most important to understand what a Combo Finisher is. These are the skills that the player will be using once a Field is up. Most physical attacks are Combo Finishers. These are the attacks that would hit a foe with a Combo Field or without a Combo Field. It's irrelevant really to the Combo Finisher what fields are down. It's mostly useful to the caster of the field. However knowing what Fields are down does allow for a slight change in what skills should be used.

Blast Combo Finishers

[Mighty Blow][Purifying Blast][Shield of Wrath][Arcing Arrow][Banner of Defense][Banner of Discipline][Banner of Strength][Banner of Tactics][Battle Standard][Earthshaker][Stomp][Magnetic Inversion][Rocket Boots][Shockwave][Supply Crate][Cluster Bomb][The Prestige][Necrotic Traversal][Putrid Explosion][Putrid Mark][Arcane Wave][Churning Earth][Comet][Dragon's Tooth][Earthquake][Eruption][Detonate][Magnetic Wave][Phoenix]

Leap Combo Finishers

[Leap of Faith][Bull's Charge][Eviscerate][Savage Leap][Shield Bash][Jump Shot][Heartseeker][Magnetic Grasp][Tidal Wave][Illusionary Leap][Phantasmal Swordsman][Phase Retreat]

Projectile Combo Finishers

Projectile effects are applied directly to the skill's target. Projectile finishers are unique among finishers insofar that some projectiles, particularly those from skills with no cooldown and that fire multiple projectiles, will only combo 20% of the time. For such skills, the combo indicator will still appear and the projectile will take on the visual appearance of the combo, but will not necessarily apply the additional effect.

100% Finisher

[Aimed Shot][Bladetrail][Brutal Shot][Impale][Kill Shot][Mariner's Shot][Pin Down][Throw Axe][Throw Bolas][Tremor][Surprise Shot][Throw Shield][Retreating Grapple][Timed Charge][Net Wall][Concussion Shot][Counter Throw][Crippling Shot][Crippling Talon][Crippling Throw][Hunter's Shot][Path of Scars][Point Blank Shot][Quick Shot][Black Powder][Body Shot][Dancing Dagger][Disabling Shot]][Escape][Headshot][Piercing Shot][Scorpion Wire][Shadow Shot][Sneak Attack][Arcane Blast][Frost Volley][Hurl][Shockwave][Stoning][Magic Bullet][Mirror Blade]

20% Finisher

[Bleeding Shot][Dual Shot][Volley][Explosive Shot]][Hip Shot][Tranquilizer Dart][Homing Torpedo][Crossfire][Long Range Shot][Rapid Fire][Ricochet][Splitblade][Deluge][Repeater][The Ripper][Trick Shot][Unload][Vital Shot][Rock Blade][Stone Shards][Phantasmal Duelist][Necrotic Grasp]


Whirl Combo Finishers

[Binding Blade][Protector's Strike][Whirling Wrath][Cyclone Axe][Staggering Blow][Whirling Axe][Whirlwind Attack][Whirling Defense][Dagger Storm][Death Blossom][Tornado][Phantasmal Warden][Phantasmal Berserker][Deadly Catch]


Combo Fields

Ethereal Fields:

[Chaos Storm] [Feedback][Null Field] [Time Warp][Veil][Spectral Wall]

Blast combo finishers create: Area Chaos Armor

Leap combo finishers create: Chaos Armor

Projectile combo finishers create: Confusion

Whirl combo finishers create: Confusing Bolts

Fire Fields:

[Purging Flames][Hallowed Ground][Combustive Shot][Bonfire][Flame Trap][Boil][Burning Retreat][Burning Speed][Flamewall][Lava Font][Ring of Fire]

Blast combo finishers create: Area Might (3 stacks)

Leap combo finishers create: Fire Armor

Projectile combo finishers create: Burning

Whirl combo finishers create: Burning Bolts


Ice Fields:

[Frozen Ground][Frost Trap]

Blast combo finishers create: Area Frost Armor

Leap combo finishers create: Frost Armor

Projectile combo finishers create: Chill

Whirl combo finishers create: Chilling Bolts

Light Fields:

[Line of Warding][Ring of Warding][Sanctuary][Shield of Absorption][Symbol of Faith][Symbol of Protection][Symbol of Swiftness][Symbol of Wrath][Wall of Reflection][Temporal Curtain][Veil][Well of Blood]

Blast combo finishers create: Area Retaliation

Leap combo finishers create: Retaliation

Projectile combo finishers create: Remove Condition

Whirl combo finishers create: Cleansing Bolts

Lightning Fields:

[Lightning Cage][Static Field]

Blast combo finishers create: Swiftness

Leap combo finishers create: Area Swiftness

Projectile combo finishers create: Daze

Whirl combo finishers create: Vulnerability Bolts

Poison Fields:

[Choking Gas][Chillblains][Corrosive Poison Cloud][Radiation Field]

Blast combo finishers create: Area Weakness

Leap combo finishers create: Weakness

Projectile combo finishers create: Poison

Whirl combo finishers create: Poison Bolts

Smoke Fields:

[Black Powder][Smoke Screen][Murky Water]

Blast combo finishers create: Area Stealth

Leap combo finishers create: Stealth

Projectile combo finishers create: Blindness

Whirl combo finishers create: Blinding Bolts

Water Fields:

[Geyser][Healing Rain][Healing Spring][Healing Turret]

Blast combo finishers create: Area Healing

Leap combo finishers create: Healing

Projectile combo finishers create: Regeneration

Whirl combo finishers create: Healing Bolts

Dark Fields

Dark Fields are created using:

[Shadow Refuge][Well of Corruption][Well of Darkness][Well of Power][Well of Suffering]

Blast combo finishers create: Area Blindness

Leap combo finishers create: Blindness

Projectile combo finishers create: Lifesteal

Whirl combo finishers create: Leeching Bolts

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Playing a Thief in Fractals is probably one of the most difficult. I primarily spec a Thief and I can sympathize with the difficulty of getting into groups, The sheer amount there seem to be at the higher levels baffles me quite honestly. However I do believe that the Thief can be a very important member in the team.
The Thief allows for pretty much AoE condition damage at a very high rate. The short bow is probably one of the most devastating weapons if used correctly. Dual daggers again are a very powerful weapon set for a Thief. Not only a huge condition ability but the ability to successfully evade a lot of damage using Death Blossom.
Venom's are very useful in Fractals especially if trait-ed correctly. While your damage output will be significantly lower on a venom build the ability to give all your team mates the venom as well as yourself is a huge power that should not be ignored.
A Thief in my opinion is NOT a direct damage dealer. It is in no way comparable to the DPS that a Warrior or Ranger can put out. A Warrior has a much larger health and toughness pool and has much more ability to support a team directly than a Thief at melee range. That being said people that dismiss a support Thief are probably blind to their overall abilities. Most people will sit on Sword/Pistol and swap to either a Short Bow or Dual Pistols. That does work for a lot of Fractals. The Underground Facility Fractal will totally counter that as the Dredge are immune to blind, one of the Thief's best friends in melee.
Might buffs, AoE Weakness, AoE Poison, AoE Blind and AoE Bleeding are all abilities that Thief's have that are generally overlooked by teams and dismissed as not useful when in fact they are the subtle support that most teams survive with.
Not only does a Thief have all these great abilities, it is also the only class with a fairly "spammable" stealth. Essentially 20 seconds of Stealth allows a Thief to solo a fair few parts on Fractals that can be tedious at higher levels.


Sword (Main hand)/Pistol (Offhand)
[th:sword/pistol]

Pistol (Main hand)/Pistol (Offhand)
[th:pistol/pistol]

Shortbow
[th:shortbow]

Dagger (Main hand)/Dagger (Offhand)
[th:dagger/dagger]

Dagger (Main hand)/Pistol (Offhand)
[th:dagger/pistol]

Sword (Main hand)/Dagger (Offhand)
[th:sword/dagger]

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Mesmer is one of the most interesting classes of all in my opinion. After watching my sister play one through fifteen levels of Fractals and watching higher level Mesmers play through Fractals I am convinced that a Mesmer is a must in all Fractals. Their abilities are fairly unique and no other classes have the abilities that Mesmers do. Just to break down a few as I could be here all day, the ability to Reflect Projectiles is as I have said the most important in Fractals and only the Guardian is even close to matching the Mesmer's ability to do it. A Mesmer has at least five skills that lets them reflect projectile skills if not more. AoE Quickness again is an unparalleled ability, no other class can offer this ability. Not only does Time Warp grant Quickness it gives the ability to inflict Confusion on enemies with Combo's.
Clones and Phantasms (a long with shatters) again are a very effective way to negate damage from the team, either by them soaking up a few of the attacks or by interrupting, removing defiant stacks very quickly or just putting some more damage into the team. A Mesmer is also able to inflict huge amounts of Condition damage or has the ability to provide support and heals for a team. This in my opinion is less useful than raw DPS but higher level teams usually need two people that have the ability to support especially on the more difficult Fractals.

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Guardian is without doubt the most defensive character for Fractals. Most higher level teams pretty much require one and most teams benefit from having more than one. They have the ability to reflect projectiles which is one of the most key features. Since the 30/1/2013 update they have changed and cannot be as effective on the Solid Ocean Fractal however this was more an added perk rather than a must have for a team.
Guardian is one of the only classes that I could specifically want to have an armor set with Power, Toughness and Vitality on it although I personally use Power Precision Toughness on mine. Many people disagree and swear by PTV for most classes. I will come to this in the other professions however the main point is that there is no point trying to absorb and reduce one hit KO damage. It's much more simple to totally remove damage from the equation by dodging it completely. The only two classes that should ever be taking direct damage, be it from AoE or single target attack damage is a Guardian and a Warrior. A Guardian should have a melee set and a ranged set. A ranged set is primarily for boss fights. The damage that bosses do at higher levels makes it fairly ridiculous to try and attack them at higher levels with melee. Most normal mobs will want to be controlled. While many think that a great sword on a Guardian is not effective I would tend to disagree. The ability to group up a mob will significantly decrease the time taken for the mobs to be killed. Great sword on a Guardian is also fairly offensive compared to the rest of it's weapon sets.



[gu:greatsword]
[gu:sword]
[gu:hammer]
[gu:staff]
[gu:mace/shield]
[gu:mace/focus]
[gu:mace/torch]
[gu:scepter]

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Playing a Warrior in Fractals of The Mists

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Playing a Necromancer in Fractals of The Mists

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Contrary to belief I do not expect any high level Elementalist to be specced as a Healing Ele. I disagree with the idea that a team needs excessive healing. If a team is at a high level Fractal it needs to have the ability to dodge most attacks that are fatal. Elementalists have lots of combo fields that are probably their main attraction. Mist form, Armor of Earth, Magnetic Aura are just some of the damage negating skills that an Elementalist has access too. Again in Fractals dodging damage or negating it completely is a lot better than trying to soak up damage that will one hit KO you. I think that many people do have some point in Water magic, this is to keep themselves alive. This is not the way I would choose to go. Elementalists have the ability to summon Elementals which can soak up alot of damage, buff the team or condition the enemies. This ability makes them fairly valuable to a team. Conditions on Elementalists are fairly weak and I would encourage avoiding speccing into much condition damage as other classes do it much better. AoE damage is very useful in quite a lot of Fractals. This is one thing that Elementalists excel at above most other classes. They have Crowd Control abilities and a couple of interrupts. Again all useful for Fractals and abilities that most Fractal Elementalists overlook.

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Playing a Ranger in Fractals of The Mists

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Playing an Engineer in Fractals of The Mists

Please don't reply to this thread directly - There are still more posts for me to add ^_^". Any suggestions, mistakes or otherwise please contact me in game @ Broken Mariah or Broken Arietta. Alternatively contact me on ToA TS, PM me directly on the forums.