How to Get Into Endgame Content — Guild Wars 2

Last week, I shared some interesting data I gathered from the community regarding raids and their difficulty. As always, I enjoyed seeing the community's response to this, but I was intrigued to find that a significant portion of the discussion was not on the data itself, but on players' experiences trying (and oft failing) to get into raids.

That inspired me to get to work on the article you're reading today. As a veteran raider who got my start in GW2 and an experienced raid trainer, I'm going to teach you how to approach raids as a new player, including the proper etiquette and resources that might help you along the way. This will primarily be done through the lens of raids in GW2, but the same concepts largely apply to other endgame content like fractals and even to other games.

Prerequisites

This article is going to primarily discuss raiding culture and how to find groups, but we'll start by briefly going over the baseline requirements to start raiding in GW2. To be frank, there are very few of these. If you have a set of exotic gear in the right stat prefix and a half-decent build (you can find good ones on Snow Crows and Metabattle), you're set. No, seriously, that's all you need.

Many players seem to be under the impression that they strictly need a full set of ascended gear before they get into raiding, but this is untrue—in fact, I and many others actually recommend raiding as one of the best methods for getting your first set of ascended armor. The difference in stats between exotic and ascended gear is quite small, only around 6%. A decent understanding of your class and equipping the correct stat prefix will make a far bigger difference in your performance; many players who do have full ascended still perform terribly because they lack both of those much more important factors.

In short, the important takeaway here is that you absolutely don't need ascended gear as a prerequisite to raid, and raids in general aren't nearly as demanding as new players tend to expect. The only content for which you do strictly need ascended gear is higher tier fractals (because the agony mechanic forces you to slot infusions into ascended gear) and a handful of the 10 or so hardest fights in the game (because they're hard enough that that 6% difference is actually important). On the topic of infusions, those are also not at all necessary to start raiding. Stat infusions are incredibly expensive and only account for ~1-2% of your build's DPS, and as such are something you should only invest in much later.

If you still want to start working on your ascended gear, I have a guide that can show you the best options available. Though, again, this isn't necessary to start raiding.

Raiding Culture & Etiquette — How to Find & Join Groups

The biggest hurdle to getting into raiding is learning how to find groups to actually run the content with. You have a few options available to you:

1. Play with people you already know, such as a guild or up to 9 friends who happen to play the same videogames as you. If you can utilize this method, you'll avoid most of the problems that this article discusses, but this only works if you're already friends with raiders (or people who want to learn to raid alongside you).
2. Join one of the many community Discords dedicated to raiding. There are a variety of serves to choose from with various focuses—some on harder content, some on statics, and some on raid training (if you're reading this, these are probably the ones you wanna try out). Snow Crows has a handy list of GW2 servers, which you can find here.
3. Use the in-game LFG tool to find and join groups. This is the option most players will use, and it's the one most vulnerable to the common issues new players face. This will be the focus of this article.

Raiders Are People, Too — Toxic Elitists & Toxic Casuals

I often see complaints from new players regarding how difficult it can be to find groups in LFG that are actually willing to take them. These complaints are valid, as the LFG system does a rather poor job of supporting new players; the way some players tend to react to these issues are, on the other hand, quite unreasonable.

It is understandable to be frustrated when all you see are experienced groups who don't want to take in completely new players, but it's important to look at this situation from the perspective of the other players. Those experienced groups are also filled with real life humans who, just like you, are trying to have fun playing a videogame. It is entirely reasonable to not want to have to teach an encounter to new players, or to expect that the players joining your experienced run will actually be experienced. Expecting these things is not "toxic", nor is it "elitism"; if you're disrespecting a group's time by pretending to have experience when you don't, it also isn't "toxic elitism" for the group to kick you. 

In the above scenario, the new player joining a group clearly labeled as not intended for them is the one who is actually engaging in toxic behavior, not the experienced player who kicks them form the squad; in community discussion, players who exhibit this type of behavior are often referred to as "toxic casuals", the evil twin to toxic elitists. To be entirely clear, both of these things are bad; the point being made here is that simply being a new player does not make someone incapable of being toxic, nor does it entitle them to experienced players' time. Nobody is "owed" training from a group that just wants to get an efficient clear done and log off.

To better visualize the issue, let's do a bit of roleplay. I'd like to introduce you to my new OC (original character) who I just made up right now as I'm typing this. His name is Tom McRaider. Tom leads a 10-man static of longtime friends. They've been playing GW2 since it came out, and they meet every Friday to play for 3 hours and kill as many raid bosses as they can in that time. They aren't hardcore players by any means, but they are quite skilled courtesy of playing consistently for over a decade.

Unfortunately, tragedy has struck for Tom and his static. One member had to cancel last-minute, as their mother's sister's cousin's son's grandmother's dog's surprise birthday party is being held during raid time! They've been forced to grab a fill from the in-game LFG so that they can run. As they are an experienced group, they post their ad in the "Experienced" tab of the raid LFG, and Tom even made sure to add an additional "please be exp with all fights" to the text. He doesn't ask for any killproof because he can't be bothered. In this scenario, you are the new player who happens to join Tom's static from the LFG.

Let's imagine that you are a completely new player who has never raided before. You've been looking at listings in the LFG for an hour and haven't seen a single training group, so you finally got fed up and joined Tom's group despite not having any experience. You figure that they'll be able to easily carry you through all the fights, and this way you'll be able to get some experience to be able to join other experienced runs in the future. This is a win-win situation, right? Well, as it turns out, learning the fights mid-run is more difficult than you thought, and you don't understand any of the strategies that Tom and his team discuss in the chat. There are a lot of mechanics that you can't just be "carried" through, so you're dying on more fights than not, and on a few occasions you even cause squad wipes. You only get through two raid wings before Tom pauses to ask you if you're actually experienced. You aren't, so you don't answer and hope he'll just forget about it and move on; instead, he kicks you from the squad after a minute of silence.

Roleplay over, time for the assessment; you will be graded on this. Question 1: was Tom being a toxic elitist in this scenario? With the full context and both perspectives, it should be pretty clear that he wasn't. He clearly established that his group was intended for experienced players, and only kicked you after a multitude of mistakes and a refusal to communicate. Your lack of experience was holding the group back and wasting the time of everyone involved—Tom, his team, and even yourself, to a degree. Out of respect for his team's time, it was quite reasonable for him to remove the problem player and find a replacement who's actually experienced.

I have been in the position of Tom McRaider here numerous times throughout my raiding career. Based on my experiences, this sort of behavior seems to be one of the most common responses new players have to the raiding community—they join experienced groups, underperform, and are reasonably kicked for wasting everyone's time, then complain that the experienced players were being "toxic" or "gatekeeping" by doing so. To be clear, some players will be needlessly cruel and toxic in these scenarios, and I'm certainly not saying that doesn't happen; the important takeaway is that being removed from a group you did not meet the requirements to join is not, by itself, toxic in any way.

So, how can we avoid situations like these? We want you to actually find groups that are willing to run with you, and we want to avoid exposing you to any actually toxic behavior while also ensuring you don't cause problems for poor, innocent raiders like Tom. What can you do to solve all of these problems?

As With Most Things, The Solution is Communication

What a concise subheading, huh? As we established above, raiders are real people who're just trying to enjoy their game time the same as you are. As such, they're also real people that are capable of making decisions and of being lenient if communicated with. With that in mind, the absolute best thing you can do as a new player getting into raids is to be honest and up-front about your experience and to politely follow proper raid etiquette.

Raid etiquette is simple—most LFG listings will state what kinds of players they're looking for (be that in experience level or role); your job is to adhere to those requests. If a run is listed in the experienced tab or includes some variation of "exp" in the title, it probably isn't for a new player like you; save both yourself and the commander a headache and don't try to force your way in. Similarly, if a listing is asking for only specific roles, don't join if you can't play the specified role. For example, most commanders will try to sort out supports (healers and boonDPS) first, then open the squad up to DPS after they have all four support slots covered. If you see such a listing and can only play DPS, wait until the commander changes the listing to ask for DPS before you join. The same principle goes for any other role being asked for.

I described above how many new players get frustrated by the relative lack of training runs in LFG, and I'd like to reiterate again that this is a reasonable thing to get frustrated by. If you'd like to try your luck with experienced groups, you can do so, but you must be polite and up-front. Join the group and immediately clarify that you're a new player, and ask the commander if they'd be alright with you joining despite lacking the experience. You'd be surprised how many players will go from becoming frustrated and kicking a problem player to enthusiastically teaching mechanics if you simply communicate your lack of experience to begin with. Teaching a new player can be very gratifying if you know that that's what you're signing up for; watching a new player grief your run because they pretended to be experienced, on the other hand, is just frustrating. It's important to note with this method that some commanders will tell you "no", and you need to be prepared to accept that. Remember that these players are specifically looking for experienced teammates; if they choose to let you join them knowing that you lack experience, they are willingly giving up some of their playtime to help you out. It's great when players do this, but you aren't entitled to anyone else's time; it isn't "toxicity" if the group you try to join refuses.

Another option available to you is to make your own LFG listing, or to ask around in mapchat in one of the relevant zones, such as the Lion's Arch Aerodrome or the Eye of the North. Most players tend to be very hesitant to make their own LFG listings—this goes both for your fellow newbies and for the experienced veterans that might be willing to lead a training run. If you do the "hard" part first, like-minded players may flock to your run. The GW2 community is also filled with people who love to teach and talk about the game; even if you don't find a teacher, you can often find players who are willing to explain mechanics and buildcraft to you. Making a listing yourself doesn't guarantee you'll manage to get a full squad of 10, of course, but it's an option worth considering.

Killproof, the Bane of New Players

"Killproof" refers to the various items and other methods that players use as verifiable proof that they have experience with a given encounter. In GW2, this generally comes in the form of boss furniture tokens (the consumable items dropped from raid boss coffers), titles (from achievements earned in raids and other content), and legendary items (specifically those that require raiding to unlock and craft). Some players also use external sites like kp.me or wingman to check for experience. You have to sign up for kp.me to add your API key to its database. Wingman, on the other hand, works based on combat logs recorded using add-ons like arcDPS; even if you've never used such an add-on yourself, you might appear on the site if you happened to be in a squad or party with someone else who recorded the log.

Most new players tend not to jive with the concept of killproof. I and many other veteran raiders are with you—I personally think it's silly, and I can never be bothered to check for it for my own runs. That said, if you encounter an LFG listing asking for kp in the wild, you'll get absolutely nowhere by making a fuss about it or by trying to sneak into the squad without actually having the proof. As I've gone over at length here, other players have every right to choose who they play with, and killproof is a convenient way for them to guarantee that everyone who joins the squad actually meets their standards for experience.

If you consider yourself experienced in an encounter but don't meet a listing's kp requirements, you can utilize the secret technique described in the previous section—communication. The exact amount of kp asked for is usually arbitrary; the main point is just to prove that you're experienced, after all. If you admit up-front that you don't meet the requirements, explain how much experience you do have, and ask politely, you may find some good results. As a general note, it's also worth knowing that kp simply isn't used as frequently on the NA server as it is on the EU server.

A variation of kp you might encounter in the wild is something I'd like to call a "pulse check". Rather than asking for specific proof of encounter experience, these listings will instead task players with completing a simple task to prove that they're capable of reading and following directions. Common variations of this are "ping boots", "ping banana", or "ping your favorite skill/item/etc"; "ping" here means using shift+L-click to send what's essentially a hyperlink to the item/skill/etc into the chat.

Terms You Ought to Know

Now that I'm done preaching at you about raiding etiquette, I'd like to end this off by going over some general raid and LFG terminology. The GW2 wiki also has a page dedicated to common abbreviations.

Roles:

• DPS — stands for damage per second. Can be used to refer to the statistic, or to a player whose primarily role in their squad or party is to deal lots of damage.
• Healer — a player whose job is to heal themself and other players. A 5-man party will usually have 1 healer, and squads are generally divided into 5-man subgroups that each have 1 healer. Healers are almost always expected to provide one of the core boons (alacrity or quickness) in addition to healing.
• Tank — the player that a boss is fixated on. Unlike other MMOs, GW2 doesn't have a standard tank role; instead, tanking is usually done by a healer. The main job of a tank is to control where the boss moves and which direction it faces. Different bosses use different methods to decide who the tank is, but the most common one is targeting the player with the highest toughness stat.
• Boon — the GW2 term for standard buffs, like might or fury. In LFG listings, refers to a player who provides one of the two core boons (alacrity or quickness) to their party. Sometimes used as part of a larger abbreviation, such as bdps (boon-DPS).
• Quickness and alacrity have a massive impact on your group's performance, and each party usually has one player providing each to the group. One of these will be the healer, and one will be a DPS. Quickness is often shortened to 'q' in abbreviations, and alacrity to 'a'; you may also see them shortened to 'quick' or 'alac.
• qDPS = quickness DPS
•  qheal = quickness healer
• aDPS = alacrity DPS
• aheal = alacrity healer
• Kite — common term used for a variety of special roles used in certain specific encounters, usually requiring a specialized build. If you don't already know exactly what kiting in a given encounter entails, assume this is a role you can't fill.

LFG: 

• Exp — short for 'experienced'. If a listing includes this, that means the commander is looking for players who have beaten the encounter before and understand all the major mechanics.
• KP — stands for 'killproof'.
• LI — stands for legendary insight, a currency that you get 1 of per raid boss kill. Some people may use this interchangeably with KP.
• Strike — the old term for what are now called "raid encounters", instances which generally contain just a single boss. Many players still call them strikes, because the new terminology sucks.
• EZ3 — refers to a group of three especially easy strikes from the Icebrood Saga: Shiverpeaks Pass, Fraenir of Jormag, and the Voice & Claw of the Fallen. Any player with zero raiding experience can easily tackle these.
• Fast 5 — also sometimes called the IBS 5. Refers to a group of five relatively quick and easy strikes, including the EZ3, Boneskinner, and Whisper of Jormag. The latter two have some actual mechanics to watch out for.
• Most other acronyms you see in LFG listings tend to be shortenings of the names of bosses or encounters. If you see one you don't recognize, you can check the raid UI (accessible from the aerodrome) for a name that matches.

Conclusion

In case this didn't get across throughout the article, I'd like to make it entirely clear that my purpose in writing this isn't to talk down to new players at all; rather, I simply think it's important not to beat around the bush when it comes to the problems they can cause or encounter while trying to enter the raiding community.

While this article focused almost entirely on advice for dealing with the in-game LFG, my personal recommendation if you want to start raiding is to join one of the various raid training discord communities. Having access to a group of people entirely dedicated to the task of training is simply a much more convenient, consistent, and productive environment for learning. That said, I know the Discord route doesn't work for everyone, so I hope in those cases the advice I provided here proves helpful. At the end of the day, the most important thing really is just to remember that your fellow players are people, too, and that nobody is entitled to anybody else's time.

If you've been on the fence about trying out raids, I hope this can give you the motivation and necessary insight to finally give it a go. I look forward to seeing lots of new faces.