It boils down to five essential concepts a group must fulfill permanently in combat. Failing one of these will decelerate the speed and smoothness of the run:
PuGs rarely play optimally as a group, causing people to generally deal lower damage and perform worse overall due to a lack of synergy. If you are one of those who seek to improve, we highly encourage you to find a static via our #looking-for-static channel on Discord or apply to Discretize . We encourage the fractal community to strive for self-improvement and help in any possible way on our Discord server or in-game.
For people without the time to do this, we recommend quite an open comp when using the in-game LFG. While every class in the game has multiple strong builds for fractals, building your party around certain boons is still vital to help have a somewhat efficient clear.
By choosing builds that complement each other to bring the necessary boons, conditions, CC, and support, a run will typically be a smoother, more enjoyable experience than one without these things. You first goal is to cover the important boons: Might, Fury, Quickness and Alacrity. Additionally, you as a group should aim to maintain vulnerability on your targets. Finally, builds that can bring high CC and damage mitigation, such as reflects, Aegis and Stability are much more beneficial to run than pure damage dealers.
Example Power Composition
Typically, we play power compositions on most normal mode fractals, Nightmare CM and Shattered Observatory CM.
Heal Chronomancer 🡢Go to build is one of the strongest, if not the strongest heal build currently for fractals. It can provide either Alacrity or Quickness, as well as 25 stacks of Might and Fury. It has multiple options for on-demand Stability and Aegis, as well as other mitigation such as reflects, plenty of condi cleanse, and Crowd Control. Finally, it has a unique toolkit for T4s with access to blinks and movement abilities for skips along with Stealth and some Superspeed. This composition uses it as an Alacrity provider. Alternative Options - If the heal spot serves as a Quickness provider, or you are in a no heal group. We recommend playing Power Renegade 🡢Go to build or Power Alacrity Willbender in this slot.
The final three spots are for pure DPS builds. In PuGs, whether a build is META or not doesn’t matter. All that matters is if the build is good, which every class in the game can make. A good build has an equipment combination, traits, and skills that make sense for the encounter it is being played on. Try to pick a build that complements the rest of the party and be willing to compromise if the boon supports need extra help with situational boons (such as Stability or Aegis), condi cleanse, or providing some boon strips if needed.
Example Condition Composition
Condition compositions are typically taken on Sunqua Peak CM and Silent Surf CM and can be beneficial to run on some T4s.
Heal Chronomancer 🡢Go to build is one of the strongest, if not the strongest heal build currently for fractals. It can provide either Alacrity or Quickness, as well as 25 stacks of Might and Fury. It has multiple options for on-demand Stability and Aegis, as well as other mitigation such as reflects, plenty of condi cleanse, and Crowd Control. Finally, it has a unique toolkit for T4s with access to blinks and movement abilities for skips along with Stealth and some Superspeed. This composition uses it as an Alacrity provider. Alternative Options - If you are playing with an Alacrity Heal provider Condition Quickness Herald can be taken, which shares its boons in a massive 600 range and is great on Silent Surf, however it has less access to CC. For a more offensive option, Condition Harbinger 🡢Go to build is a great choice. Condi Firebrand 🡢Go to build is an option with powerful utility. Still, care has to be taken when sharing quickness to ensure high uptime.Heal Firebrand 🡢Go to build can also be played as a Quickness heal option.
Condition DPS
The final three spots are for pure DPS builds. In PuGs, whether a build is META or not doesn’t matter. All that matters is if the build is good, which every class in the game can make. A good build has an equipment combination, traits, and skills that make sense for the encounter it is being played on. Try to pick a build that complements the rest of the party and be willing to compromise if the boon supports need extra help with situational boons (such as Stability or Aegis), condi cleanse, or providing some boon strips if needed.
What are the differences between the organized groups and how PuGs play?
One of the most significant differences is that they don’t always understand how their actions translate into the game. In the beginning, learning to do the mechanics correctly, flawlessly, and reliably is the most critical task. PuGs usually assume the worst, so one player in the party is a healer, serving as a backup.
Another difference is that PuGs often claim that CC is solely the job of the supports. That is false since they can only knock out about half of the bars. CC is a group effort involving all party members, EVEN IN CONDITION COMPS!
Many PuGs like to play Virtuoso or Scourge. That is fine, as you don’t know what to expect of your fellow PuG mates and prefer to be self-sufficient. But please don’t be afraid to run more supportive skills such as Signet of Humility or Spectral Grasp ! It is worth more than the +500 DPS you gain from having a minor DPS utility instead.
Adjusting your gear for the encounter
When playing in PuG groups, you will often find a considerable disparity in damage dealt by players (even when playing the same build). While this doesn’t consider differences in rotation, or account augmentations such as Mist Attunement 4, adjusting your build to the encounter can significantly impact the damage you are dealing. While you are not forced to do this, if you want to optimize your gameplay, it is an excellent place to start.
Another thing that PuGs sometimes miss is the benefits of a proper prestack. We are not talking about spending ages placing traps in the arena or on the boss spawn or spending time precasting extra weapon skills, but simply before starting an encounter (or mini-boss / mob group in T4s) spending a couple of seconds before starting a fight making sure you have 25 stacks of Might, Fury, Quickness and Alacrity. When starting the fight, you will instantly be doing as much damage as possible, casting skills quicker, and getting cool-downs back sooner. It also gives you a significant reserve of boons in case something goes wrong in the fight later, and you miss some applications, allowing you to recover more quickly.
A proper prestack on 100% boon duration will give your party 25 stacks of Might for 40s, and 30s of Fury, Quickness, and Alacrity. This can be achieved in around 5 seconds or sometimes less. To do this, you need one player to place a fire field and have everyone use at least one blast finisher. Each blast finisher provides three stacks of Might with a base duration of 20s. At the same time, Your support players should share Quickness and Alacrity, and then you can start the fight. Check each build page for build-specific prestack skills.
