Hey all.
So we've been raiding now for 3 weeks and I'm starting to see some groups players getting frustrated with our progress. One of the main questions I keep getting sent to me is the following:
Why can't we, an organized guild group not beat Vale Guardian when a random group of pugs with no TS can do it with minutes to spare?
I've noticed 2 major reasons for this:
1. High player turnover and lack of commitment in sign-ups - this means that our teams are changing so much that we can't keep a consistent group together and we never know if we are going to have enough to form teams until the event is supposed to start. This is leaving me scrambling to find people to fill slots and sometimes turning away guildies because we can't field a team
2. We are lacking in DPS - basically we are failing at all counts in meeting the raids DPS checks
So how do we mitigate this? For starters we need to start seeing a bit more commitment form those wanting to raid. I have no problems throwing a team together last minute but do realize that will make our goals to be a mid-range raiding team hard to reach. The next and probably the most important thing though, is lack of DPS. GW2 has set raids up as a catch 22. This means that while ArenaNet wants to promote a very play how you want mentality, it is almost impossible with timers and DPS checks. Timers ensure that teams must do a specific amount of damage by a certain time to be successful. For vale Guardian you must be into the first split by the 6 minute mark - that gives you a narrow window of 2 minutes to get things done.
Now I know the zerk meta gets a lot of flak but there is no changing that it is needed based off the way GW2 combat works, and if we want to have a realistic chance of beating Vale Guardian everyone needs to embrace that as fact and understand that they should be kitted out the best damage gear possible. This means that all our team mates should be in DPS gear. The only exceptions would be a Tank (should still be able to do decent dps and not need more than 1600 toughness) and Condi Specs (Sinister or Viper, Carrion if absolute necessary). We need to remember that each player has a heal and while we do have Druids now for healing, a team should not be relying on that 1 player to keep everyone up. A Healers job should be to keep the tank up, everyone else should be able to keep themselves up by being aware of what is going on and positioning. Traits are where you can deviate somewhat but you should always keep in mind that DPS is king and trait accordingly.
I'd like to open up this thread for discussion and observation and suggestions for how we can up our game. It's clear that everyone understands the mechanics of the fights but might not necessarily know how to gear or trait to max out that dps. You're opinions all matter so please post away. This thread isn't meant to belittle or tell people they are doing it wrong. It's simply things that me and a few other high level raiders have noticed. If we can get over this hump I have no doubt we will start seeing success.
~Soren