What kind of gear do I need before I can join raids?

[Lelling 402]

I'm interested in joining my first ever in forever raids, but I am worried I might not have the correct gear!

What kind of gear do I need before I can sign up to an OC raid?

 

Thanks

[Viridian 191]

At the beginnig, you should be completely fine with full exotic gear with stats, runes and sigils that are appropriate for your class and it's role within the raid squad.

What stats, runes and sigils to use depends very much on your class, it's build and your personal playstyle, so I cannot give a general answer. But, the following should give you an idea of what most common class setups aim for (I hope). Those are just examples, so if you have something different: as long as your build works well with it, it's completely fine 

Toughness Stats

Some bosses require a tank and aggro on the player with the highest toughness stat in the group. Most tanks will have at least 1,401 toughness, so as long as you are below that, you will be fine. You should pay close attention to any traits and skills that might increase your toughness (or that of others! pls don't use those ) and factor that into your stat choice. As an example, PS Warriors get 400 additional toughness while reviving through the Determined Revival trait in the Tactics specialization. So a Warrior should not have any toughness stats on their gear to make sure to always remain below the toughness of the tank (or make sure to never revive anyone ).

 

Healers

Most commonly, healers use a mix of Cleric's and Magi's stats. Cleric's trinkets are easier to obtain than Magi's, but they have toughness on them, so you should be careful with them.

For runes your best choice is probably Superior Runes of the Monk, which you can get for dungeon tokens from the Ascalonian Catacombs. It takes some farming, but the good thing about this is, that you can buy exotic Magi's armor for the tokens, which then already has the Monk Rune in it  Other than gear you buy for Karma, this gear is salvagable, so if you ever want to upgrade your gear, you can save the rune! If you don't want to farm the dungeon (or the pvp/wvw reward track), a cheap alternative is Superior Runes of Water.

Most healers use a Superior Sigil of Transference and a Superior Sigil of Water.

Condition DPS

Most condition DPS setups aim for something like 100% condition duration on the primary conditions they apply (with food!). For that, your gear should mainly have Viper's stats. Once you are at the desired condition duration, you usually fill the rest of your gear with Sinister stats.

For runes you really need to see what complements your build best, most common options are Superior Runes of the Berserker, or 4x Superior Rune of the Nightmare/2x Superior Rune of the Trapper. The Nightmare Runes you can obtain for dungeon tokens from Twilight Arbor. Some builds work well with Superior Runes of Thorns. You can get those for Airship Parts at the Itzel Vendor in Verdant Brink.

Options for sigils are most commonly Superior Sigil of Geomancy, Superior Sigil of Earth, Superior Sigil of Bursting, Superior Sigil of Malice, or Superior Sigil of Agony, depending on what fits best for your build and the rest of your gear.

Power DPS

Power DPS classes generally use Berserker's stats. Critical Chance is important for power builds, so if your Critical Chance is low (it should be around 64% without food, boons and effects, but with your own class specific modifiers), you can substitute some Berserker's stats with Assassin's stats or use a Superior Sigil of Accuracy (7% Critical Chance).

Most guides tell you to use Superior Runes of the Scholar, which give you a 10% damage increase when your health is above 90%. For beginners, I would recommend Superior Runes of the Flame Legion instead. They give you only a 7% damage increase against burning foes, but enemies in raids usually have burning stacks applied to them, so that bonus damage is pretty much certain. (Also, they are a lot cheaper )

For Sigils, there is basically no way around the Superior Sigil of Force, even though it's rather expensive . For the second sigil the Superior Sigil of Air or Superior Sigil of Accuracy are most common, depending on your build's Critical Chance.

Note: Other than condition dps or healer classes, power dps classes usually really feel an increase in their character's damage when upgrading gear from exotic to ascended. If you have the possibility or the resources to get an ascended weapon for your character, it would be worth it, as it would increase the damage of your weapon skills by 5%. Upgrading trinkets is slightly less effective (still worth it!), but they are relatively easy to obtain, for example for Fractal Relics, Guild Commendations or Laurels. Armor isn't really worth it at the beginning, so personally I wouldn't worry about it, unless you have some lying around 

 

Remarks

Ultimately, raids get harder the further you advance, so depending on your choice of class, you might want to upgrade at least some components to ascended somewhere along the way. But in the beginning that is really not necessary 

Chronomancers and PS Warriors have a bit more "special needs", and a bunch of different options, so I didn't want to go into details, unless that's what you want to play and need it? 

If you don't have every item in the best stat combination or are missing (for example) a back piece, it's not a tragedy. Your gear doesn't have to be perfect! If you are unsure about it, you can always contact a member of the Raid Team directly and we'll try to sort it out with you. 

I hope this helped!