Preparing

[Skalda 1]

Hello, I'd like to start raiding once pink day is over and i would like to prepare for it. Currently i play elementalist and little bit of thief and since i never raided before i would like to ask you which builds you would like me to have prepared?

Sincerely Skalda

[Viridian 191]

Hello Skalda,

we honestly don't expect you to have any specific builds prepared. The only important thing to keep in mind is, that your build should fulfill the role you sign up for. What that means is that if you for example sign up to a raid as a damage dealer (DPS), your build should be designed to primarily do damage and you should aim to mostly have gear with stats that would help with that (for example Berserker or Viper stats depending on your damage type). Otherwise, what skills and traits people choose can be very personal and depends a lot on your playstyle. If you join our raids, feel free to experiment with your skills and traits to find out what works best for you.

Note: Increasing your survivability by adding toughness/vitality stats or taking traits is generally not necessary, as we have dedicated healers/supporters focused on keeping you alive, while a lot of incoming damage can be avoided by for example dodging or generally dealing with the mechanics of an encounter.

Personally I like to experiment with my builds and sometimes share and discuss them with my friends through the Guild Wars 2 Build Editor. I am sure it's not everybody's thing, but I believe it is worth looking at it at least. Feel free to share your build as well, maybe to get some feedback, should you decide to come up with your own!

 

If you don't know how to come up with your own build or don't want to, you can look at for example the Snow Crows website to get a general idea of how raid builds look, but should keep in mind that their builds are designed for speed clearing and this amount of optimization is not necessary, if you just want to enjoy raiding with friends for the fun of it, and certainly not required by us. You can check out their Elementalist builds here, and their Thief builds here. You can also look through their guide section, as they give some hints on how to deal with specific situations that can be quite helpful.

 

I hope to see you in a raid soon!

Cheers, Viridian