How to get started in RAIDS - a Guild Wars 2 Guide 

Here is a link to the full text guide for those who prefer it: guildjen.com/beginners-guide-to-guild-wars-2-raids/ Small update: Banners and Spirits have been reworked since this videos release and no longer give unique buffs. They now are just additional sources of boons. They are no longer as required as they once were.

"Note: If you are ever joining a group for strike missions which are meant to be training for raids and are much much easier; and they ask you to link your LI, those people are insane." This cracked me up.

I'd really love a guide into healing. I really wanna play as a healer in these raids, but nothing in the game prepares you for that or no way of knowing if you're doing it right. It would be amazing if Muk could cover the healing professions and how they must be operated in these raids. I mean, who else would do it if not Muk? lol

When it comes to what stats to pick for your charachter, the rule of thumb is "generalize the group by specializing the individuals" So think of it this way, if im here to do dps, then pick a stat set that has ONLY damage stats, or a healer should pick stats sets that maximize their healing output, and boon duration. All other stats should be left behind. Be the absolute best that you possibly can be.

I'm a well experienced Raider and can confirm, this is the best guide for raids ever. Althoufh one may argue mentioned support roles are subject to change, because of balance patches and future updates/elite specs.

I've been really enjoying playing as a ranger lately and your druid video was a huge help for really understanding the spec. since I love playing support I recently brought my druid into my first Gorseval training run and had a lot of fun with it! looking forward to raiding more as support

I have done 3 raids so far, but now adays its hard to play raid again, since theyre rarely wellcoming new player/ traning run.

So much content in this game and you have videos on all of them. It's hard to decide where to start!

this was a great guide :) even though im a story only player over the past 7 years but this vid helped alot to me understanding more of what gw2 has . One day i would like to complete a raid ty :)

just found your channel days ago and wanted to thank you for explaining in a very basic level to a total newbie like me all the stuff on this great MMORPG

i've been watching these vids for the last week, they have helpen me A LOT. i was stuck in gw2 not knowing what to do, but now i feel like end game is closer then i thought. thanks a lot!

"Burn me it's a stingray" .....IVE NEVER NOTICED

Bless you. I was browsing reddit trying to figure out how to get into raiding. Thank you

Really nice Tutorial explaining the utility classes and the tips and tricks are really appreciated

You are absolutely right about the 20k dps thing. I read a little and tried a little, and I averaged about 20k dps on the practice golem (full boons) the first time I tried (without really knowing a good rotation on my Berserker, just whacking it with axes). Once I get a real rotation down and get more knowledgeable I'm sure I can push 25-30. Great guide. I will probably watch this 6x before trying my first raid xD

Helpful info. Really enjoy GW2 & just getting into Raids, I wish you didn't need a 'PhD' prior to getting into it. That's one thing I don't enjoy about this game. However videos like this & the discord cannels are EXTREMELY helpful. Thanks

You can see it in the video but Mukluk doesn't explicitly mention it; RTI is a great place to get raid training too. Training raids are posted almost every day and the environment is super relaxed and friendly.

This is the channel we need but we don't deserve...keep doing what you doing Muk 🔥

Such a helpful video. Liked and subscribed straight away. Thank you!

That's kinda why I'm not a huge fan of LFGs. Most of the community for Raid LFGs in mostly any game are so uptight about their requirements to join. It's practically like applying for a job! "You can"t join unless you have this gear/experience" but you can't GET that gear/experience because no one will let you join. It adds too much stress/anxiety to the Raid so it's difficult to even bother trying. Same for Fractals. It'd rather have a matchmaking system, personally

Great video ! As always :v I'd just add that, since you talked about cqfb, I'd have liked a little part about Condi RR Renegade for the alacrity boon, since I often find myself having to explain what is this (sometimes very useful) role. Also 8:27, lmaoo the real question about why W7 is before W6. Mysteries in gw2's universe :shrug:

"I have a guide about that " love to hear it o7

Wow just now i was about to search on this topic and you uploaded this video 3hrs ago :D thanks man. btw The Butterfrost guy here XD dont know if u can remember from twitch chat .

You are just the boss ! Very handfull for a player like me who don't know well high lvl content :) thanks a lot

I really appreciate your videos and content !

Love your content. Really informative

Great video Muk

very good guide, thank you

This is a great guide.

Great guide!

Thank You bro!

Great video! Do you have a video of what squad compositions new Raiders should try so that they will have a better chance to succeed and can concentrate more on learning the mechanics and strategies of the Raids, instead of just trying to stay alive and mashing keys?

This video helped me set my characters up (and build up some courage) for finally getting into raids. I was fortunate to find a relaxed training run that has now turned into a regular group (we're all still learning some things), and some of us are close to finishing our Envoy II armor collections. Cheers Muk, stay awesome!

Thanks so much 🎉

Thanks Muk!

A nice and compact guide, I like it. I suppose we all have our own points we'd love to be added to/changed about this video but instead I will take it as is because I think it covers the basics well enough. Nothing too in-depth to scare people off and no flawed explanation to make people feel overconfident. The sum up at the end was a nice addition to let people off with a TL;DR. Only thing I wanna say is I would love a follow-up video on this at some point, perhaps to cover the single classes/roles and their "job" in a raid a little more in-depth. E.g. I believe a lot of people don't know how much value certain boons (can) have, when to use what utility or why class 1 is generally better at boss X than class 2. People might join trainings and things are fine there, but I see easily avoidable and common mistakes being made on a daily basis in PUGs (pick up groups) in LFG. I raid pretty much daily for the fun of it. Nothing can really prepare you for the LFG system it's literally the wild west there at times (there are good groups, too) but having a good raid or class knowledge before joining those can really help with your decision making. Edit: Perhaps also add an explanation for 5 man boons in a 10 man squad and how it works. This is also a problem I see on a daily basis. Like commanders locking the squad so noone can move themselves and then putting both quickness Firebrands in subgroup 1 and suddenly 2 wipes and 10 minutes later subgroup 2 complains they have no quickness. God knows why.

Yesterday i cleared Wing 1 for the first time and it was my first raid experience. Well having experience from doing fractal cms a lot i have learned how to position myself/dodge so as not to die and pick up fast how new mechanics work. I also got healing/pdps/cdps/alacrity classes so i can cover various roles and be flexible. It wasnt really difficult but it still took around 3 hours and the problem i see here is how hard it is to get into raids. I managed to find a group with an easy going commander who didnt care about fast clear or LI at all. But most groups do, same way i do at fractals. You dont want to spend hours on 1 boss. And training groups arent that often in EU lfg. So i have to wait for a similar opportunity to come up again (or make my own group but i cant say i know enough about this yet to command) and that is just Wing 1. Then i have 6 more Wings to learn. I mean it will get easier since i will have LI to show eventually but it still looks like a process that can take months considering i dont even have that kind of time to spare every day. Just clearing fractals takes up to 2 hours

Great channel 👏

Amazing , you are great

I find it funny when players spend half an hour or more over perfecting compositions when they could simply run the instance another minute or two longer

Definitely linking this to guildies that ask how to get into raiding

Ty so much

Did my first raid 2 weeks ago. Started with Sabatha, because a guildie invited me after someone left. It was.... interesting. Fun though!

Something he didn't mention but I think it's kinda nice to know Dps can be extremely different from boss to boss: IE: Average dps in KC or Cairn is usually between 20k to 30k, while Samarog and Adina are usually between 10k to 18k (ofc this is average pug groups, there will be crazy ppl who will do more)

Oh thank goodness, I am about to hit 80 and nervous about what comes next lol

I am nervous doing raids cause I never done is before..and i know people love to rage.. This helps .. Thanks ❤

I hope to one day get to this point

muk, i did not know you come from the netherlands :D (The auto-generated subtitle is a Dutch subtitle :D)

Had a dude join my squad once for strike .. He got annoyed and left because we didn't link LI .. Then we all laughed and killed the boss. Not only that .. it was the frickin Shiverpeak pass strike! I didn't even know how to react XD

super helpful, I will get my feet wet eventually. Do you recommend Strike Missions before raiding?

Learning Druid, So frost spirit is 5% more dps for power builds? How about sun spirit? Should you take them if you have both condi and power dmg in the team? Pick based on that? Also is Stone Spirit more for Fractals or? Just want to learn

Will you maybe make a new version of this in the near future with the balance patch changes? Or not until the new expansion/new elites come out?

Now that I got this information, all I need is a good kick in the back to start raiding :)

2 condi renegades can give 10man alac aswell with RR trait

Hey Muk, I just watched this video and it really helped. Thanks! Are you still doing Raid training? If so how do I signup on Discord I don't see the signup like you showed in the video?

I was just thinking all week about how I wanted to try raiding

a+ for the strike LI burn

My biggest issue with potentially getting into raiding is that I am a skill clicker and I have never been able to learn rotations (they seem pretty complex usually). Most DPS I think I've ever done to a single target is about 12k.... and it's hard to keep that going for long periods of time. Been able to do well in fractals most of the time (did do all the way to 100), though never attempted a CM.

Hey i need help with role iam playing scourge with both healing/buffs and damage. Iam playing condition damage vitality healing power and concetration. Which role should i fullfil thanks :D

TheDornishSpear.2597 This reminds me of the old school arcade racers like jetmoto, but with the incredible graphics of this game. Truly incredible.

Been trying for weeks to get training - no dice. Anet needs to make an auto trainer since people won't do it anymore.

You talked about Power and Condition damage, but I've always wondered - power obviously affects melee, but will it also affect the 1 attack? For example, necro attacks are almost always ranged (axe, staff, etc). Does power affect the auto attack, or the 'magic damage' when marks are triggered?

"500li All strikes". Group gets wiped by Kodans because dps, top notch, mechanics 0.

Crazy that there's no practice modes in the game you could do yourself solo. To test your build and learn mechanics.

Might hit you up on the Discord for training. Legit know W1-5, but haven't completed W6 or W7, and wanna get 'em done before static forms.

This is useful because I keep getting kicked out when playing raids cause I don't know what to do ... It's annoying, haven't got a single raid done......

do i need to sub in order to join those training raids?

looking to return to game after 2 years out

Hey Muk, you still doing raid training? I want to get to raids but ppl are so toxic.

I want to do raids, but only for mastery points (I'm collecting them all)... Any tips on finding groups that'll accept someone who has never done these before

Here are the links to the raid academy discord and snow crows for ease of access Snow Crows: snowcrows.com/ Guild Wars 2 Raid Academy: discord.gg/gw2ra

I see you made good use of that thumbnail.!

Question, I do CMs in fractals on a regular. Could I adapt to raids easily? It’s quite daunting

XD what is he saying in the intro? Mukluk dukluk splot following the original squad the fourth here??

For ppl who want to find a build, Snowcrow (SC) or LuckyNoobs (LN) website will provide you w/ most infomation needed. But keep in mind that some builds are aim for speedclears / hard to use perfectly. Training area and The golem are your best friends

When is the guide for how to say your name coming out

I do have one question, a lot is mad3e of being able to do 30k+ dps on the dummy, and almost as much in raid. Yet in the dps meter I see now and then in the video, there were 3-4 people doing 14k+ and most doing under 10k. So if I can do a max of 5-9k dps in open world is that considered normal then? The best I can do on the dummy is about 11k.

Hey Muk, what about agony resistance? I know that raids have agony mechanics.

do you have a guide for strikes?

I`ve one general question: How can I easily join players like Mukluk on other EU or US servers to take part in their missions ? Would "teleport to a friend" be enough for that ?

what class do you play in this mukluk?

once again great explanations, thank you. but it just makes me more depressed knowing that i'll never be able to raid. my guild are all irl friends and our top dps is me, at 13k lol i wish raids weren't built around perfect or near perfect optimizations as the base requirements. isn't that what the challenge mote is for? i remember when gw2 was announced, they said you don't need specific builds or roles, everyone can do everything. but not with raids. i dont even want the rewards, i just wish there was a story mode that i can get through with my friends so i can experience the lore behind it all. but i guess i'll just resort to youtube and wiki for those instead. and im not saying they should make raids easier. no, keep it at the same difficulty because obviously there are players that enjoy the challenge. but it's not hard to make an easier version of it. and i know there are lots of conversations going on about the pros and cons of this. but i've seen good solutions to this posted and wish they can move towards something like that. and like i said, i dont even want the rewards if the issue is with an item's prestige. just don't lock a content behind a wall.

what glove skin is that you have? cant find it on the wiki

Has anyone noticed that there are 2 men walking with the same steps in the background? :D 09:24

I am NEVER gonna do raids but yet I watch this video because you made it lol :3

What is that Website? Lol you can see all info.

do we need any expansions to join raid or strikes??

Looks like fun in both. Rather watch your vids than try and past the narcissistic team leads.

Those gloves. I need to know what they are.

im now seeing this 3 years later...i miss 1 man alacrigade T_T no matter how bad i was, people loved me cause i had 1 job no one else wanted XD

you need a mastery for sabouteur at trio or you dont see them ..

I want to get into raids, but every squad I join ends up kicking me at the last second.

to anyone who decides to read the comments, fair warning about raiding. getting into training groups can be a big hassle, i was very unlucky and i had to juggle a few discord channels in order to finally get a spot. muk does say lfg may require some li\kp but be warned, the community have decided on a very arbitary number that does not represent how hard the raid is and is very bloated and as such, pugging in this game is very very unaccessible. this goes to the general raiding experience, in comparession to other mmo like wow or ffxiv, these raids are very easy yet its a complete pain in the butt to join them, u have to grind an unreasonable amount of li inorder to get into a raid.

Boy that banner section aged like some fine milk 😂

Im new need a raid guild lol

Such a "shame" that Mukluk plays on NA servers. Would have liked to practiced raids with him :) (EU)

This is all great but I dont have the time or will to have to tweak every bit of my build to up ease other players. I want to go in kick ass and get out with a reward. That is why I like to play solo. If I f*k up I am the only one that loses and I will just try again.

What's that glider at 7.33?

Raids are really fun, but I usually hate playing with people from USA. They're so obsessed with hurrying people...same as fractales

Those people are definitely insane