Fractals Of The Mists Introduction
So you are looking to delve into Fractals, here is all the info you need to get you started!
What Is Fractals Of The Mists
Fractals of the Mists - commonly referred to as Fractals - is a 5 player instanced based content similar to dungeons. They are made up of a wide variety of shorter mini-dungeons each with their own storyline and objectives. Some having lore going back into Guild Wars 1 even!
Players will be faced with random debilitating effects which get harder the further you go in levels known as Mistlock Instabilities - you will also have to deal with a unique debuff known as Agony which can be countered with Agony Resistance
Getting There
To gain access to Fractals you will need to south of Fort Marriner Waypoint — [&BDAEAAA=]
And enter the Asura Gate
If one of your party members is already in Fractals a menu will prompt to join in the instance
You will also be able to access Fractals from Mistlock Sanctuary - this will require you to own the Mistlock Sanctuary Passkey which can be purchased from the Gem Store
Scales And Tiers
Fractals will progress through two systems - Scales and Tiers
Every time you beat a scale higher than your Personal Fractal Level you will progress and be able to do higher level Fractals
If you are in the same party as someone with a higher Personal Fractal Level you can do higher scales, but this will not scale your Agony Resistance in any way so you will still need to do that yourself!
Agony
Agony is a unique debuff that only occurs in Fractals, you will first start to notice it at Scale 20 - Agony will reducing healing and will deal a large percentage of your maximum health as damage per second. The amount of damage inflicted gradually increases as the difficulty scale increases, starting at 10% and capping out at 180%. Some Mechanics, Mistlock Instabilities, and enemy attacks will apply Agony
You can help to mitigate the damage received from Agony by getting Agony Resistance (AR) - this can be done by adding Agony Infusions into your ascended or legendary weapons, armors, rings, trinkets, and back pieces, you can get the infusions from running daily Fractals, or just buy them off the Trading Post
You can get higher + Agony Infusions but upgrading them through Artificer or buying upgraded ones from INFUZ-5959
You will only get a certain number of slots for Agony Infusions, but you are luckily able to upgrade rings and back pieces to have more available slots! This is called Attuning and Infusing (Warning: This will destroy any infusions left in the rings/back piece)
There is a few other methods to gaining AR, such as potions called Anguished Tear of Alba which you can purchase from Dessa's Alchemist / Mist Potion Brewer. You will also gain +5 AR from Mistlock Singularities that you use within the Fractal you are working on - these are unlocked by leveling up Masteries.
Mistlock Instability
Mistlock Instabilities will start on Scale 26 and they are special modifiers that will change how the Fractal plays out
Some of these do get very hectic and fun, they will start to overlap in the higher tiers as you will have 1-3 of them active starting at tier 2. If you hover your mouse over the icon in your buff/debuff location it will give you the full tooltip!
Fractal Attunement / Masteries
One thing you can do to prepare for Fractals is to start leveling the Fractal Attunement Masteries which are part of the Central Tyria mastery tracks - each mastery will give you bonuses weather its in the form of stats, extra rewards or the ability to use Mistlock Singularities, which give you a instant rez from downed state, and +5 AR
Fractal Potion
Fractal Potions are items that will give you a buff within the Fractals of the Mists there is three main types beside the Anguished Tear of Alba - they will be found as normal versions or Large Potions which grant a full 5 stacks of whichever potion is used
Mist Offensive Potion
Grants Fractal Offensive: Outgoing damage in fractals is increased by 3% per stack. Outgoing condition damage in fractals is increased by 3% per stack
Mist Defensive Potion
Grants Fractal Defensive: Incoming damage in fractals is reduced by 5% per stack
Mist Mobility Potion
Grants Fractal Mobility: Movement speed in fractals is increased by 5% per stack. Endurance recharge rate in fractals is increased by 10% per stack
Infinite Mist Omnipotion
Grants five stacks of the Mist Offensive Potion, Mist Defensive Potion, and Mist Mobility Potion effects
Dailies/Weeklies & Recommended
There will be 2 types of Daily Fractals you can do, the normal daily ones which grant chests with fractal relics, agony infusions, and other such items, doing the highest tier of these will complete all lower tier dailies and grant you their rewards.
Then there will be Recommended Fractals which will give you a Fractal Research Page - these are time gated items required to craft the Legendary back piece Ad Infinitum - we have a guide if you are interested in looking into that!
Weekly Fractals will be broken into four sections - one per tier, but the goal will be the same. You will need to complete a certain number for unique fractals in each tier. This is another method to getting those Fractal Research Pages, but these ones give a guarantee of 2 per weekly chest!
More Guides
