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The original was posted on /r/guildwars2 by /u/SirSuperCaide on 2025-06-19 14:43:42+00:00.
If you frequent this community, I'm sure you've seen the post yesterday about GW2's raiding scene. There's a lot of truth in that post, but also a lot of misconceptions. As an active member of the raiding scene, I wanted to give my two cents on the matter and hopefully help new players to understand the raiding community a bit better—and help those interested get into raiding themselves.
First, who am I to make this post in the first place? I've been actively playing GW2 for about 5 years now. I got my start into endgame content with the raid training guild [XL], and after learning all the fights and getting my armor I led trainings there myself for about a year. I've since cleared most of the difficult encounters in the game, and I'm currently progging the W8 CMs with my static.
Raiding Etiquette
Killproof, and Why Raiders Use It
"Killproof" are the guild hall decoration tokens dropped by raid bosses on each weekly kill. If you hang onto these, they can serve as proof of roughly how experienced you are with a fight. If you have 100 kp for a boss, that means you've cleared the fight at least 20 times and probably know what you're doing.
It should be made very clear that kp isn't a perfect system by any means, and one I have more than my share of qualms with. It's technically possible to obtain large amounts of kp without ever actually learning a boss just by getting carried in different groups. Because the amount you get from each kill is random, it can also be pretty inaccurate; to use the example from above, someone with 100 kp for a boss has killed it anywhere from 20 to 100 times. Bosses also don't drop kp if you kill them multiple times in a week, so kp will always undersell the experience level of the most dedicated players. In addition to all these issues, wasting a bunch of inventory or bank slots storing useless tokens is just plain annoying.
I personally don't store any kp at all. It should be noted that the reliance on kp is almost entirely an EU phenomenon. It exists over on NA, yes, but only on a small portion of LFG posts, and usually for fairly low amounts. Most listings here that do ask anything of you usually just test your ability to follow directions, with a requirement such as "ping boots" or "ping bananas". To my understanding, the scene is very different on EU, where almost all listings have high kp requirements. For those of you on EU, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
So, why do raiders use kp? It's simple. Most raiders are not interested in training new players. They've been doing these fights for years and just want a smooth weekly clear. Kp is a method of ensuring things go smoothly. As discussed above, it isn't a great system, but it is a convenient and simple one. The percentage of people who would obtain any significant amount of kp by getting carried is low, and most raiders don't care too much about how experienced you are as long as that experience level is at least "can clear the fight consistently".
Joining Runs With Killproof
As stated, most raiders just want a quick weekly clear when they do raids. They haven't signed up to teach new players the fights, and they aren't interested in wiping repeatedly to a boss they could clear first try with a better group. It must be made very clear that this is not a moral failing by any measure. Experienced raiders have the right to enjoy a smooth run just as much as new players have the right to want to be taught the fights.
GW2 is a multiplayer game. Everyone involved wants to have fun playing it the way they want to. It is important to respect other players' wishes; this means you don't get to impose your wishes onto an existing group or listing. If a listing asks for kp, that is the squad leader's way of indicating that they are only interested in playing with experienced players. If you aren't experienced with the fight, you won't get anywhere by trying to force your way into this group that wasn't made for you.
Here are the main takeaways here:
- Regardless of your opinion on kp as a system, if a listing asks for kp you don't have, don't try to force your way in. In particular, if you've never done the fight before, the most likely result is that you'll cause the group to wipe repeatedly until it either disbands or kicks you; pretending to have experience you don't only wastes everyone's time, including yours.
- Commanders will often accept certain rewards as substitutes for actual kp, in particular Envoy armor or Coalescence, since these indicate you're experienced enough to have obtained them.
- Some commanders/groups will be alright with letting you join if you're upfront about the fact that you don't meet kp requirements, or that you've not done the fight but have read/watched a guide; others will not. Feel free to ask respectfully, but respect the commander's decision.
General Raid Etiquette
Aside from the issue of kp, there are some additional things you ought to know about raiding etiquette. In general, you should always try to follow the commander's directions and respect other players' time.
If you see a raid listing asking for a specific role, such as quick, alac, healers, or certain fight-specific roles, do not join unless you can play that role. The majority of players in LFG only play DPS, so commanders often like to specifically fill the other roles they need first. If you join a squad and cannot fill the roles the commander is asking for, they will likely kick you, and they will be entirely in the right to do so. Just wait patiently; the commander will open the squad up to DPS when they're ready.
When leaving a squad early for any reason, it's also customary to indicate what role you were filling. For example, if you were the healer for the second subgroup, you might say "-aheal sub 2" before leaving. This makes things much easier for the commander, since they know exactly what they need to replace without having to go through everyone's roles again.
Finally, as I said above, it's important to always follow your commander's directions. If they're doing something a certain way, they usually have a good reason, and it isn't up to you or any other individual members of the squad to argue with their choice. At best, all refusing to follow directions will do is waste everyone's time; you will rarely get the commander to change their approach. At worst, you will be kicked for actively working against the rest of the squad.
To provide an example, yesterday in a strike squad we accidentally started a fight before one of our members was ready, so the commander told everyone to gg (for those who don't know, typing /gg in instanced content will instantly kill you, allowing the squad to reset the fight quickly). One player refused to do so, instead trying to solo the boss for over a minute until they died. They were promptly kicked for wasting everyone's time and failing to follow instructions. Don't be like that guy.
How to Get Into Raids
Bar to Entry
First, let's dispel a very common misconception among the playerbase. In terms of gear, the bar to entry for raids is actually very low. You don't need ascended gear, infusions, or even a meta build to participate in raids. Almost all raid content can be done comfortably in exotic gear as long as you use the correct stat prefix and things like sigils and runes. There are plenty of great online resources for builds, and if you ask in LA or the raid lobby you'll often find players who are more than happy to explain things to you. There are also plenty of external communities on Discord built entirely around helping new players.
The LFG Kinda Sucks
If you've spent any time at all in online discussions with this community, you'll have seen plenty of writeups about the many problems of the LFG system. Despite the issues, it's basically your only in-game tool for getting into endgame content. It works relatively fine for easier content like strikes or fractals, but getting into raids using just the LFG can be tricky.
First, as mentioned in the previous section, trying to force your way into experienced groups as a new player will never work out. Instead, you should focus on the training category in the LFG. Unfortunately, it's true that very few listings are posted here. Most players who teach raids do so via external communities, and though they may use the LFG to fill extra slots, mostly-filled squads will fill up very quickly. If you don't see any listings, I recommend making one yourself. Making an LFG listing doesn't require a commander tag. Name it something like "new player looking to learn Wing 1", and if you're lucky, a player might join and take command of the squad to teach you.
External Communities
Nowadays, most raids—trainings and otherwise—are organized in external communities on Discord due to the aforementioned suckiness of the in-game LFG tool. If you're serious about wanting to learn raids, your best bet is to join one of these communities. There are quite a few different communities each with their own methods of organizing and teaching, so if one doesn't work out for you, I highly recommend trying out another.
Some communities I can recommend:
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