Level your masteries

Whilst you are training your elite specialization in the previous section, also think about unlocking and spending mastery points to unlock masteries. A few raid encounters require the use of specific masteries whilst other masteries merely make some fight mechanics easier to manage. There is a specific raiding mastery track but it will not be unlocked until you have killed one boss in one of the Heart of Thorns wings.

Below is a recommended list of masteries that you should start training as you work through getting your character geared. They are ordered in terms of most important to least important.

Necessary to complete certain encounters:

• Glider Basics – from the Gliding mastery track from Heart of Thorns.
• Updraft Use – from the Gliding mastery track from Heart of Thorns.
• Ley Line Gliding – from the Gliding mastery track from Heart of Thorns.
• Shifting Sands – from the Jackal Mount mastery track from Path of Fire.

This secondary list of masteries is not necessary to complete any encounters, but not having them will cause other members of your raid squad to either complete a mechanic for you or help transport you over certain obstacles using a or .

• Forsaken Thicket Waters – from the Raids mastery track from Heart of Thorns (this track is only unlocked after you have killed your first raid boss).
• Explosive Launch – from the Raids mastery track from Heart of Thorns (this track is only unlocked after you have killed your first raid boss).
• Bouncing Mushrooms – from the Itzel Lore mastery track from Heart of Thorns.
• Nuhoch Stealth Detection – from the Nuhoch Lore mastery track from Heart of Thorns.
• High Vault – from the Springer Mount mastery track from Path of Fire.
• Canyon Jumping – from the Raptor Mount mastery track from Path of Fire.

On each raid wing guide page it is explained in more detail which raid wing requires or optionally needs all of these masteries!

Ready to raid!

Once you have practiced your build you should be ready to join a training guild run or a beginner raid through the Looking for Group tool. You can visit the explore section of the site which lists Training Guilds page for a list of training guilds that would be very happy to train you as you enter raids for the first time, you can also read the Joining Squads guide for advice on finding training runs or low requirement groups in the LFG tool.

You will probably find that you will encounter situations that you didn’t practice for or a mechanic might interrupt your rotation during a raid. Just go back and practice at the golem to learn how your rotation might change during an actual fight due to phase lengths and so on.

Afterword

You have now geared a character and started raiding but you are just at the start of your raiding journey. This is one of the most exciting times as you can experience all the raids for the first time and start to grasp how they work as you get more experience.

After you start raiding you will find that you can upgrade your gear more easily. Raids award you with Magnetite Shards and Gaeting Crystals that will allow you to buy a variety of ascended items from the Basic Magnetite Exchange Operative in the Aerodrome. You will also have a chance to get ascended gear drops from raid encounters. These can be used to first upgrade your character to full ascended gear but also will allow you to gear other characters that will help you raid more effectively. Maybe you geared a power DPS as your first character and you want to try a condi DPS build or a healer next.

One collection that will help you greatly with gearing is the Envoy Armour I collection which will give you a full set of stat-selectable ascended armour for very little gold investment. It allows you to get an ascended armour set on your first character or to help gear a second one. The following collection Envoy Armour II gives another free set of ascended armour which is the precursor item to Legendary armour, it is very important you don't stat swap the refined armour set from Envoy Armour II as it will stop it from being used as a precursor for legendary armour.

As you raid more you might consider levelling certain crafting professions such as Chef to craft your own food. Raiding will also give you a lot of experience as well as mastery points so you can train your masteries quite easily.

Once you have full sets of ascended gear you can also buy infusions from the raid currency vendor and slot them into your ascended gear to complete your builds fully. This is more for min-maxing and is more of a personal choice for if you want your stats to be as high as possible and feel like you are contributing as much as possible to your raid group.

Happy raiding and thanks for reading!