What roles and classes are needed for a solid trials group?

MidnightBlue

I would like to form my own trials group after many failed attempts of trying to join a good pve group/guild. I need to know what type of roles and classes are needed for trials. What skills and rotations should each class use?

Ariisen

In the beginning you should run 2 Tank, 3 Heals, 7 DPS because your healer and tanks need pratice (especially on Sanctum, tank might die easily lol).

When your group gets better you can go 1 Tank, 2 Heals, 9 DPS in all the old ones, you still need 2 tanks in vMoL.

As far as skill go idk, DPS has to pull numbers, the higher the better, for leaderboard runs you need people that pull 30k but for starters 15k is okay. There are some really good builds on Tamriel Foundry for each class so there's no reason to go into the details too much.

Tank has to use War-horn, has to have decent gear and needs to know how to stand (some tanks spin around dungeon bosses while light attacking... most trial bosses cleave and you don't want to wipe because of that...)

Healers have to use the horn too, you want them to use Spell Power Cure and go Destro\Resto.
They have to use Syphon Spirit, Element Drain, Mystic Orbs and Blazing Spear if they are templars for the team resource managment. Forget about breath of life, they should heal with Healing Springs and Rapid Regen most of the time (+points if they have a Master Restoration Staff).

code65536

Usually:

1-2 tanks
1-3 healers
The rest are DPS

The composition will vary based on the trial (e.g., vMoL and Sanctum without Manti burn require 2 tanks) and on the group (very experienced groups might want to do SO with just a single healer, and inexperienced groups would benefit from the extra margin afforded by three healers).

Generally speaking, with 12 people, you will take the division of labor further in a trial than you would in 4-man content. That is to say, the three roles are more specialized in a trial than they are in a dungeon.

In a dungeon, tanks will sometimes do a bit of DPS. In a trial, tanks do no DPS and are focused entirely on survival, debuffing the boss, and buffing the group. In a dungeon, many healers will try to do a bit of DPS and will use Breath of Life. In a trial, a healer does no DPS and is concerned with just healing (almost entirely with Healing Springs) and support (Elemental Drain, Orbs, Siphon, and Shards; strictly resto/destro). And even the DPS are more specialized and will do things differently in a trial than in a dungeon. For example, with a good War Horn rotation, Twice-Born Star will beat out Hunding/Julianos (whereas those sets are better in solo or 4-man content), and sometimes even some unorthodox choices regarding skills (example).

Magdalina

Just wanted to add my 2 cents.

I don't generally competitively run Trials but it doesn't sound like you want to go for the leaderboards so perhaps my advice will come in handy. Old Trials(can't say anything about MoL, haven't bought TG so never tried it) are really easy now, the biggest thing isn't group composition but group coordination. Perhaps your people will be missing out on some cues and taking a lot of damage and you'd need 3 healers rather than 1. That's okay. The dps checks are easy enough to be done with just a handful of dps now so see for yourself. One thing you should really look into before starting a run is mechanics(and how to explain them to others which can be a bit of a pain sometimes).

My limited Trials experience says 1 tank 1 healer is enough for all 3 old Trials. Granted I've gotten my SO clear with 7 people lol(that's not because I'm OP like that, that's because I don't feel comfortable around big groups most of which I don't know, I'd honestly much rather wipe with a handful of chill friends and learn how to manage it with ~4-7 people. Makes for some extra challenge too). Imo it's actually easier with <12 to a point because less coordination required, no orbs issues on Serpent, no mines everywhere on Manti. We had 1 tank, 1 healer with offps, 1 sorc-that-kites-Manti-when-others-go-down(that's me! XD) and the rest was pure dps. ...I don't advise Manti kiting though lol, it can be fairly complicated. So suppose 2 tanks 2 healers for SO. Generally though, start with a tank and a couple healers perhaps and see how it goes for you.

Good luck!;)

Also, if you're NA PC I can run with you or perhaps recommend you a nice guild or two:)

EDIT: Classes are not THAT important anymore, unless perhaps for leaderboards. DKs are convenient to have because of chains(to pull ranged ads in where they can easily be AoE'd). Templars are great for shards/repentance(not to say you can't heal on another class, just make sure your tank either doesn't have stamina issues or is getting shards from someone). If you struggle during high-damage phases, keep in mind some ultimates reduce the damage the group takes, such as Nova and Veil, so those are good to have.

MidnightBlue

Thanks for the advice everyone. I am not too concerned about leaderboards, but at the same time I am to a point because I want the weekly rewards. I want a trials group to complete hard mode since everyone I know are only able to complete normal. The people I know who can complete hard mode has their core groups and have no room for me thus me wanting to get a group. Only completed hard mode on AA.

MidnightBlue

I'm on Xbox NA. Most of the people I play with are either pvpers or really bad pvers.