Question about Fractals

[Beckelhimer]

So I have been level 80 in the FtP for a while now. But I am ready to explore what these Fractals are. But I was curious is it something that puts me in a queue like PvP?
I went to the portal and notice I only have one available which is the volcanic one.

But yeah I am hoping this is something to queue up for but I guess if not then it probably means it is time to find a guild.

[[RvB] RedArmyGrif]

Fractals mostly use the LFG system to party up, and they have a staggering unlock (you do Fractal 1 and it unlocks Fractal 2 for you, others with higher numbers can skip around)

[Nico]

When you are at the portal and see the levels it should also have a buton at the bottom that should bring you to the Fractal section of the LFG tool. It's the weird icon on the right of 'reccomended player count: 5' Except for PvP you usually always use the LFG tool to search for groups for any type of content, which also includes meta events.
The Fractal section is speerated into 4 sections, for 25 levels each for the total of 100 levels. Most groups usually just want to do the 3 daily and 3 recommended fractals, though I guess at tier 1 just 1 recommended fractals, since the other two are at tier 2 and 3. (aka lvl 26-50 and lvl 51-75)

Every time you complete a fractal above your level your level will get increased by 1. But since you always play in a group where others usually already have them unlocked it's not super important.

What's more imnportant is agony. From level 20 onwards enemies can apply the agony debuff, which deals dmg over time and reduces heal effectiveness. The dmg it deals is based on your agony resistance and later levels require a higher agony resistance to minimize the dmg. So as you go into higher levels you need more agony resistance to die less easily. As you play fractals you do get agons resistance infusions which you can fuse to higher infusions with a merchant that's in the fractal lobby, but the main problem is that you can only put them into ascended gear. Early on you probably get some ascended trinkets without too much issues, especially fractals give easy access to ascended rings, but later on you really must invest in an ascended armor and weapons to be able to do the higher tier fractals.

But for tier 1 it's not yet super important, so just have fun for now.