Do you pug or use a static for raids?

I do few raids here and there aside from my usual Extreme Primals runs. But I don't have the time, patience, and benefits of having a static. As a result, I end up roughing and winging it with pugs to see what happens.

That being said, are you part of a static or do you join pugs to raid?

I, personally, prefer a raid setting because I hate pugging content. I'd far prefer getting a set group of people I get to learn about and get to work with than randos who change every other time I enter.

I really don't like to pug the hardcore stuff in XIV (Which to me includes the most up to date primal EX). Our raid group is on break at the moment since multiple people don't have access to a computer/other stuff keeping them too busy. But any time I even try to go do O5S with random people to 'try' to farm for accessories, either people are undergeared and don't know their jobs well, despite having a clear, or many people are much better geared and still fail to do well.

Normal mode raids I always PUG. They are a lot more fun that way.

I haven't done a whole lot of savage raids, but the ones I have run were definitely with peeps I know, picking up maybe 2-3 through PF to fill the gaps. I've never been caught up enough to run relevant raids though. It is something I will consider if I ever get there, but the same conditions apply: NM=PUG; SM=Static.

I wish I had a static.

Cleared with friends: O1S, O2S, O5S, O6S
Cleared with pugs: O3S, O4S, O7S

Currently on second Forsaken now. But it might be a bit late to try clearing before 4.4.

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Originally Posted by RokkuEkkusu

I do few raids here and there aside from my usual Extreme Primals runs. But I don't have the time, patience, and benefits of having a static. As a result, I end up roughing and winging it with pugs to see what happens.

That being said, are you part of a static or do you join pugs to raid?

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Static.

Sometimes I wish I could pug. Statics do have plenty of drawbacks. But I really think healing some content would be hell without at least knowing what my cohealer is doing. So I keep joining statics for that reason above all else: to have a steady cohealer. And having tanks where you know their cooldown plan is also a benefit, though not nearly as make-or-break for me.

If I mained a job where I could just worry about my own mechanics and positioning without caring so much about what others do, I'd probably pug just for convenience and to avoid the drawbacks of statics.

Pugs
Can't seem to find a static with suitable time

Normal mode raids, and to a lesser degree extreme trials, I will do with pugs. The exception being if the extreme trial has trickier to execute mechanics, then I'll tend to avoid pugs.

Savage raids, I run with a static both because we're all about on the same page while learning, and because we tend to tweak the method of handling mechanics in a way that makes things slightly easier, but then also makes it harder to shift to a pug group if I want to clear them floors later (for example we do O8s first mode in a diamond pattern rather than a square).

General rule of thumb!

EX = Safe to do with pugs. Even if you die, things will probably progress long enough to see some mechanics and learn from mistakes.

Minstrel's Ballad = Go with your friends if you value your sanity.

I prefer statics but they never last because there is usually one or more individuals who are absolutely obsessed with clearing it as fast as possible, with or without the team and their purple parse. One day I'll find a static that doesn't have those problems but it sure is hard.

My schedule is too erratic for a static so I am pug only. In my experience though, if you start pugging the new tier as soon as it drops and if you do it hard enough you can clear the tier in under 2 weeks. 1 if you get lucky.

I started playing the game in 3.4 and delta is my first real raid tier and both delta and sigma took me 3 and 2 months to clear with pugs respectively. Delta took longer because I was raiding with a static that was stuck on o3s for a month+ plus so I left it and went on and clear o4s with a pug and that took less than 2 weeks. Sigma also took 2 months because I started the raid tier late in april.

I had a static but I'm going to start using pugs instead

Static 1st clear then pug after.

I prefer statics with regards to Savage raids; I don’t really like pugging them. I prefer statics because I like consistency, and I want to clear content with players who are like-minded to me (i.e., they want fast and optimal clears). I’m also into optimization, and the static I’m in now frequently coordinate things like buff alignment to allow for such, and the healers work together and map out their healing so one or the other aren’t fumbling about trying to figure out what to do. That’s not something you really get in pugs.

For savage-raids I prefer to do them with a static. My main enjoyment comes from clearing this content with friends, to accomplish something together and have a good laugh while doing so. We're progressing slowly, but steadly and with a lot of fun (which is what I play this game for).

As soon as weekly-lockout-restrictions are lifted and everyone can go into farm-mode, I'll usually pug tiers that I still need loot from (nothing this time, yeah!)

For Ex-Primals my static is always trying to clear them together for the first time, often attempting a blind-run or semi-blind-run (we have some people who just cant wait and need to clear on day one, but they're kind enough to keep their mouth shut about mechanics, until we ask - often muting themself because they're laughing so hard at us trying to figure out what to do). After that its pugs for me - I want those dogs and not everyone in my static shares my willigness to spend way, way to much time on farming them. Also scheduling would be a nightmare with having people from europe and the US in our little group and two evenings with two hours each are enough for us to clear raids, but not to get dogs.

In general though: I just enjoy those fights more when I do them with friends, specially for the first time! We like to do blind-runs and figure stuff out ourselves, which is just something you cant to with pugs. I'm actually proud of us that we managed to figure out Sigma by ourselves (well, at least up to the first Trine, we consulted a guide for the rest - but everything before that was us analysing what happend and how to prevent it from happening again). That and the great memories you create with your friends are why I raid in the first place. I have little intrest in just clearing the fights - I have a lot of intrest in clearing them with my friends!

PUGs for all EX and Raid content that I choose to do. I don't want a static because:
-I don't have the time schedule to commit to one.
-No static drama.
-No worries of what I could do should the static suddenly disband.
-I want to be able to jump into raiding or trialing any time I want to.
-I don't enjoy voice chat because hearing voices in my ears disturbs my concentration and most statics require Discord.
-When I'm trying a raid or trial for the first time, I'm not going to watch any videos or read any guides. I like to learn everything on my own. So I make my own party and make it clear that a guide isn't required to join. They've always been nice experiences so far.

I don't really bother with statics on a serious level. I've been in a few with friends and you could say I am in one now for heaven on high but it's not terribly strict. it's just 4 of us who will jump in and climb a few floors as and when we're all on atthe same time. really doesn't matter what day or time it is. it's just as and when.

most of my savage raiding since 3.0 landed has been pretty much filler. some friends needs a rep for the days runs and well i got nothing better to do sort of thing. which is why my savage clears are kinda all over the place. cleared 3 but not 2 cleared 5 but ot 4 sort of thing.

way back in ARR people used to say if you didnt have a static there was no way you'd clear coil and a couple of friends and I managed to clear the whole thing incredibly randomly. just throwing up the odd party finder as and when we could be bothered. We cleared all of final coil in a single evening just because we had nothing better to do. 5 total newbs who had only beating t9 a few days before. 2 people that had cleared 10 and 11 but not 12 or 13 and 1 who had cleared it all just came to help. pretty rag tag bunch and yet cleared all 4 turns in a single evening..

I don't think anything in this game is particularly difficult there's vary little variation and randomness in boss patterns or encounter design and it'sall far to scripted which generally means you always know whats going to happen long before it does. A B C D oh look E and F i was not expecting that..... /sarcasm

I have no real interest in savage raiding the rewards are generally worthless and there's not even thestory to entice you in anymore. so generally speaking the only time i ever set foot into a savage raid has been if a group of friends needed someone to fill a gap and i hd nothing better to do.

unfortunately. I don't have time for a static due to an erratic work schedule and school. So I have to PUG. Made it to O4S and O7S with pugs and I never progressed further on the latter due to my crazy work schedule.

I have pugged everything, but ucob during this expansion.

I initially tried outright pugging back when I was trying to get into savage content, towards the end of Deltascape's lifecycle as the most recent content of the time. It was pretty much an exercise in futility, so I didn't get too far... Then Sigmascape came out and I managed to get into a static group that raids during the weekends, which is a lot nicer being able to work with a group I'm familiar with. We've had a few people cycle in and out for the last couple slots for various personal reasons, particularly for our second healer, which has slowed our progress a fair amount. But I think we have a pretty solid group together now, and we're hoping to finish O8S soon before getting too involved in the next patch's fights. If I kept trying to pug things though, I don't know if I would have made much progress at all. At the very least I don't know if I could have coped with trying to make progress in a fight with entirely new people on a repeated basis.

Quality of pug groups deteriorates over time. If you pug it early, generally the later tiers of content will be populated solely by pick-up members who know their jobs and the fight well. As time goes on, more and more players are able to overcome early tiers by force of gear ilvl, or manage to tag along with better players. They start to pollute the pug pool, and it becomes less and less likely that you'll be able to put together a pug group that can defeat the final tiers of content.

At least, that's been my experience. I'm still amused by the whole "SKIP SOAR" debacle with Zurvan. By the end of the patch, you'd have to be mighty lucky to find a pug group that could skip soar! Skipping soar was the venue of the quality players who won first and farmed the crap out of the fight before leaving it forever. No, by patch's end, you didn't hope for a group that could skip soar - you hoped for a group that could HANDLE soar.

A static is always preferable, in my opinion, but creating and maintaining one can be a nightmare. It's HARD to coordinate meeting times for eight skilled people, especially when those people have real-life schedules that change from time to time, unexpected events that pop up at inconvenient times, and so on and so forth.

My opinion of PUGs is that you're almost sure to have to carry someone completely cause they either lie about their progression, or some just straight up expects to be carried through some Savage content. When my Static fell apart three weeks into this past tier and on Guardian enrage, it took me an additional three months to finally break through enrage all because of PUGs. Never again for Savage content. Static or nothing.

PUG, or more often, skip entirely. Endgame savage raids give the same ilvl you get a month or two later with tome gear.

I personally prefer to run savage content with a static. I had to quit my last static unfortunately thought because of real life time conflicts. I have the mentality of a hardcore raider with the availability and free time of a casual player...its tough. I need to find a static that can handle only running two nights a week for two hours max. I probably won't be able to do any more savage content (outside of pugs) for awhile.

The problem with pugs is that while there is generally considered a "main strategy" every player likes to do things slightly differently. Those subtle variations can cause all sorts of headaches and problems.

Both. If I pug, I pug eeeeeeeverything. Including UwU if I could but rip, nobody wants to do it. I also run stuff with a static. My main issue with statics is the schedule. For now my schedule is fine but sadly, it changes every few months so eventually it'll clash with static times. But clearing content does feel easier with a static because everyone is on the same page.

As long as the boss hp goes to 0 while everyone's hp stays above 0, I don't really care if I raid with static or pugs.

PF becomes impossible to clear with near the end of every patch, and I'm not always around at the start. Static is the only way to go.

Static forever. The gear isnt worth the stress and RNG of pugs. Play with friends. Its much more enjoyable to slog through this stuff with people you have some shared experience and repore with. Been playing with most of these scrubs in my group since FFXI. I'm way to invested to leave now lol.

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Originally Posted by LineageRazor

At least, that's been my experience. I'm still amused by the whole "SKIP SOAR" debacle with Zurvan. By the end of the patch, you'd have to be mighty lucky to find a pug group that could skip soar! Skipping soar was the venue of the quality players who won first and farmed the crap out of the fight before leaving it forever. No, by patch's end, you didn't hope for a group that could skip soar - you hoped for a group that could HANDLE soar.

A static is always preferable, in my opinion, but creating and maintaining one can be a nightmare. It's HARD to coordinate meeting times for eight skilled people, especially when those people have real-life schedules that change from time to time, unexpected events that pop up at inconvenient times, and so on and so forth.

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On my Zurvan farm parties, Soar ain't the problem most of the time, though I don't envy the one who's assigned the NW position in the event we do have to deal with Soar and Zurvan uses the pattern where the N and S are not safe zones. Most of the time, it's Southern Cross and Broken Seal that ruins farm parties, had to kick quite a few people who flubs those mechanics in order to get the bird during March - May 2017.

I agree with you the benefits and drawbacks of a static.

A static is the best way to clear content in my opinion. It's a good way to learn play styles and to get an expectation of how people play in order to overcome the raid. That's not to say that pugs aren't good because they can be, but pugging is an adjustment for every member of the group that has to be replaced and adjusting to that change is a challenge. That is why I believe that some PF groups don't survive the initial few runs.

Pugging all the way. Statics are a mixed bag. Sometimes people are late, or just plain suck. I would rather deal with pugs on my own time, with the freedom to prog as much as I want, and clear when I see fit.