March of the Bloody Queen

This quest requires us to do the Dalriada raid. That's nothing new. What is new is the fact that it only spawns every hour or so at random, and hardly anyone is queueing up for it. I ran Bozja and Zadnor for weeks to build my resistance rank up, and now my progress is at a hard stop because further progression is gated by this quest, which cannot progress until Dalriada is cleared. I camped Zadnor for two hours (because I apparently barely missed the cut off to enter the first instance), and when I finally got in, it was just me and one other guy who was also entering for the first time, and there's no way that we were going to two-man a 48 player raid. Consider either making this accessible "at will," or rework it into a Trust. The way it is right now is extremely frustrating.

Party. Finder.

There's tons of players just like you feeling like they're stuck. Put up a party finder, get a group together, and wait around in the zone until it comes up. With echo buffs, it absolutely does not need a full 48 players.

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Originally Posted by Hasrat

Party. Finder.

There's tons of players just like you feeling like they're stuck. Put up a party finder, get a group together, and wait around in the zone until it comes up. With echo buffs, it absolutely does not need a full 48 players.

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It was doable with 8 back when it first released. Nowadays a single full party should be more than enough.

The spawn timer isn't actually random, It has a spawn timer of 60 minutes from the opening of a new instance and 90 minutes from the previous Dalriada ending. These timers are reduced by clearing Skirmishes/Critical Engagements so in a fully active instance it's usually like 35 minutes give or take (although these days that's less common of course).

When it comes to actually clearing it the echo buffs you get from being below full raid size are pretty substantial and make small parties actually kind of a cakewalk. I've cleared it with 4 people before without any issues. Obviously it's going to be a bit tougher if your party is all first timers without any of the mettle buffs/knowledge of the mechanics etc but overall party size isn't that much of an issue at least. If you can find a couple of like minded folks trying to clear it you should be fine there at least.

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Originally Posted by Daralii

It was doable with 8 back when it first released. Nowadays a single full party should be more than enough.

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4 people could do it back then. I know from experience.

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Originally Posted by Avatre

4 people could do it back then. I know from experience.

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As do I.

Sadly whenever I said this, people normally assume you can just go in without necessary preps i.e. using nice essences & LAs. These are the folks that usually failed hard, booted out feeling disappointed, & starts blaming the raid instead of their unpreparedness.

The only thing I dislike about it is that you can't solo it.

The fewer people, the more responsibility I have, thus the less I have to rely on others, which is a huge bonus in casual content that has no quality filtering.

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Originally Posted by Avatre

4 people could do it back then. I know from experience.

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4 "average" people or 4 people buffed to the teeth? I'm kinda in the same boat as op (my own fault for waiting till now to do it though) and I still have no clue where half the buffs many people have come from. I've only seen a party being formed for it once since EW release, and I didn't queue because I didn't want to feel like I'm being carried lol

It’s actually easier with about 8-12 than a full group because of the stat scaling. Just find a few people to queue up with together in PF and you’ll basically be set for a win. This also presumes people actually bring proper buffs, it’s easier for some to try and coast on zero buffs in a large group, but for a smaller team running without buffs just tells the others you have zero respect for their time. Just make sure to make it clear that some basic buff potions/abilities will be required.

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Originally Posted by Allegor

4 "average" people or 4 people buffed to the teeth? I'm kinda in the same boat as op (my own fault for waiting till now to do it though) and I still have no clue where half the buffs many people have come from. I've only seen a party being formed for it once since EW release, and I didn't queue because I didn't want to feel like I'm being carried lol

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4 people using actions, and using the essences. This was before any of the 4 people in there had any of the permanent buffs. If you actually use the essences and actions that benefit from said actions, you can deal massive amounts of damage, stay alive, and actually clear it quite easily.

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Originally Posted by Hasrat

Party. Finder.

There's tons of players just like you feeling like they're stuck. Put up a party finder, get a group together, and wait around in the zone until it comes up. With echo buffs, it absolutely does not need a full 48 players.

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And that's the unique thing about this situation: you can't put up a party finder inside of Zadnor. So you have to put up the Party Finder in Gangos, and when you have about eight people you have to all go in and wait for the next random spawn time, hoping that enough people stick around to make it happen. It's a nightmare on every front. I don't know why they designed it this way.

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Originally Posted by Hainiryun

Obviously it's going to be a bit tougher if your party is all first timers without any of the mettle buffs/knowledge of the mechanics etc but overall party size isn't that much of an issue at least. If you can find a couple of like minded folks trying to clear it you should be fine there at least.

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And that's usually going to be the case, given that the reward for clearing this instance is the ability to get mettle buffs in the first place. I eventually cleared it, but this was my experience:

Hour 1: I see the instance is in progress. Oh, well. I'll just farm essences for a bit.
Hour 2: Two join. One leaves, so it's just me and one other guy. I offer to take the bike, but he pulls prematurely while I'm still enroute to the upper boss, and we wipe. He leaves. Cue more solo essence farming. This is about the time I was inspired to post here.
Hour 3: Three join. Two know what they're doing. The same guy from last time didn't even bring essences. After four wipes ranging from our old friend pulling the boss prematurely to failing DPS checks, we call it. At least I can keep farming essences.
Hour 4: I get wife aggro for fifteen minutes and come back to see it in progress with 16 players. Queue the cursing.
Hour 5: Six join. A couple of them know the mechanics and explain. We manage to eke out a victory thanks to their heroic efforts. Everyone rejoices.

So I ultimately got it done, but it took me the better part of a day to manage it. Did I feel accomplished at the end of the day? Not very. Mostly, I felt annoyed and relieved that the next time I ran it would simply be to pay the kindness forward.

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Originally Posted by Ronduwil

And that's usually going to be the case, given that the reward for clearing this instance is the ability to get mettle buffs in the first place. I eventually cleared it, but this was my experience:

Hour 1: I see the instance is in progress. Oh, well. I'll just farm essences for a bit.
Hour 2: Two join. One leaves, so it's just me and one other guy. I offer to take the bike, but he pulls prematurely while I'm still enroute to the upper boss, and we wipe. He leaves. Cue more solo essence farming. This is about the time I was inspired to post here.
Hour 3: Three join. Two know what they're doing. The same guy from last time didn't even bring essences. After four wipes ranging from our old friend pulling the boss prematurely to failing DPS checks, we call it. At least I can keep farming essences.
Hour 4: I get wife aggro for fifteen minutes and come back to see it in progress with 16 players. Queue the cursing.
Hour 5: Six join. A couple of them know the mechanics and explain. We manage to eke out a victory thanks to their heroic efforts. Everyone rejoices.

So I ultimately got it done, but it took me the better part of a day to manage it. Did I feel accomplished at the end of the day? Not very. Mostly, I felt annoyed and relieved that the next time I ran it would simply be to pay the kindness forward.

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I would feel accomplished. I mean it took some work but you got it done. Good job! You shouldn't only enjoy content that only gets handed down to you with no effort. It's not even a hard raid. Imagine if the devs made it so stats didn't scale and you did need 48 people. They already considered that and allow groups of very few people to clear it. I wish people didn't only see the bad in optional content, this game needs other stuff than the MSQ.

If we’re in same DC I’d love to accompany you.

I love those raids.