Quote Originally Posted by JunseiKei View Post
Also, for as much as people complain about scripted fights, saying they are easy: congrats. You are able to spit out a pattern when asked. What these people often fail to understand is there are lots of people out there that, even if they have knowledge of a pattern, performing the pattern is an entirely different story.

*Points at schools- given notes, then asked to spit it back out in the form of tests/finals.*
A bit off-topic, but IMO the immense focus on schools re: regurgitating memorized information without dissemination is part of the reason the education system in this country (U.S.) is going down the tubes. Pattern recognition in raids is symptomatic of that, to tie it back in to the original subject - inability to think critically in the moment is a big reason why raids wipe when something deviates from the pre-planned encounter design.

It's a bit disingenuous BTW to claim that "all raids are scripted because the bosses have a preset list of abilities they use". Of course they do, they'd be a nightmare to complete if they didn't. But imagine if 4x D.Wave could happen ANY time in O3S instead of at the exact same point every time with the Iron Giant and the ninjas? There'd certainly be a bit more focus required on the part of healers to get groups topped off or shielded after a previous raidwide AOE. Or if Halicarnassus could change The Game to be a combination of one frog, one pig, two healer and two DPS tiles or any other pattern that she chose? You'd have to have an inherent understanding of what is required from the mechanic to be able to pass that instance - one tank or DPS would need to take frog, one tank or DPS would need to take pig, and no one would get imp, respectively. Imagine if Mindjack could lead into Folio instead of ALWAYS leading to some variation of tethers?

/shrug I mean, in the end, it all boils down to preference, but I think that a more randomized encounter design leads to a higher element of focus required. Some might call it arbitrary difficulty, but I'd prefer that over mundane pattern recognition where one rube can bark orders in voice chat and the encounter always works so long as everyone falls in line.