Let's talk raids in this thread: things you like about them, things you don't like, things you'd like to see changed. Whether it's group sizes, the lockouts, or just exactly how you feel about the abundance of one-shot mechanics, air your opinions here!

I'll start. For one, let me preface my opinions with a little bit of background. Midcore raider, T9 down (though only recently), been with the same static since 2.3 for the most part (lost a guy about midway through T9 progression to other games, but had a replacement for him right away). I raid as WHM.

That said, my biggest gripe with 14's current implemented raiding system is the weekly lockout. ("Oh no, not another lockout rant thread!" you might be exclaiming, and perhaps you're right.) My issue isn't necessarily that the lockout is in place, but rather, the ridiculous amount of timing attached to it. Yes, I understand that SE has gated the content so severely in order to preserve sub numbers and deter run-selling, but is that really mandatory? With a reduced lockout, experienced raiders would be more apt to help struggling players through the content, deterring run-buying all on its own. Lower lockouts also gives players incentive to log in more frequently during the week...how many raid loggers have unsubbed between patches due to a dearth of interesting content for them to do?

Is a two or three-day lockout as prophetically disastrous as people want to claim? The content would still be gated, as you have no way of guaranteeing your raid drops, but I think a reduced lockout would do much to alleviate the frustrations of people who feel as though they're being pushed away from raiding and to other aspects of the game they don't find enjoyable.

"If you want hardcore raiding, then this isn't the game for you," some might say. But I ask - why not? There are a few solutions here that could make multiple groups happy. A loot lockout vs. a completion lockout may not deter content selling, but it wouldn't really encourage it, either. From what I understand, most buyers are interested in the clear, not necessarily the loot. Someone MIGHT buy an exorbitant amount of runs in the hopes of getting their dream item, but I'd think that number would be statistically small. Full 110 groups are already selling runs anyway...a weekly lockout lowers their prospective clients, but hurts so many other players that I think it needs to change.

If a loot lockout isn't feasible, tiered raiding is something else that could be implemented. This segues into another complaint that I have - set raiding sizes. Other MMOs have a varied quantity of player characters allowed into a raid that inextricably altered the difficulty of the raid, but also affected your loot gain: a raid in TERA, for instance, could be 10 or 20-man, with the same probability of loot distribution across each. A 10-man raid required more player skill, but because of it's smaller size you had a higher chance of getting an item, by virtue of less competition. A 20-man version of the same raid might see you walk out with no loot, but new players aren't ostracized or removed for mistakes, because more players made for a larger margin of player fallacy. Both raid tiers are on a shared lockout, so the players would get to choose what type they prefer.

Both reduced timers and varied raid sizes made raids in TERA verrrrry PUGable (it was the MMO I played before this one, just using it as an example), which seems to be the biggest roadblock to completion for most players in this game. Most forum posts I've seen about raiding are generally centered around how they require a static, and I largely agree. I'd prefer another way to keep gear upgrades gated than to block off some of the most interesting content this game has.

So, with that said...what are others' thoughts on the raiding scene of this game in general?