Quote Originally Posted by Hyrist View Post
However, as far as the rule of averages goes. Casual players make the bulk of this game's population. You are far more likely to encounter one through the duty finder than any other kind of player. Expecting otherwise is inviting disaster. Again these things are patently obvious by continual first hand experience.

Again, we can argue these things to the next Calamity. You're going to encounter this. Regardless of our opinions. You don't go into DF with high, or even reasonable expectations. You do so at the peril of your constant disappointment. Go in there expecting to have to help people, and you'll have a far more enjoyable experience all around.
See, I agree that casual players make the bulk of this game but how can you make the assumption that they're all the same and I can just expect the worst of them? They're varied players, some can be excellent players who just dont have time to raid the newest content, some can be players with low skills but have lots of time. I can't really expect them all to have the same personality either. I don't believe in "they're all casuals so i can just expect the worst of them" mindset.

Speaking of averages, me and my fc went to t6 to help someone gear up his pld last week. Six of us went there at least 12 times in a row to clear it and we only got 1 new player bonus and only we only wiped once (it wasnt the run with the new player). I'd say 24 or so players we met were generally decent at least at handling mechanics. Especially the pug slots are 1 dps and 1 healer and we eventually played around with both our tanks equipping str accessories and tanking without defiance or tanking in sword oath and most of the df healers handled it well. I've solo dfed turn 6 and 7 a few times myself and while there were some rough rides, it was generally not that painful, due to the nerfs.

Also, regarding the kicking abuse thing, I've seen first hand on how lenient SE is when it comes to suspending players that are harassing/kicking other players (not just referring to the praetor instance I mentioned) so I was indeed surprised to see people claim that such a thing is a deterrent from kicking other players. Hell, I've seen someone try to ruin a bone dragon fight in ct and succeeded at it until he got kicked and right immediately after his partner went to bug out the next fight, locking out 24 people from the fight permanently and everyone had to completely abandon the instance because of it. I reported him (and I'm sure people in the instance from another world did the same) and I never saw him get banned and he even bragged about having done it and not getting banned. So forgive me if I'm a bit skeptical about the gm being an actual deterrent from people using the kick system for play style disagreement (also seen another thread in this forum complaining about gm not doing anything about it), but I'll take your word for it.