Raiders, why do you raid? None riders, why not?

[Aylis]

So list your reasons below. Raider or not and why?

I used to love love LOVE raids a long time ago in my WoW and EQ days. Times change, people change and I just don't really enjoy it anymore. Mixed with a re-examination of priorities of what I do need and what i don't need in games to be able to play them. This doesn't pertain to just FFXIV but all my other games as well. So far the only things I can say I /needed/, be it equipment upgrade items, alternate gear paths, etc thankfully come from 24 player raids and such. The hardcore raids there's nothing I can say that comes from them that I /need/ I can make do without a slightly higher level of gear. I can live without minions, mounts, glamor, titles, or whatever perfectly fine.

[DarkSlayerGrimm]

1) Unreliable connection and dont have a FC or any group of people that actually want to raid.

2)It just doesnt do it for me, with most gear you can work your butt off for but it doesnt matter its just going to get outdated weeks later and the gear is just not-dyeable gear(normal)->dyeable gear(savage). I use to be a hardcore raider in SWTOR and it at least gave you something amazing for clearing the hardest stuff such as the crest of the dread master and wings of the architect (wings mount) these items were considered "Legendary Items" something that FFXIV lacks.Like lets say maybe clearing Bahamut (Savage) on min item lvl gave you a Bahamut styled wings mount you know something to strive to get rather than just a higher ilvl.

[Sentaryuu]

I don't raid specifically savage is because of my living situation and the skill/time commitment to it. My skill is okay for extremes but I'm not sure so about savage. I've never stepped foot into them. And I'm not completely knowledgeable on my jobs to warrant being able to actually do a good job in it

And of course no one is going to want to take a complete newbie to this kind of content into one.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

I raid for enjoyment and to improve myself. Most content outside Savage is faceroll levels easy, though I still have fun with them for what they are. I prefer some bits of content where I'm pushed and punished for my mistakes. Besides, dying a hundred times can be fun with the right group. One I have now brought into song when we had a bad A11 run.

[Nixxe]

I raided in WoW for probably eight years or so, including at a reasonably decent level. I'm just not willing to play games on a schedule anymore and there are certain things about this game, including its built-in unresponsiveness, that would drive me bonkers if I were trying to play seriously. I'm also just not really interested in doing a ton of theorycrafting anymore either, so in a game where things tend to be a bit more opaque and there are far fewer and less well developed tools for it, it's really just never going to be worth the effort to me. I mean I only just started doing ex primals after I came back now that I have an FC that does those things, but killing Zurvan ex is probably going to be about as close to relevant as the content I clear ever gets.

[LalaRu]

I like raiding, started it with gw's fow and elite missions and oh, man, enjoying so much the need to have a team that needs perform perfectly and just 1 man that screws is a full wipe.

Actually not doing it on PF because the attitude of randoms, and the unforgiveness you meet. You can pug raid on pf only when you actually have the raid on farm, because the only allowed teams in pf are that kind. Every now and then you see 'learning' teams, but there you will find really clueless people (aka, thinking a raid is a faceroll as any duty, then they meets with reality), or again salt over the flipped table when something goes wrong (aka someone's fast-reading will always skip the 'learning' word when enter a pf group).

Will do it with my fc, or nothing.

[Aquaslash]

For a somewhat serious response, I'd like to preface this post by telling everyone

If you can beat Thordan EX at min ilvl, then you can beat anything in Creator Savage

People aren't kidding when they say the hardest part of Creator is finding seven teammates who won't idle on Netflix.

That said, reality has been beating me harder and harder lately. I work 7-7 nights anywhere from 3-7 days a week. That just happens to be prime raiding time on Aether. When I get home in the mornings it's a ghost town, especially on Cactuar. The most ideal time for me to raid would be about 3-6 pm, which is when next to NOBODY raids. I've been in at least 5 statics during the course of Alexander. For whatever reason, they either can't clear the raids, or collapse due to internal drama.

Even now just taking a scan through Aether's rading discord and everyone is recruiting for the evenings.

I've strongly considered jumping ship to Chaos but I hear so many things about them. I don't wanna go somewhere to not make progress.

As much as I love to raid, for the gear, the challenge, the glory. I might have to tap out for SB as my chaotic schedule is fiercely fighting it

[Vanitas]

Why raid? Cuz it's fun.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

snip

If you're referring to the same discord I think you are, I suggest keeping an eye closer to Stormblood's launch or in the weeks following. I saw a lot more odd time raid advertisements back in 3.4. Right now, most statics are on break, farm mode or just pug it whenever.

[LineageRazor]

While I DO raid, I certainly understand why a lot of folks would be turned off by it. No matter how good you are at a raid, unless you have seven partners who are ALSO good at the raid, you're going to beat your head against that raid over and over and over and over. Building a raid group is, hands-down the hardest part of raiding - WAY harder than actually running the raid is. I don't know the reason why some people simply can't learn to handle mechanics, whether they suffer lag, allow themselves to be distracted by stuff in real life, simply lack the competence to do it, or any combination of those, the fact is that those folks are out there.

So, what do you do when you wind up with someone who just can't cut it in your group? If your group is coldly professional, you drop them and get someone else. But then, you're in a coldly professional group, which lacks a lot of the joy you get when you're on a team full of buddies hanging out and having fun. If your group is a bunch of warm buddies having fun, on the other hand, it can be very hard to tell that weakest link that they have to leave. Then there's the rare team of warm buddies that HAS no weakest link - that's the ideal everyone aspires to, but it is so, so rare...

That, I think, is why the raiding community is as small as it is. The bulk of them are all business and there to get the job done, having ruthlessly culled any members that happen to fall short of their expectations, with a scattered few teams of buddy groups who happen to be lucky enough to have a full team of skilled players. Neither set is very keen on the idea of welcoming new members - they have a team that works, and so they're going to stick to it. This means that any new teams have to assemble themselves from the morass of wannabe raiders, and doing so is a long and frustrating process that drives many potentials with legitimate talent to simply give up.