Forced to Raid?

[andrealfus]

Normal raids, particularly Omega raids, are just trials with extra mechanics. Nothing to be afraid of and a lot of fun, imo

[Bsrking5]

snip

Dirty necromancer be gone

[BelgarathMTH]

Dirty necromancer be gone

I apologize for the necromancy. It was an accident. The thread came up in a Google search, and the date is close to the same as the current date, only it was last year. I didn't notice the year when I posted in it.

[Serilda]

I apologize for the necromancy. It was an accident. The thread came up in a Google search, and the date is close to the same as the current date, only it was last year. I didn't notice the year when I posted in it.

To reply to just your points alone then, unlike all of the people talking to the OP, I hate raids too. I like the showiness of them and some of the mechanics are very clever, but I hate the businesslike way everyone wants to run them. The 24-mans are the worst because I can run them a million times in DF, and clear them, without ever needing to fully understand anything that is going on so long as most of the other people do. It doesn't feel exciting, even though the dungeons themselves are gorgeous. Unfortunately, designing encounters which actually tax healers and force us to master our class seems to be beyond the team at the moment so instead they challenge players by turning the experience into an action RPG about dodging invisible mechanics and memorizing a bunch of routines which prevent us from actually using most of our abilities, which I don't find all that engaging as a playstyle. Still, it is what it is and hopefully the trend will eventually swing back to the playstyle I enjoy, which is more reactive and less scripted.

My solution has been to do as much learning as possible with my FC. There are six of us in total when everyone is present, but thankfully there's also a ton of content in this game so we can live with being behind everyone else. What we do is to do everything with the fewest people possible so that personal responsibility for figuring out mechanics is actually relevant. The old 24-man raids are completely different when run with three parties of two, and nobody cares if we wipe a bunch of time trying to figure things out. It's way less efficient - a clear in DF would take maybe 20 minutes, whereas we spent an entire evening working on figuring out Ozma back when we were level 70 - but it ditches all of the pressure of performing with a bunch of mostly-mute complete strangers and replaces it with high stakes fun. Some mechanics explicitly don't work properly if you don't have enough people or the right roles and we have to figure out solutions to those problems too (where possible). The Omega raid series is brilliant with friends. I'd never have bothered with it if I'd had to work through Party Finder but all of the surprises (we always go in blind) and fan service moments had us shouting with joy. And once I know the fight and properly understand it, I'm happy to join runs to help other people. But progression raiding is only really fun for me if I can do it with friends. I don't know if it's a thing elsewhere but on my server it's also perfectly acceptable to put up a Party Finder suggesting a relaxed learning run with your own rules if you need more people but just want to have fun.

[Anxin]

To reply to just your points alone then, unlike all of the people talking to the OP, I hate raids too. I like the showiness of them and some of the mechanics are very clever, but I hate the businesslike way everyone wants to run them. The 24-mans are the worst because I can run them a million times in DF, and clear them, without ever needing to fully understand anything that is going on so long as most of the other people do. It doesn't feel exciting, even though the dungeons themselves are gorgeous. Unfortunately, designing encounters which actually tax healers and force us to master our class seems to be beyond the team at the moment so instead they challenge players by turning the experience into an action RPG about dodging invisible mechanics and memorizing a bunch of routines which prevent us from actually using most of our abilities, which I don't find all that engaging as a playstyle. Still, it is what it is and hopefully the trend will eventually swing back to the playstyle I enjoy, which is more reactive and less scripted.

I have the same problems with raids and boss-fights in general with this game. The first few times are fun, but once you get the dance routine down, there's no effort. Many, if not most, of this game's raids could be played with Bash/macro scripts, and that's not fun in my book. The devs ought to look toward Guild Wars 1 for new ideas. In that game, bosses went after threats, such as high dpsers or healers, and had healers and group sets of their own, complete with control skills. Every engagement varied, and the enemy party composition was pseudo-randomized to add even more flavor. I would love to see what the devs could with their creativity!

[AnnRam]

I keep seeing posts and discussions about content you must complete before Endwalker. One of these being the raids. I'm not a raider. I didn't even want to do the Syrcus tower series and it annoyed me that I had to do it. I'm not particularly fond of the forced dungeons to get through the MSQ either but dungeons are short and fun so that's ok.

Do we actually have to complete the raids (that have thus far been optional) for Endwalker or is this just one of those recommended so you get the story (which I could get from watching Youtube vidoes) kind of thing?

The anxiety of having to complete all these raids is just mentally exhausting.

I don't like dungeons
I don't like raids.
I have anxiety doing regular content.

What's wrong with these people

[AwesomeJr44]

I don't like dungeons
I don't like raids.
I have anxiety doing regular content.

What's wrong with these people

They're from the planet Hypercasual. Their species has a severe allergy to battle content.

[TaleraRistain]

I don't like dungeons
I don't like raids.
I have anxiety doing regular content.

What's wrong with these people

Some people playing just don't jive with the multiplayer content. It's not their thing. But they're still interested in this game for the story or maybe other social interactions besides battle content. "These people" have always existed. It just used to be less socially acceptable to be the wallflower than it is today. Up to the point they made CT required, it was optional to do the 24 man raids. I can see how it could be jarring to someone who did not enjoy that content.

[Silverbane]

I think calling the Crystal Tower series "easy" is just because almost any random group of players will finish them with at most one or two wipes.

But even experienced, well-geared players who have done them a hundred times sometimes die, and sometimes it isn't their fault. There are some mechanics in some of the fights, mechanics that aren't your responsibility to do, that can sometimes bite you hard. For example, IIRC, in the Phlegethon fight, if another Alliance doesn't get enough people to their circle when the boss casts Ancient Flare, it's a wipe.

So don't sweat it. I die, you'll die, or everyone will die, but it's no big deal. Even if you die several times in one fight because you can't get the mechanic down (like in the Angry Menu giant-eyeball fight), it's fine. It's expected.
And you'll still almost certainly clear the raid in less than 30 minutes.

[Canadane]

So don't sweat it. I die, you'll die, or everyone will die, but it's no big deal. Even if you die several times in one fight because you can't get the mechanic down (like in the Angry Menu giant-eyeball fight), it's fine. It's expected.
And you'll still almost certainly clear the raid in less than 30 minutes.

This is something I've noticed a lot of players aren't always ready to learn, that the game teaches via killing you and dying and full raid wipes aren't bad. They're learning moments.