Some raid groups require their members to read up on tactics before turning up. This is an alien concept to me. My raid group on Imp side has the opposite attitude: we don't want to look up tactics, but rather want to figure them out by ourselves.
This, combined with only being able to raid twice a week and needing to gear up, may mean we aren't the quickest to progress, but I love every single evening of it. To me, raiding is much more than reading the choreography and trying to perform the right steps. When we down a boss, we have figured it out together and accomplished it with every one of us.
This annoys me to no end. Way to scare off new players. What happened to the friendly MMO environment in which people want to help out new players and explain things? *sobs* #fossil
'Slow raiding'
I propose a new term: slow raiding. Where tryhard we-want-to-be-the-server-first progression raiding is like fast food, all about the result and not so much about the enjoyability of the ride, slow raiding is like slow food: taking longer to prepare, but of the highest quality. Slow raiding is served best with a group of like-minded individuals that have a comparable skill level. It is probably also hipster because no one is proud to do progression raiding but not go for server-first kills, but I think it's cool.
Hipster walker. Because, relevant.
Walker HM progression
After our victory on Torque, we went back to the Temple of Sacrifice to try the Walkers on hardmode. We spent one evening of trying it without tankswap (I do not recommend this) and got quite far nevertheless. On the up side, this was an amazing drill for everyone to avoid circles. I don't think a single person got hit by them at the end of the evening.
The next try we were doing great but were unlucky. Admittedly, we had cleared out both storymodes and the other hardmode bosses on the same evening and did not have much time left for the Walkers before it was starting to get late.
I did get to try out this new Starparse parsing program that evening, though, and found it has amazing timers. For instance, the timer counts down to the moments the vortex appears that pulls the whole group in (HM only), so I could put a revivification down just before and the whole raid got the heal-over-time for when we would all get hit by Gravity missile right after. You can also tell from the timer if you have the time to put down another revivification before the next vortex appears (although less effective because everyone is spread out). Sorcerer/sage healing is amazing on the Walkers. /sage fangirl talk
The Walkers: the new Torque?
I did get to try out this new Starparse parsing program that evening, though, and found it has amazing timers. For instance, the timer counts down to the moments the vortex appears that pulls the whole group in (HM only), so I could put a revivification down just before and the whole raid got the heal-over-time for when we would all get hit by Gravity missile right after. You can also tell from the timer if you have the time to put down another revivification before the next vortex appears (although less effective because everyone is spread out). Sorcerer/sage healing is amazing on the Walkers. /sage fangirl talk
Boom. Not even any 'acceptable losses'!
The Walkers got disassembled the next evening on the second or third try in a very controlled fashion. They never really got under our skin in the way Torque did. But hey, it would still not hurt to drop us a cool walker! Either a speeder or a walker stronghold decoration would be nice, please.
How do you approach hard boss fights? Do you use a guide or do you like to try things out for yourself? Also, do you strive for server-first kills or do you prefer a more relaxed take on things?
Hehe, I'll admit that we do consult guides for hard modes and up, but to be fair those tend to be more about perfect execution than about discovering brand new tactics.
ReplyDeleteOn story mode I definitely prefer to go in "blind" for the first time to have a good laugh with my guildies, and I'm always happy to allow for others doing the same. I think that asking anyone to read a guide or watch a video before they even step foot into a place for the first time completely ruins that person's experience.
I find hardmode not to be so different from storymode in that regard. When you go into hardmode you know the general layout of the fight and what to do, but there will be something new. Part of the fun for me is finding out what that is and what to do about it. I agree that apart from that they are indeed about (close to) perfect execution, though. I really felt like I was in the army or something when drilling people not to stand in those red circles on the Walkers!
DeleteThanks for you comment. I'm really just curious about how other people approach raiding. And nothing wrong with looking up tactics of course; we will also watch a video if we get stuck (I probably should have mentioned that in the post, sorry!).
This topic seems to be pretty common to all MMOs so I will also add my two cents to this discussion. Currently me and my friends are playing Everquest 2. We don't raid but we do group content and since a few expansions ago they have been making group content a bit more raid-like. By that I mean having boss fights that require paying attention to what the boss is doing and reacting accordingly.
ReplyDeleteUsually we just try to figure things by ourselves. But if the fight is too hard, we keep getting wiped and without understanding the why's then we might resort to some outside guide. This is specially true with fights where it feels like you have to somehow be able to mind read what the developer intended. Although it hasn't been that bad in a good while. They have been much better at making it clear what is going on during the fight and what the group is supposed to do.
Also, I like that slow raiding idea!
Sounds to me like you have already mastered the art of "slow raiding: the small group edition"! It's cool to hear what's going on in this regard in other games. After your and Shintar's comments it dawns to me that it's actually about exploration: taking the time to go inside, look around and experience for yourself what's going on. It's a type of gaming that's opposite to the "achiever-like" attitude, where it's all about getting the rewards as quickly as possible. That's probably why that shout in general chat annoyed me so much. I'm a romantic soul of some sorts.
DeleteI can read a guide and immediately forget everything inside it, so they've never been useful until AFTER I've gone through the operation. Even though we're supposed to read guides beforehand, I don't. Don't tell anyone. :P
ReplyDeleteHaha, that's also a good point. Sometimes you just have to see a fight for yourself in order to understand it. And don't worry, your secret is safe with me (that is, if your guildies don't find out about this blog)! ;)
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