Guild Wars 2

I have been chatting with some guildies who are into raids. They have been brilliant with giving me the info on what professions/builds tend to do well in raids and/or are the most requested in LFG. Unfortunately we are short for a guild team. So after much practise and a couple of training raids, I jump on my Druid/Condi or Heals and check out LFG to see if I can get into a run.

Attached is the common visual of what LFG appears like these days:

Group 1: Exp or Kick
Group 2: Exp or Kicked
Group 3: Just wanted a Mesmer <— wish I was on my mesmer at that moment
Group 4: Ping KPs and chest or li, be exp or kicked
Groups 5 & 6: … the ones I love to see… Pay 5 gold and we will run you through the raid of choice. <— no, not happening

All of this leads me to think "huh? what is up with raids and lfg in this game!?

I am a long time raider in another triad mmo and I have to tell you, this wasn’t how it worked. LFG was for pugs no matter the experience. Instead, raid leads would call out in map chat (in the main gathering spot) and ask for whichever role they needed filled. But “be exp or be kicked” was never in the msg. Also, the number of achievements, gear or in this case LIs a player has doesn’t mean he or she is any good at the role they play. They may have 200 LIs and decide to test out a new profession/build and wipe the group a million times. I have seen a lot of uber geared players really suck in raids in my day so I suppose i don’t see such things as important. Raid awareness and knowing one’s profession is.

Is this a normal for this game? If so, how is anyone supposed to get LIs if all the LFG group want nothing lower than 100 LIs. Seems to me that raids and LFG are not friendly to the newer raider and quite frankly I am a little horrified that this is the “way” of the GW2 end game community. I flipped to this game because the community was amazing.

To see it so hateful on less raiding experienced players is really sad; especially when this game was founded on the principal of open-mindedness and freedom to choose your build etc.

Monday is the try-hard day, as in you’d better be good enough so groups can consistently clear 13 bosses within 1-2 pulls. It means near perfect knowledge of the class/build/meta strategy/boss telegraph attacks/callouts is desired. If you want to learn the boss, browse the LFG sometimes later in the week. There will be more training groups popping up and more bored experienced raiders look into killing time.

Edit: It’s not hateful to choose to play with other players of the same skills to create a like-mind, well-oiled team and kill a boss in a reasonable time. Not everyone wants to spend an hour on a boss which they can kill in 15 minutes if the group is experienced. Not everyone wants to teach others when their play time is on budget. They simply ask people to respect their way to play. Their squad, their rule. Make your own squad.

Zushada.6108:

All of this leads me to think "huh? what is up with raids and lfg in this game!?

The LFG is not the first thing you should aim for when starting to raid although the advice of Iris is good: Watch out for training runs. Like it was said, you will find many of them later in the week.
Don’t expect to get into a “kill” group over the first days/weeks, this is not how it usually works.

Fyi, raids were never intended to pug in the first place. There was no particular LFG section for raids at start and it was only added because it overfilled the common section which was annoying and groups were asking for an own.
It’s cool you can pug raids and that they are not as hard as it was expected with this announcement but it’s still recommended that the average group plays with 10 decent players and to be successful not many of them should mess up.
Another thing is that raids only get easier with player experience/skill (and ofc balance patches here & there). It’s not like in other games where players get top gear out of it and when the majority has this new gear it’s easier to take new players with them.

So, back to the “I can’t get into raids.”-thing. Every player I’ve met that wanted to get into raiding seriously was successful. They started with the “Looking for”-section here in the forum, were searching at reddit for groups, joined raid training initiatives (see the 2 points before) made up their own squads in the aerodrome, got guildies together or found a nice group in the lfg which explained everything and kept the player. (Last point is rare but it’s also the jackpot). If you don’t invest the time you’ll most likely have a harder experience to get into raiding.
On the other hand if you take the effort it’s more than realistic you’ll find a group that already can clear most (the easier ones like VG, Gorse, Trio, Escort, Cairn, MO, Samarog) or even all of the bosses and you can be integrated very easily according to your own statement that you have been a veteran raider in other games.

@Zushada……"I am a long time raider in another triad mmo and I have to tell you, this wasn’t how it worked. LFG was for pugs no matter the experience. "

You nailed it right there. This isnt WOW and the LFG is in no way the same as in that game. BUT, sadly that is what many are comparing it to. That system just grabbed 5/10 or 25 people that met the requirements (remember Gear Score? Blizzard used it as a scale on their LFR system!) and made a group. If the group sucked you baled, with a penalty or stuck it out. GW2 LFG is player driven, and with that it opens it up to all kinds of requirements, restrictions or whatever people want. And until that changes the LFG never will. Best option is to make your own.

Average skill level in gw2 is really low. “Exp” here is a decent pug in other mmos.

5 golds for a raid wing kitten thats cheap jump on those offers mate.
Its less then dailys for 3 days so easy 10-15 mins a day buy you 2 out of 4 raid wings.