Guild Wars 2

I’m wondering how the standard of the 3 how raid session came to be. The reason I ask is that, based on my experience, it seems that the last hour of a 3 hour session is generally characterized by exhaustion, missed mechanics, decreased dps, and general increased annoyance.

If we were to view raid performance be time, I would think it would look like a poisson distribution: ramp up sharply in the first half hour as you get back into the swing of things, about an hour of peak quality performance, some falling performance as you get tired but still enough to be worthwhile for the next half hour, before basically bottoming out and plowing ahead on determination and willpower to go on at the end.

Wouldn’t 2 hours be a more logical length?

I’m not sure where you get that raids take 3 hours, they take as long as you need.
When I pug, I can do 1 to 3 bosses in an evening, depending on the general stupidity of the masses (how people with 150 LI still don’t know how vale guardian works is beyond my cognition).
When I join my friend’s dedicated group, we do Wing 1, 2, 3 and sometimes start wing 4 on a single evening.

I always though for exp pugs and good groups it was more close to 1:40-2 hours

Every organized group I have ever been in, subbed in, or tried to join had a strict 3 hour schedule. PUGs are a different matter; that’s more about how long until people leave than any type of scheduling.

3 hours is a good average. Wing 1 and Wing 2 have a lot of filler events in between encounters while Wing 3’s only filler event can be sped up dramatically with portals. Wing 4 has a its biggest time loss due to getting Glenna up to the checkpoints, but we are only talking a few minutes. Otherwise, Wing 4 is back to back bosses.

3 hours also includes a bit of downtime for class changes or just breaks in general in between Wings for bio/water/snack breaks (“Let’s take a quick 5”). You also get some cushion for mistakes so that you can afford /gg’ing on bad starts, someone dc’s, or something similar like that.

I’m sure, optimally, a dream team would knock this all out somewhere between 1:15 – 1:30 at most.

I always cut mine off at 2hrs. After that people kitten up too much

Even for a party of inexperienced players raids don’t take 3hrs unless you are trying to reach the end of a wing that day.

A good group (I don’t mean elite superhuman players, just average people willing to invest the time) should be able to do each wing in maybe an hour. I’m hardly setting any records on DPS, I make mistakes same as anyone, several bosses can take multiple attempts to kill, and I’m normally done with a full clear in 4-5 hours.

Not everyone learns the same way, your mileage may vary etc, but here’s some thoughts based on how it went when I was first getting into raids.

If it’s taking 3 hours for a single wing, it simply means your group needs more practice, whether that’s on the boss mechanics, or with your class on the golem. If it’s the former, why not take it a boss at a time – rather than try to clear a whole wing, spend an hour or two on one boss only. Go away after you get the kill, recharge your batteries and come back to the next boss another time. Even if you don’t get the kill, walk away when time’s up – if you can’t do it fresh, it’ll only get more frustrating when you’re tired, but the time spent should help make things go easier next time.

While you’re learning, you don’t need to kill every boss every week. You might benefit from mastering two or three bosses by running them multiple times a week and ignoring the rest to start with, rather than getting frustrated on all of them at once. Learn a few, start doing those ones regularly, and then once you’re clearing those in only a few attempts each, add one or two more bosses to your weekly runs.

The general reason why is….

It’s just a game. People have things to do, people to see, places to be. After 3hrs people’s attention in general starts wavering, this is also why most movies are under the 3hr window.

13/13 bosses last night for reset, pug 300 LI group, multiple disconnects on bosses and sometimes extra pulls. 4.5 hours. Considered slow. After matt, we actually got better raid quality out.

Fastest I’ve done speed clear is at 3 hours, highly experienced group, 1-2 shots per boss with exception of Matthias. I considered it good. Edit: let it be known, I pug almost everything. So I think an experienced static would be better.

Why do you not let people decide on their own? Personally I feel like my focus is about as good after 4-5 hours than if we are just starting. It takes a really long time for me to loose focus

zealex.9410:

I always though for exp pugs and good groups it was more close to 1:40-2 hours

Sounds about right. They seem to short once you reach that point, considering you run them once a week unless you do reruns.

Boogiepop Void.6473:

Every organized group I have ever been in, subbed in, or tried to join had a strict 3 hour schedule. PUGs are a different matter; that’s more about how long until people leave than any type of scheduling.

The effort it takes to organize 10 people, have them commit to a schedule, weekly and given that you can clear all 4 wings in 3 hours with a lot of spare time is likely where this time comes from.

If you are a raid/guild lead you don’t want to have to reorganize multiple times a week. If you have a very good run you might be able to complete all 4 wings in 2 hours, but that’s is not a realistic time for a majority of the playerbase.