Short version:
Looking for a group that will unlock the possibility to train the remaining masteries for me.
AKA wtb VG kill or escort completion. (EU)
Can contribute on the way. Got full ascended zerker ele / condi engi. Mail me in-game.
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Long version / vent:
I’ve been on a leave this week and dedicated nearly 70h total on learning the encounters and practicing them in-game.
Watched the videos. Prepared accordingly to most popular meta guides.
Since i haven’t had the time required to get into raids at any point in the past, i have no Legendary Insights to show. I haven’t joined any raid-oriented guild because of the time constraint and no real interest in raiding per se.
It was all fine and dandy not to raid – not particularly attached to that – but now the spirit shard generation has been gated behind completing the raid masteries. Now that – what next?
My first few runs were rocky, even if i’m a long-time player (while 20k AP don’t mean much, they do mean some time spent for dailies and other silly things that contribute to overall practice), but after the first seven hours i got competent enough to die as the last person on VG, and constantly so. I didn’t miss green circles unless the tank screwed up. I know my staff and its knob well enough not to mess up my rotations (…much).
Still, with all the groups i’ve attempted VG, best result i got to was 40%. 40%. At best.
Possibly one major contributing factor has been the fact that the team was changing – even if a single group opted to stay together for 2-3 hours, with no one being replaced, after that time (or the next day) it was all random people again, all more or less clueless about the fight, at best at my level of ‘experience’ (having spent dozens of hours without any luck, but understanding the mechanics and knowing enough on their own), at worst – people completely new to raids, first-timers each and every day, people that get frustrated and blame everyone around after the first wipe, people wearing masterwork gear for a raid (and it was a bearbow ranger at that), people who claim they’re experienced tanks with 100 LI but then screw it up for ten consecutive attempts and blame everyone around before leaving.
Got the picture yet?
People say – join a raid training guild. Or a proper raid guild. Right.
I’ve scoped raid training guilds on EU and it turned out their calendars were filled for this week. Perhaps there are more that i haven’t found, but a few of those guilds have already hit the 500 member cap and are currently not inviting anyone. Happens, that’s how it works.
Joining a raid guild, however, would be a bit unfair on my end – after all, i’m here only to get credit for one kill and proceed with the masteries. Not saying i wouldn’t be interested in raiding proper, but that’s at least a few months away – as it has been since raids were added to the game. But even if i were to join one, there’s a curious conundrum: raiding guilds either require a very strict code of conduct before joining them, including rites of passage, observation, writing a cover letter, fulfilling the requirement of raiding 2-3 times per week – or ‘simply’ requiring the new person to have over 100 LIs, a raid tonic, or some other stuff you can only get if you actively raid already.
Right, so i also tried joining VG pugs from lfg that didn’t state they were training teams. I pinged my equipment after joining, all fine and dandy; do you know your rotations on tempest, hi, yes i do; can you cover green circles, yes i can; very nice, very nice, 20k AP and even ascended armor, very nice, now ping your LIs – and since i have none, i got kicked from the group. Six times throughout the week, the very same scenario.
The sad part is that the majority of people i formed a ‘training group’ with complained about the very same situation as above. Mind it, it wasn’t everyone – if it were, they wouldn’t be training anymore, there always are those 3-4 people who really are new and need to see the encounter or who need to practice the mechanics. I’m not saying i’ve perfected them by now myself either, but i’m no dead weight on VG for sure.
Doesn’t matter – no LIs to ping, no ‘killproof’, instakick.
It’s a catch-22 problem. If you don’t raid, you won’t get into raids.
It wasn’t that much of an issue for people before the spirit shard re-introduction, but now their xp is still being wasted unless they have unlocked the raid masteries – aka they got credit for killing a raid boss.
I’ve been actively using up my spirit shards and would certainly use the extra generation via any means, so yes, it’s a direct issue. Even if not for the shards alone, if raid masteries are an obstacle for that, we’re in no position to be sure they won’t become an obstacle for anything else not related to raids.
Before that, people that don’t want to / can’t / won’t raid, simply ignored that part of the game and carried on. To me, it looks really neat, but i haven’t had the time to dedicate to it to properly learn the encounters – i am very well aware it’s nine other people who waste their time if i screw up, i don’t want to put anyone in that position until i know i am ready to spend enough time in raids, which won’t be for the next few months at least. If not for the spirit shards, i would gladly keep ignoring raids until that time.
Sure, ANet could implement one of many workaround for that – make the raid masteries available to train just after entering any of the raids rather than killing any boss; make the spirit shards generate without those masteries; removing those masteries and moving them to account unlocks like the new stuff in Bloodstone Fen. Add yours.
But it doesn’t seem to be on the table, and in the meantime there’s a lot of spirit shards to be had – that someone who was lucky enough to start raiding months ago will have, but now all newcomers are met with an impeneprable wall of high-experience expectations or even less-experienced clueless colleagues.
So, to sum up: wtb VG kill or w3 escort, just so that i can start grinding xp for raid masteries, just so that i can start earning spirit shards again.
(edited by drkn.3429)