Casual raiding (is there such a thing?)

[andmike]

Hey everyone,

My main is Thantoo. He's a 54 (almost 55) necro. I'm hoping to find a good group to play with. I'd like the chance to do some raiding here and there, and generally get to see some green chat. One of these days, I'd like to finish my epic like I did back on Brell in the day, but that would take Sky runs and a lot of luck.

I'm open to suggestions. I play mostly Pacific time.

Thanks,

Thantoo

[Harvest]

What server?

There's loads of casual raid options on Blue and any class bar mage, Warrior or Bard has a great chance of completing their epic if they put the work in.

I raid casually with AEGIS (US based guilds are Auld Lang Syne, Homeland, Axiom & Tranquil Domain with us on the Euro side, Europa and Les Irréductibles).

There's also Lighthouse and Castle who do casual raids usually euro evening times. There's TSS, Eclipse and Kittens who are all casual and I wouldn't be hugely surprised if even the hardcore guilds, Riot and Vanquish accept casuals these days (not confirmed)

[andmike]

I am on Blue. I find I go in sprints playing, where I get deep into playing, then after a bit real life reasserts itself and I have to trail off. I've got a young family still, so I have to balance that.

[Harvest]

Yeah I'm in the same boat. Family comes first. The good thing about blue right now as a casual is you can dip in and out of raids and still pick up competitive mobs in the draft. Aegis do a weekly sky slot, HoT, Hate and other stuff so getting some decent gear together despite casual hours isn't the challenge it once was.

I've asked some of the officers there to ping you and they'll pick up more questions if you have them 😀

[wagorf]

I don't even know if the term "casual raiding guild" exists on blue. Raid attendance is not required, even for the top guild.

Objectively speaking, key difference between guilds is (1) ability to raid (target kill volume, time efficiency, etc) and (2) number of members.

Assume the following.

Guild A (super hardcore raiding): Calls for raid 80 times a week.
Guild B (minor raiding): Call for raid 10 times a week.

When raid attendance is not mandatory, guild A offers more chance for you to attend, along with very high chance for a successful kill.

The last thing you want, is to spend a lot of time preparing for a target, but another guild gets the kill. I can be in guild A and remain super casual by logging in once a week. But every time I play, there are opportunities to raid, and the chance of having a successful kill is high. This applies to epic completion, as you can choose only to attend the ones that drop your epic piece.

[strongNpretty]

Hail Hydra.

[myrddraal]

It depends what sort of content you are happy with. If you want to raid TOV inner ring / Kael bosses or VP, there are really only 3 choices if you want to compete and contribute even casually (Riot, Vanquish, Kittens)

If you are cool with HoT for skyshrine armor/ plane of hate / plane of fear / some misc other dragons there are more options available to you like TSS, Eclipse, Aegis alliance guilds.

If you are looking for people just getting together to kill stuff for fun, Ex Astra is new and looking for people. Chilled with them in Skyfire the other day doing Gwurms, they like to plan stuff weekly.

Another thing to consider is if you just want to experience the content or actually get loot. If you want to actually get loot and play casually (I interpret casually as you dont want to track, race, sock and just log in for pop calls) then Riot, Kittens or Vanquish probably arent going to be your first pick because they do DKP loot. IIRC Aegis also has some DKP system but I think that TSS does randoms for loot. Not sure on eclipse.

[strongNpretty]

Hey everyone,

My main is Thantoo. He's a 54 (almost 55) necro. I'm hoping to find a good group to play with. I'd like the chance to do some raiding here and there, and generally get to see some green chat. One of these days, I'd like to finish my epic like I did back on Brell in the day, but that would take Sky runs and a lot of luck.

I'm open to suggestions. I play mostly Pacific time.

Thanks,

Thantoo

Hey man! Slankylanky and I just linked up and we plan to get into some shenanigans tomorrow morning. We pretty damn casual, you wanna join us?! I think we plan to head to Kael as of now.. I'm PST as well, and will be hookin up around 7:30am'ish?

[Stonewallx39]

The lighthouse raid alliance is very casual but plenty of decent content (just got a mage epic last week or so). Weekly Sky raids, Kael arena/Platehouse, Vindi, Hate and Halls of testing on the regular.

PM me if you want more details.

[wagorf]

If you want to actually get loot and play casually (I interpret casually as you dont want to track, race, sock and just log in for pop calls) then Riot, Kittens or Vanquish probably arent going to be your first pick because they do DKP loot. IIRC Aegis also has some DKP system but I think that TSS does randoms for loot. Not sure on eclipse.

This is not true. You can pick the raids you want to attend on hardcore guilds. DKP system or not it doesn't make any difference, you still need to accumulate enough attendance / dkp for any items. At least you know, over time as you accumulate enough dkp, you WILL get the item eventually.

Say there is a specific epic piece that on avg drops 2 times a month. Of the two times, most likely it's the top 2 or 3 guilds getting it. It's all about opportunities. When a smaller guild has little chance at getting a specific item, adding the competition within the guild who wants it, the final chance of getting item is so slim to none.

As an individual, will you have a better shot at epic_quest_piece_01 (e.g. Green Scale) on a small guild who gets one a year, or in a big guild who gets 12 a year? Answer is pretty obvious. Random/loot countil whatever system in a smaller guild doesn't give you a better chance at an item, because seeing the item drop for the guild is rare to start with.

P.S. The last 7 child tears went for about 1-5 dkp. If one raid attendance = 2 dkp, means you have enough to win the item after attending 3 successful raids.

[ScottBerta]

I’d recommend getting 60 first and then join Vanquish, Riot or Kittens. The first two are the top 2 and should be choice 1 and 2. If you can make the app process and play on pop day, you will get super nice items in time.

[Vador981]

Lighthouse would be a good fit!

[myrddraal]

This is not true. You can pick the raids you want to attend on hardcore guilds. DKP system or not it doesn't make any difference, you still need to accumulate enough attendance / dkp for any items. At least you know, over time as you accumulate enough dkp, you WILL get the item eventually.

Say there is a specific epic piece that on avg drops 2 times a month. Of the two times, most likely it's the top 2 or 3 guilds getting it. It's all about opportunities. When a smaller guild has little chance at getting a specific item, adding the competition within the guild who wants it, the final chance of getting item is so slim to none.

As an individual, will you have a better shot at epic_quest_piece_01 (e.g. Green Scale) on a small guild who gets one a year, or in a big guild who gets 12 a year? Answer is pretty obvious. Random/loot countil whatever system in a smaller guild doesn't give you a better chance at an item, because seeing the item drop for the guild is rare to start with.

P.S. The last 7 child tears went for about 1-5 dkp. If one raid attendance = 2 dkp, means you have enough to win the item after attending 3 successful raids.

depending on the loot, yes. But if you can only make 10% of raids and like i said, dont track (you know, a casual raider) if you want something like a ruby tear? Sure, you could get it EVENTUALLY. In like 4 years.

[Hotel]

depending on the loot, yes. But if you can only make 10% of raids and like i said, dont track (you know, a casual raider) if you want something like a ruby tear? Sure, you could get it EVENTUALLY. In like 4 years.

don't want something like a ruby tear then...?

[Tsunami21k]

Get 60. Make friends. If any of those friends happen to be in the top 3 guilds, see about applying. You don’t have to like everyone in your guild but you’ll have more fun if you like some of them.


As previously mentioned. More often than not, if you’re not in Vanquish/Riot/Kittens you likely will watch other guilds get kills. Raid targets have a very short lifespan on blue and the guilds that can mobilize most hours of the day get the lions share of kills.


Awesome people in all of those guilds. As to casual raiding, all 3 will require some level of willingness to at least learn how to play your character and or how to fill certain roles on raids (which is actually quite a lot of fun once you get going) raid attendance is not required. Honestly I rarely can make 7 day pops because of my work schedule and I still earn a decent amount of dkp and have earned a few really nice items.

Will you get many BIS items playing casually? Probably not. But if laid back is what you’re looking for then that likely isn’t a concern for you.

[Solist]

There was.

Rustle stopped raiding at 11pm EST religiously.

FTE lockouts were the reason why it could happen. They removed lockouts because people could abuse FPS to jump/tab to run faster on races.

They have fixed that issue mechanically and with rules. Still no return to FTE lockouts, the least petitions ever experienced on the server.

[wagorf]

depending on the loot, yes. But if you can only make 10% of raids and like i said, dont track (you know, a casual raider) if you want something like a ruby tear? Sure, you could get it EVENTUALLY. In like 4 years.

in contrast, chance of a non top1-3 guild getting ruby tear is 0%

[strongNpretty]

PS- Ex Astra in the Motha Fluffin House! Watup Fam!!!

[Bardp1999]

There is not a casual way to complete the necromancer epic, sorry to burst everyone's bubble. Realistically if you are not a hardcore player this item is out of reach.

The best bet is to get VP keyed (HUGE time sink for a casual player in its own right) and get https://wiki.project1999.com/Shissar_Seance_Staff - even so you need to be in one of the top 3 guilds (I've no idea who competes in VP these days)

Most agree its better than the Epic anyways. However the chances of getting this staff are lightyears more feasible than getting Inny, CT, and Sky loot as a casual

[Smotr]

Join a Lighthouse raid and see if you like it. They are open to everyone. We've gotten a few Slime Bloods and Eyes of Innoruuk. Our Sky raids might be early for you, Monday at 4pm Eastern time, but we're done in 2-3 hours. Best of luck,

[condap99]

wagorf dropping knowledge bombs.