Its mostly been ST/Kingdom/VCR people showing up so its not as if its a bumbling shitshow of know-nothings who've never experienced the zone and need their hands held. Also its quickly already become just the usual send-mage-pets gang bang with people running mages and healers and then rolling for their other toons. You make it sound like its a typical open raid full of nose-picking casual level 46 druids. But any excuse to be an ass kisser on the forums I guess?

Firstly, leading a raid is not easy. Secondly, many ST/VCR/Kingdom people haven't done sky at 50 or at all until a few weeks ago. Thirdly, i don't understand, isn't sending many pets the optimal strategy? and isn't playing a mage in lieu of another, less critical toon beneficial to the raid? and isn't it fair to roll for your main if you're playing a mage solely to benefit the raid, not because you want to, as people often do with cleric, monk, and bard?

Finally, as a former raid leader, getting a group of fully geared veteran 60s to focus up on HoT and not let a wyrm CH for the 4th time can be fully frustrating and entirely like herding cats. All raidleading is. This is not because people are like cats, or incompetent, or lazy, or any negative description whatsoever. This is merely because people have disparate goals and ideas and strategies and it is very difficult to unite them long enough to accomplish a shared goal. You might ask how open sky then differs from a normal guild raid. Well, these effects are magnified by the fact that raiders aren't in the same guilds and thus have different playstyles and expectations both for each other and the raid direction in general. Under these circumstances, handling loot and maintaining morale in particular are nightmares. Some raid leaders simply aren't diplomatic enough to make all these things work.

To be honest, I'd be shocked if more was meant by the herding cats comment. Certainly I meant nothing more by my assent. Whether you think the open sky raid leadership is doing a good job, a poor job, or that it's so easy anyone could do it, I commend them for trying. I wouldn't call it altruistic of them to lead the raids, but it's not clearly a selfish act because there's no obvious benefit to leading an open raid vs. leading a guild raid and leaving everyone else out.

And as a quick aside, I've led raids of "nose-picking casual level 46 druids" on places like Kael arena and people got some gear and experiences they otherwise wouldn't have gotten. And it wasn't me; they played the classes, and they made the correct decisions. I just told them what to expect and how to react. Honestly most people are willing to listen and learn.

You must be confused. RnF is that way ------>

Today's sky raid included a clear of island 1, the boss of island 3, and half of island 4 including a keeper of souls. The clear lasted for about 2 hours and had 29 players in attendance. Join us tomorrow at 9 AM for the next open sky raid!