There's a reason for variance and windows. This server had classic spawn timers at one point in history. There's plenty of good RnF on that point from 11 years ago.

It still required 24/7 neckbearding.

I raided on this server for several years. I am assuming you play on Blue, that being the case most raid targets go to AzureGuard/Freedom and Riot. All 3 guilds have retarded raid attendance requirements and have raiders with gigatons of DKP to always get the best items. If you play a Knight class or a Ranger you can get really good gear for super cheap, but it still requires a lot of time.

Being casual and raiding don't mix well for very long on P99, and too some I suppose that is the appeal (nothing really comes quickly). I regret my time raiding and wish I had been playing other games in hindsight. The most disappointing thing is all the encounters are down to a 'science' these days so it's 1) Get a discord notification (can be all hours, noon, 3 am, 7 am, doesn't matter) 2) log in immediately 3) kill the mob in about 60 second - may be rooted dragons have made it harder or more time consuming, IDK, i refuse to participate anymore.

FWIW old world planes ARE on a rotation at least on green. So planar armor and isles 1-5of PoSky are actually not too hard to lock down. But individual raid targets such as gods, Maestro, dragons, etc. are still very much competitive.

This simply is not true with the exception of those BIG BiS drops (basically vulak items, some doze tears, the juicy weapons, etc).

Riot's recruitment / application process certainly looks at attendance...but there is no hard line RA% requirement. Its more about the quality of your play and what you can contribute when you can make the raids / track / other logistics around your schedule.

I'm a pretty good example of a casual player that has received some fantastic items over my time spent raiding.
- FT7 enchanter with some other high hp / AC drops and useful little toys that has turned Toxigen into a pretty beastmode char.
- Monk alt with tons of goodies...don't even remember half the stuff I got for him its been a while.
- 56 warrior with ToV 1 handers, a dain axe, statue BP, AoW helm, KT gloves + boots, etc
- Scooping up some budget drops for rogue / shaman / druid / necro alts in their 50s that I'm still leveling super casually.

My attendance for reference:
https://i.imgur.com/dPF8Aj7.png

Sure, I'm probably never going to get Toxigen a Vulak robe. My available time to put into raiding simply won't allow it...nor do I want to save for years. For me, its fun to scoop up a bunch of really good items that just happen to not be BiS. As a casual you have to just be happy with what you can get...I know I am.

To each their own, but for OP's sake I was just trying to explain that you can do the raid scene without doing insane things. This is nothing against the folks that do a lot of the heavy lifting with tracking / logistics / etc...they're the ones that shall be rewarded with BiS chars and they deserve it.

Just remember its important for anyone, no matter how casual, to be a team player when you are available. I happily hop on cleric bots when we've got enough enchanters. Its what I can do to help out the most.

You don't look very casual to me. Maybe it applies to this past 6 months or so when your activity is clearly reduced versus prior levels. More generally, your use of that word appears in my opinion influenced by the high-end echo chamber where players are regarded as "casual" if they aren't putting in 50+ hours a week or staring at walls for half a day at a time. You're only casual compared to the nolifers who have nothing besides P99. Otherwise it's clear enough you're a fairly driven player who's reducing hours lately, possibly due to burnout, possibly due to other factors.

As I understand and use the term: Casuals aren't attending over a thousand raid events. Casuals aren't hanging out in temple veeshan. They aren't giving video game guilds their contact info or putting themselves on-call. They aren't decking out multiple high-level characters with high-end drops. They're not usually going to play somebody else's character(s) over their own. Genuine casual players are largely invisible from the high end; due to the nature of how Velious is laid out the casual players and high-end players seldom cross paths. It's a matter of perspective I suppose.

Danth

FWIW I don't track at all...and we used to get a lot more quakes which is a primary reason on lifetime attendance being higher.

But your analysis is fair enough. I suppose casual mindset doesn't always equate to casual amount of hours put into it.

I don't think just because you're willing to utilize / play a guild bot automatically makes you not casual, either. There is a difference between casual and someone who just doesn't give a shit about helping out.

Right, that's the angle I'm coming from, it's not just hours. Note there's no complaint in my comment, either: Historically I don't have much of an issue with the P99 raid scene. For all its faults the high-end guilds aren't exclusive and just about anyone can see the content if they really want to. The folks who get upset tend to be the folks who want to deck themselves out in high-end stuff on a 9-5 schedule like they can in instanced games.

(EDIT) My stance on guild bots is simple enough: I have fun on my guy. I don't have fun on a Cleric or some such. If I did, I'd play one instead of what I have. I'm not inclined to spend my free time doing something I loathe. If some guild didn't want me on my own guy, they shouldn't invite me. However, that's a personal opinion; more generally I'd regard a casual player as someone having some or most of the characteristics I describe, not necessarily all of them. You yourself may well be a genuinely casual player this past half year or so. Folks can and do change their status/activity level/mindset over time. Certainly we see enough of it in the opposite direction, formerly casual players get sucked up into the rat race to eventually burn out, quit, and hate the game.

Danth

Danth summarized what I was going to reply perfectly. You have attended 1500+ raids and acknowledge the fact that there are items you will simply never be able to attain because you are not committed enough.

P99s raid scene is what it is, I had fun for a while and I'm done now - My point was it is extremely time-consuming (maybe more so on the 'front end').

More to the point - if you want to play a Shaman, Paladin, Shadow Knight, and to a lesser degree a Druid (sans porting), Ranger (sans tracking), Monk (sans being in the pull squad), or a Mage (sans being a CoTH bot/Rod bot) - you will be ridiculed as not 'being a team player' and playing a 'useless' raid class. P99 Blue Guilds wants Clerics, Rogues, and Warriors to raid. They bring along a few necromancers bards and 1 shaman but pretty much you are bullied into warrior, cleric, or rogue - its just a reality of the server

And im not even shitting on guilds just wanting the holy trinity. The truth is if you had 25 clerics and 50 warriors - you could kill any mob in the game without issue. AoW would be the hardest but im sure it could be done with the above comp given the players were coordinated.

A lot of the 'toxicness' people refer to when referencing P99s end game raiding is that most players know the above is true so they are hyper critical of anyone not playing those classes because you are just really not needed and its more mouths to feed for the guild - thus they expect you to 'contribute' large amounts of time doing things that are not really fun.

For what it's worth - From my personal experience - if you really want to raid on P99 and be casual play a Bard or a Necromancer. You can contribute to mana regen for the Clerics and you can sit back and let the neckbeards tear each other apart on tracking and engage and you can fly mostly under the radar. Necromancer might be a little differnt because they might start asking you to pull shit because you can Feign Death and Pet Track, but mostly you can also fly under the radar as a necro also.

Or just give in and play a rog/war/clr - you will be welcomed everywhere

You two seem way more salty about raiding than the guy who's done over 1500 Riot raid events.