First to Engage: Exploiting the mechanic?
 

So, is tagging a mob before you're ready to engage it an exploit of the mechanic or is it a valid strategy?

What we have happening right now is people engaging raid mobs with 1 or 2 people in the zone, stalling and waiting for the batphone to go through and for people to log on.

I would propose to implement a mechanic where a guild is given FTE based on the first X number of people on the hate list, where X can be any number 6+. Meaning: Your guild needs to have at least X people on the hate list in order for the mob to call the FTE.

What's more is that you could potentially change the X to be mob based, so that FTE is called if X = 12 for Trakanon, VP dragons, etc. Or the X can be 6 for smaller targets that can be almost one grouped.

Ahh, one of the things I'm most looking forward to, the nerfing of the donals BP.

Never mind that there are 100x more donals bp here unnerfed then there ever was on live.

But hey, remove the compass, that shit is important

sore loser much?

Raid stalling/kiting was at one time against the rules. I don't think it is anymore?

Unless it's super extremely blatant and you have superb fraps.

Tagging with 1-3 people with DA idols, discs is a calculated risk people take while they wait for reinforcements. They could easily lose the mob if things don't go perfectly. At the moment, FTE is FTE whether it is lone player or a raid of 36. Frapsing the encounter and if it shows a deliberate stalling or raid interference with a chain of people flopping FTE back and forth or chaining DAs until a force masses, then the GMs could provide some guidance on what is appropriate.

The same thing happens with mobs like Faydedar, Sev, Talendor, and Trakanon. They are frequently engaged or pulled before batphones even go out. They have been ruled in the past that as long as you aren't kiting and pull directly to your camp/raid, it doesn't matter if the raid is or is not there when the pull/engage is commenced.

There are some questions that have to be answered if we are going to get into a "ready to engage" modality.

How many people is too few?

Should we wait for a raid force to announce ready, then they can only engage with the people that are standing there at that time?

It is not exploiting. Having 10+ players on his spawn for a period of 96+ hours is a crime, and we all know crime doesn't pay.

What was the theory behind implementing variance? Was it supposed to solve some problem that existed? (FYI I'm not a part of the sock scene just curious)

i lol'd

To my knowledge, Rogean put in varience because he didn't want the raid scene consisting of 5-6 guilds waiting for a raid target to spawn at a known date and time. I don't think he cared about how the raid mechanics evolved as a consequence of this action.