How realistic is casual raiding?

[Kich867]

Originally Posted by cd288 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Casual P99 Player: "Yeah I plan to raid casually, maybe I'll play an hour or two a week just to see some of the quick FTE kills here and there if I happen to be available at the time."

DSM: "No you can't say that's casual raiding. You can only use the term casual if you attend at least 10 raids per year and also do other DKP work orders within the span of that year. Otherwise don't say your casually raiding. That's the definition I have chosen so please limit your use of the term 'casual raiding' unless you fall within my definition."

Aforementioned Casual P99 Player: "..."

You gotta chill dude, at this point this is entirely on you. He made a super fuckin innocuous statement and you're acting like he shit in your pants or something. He was basically agreeing with you and enhancing your point by elaborating that even some decent items don't cost that much DKP. You desperately need to calm down.

[tadkins]

All of what you guys have said is predicated on the fact that you can even get into a good guild. Something I haven't had a lot of luck with. Been rejected from the "top" guilds and the guilds below them are do-nothings that refuse to play with anyone outside their established inner cliques, and who get stomped when it comes to anything serious by aforementioned top guilds anyway.

Never did end up getting that Concussion spell.

The best guild I've managed to find on this server that actually accepted me was Dial a Port, and well, we all know they're not the type of guild that can muster any kind of epic help.

Just have a hard time seeing this server as being accepting or casual friendly. Years of trying to find a place and a community here have ended in failure. Don't know what else I can do. It took playing on Live, many extra levels, agents of change, mercenaries, and an NPC wizard for me to finally be able to see Plane of Hate. How sad is that?

[cd288]

Originally Posted by tadkins [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

All of what you guys have said is predicated on the fact that you can even get into a good guild. Something I haven't had a lot of luck with. Been rejected from the "top" guilds and the guilds below them are do-nothings that refuse to play with anyone outside their established inner cliques, and who get stomped when it comes to anything serious by aforementioned top guilds anyway.

Never did end up getting that Concussion spell.

The best guild I've managed to find on this server that actually accepted me was Dial a Port, and well, we all know they're not the type of guild that can muster any kind of epic help.

Just have a hard time seeing this server as being accepting or casual friendly. Years of trying to find a place and a community here have ended in failure. Don't know what else I can do. It took playing on Live, many extra levels, agents of change, mercenaries, and an NPC wizard for me to finally be able to see Plane of Hate. How sad is that?

Not sure if you're on Blue at all but if you are then you could try Kittens. They are pretty welcoming and occasionally compete for top content depending on the day (i.e., how many people they can field on that specific day).

Like any of the other top raiding guilds though, it is going to take awhile to build up DKP to get the good stuff (unless you're a class where drops rot frequently).

[tadkins]

Originally Posted by cd288 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Not sure if you're on Blue at all but if you are then you could try Kittens. They are pretty welcoming and occasionally compete for top content depending on the day (i.e., how many people they can field on that specific day).

Like any of the other top raiding guilds though, it is going to take awhile to build up DKP to get the good stuff (unless you're a class where drops rot frequently).

I thought about trying Blue, but Green is where all of my wealth is, and it's hard to let go of a tink bag, box of abu-kar among many other things.

It doesn't help either that my favorite class (wizard) isn't considered very good and is ostracized to hell and back on this server.

[cd288]

Originally Posted by tadkins [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I thought about trying Blue, but Green is where all of my wealth is, and it's hard to let go of a tink bag, box of abu-kar among many other things.

It doesn't help either that my favorite class (wizard) isn't considered very good and is ostracized to hell and back on this server.

I mean for a top raiding guild a Wizard is going to be valuable. The leveling path kind of sucks because you're right it's harder to find groups but you do have value for a top guild (certainly more than some of the other classes).

Wealth is pretty easy to come by in classic EQ with a bit of time. If you're willing to be a little evil in terms of the NPCs you kill you can make good plat just XPing. I mean damn the other day I made a couple thousand platinum in a level just killing some random dwarf guards in BB. Decent gear on Blue is relatively cheap, the guilds are a bit more relaxed in terms of requirements than they are on Green (or than they used to be on Green), and if you're set on playing a caster class you don't really need much gear anyway.

[Kich867]

Originally Posted by cd288 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I mean for a top raiding guild a Wizard is going to be valuable. The leveling path kind of sucks because you're right it's harder to find groups but you do have value for a top guild (certainly more than some of the other classes).

It's definitely boring, but wizard quadding is _pretty_ dope. I guess not being in a guild though can make it pretty unfun. At least if you've got g-chat you can talk to people between pulls.

[Kich867]

Originally Posted by tadkins [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I thought about trying Blue, but Green is where all of my wealth is, and it's hard to let go of a tink bag, box of abu-kar among many other things.

It doesn't help either that my favorite class (wizard) isn't considered very good and is ostracized to hell and back on this server.

I'm a wizard, I was in DAP, I had a great time with them and I look forward to getting a druid alt in with them some day, and I recently left them to pursue my own raiding goals. I hope I left them on amiable terms, I think I did. Being rejected and ostracized for being a wizard has not been my experience at all.

I've heard some guilds have recently removed their raid attendance requirements, maybe you could look into them? Most of the raiding guilds have recruitment threads on this forum.

[-TK-]

Originally Posted by tadkins [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I thought about trying Blue, but Green is where all of my wealth is, and it's hard to let go of a tink bag, box of abu-kar among many other things.

It doesn't help either that my favorite class (wizard) isn't considered very good and is ostracized to hell and back on this server.

Wizards are in demand for raiding just FYI. Train-outs, TL's, and DPS are all important and welcomed for raiding. I don't think they are really ostracized except by a fraction of people that think all wizards are lazy in groups because they just med, nuke, and afk while refusing to provide any other utility for the group. If you fall into that category of wizard, then I can understand thinking they are ostracized. My friend just got his to 51 in short order through a mix of grouping, duo's, and quading and is having a blast.

I don't know the guild dynamic on Green or how Kingdom does their recruiting, but I'm also not surprised that a level 20 character with no reputation or higher characters wasn't greated very enthusiastically by a top raid guild. The road to 60, especially on a first toon, is usually long and arduous and more people never make it 60 here than do. I'm in the camp that the best thing you can do for any toon to increase your utility and usefulness is to get 60 and then really start worrying about raiding and gear (more hp at 60, mana, more spells, more likely to resist AE's, etc..). A better path to go would be to get into a leveling/social guild and make some friends and memories on the ride to 56+, and then worry about a raid guild. With this path you'll most likely meet some people that will help you choose which raiding guild you want to join. There's groups of people/friends from guilds like TSS and Kittens or Ex Astra that apply 'together' to raid guilds all of the time.

Just my 2 cp.

And as far as casual raiding? I was able to go to my son's baseball game, come home, and hit 4 raid targets in the 2-3 hours before dinner. That's pretty casual to me. Sometimes my monthly raid attendence is 25%, and sometimes it's 1% and no one has ever said a word to me. Life happens and even the top raid guilds now are just happy that you show up when you can and play your classes well.

[tadkins]

Originally Posted by -TK- [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Wizards are in demand for raiding just FYI. Train-outs, TL's, and DPS are all important and welcomed for raiding. I don't think they are really ostracized except by a fraction of people that think all wizards are lazy in groups because they just med, nuke, and afk while refusing to provide any other utility for the group. If you fall into that category of wizard, then I can understand thinking they are ostracized. My friend just got his to 51 in short order through a mix of grouping, duo's, and quading and is having a blast.

I don't know the guild dynamic on Green or how Kingdom does their recruiting, but I'm also not surprised that a level 20 character with no reputation or higher characters wasn't greated very enthusiastically by a top raid guild. The road to 60, especially on a first toon, is usually long and arduous and more people never make it 60 here than do. I'm in the camp that the best thing you can do for any toon to increase your utility and usefulness is to get 60 and then really start worrying about raiding and gear (more hp at 60, mana, more spells, more likely to resist AE's, etc..). A better path to go would be to get into a leveling/social guild and make some friends and memories on the ride to 56+, and then worry about a raid guild. With this path you'll most likely meet some people that will help you choose which raiding guild you want to join. There's groups of people/friends from guilds like TSS and Kittens or Ex Astra that apply 'together' to raid guilds all of the time.

Just my 2 cp.

What does a wizard do besides nuke, root for CC, have an evac loaded, and occasionally stun cleric mobs? Honest question, because that's what I always thought to do in a group (if I were ever invited to one).

But yeah, I was just trying to make some friends. I never had any luck in the lower end guilds like Castle, FoH and FoW, who basically didn't really care about anyone but their inner cliques. So I thought I'd try Kingdom. Wasn't looking for anything but people to talk to, and possibly make some friends by the time I got up there to raiding. So it did hurt a little when they flat out rejected me. Pretty sure Seal Team also straight up laughed at my attempts to join them too.

So you can understand why I feel a bit jaded when it comes to this community. What is even left after all that?

I could potentially join Blue and try my luck there, but I'm also afraid of the same things happening, just in a newbie robe, no gear and no money on top of that.

[Kich867]

I mean that sounds like a pretty unfriendly guild, I've not had that experience at all. I also though tend to stay away from the massive guilds.

For several reasons: it's harder to make an impact and create a reputation for yourself in a large guild, it's less personable since there's just too many people to keep track of, and idk this is just speculation but I get the vibe with those that it can get kinda top-heavy cliquey if only because--for the same reasons its hard for newer people to establish a report, it's hard for the old guard to build new relationships with that many people. I don't think it's necessarily malicious all the time, there's just only so many people you can really keep track of in your social net.

I look for small to medium sized guilds because they're small enough to kinda know everybody and that just makes things easier I think.

You could also maybe look for up and coming guilds, or leveling guilds looking to turn into raiding guilds with their higher level members, stuff like that. Those can be fun. I briefly joined Pals on a character and everyone seemed super nice there and it sounded like they were looking to start getting into raiding.