How realistic is casual raiding?

[cd288]

As much as I'm not a fan of Toxigen, it looks like you were right with your comment earlier in this thread. It was only a matter of time before DSM got bored in the 4 person caster thread and came in here to try and turn this into a 100 page mess lol

[Kich867]

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

If you don't care about getting top end loot then you can raid casually in most of the top raiding guilds (i.e., you can join raids and see content if that's all you care about). If you care about good loot, then no you can't do that "casually"...it will still take a time and effort commitment of many many hours.

Anyone who expects to put in significantly less effort and commitment than someone who is a hardcore raider should expect to get less, no? I think it's almost a necessity to assume that a "casual raider" doesn't care about top-end loot. The only game that supports that, sorta, is something like WoW where you can PUG mega easy mode versions of raids with heavily watered down versions of items that those bosses drop, and even then its obviously not top end gear at all.

If you go into it not expecting BIS gear, show up, help where you can, be a useful guildmate, and demonstrate you give a shit...I've never seen a guild not support people like that.

Items rot all the time, or get sent to a guild bank, or get sent to alts, for "casual" players those items are drastically better than anything else they'd be wearing or could farm for.

I guess I just don't envision a "casual raider" being someone who would ever, ever expect or feel entitled to the absolute best gear around, or maybe just me as a person has a more grounded sense of reality. If I were joining a guild and wanted to only occasionally raid, I would never have the expectation of loot. In my times leading raids / raiding guilds in other games, officers knew who were good people who just can't show up as often as everyone else and everyone was supportive of getting them gear when we could.

I don't see that being any less doable in EQ, though honestly I think your biggest hurdle is getting up near 60 as a casual player. Assuming you're already in that level range though, join a small or middle-sized raiding guild and you'll be fine.

[Fammaden]

Everything DSM is saying is true. If you're out there lurking this thread, just give it a try and find out for yourself after you get to 60, or even 55+. Try one of the high end guilds and decide for yourself, worst case scenario you politely back out and go join someone else.

Many of the people who would be asking this question have come to one of the top two raid guilds on either server and suddenly found out that they got a ton of good loot and had a fun time even just playing during primetime weeknights or whenever, contrary to what all the forum posters tried to tell them.

[Keebz]

For a fresh server, the trick to casually raiding is being in most dominant guild. Earn DKP doing scheduled planar clears for 2 years, then dump it while you have uncontested access to VP, ToV and Sleepers for months while the other guilds catch up.

Today on a late stage server, you can still be semi-casual. Just park at ToV and kill whatever during your available time on the weekends. As people drop off, lots of stuff sits up overnight, so Saturday/Sunday mornings are a good time to log on and knock out 4-5 targets, then go about the rest of your day.

In general "casual raiding guilds" are the absolute worst for casual raiding outside the scheduled shit. If you're in one and want to do ToV/VP/etc, get your Epic/HoT/Sky gear then get to a guild with no-lifers who can do the socking for you.

For everyone saying the neck beards will take all your loot for their alts, this is somewhat true. For example, you're gonna have a hard time on a monk bidding against every shaman/druid/necro/etc warm body in your guild. However, you can gear your hybrid to the teeth pretty quickly. On the monk - hybrid spectrum there's a number of other speed options for gearing.

[cd288]

Originally Posted by Kich867 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Anyone who expects to put in significantly less effort and commitment than someone who is a hardcore raider should expect to get less, no? I think it's almost a necessity to assume that a "casual raider" doesn't care about top-end loot. The only game that supports that, sorta, is something like WoW where you can PUG mega easy mode versions of raids with heavily watered down versions of items that those bosses drop, and even then its obviously not top end gear at all.

If you go into it not expecting BIS gear, show up, help where you can, be a useful guildmate, and demonstrate you give a shit...I've never seen a guild not support people like that.

Items rot all the time, or get sent to a guild bank, or get sent to alts, for "casual" players those items are drastically better than anything else they'd be wearing or could farm for.

I guess I just don't envision a "casual raider" being someone who would ever, ever expect or feel entitled to the absolute best gear around, or maybe just me as a person has a more grounded sense of reality. If I were joining a guild and wanted to only occasionally raid, I would never have the expectation of loot. In my times leading raids / raiding guilds in other games, officers knew who were good people who just can't show up as often as everyone else and everyone was supportive of getting them gear when we could.

I don't see that being any less doable in EQ, though honestly I think your biggest hurdle is getting up near 60 as a casual player. Assuming you're already in that level range though, join a small or middle-sized raiding guild and you'll be fine.

Oh absolutely. I didn't say people felt entitled to it, just answering the question overall and flagging that it depends on what your goal is. If you just want to raid and see content you can absolutely do that casually. If you want gear on the high end of the spectrum then it's hard to do casually because you're going to have a to spend awhile building up enough DKP to get it...some items do rot but more frequently those are items for lesser used classes (Paladin is a good example) or items restricted to one or two classes and you get lucky and those classes on the raid at the time already have one (but I wouldn't go into raiding expecting that to happen consistently.

Gear that's not as high end is easier to obtain while raiding and you can do that casually (Thurgadin quest armor drops in Kael for example). It all just depends on what your overall goal is.

[cd288]

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

For a fresh server, the trick to casually raiding is being in most dominant guild. Earn DKP doing scheduled planar clears for 2 years, then dump it while you have uncontested access to VP, ToV and Sleepers for months while the other guilds catch up.

Today on a late stage server, you can still be semi-casual. Just park at ToV and kill whatever during your available time on the weekends. As people drop off, lots of stuff sits up overnight, so Saturday/Sunday mornings are a good time to log on and knock out 4-5 targets, then go about the rest of your day.

In general "casual raiding guilds" are the absolute worst for casual raiding outside the scheduled shit. If you're in one and want to do ToV/VP/etc, get your Epic/HoT/Sky gear then get to a guild with no-lifers who can do the socking for you.

For everyone saying the neck beards will take all your loot for their alts, this is somewhat true. For example, you're gonna have a hard time on a monk bidding against every shaman/druid/necro/etc warm body in your guild. However, you can gear your hybrid to the teeth pretty quickly. On the monk - hybrid spectrum there's a number of other speed options for gearing.

Yup a hybrid (not including Bard here just to be clear) can generally get geared faster for less DKP because there are some good pieces that are limited to their class for instance

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

Oh absolutely. I didn't say people felt entitled to it, just answering the question overall and flagging that it depends on what your goal is. If you just want to raid and see content you can absolutely do that casually. If you want gear on the high end of the spectrum then it's hard to do casually because you're going to have a to spend awhile building up enough DKP to get it...some items do rot but more frequently those are items for lesser used classes (Paladin is a good example) or items restricted to one or two classes and you get lucky and those classes on the raid at the time already have one (but I wouldn't go into raiding expecting that to happen consistently.

Gear that's not as high end is easier to obtain while raiding and you can do that casually (Thurgadin quest armor drops in Kael for example). It all just depends on what your overall goal is.

You can get a Child's Tear for like 10 DKP in VQ. That is much better than the No Drop armor pieces, and 10 DKP is really easy to get. You are vastly underestimating what items you can get for cheap.

[cd288]

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

You can get a Child's Tear for like 10 DKP in VQ. That is much better than the No Drop armor pieces, and 10 DKP is really easy to get. You are vastly underestimating what items you can get for cheap.

Hereeeeeeee we go boys and girls! DSM here to post 1,000 times and turn the thread into a useless discussion about how he's the only person who is right!

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

Hereeeeeeee we go boys and girls! DSM here to post 1,000 times and turn the thread into a useless discussion about how he's the only person who is right!

Mega yikes. You should really stop posting stuff like this, it doesn't make you look good, or prove any of your points.

I have been in a big guild for a while. It really isn't as hard as you claim it is, unless your definition of casual is fairly extreme, like playing a few hours a week. Under those circumstances you aren't going to be getting much done in Everquest, whether it be raiding, grouping, or soloing.

[Rick Sanchez]

Problem with reality is it's real OP. In MMO's the more time you spend on the game, the more progress you make. Everquest in general was made with competition in mind with the keyword being "contested". If you genuinely want a EQ raiding experience on here be ready to spend more time than a rational adult with responsibility will allow. I'll admit when this server dropped in 2009 and I heard that midi music again, I was immersed as close as I'll ever be to the first time and I knew I was going to neckbeard hard at that time because before this server nothing even came remotely close. I for sure got my fill here and I am grateful for all the staff(except for amelinda). However, luckily the EQemu community is robust for how old the game is which is nice. So give it a shot and see what happens man /shrug.