I know a lot of people who do raids and I was wondering: 1) Is loot share fair? 2) What classes do raids look for? 3) Do raids last 1-3 hours? 4) Would I need to buy expansion(s) to take part in certain raids? Any information would be helpful! Thanks!
In short: 1-3: varies by raid force 4: most require the most recent expansion (Blood of Luclin), but there may still be a few rare forces that raid older content
Before joining a raid guild or alliance, ask about how loot is managed. I think the fairest system if the Suicide Kings List, followed by Zero Sum DKP. Whatever system they use, make sure that YOU can live with it without feeling slighted or cheated. A good question to ask is whether there are exceptions to the "usual" rules, such as tank always gets everything they want, or guild leader gets to "reward" "special friends" randomly outside of the usual distribution system. Every raid needs one or two tanks, six or more healers usually, four power regen, and the rest DPS to total 24 players. Watch your server's General channel, most raid groups will advertise to fill positions. There is no "magic class" that is always wanted in every raid all the time. Ask a prospective raid guild or alliance (1) what days do they raid, and (2) what hours on those days. I personally think people loose focus after 3 hours, which is probably why it tends to be the upper limit on raid duration. Other good questions to ask: do raid members help one another with crafting, grouping, and that sort of thing. Ask if there's much drama. Depends. If you decide to play on a TLE server, you get all the content that the TLE server has. I personally think the time to join a TLE server is when one first opens up, YMMV. On Live servers, you can pretty much expect to need the most current expansion, since that's what people will be raiding. Rarely you may find a progression raid guild starting up where people level lock and raid the low level raids and all raise their levels pretty much uniformly, tackling harder raids as they get to the next raid level. The last one I saw was on Antonia Bayle, I think.
Being pretty far into the expac? I would suggest you find a guild (that raids) where you like the people you play with. Use the time between now and the launch of the new expac to make friends. Maybe show up on raid days/night available as an alternate. Raid spots for brand new character will likely be tough to find, but come launch everyone will be back to more or less equal. And you'll be comfy with the folks in your guild by then..and they with you.
BRUTALITY on Skyfire is having a Great time doing casual progression Raiding on lower level content. We Are successfully doing At Level progression raiding under level 100. We have enough people to sport full 4 group Raids at times. We have completed Lv 50, 60, 70 content, moving into Level 80, on level with power level restrictions on our Raiding Alts for guild members to increase the challenge of the Epic encounters. This week we will be attempting Veeshan's Peak to get Mythical Updates as a guild accomplishment! We plan on spending 2 or 3 months on Lv 80 then onto Lv 90,, then Lv 100 ect.. We are doing older content and it give us a point of focus, even if it is in a casual "power managed" format. Many seem to enjoy the actual challenge. People seem to like the idea as we have a large active roster. Its so easy to get any alt to level 80 in 2 hours that anyone can pretty much play any class they want. Loot is easy as it is plentiful and generally Need/Greed. Depending on which Epic it is, Raids may last a while but we never hold anyone to some kind of attendance. Play as u like cuz FUN should be the goal in a video game. Example was Mayong Mistmore, we fought him for like an hour before we figured out what we needed to do. If you are interested in some fun old school raiding with a nice active guild, make a Free account and a character on Skyfire. Look us up!
Thanks for all the responses! I'm actually in a guild currently... But my alt (the character I want to raid with) is not in a guild. Nazyalensky 60 Fae Ranger <Casual Concept>
Is that character on Skyfire? Whenever you are ready, just grab anyone from Brutality. Any given evening we prolly have 20+ peeps online. We would be happy to help! Rangers are cool!
Actually, Raff, they won't be back to being equal. Gearwise, yes. But something people tend to ignore--especially on a brand new character or one they pulled up out of the coffin from 5 years ago share a fundamental issue. Their spells, CAs, and ascensions basically suck. Many of them show up with apprentice/adept spells, ascensions, and Epic 2.0 at apprentice. This puts you directly behind the 8 ball when it comes to being "qualifed" for a raid spot. Not all spells/CAs/Epic 2.0 spells are useful, but the ones that are need to be up there. Ignore them at your own peril.
Well, on coming back...you have to start somewhere. Most of our guild came back in the middle KA after a 3 yr absence. Now we're back to relative normal. So give it time and you'll get caught up. But just showing up after a years long absence and expecting to be able to totally catch up to top players in a few months is simply unrealistic in normal game play. Now you could max all your CA's & ascensions with a credit card if you wanted to. None of us did though...we just played.
Yes I'm on Skyfire. Search me up! My raiding alt is currently a Zerker, but is there a different class I should play for raids? Nazyalensky 62 Fae Ranger <Casual Concept>, Skyfire Server
I agree with you..you have to start somewhere. I was just pointing out that it was misleading to suggest to a new player they would be on equal footing with the launch of a new xpac. Or for that matter, anyone else who's been out of game for a number of years. And unless you wield a mighty credit card, it will take more than a few months to catch up. Figure 15 spells from apprentice to at least expert will take a few plat to buy with average cost of expert at 23K unless someone in the guild is feeling magnanimous. Another reason to find a good guild with people you like. Researching them will take a year. Getting them from expert to GM will be years if all you're doing is researching. Those research potion reducers are nice, but they just don't drop frequently. What's the research time from Master to GM? 59 days, give or take.
You'll find that 200pp is a drop in the bucket. Much like the world monetary system used to be based on a gold standard, the EQ2 economy is based on the krono. On most servers, they are selling upwards of 8-10 million pp. People buy one (or more) to sell. They can immediately catch up for the things that are based on in game currency.
You can level an alchemist and make your own, or often times a guildmate can make them for you. Sounds like you play older content, so a lot of people have a fair number of those older rares collecting dust.
I'm a Jeweler and group SK hates tradeskilling so I'm trying to raise my alt Zerker to become a Alchemist. We do newish content... But we're all FTP.
If you are FTP, you will have issues with equipping raid armor and I think also upgrading spells past a certain level.
I have a friend who has a level 100 SK that has been getting us raid loot, including armor and spells/CAs. I'm also a Jeweler and have been working on getting my tradeskilling up to help with spell upgrades.
Think i just missed you lol .. i added Nazyalensky to my friends list to notify me if we r on together 8) ..
I redid my alt to be a Defiler... Whose name is conveniently Nazyalensky almost backwards... Anyways, you'll probably get a dingy around 2pm-8pm PT. That's when I play everyday. If Nazy isn't on, I'm on my alt Defiler (who needs power leveling), Skynelayzan. Send me a tell if I'm online
