Hot, Naked and Bothered about Looking for Raid

Ok, not Naked.  I was having a giggle to Tome of the Ancient about blatant sex in your post title increasing your blog traffic and so I asked her if I could borrow her idea to see if it works - she did a post recently on Nude Brunnhildar and said she had a lot of hits, which made me laugh.  So here I am plugging the Hot and Naked in my title to see if that works.

However, there are no hot and naked pictures in this post so if that's all you're here to see you can stop reading now.


Looking for Raid is one of those things that generates a LOT of opinions and discussion.  When it was announced, people were talking about how it was a stupid idea - hell, even in our own GUILD people went on about how it's a stupid idea and not to waste time on it.  Look at some of my fave LFR discussions in the blogosphere:
  • Tzufit did her post on the Ethics of Raid Finder Loot, and how we should do it and who should be getting it, and I loved to read the comments about that (and added my own).  
  • Big Bear Butt blogger wrote about Gaming the LFR where he thought he would test a theory about doing LFR on Tuesday, and found that it was great because heaps of guilded people grouped up in clumps, making it nice and smooth and pleasant.  And there was also a great story of one his guildies having enough of one asshole in the raid and so in the Hagara fight, lifegripped the asshole into icespikes.  Not that I condone this behaviour but it's funny.
  • Just recently, Vidyala posted Looking for: Community which also plugs on about the selfishness of people in LFR and how badly people can behave.  I like this post because I was have a whole collection of examples of LFR bad behaviour.  But the discussion generated by her posts is really fascinating, and there was this gem of a quote by Pliers referring to LFR:
"...what started off as tools to fix problems have become problems that create tools."

Couldn't have been better said.  Isn't it funny how everyone says how stupid it is (raiders that is) yet we all do it?  We all shamelessly do it for getting gear for our alts or ourselves when it hasn't dropped for us in normal raid.  So I don't think LFR was a bad thing on Blizzard's part.  I have so many friends who can't raid or don't raid or didn't make it into raid (guildies) that LFR is all that's left for them and at least that way they got a bit of their raiding fix for the week.  But for those who haven't wandered into LFR yet and are wondering what it's like...
  • Bosses are EASIER than Normal Dragon Soul
    You can't really expect people who don't play together on a regular basis to be able to cope with the difficult mechanics of a new encounter.  Blizzard has grasped that there are the casual people - the 1 hour players - who want to get on, do something, log off.  People who get on during their lunch break.  Busy parents.  People who have an hour to kill before they go out for a night on the town.  So queue up for Dragon Soul, get a quick queue, and smash a few faces before you go back to real life.  Blizz makes the same amount of money out of people who play WoW for 2 hours a week as they do out of the people who play for 20 hours a week.  Of course us 20 hours players get more value for money....
    Another thing is it opens raiding up for a whole bunch of people who couldn't before.  People who didn't get to raid - maybe because they're not good enough to raid, or maybe couldn't get into a guild that raided, or maybe those people that had to hang around waiting for people who were pugging runs.  So LFR is like an instant PUG raid run, so now these people can see the content.  "Who cares?" I hear you screaming.  Well, think if you're one of the designers for the boss fight.  Wouldn't you want EVERYONE to see your work, your bosses that you designed?  Not just 10-20% of the WoW population?  More people to admire your work!  Well, that's how I would feel if I was a raid boss designer.
  • Gear level is lower in comparison to Normal Dragon Soul
    The cool thing is that you can still look the same (well with some minor colour modifications) as well as get the set bonuses with the Tier so it's really not that bad.  The good thing is for raiders is at least they made the Normal mode look a bit different to LFR gear, so there is some distinction between those who have done normal and those who have done LFR.  Reminds me of how 10 and 25 man Ulduar gear looked a bit different.  Why is there a distinction?  Because those who have done normal do have to put in a bit of teamwork, research and effort into their gear, a lot more than someone who just wanted a bit of fun in their spare time.  And those who say "Well who cares, the LFR stuff is almost as good as normal anyway?"  Well, that's why you do LFR right?  Coz you don't think that extra few stats makes much difference but to a raider who number crunches, every bit does count.
  • Elitist bastards do frequent LFR
    Don't let these nasties ruin your raiding experience.  There will probably be one or two in every LFR, or at least every 2nd LFR.  These elitist bastards (EB's) usually hurl out the abuse at everyone and anything that is not them, and belittle your mistakes and your low healing/dps/bad connection etc.  If someone is truly being disruptive then they can get a kick vote.  So what do you do if you're the one being abused?  The best thing is to either ignore them or just say you've never done this fight before and nobody explained it to me.  As long as you don't hurl abuse back then they look the the tool, not you.  It's bad enough being the bad healer/dps/tank without also being the nasty and rude bad healer/dps/tank.  And if someone offers you some good advice, you take it, with a thank you and not yell at them to F*** off.  For every nasty person in the raid there will be a nice one, so hopefully you'll be lucky and it balances out.
  • LFR is full of people all about ME
    Everyone is doing LFR to get something for themselves.  And they are can be a selfish bunch.  There are those in the raid who rant about losing out on loot to someone who performs substandardly.  I am sure even people who read this are guilty of thinking that.  But there is the other side of the coin.  There are those who don't even TRY because they just want the chance to roll on things and maybe they'll get lucky.  What can you do about it?  Nothing really.  There are AFKers in LFR just like in a BG.  You can vote to kick these people.
  • You can do LFR multiple times but only loot a boss once
    I like this idea.  It means you can get more practice in if you want, even if you won't get any more loot or anything.  So hopefully this will allow people to become more skilled if that's what they wish to do.  Some people just like to raid, and it's not about the loot.  I think that's really cool.  However, it's a bit unfair that if you roll an item, it doesn't show if you already have a better item equipped in that slot.  Like a tank with normal version of Blackhorn's Mighty Bulwark, rolled on the raid finder version against the other tank and won it.  The other tank said "But you have the normal version already?" And the tank that won said "I needed the extra cash" and promptly left raid.  Ugh, what a nasty piece of work.  It was embarrassing, that person was from my server so I actually pst'd them and said "That wasn't a very nice thing to do."  His reply "Deal with it."
  • Loot is Need or Greed with a bonus for role
    It's not a PERFECT solution, but it is a bit of a solution so you should be only rolling against others of your role.  You can't roll on stuff you can't use.  Obviously can be abused as dual specced people who are main specced DPS can ninja their offspec gear from you by queueing as their offspec and getting the bonus and rolling on it.  Not sure how that can be overcome.  However, you can loot more than one item in a raid at this present moment, so just hope that your dice are lucky :)
  • Doing LFR does not necessarily make you a good raider
    The difference between LFR and normal raiding is like the difference between a Battleground and a Rated Battleground.  You can win in LFR even if everyone is not doing the correct thing to the book.  However, in normal raiding you can't, everyone needs to work together for the kill, and work together effectively.  Same as a battleground.  If you come up against a well organised group, then you have to be well organised.  And in rated BGs, it's just like doing a dungeon, everyone has their roles, they need to follow them for the win.  Playing for yourself doesn't work.  But I'm not saying that doing LFR makes you a bad raider, what I'm saying is that just because you do LFR doesn't mean that you will excel at normal raiding.  I've read online that people are concerned about people thinking they know it all because they do LFR and thus are raiders.  I am not sure they have anything to be worried about.  If those people are not good raiders then they just get rejected like any other failed raid applicant.
So what I am trying to say is that LFR has it's faults.  We know that.  But Blizzard made it for all those casual WoW players out there, to give them a taste of what it's like to raid.  It wasn't really made to cater to those of us who do raid, but we utilise the LFR for gear that make up what we are missing from normal raids.  No, we're not stealing your gear, we are entitled to have a roll at it as well, didn't we help kill that boss just as much as you? And the raiders presence in LFR is beneficial to the casual players who don't know what they are supposed to be doing, so we can at least help them or guide them in the right direction about what to do, beef up the DPS/heals/tanks or whatever.  And of course, the other thing that makes it more attractive to raiders is that you get gold and you get valo(u)r points for doing it as well, so if you're missing your last few points to cap, that's gonna help you along the way.

LFR is here to stay.  If you don't like it, don't do it!  Don't be angry at Blizz for making it, it's a great way to see the story and lore of WoW and to get a TASTE of what it would be like to do proper cooperative play, especially on limited time.  Besides, LFR antics are so funny, you can't help but laugh at all the idiots and annoying people who you find in there.  Well, maybe not laugh at the time but certainly, after.

NAKED.  Ok, there I said it.  Blatant plugging for the win :)

Comments

  1. Whilst most points are valid here navi, I can relate to baddies and sub standard people getting gear in normal raids as well. Why should be be carried then get rewarded with gear? Doesnt seem fair??

    Voieeee

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  2. @Voe - it's all about to change Voe. Heroics start next week. The only people you have to compete with are the ones who aren't substandard. We still do play by the rules in the guild, and go by DKP regardless of how bad they play.

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  3. Hey, I googled "hot naked taurens" and got sent here, where are they?

    Oh okay, the post was actually better than naked pictures anyway. As someone who doesn't raid I still like to read about it. Although I doubt I'll ever use LFR at least I know what to expect if I ever do!

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  4. @tomeoftheancient - I'm not convinced this hot naked thing worked :) but maybe I'll see what the stats are like by the end of the week :)

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  5. I can see the meaning behind LFR and value its benefits. The problem emerging from it atm is the elitists and ego driven jerks driving the beginners into the ground.

    My alts have graced lfr and while they arent the best at their dps, they are still in the midst's of learning. People seem to think you need TOP dps to do lfr. I'm pretty sure they were beginners before DS or any other raid came out. However the egotistic toons never think about beginners. Sure there will always be those select few who under par on their dps, but don't judge them.

    Sure they could be lazy, on follow, only have eyes for loot or they are learning and feel the need to exercise their teamwork skills, they are new to WoW and DS is their first real raid.

    And you are right if you don't like lfr, don't do it. If you don't like that select few who are under par, kick them. Don't degrade through the entire 4 bosses. I'd rather be kicked from a raid than put up with abuse.

    Manners - that needs a whole posting on its own.

    I personally like lfr. I see it as an adventure. I laugh quite a lot at the antics of some players, appreciate the helpful leaders (they do exist).

    LFR= watching 24 different people trying to do teamwork - pretty darn funny at times! Sure I've had my share of unhappy experiences, but the good ones outweigh the bad.

    Here Here LFR!

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I hope these comments work! Not sure why people can't comment lately, it makes me sad :(