Arenas Sent Me Packing...Hello Wildstar:)

Because quality raiders have no real reason to stick around in this game. Long content droughts. The same raids for 6-10 months. I can understand why so few players actually have it. Swtor could do a lot more on the raiding front to keep competitive raiders in their game.

That's actually a very good point. But until Wildstar releases 40 mans on a regular basis (as in more than one every 6 months) we don't know that it won't be another SWTOR.

Because quality raiders have no real reason to stick around in this game. Long content droughts. The same raids for 6-10 months. I can understand why so few players actually have it. Swtor could do a lot more on the raiding front to keep competitive raiders in their game.

I'll think you'll find that the Raids are random every time. That's what the latest dev speak claims. Now, the word 'random' can mean anything because developers just love to be creative with words.

Imagine how much more fun a Flashpoint or Operation would be if it was random every time you played it? I simply don't understand how these things are fun when everyone 'must know tactics' and it's like a book that you've read the end to straight away instead of starting from the front thus turning into a scripted yawn fest

I'm a little weary to address you, given your history of hate, but... might as well try anyways.

are you aware of existence of dances? you know, specific, choreographed numbers? well.. raiding is kinda like that. its fun, becasue executing a number well, as a team - is fun. its like the difference between dancing at the club, doing your own thing and performing in a ballet.

or in other words - to each their own.

and now, I personally wouldn't find it more fun if it was random each time. because 1. too chaotic. 2. cannot have complex mechanics that involve high degree of cooperation. 3. eventually, you realize that even while randomized, there's still a limited number of scenarios, so you learn what to expect and becasue there aren't complex mechanics, it becomes even more of a going through the motions.

even pvp becomes predictable after a while.

P.S. at the post above me.

2 operations. Dread fortress and Dread palace are 2 separate operations. 2.5 if you count Tobboro's courtyard.

I guess it all depends on your style of play and how you as a player wants a game to pan out. I don't PvE much now because I find it just flat boring because its same old same old - the same for Raids. The problem I see for anyone new to a game, is that they are not welcome in raids because of the gear and then the 'tactics' required to play said raid.

As for PvP, that really can't be predictable, unless you're in a game like SWTOR with just a handful of pvp'ers left and no cross server support. So when you see certain names, you just know what to expect good or bad. Random makes things more exciting, makes people come back to face a fresh challenge. And that is how it should be.

are you saying that wildstar won't require gearing? tactics can be explained (just like line dancing doesn't require you to know the dance by hard, as long as you follow directions as they are given out).

everyone is new to the game at some point. if that was the reason for not being able to do raids - no one would.

as for pvp being unpredictable... I don't know.... I have learned it was like wrestling or whatnot. you don't know for sure what your opponent will do, but becasue the discipline you are both fighting in has certain rules, you can kinda figure it out and plan out how you will respond. its not identical every time (but neither is raiding, especially if your group contains different classes), but its not a complete unknown either. especially if there are objectives involved.

I'll think you'll find that the Raids are random every time. That's what the latest dev speak claims. Now, the word 'random' can mean anything because developers just love to be creative with words.

Imagine how much more fun a Flashpoint or Operation would be if it was random every time you played it? I simply don't understand how these things are fun when everyone 'must know tactics' and it's like a book that you've read the end to straight away instead of starting from the front thus turning into a scripted yawn fest

There probably will be some kind of gearing, but the actual raids themselves are some kind of random affair. Not sure exactly how it works but I was thinking how KDY works here maybe, or it could even be more random. The video went live yesterday on raids.

KDY is not random. you still have limited number of scenarios and you can and do learn them all. even more random? more scenarios?

something I forgot to mention about tactics. you are not dropped into an op knowing tactics. especially if you are one of the early adopters. you have to figure the fight out. and once you do that, you then need to figure out how to adopt the fight to your specific group composition. the harder the fight - more involved strategies become. we have threads on our forums that each deal with specific bosses and no single group does the boss exactly the same way, becasue we don't run identical composition.

but... I did watch the raid video. I'm sorry.. this is supposed to be new somehow? nothing that they showed in raids is in any way different, including their telegraphing system. its still - stand in green, don't stand in red, essentially. (but with less control, because it seems single target healing triage doesn't exist- the only control you have is ground placement of AoE heals) the only thing that seems to be randomized is patterns of red that you need to avoid, but they are still patterns and they still need to be learned. random people being targeted and having to run away to keep the whole room from being destroyed? oh, hello there, Tyrans. whole rooms being destroyed and having to get to safety becasue ground sinks into lava? oh hai there, Garj. randomly placed AoE that you need to avoid? oh where do I start becasue multiple encounters have some version of it, in variations too. and oh hey, there are these new sets of flashpoints where grenades are thrown at you by one of the bosses and you have to keep moving out of the telegraphs they place on a floor, or die. of course old flashpoints had those as well

larger raids both in number of people and number of bosses? yeah, that's old school. and some people will love it, no question about it. but there's a reason so many games opted for smaller raids. different people have different sweet spots of how long they can raid before they start to wear out, but usual sweet spot is about 3 hours. so far, it looks like when they say hardcore - they mean more time intensive. this makes raids a lot LESS accessible than they are in games like TOR. becasue you need bigger groups AND more time to run them.

to each their own naturally, but I hate to break it to you. wildstar is not a savior of MMO's. it looks like a decent game that's not for everyone and that, just like every other hyped up MMO, will retain some players, lose everyone else who couldn't see it for what it objectively is.