Friday, June 7, 2013

Flexible Raids: Nailed it!

Does "Nailed it!" refer to the fact I called this addition was coming nearly a year ago or does it refer to the fact that blizzard has found the possible solution for the friends and family casual type guilds?  Maybe both.

July 28th 2012 I wrote a post about scenarios where I mentioned it would open the door for dynamic raiding, you can check it out if you would like, Can Scenarios Change the Way we Play?.  I might have went along the wrong path to lead me to believe dynamic raiding was coming but I did say it would be coming.  Then today I pop on to see A Raid for All Seasons: Flexible Raid Preview on battle.net.  Just like I posted about the scroll of resurrection promotion before it was announced, the tillers farm before it was introduced, and various other additions to the game I have another notch on my belt for calling one right.

I'll repeat the line from that post to express my feelings about the flexible raid system.

"Dynamic raiding.  The idea of that just makes me smile."

 It is not exactly what I would call a dead on accurate prediction but if you read their post and my post you will find some surprisingly similar comments in each that explains why this type of dynamic raiding is a great idea.  They call it flexible raiding, I call it dynamic, it is basically the same thing.

What I like the most about it is that it will be on a separate lock out.  It will be harder than LFR but easier than normal. It is EXACTLY what my guild needs right now.  We have so many people interested in joining our 25 man but many of them really are not raiders and we do not have enough solid players to carry them in a 25 man.  To have something like this to gear them up and to train them that we can run our mains on to help push them through while we teach them makes working toward a real 25 man so much more a reality than it is now.

I can also see this type of raiding replacing the LFR for my guild to some extent.  We do a guild LFR and fill out the spaces with the system once a week.  No longer will we ever need to do that again.  If we have 18 we will walk into the 18 man version.  We can easily carry those people that need gear without subjecting them to the unwashed masses that live in the LFR. 

We can have them on vent and teach them to do the fights the right way even if they could just avoid the mechanic like in the LFR in preparation for getting them ready for the real raid.  And the best part of it all, it drops better loot than the LFR.  Better loot?  Why even run the LFR unless you can double dip on reputation, quest drops, or something else.  Maybe to help gearing up faster, but I think I would prefer to gear up slower with better gear and with guild in this new flexible world, at least on my alts.  My main I will probably still do all three on as long as I need gear from them.

And alts, oh my god alts.  I can now make more alt nights where we can run alts.  I love that idea.  A new raiding world is open to everyone, maybe, depending on difficulty of course.  There will still be people that just can not do it.  Heck, there are people, many of them, that the LFR is too difficult for.  We can run the guild group for everyone one night, the progression 10 another and then maybe even a alt run the one after only to finish the week up with a real 25 that now has people that have had the experience from the flexible run, and maybe some gear to boot.

And it will be upon us for the next patch too.  This is reason to be excited.  The raiding world is hurting, hurting bad, as you might have noticed from a few of my posts recently and posts all over the net.  This is just want the doctor ordered and this is just what the elf said was coming.

BTW:  Being I have been pretty accurate predicting the future the last couple of years perhaps it is time you refresh yourself on some of the things to expect in 6.0, as the elf sees it, New for 6.0: Player Housing and 2 New Professions.

Nailed it is right.  This might not be the big unannounced feature they were talking about but it is surely a welcome announcement to my pointed ears.

What do you think about it?

45 comments:

  1. Anon, Grumpy's former Guild Leader:

    I read that this morning and thought to myself "I know a grumpy elf who is not going to be so grumpy..."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I saw this coming when I saw scenarios. I would have liked it for the real raid but being real raiding is a tad bit harder and this will be easier it will be the perfect tool to train new players that want to become raiders.

      Not to mention, I am sure with the flexible dynamic it will really make it easier to gear alts and get pugs going.

      No longer if you can't gwt 25 you don't go. You go with 18. Then bobs friends come on and it becomes 23. Then a few leave and it becomes 21. And then it gets late so many leave and it becomes 14. You can keep going, no matter what.

      This is F'N awesome. Assuming it is easy enough that we can carry those really bad beginners of course.

      Delete
  2. Love it, too.

    Maybe I will raid from time to time now, who knows. No jokes.

    My main is in a big PVP guild. We don't hate PVE, but we aren't into it to the point of creating static groups - arenas and everything else tends to get in the way, plus people come here for different reasons, and so static groups have huge attrition. LFR is... well, LFR. It's a boring place which I personally, as well as many others, don't like to do at all. Run once, endure the wipes and the stupidity, see all bosses, maaaaaybe do something for the legendary questline, if you have patience, done. With flexi-raids we might be able to raid without forming static groups. So, much less people who just don't care, like in LFR, but no hard attendance requirements either, like in static groups. Win-win. *And* we can bring friends from other realms. Another huge win.

    So, I am really looking forward to all this. Ideally, I would do these flexi-raids and NOT do LFR. If things turn out this way, that would be quite a nice change!

    The one point that puzzles me somewhat is that the ilvl of gear in these flexi-raids is below that in normal raids. I get that normals are harder, but, well, this makes progression look like: flexi-raids -> normals -> heroics. If flexi-raids dropped ilvl from normals, we'd be inclined to try heroics, just for kicks. We'd probably wipe a lot, no big deal, but maybe we'd progress some. As it stands, the next progression steps after flexi-raids are normal raids, and this somehow isn't appealing in that the progression path seems too long.

    But that's a minor point.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It would fit you guys well. 14 people on one night, hey, why don't we give the flex raid a shot. Okay. No schedule needed, just enough people on that want to do it.

      I too think I would rather do the flex and not the LFR one. LFR would be for alts mainly or secondary alts, as in thirds or fourths unless the pug scene starts to beef up with flex raiding. Which is possible.

      It does add a new level of play and I can see even our progression team knocking out eh flex mode before the normals even if just for the gear.

      If we use this tier for example I would guess it would be 512 gear. Dead between LFR and normal. As I am hoping is where the difficulty is. Right between the two.

      Delete
  3. This will make me want to find a guild again. As someone who fell short of normal mode raiding since cataclysm, this is amazing. For people who aren't terrible players but struggle with current normals this is...its just more than I've hoped for.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is everything the doctor ordered for my guild.

      We have been trying to recruit people like yourself. Who normals are a little to much. Sadly, we are getting less than that, people who should not even think of normals. This means a whooping 1 boss progression because horridon is impossible with them. However, with flex raiding I am sure we would have it down for them, and more, and not lock our characters out to just that one boss we did with them. Awesome on every angle. We help them, create possible future raiders, do not get locked, and everyone gets some gear and experience.

      Delete
  4. This news sounds good/interesting. I'm the type of player that could benefit from this. I'm not "uber" enough to join a raiding guild that raids normals and heroics. And the cesspool that is LFR totally turns me off. But if I could run raids with friends and not have to worry about getting a full group (or having BiS gear) I'd be one happy player.

    I really enjoy raiding but haven't done much of it since early Cata. Our guild lost a few of our core 10 man players and we ended up not finding replacements and stopped raiding. Had something like this been implemented back then we might have been able to continue on.

    Here's hoping it works well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is exactly what I was thinking in terms of the characters I am not very good at. Sure I can raid normal or even maybe heroic on my hunter but on my lock. You have to be kidding me. This will give me the ability to run him in a controlled setting following mechanics and maybe, just maybe, actually learning how to play him.

      Not to mention we have a lot of new recruits that want to raid but are, to be polite, not raiders. This is where we can take them to turn them into raiders, or weed them out from ever being on one of the normal teams.

      Funny story. Just had a new rogue join. I told him the 10s are full, but 25s he can come and we can help him learn.

      The other night all he did was complain about not being invited. Saying, I see how it is, blah, blah, blah. We said, can you do over 100K, what is your item level. He said, nope, I do 30K and it is 480. I said, that is why you can not come on a 10 man. Our lowest DPS is 120K. If and when you can get to at least 100K, we might consider you as a fill in, until them, wait until the 25 team runs.

      Most people just do not get it. We can not carry someone like that in 10s. At least not on many bosses.

      This flex will give us the ability to say to him, okay, we will drag you along tomorrow and then do a flex with him and get him gear, practice, and teach him. So one day he might actually become a raider instead of an annoyance all raid night crying because we did not take him and his 30K DPS along.

      I hope it works too, it would be great for all of us in my case.

      Delete
  5. This will be fantastic for a lot of people I know. I'd tweak a few things and I'm sure they'll tweak more than that before it goes live but I really like the concept and more importantly, that they recognize that there is a significant hole for a lot of raiders right now.

    I think I still would have preferred them to tune normal down rather than adding a new raid type, though, the already fragmented base of raiders (the 25K raids who have killed the first ToT boss vs the much larger number in the past) can only become more fragmented, especially for people already raiding as much as their available time permits.

    Personally, I love the idea and I imagine I'll run it regularly. LFR will still have a place when I'm looking to raid on my own schedule rather than a scheduled raid time (weekends, most likely) or to finish off bosses that I wasn't able to get in flex.

    The two things I'm most surprised and happy about are that you'll be able to bring in Battletag buddies and that it's a separate lockout from normal/heroic. During an alt run, hit a boss that just needs 1 or 2 to flip to their mains temporarily to help get past it? Get 'er done, then flip back.

    That one guy who always needs to leave 30m before normal raid time is called unless it looks like you're close to a kill (you know the guy)? Don't even bring him in the first place, the jerk. :)

    I think a difficulty around the level of Dragon Soul would be great. If they err on the difficulty, though, I hope they err on the side of easier difficulty... if groups get through it faster than expected there are always normals to run next week! I'd be okay with flex being something of a progression path to get raids and raiders up to normals, or for weeks where the group comp or numbers would make normals overly difficult.

    Love it. I'm not sure if it's the big surprise or not, it certainly could be... I'd say it's big enough to qualify. Plus, it's not that far off my prediction about scaling your toon down to lower-end dungeons to run them at-level... they're obviously making some significant progress with scaling technology in their raids (flex) and character handling (challenge modes), that's just a small step past this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree. I would have rathered them tune normals down some and added the flexible ability to them instead of adding a whole new difficulty level. But something is better than nothing and this is a step in a positive direction for most players that are no raiding normals and heroics but would like to.

      The cross realm and different lock out really hits base to what they want this to be for. Friends and family type guilds. Which I think is awesome. They needed something. They were dying off.

      If it is DC 30% nerf difficulty it will be a huge hit among many players. I would be willing to run it on alts too, something I don't even think about now unless I am really needed.

      I do not think this is the big surprise that our friendly neighborhood crab was talking about being he did mention it having something to do with older content and this is exactly the opposite, it is for new content.

      Delete
  6. I love this idea. I think its much needed and just a great idea all around. My one note of concern is how the community will react to it. It is essentially an easy mode with a different name (clever blizzard) so hopefully the forum trolls don't spoil this for us.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The forum trolls will be all over it. They already are. Oddly enough most of the complaints I see from most of them are not about the flex system itself but about a different lock out and the loot system.

      I hope they keep the different lock out personally. Then I can help lesser raiders in it. If they don't then they really would defeat the purpose of what it is meant for as I see it. I would never take my main in there if I had to skip a normal to do so. At least not if I were downing stuff on normal already. Maybe just that first week or two for gear only. The different lock out is required to make this work but people are hating on it already.

      Delete
    2. Yeah, at the specific moment when I clicked the link the first 4 comments below the post were all highly negative, including one "that's it, Blizz, with everything else that's wrong with the game THIS is where you're spending your time?! I quit!"

      Sigh. Sadly, this announcement won't fix the community. Maybe that'll come later. :)

      Loot is actually one of the things I would probably change if there was a way to do it... but I'm not sure how you would, if you ran flex first in the week how could you tell the game "nope, don't give me loot, I'm running normal later this week"? Completely separate lockouts may be a result of that issue. There will be a lot of backlash from the completionists who will now feel they have to run normal, LFR AND flex every week to gear up as quickly as possible. I still don't know how to counter that, though.

      Delete
    3. The community has to fix itself. While blizzard should crack down on disruptive and rude people in game there is nothing wrong with someone voicing their opinion, at least as I see it. And if they do not like it that is fine.

      We need to make the community better and interestingly enough, making hand made teams for heroic scenarios is doing that a little and this will do it more. So maybe this might actually help the in game community a tiny bit in time. Won't do anything for those people on the forums however.

      It is a step in the right direction for a lot of reasons.

      Delete
  7. I think it's very funny that they didn't realize that Flex Mode Lockout would very quickly start being referred to as FML...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am sure many people will add them to the list of mandatory things they feel they need to do. I know I will. But at least it is something I can do with guild.

      Delete
  8. The reason I quit was that LFR wasn't fun, and my server community was dead.
    Flex raiding gets past both of these things - I don't have to LFR and I can use systems like Openraid to form community.
    I guess 5.4 will get me subscribing again!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seems like at least in one case this change will be a huge thing. I would not be surprised if there were not many more exactly like you.

      Delete
  9. if I understand this correctly, what it means as a flex raid, you can have 10 or 8 or 25 or 3, you can raid and it will have it's own lockout?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You should have between 10 and 25. If you go in with less than 10, it will probably still be tuned for 10 people.

      Delete
    2. Yes, except you should have at least 10 (and up to 25). Boss difficulty adjusts with the number of people. The loot system is similar to LFR, the game just gives you your personal loot, there's no rolling. Ilvls between LFR and normal raids. Separate lockout. Achievements shared with normal raids.

      It's great, in my opinion.

      Imagine this: You start a raid with 15 people, down a boss, then someone has to go. Unless it's a very-very-very key person for which there is no replacement, it's OK! He goes and you continue the raid as 14. How cool is that? And that's just one example, there's a lot more...

      Delete
    3. As PvP Anon said, between 10 and 25. Any amount between them will work.

      Not sure how it will balance tank and healer wise however. Might still always need 2 tanks. But that remains to be seen. I am almost sure 2 tanks will always be needed.

      Delete
  10. I think it's great. It's funny how we were just talking about some of this in your "What if" post. Cross-realm raiding, LFR loot system in an actual raid, separate lockouts.

    I would have preferred to merge normal 10 and 25 into Flex raiding and keep Heroic for fixed sized raid groups, but that'd probably be too drastic of a change. It might happen in the future though depending on how this goes.

    I definitely like the separate lockout and the LFR loot system. RNG sucks but it takes loot drama out of the equation; no more team members saying "Pugs always win all the loot".

    Some groups may feel the need to run all 3, but I don't think they'll do that for long. Most normal/heroic raiders don't run LFR for more than the first couple weeks. They're gearing up in the real raid and LFR is annoying so...

    Even I'm only running LFR now because of the legendary quest and I could use 1 more piece of gear but it's not a must. I only do the last two parts of ToT though; forget the rest.

    Anyway, I think this is great. I hope it works out really well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It makes you think that they read over here doesn't it. lol

      I would think this is a test. If it goes over well there will be no such thing as 10 and 25 any more. All raids will be flex.

      I think as long as I can get a guild group or a pug group for the flex raids I would never do LFR again unless I really had to.

      I am sure a lot will think the same which means they are going to need to make the LFR much much easier or people that use it will never be able to finish it with the better players in it.

      Delete
  11. Hmm I wrote this on my wishlist of features some time back. I was looking at what features blizz had added and where they could go. I had flex raids for 'casuals' and challenge mode raids for 'hardcore'.

    I will have to wait and see how it's implemented and also how my guild will handle it. Being that it's flex between 10-25 that doesn't help us when we have 8 online so it's not all I hoped. However the cross server aspect is more than I hoped. Given that the gear is more than LFR it would make sense to do it somehow. I'm confused as to how the lockouts work, if it uses the LFR loot system does that mean you can re-kill earlier bosses if you join a different run? Maybe at the beginning of the tier at least we'll cut down one of the 4 normal raid nights and do flex instead. 4 is too much already IMO so there's no way I can find another evening.

    I'm not going to jump up and down yet. They tuned LFR really badly. Need to see how they handle this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hopefully, the lockouts will work that way and you will just be locked out of loot from the bosses you already killed at that difficulty. We'll have to see though.

      Delete
    2. But being it is easier you can pug those two or take lesser players in those 2 spots and most likely do just fine. That is what I believe the intent is for it. You do not need all actual raiders.

      I am hoping it will be better than how LFR turned out. LFR really went bust this patch. It is near impossible to do time wise and for some groups difficulty wise.

      Delete
  12. How many types of raiding do we need? I'm admittedly not into raiding, having only tried looking for raid a few times and finding it absolutely terrible. But it seems like there are now ten different types of raiding! That seems crazy that they can put this kind of effort into something that serves such a small part of the player population and we can't get a couple of new five mans for an entire expansion. (Yes, I'm still pissed about that.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think they are trying to mainstream raiding hence all the different modes to appeal to different groups. Plus there's only three current modes. LFR, normal and heroic. In terms of gear ilevel there is five; LFR, normal, normal thunderforged, heroic and heroic thunderforged, but that's gear, not a separate tuning of the encounter. Plus all the encounters are the same (bar the extra 13th heroic boss) so it doesn't require more art assets, just numbers moved about.

      So with flex that will make four modes, but of the same raid, using the same art etc. and they've said it's the art and the creativity that takes the time. Altering the slider on the numbers not so much apparently so we've been told. Gear inflation and different types of gear is kinda crazy but as it's the same gear, just different ilevel, then it is easy enough to see about upgrades and that, there's no mix of bis between the modes.

      Delete
    2. They definitely seem to be trying to main stream, but I think that's to their detriment. I don't raid because I don't like the long fights and the time commitment. None of the things they're doing are going to bring casual players that like good group content like me into raiding. They seem to be trying to serve us with Scenarios, which I find to be dull and uninteresting, more like group quests than the good five mans were. I'm glad you all who raid are happy with this addition though.

      Delete
    3. It is not that much effort. They make one raid and then adjust numbers for all the variables. Not really as much is put into it as you think. It actually is really simple for them to make as many versions of it as they want.

      As Taitrina said, they are trying to push everyone into raiding. I would prefer they didn't but I do not have a say in the matter. So if they are going to push everyone into it they might as well make a version for everyone. Wouldn't you think?

      Delete
    4. One question for you Anon, just because I do wonder as I like to raid so that is good content for me. If you do not like raids, scenarios, or 5 mans. What would you think is good end game for a max player?

      If it were not for group content I think I would find myself really bored once I finished all the solo achievement hunting I could do was done.

      Delete
    5. 5 man's have been my end game content since Wrath. I like them because, particularly when they're relatively fresh and not over-geared, they're fun group content with some good mechanics, but they can be done in reasonable amount of time, without killing an entire night, which I just don't have the time for. With LFD, there's a chance you'll get a goober or two once in a while, but most of the time I've had a good experience with the groups I've been in and with five people it's fairly easy to figure out what the other people are doing. The late game five mans they had in both Wrath and Cata were great. And Blizzard has acknowledged they were great. So great, that they decided that they couldn't do them like that any more in Mists. That makes complete sense.

      Then they gave us Scenarios which are a joke. Maybe they'll get better as they figure out how to design them eventually, but most of them are glorified group quests, which were mildly interesting the first time, but which are excruciating after a dozen times. Who really wants to go collect another 100 barrels of brew from monkeys? Not me. I think the only places I've like them have been in the single person scenarios that they've used the tech to advance the quest story lines. But that's not group content.

      With LFD, I've killed an entire evening, must longer than I usually play in one sitting, to try raiding since I have no alternative and gotten nothing out of it. Wait a half hour in a queue, wait for 25 random people to get organized, wait while a few random people run around like idiots and do something stupid. Wait while a tank or healer drop and someone comes to fill their spot. Eventually, the whole thing lurches forward in unorganized chaos and we get to a boss encounter, where most of the mechanics are irrelevant but you still need to spend fifteen minutes to mash buttons to down the boss, and then roll to get nothing for it. On to the next boss, to repeat. A couple hours after i started, I've burned more time than I'd planned that evening and only gotten frustration out of it.

      I'm sure real raiding with people that have a clue is better, but I don't have the kind of time to invest in it to do it well. I know there is a dedicated, core group of people that do like it and spend a lot of time at it, but I don't get the efforts of Blizzard to push people that aren't interested in raiding into it, or why they keep dedicating such much resources into just one part of the game while giving up on something that a much larger group of people played and really liked.

      I honestly don't know what to do at this point with the game. I've played WOW since a week after they launched it. I've taken little breaks here and there where i've slowed my play down, but this is the first time where I've feel like Blizzard is totally wiffing for a dedicated casual player like myself and i'm not sure where to go from here and whether I should just give it up and maybe try again at the next expansion. I'm back to leveling a low level characters, leveling one by tanking in the lower level dungeons, which is my first crack at really trying to tank. It's giving me something to do, but I've seen these dungeons as DPSer over the years, and its not the same as running new current content on my main. Pretty frustrating actually.

      Delete
    6. Very good point and you make an extremely strong point for more 5 man content. Perhaps blizzard should look into at least adding a few here and there.

      I think 5 mans have fallen out of favor with many because it is no longer a reasonable gearing up option, they offer sub par valor reward, and once you pass them there is no reason to go back. So they look at the stats of people not doing them and that is why they decided to ditch them. When in fact, they are the reason people are not doing them. If they made them worth the time for people, not ones like you that like them, to do them they would.

      My monk has never done one 5 man dungeon it is over 500 item level. Lock, never did any. Rogue, did maybe 2 or 3, same with druid. They are just not really a part of the gearing process any more because they drop sub par gear and sub par valor. That is why they are dying and people like you are getting hurt because of it and there are many like you.

      LFR just does not fit a decent time frame for really anyone. I agree. It often times takes me longer to do one LFR then it does actually raiding on raid night with my team. It is horrible beyond words.

      They do need to look at creating some bite sized content for people like you. I agree.

      Thanks for taking the time to answer. Now I understand. To me 5 mans were only a way to get gear or valor, nothing more. But once you started to explain it I realized how much better than the LFR they really are.

      Delete
  13. IMHO the loot system is a big "not again" for me. Apart from not seeing tokens but getting items I've already received a second time....

    If I build up a raid with friends I want to be able to trade drops with them. Let's wait for the situations where part of the raid are lucky "all the time", and others are completely stumped.

    Rauxis, chosen of CAT

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I understand your point but... Individual loot makes it more pug friendly and prevents abuse of masterloot since it's a separate lockout that allows cross realm.

      Delete
    2. But then it is again for PUGs, not for friends! The target are guilds that want to go even if only 24 are online, or who do not want to leave 2 behind, because for once everyone showed up for raid.

      If you want PUGs - where is the difference to LFR?

      Rauxis, chosen of CAT

      Delete
    3. PUGs you can pick. The biggest source of PUGs in TBC / LK has always been a friend list. "Does anyone have a healer?" - "yep, give assist" - done, we have a guy whom I personally don't know but whom I can trust, to an extent. If the invited guy is wearing wrong gear / is ungemmed and unenchanted, etc, he's out, too. *Before* the raid. If he's good, he ends up on my friend list. And so on and so forth.

      LFR partners you can't pick.

      There is a world of difference here.

      Delete
    4. Many are not to happy with the loot system but I understand why they did it. Would be a lot harder to decide how many things drop otherwise.

      As the other said, pugs you pick, there is accountability, server reputation to think about.

      LFR is a bunch of random people with zero social skills put together to insult each other as they manage to wipe on things a trained monkey wouldn't wipe on. Huge difference.

      @ PvP Anon

      I remember those days. "everyone check their friends list for a healer". That was the standard. Every single raid. lol

      Delete
    5. Actually there is an easy solution - allow to give away loot to your raid members.

      But GC will never admit that his great feature is just another nail into the coffin of a social game

      Rauxis, chosen of CAT

      Delete
    6. I doubt they would do that. How much loot do you give for 13 players? 17? 21? They might do it at some point but they are afraid people will just take the make up that gets them the best loot drop percentage.

      Not exactly sure what you mean by this is another nail in the coffin of the social game. If anything this is the greatest boon to the social game since ICC started to get the buff and more people got into raiding.

      It will revive the pug world, people are already looking forward to it. If that is not social gaming I do not know what is. Heroic scenarios, now this, they are trying to rebuild the community they destroyed with LFD/LFR. If anything I believe this is the exact opposite of what you said, this is the greatest addition to the social game in a very long time.

      Delete
    7. The AMOUNT of dropped gear is the easy part... 1 piece for every 5 players and a 20% chance for each additional player. If you have 14, you'll get 2 pieces 20% of the time and 3 pieces 80% of the time.

      The reason I like the LFR loot type for flex (whether forced or as a preferred option, I'd run it either way) is that it's something that a casual RL won't have to worry about. Zero drama. Zero peer pressure to trade items. Sure, set groups of friends will generally figure things out but this whole flex model is designed to NOT require set groups of friends. Do you prioritize mains over alts? Main specs over alt specs? If I bring in a geared toon that I'm specifically running FOR off-spec gear should I have an equal roll against a main-spec player of that type?

      Who needs that hassle? Make loot per-player and all will benefit.

      Delete
    8. It would be pug perfect. No worries about ninja looters, one less thing for the person assembling to worry about. Not stopping after each boss down to see if people want to roll with a coin and then rolling for items just to continue.

      For this type of content the per person loot is not a bad idea. Even if I really do hate the random nature of it.

      Delete
    9. I still think 80% of the RNG hate with the LFR loot type is that you can't see the roll. If they'd only be willing to let us know the actual drop rate (say, 15%), they could actually show us the roll.

      "Requires 85, you rolled 42."

      Ah well. Chances are they'd never make that info fully public.

      Delete
    10. I like the "requires 85, you rolled 42"

      That would really help in the LFR. Let people actually roll and give a set win point.

      When the fight is over let people press a button to roll. They will see what they have to beat and see what they rolled and it would feel better.

      Sure, we would still lose most of the time, but appearances are everything sometimes and this would at least appear as we have a chance.

      I like that idea.

      Delete