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WHAT IS A RAID
mgilbrtsn
Member EpicPosts: 3,430
I've seen the term PVP Raid, End Game Raids, Raids are good, Raids are bad.... What is a raid? Is it just a large party that you adventure with? or something else. Its not a setup question, I am really cuirious to anything raid and wherer they add to a game or detract from a game.
I self identify as a monkey.
Comments
People usually use the term "raid" to describe content that's been designed for massive groups of players. This can be highly subjective, but in most cases it applies to dungeons that require more than the regular party would allow to complete, or PvP that allows players to fight in large, focused groups. Examples would be Molten Core or Alterac Valley from WoW (google or youtube those for visual interpretation). They usually occur late in an MMO, which is why you've heard the term "end game raid", because they often take place at the end of your character level or skill progression.
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
Nowadays what people 99% when using word RAID they mean instanced highly scripted encounter for big groups of players (usually ranging from 10-24 depending on a game , thou it might be even more/less).
Raids usually are hardest things to do in game and you can complete them usually once/twice a week after then they reset.
Frequently it is only thing (apart of instanced PvP) to do after you hit max level in mmorpg.
PS.
Years before there were open world raids as well not usually not scripted as heavily as new ones, with sometimes group of players competing or joining forces to do it.
I want to add Raids are Hamster Wheel exercises for Raid, Epic, WTFever high end gear, not surprisingly are part of a set.
Just another time sink with monsters that don't do anything better but have insane HP and insane damage, i.e. insane high damage AoE spam. Nothing more.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
A raid is a large group of players that combine their forces to fight an extraordinarily hard opponent that usually requires a detailed and complex strategy to beat.
For example in Vanguard there was one Boss thats named Shiver. Shiver would freeze anyone in sight every 20% of his HP (at 80%, 60%, 40% and 20%). So when the freeze came everyone had to stay out of sight. He would also root the player he is attacking.
Once a player is frozen, he is very vulnerable.
Also, Shiver had 4 adds. They would be sleepable. Killing such an add would break the freeze for everyone in sight. Nothing else would break the freeze.
So what was the strategy ? Get 2 tanks and a sh** load of healers, also 3 classes with a sleep spell. One tank tanks shiver, the other tanks the current add. Healers are distributed in a way so that both tanks can be kept alife.
The initial run is the first tank running up to shiver. Of the four adds, 3 are slept instantly. The fourth is picked up by the second tank and moved aside. Then this first add is brought to 60% or 40% of hitpoints, to allow finishing it later faster.
Afterwards, Shiver is brought to 80% of his HP. Once it get close, the mob does some casting. The first tank announces it and everyone jumps out of sight. Once Shiver had done his freeze, the first would be moved by the second tank into sight of the first tank, then killed.
Repeat 3 more times for the other 3 adds.
As you can imagine, such a complex strategy has a ***load of chances of people screwing up.
- The first tank could not survive the initial run. There is a short extremely dangerous moment when the tank is focussed by all 5 mobs.
- Any of the sleepers could not sleep early enough.
- The healers could fail to maintain enough healing.
- The second tank might stay in sight of Shiver and get frozen, which would almost instantly result in the tank being killed by the add.
- The add could not be killed fast enough by the raid force, resulting in the first tank getting shattered and killed.
- And so on.
So yeah, my guild never managed to kill this boss on the first try. It was always a question of who still needed to wake up and do their part. Also there was a big mystery element when everyone apparently did the job right but the first tank would anyway get killed almost instantly for no apparent reason (usually there would be a pause before that).
Thats one of the most interesting fights in Vanguard ... most others are somewhat simpler, but theres always the element of how to beat this thing. A really nasty boss later would, for example, remove ALL MANA from the players, while still maintaining quite massive area damage output. The only way to handle that was having two druids who each had a special ability that would allow the raid to cast spells without mana for a while.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Seems to be all MMORPG is these days. All these 'Opinions' turned into facts.. it's actually really annoying