I think most of the LFM requirements are pretty silly. When I started to get near cap, I used to lead almost all my own raids, because nobody wanted a 220 THF Rogue with fighter splash who couldn't do traps in quests over level 15 in their party. After a year and a few reincarnations, I have a much easier time getting into raids, and I don't start my own as often now, preferring to hop into other people's guild runs with a few empty slots or PUGs with people I know. That said, the constant high requirements on LFMs always seems silly to me, so I've been trying to lead more of my own all-inclusive raids.
Last Shroud I ran I started with a good capped cleric I knew and a many-TR AA, both of whom I consider some of the better players on our server. This was my only time leading a Shroud post-U12, but I still did the usual LFM: Normal Shroud, 15-20, first 11 and go.
Based on the group I got, I started to have to assume that karma is real and it was finally getting back at me for all the awful things I've done. My LFM hits were like a rogue's gallery of stereotypes: the 230 hp, 0% fort capped ranger, the Drow sorcerer with even less HP and four different +cha items ranging from +1 to +4 (yes, I check MyDDO when I see obscenely low hp. Sue me.), that poor, hapless, non-English speaking soul who had had an epic LoB LFM up for the past three days straight (LFM text, I quote:"need Mage's and Tank's and Healer's to support Mage's"), evenly mixed cleric/wizard who hasn't discovered this isn't PnP yet, and others I won't even try to describe.
Phase one took a good, long time. Portal Keepers still exist? I thought they took them out two or three updates ago or something. The only other divine aside from my cleric friend, a capped FvS from a guild notorious for taking *anyone* (if you're on Cannith you probably know who I mean), went left right off the bat while the rest of us went right and died almost instantly to the devil scouting party. I assume he got crit by a trog or something. We finished phase one just fine, though.
Phase two had a couple deaths.. First death was the confused sorc, who ran into the center at the beginning and died almost instantly. Everyone else was behaving and listening to instructions, though, so we had no problem getting the situation under control and raising the sorcerer. I told the AA to do the crystal, at which point the wizard complained that that was an arcane's job, and we couldn't rely on a gimped ranger. I told him that the AA has done it literally scores of times at least, but he persisted and the AA told him that it was all his. I'm sure you can see where this is going... Three attempts later, the wizard teleports out, after failing to destroy the crystal (he was saying that lag was preventing him from landing his fire walls. I have no idea what was actually happening because I was too busy keeping the other not-quite-ideal toons alive), and drops group. We try one more time. AA kills the crystal. Okay.
Phase three goes off without a hitch, unless you count the single death to the blades. A few characters prove that you can run water with less than 200 hp. Someone pulls their first +2 tome and squeals loudly into the mic for 30 straight seconds.
Phase four - I describe the basic strategy as clearly as I can. At this point a wipe seems quite likely. Everyone survived the initial devil scouting party (which seems like a given, but when we're talking only one competent divine and multiple sub-250hp, no-fort toons, even this is an unknown) and Harry pops out. We surround him like good little adventurers and pump our action boosts/DoTs/quickened mass heals into him as quickly as possible. Well, that last one is a bit of a misnomer: the Cleric is alternating between mass heal and mass cure critical due to some of the obscenely low HPs, and the FvS didn't have Mass Heal or quicken spell. Sorcerer and multiclass wiz/cleric are standing near each other, sorcerer and wizard are dead. Blades start to close, I say that everyone with <300 hp should probably leave now. Nobody does. Blades getting a little bit closer, it's getting near time for me to jump out, I say it more urgently and a few seconds later I leave. A couple melees leave right after I do, the rest die.
Now it's me, Cleric, AA, THF Bard, and raged Barbarian. Harry is at around 50%. The rest of 4 goes smooth: devils die quickly, then AA manyshots gnolls while Cleric mass heals/DoTs and the rest of us melee. Everyone has 500+ hp and fort. Happy day.
Phase five went much smoother. Everyone followed directions, we didn't have any weird blades issues, a few of the low, low hp melees died. One died several times; he kept accepting True Rezz's while in Harry's melee range.. He finished out with something like 120 hp
Overall it was a run that was somewhat fun but also pretty frustrating at times. I think a lot of people learned stuff: the FvS learned to carry Mass Heal in raids, the arcanes learned that an AA can do the crystal, and everyone learned the importance of a +6 con item, a GFL item, a +x con tome, toughness, and all con/toughness related enhancements, thanks to the whining of my understandably perturbed cleric
Can you still just take the first 11 that hit your LFM and be sure of success? Nope, but then again, even if you can solo the raid for sure you can never be sure you'll complete with 11 strangers. Is it fun to just take the first 11? Yeah, I think so. In the above instance, though, if we would have had a lag spike, OR particularly bad luck, OR I hadn't had a couple people I could rely on, the raid would have been a wipe. Personally I don't mind wipes, but a lot of people do.
There's no moral to the story, but I don't blame people who do screening for Shroud. Yeah, even normal Shroud.. Although I'll still make fun of the hopeless tools who put up LFMs for normal Shroud that require 500+ hp/600+ hp non-evasion, or other ridiculous requirements.. and as for the people in our "premier raiding guilds" who put up PUG LFMs for elite HoX that insist on 600+ hp - well, I have special words for them, but I won't go into that now.
TL;DR - Selective LFMs seem elitist and annoy me. Making my own LFMs is tiring but potentially rewarding. Putting up end-game LFMs is something I probably should never do because I will accept anyone (except eVoN6, because you can shortman that with a bunch of 300hp rangers in your sleep).
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Raid Requirements and Screening Drama vs First 11 (Read 13977 times)
