PvE Expectations for [TAB] Members
This post (and subsequent posts) have been about a month in the works for me. I wanted to make a massive post about all of the different styles of gameplay and the numbers that we need in order to achieve them. I also want to bring up a lot of the points that we need to address, both as officers/moderators/leaders/etc and as a guild as a whole. There are a lot of things Wildstar is throwing at us, and if we don't take a pre-emptive strike at it, we will be overwhelmed and will be crushed as a guild. We need to think ahead of time about how we want to handle each of these situations and recruit accordingly. We want to raid, we want to PvP, we want to dungeon together, level together, warplots, housing, everything under the sun. But we need to split these up as separate entities and make sure that we really tackle these in both an efficient and enjoyable manner. So, what does that mean? Here's a breakdown of every situation as far as we know. Not only that, but also the progression of how these should be accomplished.PVE
Leveling/Questing/Paths > Dungeons > 20 Man Raids > 40 Man Raids
Leveling – Solo/Group - This is obviusly something that many of us do solo'ing, but many of us also enjoy playing together in the questing. Obviously the first thing that should be considered is level range. Play with people who are in your level range. Doy. Also consider variation of classes. Diversity can make for a pretty efficient leveling process. I also want everyone to remember that we WILL BE ROLLING ON A PVP SERVER. I want you all to remember the rules for this.
PvP Server Rules - There are three different styles of zones. Your faction, Opposite faction, and contested faction. When you are in a zone owned by your own faction, you will not be attacked by the opposite faction unless you attack them first. In the opponents factions zones, it's the opposite. You can not attack them until they attack you. In contested zones, you can attack and be attacked at any time by the opposite faction. How do you counteract getting ganged up? PLAY WITH GUILDIES! The best defense is a good offense kinda thing. Don't let the opponents out number you and you'll be safe.
But another thing you should also remember is...
Paths – Solo/Group - These will give you about 25-30% of your questing experience. By grouping with others that are in different paths, you get to experience their content and obtain some of their..... experience (points). When creating characters specifically to level with certain people, keep that in mind. We'll find out what exactly these paths give in terms of “skills”, but the same will be across all paths.
Dungeons – Five Mans – As far as we know right now, dungeons will be working in a five man group. NOT SURE IF CONFIRMED -
Use the LFG tool and mumble at your leisure. These tools are available to EVERY guild member and should be used accordingly to schedule instance runs and communicate efficiently.
Note - Side-kicking - This is a neat feature. An instance will have a "Dungeon Level" that will be set and a level range that people can access the dungeon. Say the Dungeon Level is 21, but the minimum required level is 17. If you enter the instance at 17, you will be SCALED UP to 21 so that you will not be too under powered for the content. People should be aware of this and consider playing with a slightly lower level'd guild member than a random pug member. Chances are our lower level guildie will be better than your same level pug
Note - Mentoring - One can actually DOWN LEVEL themselves to a party members level in order to not trivialize content for their party members. This means someone who is level 50 can play with some level 20 players and not make the content null and void (such as power level/ running through dungeons with no contest). I recommend that veterans take advantage of this in order to play with some of the slower or more casual players within our community. DO NOT beg to be run through dungeons and be power leveled. Earn your levels
Raiding – 20 Man – Some of you will have experience in 20 man raids. Some of you don't, and that's fine. Think of how the five man dungeons work and expand on it. There will be a Main Tank, X number of Off Tanks, X number of healers, and the leftovers being DPS. I only say leftovers because, well, they'd die otherwise without the tank and healers
. But in all seriousness, these numbers will be adjusted depending on the encounters. I wish I knew more, but at the moment I don't. The only thing we know is that we will be following the holy trinity and will adjust it as needed. But....This is where things start to be pretty awesome. I would love to get two groups of 20 man raiding and turn it into a competition between the two teams. I want it to be a healthy competition that push each other to be better and progress. Most likely we will be splitting the officers to each raid and lead appropriately. This in the past can cause friction between groups, but this is why we should discuss it early. One group will most likely perform better than the other. The thing that doesn't get accomplished as easily is figuring out why. I'll want not only the officers, but also the guild members to reflect on how to improve. Why is one team progressing faster? Maybe some people in the lacking team need some more experience, or some gear upgrade, or just more practice. Raiding is stressful, but man. There is nothing like beating that boss that's been whooping your ass for a month. Yes, sometimes it can take a month (or longer) to take down a certain boss. And that's ok. We're going to be raiding and we're going to be taking it pretty hardcore, but we're going to learn and adjust TOGETHER in order to achieve our goals. Remember, it'll be healthy competition, but it will push us to get to where we really want to go, which is....
Raiding – 40 Man – Alright, after all of our dungeons and our 20 man raiding, we will now COMBINE the two 20 man raids into one 40 man raid! SEE! WORKING TOGETHER FOR A COMMON GOAL! That's why I don't want to put a stipulation of A and B. The 20 man's are a means to the bigger, meatier raids of 40. Again, there will be Main Tanks, Off Tanks, Main Healers, Spot Healers, Support, Ranged DPS, and Melee DPS. We will need to make sure we have all of these who have experience playing with each other in high stress situations. Everything up to this point is to make our 40 man raids successful. This is the pinnacle of PvE gameplay. When we get to this point, we want to make sure everyone is prepared. It will be difficult, there will be long nights/ early mornings, consumable preparation before hand, and everything else under the sun. PvE progression is to make 40 man raids not only accessible to the guild, but complete-able.
TO BOTH PvE and PvP'ers.
These are just some of the things that I want people to start thinking of for Wildstar. We built Alttabme as a community and have always focused on that first. GW2 was great for this because there was so little direction for “hardcore” gameplay. Now that we have that direction with Wildstar, I want to make sure we always put the community first, but also make sure we're not little bitches and fail at these new, awesome, hardcore features. Over time, we will start to really turn our head towards raiding. We will have a weekly schedule for raids. We will have a weekly schedule for warplots. We will need people who are willing to dedicate their times to accomplish these feats. If you want to play casual, by all means, play casual! We do not want people to commit to anything that they don't want to do. But if you want to be a raider or a warplotter, I ask for your dedication. There is nothing worse than preparing all week for a raid, making sure that I'm all ready and that my team is ready, only to have 10 people not show up. That kills peoples initiative and drive, and I really don't want that to happen. I want to raid with you guys. I would like to think you guys would want to raid with us. For some of you it's an experience that we've been drooling for years over, and some of you it's new and exciting. I want us to share this game together and achieve everything that there is to achieve.
I'm diving into this headfirst and I want to get everything out of it. I don't expect world firsts. I don't expect server firsts. I don't even care if we actually finish all of the content on time. All I care about is that we push and keep striving for better. Continually grow as a guild in all of these endeavors. Encourage each other. Help each other. Win with each other.
- Gyoin