Kitty Musings - Raids and You

Why are Raiders Elistists and What You Can Do About It – Part 1

Every now and then, we at Feline Airlines get inquires about raiding: Are we going to do raids? Do we offer raid training classes? Any advice for a would-be raider? So let’s take an in-depth look at raids and get into the grimy details and let’s answer all those questions you may have but do not know where to look or who to ask.

Back in November 2015, the first raid was released. Within a couple of hours, elistism started emerging in raid groups with equipment checks, skills ping and generally having to justify your build….and this was just to enter the party, much less enter the raid instance itself. If you didn’t get into an instance on the first day, you encountered this hostility. So what happened? Let’s take a look.

The Vale Guardian has 22,000,000 Hit Points and the raid party has eight (8) minutes to defeat him. Breaking that down across ten (10) members, that’s 2,200,000 points of damage per party member.

2,200,000 in 8 minutes means 275,000 points of damage per minute or 4,583 points of damage per second.

This isn’t a burst mode or spike damage. That’s sustaining 4,583 points of damage per second over an 8 minute period. If you take a look at your damage tab, you can see how much damage you are doing per second or tick. If you are not reaching that amount of damage, then you are not going to be able to do your share to defeat the boss.

Now the boss isn’t going to just stand there and let a band of interlopers beat on him. The boss has its own attacks and mechanics. Members take damage and get downed. Downed party members are not going to do damage to the boss. Reviving a downed party member means two members of the party who are not doing damage to the boss. Many raid parties have two (2) dedicated healers which implies two (2) members who are not doing required damage. This 4,583 is the bare minimum but the reality is that non-healers are going to need to do significantly more than the bare minimum.

So now that we understand the basics, let’s look at the other side of the coin. You have all ascended gear. You have your stats optimized. You know the raid mechanics. You know your role and you do it well. But now the difficult part comes… finding nine (9) other players who also have ascended equipment and know the raid mechanics and know their roles. You know that if there is even one (1) person who is not pulling their weight, or doesn’t know exactly what to do, then the raid will fail. Now it’s one thing to fail but believe success is achievable. It’s another when you know the raid will fail and know that there is no chance to succeed. Why waste the time and effort?

So you inquire about every prospective party member’s gear and skills and such. You know that everyone needs to pull their own weight and you want a reasonable chance of success. After all, you are protecting your investment of time and effort and emotional stability. It also makes you appear like an elistist.

Name	Total Hit Points	Total Per Party Member	Minutes Given	Minumum DPS
Vale Guardian	22,000,000	2,200,000	8	4,583
Gorseval	21,600,000	2,160,000	7	5,143
Sabetha	34,000,000	3,400,000	9	6,296
Slothasor	19,000,000	1,900,000	7	4,524
Matthias	25,900,000	2,590,000	10	4,317
Bandit Trio	17,700,000	1,770,000	9	3,278
Keep Construct	55,053,600	5,505,360	10	9,176
Xera	22,611,300	2,261,130	11	3,426
Deimos	36,000,000	3,600,000	12	5,000

Raids and You – Part 2

Last time we discussed how elitism entered the raiding community and why it came to be. Raid and You Part 1

We also found out that the Vale Guardian has 22,000,000 Hit Points (HP) which breaks down to a minimum of 4,583 points per second. So now that we know the bare minimum, what about you? Do you know what your character’s DPS is? Do you even know how to find it?

Fortunately, ArenaNet listened to the players and created an area where players can simulate a raid encounter and find out things like a character’s DPS. This new area is located in the southern part of Lion’s Arch, just south of the Fractal staging area, called the Lion’s Arch Aerodrome.

Once you get inside, the Special Forces Training Area (SFTA) is waiting for you. In order to enter that instance itself, you need to either create a raid squad party – if you have a commander tag you can do this - or you can ask someone to create one for you and enter this instance that way.

* Note * One does not need every member of said raid squad to enter or initiate the training simulation.

Once you have entered the SFTA, go towards the Arena Console. From there, you can summon a golem with a variety of options to suit your needs. For purposes of this discussion, these were the settings I used:

Health Pool – 1,000,000 HP. This is enough for testing purposes. Anything more doesn’t yield anymore interesting information. However, larger pools are needed for party testing purposes.

Toggle Pulsing Arena Damage – On. This allows the arena to do damage to you. We figure this is better to test your build so you know how fragile you are. The raid bosses are not going to allow you to beat them to death; so why not account for this?

Mobility – Off. For purposes of testing, a stationary golem was used. Most raid bosses are relatively stationary so this is acceptable. If the golem is mobile, it walks around the circumference of the circle. Cripple is noticeable but the pulse damage of the arena can be avoided by simply stepping outside the circle.

Conditions/Boons – Off. We did not use any artificial boons or conditions. Any conditions on the golem are those we put on it ourselves. Same with the boons. We feel this gives an artificial and unrealistic result.

Food/Potions – Off. We did not use any of these for testing purposes. The idea behind this exercise is to get a baseline DPS. We can always add food and potions later.

Once all the parameters have been set, the golem is created. The clock does not start until the first point of damage has been dealt. Then you attack the golem with everything you have, holding nothing back, until it is dead. The game will give you personalized stats; including average DPS.

Now that you know how to get your DPS; what is it? Here are some results for comparison purposes:

Class	Build Description	Character DPS
Revenant	Generalized Build	3,345
Engineer	Flamethrower and Turrets	2,483
Mesmer	Send in the Clones	2,034
Warrior	Dual Axe	2,351
Guardian	Dragonhunter Trapper	1,950
Thief	Acrobatics and Dual Pistols	1,543
Ranger	Generalized Build	1,821
Necromancer	Minion Master	3,581
Elementalist	Burn Baby Burn	6,750

Are your numbers better? Are you impressed by your numbers, or are you like me, very underwhelmed and disappointed by them. Why is that and what can you do about it? We’ll discuss that next time.

Raids and You - Part 3

Elitism and Raiding Part 1
Special Forces – Part 2

Last time we discussed the Special Forces Training Area and how to customize the golem to figure out your general DPS; and I had listed the characters I use; their general build; and my DPS for reference purposes. We also learned from Part 1 that the Vale Guardian had 22,000,000 hit points or that each party member needs to do 4,583 points of damage per second.

Going over the list of my characters and their DPS, I was a little disappointed. OK, more than a little disappointed. Only the fire elementalist was over the required 4,583 DPS count and that is a specialized build which emphasizes burning at the expense of everything else including health and defense. So what is going on?

One thing which has been lost in all of this: ArenaNet declared raids to be “Elite Content”.

What do we mean by Elite Content? Raids are designed to be a challenge for the hardcore and skilled player.

Let’s approach it this way: Central Tyria and the Personal Story, Living Story Season 0, is meant to be a more in-depth tutorial. How to move, cast spells, training a pet is the introductory tutorial but Central Tyria is where the player learns about different spells and their interactions with other spells and skills. As one progresses through the trait tree and unlocks various abilities, one learns just a little more about their character, their profession and the game in general. In short, the game prepares you for the harder, more difficult challenges.

This approach started to show itself when Living Story 2 began and Heart of Thorns (HoT) elevated the difficulty. Initially, many players complained that HoT was too difficult for them. But players eventually learnt each monster’s mechanics. They learnt how gliding works. They learnt the new skills and abilities. Today, with a few notable exceptions, HoT is not considered too difficult and Path of Fire will experience the same thing.

Now go back to Central Tyria and do a few events and you will soon realize that Central Tyria seems simple by comparison. Players have adjusted and only by going back to Central Tyria does one see the difference.

The next level of difficulty are the fractals. The lower level fractals are meant as a tutorial with limited rewards progressing to tier 4 which offer the best rewards and the most difficult challenge. Those of you who have done tier 4 fractals know that just throwing five (5) random players together; even if they all know the mechanics of the fractal; may not be enough to succeed. There needs to be a modicum of coordination; strategy and tactics. Any veteran of tier 4 fractals has experienced the elitism which rears its head.

So how does this affect you and raids? That’s next time.

2020 Update

Part 4 was supposed to be an annoucement that we were going to start to offer raid training. The series was to continue with how to prepare for said training. How to optimize stats, get the required equipment and training classes to showcase how the raid mechanics work. However, my spouse was diagnosed with cancer shortly thereafter and at the time of this writing, no one has stepped up to offer to do the training.

Also tried the Sun and Moon Build for the Warrior - a specific raid build using Axes and Daggers. My DPS for that character was around 8,300. Still way disappointing and nowhere near the 30K which was mentioned.

All content is copyrighted 2011-2020. But you knew that already, didn't you?