JoeTheDestroyer

I can attest to this, I have essentially no raid equipment (manuf or loot-only) and I can still kill pretty much anything outside of raids. I probably won't kill them as fast as supermen like Fish, but they'll die eventually. :) Granted, I do multi-box. Usually w/ my PW,PP & JE. (But I do that as much for entertainment as anything. I find all these MMOs too boring, if I'm only allowed to run one toon at a time.)   Actually, this is part of why I use my "only self-built" rules. It's kinda fun to try and cobble together a workable character from only the equipment/skills I have available. I've attempted the proto plasma route w/ my jenquai, but I only know of a few high level hulk spots so collecting them has been painfully slow (only now getting close to enough).   Actually, I think I have multi-boxing to thank for whatever skills I do have. Particularly healing, as keeping track of all my toons/timing heals/balancing between healing and shooting has all been pretty similar in what the few raid I've experienced so far. (Of course, I'm assuming I actually am decent at healing, I've had a few compliments atleast...) Not so much on the reactor front, though. My PW has no energy problems and my PP has few, so my JE is mostly along as a taxi and resist buffer. May swap him out for my TE, once he gets big enough.

Nice, thanks for the tip. Guess I may have to get motivated and organize some Mordanna raids... Still need pretty much all their stuff.   Fishbowl, unfortunately.   As much as people curse it, Agrippa has been a god-send for me. My JE used a L8 skirmish for months before I finally found a L8 proto in a hulk. And the lack of debuff devices isn't a big problem if I use impact on my PW/PP and stack gravity link w/ the Skirmish 9 debuff.

You're too kind, I'd be surprised if there are any other oddballs out there like me that are stubborn about this.   Honestly, all I'm really interested in for the gate/fb raids are the beams. I'm not interested in the Bile stuff (other than adding another print), why would I want guns I have to fight or beg for ammo? My flechettes, I can buy the ammo comps right off a vendor. And the bile's only do 8% more damage, unless I'm reading something wrong. Don't know much about the missile side, but I don't see the appeal of the bile launchers either... raid-only ammo comps and lower damage than Zets. Seems they do use less energy and I suppose that could be an advantage w/ L8 reactors. The Wrath (I assume that's what you meant?) does have some nice buffs, though. However, beams I'm stuck. I don't know of any L8/9 plasma beams that can be had outside of raids. So I had to make do w/ energy on my JE (where my PW/PP did most of the work). Just gave up on my JD until I could print better guns (have L8 pitbulls now, thanks to that first raid. But I failed the analyze on the L9). The stuff I really want is from the bigger raids. So many of the good L8/9 devices can only be had there. I'm stuck using rada's to debuff plasma because I can't get the higher end chimaeras. But, as you say, I'm pretty much out of luck on those unless I bite the bullet and join a guild.

Count me as #5, then. To be clear, though, I don't think there's any maliciousness involved here on the part of the devs. I just think they have this vision of huge, grand battles that just doesn't fit the reality of our player base, unless we join a large/organized guild.   One sample doesn't make proof, but I take your point. I doubt I could do any better. Honestly, if you want my opinion, the issue is mostly lack of interest and/or capability. Even at the public raids BI held, success rate was only about 50% for me. The first time (sat. evening), only a handful showed up, so they rescheduled. The second time (sunday afternoon), enough showed. Most of the comments I saw when they made announcements where along the lines of "wish I could, not big enough yet". Even I skipped an earlier one (saturday morning) because I was busy w/ my other toons.   Agreed, for the most part.   Well, at the time, I figured that sourcing the trigger was part of organizing a raid. And organizing is what you said the big guilds "should" do.   I don't know why, but that never occurred to me. Yes, if they're willing, that would probably address the issue. It's probably better for me, too. After Fish's comments on difficulty, I'm not sure I can continue w/ the raids. As I said earlier in the thread, I'm restricting myself to only items I build/loot myself. And I only print items I loot myself. I don't buy items to print on market, because money's too easy to get. Generally, this means I play solo (another reason why I'm not in a guild). However, if I'm in a group and contributing atleast my fair share, it should be ok. But now that I know that others are doing the majority of the work in these raids, taking any loot is starting to feel too much like a handout. Forcing myself to provide the trigger seems like it would fix that.

True, but isn't that expected? I'm non-guild primarily because I don't want to be part of a long-term organization, that is I don't want leadership. And now I'm paying the price...   I've never had a complaint with the big guilds, per se. My complaint is the consequence of the existence of big guilds. Specifically, the devs seem to want to force this content to be for large groups only. Which, as you have noted, requires the level of organization only the big guilds have. Effectively, the devs are developing content for the big guilds (except when they are nice enough to let us little guys tag along). I'm not sure I understand the reasoning, either. Maybe it's just me, but increasing the number of people involved really didn't increase my enjoyment level any. I had just as much fun in the single group Mordanna raids as in the 3 group Fishbowl. So I just have to wonder, what is the point?   This isn't really fair. First of all, BI has hosted every raid I've been a part of (bar Skunky's gate raid this weekend), including Mordanna, Gate and Fishbowl. I don't have any relation to them, I just showed up when they made announcements on the chat channels. (Although from Fish's comments, I wonder if I wasn't supposed to stick around for the FB?) Second, it's unfair for us to expect them to do all the organization, supply the triggers and then herd us through the raid. While I'm grateful when they do (thanks Jamoos!), I certainly don't expect it. After all, if I really wanted to raid, I could join one of their guilds right? It would be wrong to expect them to cater to my own playstyle, just because I'm averse to joining guilds...   I was a little confused on this, was there some expectation that the big guilds would stay out? Doesn't "public" raid mean anyone can come along? I mean, I learned alot from my drivers (when I had time to pay attention between frantic healing). If I had one complaint, it would be that I'm not sure about the true difficulty of the raids. Was I pulling my own weight? Or did they not seem that hard because I was being pulled along by players w/ that much better equipment/experience?

I was curious what kinds of resists were actually needed in these raids. So, during the raids today, I was watching with the /showdamage command.   In the Gate raid, I was only ever hit with Chemical damage.   In the Fishbowl, I was hit with mostly Chemical, but occasionally plasma and energy also.   Hopefully this will help people tune their loadouts a bit better. (And I know not to waste a device slot on Tolerance anymore.)

I'm game, I should be on tonight and over the weekend. There's still a lot of stuff I want from those stingy mordanna...   I think one of the problems is that I haven't seen any talk about this in game. In most games, the majority of players don't visit even the official forums, and I doubt this one is any exception. Organizing something like this should give a chance to promote this thread to the wider audience. You can also use it as an opportunity to ask people about what day would be a good one to use for larger raids.

Right, I missed it, sorry.   They seemed pretty experienced, but maybe they were allowing more time for me since I'm a raid newb...

Good point, although I wasn't advocating more days per week, just not the same day every week. --- On the lotto protocol, the raid I mentioned above used this and it worked fairly well. So I would vote for adopting it. One thing, I may have missed where you said this, but another rule was once you won an item, you couldn't participate again until everyone had won something (this is the reason for the "start with the most popular" rule). There was, one hiccup though. We spent a lot of time in the "waiting for x's" phase. Since only 4 of us were involved in the lotto, it would have been faster if we also had a not-participating character (maybe "o"). Then the looter could move on once we all responded. It probably wouldn't work for larger groups though...

Thanks Liucee, thats very helpful! I second wanting a TE in every group. BI was kind enough to let my PP tag along on one of their Mordanna raids last week (my first). The first time around we had a TE in the group and it was easy to keep everyone healed up, but he had to leave after. The second time, lacking Rally was noticeable, everyone took a lot more damage and I had more trouble keeping up with it. Also, I like the idea of picking a day to do something every week. However, using the same day every week could exclude people. You might consider alternating days on a biweekly schedule. Also, choosing one weekday and one weekend-day might be nice too.

Mon-Fri: 5pm-12pm EST Sat-Sun: 10am-12pm I'll bring my PW and/or PP. +1 on the couple days notice.

Good news... Any more progress? Also, another question for the raid experts occurred to me. We have some recommendations on group compositions, but what about skills? What skills would you consider are crucial for a raid for each character type? I would say Rally and healing skills are no-brainers, but what about others?

Yeah, you're right, sorry about that. Been a couple months... Also, now that I think about it, PP can build chem ammo, just not plasma/explosive.

The problem is that the common reactors for Progen are all Jenquai Restricted, so a JS can't build them. The common reactors for Jenquai (Gallina/Draco/Cygnus) are Jenquai Only, so a PP can build them.   Per character.   Non-progen can only do Stage 2 (with an invite), which gets them L7-L8 items, and a "component" item needed to build other L7 items. Also, only PW can make chem ammo for the Flechette launcher. Only Jenquai can make the plasma ammo, and only Terrans can make the explosive ammo. And they all need loot-only components to make them. Which is why I use impact...

The only problem w/ spreading your build skills around, is that you'll have to do the build grind on all of them to hit 200% on L9. My TT is my main builder and can build pretty much anything he has the build skills for. In ST4 I used my JS to do reactors, but they can't do any progen reactors. The PP, on the other hand, can do most of the important Jenquai reactors. So this time around my PP handles all my reactor building. While this plan leaves my TT severely underpowered in combat, it also means all my warriors can be overpowered because they don't have to spend points on build skills.   I used to be pro-Jenquai, and I wasn't a fan of my PW early on, either. Always running out of energy. Once I hit Combat Trance L6, though, it was great. Once I added a CT boosting item, I could hardly ever see my reactor power drop. And my PP is a really nice companion for him.   Agreed, on all counts.

Oh yes, it is, but if all my characters have already bought it on market, then it's sort of the difference between "Cool, I can build this for others when they need it" and "Ooh, I can finally use this one myself"   It's totally within my rules to buy non-buildable items if available, as you said I had to earn the the money to buy them. Early on, I bought a few other things, mostly reactors, because I started off working on my PW, TT and JE. So at that time, the rule was, if it could possibly be built by my TT, I had to get the print (and build skill) myself. Because they're so critical, I also bought 3 Ivory Wards, before a kind soul gave me one to print. I've been tempted a few times to buy items in auctions to print (especially the CFB), but at this point it kinda feels like cheating since I technically have characters that could loot them. Same with freebies.   Unfortunate, but true :(

Yep, have those. Though my PW hardly needs them, L10 Combat Trance is ridiculous.   Everything I've heard says the L8 Pitbull can drop (rarely) outside of raids, but L9 is raid only.   It can be tough, but it's also fun to try to cobble together a good loadout with the stuff I can build. Also more rewarding when I do finally get that rare print I'm missing.

My JE's stuck w/ energy ATM, as I don't have any prints for L9 plasma weapons (my self imposed challenge is to only use items I have prints for). My PP or TT debuffs for him w/ a Cobalt Megahurtz. Unfortunately, the Chimaera/Manticore/etc seem to be hard to get prints for...   You can also use the /showdamage command to find out precisely what the mob is hitting you with. Of course, I was hoping to find out what to equip before I got shot at :)   Impact, yes. Never heard about explosive, I'll have to test that sometime. L7 Gravity Link gives you a -30% Impact debuff. This stacks with the -60% Impact debuff from the Skirmish Omega, giving you an impressive -90%. Biggest debuff in the game, I think.

True, didn't think of that. Probably not a problem in an instanced raid like the fishbowl. You're already trusting the looters to not run off with the stuff, after all. But anyone could fly up in an open raid like the gate raid. If they're Jenquai, we wouldn't even know who it was unless we were watching really closely. So not a good idea for that one... --- What damage types are best for the various raids? I assume plasma is as bad as it is for most high level mobs? On my PW/PP, I mostly use impact because it's easy get and the debuffs from Gravity Link and Skirmish Omega stack really nicely...

In theory, but in practice, when I tested it months ago my JE didn't seem to succeed anywhere near that often. So I dropped back to L6 Navigate (NavComp 2 gets me to L10 anyways) and used the points on L9 engines instead. My question was more about whether things like the gate raid take place in a gravity well or other warp inhibiting field or not... OTOH, maybe even a failed warp is enough to kick off the tractor beam? I've never actually tested it, maybe I'll go try...

How about pulled into space and picked up later (by the winner)? Or is warp not allowed in raid zones?   Out of curiosity, how does a raid auction work? More specifically, somebody pays to get an item, but where do the credits go? I'm guessing the proceeds get split evenly between all participants? --- I could likely take part. I don't have a lot of free time to play these days though, but I could probably make time if the event were scheduled ahead of time. My PW or PP are prime candidates, they're kitted out pretty well I think (mostly Agrippa gear). My TT can (shield) heal, but most of his points are in building, so maybe he'd be better off just looting? The rest probably wouldn't be helpful ATM. I don't know anything about raids though, as I play solo (well, if you count multi-boxing as solo). So, I've got a couple questions for you experienced guys... 1) Multi-boxing: Would it be helpful? I generally 3-box, as that's about the most I can actively play at one time. But that's non-raid. Will a toon require more of my attention in a raid than otherwise? My thinking is that my PW would probably just pound away like always, with the occasional shield sap thrown it. It seems to me that should leave plenty of time to play a healer like my PP. Or maybe use my TT to loot... Of course, if we have plenty of people then there's no need. But if we're short, I was wondering if we could make up some of the numbers this way. How about it? 2) Teamspeak: There were comments in chat the other day that Teamspeak is vital for raids. To be frank, I'm not big on voice chat (one of the many reasons I play solo), so I was wondering about this?

Too much work, IMHO. That requires maintaining multiple pages with the info. Unless it only requires minimal effort to hide things, my opinion would be "why are you looking at the wiki, if not for spoilers?"   I did a little searching and I couldn't find any built-in method. The recommended techniques either require editing the site javascript (which we don't have permissions for) or an extension (which a dev would need to install). You could ask them to install something like this: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:JSpoiler If we had some kind of spoiler tag/template, it wouldn't be too much work for me to modify the current mission template (link) to hide whatever you think is spoilerish.

I wouldn't worry about this. Since anonymous edits aren't allowed and accounts are tied to game accounts, accountability is already enforced.   In many cases, it's not much different that writing a page, just using variables like {{{name}}} instead of text like "Earth". Tables and nested template calls can be a little tricky as you have to be careful w/ | (pipes) and carriage returns. You can look at the templates I made on the Net7 and Wikia wiki's if you want some examples. I won't claim they're the best way to do it, as I'm certainly no MediaWiki guru myself, but they worked for me. One thing I really missed was the DynamicPageList extension. On the Wikia wiki, it made cross-referencing pages much easier. For example, while drop information is stored on MOB pages, DPL could be used to generate a table on the item pages which lists all MOBs that dropped it.

If anyone wants to take it on, there is some drop information on the EnB Wikia wiki. It should be reasonably up-to-date (as of about 5 months ago when I took a break from the game). Drop information is entered by MOB, so the easiest way to find all the drop info is here: http://enb.wikia.com/wiki/Category:MOB There was some effort a while back to get drop info on the Net7 wiki, but I didn't like the way it was organized so I didn't take part. Specifically, they entered drop info by item, which makes it hard to collect drop rate statistics. Also, they were averse to using templates, which IMHO made it alot harder to keep the info organized. --- On another note, maps and importing DB information should be possible if user javascript were enabled on the wiki. I was working towards having maps on the wikia wiki (but didn't finish before staring my break). Anyways, I'm still not actively involved w/ the game ATM, but I'll monitor this thread in case anyone has any questions.

Same error for me. I submitted a portal ticket last week, but no response so far.