Raid (12-man) Skirmishes

[Miriel]

Would the guild be interested in trying some of the new raid skirmishes together? Preferably during the weekend on occasion so that us "daytimers" may join. I know getting all on will be a challenge, but would like to hear opinions and times available by responding to this post. Responding here would be a great help to get this endeavor organized since we all have different play times/zones. Please attempt to post your availability in Eastern Standard Time.

I am wanting to schedule our first run the weekend of October 28-30, 2011 (Friday-Sunday). I need to know more people's availability to pin down a good start time. Please take a few moments of your time to post your availability.

Start out with Defense of the Prancing Pony, Tuckborough or Breaching the Necromancer's Gate? I have read these skirmishes may be a good starting point.

UPDATED
General Requests
Please be on time and prepared with morale/mana potions, appropriate food, scrolls etc.
Commit to paying attention.
Be considerate of everyone's effort. Practice makes for success & failures teach us what to improve upon.
Keep all loot discussion and opinions in the "Loot: Raid (12-man) Skirmishes" post not during runs. The run times are for running and working on our tactics.
Keep afks to a minimum, limited to collective afk breaks.

Loot
Please refer to Topic: Loot: Raid (12-man) Skirmishes: valarguild.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=raiding&action=display&thread=1112
We are all mature people and can work together to help our guild members. Mistakes may happen and I ask all to be forgiving. The game does not end tomorrow and I do not think any will fall defeated at their keyboard if we don't get our "shiny new items" right now.
-Worn Symbols of Celebrimbor
My current plan (10/19/2011): To allow every Valar Guild member able to attend the raid runs 1 Worn Symbol of Celebrimbor. This will be tracked by Guild Name, not character/account. This means the first Worn Symbol of Celebrimbor that drops will be rolled on by all. The winners then pass on all future Worn Symbols of Celebrimbor until each Valar Guild member has acquired 1.
-Gear Drops
My current plan (10/19/2011): I must ask all to declare a "Main" Character to be played. These characters will be eligible for gear drops. Any alts/sub characters will not eligible unless no other main character during that run wants the item. I feel the need for this rule since some have many characters and it is no fun for those that are unlucky with rolls to have to wait for alts to be outfitted because the luck of the dice is not in their favor.


Looking forward to your responses


Here is a bit of information, more can be found in the link I provided in the quote.

Raid (12-man) Skirmishes
www.casualstrolltomordor.com/2011/10/earning-gear-in-isengard/

New, weekly raid quests have been added to skirmishes. These quests will grant 3 Superior Fourth Marks and will have an extra chest with really shiny gear as a reward for completing the skirmish.

This only applies to level 75 raid size skirmishes. The quest resets once a week (the reset is on Thursday) and, unlike typical raid instances, you will be allowed to participate in the skirmish even if you have done the quest already that week. However, if you are repeating a raid skirmish during any given week, you will not receive the 3 SFMs for the quest, and you will be unable to receive any loot from the chest at the end. From what I can tell, the quest (and chest loot) is the same regardless of the skirmish tier.

Not all gear is available in every skirmish, so you’ll want to consider running skirmishes from different campaigns to have a chance at all the loot available.

<sub>jwbarry said:

The chests share a loot profile within a campaign. Swap to a different campaigns set of skirmishes and you’ll get pulls from a different list of items.</sub>

There are 17 total raid skirmishes to choose from (18 if you include Barrow-downs Survival, but as far as I can tell, it does not have one of these weekly quests). Since the loot varies based on the campaign, I’ll be listing them that way.

Eruilan Campaign

Siege of Gondamon
Trouble in Tuckborough
Stand at Amon Sul

Adlan Campaign

Defence of the Prancing Pony
Thievery and Mischief
Barrow Downs Survival (Does not appear to have a raid quest.)

Naillan Campaign

Ford of Bruinen
Strike Against Dannenglor*
Protectors of Thangulhad*
*In order to access these skirmishes require you to be on (or have completed) the appropriate chapter of Volume 2, Book 9.

Cannuilan Campaign

Breaching the Necromancer’s Gate*
Assault on the Ringwraith’s Lair*
Battle in the Tower*
*In order to access these skirmishes require you to be on (or have completed) the appropriate chapter of Volume 2, Book 9.

Lefnuilan Campaign

Rift Rescue**
** In order to access this skirmish, you must have completed Volume 3, Book 1.

Enguilan Campaign

Battle of the Twenty-first Hall*
Battle of the Deep Way*
Battle of the Way of Smiths*
*These skirmishes are part of Volume 2, Book 5, Chapter 5 and require you to be on (or have completed) that chapter to access them.

Odothuilan Campaign

Attack at Dawn*
Icy Crevasse
*This skirmish appears to be bugged in that it is not dropping Superior 4th Marks. It does have a chest with loot at the end, though.


I wish that it was a little bit clearer that you won’t be eligible for loot if you’ve already run a skirmish during that particular lock set, though. The only way to confirm that you’re eligible for loot in a particular instance is to check your quest log while you’re in there. It will show a raid quest that lists Superior Fourth Marks in its rewards if you are able to receive loot. The quest will not be automatically added to your quest tracker.

The other day I saw a really nice caster hat drop that only one person in the raid needed, but because he had already run that raid skirmish the day before, he wasn’t able to get the hat. Of course, there is enough incentive to run a raid more than once in a week just because of the chance to get a Worn Symbol of Celebrimbor or tier 7 relics. Even though the person repeating the instance won’t be able to directly receive them, they can be traded to them from another player. For this reason, I prefer to run these instances with the Master Looter loot rule, rather than just roll/pass or something similar.

***When you finish a raid skirmish, be sure to loot the chest and/or boss corpse right away. There is a timer after you’ve killed the boss (seems to be around 3-5 minutes) and your group will automatically be removed from the instance. Any loot that hasn’t been assigned yet (if your group is using master looter) will still be available for the leader to pass out, though. However, this won’t stay available on the leader’s screen for very long, either.

[Indis]

I would be interested. Alasse (currently my only 75) is also doing them from glff, so she may be somewhat restricted in view of the weekly lock. She is a member of another kinship but can always be reached through the friends channel or by tells.

Edit: For weekends, she is normally available all day Saturday and Sunday until late afternoon Eastern (if there is dinner with in-laws, otherwise into the evening). Roughly once a month there is a standing appointment between ca 12:15 pm-2:30 pm Eastern; it will occur this coming Saturday 10/22/11. She is normally available on Friday afternoons.

Needless to say, when her alts reach 75, they will also be interested in joining up. Currently Isaniel (mini), Tengwarien (RK), and Celebrethil (burg) have reached level 67 and are advancing more or less in tandem, while they also work on crafting.

[Varda]

As I understand it, the daytimers need what is afternoon in Eastern time. That pushes it into the weekend for many who work.

Friday afternoon is good for me.

Saturday any time of day works for me most of the time. Sometimes we go out afternoons as a family, not usually a problem.

Sunday afternoon is fine for me.
Sunday afternoon conflicts with the Melkorrim Sunday morning/afternoon run, but might be worked into a continuation of it instead of a conflict and should not affect most of the regulars.
Sunday meetings don't start until 5pm Eastern so that should not be much of a problem.
Sunday WoW runs start after the meeting so that should be well out of the time range and not be a problem.

[cirdan]

Interested in any S4M

Friday:
-Currently (short term) 9 am to 3 pm
-Future: 7 pm to midnight

Saturday: 9 am to 3 pm EST usually

Sunday: Not available usually

[Irmo]

My preferred playing times in Eastern US Time:

Friday 1 PM-7 PM
Saturday 3 PM- 7 PM
Sunday 9 AM - 6 PM

Experience teaches that events like this need a tight leesh. If not, people will be irritated by starting too late, about the loot division, about what not.
Preferably we should aim at at least having one weekly moment that at least 12 of us can really make a commitment about being there on time, well prepared (food, potions etc.) and committed to paying attention , only going afk at groupcalled moments etc.
I know we think we all are a nice bunch and all that, but even our guild can be vulnerable against emotions that arise from the discord between some having shown up all the time, on time and having contributed to the groups success, but still zilch loot to show for, and others who join when they feel like it, on occasion, but are lucky with the roll, and then stop showing up altogether.

I know Maha knows all this, and I trust she will get this organised. But - also referring to some of the frustrations Ulmo has had in the past with all this - freeriding behaviour will not be rewarded.
So please all, if you commit to this, do take it seriously. If you can't make it at the appointed time, send a message in game or forum, etc. Ask not what the team can do for you, but what you can do for the team ;D

[than]

I am off Friday thru Sunday so I am pretty flexible on those days. I would prefer early afternoon times 12p to 5p EST because of real life.
However, I could schedule around a time frame if we come up with a routine.

[melkor]

I am excited about scheduling 12 man Valar raids! Saturdays are good fom me...I can usually be available for a scheduled event. Sunday's are pretty much out with Melkorrorim play from 0900-1100 (EST), church from 1230-1400 (EST), and often family events in the aft/eve.

[Annael]

I can all Fri to Sun that i dont work. on my champ

[hurin]

Raid-sized skirmishes sounds great <smiles>

Hurin (main: captain):
Oct 28: 12pm-6pm EST
Oct 29: 8am-6pm EST
Oct 30: 8am-6pm EST

[pippin]

Avengelina, my champ, is good to go on these most fridays and saturdays, generally between 12pm and 5pm. That seems to be the more common time frame as I far as I can tell. Eventually, My guardian, Faerus, may become available, but not anytime in the near future.

These skirm raids are wild and crazy rides and mostly take patience to get through. Using a designated master looter might be a good idea as well. That person can then also keep track of who got what and keep folks honest (though that would not be an enviable job)


-Pippin

[nimrodel]

I would like to bring my hunter, Ardisian. I can usually be on on Saturday, pretty much anytime as long as i know ahead of time. Sunday mornings, I'm usually on, sunday afternoon might be possible also, if they are scheduled in advance. Gildor and his guard are usually available at those times also.

[Miriel]

Per request I would like to attempt a run THIS Saturday, October 22nd at 1:00 EST. I know it is short notice, but perhaps we can make a go of it. Hope to see all there.

Next run would be Saturday, October 29th at 1:00 EST

[Varda]

Woohoo! Saturday at 1pm Eastern, first (at least tentatively) scheduled 12-man skirmish. Thanks for organizing this, Miriel! And thanks to all of you helping out (usually nothing much happens in a vaccuum).

[Indis]

Sadly, the first run is scheduled on the day of my once-monthly standing appointment on Saturdays (which runs ca 12:15-2:30 pm). Alasse will not be able to attend at 1 pm.

[Miriel]

First of all I would like to thank everyone for coming! Impressive team work and good spirits. I hope all enjoyed the run. I know that I did!
I will start another post detailing what loot was acquired and by whom.

Taken from the news:
Saturday 1pm Eastern 12-man skirmishes completed very well. No wipes, all completed, and one Worn Symbol of Celebrimbor won by Irmogar.
-Prancing Pony:
Participants: Annael (Rhonia, 75 champion), Cirdan (Menarus, 75 hunter), Gildor (Marrella, 75 guardian), Gorlim (Aeronwy, 75 minstrel), Hurin (Hiurred, 75 captain), Irmo (Irmogar, 75 guardian), Miriel (Mahariel, 75 minstrel), Melkor (Passim, 75 rune-keeper), Nimrodel (Ardisian, 75 hunter), Pippin (Avengelina, 75 champion), Ulmo (Niequi, 75 minstrel), Varda (Fainan, 75 hunter).
-Tuckborough:
Participants: We had the same group except that Cirdan had to leave. Pinkfae, a friend from Palantiri, filled in as a 75 Lore-master.
-Stand at Amon Sul:
Participants: We had the same group except that Pinkfae needed to leave as did Gorlim and Pippin. We were fortunate that Galdor (Andwe, 75 hunter), Indis (Alasse, 75 lore-master), and Nellas (Nimeithel, 73 warden) were able to arrive for the last run and jumped right in.