Destiny: Witty's solo adventure of LFG raid

[wittyscorpion]

This is A new thread of the "adventure" series

More often than not, I am playing at hours when my friends are not on. This makes it impossible to run 3 (and soon to be 6) raids per week. With Bungie saying that they have no plans to bring Raid Matchmaking to Destiny, the only viable option is to use LFG channels.

The purpose of this thread is to share my experience of using LFG to raid when playing Solo. Bros who are doing the same thing are very welcome to chime in as well.

[markopolo]

Unless the story ends with you having purchased a PS4 and riding off into the sunset in glory with me and Mannon, you'll never get B/Hollywood to buy the movie rights.

Just sayin'... that's all

[markopolo]

ooooooooooooops... le post de double

[wittyscorpion]

To kick things off, some general thoughts:

1) The LFG site I am currently using is www.destinylfg.net . The site has a minimalism design style which I like, and it has a good "LFGer" population;

2) Trying to find a raid group as a solo player is not easy as you need to show some attractive traits for the groups to consider you. Examples include:

a) attractive checkpoints. e.g.: VoG Oracle checkpoint on hard;
b) OP light levels, e.g.: level 30 in a VoG normal LFG;
c) OP weapons, e.g.: fully maxed Gjallarhorn;
d) The experience of playing difficult roles, e.g.: experienced relic holder in VoG;

3) You should be geared up and ready to go before you post your LFG message: pick up your raid weapons and ammo synthesis, and configure your light level to max;

4) Once you are picked up, IMHO it is best to be honest upfront about your abilities and limitations. This way you can set reasonable expectations so the raid leader can plan accordingly;

5) Mentally prepared with reasonably low expectations. You will be playing with total strangers, and you should not be surprised when running into jerks, or getting kicked. Prepare for the worst, and hope for the best;

6) If you meet people you like, fraternize with them to expand your Raid friend universe. The hope is that after doing enough LFGs you build a big enough list of friends so you don't have to do LFG again;

[wittyscorpion]

---

Solo LFG attempt #1

Time: Sunday, 11/30
Raid: VoG on hard
Level/Class: 30 Hunter

Attraction: I have an Oracle checkpoint on VoG hard (gift from Dumien), and that was my ticket in. It also doesn't hurt to be at level 30, although Hunter is usually the least desired.

Experience - very good:

As soon as I posted the LFG message, I got pinged by 2 or 3 groups. I responded to 1 asking for a party invite, and they brought me into their fire team. Originally I was only planning to do a quick Oracle -> Gatekeeper run, because I am not confident about my ability to play Gatekeeper and Atheon phases. To my pleasant surprise, the group leaders said they are OK with it and plan to go all the way through.

It turns out the group is a very strong one. Out of the gate we had 3 30s and 3 29s, and we quickly sniped Oracles, cheesed Templar, and flew by Gorgons. For the Gatekeeper phase: the group has 2 very strong 30s and we succeed with harder but faster attack-both-portal-at-the-same-time strategy on the 4th try.

However, Just when we thought we are going to wrap up the whole thing in under 1 hour, we got seriously stuck at Atheon. Things got worse as one of the strong 30s had to leave. A level 30 replacement was brought in, but we still can't crack Atheon. Played another hour and cycled through 2 more replacements, and even with 5 30s we were still struggling. This is due to a) the level 29 player is a VoG hard newbie and he does not have maxed out weapons, and b) I suck badly as a relic holder, and c) a few otherwise perfect runs were ruined by glitches. Several players felt frustrated, especially the ones who don't need any loot. Fortunately, just when we were at the edge of quitting, we had a great run and finally put Atheon to grave where he belongs.

Loot - great haul!

Hunter Raid helmet / gloves that I don't have
Corrective Measure
Atheon Epilogue
Vex Mythoclast (2nd copy)
XVO Timebreaker (2nd copy)

[Dumien]

Nice Witty!

[wittyscorpion]

Solo LFG attempt #2

Time: Thursday, 12/04
Raid: VoG on hard
Level/Class: 30 Titan

Overall Experience - very good.

My main draw: looks like level 30 is attractive enough

LFG experience

After posting my LFG (look for group) message, I pinged several LFM (look for more) message senders using the web site, and got invited into a fire team after 5 attempts. (Tip: I later found out the better way is to simply send an XBL message to the group leader directly on XONE, make it easier for the group leader to invite me).

Raid experience

1) Oracle: Sniped through quickly enough;
2) Templar: it is the first time for several of us doing it without cheese. It took a few runs, but we improved round after round and finally got him;
3) Gatekeepers: attacked both portals at the same time, succeeded at first or second attempt;
4) Atheon: it took us a few runs to succeed, but not very painful. Also, I finally learnt how to place Titan bubbles effectively for this phase;

Loot - another solid haul

Titan boots (3rd copy)
Praedyth's Vengeance (4th copy)
Plan-C (2nd copy)
Light of Great Prism (finally got this class item)
Titan helmet x 2! (the loot I have been trying to get, and got 2 in one drop);
Aspect of Glass ship

[wittyscorpion]

Solo LFG attempt #3

Time: Thursday, 12/04
Raid: VoG on hard
Level/Class: 30 Warlock

Overall Experience - it was a very long fight (6 hours from Conflux defense to finish!), but quite pleasant because the group I joined is consisted of cheerful people.

LFG experience

Similar drill as the last attempt, and met a group of people mainly from Australia.

Raid experience

1) Conflux defense: it was no picnic and we wiped a few times. For the successful run, during the last round we had 4 players left and I was the only one defendinging the right. It was a great feeling to be able to hold up on my own and finally completed the phase;

2) Oracle: sniped through on the first attempt;

3) Templar: it is the first time for several people, and to make things worse, one member of the team has a bad Internet that caused him to disconnect from time to time. We got very close on two runs with staying-on-the-right-side strategy, with one of them had Templar at his last slimmer of health. However, he teleported to a location that is very hard to hit, and enraged right after. We were then overrun by minotaurs;

2 players had to leave, so I went to LFG to find 2 more (yes, I LFGed then LFMed ). We decided to switch to the staying-on-the-top sniping strategy, and were able to eventually succeed;

4) Gatekeeper: a few quick attempts using attacking-at-the-same-time strategy, then decided to switch to 1-at-a-time, and succeeded on the first attempt. At this point, we have 3 30s and 3 29s, and 3 players have Gjallarhorn.

5) Atheon: it took us a few tries, but not bad. One good outcome I got out of it is that I started feeling comfortable with using the relic;

Loot

Praedyth's Vengeance (5th copy)
Warlock raid chest (2nd)
Red Death
Aspect of Glass (2nd)
Warlock raid helmet (2nd)

[LFG Fails]

Glad I got my money back as soon as I found out no in game lfg for 3 soon to be 6 then 3rd probably 9 raids/weeklies. GTA V with a lucky return and my bday 20% off cost me next to nothing. So glad I bailed out early, plus after getting 2 chars fully geared in armor and swapping around weapons, making a 3rd did not sound fun. Most repetitive game ever. Farm, same raids/dungeons, fusion/shotgun only pvp, and last the worst, farming events! Those who farmed over 1k events, wow, must be nice to flunk college, live off your parents or just plain be lucky and rich and do nothing but play destiny all day. I only leveled fast due to 2 nephews helping me, so I would hit the game up during day while they were at school, then at night when I worked my 3rd job as manager at bass pro they would play, other 2 jobs are simple, break down laptops and sell parts on eBay for more than what the laptop is worth working and new, and eBay items you get practically free off craigslist for 10x the profit. Oh well, last real fun mmo was rift but I quit right as they were about to do update and told all to quit cause it would be free to play by summer which it was. Great game, just horrible how they really fubared the classes so bad that I didn't even want to see the expansion. Well have fun doing the same thing over and over while hunting down groups that don't act like aholes. They sold a ton, but also have the highest return rate now.

[hebbnh]

Dec 6, 2014 1:38:40 GMT -5 LFG Fails said:

Glad I got my money back as soon as I found out no in game lfg for 3 soon to be 6 then 3rd probably 9 raids/weeklies. GTA V with a lucky return and my bday 20% off cost me next to nothing. So glad I bailed out early, plus after getting 2 chars fully geared in armor and swapping around weapons, making a 3rd did not sound fun. Most repetitive game ever. Farm, same raids/dungeons, fusion/shotgun only pvp, and last the worst, farming events! Those who farmed over 1k events, wow, must be nice to flunk college, live off your parents or just plain be lucky and rich and do nothing but play destiny all day. I only leveled fast due to 2 nephews helping me, so I would hit the game up during day while they were at school, then at night when I worked my 3rd job as manager at bass pro they would play, other 2 jobs are simple, break down laptops and sell parts on eBay for more than what the laptop is worth working and new, and eBay items you get practically free off craigslist for 10x the profit. Oh well, last real fun mmo was rift but I quit right as they were about to do update and told all to quit cause it would be free to play by summer which it was. Great game, just horrible how they really fubared the classes so bad that I didn't even want to see the expansion. Well have fun doing the same thing over and over while hunting down groups that don't act like aholes. They sold a ton, but also have the highest return rate now.

Cool story, bro.

[wings]

Errr most if not all games are the same thing over and over.

[wittyscorpion]

Cool! A troll in my monologue thread...

[mannon]

We may have to try your LFG site. I don't think VoG is happening for me this weekend, though. Right now I'm just hoping to run the weekly, and from there we'll see. I could be wrong...

[wittyscorpion]

Dec 6, 2014 14:27:03 GMT -5 mannon said:

We may have to try your LFG site. I don't think VoG is happening for me this weekend, though. Right now I'm just hoping to run the weekly, and from there we'll see. I could be wrong...

You can do weekly and Nightfall through LFG as well. Now come think of it, you guys should definitely do that.

[mannon]

Eh for weekly and Nightfall I'd rather try it just solo or just people I know. Although I was having a poke at the weekly just to gauge the difficulty and some random guy invited me. I figured what the hell and joined. Though, he was level 26 so I think we were only running it on 26. It seemed pretty easy too. I didn't friend him, though... I don't even know why I joined him. I almost never do that.

[wittyscorpion]

Dec 7, 2014 4:10:29 GMT -5 mannon said:

Eh for weekly and Nightfall I'd rather try it just solo or just people I know. Although I was having a poke at the weekly just to gauge the difficulty and some random guy invited me. I figured what the hell and joined. Though, he was level 26 so I think we were only running it on 26. It seemed pretty easy too. I didn't friend him, though... I don't even know why I joined him. I almost never do that.

I mean trying LFG for 2 reasons:

1) when you are constrained on time and don't have a friend to play with. The coins from weekly and the loot drops from Nightfall are too good to miss out;

3) to test the water of LFG experience;

[iw5000]

This is a dumb question, but what does LFG stand for?

And what are the steps to sign up on it? Need another account? Email?

[hebbnh]

LFG = Looking for group. Not sure on sign up steps, but I'm sure Witty will help you there.

Had a "fun" LFG experience yesterday. Jumped on to help Witty and THebb at the Atheon stage with the 3 LFG guys they had. We wiped probably 10 times while only making it through the first teleport cycle once or twice. It seems nobody is eager to grab the relic, whatever, I grab it when I can even though I'm just a 29 and it'd be better for a 30 to take it. I don't do too well since a) I'm not experienced with it and b) nobody bothers to help with the Preatorian on Venus side despite me asking. On the next run me, Witty, and LFG hardass level 30 get teleported. Keep in mind we've already discussed that 30s should take relic if possible. Witty and I get set to shoot oracles, while LFG hardass level 30 proclaims "y'all can kiss my ass if you think I'm gonna do relic." Awesome. I run back and grab it and we wipe because our timing is totally off. I say "I don't think refusing to grab the relic is going to be a helpful attitude to have." Hardass replies "Who's the dude with the smart mouth?" to which I query, "Who's the level 30 who refuses to pick up the relic?" I then get called a "little bitch," "faggot," and get told to "do something about it." THebb simply says, "Well that escalated quickly!" and gets called a bitch and other stuff too. Of course one of the other LFG guys bails immediately, the other follows soon after, and hardass tells us to "have fun with it." No problem, douchebag -- we bring in Dumien and Kakashi and one brand new LFG dude and clear it on our first attempt!

[mannon]

Did you a favor by leaving... hah!

[malgato]

I'm actually surprised there haven't been more stories like that. There are plenty of assholes to be found in typical LFG and PUG situations.

[hebbnh]

Dec 8, 2014 11:21:19 GMT -5 malgato said:

I'm actually surprised there haven't been more stories like that. There are plenty of assholes to be found in typical LFG and PUG situations.

For the most part I've had pretty good luck with "randoms" so far, whether it's been friends of friends of friends, random tower invites, matchmade teams all jumping into fireteam chat in crucible, or LFG.  This is really the only negative experience I can think of.

[iw5000]

I don't see myself doing the LFG stuff anytime soon ( me joining in with five other people) Haven't done it yet, and I have been able to get three characters to level 30. That's just using people I know on here and clan stuff.

The few experiences I have had, bringing people into groups I am in.... those have all gone pretty well. Can't say I've had any issues.

[markopolo]

Dec 6, 2014 12:00:32 GMT -5 wittyscorpion said:

Cool! A troll in my monologue thread...

So jelly of you

[wittyscorpion]

Dec 8, 2014 10:25:39 GMT -5 iw5000 said:

This is a dumb question, but what does LFG stand for?

And what are the steps to sign up on it? Need another account? Email?

In general: LFG = looking for group

More specific terms used in LFG channels:

LFG = 1-2 players looking for a group to join
LFM (looking for more) = 4+ players looking for 1 or 2 more players

What if you have a group of 3? Well, in that case both LFG and LFM can apply

[mannon]

Yeah good old MMORPG speak. Really, MMORPG people are more acronym crazy than the military.

[wittyscorpion]

LFG attempt #4, with thebb22

Time: Sunday, 12/08
Raid: VoG on hard
Level/Class: 30 Hunter (me) / 29 Titan w/Gjallarhorn (@theb22)

Overall Experience - poor

LFG experience

I saw a LFM message on http;//destinylfg.net looking for 2 more level 30s at Gatekeeper checkpoint, so I pinged the guy asking whether he is OK with 1 30 and 1 29 w/Gjallarhorn. He said fine so we joined.

Raid experience

1) Gatekeeper: we did attack-both-portals-at-the-same-time strategy, and it went through quickly enough. Things were going OK up to this point, as the group worked together well enough while having small talks about football, joking about a very happy and excited child in the background, etc.

2) Atheon: the father of the happy child had to leave, we took a quickly break and hebbnh joined to help us. Then this happened:

Dec 8, 2014 10:46:35 GMT -5 hebbnh said:

Had a "fun" LFG experience yesterday. Jumped on to help Witty and THebb at the Atheon stage with the 3 LFG guys they had. We wiped probably 10 times while only making it through the first teleport cycle once or twice. It seems nobody is eager to grab the relic, whatever, I grab it when I can even though I'm just a 29 and it'd be better for a 30 to take it. I don't do too well since a) I'm not experienced with it and b) nobody bothers to help with the Preatorian on Venus side despite me asking. On the next run me, Witty, and LFG hardass level 30 get teleported. Keep in mind we've already discussed that 30s should take relic if possible. Witty and I get set to shoot oracles, while LFG hardass level 30 proclaims "y'all can kiss my ass if you think I'm gonna do relic." Awesome. I run back and grab it and we wipe because our timing is totally off. I say "I don't think refusing to grab the relic is going to be a helpful attitude to have." Hardass replies "Who's the dude with the smart mouth?" to which I query, "Who's the level 30 who refuses to pick up the relic?" I then get called a "little bitch," "faggot," and get told to "do something about it." THebb simply says, "Well that escalated quickly!" and gets called a bitch and other stuff too. Of course one of the other LFG guys bails immediately, the other follows soon after, and hardass tells us to "have fun with it." No problem, douchebag -- we bring in Dumien and Kakashi and one brand new LFG dude and clear it on our first attempt!

The weird thing is that for the entire duration of this I can't hear the "hardass" at all. It's either because my headphone has magic asshole filters, or I muted this guy sometime before in another game

Loot

Nothing except shards and energy

[wittyscorpion]

BTW, we also have another LFG story that is almost the exact opposite of the asshole we just discussed above:

After the aforementioned raid party dissolved, we picked up Dumien and the his always-in-the-help-mood-soon-to-get-married friend Kakashi to help us complete the Atheon fight. I jumped onto destinylfg.net, and find a guy named "vannilla bearr" who was looking to complete Atheon. We were able to blow through the fight in our first attempt. Bearr is not a talkative player, but he got something cool from the raid (Vex Mythoclast?) and he yelled "I love you guys", in cool UK accent

We plan to do another run from Oracle CP so we asked him whether he can help us. Even though he does not need another run, he decided to stay. It took quite some time and it was very late for him, but he stayed with us until the end. By the time we were done, it was 3:20am his time. Needless to say we all added him to our friend list.

IMHO that's how solo people should do LFGs, be appreciative and help if you can, then you will have more and more "cool" people to play with over time.

[wittyscorpion]

Did 2 more LFG VoG runs yesterday: 1 normal and 1 hard on my level30 warlock.

For the normal run we had 4 level 30s and 2 level 26/27. It was a walk in the park and we finished it fairly quickly. It is a very relaxed experience and still fun enough. I was doing it to see if I have a better shot at getting Vision of Confluence, but still no dice.

For the hard run, it is a small group + several LFGers: 4 level 30s and 2 level 29s. We had to strategize on the fly, but we were able to get through all stages from conflux defense to Atheon. It is an interesting experience to see how a random group problem solving on the fly. We got stopped cold on Atheon though, due to a combination of problems of a) glitches, b) several of us still not great at holding relics, c) a player not having an effective oracle killing weapon, and d) late night fatigue. We finally had to abort.