We Want You! (Upcoming 20-Man Raid Testing)

[cheemengs]

is any of this gonna be streamed? or is this just another "lets get the elite prepared for it, give them a NDA, and let the noobs be in the dark about whats to come"

before u start flaming me for being a noob, all those pro guilds who gets a shot at world first, has the tactics before the content arrives, they have the proper preparations, such as knowing wether the first encounters in ID is gonna be fire or earth.

never let the lesser guilds have the info.. its a pitty tbh..

Hate to say it but thats quite true, although life is unfair

[Veev]

If you have Akylios down and you don't get a chance to test, I agree it's pretty unfair. If you don't have Akylios down then I don't think there's much room to talk.

[Sebb]

If you have Akylios down and you don't get a chance to test, I agree it's pretty unfair. If you don't have Akylios down then I don't think there's much room to talk.

I disagree. I think the guild's that downed Akykios post nerf won't really know what to do. Let's be honest, most of these guild's (mine included) got to where they are because of posted strats. There is more than one occasion where I wondered how you guys figured out some of these mechanics, like the stewards on RKM, or the tomes on matron.

Without mechanic details ahead of time, lots of people would be wasting devs time. Maybe once it's near completed I could see then using some more casual guilds as Guinnea pigs to check tuning.

[intrinsc]

I disagree. I think the guild's that downed Akykios post nerf won't really know what to do. Let's be honest, most of these guild's (mine included) got to where they are because of posted strats. There is more than one occasion where I wondered how you guys figured out some of these mechanics, like the stewards on RKM, or the tomes on matron.

Without mechanic details ahead of time, lots of people would be wasting devs time. Maybe once it's near completed I could see then using some more casual guilds as Guinnea pigs to check tuning.

I have to disagree. I'm sure they did the same thing everyone would do when figuring stuff out. Head in, record your attempts, hover over as many tool tips as possible, record your attempts, watch your attempts, talk lots after raid, etc. Just because a guild isn't as progressed as the world firsts doesn't mean that they are total brain dead zombies that can't use critical thinking skills.

A guild that progresses on Akylios from their very first pull to the very last digit of HP is shaved off is no scrub guild. Even with strategies written down some guilds do things a bit more differently. I see the posted strats as a guideline, not the bible. It's much more of a challenge to keep a cohesive core without terrible turnover on such an encounter than it is to actually kill it, IMO.

[orlan]

Hate to say it but thats quite true, although life is unfair

how ever, the rift team have the chance to make things alittile bit more fair tho..

Im not asking for a detailed walkthrough from trion, im not even asking for an invite to my 6/11 guild (soon to be 8/11) as it would prolly only waste valuable time from employees of trion.

but im just saying that, well, my old guild was 1st shard on everything untill we broke the guild up due to drama. we farmed water sigils for weeks and weeks so we could have a running start at hk, what did we get.. 8 bosses with that would be better of with a death sigil.

meanwhile, voodoo , maximation, special olympics had this information prior to the launch of hk, and therefor had a running start at all the world firsts.

i remember back when ros was launched.. our guild went in there, wiped alot on trash went to galenir, and killed him with no strats at hand.. we beat better guilds on the day , prolly because of luck or a miracle, regardless of how it happened, we did it..

my point is.. at least keep the noobs in the loop.. without the noobs, the pros wont have anyone to show off to, or show there fine , large , and impressive epeens to. and who dosnt like alittle epeen once in a while..


<3

[rezzzz]

Name of Guild:Order of Shadow
Faction: Guardian
Current Progression: 11/11 Clearing HK in 1 4hr Raid day
Availability (M-F): Any day Besides Wendsday (Farm Day)
Number of Members Available: 10+
Feedback that is 500 words or less on any Hammerknell encounter:
Probably one of the Hardest Boss's in HK pre nerf is one of my favorite Grug, post nerf the boss required split second execution to avoid Decays on the Ground and Biles this is the one boss that took us quite a while to perfect until the nerf to the pillars and then the nerf to the casting time on the Decay and Bile, the fight gave a real challenge to all raid members and i believe helped greatly twards our akylios progression as almost all of our members who were on for our akylios downing the first time were the exact same members who were in our very first Grug kill. my favorite aspect of this fight is the fact that it isnt just a stand and dps fight such as Murdantix/Matron/Estrode/ Garau, the fight actually requires raid members to pay attention and if they fail to execute they will die by either standing in an aoe the raid needs to run through, or die via not staying with the group during tower phases for AoE healing, on the initial downing we would coordinate CD's for 10% down knockbacks and make sure we had Banners and Rallying command up from our warriors. Overall i would say i am impressed with how HK turned out and the difficulty of he posses is on par with the difficulty it prepares you for Akylios.

[Zotics]

Really? People are still posting apps to get in?

[puddin]

Really? People are still posting apps to get in?

And I hope they get in. The more testers, the better. Let's just hope those ragey guild leaders out there don't get a shot... they would only embarrass themselves.

[shizzirri]

Name of Guild: Dark Horizon
Faction: Defiant
Current Progression: 11/11 HK
Availability (M-F): Mon - Thurs 6pm PST - 10pm PST
Number of Members Available: 22-24 depending on the day
Feedback that is 500 words or less on any Hammerknell encounter: Our guild gained our first Akylios kill just over three weeks ago and I have to say this was one of the most enjoyable encounters I've experienced through several recent MMO's including WoW, EQ2, and Star Wars Old Republic. I enjoy the fact that the entire raid must be coordinated and able to efficiently communicate in order to be successful. It's nice to see the devs can still be quite creative in making raid encounters in MMO's these days. My only minor complaint on this fight is I feel the waves in the fourth phase could be slightly higher but I suppose it works because it still makes the fight challenging.

[JPopko]

Name of Guild: No Remorse
Faction: Defiant
Current Progression: 11/11
Availability (M-F): Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday 7-10pm PST
Number of Members Available: 20-24

Feedback that is 500 words or less on any Hammerknell encounter:

"The main points of the fight are easy: tank swap, kill adds, watch casting bars, and movement. The challenge was that it all occurred at the same time!

Tank Swap: We started out 3 tanking this fight but quickly moved to 2 tanking it due to the debuff timers and need for more dps. This helped our tanks learn communication as well as movement. Communication had been used throughout HK (Zilas, Matron), but for some reason this seemed to be more difficult due to the other abilities being used.

Adds: Killing the adds is easy. Killing them at the appropriate time isn’t as simple. Once we learned the timing of the adds in relation to the buff it greatly improved our encounter dps. Again, this is communication and timing, which really hadn’t been needed until now. We experienced this mechanic again throughout HK, but most noticably on Akylios during Phase 1 and Phase 2 with the adds and debuff management.

Casting bar and Movement: Holy ****. You have to watch a cast AND move? Yes you do! This destroyed our casters for a while because they just didn’t feel ‘safe’ being in melee range. It was also damn tough due to having to anticipate the purple AOE of insta-death hitting the ground and moving even if there was lag and the bar had not finished ‘casting’.

Underground Movement: To this day, this is still the main cause of new recruits dieing. That move, stop, move, stop mechanic is still really hard to learn without experiencing it.

I personally enjoyed the pre-nerf the best. Every raider had to pay attention and move at the same time. There were a few nights when I thought it was impossible to have 20 people pay attention, but then people slowly started to come around and eventually the movement became second nature.

This mechanic was one of the most important when we reached both Siccaron and Akylios. Stacking up, it seems, is still one the the hardest things to teach (especially to mages)."

-Tockz

[Sharpshooter]

Name of Guild: Moirae (Icewatch - EU)
Faction: Defiant
Current Progression: All content including HK 11/11 on farm status
Availability (M-F): Any day
Number of Members Available: 28-32 actively raiding members
Feedback that is 500 words or less on any Hammerknell encounter:

What is special about Hammerknell is that each encounter challenged the raid group in a different way requiring various different
qualities and perfect teamwork and each encounter was preparing the raid group better for Jornaru and Akylios.
I'd personally like to talk about Inwar Darktide concept. What is special about this boss is that it breaks the big raid group into two
independent combat units. Both groups need to be balanced to have equal power and survivability.
Both groups need perfect teamwork in order to succeed in their individual mission each in its own way while still staying synchronized
between them and reunite in the late phase of the fight again in order to defeat Inwar Darktide together.
Such encounter design is what making Rift to be the choice of players who want enjoyable and challenging raiding content which
requires perfect teamwork and is more of an execution fight than a gear check.
Also personally as a rogue tank I liked this encounter for the ability to use rogue tank advantages for mobility and range to control
the fight better and giving the raid easier time on various phases of the fight.

[OpalineBaby]

Name of Guild: Exposure
Faction: Guardian
Current Progression: 11/11 Hammerknell's Fortress
Availability (M-F): Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday - 6-10pm pst
Number of Members Available: 23
Feedback that is 500 words or less on any Hammerknell encounter:
Akylios is one of the most interesting encounters in hammerknell. It has the biggest learning curve which requires perfection from all 20 raid members. The multi-phased fight makes it very exciting and challenging at the same time. The beginning of the fight is a little bit draggy, but picks up toward the middle and towards the end. But overall, it is an adrenaline pumping fight that everyone will enjoy.

[Tumnayar]

Name of Guild: Altruistic Valorians
Faction: Defiant
Current Progression: 11/11 HK and every other raid zone cleared
Availability (M-F):Monday, Wednesday, Thursday 5:30 - 9 game time
Number of Members Available: 25ish
Feedback that is 500 words or less on any Hammerknell encounter:

What I liked on each encounter

Murdantix - the DPS check required to see if people were ready for the bigger fights, good starter mob

Matron - the sheer amount of damage the tanks took needing to stack DR, fast tank swaps, tough for healers

Zilas - this fight was intense for my guild when we were learning it, with all the amount of mobs spawning with different abilities, the crystals required to stop the Magus to buy time on laser phases

Prime - free loot after doing Zilas, nice little break

Grugonim - coordination required stacking and moving, yay for synchronized running!

Sicaron - fast paced purge rotation, nicely planting contracts, was tough on healing tanks before farming lots and lots of gear - fact that small mistakes will wipe you

Rune King - Mage tank idea was fun, thinking outside the box mechanic. So much randomness on this one will make or break a raid. This was the toughest fight on the bottom floor and a real test

Estrode - people can customize this fight to make it tough or easy, which makes it a fun fight for everyone, nice "reward" after beating Rune King

Inquisitor - another nice reward fight for beating the bottom floor, essentially free loot once you figure out what's going on. First part of the zone where Water Resist became useful, which was a little upsetting for those who got their water cores done before HK launch

Darktide - a good controlled fight, needing 2 balanced 10 man groups on each side, coordination between both groups to kill at correct times for the first 2 phases.

Akylios - the pinnacle of all that is Rift, or was, coming tomorrow's wave nerf. This was the most intense, fun fight I've ever been apart of in any MMO. People really have to play perfect to be able to progress through the encounter. One wrong move and a person is out of the whole 20 minute fight. The learning curve on this boss compared to everything else is so steep, that it FORCES people to become better players and strive to be the best. This fight is/was how any endzone boss should always be. The amount of time and dedication required by a guild to defeat something like this is what makes it worthwhile and fun.

There's plenty of things wrong with HK as well, but I don't have room to type it all and many people have touched on them.

[Walsingham]

Thanks to everyone who sent in their info. We now have a current and up to date list of raiding guilds available for testing.