Blind Raiding (an observation, no major spoilers) (Destiny)

by Claude Errera , Monday, September 28, 2015, 16:07 (3438 days ago)

So the last(ish) group of DBO folks still on 360 tried a blind raid on Friday; we got to the Warpriest but only played about 3 hours before we lost some of the team. We got back together yesterday, finished that stage, and lost a player due to real life stuff. We couldn't find a 6th; we tried the next encounter with 5, but gave up after a short time because we felt we weren't making enough progress with a smaller group.

I'm not positive we'll actually get to finish the raid blind; several participants can't play again until next weekend, so we lose this checkpoint and start over (which is fine), but the more time that goes on, the bigger the likelihood that SOMEONE will be familiar with the new parts, and the joy of discovery will be lost.

This is more important than I'd given it credit for. I played both VoG and Crota only with fully competent groups; I was told exactly what I was supposed to do in each encounter, the first time through. (This doesn't mean it went smoothly; I wasn't GOOD at either one, the first few times. As an example, we finished off the evening last night running through Crota, twice, once on regular, once on hard, with a group of 4, and had pretty much no trouble at all - that did NOT happen in the early days, even when folks knew what to do. It just means that I didn't ever need to worry about mechanics - I only needed to worry about execution.)

These last two sessions, on King's Fall, have been a blast. Noticing what works and what doesn't, having player 2 build on something player 1 noticed, trying things that MIGHT make sense (at least before you try them) just to see what will happen... I want to apologize to Cody for dismissing his consistent praising of the idea of a blind raid - I thought it wouldn't matter that much, but it does. (It's not just Cody - but Cody has been the most consistent, here, and probably the earliest to publicly push for blind raiding.)

Killing a boss that YOU FIGURED OUT HOW TO KILL is so much more satisfying than killing a boss that someone told you how to kill.

I guess this is just a post to express regret that I'll likely not be able to finish blind. :(