As someone who loves Raids more than just about anything else in Destiny, the thing I love most is the experience of replaying them and learning them better. Lots of people seem to find their first blind run through a raid is the best, but I don't personally feel that way. I love the act of going back in every week with a similar group, experimenting with different techniques, playing different roles or subclasses each time through.

Basically, to get what I consider to be the ultimate raid experience, you need to do it multiple times over a few weeks. I think that's where the magic really happens :)

For me, King's Fall was the only raid I've been able to do with a fully blind team, and nothing has matched that experience.

So I'm honestly not sure what you can do for your friend, because unless you do find a fireteam full of people that haven't ever done VoG, I'm not sure you can get that experience. I went through VoG for the first time with some folks from here, and Blackstar guided me through some things, but the group was patient and willing to let me explore encounters a bit if I wanted.

But even that doesn't really work completely, because at some point, I feel the pressure of being the only one that doesn't actually know what's going on, and I felt like everyone was just waiting around on me, and that's not exactly a good feeling that encourages fun.

That being said, I think that's about as good as you can get. Find a fireteam of folks that are patient, and willing to let your friend explore and figure out as much or as little as he wants. Definitely use old gear if possible, don't cheese, don't rush.

All that being said, depending on what nights, I would love to do this with you if you're looking for a team. Like I said, Blackstar and Co. provided a great experience for my first raid when I came back around here, and I'd love to be a part of that for someone else. Having a crappy group could very well lead to a crappy experience and your friend thinking that raiding is stupid, and that would suck.

I am in a similar situation, although I actually have 2-3 friends that just started playing. Two of them are now at 290ish light, and are ready to raid. At first I wasn't sure if they were really enjoying the game all that much (although they've kept playing). However, Tuesday night we did the Nightfall, and it clicked for them.

"This is a lot more fun when it's hard!" was their experience. The 'match' skull was on, so we had to coordinate what elemental damage weapons we were using, and then we actually failed and had to reformulate a new strategy for the final boss. Communication was necessary, and they were pretty impressed when I pulled off a double revive while being chased by a Minotaur.

I've been suggesting a VoG run, but they seem put off by its current irrelevance. They are more interested in King's Fall I think, which is okay. I think they've also watched some of the raid on YouTube, so a completely blind run might not be possible (I'm also not sure they have the time/patience to devote to that). We will be looking for some more people to fill at a raiding party fairly soon, so maybe we can figure something out.

Being helped through Crota and VoG by people I liked was the most important thing for me. To me, it didn't matter if it was super easy or super hard, as long as I liked the people. Blind King's Fall was awful.

The rest of it is up to your friend's personality. For me, I like things easy. I'd go through VOG normal, coaching the guy through the best stuff to do when he dies. For masochists like Cruel, do it hard, do it relatively blind, let him figure out his own mistakes before telling him his job, then do it 30 more times. Your friend is probably in the middle.

The most important thing, I think, is that while he feels like part of the team, he can't feel like a hindrance. Normal mode VoG and Crota before Hard Mode VoG. Work him up to it so he doesn't feel carried and so he pretty much knows what to do before going in on the hard mode.

Fill the team with people who dont get frustrated and maybe who aren't too good at the game. Ideal raid.

I don't think you need to goninond and have him figure it out, but I do think what has hurt my experience in the past is when the mechanics are known and not explained, and the roles are know and not explained. The new guy gets the "just kill things" which makes all subsequent team talk unintelligible. If you not only explain the new guys role, but explain EVERYONES role that really helps comprehension, and feeling like you're on the team and not just a bullet sponge. It also means that when the team fails someplace else, the new guy has a chance to understand why the failure happened.

I will definitely agree that the best part of the raid is the people, and I can't think of a better group of people to introduce someone to the awesomeness of raiding than the DBO crew :) If we can get him hooked, then maybe we can get to Cruel's favorite part of refining strategies later on :)

I've got an event scheduled for next Wednesday at 9PM Central. Max 200 light, no cheeses, and taking it slow. I'd totally be down to run with Squid and his new raiders, but I'm up for running it with anyone who wants to go back have some fun in the Vault!

If he's not into Destiny after this, then I'll have to concede that it's just not his kind of game :p

-Disciple