I've managed to con a buddy of mine into coming back to Destiny for the refer-a-friend thing. He was pretty adamant about not coming back to the game until the next full release, but I ended up with an extra game code for The Taken King and he owes me one for waiting until he finished his semester to play Halo 5 (I still haven't played it yet. We'll be starting the year with a weekend of drinking and Halo).

We've gotten through a bunch of the quest chain and are currently "grinding" to get the gear necessary to do the heroic strike and, later, the nightfall. At this point, I can't really tell if he's actually enjoying the game, or if he's just dumping time into it to try and get what he needs to complete the quest chain, but he did mention that he'd be willing to try to run a raid if I can get one set up before the next semester starts.

Now to the question: If you were trying to organize a raid run to show someone what raiding in Destiny can be like, what are the key things you'd try to set up?

I'm definitely thinking it'll be the Vault of Glass, and ideally, it would be run with a group using as much year one gear as possible. I want it to still feel challenging, even for a team of veterans, so it's not like we're just dragging him along for the ride. Beyond that, though, I'm not sure what I could do to try and give someone something close to that first blind raid experience that I've been hyping up without being able to assemble a group of brand new players and commit several hours to figuring it all out again.

I guess the question comes down to this: For those of you that love the raids, what makes the raid experience stand out from any other Destiny experience, and how would you present that to a new raider to give them the best experience possible?

-Disciple

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.

Don't think I can add much more than has been suggested, but I'm also in the camp of Patient and Willing to help. :)

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.

- No text -

I've still got my VoG armor for all 3 classes, and the primary & special weapons. Or we could try King's Fall. Or all 3 on normal. Or side-arms only on Hard. ... Maybe not that.

I think you can assemble a good raid team, either with squidNH3's newbies, or a team of veterans. Maybe have your friend run relic. ... Probably not the first time.

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.

- No text -

Explain EVERYONES role

Better get Chappy on the team.

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