30 Vanguard to 1 Regular Merit ratio...

[kelika2]

Maybe it is time to make it 20 to 1.  Reasons:

 

1.) playerbase died down a lot.  while there used to be 3000 people per server, its more like 1500 across 4 servers now

2.) still a nice chunk of merits in the 20to1 ratio.  Hami Raids take maybe 20-30 minutes and yield 160 merits.  a 20to1 ratio will be roughly in this range.  I will be the first to admit I never went to a shipraid in months because of the nerf +...

3.) the lack of interest in MSR.  It is painful as hell to watch a MSR spam for hours, meanwhile a hami raid doesnt even have to recruit anymore and guaranateed to fill, start and finish before the designated start time

4.) the other rewards are not really worth it

salvage sack was phased out from paragon point storage increases merged into base game

99% of people use threads to make alpha slot stuff

the temp pet is rarely used due to 1. forgetfulness 2. master of locking them away 3. incarnate stuff being more than enough

other rewards i cant even remember.  there was a bomb maybe i guess

 

So please, consider 20:1 v:m ratio in the future

[Ukase]

I have no issues with 20 to 1 - but in defense of the Hamidon raid - despite it looking so simple, there is a fair amount of coordination that goes on. Certain teams have certain tasks - at least on Excelsior and Torchbearer and Everlasting. Not high enough on Indom to say. 

MSRs are virtually mindless mashing of buttons, as long as a healing/buff area is established. There's just not much coordination required. 

You do raise a solid point with the recruiting time, though. It's painful to sit there and wait as long as the actual MSR before you start it. 

[Apparition]

I am of two minds on this.

 

If you have a full league of level 35+ PCs, you can easily obtain about 1,400 Vanguard merits.  That's about 47 reward merits, for about 45 minutes of time once the raid actually starts.  That's not bad at all.

 

However, for the instanced MSR trials that I run, I've never had a full league.  The most I've ever had was 41 people.  Usually it's anywhere from 20 to 30 people.  That significantly lowers Vanguard merit count.  A few times, such as today, I started with only seventeen people in the league.   We actually had 21 people, but two people quit just before we queued (I imagine that they panicked that we were going to do a MSR with only 21 people), and two people never clicked the button and never sent me a tell for a re-invite after.  I only received 709 Vanguard merits because of the very low player count and that we only had one person pulling Rikti to the bowl.

 

As for the wait time, I try not to keep it that bad.  If it's one of my scheduled instanced MSR trials that I run every Thursday, I try to start within twenty minutes of forming the league.  After twenty or so minutes, and we have at least seventeen people, I will queue us up.  If it's an impromptu instanced MSR trial that I form up on the weekend, then I try to start within 40 minutes of forming the league.  Again, after forty or so minutes, and we have at least seventeen people, I will queue us up.

 

So, yes, a lowered Vanguard merit to reward merit ratio would be nice, but I'm not sure if it would solve the player count problem.  There's a lot more different things being run simultaneously now than several months ago.  You have Hamidon raids, a BAF farm league, and one or two other Incarnate trial leagues.  There's a lot more competition for players' time.  Then, as you said, the lower player count in comparison to today than several months ago.