Instanced MSR Forming Tip

[Apparition]

I organized the beta tests of the instanced Rikti mothership raid back in September 2019, and have been running it two or three times per week on Excelsior since it went live in October 2019.  I want to share a tip that occurred to me last week, and I successfully tried tonight.

 

Outside of the level 35+ and Member of Vanguard badge requirements, the most common complaints I've heard from other Rikti mothership raid leaders are:

 

1. You have to check everyone's badges to make sure that they have the Member of Vanguard badge.
2. The league gets scrambled when entering the instance.
3. People get dropped from the league when entering the instance.
4. There is no Unabashed exploration badge.

 

For #4, the Unabashed exploration badge is being added to the instanced Rikti mothership raid as of Issue 27, Page 1.  So that will no longer be an issue.

 

I discovered a second solution for the second and third issues (for the first solution, see this thread), as well as a solution for the first issue.

 

Lock your league, and queue up for the instanced Rikti mothership raid trial by yourself.  Once you are inside the instance, you can invite people to the instance, by typing: /i <Name>

 

There's no need to check anyone's badges, as they will need the Member of Vanguard badge in order to enter the instance in the first place.  There's no scrambling of the league nor people dropping from the league, as the instance has already been created and people will join the league when they enter the instance.  You don't have to worry about directing people to a different zone, as you can invite people into the instance no matter what zone they are in.  People can fight level 54 mobs in the instance to prevent boredom while waiting for the league to finish forming, and get more XP and INF.  You'll just have to make sure that they don't engage any Pylon before you're ready.

 

I hope this tip is helpful, and I hope that it will get more people to run instanced Rikti mothership raids.  IMO, the instanced version really is the better way to run MSRs.

[Ejlertson]

4 hours ago, Apparition said:

IMO, the instanced version really is the better way to run MSRs.

Im curious about why that is. Could you please enlighten me? 

[Apparition]

7 hours ago, Ejlertson said:

Im curious about why that is. Could you please enlighten me? 

 

Sure.

 

 

1. The instanced map is about half the size of the regular Rikti War Zone.  Because there is much less of stuff going on on the map for the game to keep track of, there is usually much less lag during an instanced Rikti mothership raid in comparison to a zone Rikti mothership raid.  IIRC, a developer once said last year that an instanced MSR uses about a third of the server's resources in comparison to a zone MSR.  You can see and feel it.

 

2. Because the map is cut in half, the hospital is at the Point du Hoc Vanguard compound.  If you die and don't get a rez, you can just hospital it and get back into the action much more quickly as the hospital is much closer to the mothership.

 

3. There is a guaranteed Rikti drop ship spawn.  The first Pylon destroyed in the instanced MSR will spawn the Rikti drop ship.  There's no chance involved.

 

4. No matter where you are on the map or how far away from the rest of your teammates you are, you will still get Vanguard merits.  One of the issues with the zone MSR is that pullers typically get fewer Vanguard merits than the rest of their teammates, sometimes substantially fewer.   That effectively penalizes pullers, who are vital to any MSR.  That is not an issue with the instanced MSR.

 

5. Some will see this as a negative, but everyone in the league is level 35+.  Since there are no lowbies, everyone is contributing to the mothership raid, and they tend to end with more XP, more INF, and more Vanguard merits than most zone MSRs.

 

6. You can actually kick troublemakers and griefers.  Sure, you can kick troublemakers from the league in zone MSRs, but they can still stay around the mothership and grief or cause trouble.  Not with the instanced MSRs.  Kick them, and they are gone.  Thankfully, I've only had to do this twice in thirteen months, but it's nice to know that the option is there when needed.

 

7. People can do other things in the Rikti War Zone without worrying about your mothership raid, and vice versa.  This is especially helpful on large servers like Excelsior, where there are typically Apex TFs, Tin Mage TFs, and Lady Grey TFs being run at all times of the day.

 

 

After instanced MSRs were added to the game, I simply have been unable to bring myself to do a zone MSR.

Edited November 14, 2020 by Apparition

[Ejlertson]

Thank you for elaborating on it in such detail 🙂

[Apparition]

I've been forming instanced MSRs on the Excelsior shard utilizing the method in the first post for the past three months and I have to say it's been a huge success.  Prior, we'd usually struggle to get three full teams.  Now, we always get four full teams, occasionally five.  Our average count of Vanguard merits has also increased from about 1,100 per raid to about 1,400 per raid.  Once, I even received about 1,850.

[Hedgefund]

I'e got another positive for the list:

 

8.  A team leader dropping does not cause an insta team wipe when the star falls to the next person who happens to be level 40.  The instanced raid locks everyone at 50.