Adamaster Summoning

[Ukase]

28 minutes ago, Skyhawke said:

 

I've hit this bump before. I don't like to lead. It's a me thing, for sure. So if I happen upon a GM in the wild on a character that could solo it, am I obligated to broadcast it even with the intention that I'm not going to do any recruiting or should I just wade in and if anyone else happens by, hooray for them? The etiquette for this can be all over the place, depending on who you ask. 

That's fair. It's just my experience to only broadcast if I'm willing to endure the minor irritation of leading for a few minutes. 
I've often simply announced the locations of GMs with no interest at all in fighting them - run into Eochai or Jack routinely when I'm doing the Croatoan arcs. And it's maddening how many times there's a level 12 in Atlas that wants in on Eochai, and I'm on a level 26 and there doesn't seem to be any interest from a level 50 to sk either of us. I was just grabbing explorations. I can get those merits another time! It's kind of weird sometimes. 

If you make the announcement and explain (level 26, so not inviting), there will still be players with selective reading disorder or something that send a tell and say "invite".  I try to be nice. It takes a lot of willpower to not say "Hey you idiot. I clearly said I wasn't inviting because I'm level 26 and you are obtuse enough to completely miss that." 

Intellectually, I realize that I could also be the player that reads the announcement and misses the details. Sometimes, there's a ton of chatter and I only see it for a second. And I don't want to miss out, so I go off what I think I read. So, I don't say these mean things. I just think them until I remind myself we're all human. 

[tidge]

W.r.t. announcing "I see ___ in the wild". I get why folks might do it (excitement! rewards?) but I no longer bother unless I explicitly feel like fighting the Giant Monster and I feel like (or require) teaming (so the announcement includes a "want to team?" component. The GMs are on a regular cycle, and as long as the extras are cleaned up (for those that require it) the GMs will respawn.

 

I used to be a LOT more "inviting" about Giant Monster fights... but between players not willing to stick around to cleanup (seriously, the Grim Vale fight couldn't make it more obvious that it *isn't* over) and players asking for 5+ minutes to "get there" and then showing up with a character that can't meaningfully help I now just shrug and take out the monster myself (on a GM hunter) or let it be. It's no big deal if my new PUGforce can't defeat the GM, but it is a little weird to recruit a team and then have to drop to get a different character because the PUG ends up as no match for the GM.

 

WARNING: what comes next is pure AITA fodder! Spoilers: I'm ok with "yes" being the answer.

 

The "last straws" for me was trivial:  My solo GM-hunting character has a pretty well-established pace for all the GMs, and I'm comfortable "dialing back" so that whatever GM takes about 5 minutes... which is about as long as I'll wait for someone to zone in... I realize we all get caught in certain missions, but 5 minutes doesn't seem too short for me to get to wherever. Anyway, I had a couple of consecutive GM fights where I'd announced, dragged out the fight for as long as possible (~8 minutes) for someone who said they were coming, and when that character and I finished off the GM, someone else zoned in and started publicly berating us for "not waiting". I guess teh answer to AITA was "yes"?

 

Another AITA GM circumstance... I'm in a mission and see someone announce that they want to stop the Grim Vale fight. I make a note to fly by after I finish themission I just started... after finishing I decide to check out the Grim Vale (>10 minutes later, I keep timestamps active on my characters, I didn't see the "normal activity resumed" so I assumed the vale needed cleanup) and the fight is still going, with no one engaging the monsters. I ask what is happening and I'm told "we are waiting for ____" so I announce "I'm going to soften them up, can they get here in 5 minutes?" and I'm called every nasty name in the book for being selfish about XP (of all things). Big secret: the XP for clearing up a couple of straggler bosses is going to be greater than the XP from the two monsters that have been pummeling each other. After I start softening, the two "waiters" drop their Lores and call me the bad guy. Like I noted: I'm pretty good at pacing GM defeats, especially without someone else's Lores in play. The vale fight is probably one of the least important fights to use Lores, so I get the feeling that this was just two incompatible approaches to GMs. I don't think the other player was an a-hole, but I think they have a very narrow view of how a 2-hour cycle GM fight can go.

[srmalloy]

4 hours ago, alabaster said:

Why even take the time and effort to get a L4 to the Ada battle anyways? 

I've taken low-level characters out there to get the badge and merits as a one-time boost, trading the merits for convertors to sell, but beyond that, I'll generally wait until the character can survive touring the rest of the zone for the exploration badges and plaques, which usually means at least 25.