Is LFR ruining the raid experience?

[Heathy]

the whole grouping aspect took a bit of a nose dive after the removal of the lfg chat, and global, i think the communities were more engaged when they had to make groups from scratch by spamming in chats, I feel that part of the classic experience is completely lost now, no doubt the ability to press a button and insta-group is an awesome step from the never ending waits you would of had but, there is an aspect of the game that has devolved with the lost of social interaction to milk the fun out of the game. Maybe its just that there was a bit of effort involved in actually getting ppl together and now that is no longer the case the joy you receive from it is fruitless because there wasn't any effort in getting it.

[Elysara]

People need to stop thinking LFR is real raiding is the problem. If you want to work hard with people to down a boss and get that 'epic' feeling? Join a damn raiding guild. I know LFR is often in poor taste referred too as "Looking for Retards" but in a sense..it is true. You have people there who have no idea what they are doing or doing little to nothing at all. Wether it be tanks,heals or DPS, Someone in that 25 man looking for dungeon is slacking and they get rewarded with the most loot. Sad but true.

LFR is not real raiding, I am in a raiding guild and raiding is much more fun and rewarding when I do it with my guild. LFR for me is just another opportunity to gear up.

[ecthrund]

LFR is one of the prime reasons I am still subbed. Due to RL reasons, I can't commit to raiding atm, but LFR means that I still get to see the bosses, have something interesting to do every week and also gear up, even if a bit slowly. I am pretty sure that LFR is one of the things that has kept subs in good health.

[Granyala]

Is LFR ruining the raid experience?

LFR is not raiding by any stretch of the term.

LFR = 25 chars beating a target dummy until epic/Gold window pops up.

Sorry but I honestly don't think you can even compare the two, feeling wise, so: no. LFR did not ruin raiding since barely has anything to do with raiding.

[Radoria]

Nah I don't agree with any of this. I admit it's kinda lame that you get to faceroll all the content but that's what you get for playing LFR. The only thing that's ruining the game for me right now is I now have 2 alts who can't get into the last few raids because I refuse to do the dailies I've already done 100 times on my goddamn alts.

[Socialhealer]

i always cleared all raids on normal before it even opens on LFR, so no its not ruining the experience.

and the real fight for a lot of end bosses is on heroic (lich king, rag) totally new encounter with unseen phases.

[Squirl]

LFR is not raiding. LFR is a magic bus tour of some pretty target dummys that look like raid bosses and drop epix like raid bosses when you hit them enough. They are definitely not raid bosses, though.

If you're just raiding for some pretty graphics that you do some work to see, LFR may ruin it for you. I feel bad for you if this is all you want out of raiding, though. If raiding is overcoming a challenge as a team, LFR is so easy that it's not even considered raiding.

Luckily my guild is clearing normals the first week, so the whole "see it" thing is a non-issue. I'm really just running LFR for sigils and alts. The heroics have been fantastic this expansion.

[Fitzgerald77]

Oh look.... It's this thread again!! >_>

[Deleted]

You can literally que for LFR, start autoattacking the boss and go have a smoke or quick dinner. If you get lucky enough you have a new piece of gear when you return. (I tried and they didn't even notice i was just standing still 20ft away from the boss, nobody kicked me either)

the only good use for LFR i see atm the moment is that you can use it to actually see and feel the raid when learning. Like i put a tactics guide on one screen and lfr on another. by the time i actually see the real "normal" boss you know what he does, when he does it, where he does it and how it looks (together with DBM warnings and the like)

It's a good tool to feel the raid, but that's what normal mode and guilds where for, right ?

[Ashrr]

I don't mind LFR but it really isn't optional for many players raiding at the heroic level. I'm a healer and if it weren't for LFR, I'd probably be running around with a blue weapon for a long time as I'm the lowest on gear priority.

[ZakAtack]

If LFR is spoiling the experience of seeing the raid for the first time, DON'T DO IT. Simple as that.

Problem with this is that you're now expected to have a higher gear level to get into a competitive normal raid group, through padding your ilvl with LFR drops.

[SamR]

Problem with this is that you're now expected to have a higher gear level to get into a competitive normal raid group, through padding your ilvl with LFR drops.

Same argument with vids. Nowadays it's hard to avoid them because many groups require you to research the fight before attempting instead of learning on the fly.

It's interesting how closely boss vids and LFR match up.

[KCguy]

LFR is one of the prime reasons I am still subbed. Due to RL reasons, I can't commit to raiding atm, but LFR means that I still get to see the bosses, have something interesting to do every week and also gear up, even if a bit slowly. I am pretty sure that LFR is one of the things that has kept subs in good health.

And this is the exact reason why Blizzard implemented LFR. To give people a chance who can't raid, a chance to. It was a brilliant move by them. If you don't want to do it, DON'T. It's not mandatory. Is that so hard for some of you to grasp? Stop trying to make it so complex. It's very simple.

[PrairieChicken]

Kind of annoyed because I am kind of forced to go early in the tier because of the gear

I never go to LFR once I have certain amount of gear

[ZakAtack]

Same argument with vids. Nowadays it's hard to avoid them because many groups require you to research the fight before attempting instead of learning on the fly.

It's interesting how closely boss vids and LFR match up.

Eh, I think vids are more useful and then doesn't ruin the experience of performing the fight yourself, which I think was one of the original topics the OP mentioned. A vid you can skip through quickly to learn the fight, which I appreciate guildies doing because it cuts down on the time it takes to learn and down a boss. On the other hand, LFR might make raiders overconfident or complacent. "Oh, this boss, I can just afk and autoattack." Not the mentality you'd like in a raider.

On another note, I tried a new reforge set for my lock today and figured I'd test run it in the first half of MV LFR. I decided I might as well flask/food too just to compare better to my usual numbers. Long story short, I was second on threat when the first tank got banished on Gara'jal. LFR might be faceroll but not so much that I could tank Gara'jal lol.

[eschatological]

The epic feeling of raiding comes from bashing your head for so long against something and then finally killing it, getting to the next step. As someone who kills heroic bosses before nerfs, I don't get an epic feeling from killing it on LFR. Before I've ever stepped into LFR I've killed it on normal, and I don't consider that really "killing it" because it doesn't require a struggle. The struggle is what it's all about.

For some people who use LFR, they struggle in LFR, even when heroic raiders like me farming sigils of wisdom are carrying the bulk of the "responsibility" that exists in LFR (hell, I single kited Garalon this week and was still top damage, by a lot, because they cap pungency at 20 stacks, lol). For them, it's more of an individual struggle, to avoid mechanics, do good DPS, etc. And that can be epic enough for them - if it isn't, that's the hunger that pushes them to normal modes and then heroic modes.

[ZakAtack]

The epic feeling of raiding comes from bashing your head for so long against something and then finally killing it, getting to the next step. As someone who kills heroic bosses before nerfs, I don't get an epic feeling from killing it on LFR. Before I've ever stepped into LFR I've killed it on normal, and I don't consider that really "killing it" because it doesn't require a struggle. The struggle is what it's all about.

For some people who use LFR, they struggle in LFR, even when heroic raiders like me farming sigils of wisdom are carrying the bulk of the "responsibility" that exists in LFR (hell, I single kited Garalon this week and was still top damage, by a lot, because they cap pungency at 20 stacks, lol). For them, it's more of an individual struggle, to avoid mechanics, do good DPS, etc. And that can be epic enough for them - if it isn't, that's the hunger that pushes them to normal modes and then heroic modes.

Agreed, LFR could be some players endgame content. If they put in effort and avoid stuff and do good dps and feel accomplished, then good for them. But what about those who stand there, don't avoid anything, mash one button and do terrible dps, and are still rewarded? I never felt I was really carrying anyone until I started running LFR. Not saying I'm carrying alone, but I think you get what I mean.

[Sabsy]

It ended for me when toggled hardmodes were introduced in ToC. I love the Ulduar style hardmodes but despise the UI option to make monsters hit harder and drop shinier purples.

this

it was much more interesting to kill bosses in a different order or do the boss completely differently or ignore certain things to activate hard modes... rather than just switching it to heroic

as for LFR... i don't really mind it but i think having it AND nerfing the hell out of normal/heroic modes is a bit over kill... they want everyone to see content... okay... but why must they nerf normal/heroic modes to the point where they're so dull and boring??

[SamR]

Eh, I think vids are more useful and then doesn't ruin the experience of performing the fight yourself, which I think was one of the original topics the OP mentioned. A vid you can skip through quickly to learn the fight, which I appreciate guildies doing because it cuts down on the time it takes to learn and down a boss. On the other hand, LFR might make raiders overconfident or complacent. "Oh, this boss, I can just afk and autoattack." Not the mentality you'd like in a raider.

But doing LFR doesn't give you the experience of doing the fight since so many mechanics are nerfed/removed. How does doing LFR Stone Guards ruin the experience of doing the fight? The LFR version is just a big AoE fest with pretty much no mechanics.

LFR ruins the fight only in that you can see it. Which also happens with vids of heroic kills. But with the heroic vid, you actually see the whole fight instead of the nerfed LFR version.

BTW, there have always been bad raiders who can't do the mechanics. Back in my day, we took them on some trial runs, saw that they were incompetent, then dropped them. It's even easier now because you can take them into a LFR, log it, see that they suck and have no clue about mechanics, and drop them. That way you don't even have to bring them into a real raid.

[Spotnick]

I didn't care much in Dragon Soul because we killed Deathwing before LFR was released. But this tier, killing the end bosses and not getting any achievement toast screen was kind of anti-climatic.

But then again, in WOTLK you had the same thing if you went to do 10 man while you were a 25 man raider.