How "mandatory" is LFR?

[neghinitza]

Its cool to hate on LFR and you wanna be cool. I would like to hear why you want to avoid LFR.

IMO if you get upgrades from there you should do it. For weapons and trinkets at least. Its not that bad the first few days after reset.
Even if it seems you are doing fine with lower gear that just means you could do more with better gear and the run would be done faster. Its just like those ppl running w/o gems, enchants cause they can get better upgrades and its not worth doing it for the current gear.

[JakeSteel]

Its cool to hate on LFR and you wanna be cool. I would like to hear why you want to avoid LFR.

IMO if you get upgrades from there you should do it. For weapons and trinkets at least. Its not that bad the first few days after reset.
Even if it seems you are doing fine with lower gear that just means you could do more with better gear and the run would be done faster. Its just like those ppl running w/o gems, enchants cause they can get better upgrades and its not worth doing it for the current gear.

Looking back at my previous posts in this thread, I don't see at any point that I was hating on LFR. I even said in my initial post that I don't, and I understand that it's beneficial to some people. For that matter, I also never said I refuse to use it, as some people have begun to assume.

If it wasn't clear, what I meant to say is that I'd like to avoid it if I can. In other words, if there's no alternative to using LFR, then I'll buckle down and use it. I'll probably use it in order to experience outdated content as well as when my friends invite me along.

My reason for wanting to find ways around using it is the same reason some people play as a Priest who only uses the Shadow spec, or someone who plays hybrids but only wants to DPS - it's a game play choice. For me, what's great about raiding is the experience; the idea of having to coordinate with others in order to complete challenging goals. Gear acquisition comes second to me, as I see the gear more as a reward then a goal. I understand that I'm probably in the minority on that and most people want you to be at a certain gear level before they accept you, and I'm okay with that. As I've stated in previous posts, I'm okay with going the long way to prepare for raids.

Another reason I'd rather not stick to LFR is because I don't like the idea of preparing for a raid by completing that raid. As I understand it, LFR breaks down raids into essentially tougher dungeons. Granted I don't know for certain as I've never played it myself, but from what personal friends have told me it requires little effort to clear them. From my past experiences in raiding (WotLK, I don't know how much raiding has changed since then) normal mode just feels like my cup of tea; it's a way to experience the content of raids while not breezing through them.

And I don't understand how not using LFR is considered lazy when I'm willing to acquire the gear through other means.

[Itisamuh]

Not at all.

[clevin]

The point isn't that you're lazy for acquiring the gear other ways, it's that it will be hard to get as much gear of as high an ilevel as quickly as if you just do LFR, i.e. in a given timeframe you'll be less geared than you would if you did LFR. With LFR it might take you 3 weeks to get to 530. Without it, it might take you 4 5, 6 or more. Whether that's important to you is something you have to decide.

LFR gear is 528 and can be upgraded with VP to 532. Let's look at other options:

1)Timeless. 496, though you can use a Burden of eternity to get a 535 instead. Sometimes the 535 will have good stats, sometimes... not. Burdens are fairly rare. In almost 2 months I got 4 of them.

ToT normal (ToT being the previous tier): 522 gear, upgradable to 528. This isn't a bad source of gear, but you'll need to a) find a group, b) have useful stuff drop and c) win it.

World bosses (Celestials on the Timeless Isle): 553. You have a chance at T16 normal gear. Certainly worth doing, but note that you only get loot from ONE boss per week.

Crafted armor: 553. If you have tens of thousands of gold this is viable but on most servers this gear is very pricey and beyond the reach of most players aside from 1-2 pieces (if that).


It all depends on when you want to start raiding and how your friends feel. In a raid where you're expected to carry your weight you'll need 530+ ilevel unless most of the rest of the raid has been slacking. You'll simply get there faster if you do LFR a couple of times (remember, LFR loot is personal (not drops that are handed out) and I've seen people get 4 pieces in one LFR clear).

I understand your reasoning, but the same could be said for never wanting to do the raid again once you've cleared it on normal - you've seen everything, why do it again? Yes, you'll see all of the fights in LFR. Yes, that will mean you don't get to see them for the very first time in normal mode raid. But it also means you'll be more powerful and know the mechanics, thus being more useful to the raid.

- - - Updated - - -

BTW, I'm giving feedback as if you were someone in my guild. Obviously, something to consider is how your friends view this. After all, in a raid, you'll be rolling on loot that others could use and that might be an upgrade for you *because* you didn't do LFR. But if your friends are heroic raiders running normal for fun, that's different as it is if they're all fairly undergeared (510) too.

[neghinitza]

LFR is part of the intended gear progression. Maybe post an armory link and you could get better input on what you could do to improve your gear. You cant get good weapons unless you do LFR (except if you can use the crafted bs ones but they are still 502 and still cost quite a bit). Some trinkets from LFR really make a difference for some classes. Like first boss caster trinket blows everything else out of the water unless you have some HC ToT trinkets.

If I were to ding an alt to lvl 90 the gearing would be like this. TI gear, Ordos/Celestials, grab some cheap BoEs/PvP gear to get your ilvl to 480 and run ToT LFR then SoO LFR. Then you can probably get high enough to get into a flex run. Then normal SoO if possible. The fact that you put the effort to do all you can makes you look better in the eyes of the other raiders even if you are carried. You can skip certain parts like the crafted BoEs cause they cost to much, but LFR is the easy part and shouldn't be skipped. Its easier to accept a lesser geared person cause he was unlucky with drops than someone who skipped that part.

If you don't like the idea of preparing for the raid by completing it how do you prepare. I mean if someone would like to join our normal alt run and came up saying I've watched movies, read the tactics, but never stepped in to the instance I would have a hard time accepting him/her in our raid.

The situation seems unclear to me. What is the gear level/progression of the friends you wanna play with. What is their opinion on your gear atm. This is what matters in the end. If they suggested you should do LFR then probably you should.

[Twoflower]

I understand that the catch up game is difficult now

Catching up has never been easier.

You can be raid ready within a week, just do all LFR raids, hit the timeless isle, do heroics for badge gear. You will catch up in no time.

[neghinitza]

Gear is easy to get what is going to hold you back is the legendary quest, the reason I don't want to play my alts anymore.

[zzmasta]

Does LFR link across servers?

[Temp name]

The last time I did LFR was during ToT for the legendary parts as my guild didn't bother clearing most of the place (We were progressing on Lei Shen heroic). Gear in LFR is a minor upgrade to last tiers normal loot, so if you have that, well, don't bother (Unless there's stupidly OP trinkets). If you're just starting, I'll sadly have to say you're going to have to use it to get caught up. If your guild is doing Flex runs, it would probably be beneficial to do those as well, simply for the extra gear.

[Unproven]

with friends? just get full timeless.
do flex. get gear. win the game.
as others have said. get into a normal ToT for weps / trinkets.

LFR is no way mandatory. and its a hell hole you should avoid at all cost unless you use the "if you cant beat em, join em" aproach meaning you join LFR and watch a movie. not caring it takes 10x aslong to clear a LFR 1-4 wing as it does clearling it normal.

[Deleted]

LFR isn't really mandatory but it helps a lot when trying to catch up to current tier.

[Coldkil]

Flex isn't mandatory, but it's a great way to get good gear. It basically turns down to this - do you want to pass a chance at gear?

[RuneeBH]

LFR I see only useful for huge upgrades that you need, or gamebreaking trinkets.

[Thetruth1400]

LFR isn't really that necessary, but most guilds make players use it. It lets you get those extra pieces of gear that you're not having luck getting in the normal raid and the ilvl is better than what you'll find in the world in general.

Another reason people claim it's necessary is because of the pace content is coming out. The lifespan of the content isn't what it used to be and players quickly burn through it now. Since Blizzard decided to churn out more content instead of not making the content trivial, LFR is sometimes the only way players will see full upgrades.

All and all, while LFR isn't a requirement, you will fall slightly behind if you don't use it. Best bet is to suck it up, turn of your chats, and hit it on Tuesday when everyone is in there, not just the leftovers that appear later in the week.

[jimlow]

Far as I know if I even tried to apply to a normal mode guild with 520 gear I would probably get laughed at. So if your trying to go to normal mode guild with 496 TI epics they would probably just put you on ignore.

[Jokerfiend]

In that case something tells me that by the time I've geared up enough to get into normal SoO, the next expansion will be out. Which honestly wouldn't be too much of a problem for me, since I'm coming back for the expansion.

I understand that the catch up game is difficult now with the current patch being the final raid tier of this expansion, but what if we were on the first tier? Would it be more reasonable to gear up with dailies and such?

I just came back after 2 years, excited for the expansion, as well. This might not be for you EXACTLY, just some general information and what I had to find out, on my own.

I'm on my second week, and I'm just "caught" up. I went RIGHT for Timeless after I hit 90, in 3 days. I had 496 in all slots, yes I farmed 20k coins for the Polearm in the first day, by the end of the day. I'm now on the hard part of Wraithion's Quest, A Test of Valor. 3k VALOR points is retarded, at a minimum of 3 weeks to get to the next stage.

Make sure you are doing Dominance Offensive/Shieldwall dailies and Isle of Thunder. As you need them for Wraithion, plus the more dailies the more Valor. I know why people have said, Daillies are necessary. They truly are if you want the Legendary cloak, to farm Timeless Isle. Plus, the sweet mounts behind each faction.

It's all about dailies in MOP, and that is FUBAR.

Though, to just gear catch-up. It will take you roughly 2-3 days, at most, with LFR. The "true" catching up, Exalted with Dominance and Sunreavers. Is a different story, and will take you till the next expansion drops. In all reality, if you are doing stuff other than dailies. Like mount farming, pet battles, and such. Then you don't really care about catching up and more like getting gear to start the next expansion.

I think there needs to be a distinct difference and clarification in that matter. Gear wise, EASY. Grind wise, TERRIBLE.

[Annarion]

Eh, get yourself to 496 and run SoO Lfr a few weeks. It won't be that painful.