Flex groups getting worse

[Alroxas]

See, that's the rub. I did Flex PUGs in the first month of SoO with people in 520-530 gear and we got through them just fine. But now that so many less-experienced/committed/skilled players have higher item level gear from LFR (536), Celestials (561), Ordos (567), legendary cloak (608) and whatever they might have had their friends help boost them out of flex and normal, the item level requirements for most PUGs have shot through the roof. It's not uncommon to see people demanding 550+ for Flex 3/4 on my server and you basically can't get into a Flex under 530, which is massive overkill for Flex. We started normals at 530 and 550 is over-geared for anything short of Garrosh (which is tuned for 545-550).

Meanwhile, a lot of more experienced players have graduated away from Flex entirely, decreasing the overall competency of the Flex-PUG pool. I have just finished getting my 5th alt Flex-ready, but I doubt I will spend more than 2-3 weeks running Flex on him before moving to normal as he is already 533.

The problem is player skill and knowledge. Yes you could do SoO with lower gear levels, heck that's what those world progression raid guilds do all the time, but consider the skill and knowledge of the player.

When you have players who don't reforge, don't gem, don't enchant and don't know how to maximize their class. You'll need to out gear the content to do similar (or better) damage.

[Deleted]

Sure you can raid heroics with no voice but boss kills will just take far more attempts.

H Blackfuse took you a few hundred attempts with voice? With no voice, double-triple-quadruple that.

[Draenox]

What flex did to LFR, normal has now done to flex with the cross-realm change.

Or you have just been unlucky lately.

[ambermist]

The pool of players for flex is different now. Everyone's already mentioned the fact that less experienced players have now geared to the point of flex while experienced raiders are usually taking a step away from it, but then you also have to think that experienced raiders are probably sticking close to home for flex, even on their alts.

For instance, our guild runs a flex run every week on our alts. We sometimes bring in friends, but the core of the group is raiders who already know the content and are just playing on different characters. Plus, this gives us the control to say, "Okay, this character isn't ready for Garrosh, let me switch to my main," and get through it way easier.

I haven't done a PuG flex since right after the Timeless Isle came out, and I don't see any reason to do one again this tier. If you're running into problems with PuG flexes, I'd suggest utilizing your own raiders (if you have them) or making friends with a raiding guild and coming along to their flex runs. Probably save your sanity in the long run!

[Halicia]

I raided for years and never considered voice com important, if anything i can focus better without having all those ugly voices repeating stuff you already know, voice com might be good for players that dont read up tactics beforehand and dont understand simple sequences, im not one of them.

if you're using voice coms for stuff you should already know, then you aren't doing it right... or you're raiding with people who can't be counted on to remember instructions.

voice coms are for when you are forced to deviate from the established plan due to unforeseen circumstances... which would have otherwise resulted in a wipe and another 5-10 minutes of wasted time.

or for shooting the @!#$ about the latest game of thrones episode.

in my experience, the players unwilling to get into voicechat are the first ones to wipe the raid. not because they 'dont know the fight', but because they aren't attempting to excel.

[Candescently]

I feel voice comm is generally more sociable and organized, and feels less LFRish. A lot of groups have me do the raid calls, even if I'm not leading. I'm good at the timing for it, and a lot of groups do seem to prefer it/listen better to me because I'm female. Particularly for things like MC's on Garrosh, a lot of groups seem to work better with a vocal reminder. Also, it makes it easier to send up a replacement to cover belts if the belt person died, or something else comes up mid-fight. Even if someone "knows the fight" and has done it before, different groups have different strategies/positioning, especially for Garrosh. It is easier to just say it on vent or mumble than to have to type it out for that one special snowflake who insists he knows what to do, even though he doesn't know whether *this* group is stacking or moving, ignoring weapons or killing them, if ranged is coming to melee or staying out for MCs, or where they are positioning weapons.

[Hildrande]

Did flex this week through openraid, all bosses got roflstomped, iirc there were no wipes.

For me, as healer, it was really depressing. There was zero need for me to be there, and no challenge at any point. As meaningful as 5-man is nowadays.

Pugs full of clueless people that really rely on me to get progress is much more interesting.

[Kitakawa]

I guess that's just your bad luck

[Xeerah]

The only problem from my point of view is: lfm flex 1 ilvl 550+

lol why should i go flex 1 with 550? better go normal then ;-)

[kamuimac]

The only problem from my point of view is: lfm flex 1 ilvl 550+

lol why should i go flex 1 with 550? better go normal then ;-)

cause all decent normal runs are "lfm 565+"