OK, as some of you may know, I just started playing Rift on a fairly casual basis.
WoW was my first MMO, and I played it for over 5 years on a fairly demanding schedule. I was raid leading for my guild 2-3 days a week and regularly organising PuGs with a close friend, there have been many times where I have raided 5 or 6 nights a week. As time went by my attitude, dedication and time investment became more and more casual, perhaps thanks to the reduced difficulty of raids in the latter part of Cataclysm.
My attitude towards gaming has changed considerably due to real life commitments, so Rift can and will only ever be a casual venture for me.
So far I've seen a LOT of things I like in Rift, especially the wide range of group activities which seem to provide almost instant gratification. As I get deeper into the game however, even at level 25, wait times are starting to increase slightly. I completely appreciate that this is due to the release of the new expansion and that people are focusing on fresh, high-end content, this is not my issue and perfectly understandable.
It has however lead to concerns about potential raiding in Rift. From reading articles and opinions of former WoW players, I'm lead to believe that the level of difficulty is best compared to that of TBC raids, which from what I remember had a considerably reduced PuG community when compared to Wrath or Cata. I remember anonymous PuGs were a lot harder to get into back then, especially on a fresh character, mostly due to specific class/talent/role/gear requirements (...which granted, dual specs and homogenisation made less of an issue).
Naturally, as a raider who intends to play this game on a casual level, I'm a little worried that PuGs might be tricky to get into as a total noob. Even once I have experience, is it really a realistic concept to raid in Rift as a strictly casual player or am I screwed without a regular guild/raid-group??
Any input is appreciated*
*...well, almost any, please don't turn this into a WoW raiding vs. Rift raiding thread, I have no interest in playing WoW any more for reasons I'm not willing to discuss outside the appropriate threads! Cheers guys!