Is Garrison a preview of how things are in end game?

[cidbahamut]

I did Garrison for the first time last night and it was absolutely hectic. We only had 4 people, so that probably wasn't helping but even so, it felt more fast paced and exciting than any exp party I've been in.

It also felt like it was completely over my head. I was not ready for dealing with so much going on at once and I definitely need more practice with that if I'm going to be a good mage.

So is that level of shit hitting the fan indicative of how crazy things tend to be at end game events?

[ShepardG]

Re: Is Garrison a preview of how things are in end game?

This....could posbbily be the most awesome post ever.


I haven't garrisoned in honestly 2-3 years. But endgame can be pretty hectic. Imagine having 20+ people standing around, and suddenly you see a thief come fleeing into the midst of them. 5 seconds later, 12 mobs, 4 Avatars, and 2 NM Demons come trompsing up. Yeah. It's like that.

After so many years though, alot of events have been played down to a science. Those crazy pulls I mentioned, don't happen as often, and the ones that are unavoidable are usually planned for, and taken into account.

[Vyuru]

Re: Is Garrison a preview of how things are in end game?

You know how you have that last mob left, and you want to kite it so your mages can rest for MP and you guys can survive the next wave, but the NPCs go charging in, kill the mob, and the next wave wipes your group?

Replace NPCs by PCs and you have an endgame event. Some might be shouting "Zerg!" "LEERRROOOYYY!" "MOMMMYYYYY!" but it is roughly the same thing.

While good groups tend to be more organized and run more smoothly than most of the Garrison runs I've been to were, you should go in expecting the amount of chaos that you described.

I've also heard that exping off of the Cureals, or however you spell it, the cats in the Labyrinth of Onzozo can help prepare mages for endgame events.

[Lmnop]

Re: Is Garrison a preview of how things are in end game?

Most endgame activities are dangerous until exact routines are developed. Even Faust (an NM for an NM for an NM) can be quite devastating when you're not prepared. However, most (non-dynamis) activites have very little mass fighting. And we love to mass sleep when we are forced to fight more than one mob anyway. So it's "zomg a 20 slept things!" but we just kill them 1 at a time anyway.

so I don't think it's indicative of endgame as a whole at all.

[Durahansolo]

Re: Is Garrison a preview of how things are in end game?

I've never been to an end game event, but I can tell you that even in Garrison there is drama.

We used to run ls garrisons all the time, and one day it caused one of the biggest fallouts ever since lotting wasn't explained correctly off the bat. When the items dropped a few people dropped lots, even though they were told not to, and everybody did it after that. We straightened it out and moved forward.

Next garrison, Garrison Tunica drops and one of my friends lots on it and gets it. After it dropped to her, the LS leader said that drops would be sold and shared between all the members so everybody gets something. My friend and her bf were pissed since the leader waited until after it dropped to say that. It ended up causing a big arguement between My friend and my LS Leader. They got pissed and left, and we were stuck without a healer and DD for the next run.

I ran a few other runs with another linkshell, and I ended up getting into an arguement with the main sleeper because he was so arrigantly sure that he could sleep kite the mob, and as soon as we'd get to the 2nd or 3rd wave, he'd end up dying causing us to get overran and lose. Us plus all NPCs dead.

Almost every garrison we ran with between 15-18 people, they can either be fun or a huge headache.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Is Garrison a preview of how things are in end game?

Imagine having 20+ people standing around, and suddenly you see a thief come fleeing into the midst of them. 5 seconds later, 12 mobs, 4 Avatars, and 2 NM Demons come trompsing up. Yeah. It's like that.

Jesus...


This wasn't exactly a planned outing. Someone in my LS wanted to do garrison that night and we managed to get a grand total of four people to show up and decided to just run with it. I don't think we even made it to the third wave of orcs.

There was just too much to keep track of, but it was fun so I might go looking for the trigger items and see if I can get them to do another run or two. If nothing else it's a good low level event to help prepare me for dealing with more than one mob at a time(read: learning to fight in something other than an exp party).

[Mog]

Re: Is Garrison a preview of how things are in end game?

I did Garrison for the first time last night and it was absolutely hectic. We only had 4 people, so that probably wasn't helping but even so, it felt more fast paced and exciting than any exp party I've been in.

You think that's crazy? Do a tier 3 einherjar with demons + Dverger boss. Now thaaat's crazy.

So is that level of shit hitting the fan indicative of how crazy things tend to be at end game events?

No, it isn't. While a lot of endgame events can go really bad, this is mostly because the group is not prepared enough for it, inexperienced, or just made dumb mistakes. Endgame requires that everyone plays their best and does their job. All hell can break loose if just one person doesn't play their job right.

For example, if you're a paladin tanking cerberus and you can't blink tank that well, you end up sponging mp, which leaves the whm's mp pool dry, which causes more people to go into the yellow, which ultimately wipes the party.

So if you go with a decent group with people who've done the fights over and over, it's really smooth. If you go with people that have never done endgame before, then it takes more work and research (and possibly attempts) to get the fight down.

[Romyro]

Re: Is Garrison a preview of how things are in end game?

Endgame requires that everyone plays their best and does their job. All hell can break loose if just one person doesn't play their job right.

Couldn’t agree more
It is a good way to tell who knows the mechanics of their job and who doesn’t. And even just the basic mechanics…

If I had a nickel for every time someone accidently got hate and ran away before they could be saved...or when a mob casts a –ga III and instead of running away from the party, the guy stops right in the middle of the alliance...i'd be a ba-jillionare.

First couple runs of anything will always be rocky. But eventually things become a rhythm. It’s those people that never learn from their mistakes that make me pull my hair out…and I like my hair.