Quote Originally Posted by Zenako View Post
For sure. however noobs today have access to a number of things noobs of yesteryear lacked, like the Korthos Isle to hit twinkage, many new Enhancements, and clearly some new gear that has shown up, not to mention changes in game mechanics.

I recall having my Weapon Finesse guy even take the Precision Feat (for another +4 to hit) to make it so I could fairly reliably land my Destruction attacks to drop those blackguards AC by 4 points so most full BAB melees had a reasonable chance to hit more than miss. And some fighters speced in Sunder to drop AC as well in there. Almost no other quest had those kind of demands back then. It was THE quest, and still is one of the most fun quests to undertake with a group.

You can probably tell the mettle of the group 98% of the time by how well they do in the Fire/Ice encounter. If that goes well, then you are likely to have a more or less smooth time. If it goes poorly, then the nature of the players in the group will almost certainly show.
I use TS as a reality check for new players on their first raid. Bad builds are the norm in a PuG. Sometimes I'll attract a bunch of vets because of my {in}famous LFM, sometimes my guild goads me into one. But mostly it's 11 strangers from 11 guilds (or no guild) who have no clue how much a raid is different or even how a party is run.

I learned very quickly to move effienct, carry EVERYTHING in a emeragncy and take deep breaths. I can say for certain that I have carryed about 1/3 of the Thelanis Vets through their first TS, and about 1/4 of the new players (post SEP09)

SOme laugh at me, some grief me, but mostly I get a thank you. For that, it's worth it.


And Yes, Fire/Ice is my testing grounds for group coordination. Then I adjust myself to fit the party needs. As long as I have a couple of DPS champs, itwill be ok.