“Success Rate” and “Learning Curve”… I can already tell I’m going to get a lot of shit for saying this. When you have a certain group of people in the raid together, you’ll be able to tell right away if that group is going to make it all the way, or not. Some groups might stumble through the raid and take 6 hours to beat it, and some may take 6 hours and several attempts on different days and not beat it. There’s a certain spectrum of gaming skill, personality, and inventory that goes into consideration with all of this. When I arranged teams, I asked myself these questions (as a clan leader and someone forced to use judgement when a big group needed to be divided into parties of 6)… Has this gamer beaten it? Which type of people does this gamer get along with? Does this gamer even have the right weapons on? For my arrangement of teams, I never let success rate and learning curve cross paths. I know when a team will genuinely pass a raid, it’s in their attitude, their wits, and their articulation of in-game meta. I’ve taken low Light Level gamers to both King’s Fall and Wrath of the Machine, and because of their cross-platform gaming experience and gamer sense and practicality, they still passed without much effort or struggle. I’ve taken high Light Level gamers into King’s Fall and Wrath of the Machine and their input into the team was detrimental because of their poor understanding of in-game meta and battle mechanics resulting in failure of completion. To a certain extent, arranging certain people into teams creates good teams, but also sometimes causes a carry. I’m very anti-carry when it comes to a raid, and so far, Wrath of the Machine isn’t a raid that takes kindly to carries. It’s pretty unforgiving when an individual can’t keep up in Wrath, especially during the final boss, Aksis. At times, I have “Learning Curve” teams, which are teams that have a shot of completing the raid, only if they learn and adapt to the other half of the team that knows what they are doing. Sometimes it works, and sometimes the other half of the team feels like it’s a hard carry. The raid is always a challenge, whether it’s the raid itself, or the people put in your raid team, and some unfortunate situations, it’s both. I do what I can as the person who has to arrange teams, if people don’t decide to arrange themselves into teams. So, if you’ve never done the raid and can’t seem to get a head start, try LFG first before asking fellow GODs to join you. I’d rather you ruin your reputation with strangers you may never see again, rather than your fellow clan mates. I started Wrath of the Machine with randoms from LFG, and on top of not passing, they made raiding a very unpleasant experience, but sometimes it takes jumping outside of your comfort zone for just that small amount of time to get your ass into shape and ready to take on the raid the next time. And of course, sometimes you find cool people that stick around for a while (shotout to Echo brothers). I’ve touched on so many topics. For those of you GODs that haven’t gotten to know me, I’ll make my rounds and get to you someday, as long as you stay and are open to it. For the GODs that have met me in-game and don’t like me, it’s cool, enjoy the people you like in GODs. For the people in GODs who like me and don’t get to play with me often, there’s a time and place for everything, so be ready when that time comes. For the ones that play with me often and like me, hiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeee… see you soon mama. For those of you that are not LGBT but want to join GODs, go ahead, I don’t discriminate or hold it against you, in fact, make it to a sub-group and you can wear that tag. For the GODs that also play Smite on PS4, add me, PSN: Palkuka. For the GODs that play League of Legends, add me: FunkyBooty5000. For anyone that feels alone in-game, come to GODs: facebook.com/groups/gaymersofdestiny … For GODs that feel alone even though they are in the clan, go to Facebook and BAND and start posting. For the GODs that feel ignored in BAND and Facebook, KEEP ON posting until someone finds you. For the GODs that don’t feel like they don’t belong in GODs, move on, there are plenty of LGBT clans out there. For the GODs that make GODs my home and favorite place to be, thank you so very much from the bottom of my f*cking heart, I love you guys so much. For anyone reading this, thank you for reading all the way to the end. For the new GODs willing to give this clan an honest shot, welcome to the best gaming family in the Cosmodrome. See you online…