Divine Might II - Static Alliance

Hello fellow Cerbs,

So I've been putting together these weekend DM II runs for about a month now I think, and overall it's been successful. It's been great seeing the same folks participate (many of which have helped out every time since we started), and usually there's at least 1 new person that joins, but a problematic issue has finally reared its ugly head.

I've completely disregarded the notion of locking items up to this point. I mean trust me, as an event organizer, I'd love to lock Venabulum for myself and call it a day. But in a PUG dynamic, that's not really a fair option to everyone, imo.

Handling drops fairly amongst a large group of people has always been a unique experience since before the dawn of time. Everyone knows that it can take a long time to see the items drop that they need, especially if there's competition. But here's the problem that's been expressed to me:

The issue:

Players A, B, C and D have been participating in every event so far. For this example, they are all interested in the same (rare item), but either it hasn't dropped yet, or they have lost the lot on it.

Player E randomly joins for the first time with no prior participation. (rare item) drops and Player E lots and wins the item. Since Player E only needed that (rare item) and nothing else, he no longer has an interest in doing more DM II runs, and subsequently no longer responds to DM II shouts (which is fine).

Players A-D begin to feel dejected, and as such, the disgruntled tells start arriving after the event is over.

The solution:

Remember back in the days of HNMLS's? Most of us were either in a point-based or seniority/activity-based linkshell. Depending on the circumstances and particulars, you knew where you stood on getting your Ridill or Dalmatica - it was only a matter of time before you were next in line.

A possible solution to this is forming an exclusive static alliance with well-geared/skilled players who can participate and contribute in each planned run. It wouldn't be dissimilar to a scheduled linkshell event where the sole purpose is to work on getting everyone in the group the item(s) they want.

NOTE: To clarify, we would still be doing the 1 item /seacom and FL everything else rule; however, this would apply to the same group of people each time. This means that you would eventually get the item you want instead of your odds being completely random and luck-based.

Additionally, if it becomes difficult to find 18 players to commit to a DM II static, I may look at forming a 12-man group and just condense everything down to a workable setup. I have a pretty good-sized pool of players to draw upon, but not all of them will be interested in making a commitment to a static.

That being said, I'll only be interested in partnering up with like-minded folks who can reliably commit an hour of their time to the planned DM II runs. I also have many folks who are very much interested in doing runs during the week as well (which for me would be in the early evenings).

For now, I'll continue to schedule DM II runs around the same time - 1:00PM-ish Central Standard Time on Saturdays, Sundays or both. And the runs scheduled for this weekend will go on like normal. I'll probably take a week to sort out the static details and see who is interested.

18-man Static Setup:

Party#1 PLDx2 WHMx2 THF BRD
Party#2 RNGx3 DD(RNG or ???) BRD COR
Party#3 RNGx3 DD(RNG or ???) BRD COR

12-man Static Setup:

Party#1 PLDx2 WHMx2 THF BRD
Party#2 RNGx3 DD(RNG or ???) BRD COR

Thanks for reading through another one of my DM II wall-of-texts!

You want your run to fall apart do this, you want it to flourish keep it free lot.

Also don't have a normal dd in the rng pt unless you got a whm in those parties to heal them.

Best setup would be a dd party on its own, like 3 mnk/nin whm brd cor then a rng pt on its own never combine the two.

I don't understand what you mean by this. It's pretty common to have a 1 seacom rule. The only difference is some groups handle what is and isn't free lot in their own way. In our case, anything not in /seacoms is free lot.

And I also don't see how gearing up the same group of players is any different than WW doing DM II on Mondays and Thursdays for your LS. You're gearing up the same group of people.

I think what he means is that this system won't really work well. New players would be reluctant to join because there's bound to be a massive queue for popular items (like rng body). Your old members would get all the first dips and once they're done with DM they won't really come back (maybe they will, but i'm pretty certain not 100% of them, and maybe even not 50%)

The new players wouldn't really fancy wasting 30 merits each run to know that there's at least 4 runs (say if there's 4 people before them) - i.e. 120 merits down the drain before it's their turn, the old players won't be interested in farming 30 merits every week just to "help out". There's also no guarantee that you wont give up hosting this event on a weekly basis after you got what you want from it. (I've seen many many legion run leaders just stopped after getting their hands on a duplus grip, and i don't blame them - getting 18 decent people together at the same time is not easy)

I don't really see the problem with the current system. Everyone has to give in 30 merits to enter afterall, if there's on average 4 people on your item, you have 25% chance of winning it everytime it drops, so you are likely to win it after 4 runs (provided competition level stayed the same), of course it's dependant on luck, but you will win the lot eventually.

This works in a ls basis because they are ls events, you want to keep your contributions up so that for the next event you're interested in your record is good to be one of the first in line for the new gear. Not so much on a single exclusive event that has no tie ins.

I mean, you set it as a static, you'll constantly be refilling ppl for the static as ppl rotate in and out, it will basically be the same as you're doing now

try to lock items you won't get any new ppl interested as old ppl leave and it'll will fall apart

you can never compare a ls event to a random run as the goal and mindset is always different, we're gearing up jobs to play together for stuff outside of DM. The retention is much higher in a ls run.

don't stop what you're doing, we need more random runs on the server.

if you want your efforts rewarded as it does take time to keep the runs going and get ppl, check gear etc.. call a crafting item or something for yourself to guarantee a reward to yourself for your time spent. You wont lose ppl over a crafting item, if you do they arn't worth taking in the 1st place.

Aha, I see what you mean now. I think I may have given the impression that I'd be implementing a point or seniority system, which isn't the case at all - just to clarify. Everyone would still set their own /seacoms for whatever they want whether they're new or not. It would just be the same people playing together each run. But I also see Midgitis' perspective too.


I also see what you're saying. I know linkshell dynamics are different because you are gearing your members for other events as well. But on the flip side, you will continue to do DM II on Monday's and Thursday's correct? You guys have scheduled 2 days a week for that venue because you have determined you have many members who need items from DM II, at least for the foreseeable future.

What I was suggesting isn't really that different. While I'm not necessarily doing these runs so I can play with these folks in other events, the mindset of working together with the same group of people to achieve item goals is the same, I feel. Sure someone only after 1 item from DM II wouldn't be interested in doing more runs each weekend just to help out, but if folks approached me to join because they're needing many items from DM II, then it would stand to reason I would retain them for a while.

I appreciate the insight though from you guys. This may or may not even pan out, but at first glance, this seems like a good idea if people are interested in it.

Now that there's plenty of interest in it, I'm definitely going to continue doing them. I don't see any other way people can get gear from DM II unless someone does.

yea i agree that you should keep doing your runs the same way you have been doing. It might suck sometimes that people might get their item and stop coming, but if you continue to build your reputation as someone who can successfully organize PUG runs, then you will continue to get more people who want to join your group runs.

Also use the difficulty level as your basis on how many people show up. If you get 8 do easy, if 12 do normal, if 18 do difficult and so on.

Really it is done twice a week cuz it's what's popular right now. When new Delve comes out tuesday that's probably what we will be doing twice a week. Getting people to merit is harder than organizing the run.

I honestly hadn't even considered doing DM II with less than 18 people before, but I guess it never occurred to me that you can low-man DM II (with the right group).

Last weekend, we timed out on the very last AA (Hume) at around 60%-ish HP I think it was, on difficult mode. I still considered the run successful, but this weekend I'd like to try the strategy that most other linkshells are using for better time efficiency.

we timed out the other day at 1% on hume cuz we were slacking, but we still considered it a job well done since we got nice drops.

This ^^

if only someone was paying closer attention to time rather than chatting on vent.. slackers

The problem remains, people who got gear will ditch, your static will shrink in size, then you'll have to get new people, if you keep the /seacom lotting system then the older members will still moan about people ditching and and new comers coming and lotting gear while they've been around for weeks and got nothing. (unless you take like a 30M collateral from all your members who got gear which you won't give back until they do at least 3 more runs after they got what they want.. LOL)

Not to mention getting a static together like this means you have very low control of quality of your members (unless you go with an extensive gear check and trial them on a run), you'd have the heart to tell them they suck and come back when they do better at their job, or you might come out with a half baked static alliance who struggles to clear difficult mode, which should be what you're aiming for if you want decent drop rate.

Static only works well if people are committed and they are good quality players, and people are only committed either in a ls/tight knitted group situation or they want some drops out of it, the latter will jet off as soon as they got what they wanted.

Hey!! that's my line lol

Hey, I like that 30M loan idea! :D

But yeah, jokes aside, it's a tough spot to be in when people gripe to me after the event about how they're leaving empty-handed once again. I mean heck.. I think I'm 0/40-something on Venabulum lol, but I still have less competition for that than the Rangers do for Kyujutsugi.

But it is what it is, if 8 Ranger's all /seacom that body, then each of them have a 12% chance of winning the lot, providing it drops in the first place. My original idea with all of this was to try and increase people's chances of getting what they want (including myself), but perhaps things are fine just the way they are.

I've lost count how many AA TTs (on VD mode with a thf too) I've done and i've only ever seen it dropped twice... luckily I have a static and Rizla/Cobb were kind enough to let me have it because I main mage.. @_@;

Def. hats off to you for keep organising it~ I'm sure it will drop for you eventually!

Oh I didn't know you have it. Grats! :) Yeah I hope to get it soon. I'd rather put something else from DM II in my seacom - like Gelai earring for my BST.

if ppl want gear tell them to join an ls, whirlingwind.guildwork.com

if they can't get in cause they're bad, ***, lazy etc.. or don't apply to join linkshells doing current content they don't have the right to complain about not getting gear from random runs, tell them to *** off

It's bad I agree with Midgitis to a degree, i leveled a pretty decently geared WHM easily enough with Minimal effort. DD's would be a little harder, but Eminent Bow and AF reforged gears are not too hard to obtain

lol There aren't many event shells around anymore, and not everyone lives in the right timezone.

Unlike Conagh I value my sleep. lol

What is this thing you talk of "sleep", can I eat it?

Hi Avalon,
I have been doing weekend run too on ragnarok.

I would shout on weekday for member. But thing alway dun turn out too well on the actual day. People either not logged on or no merit and i had to shout for an hour or so for the remaining job. This is some serious frustration ***and everytime i dun win the lot for rng body.

And when i locked the rng body, i got condemned. People dun appreciate the effort you go thru putting thing together and leading the run.

Last week i decided to invite the regular to form a lowman static because in a pug, 1. people got their item on first run never come back and 2. Regulars who got nothing cos AA are too stingy with drops. I even have the idea to sell drop and split the gil among the group to keep the static going.

This morning we just did 2 normal runs. Most regular turn up except for 1 smn 1 rng and 1 whm. Replacements were found quickly and was definitely more efficient and time saving than pug. And i dun even have to go thru battle plan again.
As for selling drop, most regular still want lot of drop so i put away the idea. But i forseen that to keep the run going, selling drop is a viable option.

As for lowman setup, 12 is possible. I had 4 relics rng and one eminient bow rng, buffing them with brd and swap in cor roll. The 13th member was a thf. The other pty was pld pld whm whm smn brd

I have also did a 11 man alliance with 5 rng and 1 cor. Tank pty was pld pld whm whm brd

The problem with DM II is the pluton market and AD mats have gone down significantly in price. In addition some of the weapons will probably be outdated.

If people desired weapons, they should form a 6-man static and do VD AA's.

If the goal is to attain DM items such as earrings, body, divinator, seraphcaller, then you can go with less people on a less difficult setting. The market for these items are very low. Distribution of gil is also difficult when you have pick-ups.

I personally like splitting sellables evenly including your personal pools. Everyone goes happy at the end of the day.

If you want gear drops I would not suggest doing anything lower than normal. If you want craft mats you can stick to easy. I used to do easy but you get like one item per run and it's nearly always a regular AA's drop.

Lately I've been doing "normal" 6 man (we're decked out except for pld, and go whmx2 mnkx2 brd pld) and we tend to get one specifc gear per run. For info, If you have an outisde cor to reset SV before entering you clear all 5 AAs or else you'll clear 4 of them. If you add a COR to the previous setup but you are a bunch a gimps you will still clear 3 to 4 AAs NPs. Just play it safe and bring 2 WHms.

I suggest doing EV and GK first as they are the most painful for the pld. PLD supertanks on stairs out of range of TT, mages right on top of stairs to be able cto cure pld and DDs and MNKs inside the corridor.

As an event organizer, it can be easy to feel justified in locking in an item you're really wanting, especially when it takes several hours to get 18 people together (or however many you're taking at the time). I also could ensure that I invite people who aren't interested in the item I'm wanting, but I don't do that, nor do I lock items. I just feel it's better if it's fair play for everyone participating no matter how frustrating it might be.

I'd rather not be that player who gets his Vena-freaking-bulum, and then stops organizing DM II runs because I know my efforts are gearing up a lot of people. I think within a months time 5-6 RNG's have gotten their Kyu's, 1-2 SMN's have obtained their Seraphicaller, and so on.


It was suggested to me to start selling items from my DM II runs, but unless I put together a small group outside of my usual weekend runs specifically for selling, I can't see doing that. Too many people (including myself) need items from DM II.


You do 6-man Normal mode? :o