The raid lead is supposed to explain the mechanics to players that are not familiar with the content. That's part of their job.
People who "can't be bothered to research strategies" will certainly not develop a new motivation to do so because the strategy guide is "official". And people who "don't want to learn" at all have no business playing endgame content anyways, because learning mechanics and strategies is the core element of beating a game. At some point, just stepping in and pressing buttons is not enough to be successful.

thorwyn wrote: »

The raid lead is supposed to explain the mechanics to players that are not familiar with the content. That's part of their job.

Exactly my point, some people don’t or haven’t got the time to have a job in the game. A lot come to relax and have fun. These trial were designed to be played a certain way by the devs, it would be nice to know the correct way after x amount of time has passed so people can maybe obtain the harder content in the confidence that they are doing it correctly.

Exactly my point, some people don’t or haven’t got the time to have a job in the game.

I'm not getting into another iteration of the "game not a job" and "I'm oh so busy and just want to relax" debate.
A raid lead that does not have the time to get familiar with the raid they are going to lead should not have become a raid lead in the first place. All the information you need is available in various formats. There are written guides out there if you head over to alcasthq for example. What more do you want?

Success in group content is a team effort. What behaviour is tolerated/required and how new players are familiarized with the content is something that every group can decide on its own.
There was this infamous old man in my village, who was so spoiled by his wife, that he wouldn't even pour his own coffee if the coffee pot was standing right in front of him. If a person doesn't want to make a genuine effort to help the group, it won't matter how much material is available online and how easy it is to find it.

An official guide, have you been reading this.

Yes, I have. And like I said, all the informations that such an official guide could possibly contain are already available so there is no point copy/pasting an existing guide and making it "official".

HatchetHaro wrote: »

Trials mechanics are not designed with a set-in-stone strategy in mind. Rather, they implement the mechanics with a vague idea of what it'll do, and then leave it up to the players on how they want to deal with it.

Because let's face it: if they did design for specific strategies in mind, they'd have included better environmental markers to remove the necessity of addons like Elm's Markers on certain fights, like Taleria, Xoryn, and Jynorrah + Skorkhif.

There’s also multiple strategies. HOF for example, you used to do first boss way different than you do now. ZOS would never update these guides to have current strategies and not all strategies are right for all groups.

Developing strategies that work for your group is an inherent part of group content. If you’re in a guild and people don’t know mechanics, start training runs. If they won’t learn mechanics, don’t run with them. If you’re pugging and you want people to know mechanics, require a clear.

There are discord communities for such things.

I have been in a few cores, but they all fell apart for various reasons. However I have a tri and several hm clears via pugs and as a fill. If you know your stuff, you can get it done.

Leading is a different story. Not because there aren't enough knowledgeable players, but because reputation is so important. I could host a tri run, but only inexperienced players would want to join because experienced players don't want to waste two hours progging something they've already done.

In terms of guides, the kind of player who won't follow guides available via google searches will not be helped by a ZOS mechanics guide.

And really, it would be a disservice to the community. Players helping players is what makes end game PVE what it is in any game. We don't need the devs holding our hands all the way through.

We need to fight this mentality a lot of eso players have that everything should be easily accessible to them in particular regardless of their interests, aptitude and lifestyle choices. 99.999% of the game is already hold W material.

ThetaSigma wrote: »

thorwyn wrote: »

The raid lead is supposed to explain the mechanics to players that are not familiar with the content. That's part of their job.

Exactly my point, some people don’t or haven’t got the time to have a job in the game. A lot come to relax and have fun. These trial were designed to be played a certain way by the devs, it would be nice to know the correct way after x amount of time has passed so people can maybe obtain the harder content in the confidence that they are doing it correctly.

As others before, I object to the notion that there is a "correct" way to play these trials.
The designers did have an idea how they thought players would tackle the fights, but that doesn't mean that that is the "correct" way. Basically, players have come up with more efficient strategies for all of them.

And that is especially true for older trials - basically everything pre-Rockgrove now, or maybe even later. They were created when the game was in a very different state. Except for achievements, no one these days bothers with Rakkhat's lunar phase. (Which is a shame.) When I started doing trials, we assigned teams to pillars in AA's Varlariel fight. It's been a long time since anyone did that.
And even more so on normal. Two thirds of mechanics don't matter on normal.

So what ZOS envisioned for that encounter, and what players do nowadays, is light years apart. Teaching players what ZOS thought in 2014 is counterproductive because no one does it like that.

And then there's the fact that for many encounters, there are several ways to do them. Some are just tradition, many depend on group damage, composition, and experience. Players need to know what their group does, not what someone else (even if it's ZOS) think they should do.

Now, what definitely is useful, is a breakdown of encounter mechanics themselves. Many guides at Alcast have that, and elsewhere as well. Just "this is what boss does and how you can counter it". For the Lightning Atro, knowing the mechanic and that you can stand in the circle, is helpful to know. But many of these guides exist.
Whether you should run to the circle, and how the circle is called, and when to get back - that's for groups to decide, there is no "correct" way to do this. If a guide wants to include information like that, I'm sure it's helpful, and they should if they can, but it should not be taken as "official strategy". An "official strategy" would need constant updating and maintenance, and that's not something ZOS are good at. (Or even decent - just think of the ingame build advisor and how up-to-date it is. At this point, it probably has more misinformation than actual info.)

I think there's other reasons why ZOS won't really publish "official" guides:

• It would cannibalize streamers, online guides, and other content creators. Worst case, it could cause some to quit, reduce their content, or not take up ESO in the first place. Why would ZOS voluntarily take a hit to free publicity and social engagement?
• It reduces the time it takes for people to clear it, as it would get rid of much trial & error and experimentation. Of course, not everybody would take advantage of this, but on average players would end up dropping the game faster after new content is released.
• While the former raid lead in me would welcome at least a description of mechanics, I also worry whether this might incentivize slightly worse encounter design. Instead of creating meaningful telegraphs and intuitive mechanics, could this create an excuse of "well, the players can always look at the guide"?

A lot of good points here.