Last night I wanted to raid CE, but still had a bad taste in my mouth from the last LFG pug I ended up with on Tuesday that wanted to cheese everything. So I start applying for groups on DestinyLFG.net stating I would join only a cheese-free group. After 10 minutes of searching with no luck, I was disheartened. Why was everyone so intent on cheesing?

One post even had a 31 shouting "LFM FOR CROTA CP. 32 ONLY. MUST HAVE GHORN AND IB AND BE AWESOME SWORDBEARER. CHEESING HIM FAST" To which i got a chuckle and replied "Nice troll, 9/10!" to which he immediately responded "No troll, bro. Need fast kill before work." What?!?! Why the heck would you put all those reqs to cheese him?!?! A 30 with a Khostov could get the kill with disconnect cheese! I shook my head in amazement at idiots like him and moved on.

After more fruitless searching I resolved to build my own group to do the raid cheese-free. I listed my group saying "LFM for Fresh, no cheese CE run. No Gjallarhorn or Icebreaker required!" and got a screen full of replies in seconds. I grabbed the first 5 that applied, and ended up with a bunch of 30s and a few 31s. Most had some raid experience, but almost all of it was cheese. This should be interesting, I thought. But my mind was made up.

So we start out, and I explain the lanterns. We make it all the way to the plate on the first rocky try, and then wipe due to panic and inexperience. But easily cruise through our second attempt. The next section was brand new to everyone else in the group as they had never done it legit. But everyone listened and after a practice run we cleared it fairly smoothly on our second attempt! Smoothly being subjective of course, as a few people missed gatekeeper kills but the next person across always seemed to be able to clean up. I saw lots of raid gear loot drop at the end and was happy for the guys as I new it would be good upgrades for all of them. We even got the second chest on our first try. Turns out I had a group that could listen well and follow directions! Next up is the Deathsinger, which is traditionally the hardest part of the raid, but after only a few attempts teaching them the encounter, she goes down hard before even starting the Liturgy. Wow, I'm impressed. No Gjallarhorns needed!

Now the only thing that stands before us and total victory is Crota himself. Since no one else in the group had sword experience, I took up the mantle of Sword Bearer for our team. Being a slow-ass titan and horrible at jumping puzzles, it probably wasn't a good idea. After teaching them the legit way to run the encounter, I get a few failed runs in and decide that I after all their hard work I don't want to make them watch me try any more. So I went to LFG and found a charitable 32 Swordbearer to take my place for the final kill. Instead of just moving on though, I stayed in our voice chat group to listen in and hear their shouts of joy when they downed Crota. There were shouts of "Black Hammer!", "Song of Ir Yut!", "Hungerrrrr!", and "I got the fusion Rifle!" I was glad RNGesus had smiled upon them. Everyone commented on the fact they had fun in their first legit Crota kill. And while it may have taken a little longer than being elitist and finding a group of all 31-32 experts to run with, I had a lot of fun doing CE legit and shepherding a great group of players through in the process (even though Crota only gave me shards for all my trouble this week). Definitely one of my high points in Destiny!

TLW: Took a group of inexperienced (but good at listening) players through CE cheese-free and had a great time teaching them how do it legit!