A long-lamented issue in Destiny is the absence of matchmaking for raids. Raids can have up to six people in a fireteam, however it can often be difficult to rodeo five of your friends online (with varying work, sleep, and eating schedules) to complete a raid.

And the more I think about it, the more pleased I am that there isn’t matchmaking. It can be hard enough to gel with five people you know, let alone five people you have no experience playing with. Everyone is talking over each other, trying to explain how best to beat something that most of you have (likely) beat before.

This brings me to today.

Last night two friends and myself decided to do Crota’s End on normal. We actually got all the way to Crota (in reasonable time, no less), and then just couldn’t seal the deal. We decided that this morning, we would re-meet back up, and finish the job.

The three of us went back in, and did okay, but still couldn’t defeat Crota. We were trying a few experimental maneuvers, though none panned out. We ended up going back to the tried and true method, however that wasn’t working either.

And I started to get…less patient.

I should explain that I write each Wednesday morning, and I was feeling anxious that I hadn’t yet written my piece for the day. I wanted to get the raid under my belt and move on to the tasks at hand.

I probably should have just gone to orbit, and joined them again after I had finished with my real-world tasks.

I have realized, over the many raids I’ve been involved in in Destiny, that even if your group works together with the best of intentions, it doesn’t always guarantee success. And there is part of me that won’t accept that.

The part that gets impatient.

It’s not like I’m a superstar at the raid. I’m decent, I can hold my own, but I’m not one of those whiz players who can solo the thing with the Stranger’s Rifle.

There is this elusive, hard to pin down, element of synergy that happens in some groups. It will be a group where everything just clicks. People take their positions, do what’s expected of them, and poof! Everyone wins. Literally.

I’ve only rarely seen those occasions.

If you take six very different people, with their own (sometimes overlapping) agendas, and varying degrees of competence and commitment, you are bound to come out with some less than smooth situations. These situations make me wonder if there is something more I could be doing. Some better self-plan that will turn me into the unstoppable raid-monger I wish to be.

Because of one of those very people, I learned to solo the first part of the raid. This person had a strategy I’d never considered, and it was exactly the way to go. I love playing with those people. And I strive to become one of those people.

I wish I was the type of player who was calm and strategic. And while I may be the latter, I get awfully excited if I can see, smell, or taste the finish line. I want that win.

But I also want to learn to play better with others and play to our various strengths and weaknesses. We aren’t all Robocop, and we aren’t all infallible. We are all (hopefully) doing the best we can. And I like that about teams. You can build each other up and become greater than the sum of those parts.

Is teamwork easy? For me? No. But I’d like to get better at it.

Or learn to solo the raid so I don’t have to worry about it anymore.

I kid. Sort of.

(insert sheepish face here)

On that note, off I go to watch YouTube videos on how to beat the raid more efficiently. I will do my part for the team!

How do you find teamwork goes for you? Is it easy to fall in a rhythm with fellow players, or is it something you have to work at?