General Raid Behavior and Strategy

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***Requesting this to be stickied, as it is general info everyone should know***

Many people here are experienced veterans when it comes to the raiding scene, others are not and have no idea the differences a 25 or 10 man raid presents to a 5 man instance. I'm attempting to outline many of the common and most important changes that Raids call for when comparing them to other dungeon attempts.


Raid Preparation

Raiding, whether it be a 10 man or 25 man, requires a vast commitment in both, time, gold, patience, and skill in playing ones class. Raid content is what separates the casual players from herd (The boys from the men) and it is not for everyone. That is not meant to discriminate or degrade anyone, it is simply a fact, much like some people excel in science and math in school while other arts and music.

A) Raid preparation first and foremost calls for the player to be able to set aside a chunk of time for us to attempt to progress through a raid or instance. Commonly, a 2-3 hour minimum amount of time should be set aside, with a more respectable 3-5 being ideal when facing new content. With knowledge or raid times and events, please make the appropriate actions to either

1) Set aside the minimum time before coming to a raid
2) Have a replacement set aside for when you must leave.

Replacements should be of identical skill level, class build, and gear value. All replacements should be approved of by Officers before or during the raid, and Guild members will receive priority over out of guild when replacing someone.

Invites go out at 4:30pm for a 5:00 start, during this half hour, you should be preping your character for the raid. As I describe below.

B) With time set aside, you should now prepare your character for his/her journey into the land of hard hitting and little CC mobs. This means that your armor should be repaired at the beginning of all raids. Showing up and having your gear break on the first or second pull forces the guild to wait 10-15 minutes while you run out, mount up, head to the closest repairman, and come back. Wasted time, wasted attempts, and most importantly, you have shown irresponsibility and ill-respect towards the guild. REPAIR YOUR ARMOR PRIOR TO COMING TO A RAID.

C) New content and new raids mean that the mobs/creeps inside will be more powerful then mobs/creeps from a previous, lower level raid. Karazhan and Zula'man are both 10 man raids, but ZA has a gear expectation of T4-T5 level; while Kara may be attempted in 5-man blues. As the guild progresses through raids, it is important for you to know what you need for your character and his/her talent choices. Shadow priests do not need healing gear, Protection tanks will pass plate armor with high crit and attack power to Fury/Arms warriors. It is important and essential that you understand how your class plays and what role he/she will perform in common raids. Shadow priests have only 2 spells that can possible crit (Shadow Word: Death, and Mind Blast) and therefore a hugh amount of crit is not a substantial increase in DPS vs. the raw spell damage another item can give.

There are many sources where you can find information on what loot the boss drops.

My favorite is http://www.wowwiki.com
Others include:
Allakhazam
Wowhead
Thotbot

PLEASE DO YOUR RESEARCH! You should know what your character needs and should have. You will be spending DKP on these items, and it looks good to both your guild and the officers when you know ahead of time what to roll on. This also helps speed up downtime between raid boss's and overall helps progression

D) Any content that is not on farm status (Typically: This means that all bosses in the dungeon have been defeated, and can be confidentally defeated on a one-shot basis) requires your character to be buffed and powered up to the fullest. This means that you are expected to provide your buffs, receive other class buffs, and BUY buffs. Buying buffs means that you should have either:

1) A Battle Elixir, A Guardian Elixir, and Food buff
or
2) A Flask, and Food buff

Many guild members have maxed out their professions to help out with acquiring these buffs. Alchemists and Cooks may even offer you free food and elixirs provided you can get the materials. Materials can either be farmed with your character and professions, or bought on the Auction House, and tend to be cheaper then buying the finished product.

Note: I have been in many guilds on many alts. You may think that an elixir that raised your crit rating by 12 is not a big upgrade worthy of the time and effort, and if you think that, then I ask you to leave the raid. Most boss battles last 3-5 minutes (sometimes more) and many have only small windows where damage can be done. If you are not doing the maximum amount of damage you possibly can, and a wipe occurs with 1% remaining on the boss...I find you responsible for my plate armor repair bill!

E) In a raid enviroment, many bosses are simple Tank-n-Spank attempts. This means it is not simply letting the Tank get 5 sunders then burn him down. Strategy and orientation are needed in many fights. Does this boss do something to the second highest person on the aggro list? Does an AOE effect generate randomly off this boss, or every 5% life loss? What can I do to protect myself and a healer/tank/DPS during these special scenarios?

I can't tell you everything, but the above listed sites can tell you what every boss does do. You should know all the attacks the boss is capable of and what you and your fellow raid members should be doing during that time (i.e. Shade of Aran Flame Wreath = no movement). Knowing a boss fight helps in progression by making you aware of what is to come, less anxious about starting the fight, and more confident when it comes to keyed or timed events. This confidence boosts allows us to overall deal more damage and maintain more control over the fight(s).

F) Oh shit! its 4:54pm...I'm suppose to be at the raid portal!

PLEASE DO NOT RELY ON SUMMONS TO GET YOU TO THE RAID. This is both very insulting to the people who adequately prepare for raids and make the journey themselves, and usually prevents a start time of 5:00pm. If your in a Battleground, please /AFK out and join the raid. A heroic or dungeon run, well, I hope you told your party that you had a raid tonight.

Take a partner if you feel scared walking/riding by yourself to the dugeon, this doesnt' really apply to a PVE server, but many a-times guildes like to "closed roads" leading to raids for the free HKs when raid members trickle in one at a time. Aldonis will always hold your hand if you feel scared or if you need a companion on your long ride!

Raid Behavior - DOs and DON'Ts

Ok, you have arrived on time, prepared and ready to go. The officers by now are arranging the party groups to provide maximum DPS bonuses to key character, healing bonuses to others. But wait...Why is Windfury totem being thrown down in my group when I'm a hunter and benefit more from Totem of Agility (Or whatever that agility totem is)? Well, sometimes there are odd members out in raid groups. Your a hunter stuck in the rouge group, and your personal DPS will not be as high. And that brings me to my first topic

A) Damage meters reflect no positive influence in a raid. Personal high damage should be set aside in favor of overall higher raid damage. The best situation I can describe this in refers to Warlocks. Having raided with a 70 lock, I know that when I have a high amount of Mages in my raid, throwing up a Curse of Elements will mean the raid downs a boss faster then if I were to be using my Curse of Doom, or Curse of Agony spell. My personal damage will be about 5% less, but every mage will gain about 8% more damage...and if there are 2 mages...then i've increased raid damage (From myself and the mages) by 11%.

DO NOT MONITOR OR LINK DAMAGE METERS IN RAID OR GUILD CHANNELS. If you want to know how you are doing to better yourself or test out a new attack cycle, have it whispered to you. However, do not think that being number 1 on the damage meter means you did the best job in the raid. There is no MVP in raiding. Good work and resourcefulness will be noticed and you will receive a pat on the back, but everyone plays a role in the raid.

B) It now comes time to encounter and pull a boss. You've read the strategies, your fully buffed and your in position ready to go. You know to watch for this AOE effect, to aid in the healing of the tank when this happens, and to stop all damage when the boss enters phase X. You focus your mind, place your hand over your key bindings and suddenly

"HAI GUYZ...WAHTS GOING ON IN DIS VENT CHANNAL?!?!!!?!"

Ventrillo is a great tool when it comes to raids. Communication is faster and much more clearer then if done over text, and allows you to grab someones attention when you need to. Socially, its a great way to get to know people and guild members, and it is encouraged to be used that way...unless you raid!

Vent should be silent except for officers and the GM suggesting improvements to how the guild is going and giving out praise and criticism when needed. There should be a respect for the seriuosness of a raid, yet at the same time no one needs to be a arrogant, stuck-up A-hole the entire time. Have casual conversation during down time, but when a pull happens, focus on the pull. When a lot of people talk on vent at the same time, or multiple people start calling shots, it confuses the raid and eventually leads to a wipe. Stay calm, listen to vent and do what your suppose to do.

C) When loot drops from a mob that is an upgrade, its time to get your DKP together and present your case. Understand that post-TBC, most sought after gear is no longer class specific. It can be competitive and useful to many classes and talent distributions ( i.e. Affliction Warlocks and Shadow Priests tend to fight for the same gear, same as Demon or Destro Warlocks and Mages fight for the same gear). It should be noted that gear distribution are not entirely for personal damage upgrades, as damage is not the only thing important in a raid. We need the healers to be giving out big heals, the tanks capable of taking big hits and maintaining aggro. Here are a few common conceptions and rules that are followed:

1) Tanks and Healers recieve priority on item tokens.
2) Raid attendance influences who gets what item when!
3) The biggest upgrade is not always the best upgrade
3a) Set bonuses do not always outweight non-set bonus upgrades

I won't dive more in-depth as I can not dictate loot rules, but gear is given out to help the raid out as a priority, it is only a side effect that it is your personal DPS or healing getting improved. Don't be greedy when coming to a loot, and especially don't expect to leave every raid with 1 or more items.

D) If, in the inevitable event, that you feel something was done inappropriately during a raid (And the action is no longer reversible), contact your class leader or an officer to discuss this AFTER the raid. Frustration during the raid only causes member to lose focus and slows progression. I have been both an officer in a guild as well as a raider, and I know everyone will not agree to everything. If there is a dispute, take it up with an officer and be open about it. Realize that sometimes officer do make bad calls, other times they make ones that will benefit the raid out most. IF still unsatisfied, talk to the GM about the matter. If the problem is still unresolved to your liking, then you can either accept it and move on, or /gquit. Your choice, but I assume that everyone raiding has a better maturity level then the latter for a one time offense

Likewise, if you see officer abuse and others not it too, do not be afraid to bring this up with someone of higher ranking (or equal ranking) of that officer. Guild drama is caused on all levels, and does not need to be generated at all. I have seen power-hungry dictators lead guilds, others have run good republics, but there is always a "corrupt" one...it is a fact. Bring up complaints at appropriate times and be open to discussion. Half the time, you may not be able to see the entire picture.

Conclusion:

This about sums up my general discription and expectations for this guild. I definetly would not still be here and paying my repair bills if I did not believe this guild to be mature, safe, fun and posses the potential to progress through this game. I expect to make a lot of friends while spending my time here, and hope to avoid enemies. I'm 22 years old (at the time of this post) and hope to be playing this game for many years and through many expansions. We all know what is right and wrong, and we all can take time to stop and look at things logically before we commit to something that can have huge results. I can not say for certain what future this guild holds...people move from guild to guild, real life events cause people to leave and come back, but the most important thing that I can say as my final words are this:

"This is a game. It will never be more then just a game. Do not allow yourselves to be controlled by this game. There is a fine line between addiction and enjoyment. Enjoyment means that you can walk away and have a beer with a friend. Addiction means your having that beer in a Stormwind Bar."