New to Level 80: So you want to Raid? (part 2)

First off you need to gear check yourself and see if you are of the level for the instance you want to do. You can do this by going HERE and dialing up your character. You should also make sure you are comfortable with the role you intend to play in the raid. If you haven’t healed a heroic instance, you are not going to heal a raid. Skill will always trump gear, so first and foremost make sure you are comfortable with your skill level . Get some friends together or some guildies and try your hand at the “entry level” raid, Naxxramas or OS. This will give you a good feel for if you can raid skill wise. You will most likely not need anything that drops in this instance, especially the 10 man version. You can get better gear from badges and the new regular and heroic version of ICC 5 man instances.

So you have some good gear, you have played your roll through some hard heroics and think you are ready. You want to get into a raid, for fun, for a challenge, for shinny new purples? Be prepared, not just with regents and mana potions and any flasks you may need (yes you should bring plenty of everything) but …


Be prepared to wipe, a lot. You can read all you want about a raid and its bosses. You can watch all the videos you want (check out Tankspot.com’s video section), but until you actually experience it firsthand you really won’t know how insane (and fun) the raids in Wrath are. Experience trumps everything else. If you are in a guild that can carry you and everyone is over geared for the encounter, you will probably be fine (if you a healer or tank you probably can’t be carried). If you are jumping into a PuG, that’s a different story. There are four things you should do off the bat (i am sure others can think of more);

1. Let them know you have not been here before, but have read up on the fights and have an understanding of them.
2. Make sure you have blocked off at least 3 hours of time.
3. Install Ventrilo: Ventrilo or Vent for short, is a voice communication tool used in game by most guilds. Don’t worry if you don’t have a microphone to talk, most raids are ok with it as long as you can listen to the leader and follow directions.
4. Check your Add ons: Do you have the ones you should use for your class? Turn of the ones you don’t need to improve your computers performance. I recommend that everyone have Deadly Boss Mods (DBM). The next post in this series will be about add ons so stay tuned for more info.

Raids are NOT like 5 man instances. In most cases if you wipe more then 2-3 times in a heroic, people are going to leave or get /kicked. In a raid, especially a progression or a “new to the raid” encounter, you are going to wipe many, many times before you get the mechanics of the fight down. The higher the instance, the less room you have to recover from mistakes. So be prepared for this and do not get frustrated there is nothing like the feeling you get when you get your first boss kill! As you learn the raid, and you become more familiar the easier it will be to move thru it. In short, don’t expect to run regular 10 man ToC for the first time and get it done in an hour.

It’s funny, as I am writing this I have had an experience in ToC25 over the weekend that was exactly like this. First, a little background, I can’t raid on weeknights, I just don’t have the time. After I run my daily I have a little time to farm or work the Auction House, (AH) maybe get in a Wintersgrasp if it is up and that’s it. Work comes fast and last really long if you only have had 3 hours of sleep. There are two different types of raids in WoW PvE (as I classify it).

Type one: 60 min or less (Ony, OS, VoA)
These raids have been around since the start of the expansion, well Ony was revamped in September but its mechanics are basically the same. These raids have little bits of Trash and have been experienced by the vast majority of raiders. So if you are in them for the first time, you are probably the only one (or one of two) that have never experienced it. It makes it a lot easier for you to be taken thru the instance. These raids are short in length (distance you have to travel) and you have easy access to the boss. For example, in Onyxia’s Lair, you have 4 trash mobs before you get to the “boss”. The fight with her takes about 10 minutes. So from group formations to buff to kill (even throw in a couple wipes) you should be here no longer than an hour. Lots of nice loot drops from them so read up and get in there!

Type two: Multi Days, Multi Hours (Naxx, Uld, ToC, ToGC, ICC)
These raids have many bosses within multiple wings (except ToC, you fight in the same spot). With each boss fight taking aprox 5-15 min and travel time, most of these raids have 10 + bosses so you are looking at a good chunk of time spent in that instance. These are the raids that you will need the most patience and time for. If you want to experience this content, be prepared, you will need to invest time, gold, and concentration. For the most part you can get equivalent gear thru other means, so if you think that raiding is the only way to get high end gear, you have another path, I will give you more details on that in the next post (thanks Bliz).

I do have a type three raid, but that is for PvP and will go over that another time.

With all that out of the way, back to the story. I want some nice things from ToC25 (as you can see from my wishlist), I try to do it every week and it is usually on a weekend because that is the only time I can dedicate the time to make sure we do it right. I have a couple of guilds that I PuG with so I know most of the people that will be there know the fights and we should have a relatively easy time of it. Somewhere in the past month or so, the idea has come about that you can run ToC25 in an hour and be done. That might be true for a highly tuned raiding guild that has a full (experienced) team. A PuG, is a different story. We had about 13 regulars and the rest were pulled from friends lists and *shudder* shouting in Dalaran for more. The first two boss encounters are handled with ease, even after 6 raiders went down during the Beasts (Acidmaw and Dreadscale), we still pulled it out. We are about 35 min into the raid, at this point; we are discussing strategy for the next fight, Factions Champs. This is the fight that I see most raids stall and have problems with. In this case after the 2nd wipe, I start seeing this in chat…

“I gotta go gotta get up tomorrow, thought we would be done by now” X leaves the raid, and then
“yeah me too, sorry all” another X leaves the raid.
Then 4-6 others bail some without saying a word. At this point we call it and are now saved to a raid that probably won’t be finished.

My point here is simple, if you are not committed to putting in the time, effort, and gold to try and get some high end gear. Raiding the larger instances is NOT for you. Save yourself the repair bill and save your server mates the frustration of having to replace you. Unlike the new LFD system, (for now) raids are made up of players on your server only. If the raid leader is regularly leading PuGs and you pull a vanishing act, people will notice and take note. If you stick it out and do a great job, they will also take note. Both will get you added to a list, one to a friend’s list and the other to the ignore list. You only get one shot at your in game reputation. Once it is tarnished it is very hard to work your way back. Especially if you are like me and have a limited raid schedule.