Raiding 101

[Qiciste]

Hi there!

1. Introduction
My name is Qiciste, a long-time raider that has been raiding for 3 years now in a top-end raiding guild. I'm going to write a short guide to raiding properly and will elaborate with videos, screenshots and advice if there's an interest in my work. What makes a good raider?

Firstly, I'll consider the act of preparation for a raid. After that we dive into the actual raiding and thirdly we explore the often overseen part of raiding, which is evaluation of your performance.

2. Preparing for a raid
Preparation is crucial, in every situation. Whether you try to rob a bank, pass a test, get laid or raid, preparation is essential to your success. I can say I've successfully prepared for 3 out of the 4 foregoing examples . In regards to raiding, preparation for a raid consists largely of two things.

Preparing your own character. If you wish to raid the best you can, preparing and maximizing your character before every raid is essential. This includes the following factors:
1) Maxing your professions (and for the love of god, take proper (crafting) professions)
2) Maxing your gear
No matter what gear you have, prepare and maximize whatever God or Blizzard has provided you with. Not having a good two-hander because RNG ****ed you over is an excuse, not having Landslide on the two-hander you have equipped right now is not.
3) Knowing your character
Have a cup of tea with him, get to know how he feels about dying 10 times a night. But more importantly, know your class and spec that you could possibly have to play by hard! There's no excuse for not knowing what your priority list should look like, what gear/secondary rating is best for you, that you have a pet that you're supposed to actually use etc. Several sites such as mmowned.com, mmochampion.com and elitistjerks.com have a lot of information. PROTIP: READ EVERY TOOLTIP ON EVERY ABILITY YOU HAVE. "I didn't know Tranq shot dispells enrage" is not something you want to hear from your fellow raid member.
4) Pots/flasks/food. Pre-pot whenever it is useful on every try! If your guild struggles on P3 Rag HC for example, prepotting in P1 isn't helpful towards P3 at all and thus you'd be better off saving that pot, but if the extra DPS is any use whatsoever, PREPOT! You want to do the maximum you can and if you decide to not prepot because the difference is minimal, you might as well not flask up or level professions and that, my friends, is a slippery slope.

Secondly, know every intercoursing encounter in the raid that you will possibly progress/farm!
Do I need to explain this? If you want to be a mediocre player, know your part and tunnel-vision to England every try. If you want to be an exceptional player, know what is going on around you, what the other roles are doing and whenever you can possibly help to not only make your life easier, but theirs as well. Raiding is a team effort, yes meterwhoring raiders out there, it is. So use that Tranq as a Boomkin, pop that Healing Rain as Enh, press that AMS as a DK, shieldwall taunt that add when the tank dies and is soon to be CRed. Raiders who have that situational awareness and can still dish out impressing numbers, make sure you keep those till eternity (or SW:TOR at least).

3. During a raid
Congratulations, you have lasted longer than 90% and are still reading my guide! Given you have done all the preparation, raiding itself becomes a whole lot easier. A key part of raiding is social interaction and politeness. Communicate with your fellow raider, but don't be abusive and don't ask a friend about his cat during a try. Focus on what you're doing while paying attention to what is happening around you. Learn from your mistakes, be willing to take criticism and improve!
Common mistakes may include:
DPSing without a presence as a DK
Tanking without RF as a Pala
Not having a pet as a Hunter/Lock
Wearing PvP gear
Wearing different spec PvE gear
Wearing different spec PvP gear
Being naked
Forgetting to log on vent and not pop that barrier / DG that add / taunt dat boss
Don't face the boss and wonder why you're not getting cooldowns on your abilities
Stand in fire
Stand in purple fire
Stand in potato fire

Raiding is a skill that you develop over time, through (shameful) experience and a lot of practice. Getting ahead by practicing your rotation on a dummy and being able to dish out max damage while moving, AoEing and watching Family Guy is a plus. I personally use a lot of add-ons, but you definitely do not require them. It can be helpful for tracking certain buffs/debuffs etc. Just try to keep your screen clear and don't clutter your screen with fancy bullshit that you don't need. I've seen UIs where people show debuffs on at least 4 different places, I'd strongly advice you not to. Going with a preset popular UI is an option, but it's not too hard to set up your own. Depends on the time you want to spend on it.

4. Evaluation
What most Raiders do not do is evaluate their performance and think of ways to improve. I highly recommend using a tracking site like worldoflogs to provide you with the details you need on your performance. It's hard to evaluate what you have done if you can't actually see what you have done. If you wonder why your dps is low and you turn out to not reapply Rend at all, be late on reapplying diseases or have a 50% uptime on Searing Totem, you'll know how and where to improve. If you can't see those things, it's at least harder to figure out what's going wrong. Don't be afraid to ask a fellow guild member if he can find out what you're doing wrong! One often overlooks his own shortcomings, where they might be bright as day to an outsider. Even as a trial, do not be afraid to ask! Willingness to improve is a factor and I rather have an annoying trial that asks me every little detail over a trial that is quiet the entire night and turns out to not improve at all. Not being the best of your class in a raid is a blessing, since they can teach you how to become better at what you do.

5. Conclusion
Raiding (until LFR hits) is not easy and you will always continue to improve if you are open to improvement. Spending time before and after raiding makes you a better raider and increases your effectiveness during the raid. If you don't spend time learning to know this game, the path to being an exceptional raider will be a very, very long one. Do yourself and your fellow raid members a favor

[Qiciste]

Feel free to reply

[Voltex]

so you dont need food flask and all that ***** ;and its a nice guide should help a lot ppl that wanna start raiding. + would be nice if you added a stret know lage for bosses or just basic mechanic some where along the road. or even the part to trow suggesion when your guild encounterz the boss for the first time. Im not a hc raider and im mostly tanking in raids (99% of the time) but i know what every player needs to do on a boss helps you and the others around you vary mutch

[kozzzan]

I like it tbh, well written and helpful for newb's and maybe raiders that haven't thought of some of that stuff before.

[Qiciste]

so you dont need food flask and all that ***** ;and its a nice guide should help a lot ppl that wanna start raiding. + would be nice if you added a stret know lage for bosses or just basic mechanic some where along the road. or even the part to trow suggesion when your guild encounterz the boss for the first time. Im not a hc raider and im mostly tanking in raids (99% of the time) but i know what every player needs to do on a boss helps you and the others around you vary mutch

Should've been in preparation, but this is in most guilds taken care off by the guild bank management, since feasts and cauldrons are a lot cheaper than 25 whateverfish and 25 flasks. In all honesty, I don't bother flasking in a pug

[ebmims]

Should've been in preparation, but this is in most guilds taken care off by the guild bank management, since feasts and cauldrons are a lot cheaper than 25 whateverfish and 25 flasks. In all honesty, I don't bother flasking in a pug

Although true, being prepared for raid means you always have enough flasks and food for the raid night. If you don't use them, great, save em. But nothing looks worse in a raiding guild than coming unprepared and there could be numerous situational causes, such as you come in on the 2nd boss and the cauldron has already been laid, or you die on a trash and are the only one so a whole feast before a boss would be a waste.

[Qiciste]

Correct. Would people be interested in class/encounter related tips and tricks? Screenshots? Videos?