[How To] Raid Successfully.

[Hallowsend]

This is going to be a pretty long guide, so if you see something you want to comment on while you are rading, you may want to do so before finishing the guide, as you may forget the comment you wanted to say.

Raiding is what most people strive to do when they hit level 70, or any other level that has a feeling of great accomplishment. As I was writing this guide, I remembered that this is mostly based off of PvP Raiding, but that does not mean that the information is false for instance and / or world boss raiding.

Table Of Contents:
1) Basic Structure of Raiding.
2) Tips on how to get going.
3) Mods.
4) Your Role in a Raid.
5) Links to guides that help you play your role.
6) Planning.

Basic Structure of Raiding:

When you start a raid, you should already know a few things, like where you plan on raiding, how many people you want, and what you want the role of each class to be. To be a well formed raid and to last long without getting wiped, there are a few more things that are needed just as much, if not more.
The first is that you need a Healer. In most cases, depending on how big your raid is, you will need more than one.

You need a tank. You need this a LOT. As soon as you get a person fit to be a great tank, make them the main tank using the raid control panel. One tank is never enough, and as everyone always says, the more the merrier.
You need DPS almost as much as a healer and tank, because just a tank is never good enough, or if the healer gets attacked and all the tanks already have there hands full, that is where you come in. DPS isn't mainly needed for PvP Raids as it is impossible for the tank to completely hold the aggro of another player, so he could turn and kill you as soon as he / she finds out that you are attacking them.

CC, or Crowd Control, can be very useful for any raid. Mainly, they kill any adds or for a PvP raid they use AoE (Area of Effect) Attacks while in big groups of enemys so to help kill off the enemies quicker. If you plan on raiding somewhere lower level, this is good to easily kill noobs who attack the healers while the tanks are taking everyone else. Also, they can render enemies almost completely useless, or stop the opponent from doing whatever it is supposed to. Also, they can slow down running mobs and daze / sleep targets that cannot be taken with the mob.


There are a few more I think, but they are not as common and probably not as needed.

Tips on How to get a Raid going:

Your raid will never be successful if you walk into the oposing factions territory with 5 people. You will get wiped very easily, and noone will want to raid with you ever again. Here are a few tips that will help you get more people in your raid group.

~Don't be afraid to use trade chat to recruit for a raid, the more people listening, the better,

~Make a macro that tells basic information like where you are raiding, if you have ventrilo / teamspeak, what class you are looking for, what role you are looking for, etc.

~As soon as you find people, start designating jobs. Don't be afraid to tell people what to do, like telling a warrior to be the main tank.

~Before you designate people to do jobs, ask them if they are geared well for where you are going, mainly only applys to instance raids and dungeon raids.

~Plan ahead of time. No great raids just get 40 people to join a raid without at least a day or two, and even so, if you could it would be very messy.

~When joining a raid, ask the raid leader what you will be doing for the raid, if he has no answer ask him later. if even then he has no answer, I suggest leaving to find a more organized group.

Mods

C_Raid Assist V2.003 - Raid/Instance - World of Warcraft Mods, Addons, and More! CT_Raid Mod is probably the best raid mod out there, because it has everything you will ever need for raiding.

GroupCalendar v3.2.3 - Guild - World of Warcraft Mods, Addons, and More! Group Calendar is what you need to see when your guilds events are and sign up for them. Most guilds require that you have this mod.

Titan Panel v3.1.1 - Titan Mods - World of
Warcraft Mods, Addons, and More! Titan Panel are the addons that i use. They are very easy to use and easy to set up. Also pretty good look to them.


Omen Threat Meter | DownloadsOmen threat meter. Very helpful.

KLHThreatMeter | DownloadsHLHThreatMeter, also a good one.if you plan on raiding alot, I suggest http://downloads.curse.com/details/4940/http:// Its a UI with bunches of great mods in it.

NEVER EVER EVER use both of those last two at the same time, it is very buggy. Thanks Teh_Homer.
Your Role in a Raid

Depending on the class you play normally in the game, you will have a different role in a raid group. Most classes have a pretty easy to remember job because it is pretty straight foward, other classes can do whatever the raid leader wants them to.

The warrior, as many of you know, is the main tanking group in a raid. This is because of the talent specialties, and you have way more armor than most of the other classes. Your job as a tank is to hold the aggro of most mobs / characters tso that the classes with less armor can help more. The most important thing is to always have the healers health bars somewhere on your screen, because if the healers die, so do you. Tanks are most common in raid groups, but usually the Main Tank (or MT) Is the one who does the most. Also, as the MT if a good weapon drops, that most people find good for a warrior, you will have the picking.

Priests are natural born healers. Your job is to heal the other people so that they do not die. Simple, eh? No. Not at all. The catch is, you have to heal others while effectivly using your mana, so that you do not run out. If the MT dies, you will be blamed. But if you die, the tank is blamed. Apparently people say that Shadow Priests are very useful for holy priests.

Mages are mostly DPS and CC. They are always one of those two unless you want a mage to heal or tank, which would get your raid wiped in .1 second. I have never had a mage of mine get into a raid group, but I am pretty sure that you will be helpful because of all the AoE which I have found can be very helpful.

Shamans, they are a support class, the jack of all trades. While meleeing and casting, they bring buffs to the melee/caster group while doing decent dps themselves, and theyre the most mana effienct raid healing class there is. (thanks to Cakewalk)

Druids can be pretty much anything, depending on your talent tree. In dire bear form you can tank, and in caster form you could heal. In cat form you can DPS. So many oppertunities for druids.

Paladins can Heal, Tank,, DPS, etc. But the thing is, they are not as good as warriors at tanking. Also, they are the best single target healers right now, because their mana efficiency is great. But they are still useful to have in a raid group if you think you need an extra tank or healer. (thanks to Cakewalk again

Warlocks are DPS, because of all there Damage over Time spells, or DoT's. They can cast curses for weakness, DoT's and most importantly, they can summon. Lots of people only join a raid group if they know someone there can summon. Even I wouldn't join a raid if more than half of them were already there with noone to summon.

Hunters are also important in raid groups, despite what people say. If you are just doing an instance and have no tank but a hunter with a level 70 bear for a pet, the bear can tank.
Hunters also do pretty good DPS at long ranges, the only problem is that they think every weapon in the game was made for them... no offense. As a hunter, you should be standing just far enough to shoot, but close enough so that you do not take the aggro of anything around you. All of your ranged attacks are useful especially for mobs that flee when they are about to die, so Hunters, be proud to be called a huntard by the 90% of the game that don't play the same class as you.

Guides to help you play your role

http://wow.gameamp.com/guide/viewGuides/483.php!orderBy Here is a tanking guide, no credit to me.

World of Warcraft Healers - Home A site deticated solely to healers.

World of Warcraft Guide: Analyzing Components of a DPS Cycle in Warlock - Associated ContentWarlock DPS guide. Not great, but only one I could find.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowd_control_(MMORPG) CC's Role.

Planning

For raiding, it is a must-have to download your guilds group calendar mod. Otherwise, you will never know when / where your guild is raiding.It’s often a good idea to schedule raids around the times that the raid dungeons reset. You should also try to pick times that align with the play schedule of the majority of the guild. Be flexible with your start and end times and be prepared to substitute people in and out as the raid progresses, since people may either arrive late or need to leave early from the raid.You will want to raid dungeons that most people in the guild need drops from and that the most people could benefit in general from.

Also, plan raids that go along with the levels of the people going. Because, you would not want to raid Gruul with a bunch of level 60's now would you?

Always repair before the raid.This way, there is less of a chance that everyone armor will be shot red after one wipe.When possible, use third part voice software, like TeamSpeak or Ventrilo. Or, at very least, use blizards new in-game voice function.

Bring plenty of reagents to the raid, this way the need for returning to a city to make purchases will not be nessacary at all, and also it is horrible when a warlocks pet dies and the warlock has no more soul shards, (that was just an example)

Hand out water and food before the raid, that way no mana is used during the raid.Summon while you have the chance! its not a good idea to try and summon with mobs all around you, so don't put it off!

Also, buff the raid whenever nessacary. An extra 50 stamina really does make a difference with 40 people.

If you want to completely avoid ninjaing, make a trustowrthy person the master looter.

END

Well guys, that concludes my guide officially. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this, and just so you know, I wrote this down 3 times making all sorts of changes before putting it here, so this guide took me around 2 hours to complete. Thanks, and have fun raiding.

By the way, I have posted this before. It got flamed, so i deleted it, all because of 1 person ruining the fact that I was missing a good addon or two. Please avoid

[Alienmatrix]

Um, it seems a little outdated. Shadowpriests...useless? Not true my friend, they can be very helpful at times.

[Cakewalk]

Shamans, they are a support class, the jack of all trades. While meleeing and casting, they bring buffs to the melee/caster group while doing decent dps themselves, and theyre the most mana effienct raid healing class there is.

And as for paladins, they are the best single target healers right now, cause their mana effiency is great.

[Teh_Homer]

b4 you ask. My guild has cleared illidan and we run 2 night raiding weeks to farm our gear. Day 1 to start Black temple (we usually get to mother in one night). Day 2 to clear hyjal and finish BT.

"Paladins can Heal, Tank,, DPS, etc."

-Fixed-
"Paladins can heal"

"Even I wouldn't join a raid if more than half of them were already there with noone to summon."

Very outdated. Most guilds use summoning stones and only use warlocks for late comers since we can just suicide with out a durability loss and summon them.

"if you are a shadow priest, and manage to get a group, I really don't know what you will do, because it is very unlikely that you even got a group."

Shadow priest are one of the most important pieces of a raid. They are a mana battery for the healers and mages. Damage dealers and help warlocks deal even more damage.

Omen Threat Meter | DownloadsOmen threat meter. Very helpful.

KLHThreatMeter | DownloadsHLHThreatMeter, also a good one.if you plan on raiding alot, I suggest http://downloads.curse.com/details/4940/http:// Its a UI with bunches of great mods in it.

NEVER EVER EVER use both of these at same time. They will bug out and show incorrect data since Omen feeds off the KTM.

The warrior

Warriors are also very important dps in a raid.

For raiding, it is a must-have to download your guilds group calendar mod.

Almost no guild use this anymore since it deletes data way to often. A guild website is the way to go.

Hunters are also important in raid groups, despite what people say. If you are just doing an instance and have no tank but a hunter with a level 70 bear for a pet, the bear can tank.

... what can I say. I lol'd at bear tanking raids.

Also deadly boss mod or Big wigs are a must for raiding.

As my ending. This guide -may- work for a guild/raid in karazhan. (If you are still in karazhan you are not a raider or in a raiding guild)

[Hallowsend]

Yes I know I have not been in a raid for a while But NEVER say my guides are Copy and pasted it pisses me off... Also fixed the Shadow Priest thing, and I +repped you cakewalk and gave u credit in the guide. As for you Teh... Thanks for the Website advice, I will delete my Group Calendar in WoW and set up my website. Btw i will add the thing you said about the 2 addons and give you good credit. +rep for you if i can.

[fourn443]

my thread...

[issuesbunny]

Paladins can Tank and Heal, Teh_Homer. I'm not just saying that because I'm a paladin, but because I know prot paladins that can tank well.

Also, I'd like for you to prove that you've killed Illidan before. Lol.

[Hallowsend]

Fourn... This is more than the basics, and I have different information than yours. I am sorry if you feel that I copied you, but I didn't.

[fourn443]

Fourn... This is more than the basics, and I have different information than yours. I am sorry if you feel that I copied you, but I didn't.

meh, i dont, im just giving u a hard time for no reason, sorry if i seemed rude or w.e, and i have to say the info you gave is pretty informative, id give rep but im a leecher =(

good post =)

[Hallowsend]

Ah sorry fourn took that the wrong way, and thanks for positive feedback, btw your guide was, so +rep and also for having almost the same name.

[fourn443]

ty much =)

btw what server do u play on? /guild?

edit*
u can just send in pm if u dont feel confortable with posting it =P

[Teh_Homer]

Paladins can Tank and Heal, Teh_Homer. I'm not just saying that because I'm a paladin, but because I know prot paladins that can tank well.

Also, I'd like for you to prove that you've killed Illidan before. Lol.

Keyword being "can" tank. They still are terrible tanks and terrible dpsers. Can they? Sure. Does that make them good at it? No.



Couldn't find a kill shot but if you'd like I could PM you my guilds page and my armory.

[Hallowsend]

Cool. I will PM you Fourn

[Haq]

Pretty good guide. My guild is working on building a raid team to start tackling Kara, hopefully by New Year, and this guide gave me a some info I never knew.

Oh, and here's a website with some INSANE strategies on taking down bosses.

Bosskillers World of Warcraft Bosses, Guides, Movie Reviews and Guild Kills

I suggest that every raid player (or at least the higherups) read through the guides, especially if you're new at the boss.

[lumlum]

Not bad at all good guide too