Getting Ready to Raid in Cataclysm

Really, really, ridiculously long post warning!

It's been a busy, busy week. I tell ya, it's not easy being a GM. We're getting awfully close to 200 members now and I've had to start cracking down and removing a few of the more undesirable elements - but more on that another time. For now, raiding stuff!

Raiding in WotLK was a fairly simple procedure; There were really only three steps to tackle before you could consider yourself a raider:

• Level to 80.
• Run Heroics to get gear.
• Go raiding.

Most of the time in Wrath, most raiders could easily be carried by a knowledgeable Raid Leader. Cataclysm on the other hand adds a few extra steps:

• Level to 85
• Reach an average item level of 329 (through quests, reputation factions and normal dungeons).
• Learn to fully utilise your class abilities (crowd control, buffs and debuffs, interrupts, etc.) and how to be part of a functioning team.
• Reach an average item level of 346 (through reputation factions, justice points and heroics).
• Train yourself for raiding (learn the encounters, practice on a target dummy, etc.).
• Go raiding.

It's no longer the cakewalk that it used to be. The three extra steps above might be fairly simple, but it seemingly adds much more work for the player before they can raid. For people who are too used to the Wrath system, it feels like hitting a brick wall at every step.

Here's a quick guide to Getting Ready to Raid!

Click to enlarge.
(The 0 was a bug, it was actually 352.)

Gearing up:

The first thing you'll need to know about is your Average Item Level (avg iLvl from here on). You can find your avg iLvl on your character sheet (right); I won't go into the mechanics of it, but basically that number will get higher as you get better gear.
Back in Wrath, we firmly believed that such a number was arbitrary and mostly just encouraged elitists - *cough* Gearscore *cough* - but now it's this number that will determine whether or not you can use the Dungeon Finder to get into certain instances and heroics.

Your first step to getting geared should be to focus on the cataclysm reputation factions. There are six factions in total and all of them offer exceptional equipment at each rep level beyond friendly. They all follow this same formula:

• Friendly: Faction Tabard that allows you to gain reputation while doing dungeons.
• Honored: Various gear at iLvl 333 (equivalent of a normal 85 dungeon).
• Revered: Various gear at iLvl 346 (equivalent of heroic or justice point gear).
• Exalted: Select gear at iLvl 359 (raiding level gear and, possibly, a camel).

While it can be a bit of a chore hitting exalted, being revered with a few of these factions will help tremendously. Also, it should be mentioned that the Guardians of Hyjal and the Earthen Ring factions can both get to revered by questing alone. If you complete all of the Mount Hyjal and Vash'hir quests, you'll get instant access to heroic gear without ever setting foot in a dungeon.


Knowing Your Class:

Before you can start being truly effective in a heroic group, you need to know exactly what your class is capable of.

For example: did you know that a Beast Mastery hunter is able to provide nearly any raid buff or important ability your group might be missing? With the right knowledge any BM hunter can provide the priest's Fortitude buff, a warrior's Disarm or even a shaman's ever-important Bloodlust/Heroism.

Of course, I don't have the time (or the strength) to post every facet of every class here, but I can show you to three excellent sources of such knowledge: the internet, raiders of the same class as you and Raid Leaders.

There are loads of guides out there for all classes and talents specs; You're free to find your own but I tend to gravitate towards wowhead.com whenever I need to know anything - they have dedicated class forums and loads of information on specific abilities too.

Your guild members can also be an invaluable source of advice. Find someone of your class who is already at the point you want to be and ask them for some help. If they have the time then they'll normally oblige, provided you asked them nicely. Same goes for Raid Leaders; RL's will usually have a solid knowledge of the capabilities of every class, so don't be afraid to ask them how you could do better. After all, if they can help any individual improve it will benefit the whole team.


Training for Raids:

This is the part that seems to catch most players in the sticky web of stress and dread. Knowing the encounters you'll be up against is only a fraction of the battle this time around.

First of all, you need to make sure you're ready for raiding (no, not the achievement). So, do you have the appropriate gear? Check. Avg iLvl 346? Check.

Alrighty smarty-pants, what's your baseline DPS? Not sure?
How about knowing where to stand and when?

Know what the marks mean?

Know which statistics are most beneficial for you?
Know when to stop attacking a boss and when to deal with encounter mechanics instead?

There's a lot you need to know. Mostly, your raid leader can fill you in on the details but you need to make sure you follow the instructions carefully. It's not just the healers and tanks now, even the simplest mistakes from one of the DPS can cause a raid wipe.

Most importantly, you need to know if you are able to perform to the level required. I know it seems elitist and we've had some heated debates in the guild about this recently, but the simple truth cannot be ignored: Blizzard have set the bar for raiding and anything less tends to be punished, hard.

For instance, the Argaloth encounter in Baradin Hold cannot be completed unless your raid-wide average DPS is roughly 70,000. I'll spare you the details, but this translates into an individual baseline of about 10,000 dps for each of your six DPS raiders. Anything less than that is not enough to take down Argaloth before his enrage timer goes off.

To get your baseline DPS, head to one of the target dummies in the major cities and start hammering away on the raid-boss equivalent dummy for a full 5 minutes. As long as you have the Recount addon or similar (or you're partied with someone who does) then at the end of the 5 minutes you'll have your baseline DPS.

If your baseline DPS isn't close enough to what the encounter requires, you need to examine your gear, your abilities or even your talents and try to find weaknesses that you can improve on. This is the self-training that is vital to successful Cataclysm raiding.


Cataclysm raiding has changed the priorities for all roles. Now, knowledge and the ability to survive are much more important than dps. Consider the aforementioned Argaloth encounter: If a single DPS dies during the fight, it's virtually guaranteed that everyone will.

TL;DR? You're a fool. Go back and read everything under the bolded headings, right now. For those of you who actually managed to stay awake throughout this entire lecture, congratulations! You're now one step closer to becoming a true Cataclysm raider!

Always remember: Knowledge, Survival and Teamwork. Only these things will see you through to victory in a Cataclysm raid.

-Ahzae, Lord of the Waffling Gnome