Raid Basics: Leading a Raid

Being a raid leader can be a tough job. Not only do you have to organise anywhere between ten and twenty-five people into a coordinated force, but you have to have the answers for any questions that come up and try to keep things fun for everyone despite the inevitable competition between raiders.

To put it bluntly, being a raid leader means that whether or not your raiders enjoy their precious raiding time rests squarely on your shoulders. It's a big task.

There are three steps to becoming a good raid leader. They're relatively simple, but they'll take up a lot of your time too, so make sure this is something you really want to do before you proceed.

In the examples below I will show you the resources I use. There are many, many other resources and guides out there, so make sure you look around for yourself too.

Step 1: Education

Raids are much more complicated than anything else in the game. The first thing any raid leader needs to do is educate themselves. First, pick the raid you want to do and look up the details:

Eg. Naxxramas:

I use wowwiki.com for when I begin researching a new raid. You should find a list of all the boss encounters (or even trickier trash encounters) on these pages, and normally a basic idea of the order in which you fight through them. From here, open the page for the encounter you want to learn more about.

Eg. Northrend Beasts in Trial of the Crusader:

On these pages, read up on boss abilities and strategies. Even if they don't make sense straight away, you'll find yourself surprised at how much of it comes back to you when you see it all in action. Which is where the next part of education comes in.

Head to Youtube.com and enter this into the searchbox: 


Tankspot *bossname*

For example, "Tankspot Malygos" will bring up the following video.

Eg. Malygos:

Tankspot.com videos are extremely useful for raid leaders - not just for tanks either. Everyone in the raid will benefit greatly from the knowledge contained within the wiki pages and the videos, and it's that same knowledge that you need to bring to the raid.

The final stage of education is educating your raiders. Once you know what to do, you need to communicate the strategy to them. How this is done is up to each individual leader. I prefer to explain everything via chat before the encounter then let everyone charge in head first; others like to take a 5-10 minute break before each encounter so all raid members can watch the strategy video. In the end, the choices are yours.

Step 2: Preparation

Relatively simple compared to the first step. Try to plan ahead for the raid you want to organise. When planning, ask yourself the kid of questions you would expect your raiders to ask:

·         Where are we going?

·         How many bosses will we do?

·         How long do we want it to take?

·         When is the best time to do it?

·         What are the loot rules?

·         Will there be punch and pie?

Once you’ve answered those questions you’ll have a plan. Now you need to let your raiders know about the plan. Setting a calendar event is the way I prefer to pre-organise my raids, though you are free to go about it any way you choose.

To set up a calendar event, follow these steps:

·         Right-click the day you want to have the raid and select the appropriate event (Eg. Create guild event.)

·         Select the event type, in this case Raid, and select the raid you plan to do from the list that appears.

·         For guild events, guild members can sign up in their own time. Otherwise you will need to invite members to the event manually.

Step 3: Execution

Once the time has come to begin the raid, invite your members (convert your party to a raid using the Raid tab in the Social window) and head off.

Make sure you lay out the ground rules before you begin, as well as anything else your raiders need to know (ie. Loot rules, time frame, etc.).

In a perfect world this would be all you needed to do to have a successful raid, but there’s one last responsibility you’ll need to manage: Leading.

As a raid leader, your leadership style ultimately comes down to you, but you must remember that as the leader you are responsible for the enjoyment of everyone else in the raid and sometimes you just can’t please everyone.

Q: What has two thumbs and
 doesn't give a crap?
A: Your raid leader.

In case of any disputes, be it over loot or wipes or someone getting annoyed at another raider, you must act as the judge, jury and executioner when necessary to preserve the raid overall. I can’t tell you what you should do for every situation, but this aspect is by far the most important of raid leading.

How you resolve these situations will affect your reputation as a leader. People are generally begging to be picked for raids by good leaders and telling the bad leaders “Uh, I just remembered I left my cat in the freezer” and immediately logging off just to avoid them.

In short (hah!): Do your research, set your goals, communicate with your team and be a leader. Like I said, it’s a rough job, but there’s nothing quite like the feeling you get when you watch a team of raiders thrive due to the effort you’ve put in (and watching the lazy leaders fail miserably :P).

Every day is a good day to die... remember that.

-Ahz

Raid Basics: The Raiders Manifesto

For years I've been waiting for a reason to use the word "manifesto" at any point other than when I'm stumbling around in my house alone gibbering it over and over to break the silence. It starts to sound strange at that point (I get a bit of a Gollum thing going on, but that's neither here nor there).

A manifesto is a declaration of intent. In this sense it's a list of actions that any raider must adhere to in order to be considered serious. I know I'm constantly spouting on about the evils of the "srs bznz" raids and, just to be clear, these are not the types of raids I'm referring to.

Win or lose, raiding can be a lot of fun, but a lot of that fun is dependent on the people you're with. You depend on them to act as a part of a team when the time comes, just as they depend on you.

Nobody likes the Boomkin that Typhoons a mob way out of the tank's range.

Nobody likes the priest that lets loose a Psychic Scream into a pack of tightly clustered enemies, only to find them coming back with many, many more.

Nobody likes the guy that spams the Recount meters, screaming "Lul gaiz I did 1st deeps!1".

Thus, here is a simple set of guidelines of the most basic raider obligations, in no particular order (leave me a comment if you think I've missed anything):

1. Know your role:

Note that "know your role" doesn't necessarily mean "know every last-aspect of your class inside and out before you even think about raiding". Everybody has to start somewhere, and people who are trying something new for the first time should only ever be encouraging, not belittled. At the same time, it is up to the person trying something new to have a basic idea of what they need.

A tank should know what abilities are important to them (Righteous Fury, Frost Presence, etc.) and a basic understanding of how threat works. Healers should know about concepts like overhealing, mana management and triage. Dps too need to understand the concept of threat, as well as knowing what rotation/abilities will provide appropriate damage in a situation, but also any utilities that may be called upon as well (eg. Spellsteal).

Like I said, you don't need to know every detail of your class, just enough to have an idea of what you need to do before it all begins. Some guilds are incredibly strict on these sorts of things - others will let you learn by doing (which, incidentally, is what we do).

A basic understanding of your role is the foundation for everything you learn along the way.

(by the way, we already have a list of helpful of helpful links for each class here)

2. Be Prepared:

Make sure you bring enough reagents for your spells, potions and food/drink to recover and make sure your gear is fully repaired before embarking on a raid. Missing something from time to time is fine, whether you just didn't realise you'd run low on reagents or your gear went yellow on the first pull, but I can assure you that a raider who has to go back to town for supplies after the raid spent twenty-odd minutes organising and summoning everyone then that raider isn't gonna get too many invites in the end.

One other thing: Be prepared to wipe. Whether you're on progression content or training new raiders or going for achievements, wipes will happen. Expect a huge repair bill during wipe heavy phases and don't stress out - I never laugh as hard at someone than when I see a raider start screaming obscenities and rage quitting and only one wipe.

Write this down kiddies (and I wish I could think of a more eloquent way to put this): Only obnoxious, arrogant f**ks expect to win all the time, so don't be one.

3. Be Respectful:

This one should be common sense, but for so many people in online worlds it just flies out the window. In any group, particularly raids, you must remember that there are other people with you who are there to enjoy the experience - they are not there solely for your entertainment. Here are some of the things to avoid whilst in a raid:

• Meter spam (it was a team effort; the team succeeded, not you).
• Generally being a nuisance (uncalled for typhoons, thunderstorms, constantly chatting during boss explanations, spamming annoying emotes, etc.)
• Criticism. Do not criticise a persons performance based on meters or what you think you saw. Feedback is encouraged, but do not be condescending ("lul ur deeps sux dued")
• For that matter, spell like an adult (no constant "lulz", "ur", "i r beet u in deeps", "pl0x", and so forth).
• For the love of Gawd, please stop frigging jumping!

Ahem. Raids are extremely difficult to get organised and running. To have a raid successfully start only to have 9-24 people pissed off at one person's behaviour, heh, believe me when I tell you that that person isn't going to last very long.

4. Have Fun:

WoW is not work. Raids are not a chore. This is not your job and it is not a responsibility for you or for anyone else to go raiding. We do it because it's fun or because it's a challenge or because it's simply funny. In any case, if you're not having fun then you're not doing it right.

So there you have it, basic guidelines for a good raider. Note that not one of these is "be awesome" or "know everything", nor are any of the guidelines considered a capitol offence should you go outside them. As long as you don't ignore them completely, you're a good raider.

One other thing I want to point out (because my guild members are entirely too paranoid about what I write :P) is that this is not being written specifically for anyone in the guild.

In fact, I can think of only a few instances where a guild raider has bothered me in some way, and I made myself clear to those people at the time. Harms Way are easily the best collection of players and raiders that I've had the privilege to spend time with and if I had something I needed to tell them, it wouldn't be said quite so publicly.

This is intended to be something of a handy reference for other people, be they budding raiders, aspiring raid leaders or other guild masters... and I honestly hope it brings them more fun moments.

-Ahz

The Uncredible Jerk image by Mark Lautenbach

Raid Basics: Healing and Silent Heroism

Raids are like cars.

I really wish I could think of a better metaphor, but I have a headache. I hate cars, really. It will become painfully obvious to any and all who read this that I don't know the slightest bit about them.

Think of the the raid as a car. The tanks are the chassis, protecting the occupants from the environment during any given trip.

The dps are effectively the wheels to make sure that the car can move.

Healing is the all important engine. Without it, your car is going nowhere, except maybe downhill (see what I did thar?).

Today we're focusing on healing. For anybody wanting to become a healer I always follow this exercise:

• Pick your favourite hero (Batman, Spiderman, etc.) and ask yourself, do you want to be a hero like that? YES/NO
• Think about how that hero is almost never thanked for their efforts, and always blamed when things seem to go wrong, despite it never being their fault. Still wanna be a hero? YES/NO
• Now think about the constant, everyday struggles that they have between saving people as a hero and fighting to keep the tiniest bit of "normal" they have in their lives outside of saving people. Think about the stress they're under, trying to manage these things all at once, including the point above... Still wanna be a hero? I mean, really? YES/NO

If you answered NO to any of the above, you're likely not cut out to be a healer. If you answered YES to all three, congratulations! You're likely not cut out to be a healer either. You're a fool and a sadist, and maybe, maybe, you have what it takes to be a healer but only the strongest survive in the world of healing. This is your first lesson, never forget it.

Basics:

As a healer there are three cards constantly in your hand that need to be managed.

1. Triage. This is the golden rule of healing. Healers need to decide on the fly who can and can't be saved. We also need to decide whether someone should be saved. Essentially, we decide in a matter of split-seconds whether you get to live or die.
2. Mana. The second most important resource on this list (the first being the hp of your group). Zero mana equals death, and this is something that the healers must manage alone. You can rarely blame someone else if you've gone OOM (out of mana).
3. Threat. This is an almost trivial thing for most healers, but you still need to know how it works. A healer pulling aggro is like having your car break down in the desert - you and everyone with are boned.

How to Handle Them:

Triage is the sole basic skill that can only be learned through experience. It is the downfall of many would-be healers as well and the cause of most of the stress healers have to deal with.

Say you're in a raid encounter and six out of your ten members, including yourself, have just taken severe damage. It's your responsibility to heal them all, but where do you start?

First, you need to understand the healing priority. Out of everyone in the raid, your priority list should be something like this:

1. Yourself
2. Other healers
3. Tanks
4. Anyone else whom you need to complete the encounter
5. Dps

There are also two main types of healers as well: Tank healers and Raid healers. The priority above is for raid healers. Tank healers simply ignore priorities 1 and 2.

I'll let you decide on why this healing priority is effective, and whether or not you wish to follow it. Knowing roughly how long any given member can survive against an encounter mechanic is the tipping point of triage and can only come with experience. If you've read this far without giving up on healing then we already know you've got the stones to heal - from here you have to take every opportunity you can get your hands on, whether you think you can do it or not. Challenge yourself!

Mana is relatively simple when compared to Triage. In order to ensure you'll have sufficient mana for an encounter, you'll need to do some studying. Do some research, find out what gear/stats/talents will most greatly benefit your healing style. Odds are that if you know these things, put them into practice and have gear roughly appropriate to the encounter you're facing (so gear that is slightly below the quality of gear that drops from said encounter) then there is nothing holding you back from doing your job perfectly well. Of course, knowing the encounter helps as well, but we've covered that off in triage already.

The other mana related issue is overhealing. Casting your biggest heal onto a target that has full hp (or soon will) is a waste of mana and can contribute heavily to raid wipes if not managed. Countering overhealing comes down to study again. Know how much mana each and every heal in your arsenal costs, how long it takes to cast and how much it will heal for and you can basically avoid overhealing completely - unless someone stomps your heal, but we'll save that for later.

Still here? The last issue is aggro. This is something that no healer ever really needs to worry about, though I must point out one thing: If you begin to heal as a tank body pulls (aggro's a mob by running over to it) the beasty will take one look at you and then rip your squishy body to pieces. Car breaks down, journey stops, everyone complains at you for over-revving the engine.

That's about all there is to know about raid healing. Check this post for links to your class to get help on the appropriate stats/gems/talents/etc.

Lastly, as a healer you will be the hero who remains unnoticed and unthanked - but you will begin to recognise other healers for what they really are, and they too will know you to be such a hero as well.

-Ahz