I am part of a unique group within World of Warcraft: I have a character at the level cap, and yet I rarely raid. I do raid occasionally, but I do it so infrequently that the way I approach raids is fundamentally different from the way regular raiders approach raids. I know I'm not alone in this. Some of us don't raid because our schedules are so inconsistent that we can't commit to raiding with a guild at specific times each week. Some of us don't raid because we play the game to relax, and having all of those other people depending on you performing your job perfectly, ready to pounce on you if you mess up, is anything but relaxing. Some of us simply don't want to repeatedly fight the same bosses over and over again just to earn the right to fight more bosses over and over again. Whatever our reason, we simply would rather not group up with 9 or 24 other people to fight bosses on a regular basis.
That doesn't mean that we don't ever raid. Sure, there are people out there who never do step into the raiding scene, but some of us do dip our feet. We come along when our guild says they need a healer, we PuG a single-encounter raid (like Onyxia or Sartharion), or we may even get bored one night a run a longer raid all the way through. Hell, we may even enjoy it. However, stepping into the raiding scene from heroics can be a scary prospect, which brings us to this post. What follows is advice for people who wish to raid infrequently, just to see what it is like, but don't know how to get started. If you raid regularly or at least have raided, this advice isn't for you. However, if you don't fit into either of those categories and would like to fit into the latter, then to quote Wowhead, "OK HERE IS HOW SO LISSEN GUD."
1. Start small.
The single-boss raid dungeons are good places to start if you want to dip your feet into raiding. They don't require much more time than a heroic, so they will allow you to adjust to all of the other aspects of raiding that will be new to you: the increased number of people, the increased complexity of the encounters, etc. Running those raids also means only needing to learn one boss strategy (or one and a few more simple ones for the sub-bosses). As such, try to start raiding with Obsidian Sanctum, or, if you gear is good enough, Onyxia's Lair.
2. Be realistic about what you can handle.
If you don't raid frequently, you may not have the skills and habits common to most raiders that you need to carry you through the raid. As such, you may need to make up for that lack of skill with your gear. As a casual raider, I can tell you that out-gearing content is a great help when you want to dip your feet in raiding but don't think you have the skills for it. Sure, gear can only take you so far, but it certainly helps. If you just want dip your feet in raiding, use a site like be.imba to gauge the general quality of your gear, then try running a raid that won't offer many upgrades for you. If you get more comfortable with raiding, you can move up into the "upgrade range," meaning you can try running raids that may help you upgrade your gear.
You may be asking, how can one over-gear a raid without ever raiding? Heroics. Heroics these days are an easy ways gear up for raids without needing to raid, helping you catch up with other people in terms of your gear. Even in the days when heroics only dropped Emblems of Heroism, I used heroics to get the best gear one could get without entering a raid, and was more than prepared for Naxx-10. Since then, getting gear through heroics has only gotten easier.
3. Know the strategies
If you don't raid frequently, it isn't worth your RAM to download a mod like Deadly Boss Mods to help you anticipate a boss's attack. As such, you need to know the in-game cues that make raiding without DBM possible. It's imperative that you read the strategies for the bosses in whatever raid you plan on running so that you can be prepared for them. Knowing what attacks are coming and knowing when they will come is an integral part of raiding, and you need to be intimately familiar with the strategies to do that. As a guild I was once in said, casual raiding is not sloppy raiding. You don't get to do this frequently; give it your all. If that all seems like too much to take in, then as Saniel said bellow, ask for a brief reminder of the strategies before each boss fight. Sometimes one little reminder is all it takes to bring back what you read earlier.
4. You are in this for the long-haul.
One of the biggest shocks for a first time raider is just how long the bosses take to kill. Bosses can take anywhere from five to ten minutes to kill, so get used to being in this for the long-haul. If you are a healer, use your mana-restoring abilities early and often and make sure you have enough MP5 so that you don't run out of mana. If you are a DPS, use your cooldowns early and often (unless you need to save them for a burst phase) so that you can cause maximum damage. Above all, don't be surprised when you see how slowly the boss's health meter falls. Also be prepared for how long a raid will take; most non-single-encounter raids will take you a few hours unless you run with a group of people who know the raid inside and out and out-gear it immensely. You probably won't finish the raid in one night, so don't be surprised if your raid leader asks whether you plan on showing up the next night to continue.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
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5. Don't be afraid to ask for help or clarification
ReplyDeleteA lot of times you're going to be running with people who do this a lot and know what's going on. They may get a brief synopsis of the encounter to remind them what to do, forgetting that you're not in the same mindset. Make sure you've done #3 so things don't get held up while you get the full, detailed explanation. But most people would rather take an extra 2 minutes to clarify some finer points before a pull rather than have to spend those same 2 minutes doing it after a wipe.
Very good point, especially about how a short explanation can help someone remember the strategies for a boss fight.
ReplyDeleteI don't really agree about forgoing an addon like DBM. If your computer is insufficient to run a relatively light addon like DBM, there's likely to be greater technical issues that will hinder your ability to raid effectively.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't a question of sufficiency; it was a question of whether its worth it to download DBM when you won't use it more than a few times. I myself have done quite fine without DBM the few times I have raided.
ReplyDeleteA question of whether it is worth it to download DBM? Firstly; it's not a big download, by any stretch of the imagination. Secondly; you acknowledge that it's very important to know about all the things during a fight that DBM will tell you.
ReplyDeleteIt's far less hassle to just download DBM for those rare times you do raid than spend 10-20 mins reading up on potentially several boss strategies, especially if you don't raid very often, as it could be very confusing.
If familiarity with downloading and using addons is the problem, then there's no better time than now to learn.
Good article though, and sorry for nitpicking.
I think it's bad advice. If you're not a regular raider you're already going to be making rookie mistakes, you shouldn't compound it by missing out on cues the rest of us take for granted. You can always turn off DBM when you're not raiding, it's not a big deal.
ReplyDeleteYeah, agreed. DBM would almost help the the casual raider moreso than the RAM lol. Nothing like a flashing screen and a trumpet to tell you you're doing something dumb.
ReplyDeleteDBM is pretty much essential. IF you can't handle the increased system load, then tbh you should be raiding anyway because the raids are often baudwidth/graphics intensive. Even my very fast PC bogs down on 25 mans.
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, if a raid finds out that a member does not have DBM, then if that person is not kicked immediately, the raid waits for them to get and install it.
ReplyDeleteTrying to raid without DBM is just crazy. You have to be so much more attuned to other signals. And if your focus is not normally on the Boss, then you are 2x screwed.
I am the player type that you wrote this article for and DBM is a must. I even read the strats when not signed up for the guild raid just in case I get called in at the last moment (even though that happens very rarely). This kind of article should always end in "DON'T STAND IN THE FIRE". Most everyone still likes to yell that after all these years.
ReplyDelete