User:Yoda/Guide Raid

= How to lead an effective raid. =

Lesson 1: The basics.
First off, you're going to need a raid group. To get one, either become very popular on your realm/server or find someone who is, alternatively join a guild and progress up to raid leader by showing an aptitude for world of warcraft. Now, before you get the actual group you might want to read the rest of this guide, especially lesson 10. This guide is not a step-by-step, it's a reference point for someone who has more than half a brain, ok? Now, you want to know where to start. For the purposes of this tutorial, we'll assume you're level 70 and your raid group is also, we'll also assume everyone is universally attuned (attuned to every raid in the game). A good raid to start with is Onyxia's Lair, as it is simple enough for the raid leader - provided you have a good tank and you've been to ony before so you know what to expect. Plan in advance what you want to achieve in the raid, and make sure you have tactics that work in theory. For Onyxia, the main thing you need to worry about is getting a tank who's done ony before, since it's your first raid. What you're looking for is high fire resistance, high armor and high health (at level 70 expect no less than 100 FR, 10k armor and 10k health - the figures are likely to be a fair bit higher than this even). Now you have your tank, you need lots of ranged DPS - look at warlocks, mages, shadow priests and oomkins. Avoid oomkins if possible as they are renound for being inept. Once you have at least 5 ranged DPS classes, you should be looking for some healing. Healing can be found in holy priests, holy paladins, restoration druids and restoration shamans. You're going to need a fair few healers, so be sure to have at least 5 of those too. These figures are rough estimates, so don't worry if you only have (say) 3 healers, it'll be a bit more work for them but the phase 3 AoE (deep breath) will be easier to control and avoid. Once you have healers, look for anybody who wants to join the group who isn't any of the above (randoms). These will plump up the raid a little bit and, as long as you choose the right classes, might even make it a bit easier. Now you need to start the raid. Get everyone heading towards the instance well in advance of the time you plan to start, as some people may take quite a while to get there. If anybody stays wherever they are demanding summoning, you should let them know that your raid is quite happy leaving them there and starting without them. Summons are to be handed out to people IF AND WHEN a warlock arrives at the instance with two helpers before other people who are too far away for it to be worth waiting. Patience is going to be scarce, so make sure you have a firm hand dealing with lazy people. Once you arrive, make sure everybody goes inside and buffs at the entrance. Watch the buffs carefully and advise classes which groups haven't been buffed as needed. DO NOT DEMAND BUFFS, and deal with people who do strictly. Advice is appreciated but demands just annoy people and are likely to cause a great deal of stress. Some raid leaders decide to buff outside the instance, this is fine, as long as everybody gets buffed it doesn't matter. Don't buff some inside and some outside - it just confuses things. Now you're inside, buffed and ready to go. Make sure everybody is ready before you start. This is probably a good time to initiate a ready check (using blizzard's raid UI or CTRA if everybody has it). If you have CTRA, perform all the various checks you need to (/radur, /raitem candles, /raitem thorns, and so on) if everything is good and ready, start pulling trash. For onyxia, you'll want to keep everyone away from the trash as they have a very high damage AoE, but I'll leave tactics for another guide. Suffice to say you want ranged DPS on the trash and a tank who can hold aggro away from the group. Once you've cleared all the trash, it's time for your first boss encounter. Check everyone is ready before all boss encounters and pulls, it's very dangerous to start without doing this. Onyxia goes through various phases, which you'll want to send up raid warnings about. A good example is "/rw >>> Phase 1 <<<" which I believe is part of the CTRA or Vendetta bossmods addon. Either way, good addons don't make a good raid leader so don't worry if you don't have them - just be sure to send up raid warnings when an event occurs (like ony phases).

Lesson 2: Loot
There are a few ways to organise loot rules, and because it is important to be certain when you're a leader I'll only outline one here. The loot method I prefer is "Master Looter", because it allows the raid leader to control the loot entirely. For this to work effectively, you have to have a master looter who can decide who the loot goes to fairly. You can do it yourself, but you often have a lot on your mind while you're leading a raid so it's probably a good idea to let someone else do this job. After all, good leaders know how to deligate! For master looters, I'll make a quick outline of some of the conditions to be met by a player before they can get an item. 1: Class - they have to be the right class for the item, otherwise don't even bother with them. It helps to check the stats on the item and consider whether the class they are actually benefits from having it. 2: Current equipment - you don't want to give away loot to someone who you know has better gear already. They should be asking for it as a greed item - not a need item. 3: DKP - on most bosses in most raids (guild raids) you'll take DKP into consideration, and allow people who meet the above criteria to "bid" on the item using DKP. If nobody meets the criteria above you should probably ask an enchanter to d/e the item, then either use Raid Roller (if you have it, which you should have as ML) or let people /roll, but beware of people trying to dupe /roll as it is easy to lose track of who's rolled when you're in a large raid (25 players or more).

Lesson 3: Mages
Mages are an AoE class, and ranged DPS. They can produce water and food for the raid if needed (although avoid relying on them to do so as it is quite time-consuming and can annoy mages quite a lot) and they have crowd control (CC) which can help on some boss fights that require it. What you should consider when inviting a mage to join your group is whether you have enough ranged DPS already, and whether or not AoE is going to be necessary to your raid (usually is necessary). You should consider individuals based on their mana, their talent build (frost is probably the most favoured among mages and raid leaders, although I prefer arcane mages. Entirely personal preference in this regard as most mages are capable of what you require regardless of talent spec) and (like all classes) their personality. Look for mages who are happy to create water and food for your group, happy to buff and happy to provide CC when it's needed. Let a mage know when you want it to AoE, as many mages will do directed DPS until told otherwise.

Lesson 4: Druids
Druids are versatile. Always make sure you know what type of druid you're getting before you start, rather than finding a druid then forcing them to do the job you require. This shouldn't be the case, you should be able to ask a druid to do whichever job is needed but unfortunately in order to be good at anything druids have to specialise in one particular way. For instance, a druid with points in all three talent trees and gear for all four jobs (spell dps, cat, bear, heal) will never be as good at any of them as the class designed for that job. This is a major gameplay flaw that is unavoidable. Druids have to specialise, losing much of their versatility in the process. However, don't be put off from inviting druids as many of them are exceptional at the job they have specialised in. A feral druid, for instance, can tank but also provide off-heals if the raid goes south (provided you have an offtank who is capable of taking aggro for a few moments with a taunt while the druid heals as necessary). As long as the druid knows how to play their class, some pretty neat tricks can be pulled out of the bag to save potential wipes. Look for talent spec - look for talents in more than one tree as a player who puts all of their talents in one tree has specialised too much and in a very haphazard way, it's almost a given that these players will also be very bad at playing their class, although I have seen one or two play quite well despite their poor talent build. Always always always ask a player his talent build before inviting them, regardless of class. I cannot stress that enough.

Lesson 5: Warlocks
Warlocks are ranged DPS and can provide offtank or CC if necessary and they have the right build. Look for high stamina and talents in demonology, although this is just a bonus. Demo warlocks are useful but only slightly moreso than any other warlock. This doesn't mean specifically deny any warlock who isn't demo, just take into account what the points in demo do - also, don't assume just because the player isn't 100% demo it doesn't apply, take any points into consideration when comparing warlocks to other ranged DPS classes. Make sure that the warlock knows how to control his/her pet as in many cases wipes can be caused by a pet set to aggressive instead of passive or other pet mishaps. Allow warlocks to advise you about their class (if you're not one) this goes for any class, but warlocks especially. Conflicting opinions over warlocks' role can often spark major arguements which can ruin a raid before it even starts. Some think they can kite, some think they can't, some think they're a ranged DPS class only, some say they can pull aggro off a tank to allow him to regen for a few moments. It's all a matter of opinion and generally a warlock who says he can do something will be able to. If you're nervous about any class arguing with you about their role, make sure you have a few of this class in your raid - it can't hurt and it means any issues you have can be discussed rationally with people who probably know their class better than you know their class. Soulstones, healthstones and other stones are to be provided on demand - but don't let players literally demand them. Soulstones only go on ressers (not including druids) and healthstones don't go to druids as they can't be used in shapeshift form so it's a waste of shards. IF a warlock doesn't have enough shards to perform a certain responsibility, first yell at him for lying to you (you should have asked him prior to the raid if he had enough and declined warlocks with too few shards unless they were prepared to grind more while the raid was being organised) and then organise a miniature grinding party to go and retrieve shards from the nearest possible zone. If you're doing a fun-run in an instance too low for you (MC, Ony, BWL, naxx at 70) then it's probably easier to simply replace the warlock or just assume he's not a warlock for the purpose of handing out health/soul stones.

Lesson 6: Hunters
Hunters, or huntards as they are (somtimes affectionately) known, are another ranged DPS class. Watch out for this class as many of them are clueless imbosils (no offense to the ones who aren't, you have to admit it's a class often played by idiots) so just beware. Personally I avoid hunters I don't know as I am very cautious but this doesn't mean you should. When played right, hunters can out-dps any other class by quite a fair margin. A beast mastery hunter (like a demo lock) is an added bonus as he can definately pull aggro from a tank for him to regen. Watch for macro-users as many BM hunters have found it easy to just put the pet on auto-kill and fire one shot while they wait around doing nothing. This affects their ability to raid (somehow) so just be on the lookout for AFK huntards. I have a slight prejudice towards the class because of their reputation (which I feel is deserved, based on the hunters I've met in PuGs), sorry vespad, kierang, elf and all the other hunters I know who actually deserve medals for picking such a hated-on class and sticking with it to 70. I salute you!

Lesson 7: Shamans
Shamans are new to me (alliance player) so I can't say much about them, except that they have good totems. Make sure your shamans know when to put totems down (ie, during a pull) and where to put them down (ie, between the mob and the raid). Allow players to request totems from shamans, but don't let people push other people around. This is another tip that goes for every class, as a lot of people demand things quite rudely tbqfh and it's not very nice to be around that sort of person in a raid. A shaman will always know best about which totem to put down, so settle arguements in their favour. After all, it's their class. Look for shamans who appear intelligent, as with any class, but generally they have a good survivability in raids so don't worry too much about picking shamans over a supposedly "better" class. Remember, your word is final so if anybody disagrees with you about inviting a shaman let them know you're not going to change your mind. Always have at least one shaman in case of wipes, they can reincarnate and res people if the worst happens.

Lesson 8: Paladins
Paladins are another high-survival class so let healers know they're quite low priority for heals. Organise with the paladins which paladin is going to provide which blessing to which class before they start buffing, and organise the paladins in each group to provide an aura beneficial to the entire group, not just themselves. Even if the paladin is retri-spec and has a better retri aura than devotion, if he's in a tank group (he's melee dps so put him in druid tank/melee group for the +5% crit buff) he needs to use DA. Also organise which paladin is going to use divine intervention in the case of a wipe, as two paladins using it at once is a waste of a cooldown. Make sure all ressurection classes know it's their responsibility to recover wipes and pick up corpses between fights.

Lesson 9: Priests
Priests are often considered to be a healer-only class, however shadow priests can provide a good source of DPS if you're lacking in it. Also, shadow dps heals the group (so long as vampire's touch is active, which is normally will be) which is a bonus worth considering when weighing up a priest against a mage (for instance). Let the priest do as he is specced for, ie- don't make a shadow priest heal. Warn priests that they will always be expected to heal if the situation calls for it, regardless of spec. They have the spells still so why not use them? Don't, however, press this point as it will be a sore issue for many shadow priests.

Lesson 10: Warriors
Warriors are good tanks, but also good DPS. Allow them to do whichever job suits them and make sure they are happy doing what they're doing. Take into account magical damage dealt by bosses and check the resistance stats of warriors you're considering for tanks. Weigh up warriors against feral druids by taking into account both the emergency heals of a druid and the various shouts of a warrior. Hopefully you'll have one of each and you can let them battle it out amongst themselves who is main and who is off tank. Take into account a feral's damage reduction and health points in unbuffed bear, and a warrior's damage reduction and health points unbuffed. Also take into account a warrior's shield - providing the "block" ability which druids lack. Defense, dodge, parry (not for druids) and resistance are all things to be considered when choosing a main tank, but at the end of the day it's up to the person who's going to be doing it to decide. If it comes to it, let them both tank and see who can hold aggro better - there's no harm in keeping someone at second place in the threat meters to take aggro when the main tank either dies or gets some form of CC placed on him.

Lesson 11: What classes do I take?
What classes to take depends on the instance, but generally you want to take about 50% of the raid as DPS, 25% as healer and 25% as tank. This set-up works in most raids and also usually reflects the population of whatever realm you're on so it's easier to get a raid with those figures. Raids requiring ranged dps (ony for instance) should take more ranged than melee, about 70/30 ranged:melee should be enough. Those not specifically requiring ranged dps should take about 60/40 ranged:melee as keeping dps away from the mobs is generally a good idea, and ranged dps tends to be higher anyway. Melee dps has its uses though so keep them around.

Lesson 12: Advanced Techniques
12a: Dynamic Target Setting (DTS) Using the target system, set targets before the pull then swap them around when the first mob dies. EG: SKULL - gank TRIANGLE - hibernate CIRCLE - sheep trash in UBRS - drakki's room (let's say) is the setting Put the triangle on the dragonkin, the circle on one of the adds (pref. caster) and the skull on another add. Once the skull is down swap the skull to another add, down him and move on until the triangle/circle are the only ones left. Now put the skull on the triangle (to avoid confusion use the same ganking icon throughout) and leave the circle as he can continue to be re-sheeped. When he's down, down the sheep - don't worry too much about targetting him with the skull as it will be fairly obvious what to do.

12b: Raid Warning System (RWS) Utilise the /rw command to inform players when something happens in the raid, for instance warn players that a ninja pull has been made and to run out of the instance while you sort out discipline for the culprit. Don't be afraid to use this a lot as it is very useful, and only slightly annoying. Don't use it to annoy people, and don't use it as a normal method of communication. It is for getting noticed, not for normal talking.

12c: Assistants Make sure you have good friends promoted to assistant to help you as taking the weight off can be very helpful to a raid's success. Don't let just anybody be an assistant, as this will probably result in abuse of power and mod-battles.

12d: Offtank/Crowd Control Whenever possible, get an offtank on one of the adds or use crowd control. This will impede health decline and enable healers to concentrate solely on a tank. It also helps focus DPS as you will have to clearly mark each target for crowd control, main tank and off tank clarification. Hopefully you'll be able to avoid wipes in this manner.

12e: Concise Guidelines Lay down the law before you start, a good set of rules is outlined below in lesson 13, so either copy/paste that into /ra before it starts or get your own set of rules which you can state before it begins. Explain loot rules, explain measures you're prepared to take in the event of a breach of rules (helps if everyone is guilded as this means you can inform their guild when they cock up).

Lesson 13: Discipline
Rules. Make sure you have them, and everybody knows them. My set are below: 1: NO SPAMMING. Anybody caught sending messages to chat that do not explicitly relate to something important to do with the raid during or just prior to a fight will be issued one warning point. 2: NO FIGHTING. Anybody caught arguing about tactics, class roles or anything else in raid chat while the raid is in progress will be issued two warning points. 3: NO NINJA PULLING. Anybody other than the specified puller at the specified time will be issued three warning points and will be given one "phantom" warning point that will become a warning point if any other rules are breached (ie, it's not a point until you break another rule). 4: MY WORD IS FINAL. Anybody who persisitantly argues with the raid leader will be shot and killed, understand? Good, because I'm not kidding around here - I'm no walkover so don't treat me like one. 5: DO NOT BREAK CC. Anyone who thinks they can break crowd control measures before I issue the command will be issued with three warning points. 6: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PAY ATTENTION TO RAID WARNINGS. If I say it in /rw it's for a very good reason, so don't just sit there gawmlessly when I /rw EVERYONE TO THE SIDES ONY IS BREATHING, ok? one warning point. 7: Always stay within 30 yards of "the raid", for those who don't know this is the furthest you can go and still be able to buff people. No warning points will be given for breaching this, but it's still a rule and you still need to follow it - I don't want people accidentally pulling by running off ahead to check what's there.

WARNING POINTS: 1 - you're ok for now, just don't do it again - I've made a note somewhere of your WP so it's not going to be forgotten. 2 - you're heading for a swift kick up the backside, mister! Pay attention in future and quit messing around. 3 - you're going to get kicked if you get another point. Don't even try it. 4 - kick 5 - kick, and guild is informed of decision - measures to be decided by them. 6 - kick, guild informed and requested to boot you, placed on ignore list so you won't get in my raids any more.

These rules are easy to follow, clearly laid out and very fair. I don't see any reason for anybody to want to break one other than to ruin other people's fun so while I'm quite happy letting accidents slide I'm not going to tolerate repeated mistakes that could easily be avoided. You may have noticed it's possible to get 7 points in total but I haven't given a sanction for 7 points, this is because anybody who breaches the ninja pulling rule followed by either the same rule again or the CC rule is going to hell. I'll make sure of it myself. The rule system was devised on a number of points: 1: need to be clear about rules and sanctions 2: need to have a system whereby each rule broken adds up to a larger overall penalty, to prevent repeated breaches of "lesser" rules and because I only really have the kick sanction to fall back on. 3: need to be allow players the chance to redeem themselves, so warning points lend themselves to being taken off again for good behaviour or major dps ^_^ (jk about the dps thing, you could be the best player in the world but if you break CC twice you're still on my ignore list and out of the raid and hopefully out of your guild too)

So that's my rule system.

Lesson 14: Assistants
Assistants should be chosen on two grounds: 1: trust, the people you trust more are the people you promote (duh) 2: intelligence, the more likely someone is going to be able to help you control a raid and warn/target appropriately, the more likely you are to promote them. Keep your assistants under control with demotion threats and warning points (although give them "phantom" points that become active when they are demoted or break another rule, because after all they are supposed to be the players you trust to be good assistants so they deserve a bit of a break!)

Lesson 15: Watch out for
Watch out for ninja pulling, hax (whole raid groups can be banned for just one player having hax) it's quite obvious when somebody is hacking, they run faster, and general idiots. If someone has the name "Ibreaksheepforfun" (impossible name, btw, too long) don't bother with them unless you know them and know they aren't seriously going to break sheeps! Don't let people tell you which slash commands to use, and don't let people tell you what to do. Watch out for backseat drivers who want to lead but don't have the confidence. Make sure people know where mobs are before running through a section of any dungeon, and never let anybody go stealthing ahead without your permission. People are impatient. Watch out for people trying to hurry it along by ninja pulling or issuing false pull commands. At the end of the day, all you can do to someone is stop them raiding with you or your close friends - you can try to stop them raiding with the rest of the server but it's usually quite hard to do so as many people try to get their RL enemies onto server-wide "blacklists" so they generally don't accept people are telling the truth unless you have a very good reason and very good evidence.

Information
Thanks for listening to me ramble on, I hope you picked up one or two pointers along the way. If you ever plan to raid with me you will have to read those rules very carefully so I hope dearly that everyone agrees they are fair and just. Please feel free to email amendments to yoda2031@hotmail.com, I will try my best to consider all points of view. Any additions to be emailed to the same address. All amendments and additions will be credited to the first person who suggested them at the bottom of the page. This is a public document, and credit is given to Adoy of Hellscream_EU (Chris Browne) for the basis of it, however the amendments and additions listed below are credited to the named individuals (using email addresses where names weren't given): No amendments or additions have been filed as of yet.