last night was arguably one of the best raids our guild has done: it was a whole whack of fun! Jacofox and Blinded lead a solid raid. it was very serious business: like the 70’s p0rn music and more; or the flame dance party pre-Prince with our very own stripper cadre. most of all, it accomplished everything we set out to do and everyone had a great time getting it done.
a little grooving before grinding down Prince
if you are relatively new to raiding, here are some tips to consider.
before the raid:
- if you are leading the event, put it in Group Calendar for others to sign up for; if you are attending, sign up;
- assume everyone has forgotten in the last 15 minutes and constantly remind everyone to be online early – start several days before!
- show up early and gather everything you will need to raid;
- gather everyone up in one place if you can, preferably a major city with access to banks and an AH so that folks can grab their swag and their consumables;
- do something fun while you all wait, to fight off impatience – snowball fights work very well, so do heavy leather ball fights!
- if you are bringing in PUGs, tell them where you are starting from if it is not a fresh instance;
- deploy the full raid or a sizeable summoning team to avoid getting picked off one by one by the other faction;
during the raid:
- use readycheck as a tool to know if everyone was listening in vent – tell them to pick “No” in vent and see how many “Yes” come up;
- brief everyone on how looting works – even if they “know”;
- be respectful to others;
- re-read previous bullet;
- pre-fights, brief the strategy you are using so that everyone is on the same page; then do a readycheck and ask everyone to select “No” if there is anything they are unclear about or if they have any further questions;
- before a boss fight, everyone make sure any healthstones, soulstones, cool downs, whatever you are expected to have available are ready else ask for a pause for them to be ready – telling your raid leader before the fight that your battle rez is 2 mins left on cool down is priceless!keep the vent chatter to only what is required for the fight during the fights; however have a blast during the rest of the time!
- guests will pop in to the vent channel to “see how you are doing” – if you are in the middle of the fight, they will get the picture, do not pollute the vent channel further, let the raid leaders ask them to leave;
- give everyone a chance to grab their badges and then quiet them down so that vent is clear enough that folks do not miss out on a roll; link the loot in raid chat and post a raid warning to let folks know to roll for [X] random /roll 1000; give em a few secs to roll then start to count down audibly in vent: 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 – and assign the loot to the high roller; if there is any question at all, hold on giving out the loot;
- after a boss, *pay attention* to loot rolls so you do not miss out;
- if no one needs the loot, shard it and keep the shards until the end of the raid to be rolled on once at that time; at the end of the raid, do one random /roll 1000 and take the top rollers for the shards;
- before a particularly hard fight, relax and blow off some stress – seriously! chill and let everyone get into their ‘zone’;
- after a major win, take a screen shot – it builds teamwork.
after the raid:
- before everyone leaves, de-brief; find out what went especially right and needs to be repeated next time and find out what needs to be avoided next time;
- high-light exceptional performances;
- thank everyone and invite PUGs to return to raid with us again – it’s a great way to end up recruiting them!
see you in the next raid.
