Split-Screen :: The Game-Geek’s Daily Read

by Oreo

After a long list of boring builds here comes the fun part Raiding. Raiding is time consuming yet fun and you get great gear.Raids are parties of 6-40 people divided into 2-8 groups of up to 5 players. The terms raid and raiding primarily and traditionally refer to PVE raid-specific instances and zones. If you’re the party leader, you can convert your group into a raid group by accessing your “Social” Panel, selecting ‘Raid’ and choosing “Convert Group to Raid.” From then on, anyone you invite will join your raid group (up to a maximum of 40).

Starting a raid

A leader of a party can convert the group to a raid by clicking the “Convert to Raid” button in the Group window. At this point it becomes a “group of parties” with up to 8 parties, each with 5 characters.

Instance grouping guide Part - 1

Running Instances with a group of five or more players is one of the three major ways to spend time in World of Warcraft (the other two being solo play and PvP). The key to successful group PvE is working together as a team, the first and most important hurdle being good aggro management. A group with a bad mixture of classes with good team play always outperforms a group with a perfect mix of classes which doesn’t properly work together. The most important aspect of group play is that all group members know without doubt which of the three following roles they play, and put this primary function above everything else.Tank: The tank is the group member who should take all the damage. Tanks don’t deal (much) damage themselves, their job is to gain and hold aggro on all mobs (a.k.a. enemies), and make sure nobody else is hit. A tanks primary task is to ensure survival of the healer. Personally I hate being the tank because it’s the most boring job one has, to keep the agro and take hits. I like to call tanks as the punching bags of the raid Healer: Healers do no damage at all — even if this means they have nearly nothing to do at all on some pulls. They save their mana to keep the tank and everybody else alive. Healers can die from their heals drawing aggro.Damage Dealer (a.k.a. DPS): A good damage dealer knows how to kill mobs without drawing aggro, a bad damage dealer doesn’t and dies. The central and most important rule for damage dealers is “dead = 0 DPS”

Secondary Roles

After the above three functions are well understood and practiced, proper understanding and handling the following functions further increases the partys efficiency:

• The Leader (mark mobs with Raid Target Icons) – like marking the Tank so that all the members of the raid know where the tank is which includes slacking members.
• Puller (start the fight with the first hit on the mob) – the Punching bag or the Tank does the pulling.
• Crowd Control (CC, take mobs temporarily out of the fight) – the Dps members take care of the other mobs.
• Off-tank (OT, tanks extra mobs) - off tank is like a safety valve in the raid. He tanks the extra mobs and can take over the tanking if the Main tank dies.

Group Combat in Detail (Instance Grouping Guide Part – 2)

Raiding can be Broken Down into the Following simple yet complicated for some steps :

1. Preparation
2. Pull
3. Aggro Building
4. Damage Dealing
5. Aftermath

Preparation

Preparation is a essential part of raiding. Before Engaging a boss all the caster’s need to put buffs on all party members. If u don’t get the required buff just whisper the caster to give you the buff.

The Pull

When all the members are buffed well and are ready to go i.e. not AFK then the leader can tell the Tank to pull the Boss and the fight has begun. Be careful not to pull the boss if you arnt the tank or it can lead to a wipe which will in turn lead to some nice compliments and a raid kick. The raid leader should also make sure that everyone is ready.I remember in a PuG raid to Black Temple once all the healers went AFK (Away from the Keyboard) and the tank pulled Illidan Stromrage who took him down in one hit and the whole raid wiped out. So its always good to ask if everyone is ready to start the battle before actually pulling the mobs so the raid group has 100% efficiency.

Aggro building

After the pull the DPS should not start blasting away, they should wait for the tank to get aggro so that the bosses attention stays on the tank. The tank should get adequate time to build up agrro. Ideally the DPS should wait till 97% before attacking the boss.

The Battle

The Battle should be precise and controlled so that everything goesbaccording to plan. Novice players tend to pull extra mobs by moving too much and leading to a wipe or getting more aggro than the tank by starting to nuke the target before 97%.

Post Battle

Post battle everyone is supposed to roll on the various drops. It is VERY essential that you roll on the items that you need and can use, for example a Mage can roll on Cloth damage items and should not roll on mail leather or any other type of item. Rolling on items which u cannot use by a player is called a Ninja. One should avoid Ninja’ing at all costs.The raid leader should also wait for all the members of the party to regain their mana before moving on to the next boss.

You are dying (Don’t Panic!)

You’ve only got a little health left. There’s a monster beating on you or a spell flying at you and your cloth or leather garments aren’t doing you any good, don’t panic, if you are about to die and cant do anything try dying as close to a party member as possible as it will be easier to rezz you and don’t release.Do let the rest of the party know that you have aggro. The healer and tank may not have noticed. The tank has ways to pull all mobs onto him, and the Healer will usually have a fast heal or some kind of shield to help you out.

The tank is dying (Emergency Tanking)

If the tank is about to die the Off tank should me ready to take over and the backup healers should me ready to heal him. Ideally if the healing is good and the tank is well geared the tank should not die and if he does then kick the slacking healers :P.

So that’s raiding have fun while you’re at it and be sure to follow the rules :

1. Listen to the Raid Leader

2. Roll on your Current Build and don’t ninja (like a mage or a priest rolling on Mail items which they cant use)

3. Remember the Raid only aint for you, its for all the members so if u don’t want anything from a boss and still the raid is gona do the boss don’t whine and remember there might be other players in the raid who can use the gear dropped from him.

4. Communicate and communicate more. If you didn’t get a buff that you wanted politely whisper the player who can give you the buff and wait patiently.

5. Patience is the key. Some boss fights can go on for hours so one should not lose his/her patience and have enough stamina to last through the boss fight.

6. And the last rule is just to have fun and enjoy raiding which in my opinion is the best part of WoW.

In my next Article I will talk about the Essential Raid Addons that one might need which makes raiding much more easier.