WOOT, LET'S RAID!
So you're level 85, have tackled some Heroic 5-man dungeons, and are ready to try on this raiding thing for size - now what?! I'm going to mix and match a little bit about raiding in general, along with how we do things here at MOMiT. First are our Raid Policies - you agreed to these when you joined our guild, but if you don't remember, then mosey on over there and do a quick re-read.
Your next task will be to find a raid time and get signed up on our web page. That's here, on the calendar. Also, check out the Event Planning Forum for details on signups. Check often!
When you're first starting out, be sure to think carefully before signing up for "progression" nights. If you're new to the guild's raiding scene, this probably isn't the best kind of run to get your feet wet in. We'll get you into some of the more forgiving raids to start out with. Please don't take it personally if you don't get an invite at first on a tougher night - there are often gear and experience considerations that we have to take into account in order to ensure the whole group can move forward. Plus, we die a lot on these nights.
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO NEXT
We require a few handy tools for raiding. First is Ventrilo. If you do not have this installed, you WILL NOT get to go. You don't need a microphone for this - just listening will be sufficient. Get this configured ahead of time, because it's not nice to keep everyone else waiting. You can find the server info in the "guild information" tab in-game. (Bring up the guild roster, you'll see the button at the bottom)
We also require some in-game addons. Get these installed ahead of time.
- RaidAssist - ORA3 (this provides important info to your raid leaders)
- Threat Meter - Omen
- Some Type of Boss Mod - DBM is the preferred choice
In addition, the following addons are highly recommended. Many years of wipe-tastic experience have gone into these recommendations, so please don't take them lightly!
- Some Type of Combat Meter - Recount and Skada are both good choices
- Tank or Raid Unit Frames - these really run the gamut, so feel free to ask your fellow raiders for favorites
- Customizable Warning Addon - Power Auras and GTFO are both widely used among the guild
Be sure to get all of these working ahead of time. If you have difficulty ensuring that your addons are up to date with each patch, we do recommend using the Curse Client.
We also communicate within various roles or classes using designated chat channels during the raid. If applicable to you, please make sure you join that channel - ask a fellow raid member, or check the New MOMiT FAQ, for the channel information.
ON RAID NIGHT
1) Be on time! Log in by invite time or we will start looking for your replacement; spots are considered unreserved at 15 minutes after invite time! And it should go without saying, but do show up. If you make a habit of not showing up, don't expect invites.
2) Repair your equipment
3) Bring consumables (see below)
4) Activate your mods
5) Head to the dungeon. Be at the entrance and ready to zone in by the "start time" - this is generally 30 minutes after invites.
Ok, cool, now we're all inside and buffing up. Your role will be described to you over Ventrilo for the most part. If possible, you should look up the strategies for tonight's bosses ahead of time on wowwiki.com - we'll likely be using some variant of this info and you'll save the raid leader (AKA Riabla or Dralektus) some time explaining things. For the most part, just sit back, relax and do your job to the best of your ability.
DURING THE RAID
Every guild has its own raid culture, and MOMiT is no exception. To help you with some of the basics, we've outlined a few tips that should keep you from inadvertently giving your raid leader an aneurysm. Intentionally giving him an aneurysm is another story... Anyway, the tips.  These include:
- When in a fight or prepping for a boss encounter, do not speak on Ventrilo unless you're the one explaining the fight. We chatter a bit between pulls, which is awesome and adds a lot of fun, but when it's time to get to work, we put on our game faces and quiet down. The /raid chat is often filled with witty banter and you're totally free to add your own quips there.
- Try NOT to go afk except when a break is announced. We take them often, usually every hour, so try to hold it for a few minutes if possible. Set your /afk flags when you go! (The raid leaders can see when people are afk, so the flags really help.)
- Be prepped for 3 hours of raiding, unless you have otherwise cleared a shortened night with the raid leader.
- Don't take aggro unless it's your job -- AKA "dps slowly at first." Watch your Threat Meter for hints. New DPSers, it's generally a good idea to wait for the other DPSers and observe which target they're DPSing before smashing all your buttons.
- Stay with the bulk of the people. If you see one person move forward, don't follow them! It's probably a scout or a person who is marking targets carefully.
- Warlocks, be prepared to summon soulstones; likewise, mages get your tables ready.
- Do not spam dps or healing meters to any public raid channel. Depending on your role, you may be asked to list meters and other information in your role-specific channel. This is OK if requested, but otherwise some of our folks look down on meter e-peening.
Now you're in the raid, killing stuff, and having a merry old time - you'll be a seasoned pro in no time.
WHAT TO BRING
We're not just talking about your can-do attitude and cheerful demeanor, here, though those are important too. When raiding, especially when learning new encounters, you should be going through your consumable items like they're candy. Yeah, raiding is pricey. Here's my handy list of what to bring along:
- Potions: I recommend 15-20 of the max level healing/mana/DPS-boost potions per run. You might not need them, but they're handy, especially the mana pots. You don't want to be 3 minutes into a boss fight and OOM with no potions. Don't depend on others to bring these for you. PS: drink mana pots early so you can start getting rid of that cooldown.
- Food: Bring one whole stack of your favorite stat food. Food is so cheap and easy to obtain that you should just about always be sporting a useful well-fed status. Don't count on having Seafood Magnifique every night.
- Elixirs/Flasks: I usually bring 2 full stacks of elixirs per run, even if I don't use them all. Remember, they'll keep nicely in the fridge ... err bank, until next run. 1 stack should be guardian, and 1 stack battle. Or just bring a couple of flasks and be done with it.
- Reagents: Mostly this only refers to Dust of Disappearance, but if you happen to have skimped on the "free reagents!" glyph than you may need additional supplies.
- If you're an engineer and want to make friends, it doesn't hurt to have Jeeves along. Similarly, if you're loaded and bought yourself a Gnimo-toting mammoth, be ready to mount up outside the instance when asked.
- The raid leader will let you know if specialty consumables (like resistance potions) will be required.
RAID ID NONSENSE
Raid dungeons are on a "lockout" system. All of the new ones are weekly, resetting on Tuesday morning at maintenance time. That means you may only go once a week to any dungeon (sometimes less if the ID is extended), so be mindful of these. To see if you are "saved" to any raids, type /raidinfo. Remember also that 10 and 25 man raids now share a lockout -- so if you've killed a boss on 10-man then you can't kill it with us (bummer, dude). This goes doubly for heroics. If you don't know how heroic lockouts work, play safe and just don't PuG them.
Please note: If you kill any bosses on a MOMiT raid and become "saved" to an ID, then MOMiT owns that ID. Therefore do NOT run that same dungeon with a different guild/pug until the following Tuesday! You can figure out if you're saved to an instance by typing /raidinfo.
GEAR
The best way to see if your gear is up to par is to pull up the armory profiles of your fellow guildmates, especially others of the same character class. Check out their stats vs yours: HP/mana/spelldamage/crit/AP/dodge whatever. Some fights will require better-geared folks than others. We'll try to keep you up to date on that; ask your Raid Coordinator if you have any questions regarding benchmarks for a particular night. The in-game ilvl information is useful, but ilvl means nothing if you've selected the wrong stats. So use the knowledge you have all around you, and ask your MOMiT friends for information if you need it.
LOOTING
There's a whole separate post about that. MOMiTs can check it out here.
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