Shiny drops. Uber loots. Killing epic stuff. I know you are thinking, "Where do I sign up?" But there is a lot more to raid than the drops and so on. Raiding is not the same as group work, it is a whole new way of play. It is as different as going from solo work to full group work. This little guide is to help learn the "tweaks" we need to make to help raid force become effective.
Buffing
buffs are so vital to all players of a raid. There for if you can buff do so. Even if the raid has 3 of your class! Make sure each group has your classes buffs. An easy way to make sure you get all groups is by opening your Social Sheet (O key) and going to the Raid tab. Once you find the Raid tab you will notice that each group of the raid has a button you can click. This button will produce a miniature grouping set of the other groups within the raid. You can use the mini-sets just like your normal group interface by clicking a person's health bar/name to make them your defensive target.
Role
DPS: In groups our roles are clear and sometimes can be flexible. Ex: A sorc. pulls agro from the tank and the 4 dot mob hits him. That sorc can take a few strikes and the healer can shift targets until the tank regains control. In a raid setting this does NOT work! Often Raid monsters have devastating frontal strikes that can one shot casters or make healing a nightmare. DPS does not have the wiggle room of accidentally pulling aggro and not having to worry about it. Raid DPS is more about control than anything else. Listen to instruction. Always start with Debuffs first. DPS should not come in until the tank calls for it. Heavy hitting DPS should give the tank a little extra time to build up hate.
Healers: In group work healers often had a chance to jump into the fight. Raids need healers that are VERY attentive. Fighting needs to be left on the back burner, let the DPS worry about burning the mob. Raid monsters hit very hard and create a challenge to healers. A challenge to conserve mana, a challenge to know when to heal and when not to. When to use HoTs who to heal and when? The raid healer's focus is the master of effective healing. Tanks should not be dropping below 80% without you starting to heal them. Make sure that you are away from AoEs if possible. If you die, the tank dies, the raid dies.
Tanks: The role of tanks expands in the raid settling. The master of a tank class is vital to a raid. There are no lazy or inefficient main tanks in raid. Becoming a master tank means practice and adaptation. Talking to a raid experienced tank of the same class is a great way to get macros, learn the ins and outs of your class and most importantly how to establish quick, long lasting agro. Learning to create "burst hate" (by virtue burning for pallies for example) is the first step to becoming a good raid tank. An important note to add on to that is when pulling a raid boss you should ALWAYS invul first. It allows for the raid to move in and for healers to have a second to get situated. Tanks will also find themselves off tanking. It is important not to pull agro off the main tank for it will create difficulties for the healers. NEVERuse force pulls unless told to as part of the strat. The 30 second immunity to force pulling can cause a raid wipe in certain situations. Mostly off tanks need to be on their toes for if the main tanks falls or an add spawns they need to be ready to push in and become main tank for that fight.
Role (part II)
The first step to finding your role with in raid was listed above, how to play your class type efficiently. The next step is understanding that raid fights often require us to take on a second role depending on the situation. There are many components to raid that need to be taken care of for it to run smoothly. Timing for example is one. Someone needs to keep track of when respawns may pop. A number of fights also require a timer. Some bosses throw up enchantments, go furious or do a devastating attack. Some fights require attentive poison cures or curse cures. Others may require force pulls or any other little twist to make the fight go smoothly. To fit into all of this is a raiders job. You may not have to preform these tasks but knowing the strategies you will know exactly what you are suppose to be doing. Learn all the roles and you will be well on your to becoming an excellent raider. Taking notes, asking questions and practice are all helpful steps to mastering this section.
Tips
Debuff, Debuff, Debuff always debuffs on a raid mob make or break a raid.
Psionist transfer power to casters and healers the raids ability to keep doing damage and healing is more important then your parse. Use your Hate and Hate transfer abitilies to build main tanks aggro and reduce known players from pulling aggro off the main tank. use your Psionic barrier on main tank to asborb damage.
Bear shamans use deafening roar as much as possible to reduce damage main tank is taking. 100% crit ability
Clerics focus on healing. Try to stay out of AoE range. Some raid mobs do massive AoE damage, AoE debuffs, energy drains etc. Your damage is irrelevant anyway, and standing in AoE just means there's one more character you need to heal.
Rogues make sure you are using your posion darts to increase cast times and slow attack speed. Use the posion dart to make the mob take damage every time it attacks. Imperil every minute
Casters counterspell everything. Raid mobs have powerful spells from curses to aoe that can one shot squishies.
Healers ensure everyone is curse cured. Curses are very powerful debuffs on 5 min to 15 timers that drain power, 0% crit chance, 100% damage debuffs,
-50% incoming heals to name a few
Druids Wither should be up at all times. Allows casters to do even more damage. Okeills shield shoul be use as much as possible on main tank for hard hitting mobs helps keep him alive and buy healers more time to heal.
Dreadknights max out Dreadful Countance one of the most powerful debuffs in game.
Warriors cordinate your group shouts with Dps burns to increase damage aka Sorcs, Druids, Monks, Rangers, Rogues.
Warriors Cleave or Rend armor should be at all times 30% mitigation reduction is huge.
Raid Leaders build groups for what there meant to do. Dont try to make multiple main tank groups cause most fights on raid level only require 1 to 2 tanks the rest of the raid is left alone for the most part. So utilize your strong points split rogues, psi and disciples up to maximize the damage bonuses that they give to the group.
Group 1 has 2 tanks and 3 healers and a psi for power regen. Main tank Group
Group 2 has 4 melee dps, bard and a disciple. Dps group
Group 3 has all casters with a healer in it and bard if possible. Counterspelling caster dps group
Group 4 whatever is left
Healers and Casters that need power and are constantly running out of power make a macro saying something along the lines "NAME, Group 3 needs power please transfer me power" make sure it is in a bright color that grabs peoples attention. To allow the psi's to quickly locate and transfer you power.
Raid should have a macro similar saying "Cursed/Frozen/Stoned/Posioned name, grp #" to allow healers to quickly locate you.
Macros for Psionist /mark Square, next line Time Trick, whatever mezz you want" This allows all in raid to quickly learn what mobs are mezzed and assist the main tank even if spell particles are turned off. People will quickly assoicate the mark of your choice to being mezzed
Civic Buffs
Push these for raids to optimize the raids potential. All raids that expect to be successfull in any way should put the effort in to ensure all these diplomancy buffs are up. Slacking off one hour before the raid is not away to suceed if you have 9 people pushing diplos it dosent take long to push these all up.
RK
cheer the people - domestics - 120
call to arms - soldier - 70
Tursh
Support of the People - Domestics - 70
Tanvu
Raise Moral - Soldier - 70
Stand up Philosophy - Academic - 40
Power of Faith - Clergy - 40
Whistle While You Work - Crafter - 40
Shiny drops. Uber loots. Killing epic stuff. I know you are thinking, "Where do I sign up?" But there is a lot more to raid than the drops and so on. Raiding is not the same as group work, it is a whole new way of play. It is as different as going from solo work to full group work. This little guide is to help learn the "tweaks" we need to make to help raid force become effective.
Buffing
buffs are so vital to all players of a raid. There for if you can buff do so. Even if the raid has 3 of your class! Make sure each group has your classes buffs. An easy way to make sure you get all groups is by opening your Social Sheet (O key) and going to the Raid tab. Once you find the Raid tab you will notice that each group of the raid has a button you can click. This button will produce a miniature grouping set of the other groups within the raid. You can use the mini-sets just like your normal group interface by clicking a person's health bar/name to make them your defensive target.
Role
DPS: In groups our roles are clear and sometimes can be flexible. Ex: A sorc. pulls agro from the tank and the 4 dot mob hits him. That sorc can take a few strikes and the healer can shift targets until the tank regains control. In a raid setting this does NOT work! Often Raid monsters have devastating frontal strikes that can one shot casters or make healing a nightmare. DPS does not have the wiggle room of accidentally pulling aggro and not having to worry about it. Raid DPS is more about control than anything else. Listen to instruction. Always start with Debuffs first. DPS should not come in until the tank calls for it. Heavy hitting DPS should give the tank a little extra time to build up hate.
Healers: In group work healers often had a chance to jump into the fight. Raids need healers that are VERY attentive. Fighting needs to be left on the back burner, let the DPS worry about burning the mob. Raid monsters hit very hard and create a challenge to healers. A challenge to conserve mana, a challenge to know when to heal and when not to. When to use HoTs who to heal and when? The raid healer's focus is the master of effective healing. Tanks should not be dropping below 80% without you starting to heal them. Make sure that you are away from AoEs if possible. If you die, the tank dies, the raid dies.
Tanks: The role of tanks expands in the raid settling. The master of a tank class is vital to a raid. There are no lazy or inefficient main tanks in raid. Becoming a master tank means practice and adaptation. Talking to a raid experienced tank of the same class is a great way to get macros, learn the ins and outs of your class and most importantly how to establish quick, long lasting agro. Learning to create "burst hate" (by virtue burning for pallies for example) is the first step to becoming a good raid tank. An important note to add on to that is when pulling a raid boss you should ALWAYS invul first. It allows for the raid to move in and for healers to have a second to get situated. Tanks will also find themselves off tanking. It is important not to pull agro off the main tank for it will create difficulties for the healers. NEVER use force pulls unless told to as part of the strat. The 30 second immunity to force pulling can cause a raid wipe in certain situations. Mostly off tanks need to be on their toes for if the main tanks falls or an add spawns they need to be ready to push in and become main tank for that fight.
Role (part II)
The first step to finding your role with in raid was listed above, how to play your class type efficiently. The next step is understanding that raid fights often require us to take on a second role depending on the situation. There are many components to raid that need to be taken care of for it to run smoothly. Timing for example is one. Someone needs to keep track of when respawns may pop. A number of fights also require a timer. Some bosses throw up enchantments, go furious or do a devastating attack. Some fights require attentive poison cures or curse cures. Others may require force pulls or any other little twist to make the fight go smoothly. To fit into all of this is a raiders job. You may not have to preform these tasks but knowing the strategies you will know exactly what you are suppose to be doing. Learn all the roles and you will be well on your to becoming an excellent raider. Taking notes, asking questions and practice are all helpful steps to mastering this section.
Tips
Debuff, Debuff, Debuff always debuffs on a raid mob make or break a raid.
Psionist transfer power to casters and healers the raids ability to keep doing damage and healing is more important then your parse. Use your Hate and Hate transfer abitilies to build main tanks aggro and reduce known players from pulling aggro off the main tank. use your Psionic barrier on main tank to asborb damage.
Bear shamans use deafening roar as much as possible to reduce damage main tank is taking. 100% crit ability
Clerics focus on healing. Try to stay out of AoE range. Some raid mobs do massive AoE damage, AoE debuffs, energy drains etc. Your damage is irrelevant anyway, and standing in AoE just means there's one more character you need to heal.
Rogues make sure you are using your posion darts to increase cast times and slow attack speed. Use the posion dart to make the mob take damage every time it attacks. Imperil every minute
Casters counterspell everything. Raid mobs have powerful spells from curses to aoe that can one shot squishies.
Healers ensure everyone is curse cured. Curses are very powerful debuffs on 5 min to 15 timers that drain power, 0% crit chance, 100% damage debuffs,
-50% incoming heals to name a few
Druids Wither should be up at all times. Allows casters to do even more damage. Okeills shield shoul be use as much as possible on main tank for hard hitting mobs helps keep him alive and buy healers more time to heal.
Dreadknights max out Dreadful Countance one of the most powerful debuffs in game.
Warriors cordinate your group shouts with Dps burns to increase damage aka Sorcs, Druids, Monks, Rangers, Rogues.
Warriors Cleave or Rend armor should be at all times 30% mitigation reduction is huge.
Raid Leaders build groups for what there meant to do. Dont try to make multiple main tank groups cause most fights on raid level only require 1 to 2 tanks the rest of the raid is left alone for the most part. So utilize your strong points split rogues, psi and disciples up to maximize the damage bonuses that they give to the group.
Group 1 has 2 tanks and 3 healers and a psi for power regen. Main tank Group
Group 2 has 4 melee dps, bard and a disciple. Dps group
Group 3 has all casters with a healer in it and bard if possible. Counterspelling caster dps group
Group 4 whatever is left
Healers and Casters that need power and are constantly running out of power make a macro saying something along the lines "NAME, Group 3 needs power please transfer me power" make sure it is in a bright color that grabs peoples attention. To allow the psi's to quickly locate and transfer you power.
Raid should have a macro similar saying "Cursed/Frozen/Stoned/Posioned name, grp #" to allow healers to quickly locate you.
Macros for Psionist /mark Square, next line Time Trick, whatever mezz you want" This allows all in raid to quickly learn what mobs are mezzed and assist the main tank even if spell particles are turned off. People will quickly assoicate the mark of your choice to being mezzed
Civic Buffs
Push these for raids to optimize the raids potential. All raids that expect to be successfull in any way should put the effort in to ensure all these diplomancy buffs are up. Slacking off one hour before the raid is not away to suceed if you have 9 people pushing diplos it dosent take long to push these all up.
RK
cheer the people - domestics - 120
call to arms - soldier - 70
Tursh
Support of the People - Domestics - 70
Tanvu
Raise Moral - Soldier - 70
Stand up Philosophy - Academic - 40
Power of Faith - Clergy - 40
Whistle While You Work - Crafter - 40
Leth Nurae
Social Upheavel - Academic - 40
Civic Improvement - Crafter - 40
Benevolent Mood - Noble - 40
Spritual Revival - Clergy - 40
Tar Janashir
Tomb Raider's Strength - Soldier - 150
Dirty Tricks - Soldier - 120
Spirit Aflame - Academic - 150
Afrit
Slaves Grumbling - Outsider - 200
Surpernatural Law - Academic - 150
Azarul Raj Afrit - Noble - 150
Kahl
Harmony of Ideas - Academic - 40
Increase the Watch - Soldier - 40
Right of Way - Noble - 40
Will of the People - Domestic - 40