Raiding rebooted

[Swad]

A few people have started trickling back to play again after a break from the game and with that we have started poking around with raiding again. The new Frozen Halls dungeons are providing some fantastic farmable item level 219 gear on normal as well as some T9 equivalent item level 232 gear from the heroic versions. Emblems of Triumph are easy to pile up now on random heroics with anywhere from 5-8 emblems per dungeon depending on boss count (yes, 8--Oculus has more incentive now if you read Gryphon's recent post). Trade them in for some nice shiny stuff from Arcanist Miluria in the Silver Enclave in Dalaran (or Arcanist Asarina at the Argent Tournament Grounds) or build your entry level T9 set from Aspirant Forudir at the Argent Tournament Grounds.

All in all, it doesn't take too much effort to gear up to a level that's appropriate to run stuff like Onyxia, Vault of Archavon or Trial of the Crusader for raids. That said, there's a couple other gaps that people need to help fill. One is better learning class mechanics to push to the next level on healing, tanking or DPS'ing. ToC 10 and beyond require that people learn to DPS to their highest potential, to heal efficiently and not run out of mana too soon and to tank properly as not to die / maintain holding threat / not causing the raid to wipe from bad positioning. All in all--people need to know their classes better to perform better on raids. There are many resources to help in this.

• The class forums on Wowhead.com. Gryphon has taken the time to put sticky posts up at the top of these forums that link to important threads on various class mechanics and information
• The class forums on Worldofwarcraft.com also have sticky posts to useful information at the top of the various class forums. Don't be afraid to check the European forums as well as they sometimes have additional information.
• The class forums on Elitist Jerks forums are good for a bit more advanced theorycrafting. They help you squeeze out even more miles once you've figured out the core mechanics of your class. These are my personal favorite when it comes to getting the last few miles out of mastering a class.
• Wowwiki.com is a good resource for various other things, though typically the information here doesn't go quite as deep when it comes to fine tuned guides on class information.
• Google never hurts. Most classes have entire websites / blogs dedicated to the discussion and theorycraft of how to get the most out of playing the class. Make sure you're looking at current information and not old stuff, though. From patch to patch, the best play mechanics can change a quite a bit (or not). This applies to the above as well as some guides can get old and not be updated. Look for dates changed if available or indications as to what patch the information applies to.

For DPS, don't be afraid to use test dummies to get used to rotations and attack priorities (depending on how your class / spec works). While a test dummy isn't going to prepare you for all the variables of a boss encounter, it will help you get used to how to run your attacks properly to understand them. Tanks and healers just have to improve their game with the encounters themselves.

Lastly, it would be very helpful if people would research bosses for raids rather than just relying on the trial and error of the encounter or someone else trying to regurgitate how the encounter goes. There are great written strategy guides and videos on Wowwiki.com that try to cover in detail how encounters play out and what the various classes need to do during the encounter. (note: some videos just demonstrate the encounter while others actually have someone narrate what is going on with the encounter and what classes need to do. Don't be afraid to search for the various raid encounters on youtube.com as well.) Being more informed about what to expect with an encounter will better help the raid to be successful without so many wipes.

All in all, I think we're doing pretty well. We did pretty well on ToC the other night--all things considered. With a bit more individual and group work, I think we can start knocking out all of ToC and start to put our eyes on Icecrown Citadel later. Above all, we need to keep things fun and not so serious that playing becomes a burden. A little extra mileage from each of us on learning classes and encounters, though, should not take away from this.