n00b’s guide to beginner’s raiding: anivyl

anivyl

n00b’s guide to beginner’s raiding

May 20, 2008 02:02

Originally published at Closed Doors. You can comment here or there.

before i start, can i just happily announce that for May’s batch of happy gems, consortium has finally decided that after this long at revered, they will reward me with 2 blue gems finally?

Damn stingy bastards. Oh, and

to more gaming posts (height of stress signs

)
In the days that followed my last “noob’s guide“, i have been playing on my alliance character and therefore somewhat qualified to join a guild with M, my mate on that server. There i met a fresh 70 warlock, who had rl friends who plays the game but none of them, said warlock included, were ever decked in purples, much less raid gears. None of them have seen raids either, from what i have gathered. So, this is some love to the said warlock.

Introduction

Firstly, read the original noob’s guide. This is because there’s a lot of helpful hints in there as to why some guildies might have seemed rude to you when you asked to tag along in TK. I might repeat myself here anyways, but do start from there.

Now, first of all, let it be understood that raids are very different from instances for various reasons. Some of them are common sense to people who have played MMOs for most of their lives, but for the sake of this post, do understand that not many people might have played MMOs before WoW. The way WoW has been, it’s popularity has often been because it was easily accessible and understood by even people who has never gamed before - and does not take that much time or effort to get started.

Most of the “hardcore” stuff, and fun stuff, starts at 70. Raids are differentiated and ranked according to the Tier tokens that they drop. Furthering the complications, mobs and their AI also gets more difficult/complicated according to the loot that they drop (common sense, but again…). With that in mind, this is how raids should be attended according to the order of difficulty/no. of people in terms of progressing, bearing in mind that most people progress from those raids once they have loots for most of the core people (healers and tanks) from the previous tier.

Karazhan - 10 man
Gruul’s Lair / Magtheridon - 25 men
Serpent Shrine Caverns / Tempest Keep - 25 men
ZA - 10 men (Ok, i lied. Za is kinda in between 2) and 3) because of the mix of gear levels in there)
Black Temple/ Mount Hyjal - 25 men
Sunwell - 25 men

Basic Expectations
So, with that progression in mind, let’s start with some of the basics that i have mentioned in the original noob guide:

You have to be geared enough for the raids. There are raid minimums for every single tier, when unfuilfilled, this can cause incredible lack of dps/heals/protection. While alot of guilds have got Karazhan down pat to the point of purely farming Karazhan (and getting annoyed if people screw up
), this doesn’t ignore the fact that Karazhan is still an entry-level Raid. Most new guilds would start there, unless they are a geared split from another guild.This means that new Characters intending to gear up for progressive raids (or basically get somewhere in progressive raids) should start at Karazhan as well.
With the necessary gears in mind, it should be noted that one shouldn’t try and skip one tier raid over another. Of course you can try, play with trash mobs, even mess around with the bosses of Sunwell (for example) if you get there. In all reality though, unless you are the only shitty geared person, perhaps you should just leave the high end stuff for later. You know, strats and dps works better when you are not busy kissing the floor.
Always, always, always read up on Boss Strats. even if you’re going there as an assigned teabagger, it would be wise not to be a fried teabagger - who wipes the raid on, say, Aran.
Find out the raid sign up procedures, and go sign up. This cuts down the need to bug people to invite you to raid if they have already got a raid going… and you aren’t invited. It also makes it fairer (if the guild works right) for everyone since you have already signed up and they can’t say “you didn’t sign up, sorry, join the next page of wait list.
Find out about loot policies, wait list policies and abide by them. please don’t fucking whine, spam guild chat with incessant “but i am a newbie…” or “i have waited for an hour, shouldn’t i get a chance” bullshit. if you’re late, if you’re a newbie, sit in your corner, listen to instructions and ask if you can have an item POLITELY if it’s suitable for you.

Raid Minimums

All that, before you even enter Karazhan. But wait, there’s more. Because this is dedicated to a fresh 70, here’s some idea of raid minimums:

(yeah i know, i suck at putting tables up in WordPress, and i am too lazy to upload a text file for you to download)

these are just MINIMUMS. They aren’t recommended and because of the availability of many good gears out there, there would be some expectations. each guild differs in terms of raid minimums, so do check with your guild at the end of the day.

Narrowing that down to specific classes though, there are some things that should be noted:

As far as clothies go, if this is your first character, you should first and foremost be a tailor. Dedicate some time into levelling it up. While you are levelling up, there’s more than adequate amount of humanoid-type mobs that you would be killing (and i know this because i am BOTH a tailor and first aid person largely from my own mats) that would produce your cloths for your tailoring. The only other reason why you should be lagging behind in terms of being a tailor is the difficulty in obtaining, say, rugged leather.

If you are rushing through your levels, then at least bank your cloths. This is vital when AH might prove to be just abit lacking. If you need a guide to Power levelling your tailoring, here’s a link - Click.

The importance behind being a tailoring clothy is because at the end of your tailoring levels, you can make your own epic armour. They even come with sockets! These choices of armour can give you the running headstart you need to meet those raiding requirements. They are a pain in the arse to make, and the cloths are currently at 3.5 days

down per 2 cloths (when you spec into a particular cloth). However, the trouble of getting them dumbs down the need to run heroics a gazillion time in the hope of some all right gear for raids.

Gearing up for Karazhan:

And here’s some clothy gear suggestions i guess:

Warlock: Frozen Shadoweave Set (from Tailoring)
- Progresses into: Tier 4 Voidheart set
Mages: Frost starts with Frozen Shadoweave, and Fire & Arcane Mages starts with SpellFire
- Progresses into: Tier 4 Aldor Regalia (choice of name o.o)
Priests: Holy starts with Primal Mooncloth Set, Shadow with Frozen Shadoweave

On a personal note, i have never found the Tier 4 set bonuses to be that much better than Primal mooncloth enough for me to care to upgrade it to Tier 4. With that in mind, and the right gemmings, i currently stand at 1.9k +healing un-buffed, i think, obviously with some Tier 5 trinkets and stuff here and there (and before anyone starts, I haven’t raid or done anything badge related in about 2 months, so stuff your fat ass elsewhere).
With helm and leggings, with some luck, you can get drops off Botanica/Shattered Halls instances a couple of recipes that forms the Spellstrike set. These, while a bitch to obtain (if not, go badger some lover to make it for you), aids in the spell crit and spell hit capping for caster dps. For healers, Whitemend is your best friend.

Anything that you are missing (bracers, gloves, shoes) go BG some and get some welfare epics. The tip for getting gears, with regards to drops, is the more the stats (+int, +stam, +spell crit, +spell dmg), the better it would be for you. So if a trinket comes along with like 1 stat, as compared to say another one that has 2, the one with 2 wins hands down (unless it’s like, +1 stam, +2 spell dmg).
Enchants

So now, you should have a 5/5 set bonus on top of the sets, and a 2/2 for your head and legs, and they are epics that will last you for at least a month. It’s time to bling them since you had be wearing them for that long. Pants wise, if you are scryer and exalted with them, Runic Spell thread works for DPS-ers, whilst aldors exalted gives Golden Spell Thread for healers. If you are not related to either of them, just grab a friend and have them make what you need. It works regardless of your loyalties.

Aldor’s Shoulder enchants comes with more Spell damage, but less spell crit compared to Scryers. On a personal level, since i haven’t played caster dps in raid formats, i can’t tell which is more important. But, in my own judgement, i had say spell damage is probably more important due to the increment of consistent of damage over time as compared to reliance of a chanced crit.

Healers would be some what torn at this i guess. Scryers offer 22 +healing (at exalted) but with 6mp5, whils Aldors offer a flat 29 +healing. Mp5s are really sweet for long ass raids though, so it’s not entirely negligible and if you have shitty side gears (trinkets, bracers), that’s something to be taken into consideration.

Head enchants: Glyph of Power for Casters (revered with shatt), Glyph of Renewal for Healers (revered with Honor Hold/Thrallmar).

the rest of the enchants for your gears, use your head. Unless you’re an enchanter levelling up your skills, i highly doubt you need dodge rating as a caster.

Gemming

Can i just point out, being a jewelcrafter is a PAIN IN THE ASS? ok, QQ completed.

This is really a no-brainer, but in order of what’s important as a dps-er, starting with cheap gems:

Gleaming Golden Draenite and Great dawnstone should be used when you are just starting out and trying to get hit capped.

Healers, You should use this in accordance to what you think is currently needed. If your gears make up for your mana regeneration, then go for more +heals and so on.

Mods

Ahh, my favourite topic. To start with, you do need mods for raiding. If not for some basic knowledge of where you stand in raids, at least whether the mob is about to start whaling on you next. Suggested required mods:

SWStats - Dmg meters

Omen - Threat meters

OrA2 - At least to see who you are going to assist off…

Bosskiller - more useful if you have read up strats…

Some Loose ends

do not forget your consumables. Wizard oil/Brilliant mana oil for Weapon rubbing, Food for spell dmg/Healing/mana regen and of course, FLASKS. The more output you have, the higher chance of success, the less gold spent on repairs and the better you look (as a genuine raider) to others.

Here’s also the obligatory links to guides for Warlocks: Nihilium Warlock Guide and Elitist Jerk’s Warlock PVE guide (which i pretty much took most of the gemmings ideas from!)

Meanwhile, while you are gearing up, don’t forget to pug it, because that’s where you learn your skills from!

And that’s it!

p.s i need a life.

games, blog