Raiding etiquette!

[QuantumDelta]

A 'few' things (although it's a lot of things if you read the parts for everybody, but i'm sure people will want to), to help runs go smoother ^^;

It's written in a very raid orientated nature and stresses the organisation involved in helping to not stress out raid leaders, and visa versa -> raid leaders to help keep the raid flowing nicely.

Raid Leader:
The most influential person in any given raid, this person should develop habits and philosophies to give depth to his or her raid leading.
A Raid leader is commonly someone who organises the raids, carries the CTRa Broadcast(if not MT specific fight), and orchastrates raid progress.
The entire raid should be trusting of this person.

In practise a Raid Leader should not be dealing with the actual current combat situation in any active fashion, in a good raid the members will be aware of what a fight entails, and if they're not, they should be asking NON-RAID LEADERS who are experienced members how a fight is run for this guild.
What a raid leader should be doing, is monitoring raid status, whilst taking for granted that the current pull can be handled by the raid itself, whilst this is happening they should be looking at the rest of the environment, the /next/ pull, the pull /after/ that, they should also be aware of patrols and respawns, generally speaking, it is a raid leaders job to keep the raid flowing at all times, ground standing will destroy your raid far faster than any mob, except maybe Vael...
- To be noted, once a raid tactic has been established for an engagement, it is difficult to change it for a raid, a raid leader once skilled has a beyond-comprehensive knowledge of every class, and their exact roles, as well as individual-noteworthy-player skill level, this should be factored into pull timing, don't insult your raid, challenge them, test them, keep them on their toes.
Finally, explaining a boss fight counts as ground-standing, and this is when people turn off, people will start to lose attention - even the most dilligent hardcore raider will eventually get bored by overly explained boss fights, especially if that boss is on farm, healing arrangements should be simple Group: 1 Heal MT 1, Group 2 Heal MT2, Group 3 heal MT3, and so on, special exceptions for certain bosses that do require setup times are those that require raid-re-arrangements for the fight.
Generally speaking in Molten Core, this purtains only to Ragnaros.
If your raid has experience on a boss, you should have your tanks established as you finish the Pre-Boss Pull, your groups should be pre-informed as to the healing structure, and you should mana up, and go - occasionally bosses will require re-buffing before go, this should be fast smoothe and pulls should be very quick after the last trash mob is cleared.
Springing a tactic on a raid at the last second is fine, but if you always do this, and constantly change on farm boss fights, people will begin to feel nothing other than your tools, playing in your little game to amuse you, this is perhaps the easiest way that I've seen raid leaders lose the respect of their members.

The MT:
The MT(s) is(are) the most valuable person(peoples) in the raid, if they're kept alive for the duration of combat, you have won.
To this end if a healing/MT team are compitent and knowledgable, DPS is insignificant for most fights in the Pre-AQ40 Game.
The MT must wholeheartedly trust in the knowledge and capability of the raid leader, they should also be willing to take on more than their fair share of work if problems occur in combat, where as the bulk of the raid should always be trying their hardest, the MT(s) should be looking to take on more than they're capable of if needs be.
If a Tank dies, it wasn't healed enough, fairly well known motto, a warrior of Magdalena's, or even Yukirina's gear level, can tank 2 or even 3 Major Domo Adds if their healers are skilled enough, the MT must have faith (and this faith must be justified healers ) in their healers that they will be able to sustainably maintain their HP even whilst tanking more than one mob.
An MT must also be ready and knowledgable enough to call other tanks their adjustments/jobs in a combat situation if the situation changes, for this reason primarily, tanks should be on ventrilo, above anyone else, and paying attention on ventrilo.

Experienced Class member:
These are people who have been raiding with the guild for a long time, and have a lot of insight into the class, these should be fairly well known people by now, and the raid leader is unfortunately always one of them, these members should be trying to take on questions and ideas from the less-experienced members of the raid and guild, trying to deal with them and orientate answers to give the best information about the class to the member.
An Experienced class member should be looking to make sure everyone in their class knows what is expected of that class in any given situation(boss fight/significant trash mob).
These members should be making the class aware that questions should be asked well before you arrive at a boss so that you can rationalise the role in your head before you get there.


Member:
This is the bulk of your raid, these people should be paying attention and giving their utmost the entire time, the better contribution from everyone, the smoother the raid, and normally the more fun people have, you can chat happily on ventrilo or ingame when everyone is doing there job, because it means the people above so far mentioned in this post, are not having such a stressful time helping things go smoothly, and therefore require less ventrilo space to run the raid.
These people are what the raid is for, and the raid wouldn't exist without them, this does not however mean they should allow themselves to be babied, they should be pushing forwards and trying to take on more tasks and aiming to quickly catch up to the "Experienced Class Members".

New Raider:
These people may be experienced raiders, but as I'm sure anyone who's ever swapped guilds will tell you, every guild does things differently, for this reason, even if you are a capable raider, you should be asking questions, constantly, - informed ones, please.
New raiders should be going to ground and trying to get as much information and baring on the situations they will be facing and how it will be handled for their class, as soon as humanly possible, don't focus on loot, focus on your job, loot will follow.


Loot:
Loot is a tool, it is a stepping stone, it is not shiney, it is there to help you, and your raid mates do their jobs.
If you are a hunter, a rogue, or a DPS warrior, or even a Paladin, and you see a Binding of the Windseeker drop - Realise this weapon is useless for non-tanks, there are better purple weapons for DPS out there, however this is the best weapon in the game for a Tank, and it should without a doubt always be attributed to the main tank, or, the main off tank of the guild.
If you are a Priest, or a Druid or a Paladin, and something with +healing and spelldamage drops, you should very carefully evaluate the level of usefulness of this item for your character, spelldamage, ALWAYS comes with healing, and therefore is commonly regarded as a Mage/Lock/Balance Druid item, though there are occasions where (The Tear, trinket from Nef) items are actually the best item in the game for both sets of classes, there are a lot of situations where the item is good for one class, but the best item going for another.
Please be considerate when you think about loot, enjoy passing, take comfort in seeing other people obtain items, these items will help you as well, even if they are not on your character.


Classes:

Druid:
A Druids job may vary, for this reason, they should consider carrying a few sets of armour, typically speaking a druid is primarily regarded as a healer, and therefore their effort and DKP should probably be focused here.
Your decurse is one of the most valuable abilities in MC, there are several engagements where, curses, if not removed will result in a wipe, although a druid can compete as a main healer, they should be aware that druids are one of only two classes that can decurse, whilst being one of three classes that can heal.
This does not however mean you will be alone in decursing, as the mages without a doubt should take vital decurse fights on as their main responcibility, but be aware you can vastly help others out by doing so.
Don't underestimate swiftmend, it's one of the most powerful talents in the game, in PvP and in PvE.
Innervates are sadly, best spent on priests, a priest will have the highest of all classes in terms of spirit in a raid typically, and therefore benefit the most, try to save your innerves' for them, they will love you for it.
Never innervate a Paladin, they are on the level of most hunters for actual amount of spirit, and benefit the least in a raid.
Heal little(down-rank), heal often, but be ready with nature swiftness or swiftmend for big heals, pump your +healing stat, and try to get yourself 3/8 tier 2 as soon as possible, it helps greatly, use your heal over time spells, they're very valuable, and will be even more so in the expansion.


Paladin:
Paladins are like druids, somewhat diverse in their roles, a Paladin correctly specced and geared can deal significant damage, however there are many dynamics (Which I wont go into here but if people really are interested come talk to me) including a social-aspect that prevents paladins from competing with other classes in DPS - even in the slightest, in raids, so you really are better off healing.
That said, the Paladin has a powerful array of support buffs and the most powerful debuff removal tool in the game, don't underestimate it, there is a magical mana burn in one boss fight in MC, there is several damage over time spells in other boss fights, there is a magical silence in molten core trash mobs, atop that there is a regularly under-estimated poison in Zul'Gurub that sleeps the victim, if a tank contracts this and falls asleep he loses agro and the snake will go kill a healer (or try), normally this isn't too fatal, but that's typically only because the instance trash is designed to be zergable.
Anyway, a Paladin is easily capable of being a main healer, he can also change gear to tank adds or even bosses if required, an excellent Paladin is one that can adapt to any situation, who also knows when and where to best use DI incase of a wipe and no present locks/soulstones. - Paladins also have some of the most powerful wipe-saving-tools, in BoP, LoH and DF, learn to use them, learn what priority comes of your blessings (Salv>Wisdom>Kings>Light - Unless there's several Paladins, where light becomes as important as Salv).

[QuantumDelta]

Priest:
Priests, you're commonly seen as the raids main healer, you're the easiest class to maintain a tank in an adverse situation, you can catch the most burst damage in a dependable fashion, and you can cover the most AoE healing for your party as well, however you must be distinctly aware of your own mortality during that time, priests are very fragile in PvE, and unlike PvP where they have a lot of survival mechanisms in PvE they only realistically have one: Fade, learn to keep your thread down, understand that fade is a TEMPORARY REDUCTION OF CURRENT THREAT. - Fade is also an excellent tool for agro sensative fights, as well as it's immediate temporary threat reduction ability, fade serves a dual purpose, any heals that are fired off whilst you are 'faded' are permanetly threat-reduced, a faded heal is the lowest threat heal in the game, however there are very few situations where this heal is worth the mana cost and fade cooldown.
Where as Paladins are the batteries of the game, priests make for the best team-work healers, GHeal rotations are viable options when tanks are extremely well geared for the content they're doing (read: Gheal never actually becomes a viable option for a typical fight), Your main stats are Spirit, and +healing, with these two entow you can heal for extended periods of time, and as soon as you stop healing, your mana regeneration (after5 seconds) soars through the roof, also the more spirit you have the more you benefit from innervates, and the blue dragon card.
Typically speaking, spell crit is not that valuable for priests, inspiration is mediocre at best.

Warrior:
There are two raiding varieties of warrior, DPS and Tanking, be aware, that if you are a DPS warrior, Dual Wield Fury is the best DPS you will get, anywhere, any time, apart from PvP burst, one warrior should be asked to keep mortal strike for the benefit of the raid (Relevent for select bosses only), generally speaking the mainstay of warriors in a raid should be protection up to defiance, even the MT can skimp on protection points infavour of fury up to a point.
DPS warriors should be distinctly aware that they're actually pretty useless, they pull agro quickly(faster than any other class if they're DPS as well as they can), and die just as fast as a rogue - on the whole to a raid, this adds not a lot, if you're a warrior, you are there to tank, any other perception is delusional. If you are going to DPS you should be closely monitoring your threat, every time you pull agro you have failed, and if the content weren't so trivial at the time you would have gotten more than just yourself killed.
Warriors will not always be tanking, so it is good to have a spec that can putout DPS and mitigate damage at the same time, when you are not tanking you should be looking to put out the maximum DPS you can PRIOR TO PULLING AGRO - you should assure yourself not to be pulling agro as it puts the entire raid at risk.
If you're wearing gear that means you can't cope with a situation change for the worst and you immediately need to tank, you are wasting a raid spot, that would be better given to a rogue, or a hunter.

Warlock:
Warlocks are quite variable in their roles as well, speccing for raid utility in their pet(s)/healthstones/etc, or speccing for out-and-out-damage, there should ideally always be one or two warlocks specced for utility but the mainstay of the class members should be looking at putting out the maximum potential DPS without pulling agro.
In MC Warlocks should be quickly ready for banishes if something goes wrong, they should also be aware of their own frail mortality.
Generally speaking warlocks put out extreme amounts of threat, so they should be just as careful as dps warriors.

Rogue:
Rogues put out low-threat damage per second, in comparison to most other classes, they are also capable of an agro wipe via use of a reagent, rogues should be looking to attempt to deal the maximum amount of damage possible, their job is pretty much limited to this and this alone, therefore Rogues should happily look towards keeping themselves alive, although maximising damage is something that would obviously require you to be in melee doing damage the entire time, but dead DPS is no DPS at all, so consider your mortality when doing your utmost, generally speaking a rogues job is relatively simple, keep up SnD, keep feint on a cooldown whenever it's up use it again, use sini or backstab depending on which you're specced for and try to work out your DPS per Energy Tick to find the most suitable DPS formula for your spec.
Melee is normally where the most damage from mobs is suffered, so do your best to stay alive.

Mage:
Mages are normally rolled to be the big nuker in the game, unfortunately this isn't quite the design that blizzard has given them, although it is easy to put out high amounts of damage as a mage, this damage comes with high amounts of threat, and it is quite easy to pull a mob off a tank as a mage if you're not careful.
Mages have a very valuable ability in terms of decurse, curses can wipe raids, don't underestimate them, if you're all decursing it takes considerably less time for anyone to do it.
The main stats of a mage in *PVE* is Spelldamage>Int>Spirit, though 'glass cannon' mages with very little stamina put out major amounts of damage they are the easiest class in the game to kill, or have die by AOE, for this reason mages should look at rounding their stats a little bit, and working on their survivability, for this reason, speccing frost is an easy solution.
The arcane tree has a regularly overlooked talent: Meditation, this talent is one of the mages most powerful *For raiding* as it allows a mage - especially in end game gear, to simply continue on nuking, forever.
Mages have the unfortunate task of providing water to the raid in it's entirity, but if you log on prior to the raid this isn't so much of a problem as you're not found pre-pull, or even in fight-being asked for water, apart from by those who are tardy or irresponcible (or too busy with other tasks, that are normally raid orientated).

Hunter:
Hunters....
Hunters are the only true DPS class in this game, since they can dump their agro at any given 30 second interval, they can put out as much damage as they like, quite happily, also, considerin they are ranged, and a low-responcibility class (Exception* Tranqing), generally speaking their job is to go pedal to the medal DPS, learn when you need to feign and when to go light on the DPS and you'll be laughing.

As to tranqing, several things should be noted:
Several people can fire a tranq at the same time, only one will hit and tranq the opponent, obviously, however all of you will go on cooldown, for this reason order must be observed.
Since a "recent" (1.10?) patch, tranqshot can no longer be fired at a target that has no frenzy, to this end, when it is your turn in the tranqing order to fire, you can mash the tranq key until you do, infact, fire, and then report that you have gone on cooldown, if this tranqing style is observed, it does not actually matter if your tranq hits, or misses, as the simple fact that you are on cooldown means the next person should be "mashing" their tranq key.
Typically speaking fights need only 2-3 hunters to tranq throughout the game, however, there are several fights where you will want backups for the increasingly likely misses that will occur.


In a raid, morale is everything, most things should be morale orientated, and people should look to keep others spirits up.
Try to come prepared for raids (reagents, pots, etc), and try to support eachother as best you can, a raid is a team thing, there is (even in raid leaders) not that much you can do in terms of individual skill in a pve 40 man raid that will make or break your raid, if there is, then it's normally because of a defficiency in your raid, not so much an outstanding accolade of yourself.

[Brandonheat]

I can summarized QD's posts in one sentence

Thinking in terms of guild progression, not self progression.

[lili]

One hell of a novel

[Plovske]

Wall of text crits Plovske for 212421564.

[RagingDeath]

HUH?!? i am not fury qd and i always go 2h. So a lil love for the arms wars plz. But very nicely done on raid ettiquette!

[Sofia]

Quintessential 1,5 years of raidexperience here, nice work stu (aka Teddy )

As you said, it captures 40man raid experience - so many participants means unfortunately that classes are pigoneholed in very restrictive roles to max out efficiency. BC will rewrite some of those "laws", i guess. So ill expect hybrids to become true hybrids in a way as to fulfill multiple roles either on the fly or as per need of group composition... smaller raids (!), new skills & talents catered around synergy & talents which encourage to take on multiple tasks. (viable pally tanking? got to see it to belive it) All in all BC will soften up the classmix... thats my impression.

The ground standing part cracked me up -.- If there would be a honor system for idling... us folks on outland would have been the high Lazylords.

[QuantumDelta]

HUH?!? i am not fury qd and i always go 2h. So a lil love for the arms wars plz. But very nicely done on raid ettiquette!

It's more or less saying - don't wear leather, etc, and be ready to swap to your sword'n'board if things hit the fan ^^;

Fury warriors are actually the best (agro-per-second) agro generators in a typical MC-BWL raid, they don't mitigate as well as a prot warrior but the ones that know how to ...... utilise certain aspects of the spec can easily tank if an MT dies, if the MT doesn't die you really just have to be careful not to pull agro that's all.

2h vs DW fury, in raids currently DW Fury is the highest DPS class in the game with equal itemisation and ignoring threat gains, but a DPS warrior will pull agro whether he's DW or not before he reaches that 'theoretical cap' that's the only reason why rogues are better DPS... cuz they can dump all their threat and DPS even harder.
You'll start to see this happen when you guys get to BWL, and very dramatically so in the 2nd boss fight whereall the warriors (realistically) end up tanking Vael.

Keep your stamina high and your damage mit at a good level, look up the 'conquerers' set from AQ40, very good example of what I mean ^^

[Zargor]

Fury warriors are actually the best (agro-per-second) agro generators in a typical MC-BWL raid, they don't mitigate as well as a prot warrior but the ones that know how to ...... utilise certain aspects of the spec can easily tank if an MT dies, if the MT doesn't die you really just have to be careful not to pull agro that's all.

Healing Armed when he was tanking chrommagus from 60% -> 20% in full dps gear + shield was hmm interesting >_>

[QuantumDelta]

Fury warriors are actually the best (agro-per-second) agro generators in a typical MC-BWL raid, they don't mitigate as well as a prot warrior but the ones that know how to ...... utilise certain aspects of the spec can easily tank if an MT dies, if the MT doesn't die you really just have to be careful not to pull agro that's all.

Healing Armed when he was tanking chrommagus from 60% -> 20% in full dps gear + shield was hmm interesting >_>

ROFL so fun