06-02-2005, 04:07 PM
Alright, I really enjoyed getting the ten Lurkers together to bring down Teremus. It was quite a neat sight, to go from a chance comment in guild chat to getting 10 lvl 60 Lurkers together in roughly 10 minutes to bringing the big guy down.
So..."that time" has come. The second-ish batch of folk have made it to 60, and we've the next 'crop' right on the cusp. Many are early to mid-50's. So where to next? From what I've seen, we can practice both PvE and PvP style. For PvE, I was thinking that there are plenty of monsters around the world that need more than a party of five. Teremus, Volchan (the Giant Elite in Burning Steppes, IIRC), Blightcaller, the Crimson Courier. All of those areas with elite dragonkin...they must be guarding something...we could go see what. PvP...well, there are plenty of Horde places for PvP, or even Battlegrounds.
A comment over the raid channel today was "This was like a mini-Onyxia raid". I have to admit, I was very pleased to see how the raid went down, and how the Lurkers performed. I was very impressed to see, without any prompting, the ridge edge spread out of the ranged attackers. We got the drake into the dip, GG, Sharanna, and Ramala kept it there, and then looking around the rim of the crater-like place, I didn't see more than 2 Lurkers standing together, so that if the drake broke, it'd only hurt a couple of us.
I'm still not sure how it broke and picked on Tahapenes, but GG and Sharanna did an excellent job getting aggro back quickly enough, without dragging the beast out of anyone else's range, it seemed to me. Aleri was quite on the ball as well, being the main healer in a group of 9, and not losing a single soul (Except for that gold farmer, but he deserved it... *G*)
So it seems to me that we are 'there'. We have reached the area and mass where we can begin raiding, even if it's "only" 10-20 man ones, to start out. We need some polishing, but we are very, very good players which ought to work in our advantage. ;) We also have some very experienced raiding folk among us who we can turn to for pointers and tips. So that conversations like mine and Tal's don't re-occur.
Tal - "There's Loch! Invite him! Convert to a raid!"
Me (as I was group/party leader) - "Sure!....Um...How?"
Yes, my only other ever raid experience was Blightcaller, and I was just along for the DPS and the kill.
So let's open this thread up to some raid specific tips and whatnot.
For instance, I keep hearing about CTRaidAssist. I've only seen screenies of it, and it looks to me like it basically magnifies the little raid screen in the social window. Now...is this really important for every member of the raid to have, or just for the raid leader/healing crew?
I also had to promote some people, so they could use CTRA. What does that promotion do/mean, and why can't they use CTRA without it?
There is virtually no information about raids in the WoW manual, so filll us in with your experience. What do we need to know before we start up raiding?
Some other things I thought about at work tonight, mostly involving group composition/tasks. Who does what? I mean, I'm familiar with an MT's role, somewhat knowledgable about an MA's role, and know what the healer's tasks are...but only in a 5 man setting. How does the 5 man move to the 40? Does a 40 man raid need only a single MT? If they have a couple more warriors, do those ones stand back so that they can charge in if the main falls, and become the new main? Would having a 5man group full of just healers be a good idea, if they all had CTRA and could see everyone's health so that they didn't have to be grouped with them? Is there a dedicated "healer protection 5man"?
Is it just everyone firing on the MT's target after s/he's locked it down while the healers heal like crazy? Who gets to/should be in melee range, and should no one but the MT expect a heal, and thus they should be prepared to heal themselves, by way of pots/bandages.
Let's get the ball rolling on the theoretical raid discussion, what's worked and what hasn't, so when we reach the practical stage, we have a good idea of what to try and what to avoid doing.
So..."that time" has come. The second-ish batch of folk have made it to 60, and we've the next 'crop' right on the cusp. Many are early to mid-50's. So where to next? From what I've seen, we can practice both PvE and PvP style. For PvE, I was thinking that there are plenty of monsters around the world that need more than a party of five. Teremus, Volchan (the Giant Elite in Burning Steppes, IIRC), Blightcaller, the Crimson Courier. All of those areas with elite dragonkin...they must be guarding something...we could go see what. PvP...well, there are plenty of Horde places for PvP, or even Battlegrounds.
A comment over the raid channel today was "This was like a mini-Onyxia raid". I have to admit, I was very pleased to see how the raid went down, and how the Lurkers performed. I was very impressed to see, without any prompting, the ridge edge spread out of the ranged attackers. We got the drake into the dip, GG, Sharanna, and Ramala kept it there, and then looking around the rim of the crater-like place, I didn't see more than 2 Lurkers standing together, so that if the drake broke, it'd only hurt a couple of us.
I'm still not sure how it broke and picked on Tahapenes, but GG and Sharanna did an excellent job getting aggro back quickly enough, without dragging the beast out of anyone else's range, it seemed to me. Aleri was quite on the ball as well, being the main healer in a group of 9, and not losing a single soul (Except for that gold farmer, but he deserved it... *G*)
So it seems to me that we are 'there'. We have reached the area and mass where we can begin raiding, even if it's "only" 10-20 man ones, to start out. We need some polishing, but we are very, very good players which ought to work in our advantage. ;) We also have some very experienced raiding folk among us who we can turn to for pointers and tips. So that conversations like mine and Tal's don't re-occur.
Tal - "There's Loch! Invite him! Convert to a raid!"
Me (as I was group/party leader) - "Sure!....Um...How?"
Yes, my only other ever raid experience was Blightcaller, and I was just along for the DPS and the kill.
So let's open this thread up to some raid specific tips and whatnot.
For instance, I keep hearing about CTRaidAssist. I've only seen screenies of it, and it looks to me like it basically magnifies the little raid screen in the social window. Now...is this really important for every member of the raid to have, or just for the raid leader/healing crew?
I also had to promote some people, so they could use CTRA. What does that promotion do/mean, and why can't they use CTRA without it?
There is virtually no information about raids in the WoW manual, so filll us in with your experience. What do we need to know before we start up raiding?
Some other things I thought about at work tonight, mostly involving group composition/tasks. Who does what? I mean, I'm familiar with an MT's role, somewhat knowledgable about an MA's role, and know what the healer's tasks are...but only in a 5 man setting. How does the 5 man move to the 40? Does a 40 man raid need only a single MT? If they have a couple more warriors, do those ones stand back so that they can charge in if the main falls, and become the new main? Would having a 5man group full of just healers be a good idea, if they all had CTRA and could see everyone's health so that they didn't have to be grouped with them? Is there a dedicated "healer protection 5man"?
Is it just everyone firing on the MT's target after s/he's locked it down while the healers heal like crazy? Who gets to/should be in melee range, and should no one but the MT expect a heal, and thus they should be prepared to heal themselves, by way of pots/bandages.
Let's get the ball rolling on the theoretical raid discussion, what's worked and what hasn't, so when we reach the practical stage, we have a good idea of what to try and what to avoid doing.
~Not all who wander are lost...~