So you've reached 70, met attunement requirements and you're ready to raid. Or are you? Here's my opinion of the traits required to make a good raider in no particular order.
Patience
When it comes to raiding, especially 25 man raiding there is going to be an element of waiting around (although not as bad as in the good old bad old 40 person raid days). You're also going to wipe on bosses. And then wipe again. And again. Until you learn the fight. If you haven't got the patience to go through this learning stage or to handle waiting for everyone to rez, rebuff, cover the strats again, make some adjustments to group composition and then pull raiding is not for you.
Tolerance
Do you get absolutely infuriated when someone screws up and wipes the group? Well it happens, and sometimes it will be you who caused the wipe. Everyone screws up, show some tolerance and keep a positive attitude, no one wants to raid with someone who froths at the mouth at every mistake.
Respect
Respect can really cover a broad range of things. It's about being courteous in your communication with others. It's about respecting that sometimes RL intervenes. It's about not inundating vent or raid chat with whiny QQ about subject X. It's about listening and following the orders of the raid leader or leaders. Conversely it's about respecting that people may have an alternate opinion or viewpoint on how to handle a particular aspect of the raid/fight. Respect is one ingrediant in successful teamwork. If people don't respect each other they will have a hard time working together.
Skill
I don't care if you are rolling in full T5 - it's your skill at playing your class I care about not your stats. Skill means understanding your talent build, your abilities and the myriad ways you can use them and applying that knowledge practically. I'd rather take the mage in a mix of greens and blues who knows how to play their class over the epixxed mage who doesn't understand aggro management and keeps pulling the boss and wiping the group repeatedly.
Knowledge
Knowledge is a precursor to skill in my opinion. It is theoretical skill. Knowledge only becomes skill when you put it into practice successfully. I can have knowledge of how to chain trap but until I can successfully put that knowledge into practice it is not a skill. That's why you read up on your class, on other classes on raid composition and strategies for different boss fights. Successfull raiding means understanding and being able to leverage knowledge about other classes and the boss. The more knowledge everyone brings to the raid the more it can leveraged. At the very least know your class.
Preparedness
There's a real shopping list of stuff to have ready before you raid as you can see in my personal list in the image above. Preparedness can also be considered an element of respect. Don't keep people waiting because you forgot to grab ammo. Seriously. If you can't get prepared to raid then you're probably not ready to. That said we all have those 'doh' moments every now and then but they should be the exception rather than the rule.
Whether you're hardcore, softcore, casual or whatever in your raiding it's my belief that the above traits will go a long way to making you a successful raider and welcome to raid with people who want to succeed.
Friday, February 8, 2008
What makes a good raider?
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1 comment:
Agree again with everything!
Think that its also important to know your limitations both as a player and character. This can mean not putting yourself into a raid if you're getting tired, or a little over-raided for the week. If you're sick of Kara, then go do something else (BGs), or help the Kara run till somebody else can switch in.
It can also mean that sometimes you shouldn't take a character who is not ready. I don't like it when a character who is undergeared comes along to a run; as it makes everyone else have to push harder, and the fights become a touch less forgiving.
Also nothing says quality player as much as somebody who can let ego slide for the betterment of the group. Agro'ing the raid members is far worse than arrgo'ing the boss (I'll need a separate threatmeter for this).
My story: Back when Kara first started for us I took my Warlock along, and he was not ready. It showed in the Damager Meter, and it showed in our results. Later I did my research and found out what I needed to have to come along, and made sure I had it for the next time (it only took a week with targeting runs and a bit of luck). And I can distinctly remember a few guildies who made comments about how much improved I was, and in that run we kicked butt.
This will help avoid the scenarios that cause people to get nasty and bitchy in the first place.
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