Ready, Set, Raid - Raid Awareness 101

Knowing how to play your class is important. Knowing how to gear and enchant also makes a difference. Knowing rotations and stacking for raids, also is important. But KNOWING what goes on around you, can make the difference between life and death...and for a raid, that could mean a wipe or not.

Example incoming >>>>

You are a really well geared resto druid. You have top end raiding gear, and are considered *THE* resto druid of the guild. You're the go-to guy for druid healing, and better yet, your peers want you to heal in Ulduar, awareness city.

It's not your first time in there, you have spent countless hours spilling gold, guts and glory into watching bosses fall to their death, so being in here is another trip to kill some badies.

You get to a boss that requires alot of movement...like old mimrom and buff up for the big fight. You know this fight. Been there, done that kind of deal right? So it starts up...Phase 2 comes along after a smooth Phase 1, and out comes the anti-personnal cannon. You think: laser barrage, random laser attacks, heat wave aoe, and a rocket or two...easy right? Why not, you've seen all his attacks, and know the damage from them playing a healer. You break into Raid healer mode and drop your heals where you see fit, catch an unavoidable heat wave, and drop some additional heals...incoming rocket right where you are, you get ready to move, and blamo! 1 cool million damage later, you die a fiery death in an early battle.

>>>>

What went wrong? you had heals going, you even had a near full bar of mana...but how did you falter on the rocket? Lag? maybe, or it could have been your skill in Raid Awareness.

Raid Awareness isn't a tab you can lookup, or grind to a high skill...it's something you learn about the hard way.

Jumping out of a void zone from an Obsidian Sanctum drake, to switching polarities on Thaddius, to moving out of Iron Councils Rune of Death...all require an innate skill called Raid Awareness.

How does one obtain such a skill? Here's the breakdown for you raider-wannabes:

• Know your surroundings - seems simple enough, but sometimes standing in the lava just won't extend someone's patience for you.
• Move when you need to - If its a Polarity Switch, then move IF your debuff changes from one charge to the other, but don't get twitchy and jump the gun. Sometimes not moving is your best bet. Remember your working with others, so, either lead by example or follow and learn, cause what you don't know, someone else will.
• Maximizing DPS does not mean you live the longest - sometimes boss fights require you to stop DPSing and move, stay still, turn away from the boss, or run on top of a snow pile, and although you might lose some DPS, you'll get to do use that shiney new Rune Edge much much longer.
• Keep your eyes on the fight - yes, they do wonder, either on-screen or elsewhere, you might glance at a healing or DPS chart, look at the TV, tab to change songs on a mediaplayer, talk to someone...the list goes on. Those momentary flicks of your eyes could mean you die from fire on Razorscale, or have Kologram's eyes hit you over and over until you die. Keeping alert and focused can make the difference between life and death.
• Healz...plz? - You can't expect to get a heal right away or all the time if the healers are healing 10/25 people while everyone is taking aoe damage, from something like, Kologram's Obilivion, and during that time, if you pull and add from his dead arm, chances are you might die. Hey it happens...but try to do it in style. Drink a potion, pop a Fel Healthstone, turn on a defense button...do what you need to in order to stay alive long enough for that refreshing heal to keep fighting on, relying on yourself as well as the raid pays off.
• Opening Rotation = aggro - I've seen Shamans rip aggro from a tank with multiple critical strikes in a row on an opening fight with a boss. They rush in, do a few major swings and suddenly they die...but it's not just shamans, alot of classes can pull threat if they get a strong opening rotation, so wait a few seconds for the tanks to really establish threat before going all in.
• Know your range - be wary of the range of mobs, let the tanks lead in raids, after all, that's why they are there. But also keep an eye out for wondering mobs attacking healers and caster in the back, and by chance you do catch a mob wondering, tell a tank, it can save someones life, or even the raids.
• Watch for the aggro wipes - some bosses wipe threat tables every special occasion, and during those times, chill the DPS on ice for a few seconds and wait for the tank to get a good amount of threat, otherwise, you'll count toward the corpses on the floor of others who didn't wait...

I COULD go through every boss fight since WOTLK's launch, but that would take too much space and just repeat what you could find on YOUTUBE, GOOGLE, and TANKSPOT.COM and for some reason, I think they go into fights more then I would.

So with your new profound knowledge, go forth and live in a raid, kill a couple of bosses, and overall, enjoy staying alive.

-pwrtoppl

-out (just in time for sleep)