As World of Warcraft is essentially my life at the moment until Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is released, alas you get another blog about WoW. This is one that should be inherently known to raiders in this game, but for some reason people don’t seem to understand it’s what makes you a good raider. So, for the sake of spelling it out for all the nubs out there, please if you can’t follow these simple steps DON’T even bother wasting a guilds time by trying and saying you are a raider.

1.) BE PREPARED: What does this mean, you ask? Bring ANYTHING (and plenty of them) that allows you to do your job and to do it better: Pots, Foods, Reagents, Elixirs, Oils, Soulshards, etc. etc.  If there is something in game that can increase the effectiveness of you or other members, BRING LOTS OF IT. It’s simple. Don’t cry about the money and don’t whine about wasting stuff. Raiding is serious business, and anything that helps the raid helps bring down bosses. Go farm, slacker.

2.) BE THERE: I can’t tell you how many people think they can show whenever they want to and get in a raid, and then get pissy when they are passed up. DON’T BE THAT PERSON. A raid is only as effective as its members and you need a core set of dedicated people to progress anywhere. If you can’t commit to the raid nights you can’t be a real raider. It’s not fun and games and should be viewed as a secondary job. When you don’t show up and people are counting on you, you let 24 other people down. For shame! Be on 15 minutes before raid start if you expect to attend or don’t count on your spot. Raid leaders are not mind readers and people are flakes. We aren’t just going to assume that you are going to show. And expect to stay until raid time is over, don’t just try to bail early with no warning or think you can leave because your favorite TV show is on. COMMON SENSE PEOPLE. If you want to be a raider, you have to treat it like a job.

3.) RESEARCH: If you are going into a new place that you have never been before, don’t rely on being able to understand the fight in front of you. Take 5 minutes and go look up the fight and read for yourself. Not only will it be easier to understand, many times you have great strategies and videos that you can watch that will really give you the experience you need to be effective. A new boss is hard enough, but if you prepare yourself you will be much more effective that much sooner. So get off your butt and do it!

4.) PAY ATTENTION: This is the stuff that will drive any raid leader crazy. Quit letting the “elevator” boss kill you in SSC, quit falling off into the water with your auto run, quit breaking sheeps with tab targeting, on and on and on. When you do not pay attention, people die, raids wipe, and down time (which is a morale killer) is increased. You must have your undivided attention on the raid and stop those unnecessary AFK’s. If you must go away from your computer, inform the raid leader, keep it minimal, and TIME IT RIGHT where it doesn’t affect the raid overall.

5.) QUIT THE COMMENTS: Stop the complaining and unnecessary chatter. We aren’t here to giggle and have fun unless it is an instance we are one shotting. We aren’t here to gear you solely out, we aren’t here to hold your hand, and we aren’t here for “you” period. We are here for each other and that is the way a raid mentality must be in order to be successful. We don’t want to hear “can we go?” whining, we don’t need people calling others out when they accidentally mess up, and we don’t need people getting pissy because the raid is wiping. You need to trust your raid leaders and officers to take care of those issues behind the scenes, and your uncalled-for additional comments are not solicited or warranted.

I know this might sound harsh to some, but these are indeed the steps to being a good and qualified raider. These steps operate with the assumption that you already know your class and can play it well, but guilds always have officers or someone that is there to help you individually, so take advantage of them. If you are not topping the charts on healing or dps, I bet you there is somewhere to improve so talk to some people or once again research how to be better. I can guarantee you all those “top” people are already following every step. If you can’t follow these simple guidelines, high-level raiding probably isn’t for you. The time wasted training you and gearing you isn’t fair to the rest. Have fun raiding (or not) on WoW.