New to Raiding... Almost 80

[thetitan]

Hello,
I will start off by telling my story(Please bear with me).

I started playing about 6 or 7 months ago and I have been mainly working on my single Human Paladin (Retribution) and doing it mostly solo. I have no friends on my realm really I just wanted to play the game, however I do have friends(Real live ones that I can call or knock on there doors) that play WoW. There advice to me when I inquired about raiding and PvP was "Get to 80, then try and figure out what is going on."

So I am almost 80 and because I was a loner through most of my WoW play I am not really that confident in my class, as well as my gear(I know that my gear sucks, but one of my friends said they could help me with that).

When I get to level 80 i want to start doing the fun stuff like raiding and PvP but I am still a total novice. I don't want to join some party and make everyone angry because I don't know what I am doing, but i also believe that is the only way to learn.

If you are still reading, thank you and here are my questions.

1.) Is there a decent guide on beginners raiding? (Ex. Etiquette, player roles, Do/Do not do tips, etc...)

2.) Should I go back and do the Lvl. 60, 70 raids just to get comfortable?

3.) Am I totally whacked? Quit WoW and pick up Runescape?

Thank you in advance,
Daniel

[Wiglet]

Are you in a guild? If you are ask them if you can tag along in instances regardless of what level they are. If not then its a MUST.
There are plently of people ingame in the same situation as you (i was!) Luckily my guild ran a "university" run to help us clueless players with the basics of instances & raiding - stuff like marking targets and what they meant, learning to watch your threat and not overaggro the tank and the like.

What server are you on, you never know there might be some one here who can help you out ingame.

oh & 3.) RUNESCAPE - let's not go there eh? :wink:

I hope that made a bit of sense. Hopefully someone else will be able to come up with a more coherent reply as i've not had enough coffee yet this morning :azn:

[thetitan]

oh & 3.) RUNESCAPE - let's not go there eh? :wink:

=D
Thank you for your reply, I am not in a guild but I will definitely try to find one. The reason I don't want to join one of those hardcore raiding guilds is because I have a newborn and a job, would be hard to schedule raids although I am sure there is a laid back one somewhere.

I am on Burning Legion
Your reply was greatly appreciated. You were helpful even without your caffeine fix =D

[semiiramiis]

Hello,
I will start off by telling my story(Please bear with me).

I started playing about 6 or 7 months ago and I have been mainly working on my single Human Paladin (Retribution) and doing it mostly solo. I have no friends on my realm really I just wanted to play the game, however I do have friends(Real live ones that I can call or knock on there doors) that play WoW. There advice to me when I inquired about raiding and PvP was "Get to 80, then try and figure out what is going on."

So I am almost 80 and because I was a loner through most of my WoW play I am not really that confident in my class, as well as my gear(I know that my gear sucks, but one of my friends said they could help me with that).

When I get to level 80 i want to start doing the fun stuff like raiding and PvP but I am still a total novice. I don't want to join some party and make everyone angry because I don't know what I am doing, but i also believe that is the only way to learn.

If you are still reading, thank you and here are my questions.

1.) Is there a decent guide on beginners raiding? (Ex. Etiquette, player roles, Do/Do not do tips, etc...)

2.) Should I go back and do the Lvl. 60, 70 raids just to get comfortable?

3.) Am I totally whacked? Quit WoW and pick up Runescape?

Thank you in advance,
Daniel

As a retadin, your job is going to be dps. Which means you need to put as much hurt down on a mob WITHOUT getting it to drop its attention on your tank to come after you. I suggest an addon called Omen, which measures the amount of threat each party member is putting on a mob and lists them in order. Your tank should always be 1. If you are pushing number 1, then you need to throttle back on your dps and wait for the tank to reestablish agro. The number one major mistake I've seen new dps do is to start dpsing before the tank has adequate threat to hold the mob. Let the guy get there. Let him get some swings in before you unload. I wouldn't suggest raiding at all without some good, solid heroic instance runs under your belt. Make certain you know (and have on your hotkeys!!!!) all of those party specific keys you might not have been using during leveling (DIVINE INTERVENTION!!!!)

Acquaint yourself with the etiquette of rolling for loot, know greed vs need. Be patient, grouping is a whole different ball of wax than soloing. Listen to your other group members, chances are they have more experience. Let them know you're new so they can help.

[Wiglet]

Hardcore raiding isn't for everyone. Not my cup of tea that for sure.
Keep an eye out in Trade chat for guilds recruiting. You will probably find even most "laid back" guilds do do guild runs of heroics & maybe even Naxx 10 raids so you will have opportunities to get the help you need and geared up too.

Also if you don't like a guild don't be afraid to quit and try another one. find one that fits your playtimes. In my guild we have a few parents of young'uns (me included) so no one minds if some one nips off quickly in a heroic to settle a baby etc. :smiley:

[thetitan]

As a retadin, your job is going to be dps.

Is this a good place for a beginner to start? I could relearn my talent tree and possibly be a healer of something if it would be easier and get me some experience in group play.

I wouldn't suggest raiding at all without some good, solid heroic instance runs under your belt.

I haven't even run any instances really short of Deadmines so I have hardly any experience at all. Do you think somebody would be willing to let me tag along if I paid them some gold? I wouldn't feel so bad if I messed up then and money is no issue for me.

I really appreciate both of you guys replying, thank you.

Edit:
Update! Idk if anyone is watching this thread at all but I found a guild that is willing to help gear me and get me started on all of this. Thank you to everyone who replied and helped me out

Daniel

[Wintrow]

I would DEFINATELY find a "social raiding" guild. They let you sign up for raids on a first come bases. If you don't sign up next time, no problem. If you don't play every day, no problem too. Only if you DO sign up you show up for sure.

Raiding is a group thing. So you can't just drop everything because the dog is barking or the window needed to be shut.
Now, a baby crying or a house on fire always has priority and if you establish that beforehand ppl will understand. I'm in the same role myself. One night a week I can play. If I'm on baby-duty I let the guild know and they're cool with it. These things DO only happen rarely.

Don't try hardcore raiding unless you also like to play "Wrath of the Recently-Delivered-A-Baby Wife".

As for learning group etiquette. Groups are generally tolerant if you establish things beforehand. And then don't do ANYTHING unless instructed on how to do it.

As for self-improvement. Read this:
Pickup group (http://www.wowwiki.com/Pickup_group)
Raiding for Newbies (http://www.wowwiki.com/Raiding_for_Newbies)
Rolling on loot (http://www.wowwiki.com/Loot)
Other loot systems (http://www.wowwiki.com/Loot_system)
Pally-dps (http://www.wowwiki.com/Paladins_as_DPS)
and just about anything there you can click on

[thetitan]

Don't try hardcore raiding unless you also like to play "Wrath of the Recently-Delivered-A-Baby Wife".


That made me laugh, only a true parent would understand. =D

Thank you for the links I will definitely look at them. I found a guild that said that they would take me under there wing if I switched to Holy for them because they apparently lost a healer din.

[Wizler]

You DO know how to play your class since you made it to 80 after all (although there's maybe some skills you never used until now), so have a little confidence. It's just a new phase of the game, and group dynamics take some getting used to.

You might run the Northrend instance on normal (not heroic) mode first just to get familiar--they should be pretty easy. Half the battle is knowing what to expect so also read up on instances/bosses/fights so you know what to do in Naxxramus, for example, when a particular boss does that one thing...

The DPS role is a good place to start--a noob DPSer won't kill a party but noob heals just might! Good luck!

[Tater]

Do you do many instances or did you just level up through questing?

If you don't know about the group channel, there's a green button on your bottom toolbar...get in the looking for group when you get online for normal dungeons there and someone will whisper you and ask if you are interested in running with them. This is a good way to meet people and you will get more than a couple of people asking you to join their guild...Don't be afraid to join a guild...Leave if you don't like it...As you get better gear, try heroics...

Know what kind of gear you need before rolling on an item in an instance...Most all boss drops are bind on pickup so if you need on it, you can't change it without asking a gm to do it and that's a pain.

As a ret paladin, you will want Plate armor with strength, stamina along with agility or hit rating...If a plate piece has spellpower or defense/parry, that may be paladin gear for your "off spec"...Ask the party before rolling need on an offspec item. Many will suggest you ask before rolling need on anything but if it's my main spec, i just roll need and thank the party if I win it. Just don't roll need on cloth/leather/most mail armor. You'll likely not get another invite from those folks...

[semiiramiis]

That made me laugh, only a true parent would understand. =D



Or...how my guildie named his dk....
1. "Guys..guys...I gotta go...one of the kids REALLY needs a juicebox, don't pull Supremus!"
2. "Guys, hang on...juicebox!"
3. "No pull, juicebox!"

After about a half dozen of these, we stopped calling him Grim and started calling him Juicebox. So when Wrath came out, he named his DK Juiceboxhero.

[prion]

JUICE BOX HERO, got stars in his eyes

thetitan, try sitting in LFG full time when you aren't doing anything with your guild, and just grab any instance run you see in northrend, and maybe even in outland. The more experience you have, the better you'll be.

[Glorified]

Optional: Pay the $25 and switch to a friends server. If that is out of question keep reading.

1) Once you hit 80 decide what you want to do. Personally, I decided to do raiding. I gave up on PVP a while ago because it got boring. Once you hit 80, you can't really do both PVP and PVE. Well, you can, but it will be hard.
2) Decide on your spec, either go Holy or Protection if you want a big role in raids. If you go protection, you will either be Main Tanking or Off-tanking. If you want to be Holy you will be healing single targets.
3) Once that is decided, go re-spec. I would suggest looking for a good 3.1 Talent Tree that is the best for the spec.
4) Get AtlasLoot and AtlastLootEnchanced from wow.cuse.com. These two add-ons will help you check what kind of gear drops in heroics. Look for gear that suits your talent tree. I like writing it down on paper to keep in mind what instances I have to run.
5) START RUNNING HEROICS! At this point the only thing you will be doing is running heroics until you have the best gear you can get from each instance. You will not be raiding with greens or all blues. You will at least need good items. Don't worry about a guild, if you do a good job in groups, people will ask you to join theirs.
6) While getting gear from heroics gem/enchant all of your items. If you show up to a raid with no gems or enchants you will probably get kicked or called a noob.
7) Once you get good items you can run VoA and OS 10-man every week to get items. Don't bother running Naxx because public groups fail most of the time and they will not get you anywhere. Maybe past the first boss or two until people start leaving.
8) When you get your gear/enchants/guild you will be on your way to raiding. Just make sure to run heroics until you are fully geared.

Anymore questions you can PM me and I will try to help you out the best I could.

[mrzerath]

I wouldnt recommend starting off when you first get 80 doing raids.. Do some heroics to get used to running with other people and to get better gear.