Raid Flavors II. A Scoop of Gourmet.

In our last edition we examined two prominent types of raids (Gym Class and the Hollywood Film).  I’m sure you’re familiar with or can at least relate to either of those situations.  Here’s some more to chew on.

Broadway Show Live 4 nights a week. All this Spring.

Very much like the Hollywood Film, except for one big difference: the format.  It’s a live show.  If the actors mess up a line there’s no cut and retake, the other actors on stage read, react, and improvise.  This is the level at which some of the top guilds operate at.

“But Borsk, you’re saying that being in a play is harder than acting in a movie!”

There are plenty of actors out there that cannot perform well on Broadway. Those kind of acting skills certainly are not common.  Likewise, every raider out there isn’t capable of playing at a level where they are ready for something unexpected in a fight and perform at the top of their class/spec simultaneously.

Someone raiding in a Top 50 guild will see something happen and either handle it right then, or bank it in their memory so it will never trip them up on future attempts.  What separates them from the rest of the raiding world is that simple fact.  They are using the same strategy, they are in the same boss room with, relatively speaking, the same raid composition.  The difference is they understand the strat and perform on the first few pulls.

At an individual level you may see no difference between them and raiders in your guild.  How they work together inside of the instance is where you see the big jump.  You, as a guild, might take a few pulls to get the movement down.  A few more pulls may follow to work out the best way to maximize your DPS while doing it, and then some more putting it all together from phase to phase.

Players in the top guilds are putting out maximum DPS from the very first pull AND executing the strategy the way they understand it. Healers are prepared for the worst, tank’s cameras are swinging from every angle looking for new adds, and DPS are treating it like another Brutallus.

How do I get a part?

Raid Flavors I. Sampling the Ice Cream Citadel.

“It’s not just the scheme we use. It’s the players.”-Dick LeBeau

Strategy. Practice. Execution.

These are the three steps when approaching any raid boss.  The strategy is given out, you wipe (sometimes a lot), and then you win (strategy executed).  For every guild out there, there are an equal variation of structures and guild makeups.  Picking out the features of a particular guild is like making choices at the Cold Stone Creamery.

So you’re using Loot Council, have 4 officers, 2 raiding ranks, and only one raid leader.  Would you like chocolate with jimmies and some marshmallow fluff in a chocolate-dipped waffle cone? (mmm chocolate).

When you back up to the 50,000 ft level, however, you’ll see that raids themselves are generally run under a very small set of specific patterns (or flavors, if you will).

Gym Class You’ve chosen a PUG, please sign this liability waiver.