Want to get into raiding....

[Vbee]

Hello

I was looking for some guidance on getting into the raiding scene. I'm really wondering what raids would be best to start out with after running the H Wrath 5 mans. Would you start at the bottom with Naxx? Or jump into the dailys? I know tanking is a very important role and most people look for a well geared tank. I have acquired a good set of gear and feel about ready to take on the responsibility.

I appreciate any feedback and have gotten some great advice from reading the posts on this site.

Tanks!

[beornus]

Not sure of your gear etc, but Naxx is a good tanking primer IF you can actually find a run. It has a number of fights with all sorts of different mechanics to learn. You will see a lot of the fight mechanics of higher level raids introduced in Naxx so that as you progress you will recognize, 'Oh, this is like X Boss in Naxx' and respond accordingly. There are tank and spank, polarity, movement, MC, cleansing, kiting, taunt exchange, tanks together, tanks separate and most any type of fight in the run if you do them all. If you learn the mechanics of tanking Naxx you will be well grounded in tanking mechanics for almost all future fights. There are differences obviously but it teaches you a lot of how to raid tank.

The greater issue may be finding a decent run since so many folks will skip Naxx since they can get better/equal gear from Heroics and EoT purchases.

[duriek]

Once you get all the gear from heroics you can you might wanna start out doing some ToC 10 mans and gear out a little more. Then move into ToC 25 and then start doing both of those on heroics modes. Last but not least, move onto ICC. Also try and do VoA every week. You might get lucky and grab some tier pieces.

There are some great gearing guides in the Gear Discussions and Advice forum. Start looking around in there to find some information, specifically this post.

[inthedrops]

ToC's a great suggestion. Plenty of common tank mechanics are required (tank swaps, cooldowns, positioning issues, etc.)

Which means plenty of ways to screw up and learn from your mistakes

[Koatanga]

Two of the best teaching fights in game, in my opinion, are in Ulduar.

Hodir (with proper DPS) teaches you how to maximise threat, watch for aggro pulls, and focus on your environment while constantly moving.

Thorim (arena) teaches you how to assess the incoming adds, pick out the elites, and acquire them while keeping sufficient taunt cooldowns for emergencies. In the 2nd phase, you learn positioning and tank swapping.

[Arjuna]

Two of the best teaching fights in game, in my opinion, are in Ulduar.

Hodir (with proper DPS) teaches you how to maximise threat, watch for aggro pulls, and focus on your environment while constantly moving.

Thorim (arena) teaches you how to assess the incoming adds, pick out the elites, and acquire them while keeping sufficient taunt cooldowns for emergencies. In the 2nd phase, you learn positioning and tank swapping.

problem is to find pugs that go that far into ulduar...most only goes up to the weekly bosses when they are the weekly...

[Vbee]

Thanks for all the great suggestions! I would like to start with Ulduar as there are a few upgrades but as Arjuna stated, PUGs are not easy to come by.

The only benefit from Naxx I would get is the experience. Not much of a gear upgrade and I learn better when I have something tangible to gain...lol....

ToC would be great, but I fear that I may not be prepared (experience or gear) for the raid. I've read that quite a few of the fights are pretty hard.....

I'll let you know how it goes and thanks again for the suggestions.

[Shoju]

Honestly, if you find a group running Naxx or Ulduar, they are probably only going for the weekly boss, OR they are going there with specific achievements in mind, which means that they will not tolerate tanking mishaps.


Do you have a guild? Do you have a guild that you are friendly with? Do you have friends on realm that could help you get a raid put together?

Could you toss a link to your armory up? It would help us tell you what would work as far as content for you.

[Vbee]

I am in a guild with a few guild mates and could get together approx 4 at a time (so that would be half the 10m). The rest would have to be a PUG. With half the raid, we might be able to get them to agree to run the whole thing. Hopefully my lack of experience wouldn't run them off....

I will link my armory later as I don't have any armor on.... thanks!

[econ21]

Raiding is best done in a guild, so if I were you, in the medium term, I would be looking to recruit 6+ more raiders to your guild. Or moving to a raiding guild. Another possibility would be looking for a raiding community that you can join while staying in your guild.

However, in the short term, with 4 guild mates you have a good basis for starting a PUG. If your server is anything like mine, you should be able to find people to join you for VoA and for the weekly raid. After that, it depends on your group's gear. If you have got all the emblem gear plus a few other bits, I would try to organise an ICC Pug. That offers the best rewards and will attract the most people. If not, you could try TotC.

A side benefit from initiating your own PUGs is that you may find ronin who will either join your guild or at least join you in PUGing on a semi-regular basis.

Looking at the ICC boss fight videos on tankspot will help your preparations. You could also join some ICC rep runs to get a feel for the place (and a nice ring).

[cds4850]

Raiding is best done in a guild, so if I were you, in the medium term, I would be looking to recruit 6+ more raiders to your guild. Or moving to a raiding guild. Another possibility would be looking for a raiding community that you can join while staying in your guild.

Raiding is best done in a guild.

Raiding is done in a guild.

guild

Do not continuously subject yourself to pick up groups if you intend on learnign to raid. People are bitter, short tempered, intolerant, elitist, and un-accountable (minus the last quality, pretty much me in a nut shell.)

I would actually implore you to grind out heroics while either A) expanding your guild roster, or much more likely B) joining a lower level raiding guild that can accomodate your friends. Since you are learning to raid, the last thing you want to take on is the added responsibilty of raid leading and guild management.

Lastly, become intimately familiar with your UI (as a tank there is information you need to know very quickly such as debuff stacks, boss timers, timers, raid debuffs which need to be cleansed, dying raid members who need a HoP or LoH, etc etc etc.) Configure your UI so that it displays these things in a convenient location. Set up your keybindings so that you can seemlessly run through a 969 threat rotation while keeping an eye on all of your surroundings and team members.

There are so many great threads on these boards that talk about the hit table, protection paladin mechanics, gearing pathways, stat weighting, and so on. Read through them and always feel free to post any questions you have in the appropriate forum/fashion.

[Boyfriend]

I can echo the thoughts that learning tanking is much easier in a guild.
Mostly because a guild will be much more tolerant with mistakes as they are interested in developing your skills aswell.

People in a PUG will have no intention of teaching you anything, they do not gain anything from you becoming a better tank; thus they will react aggressively instead of supportive.

It's still doable just through pug tanking, but be prepared to get very little assistance from others and that you'll need some thick skin and an ability to ignore unfounded criticism.

[Vbee]

Do not continuously subject yourself to pick up groups if you intend on learnign to raid. People are bitter, short tempered, intolerant, elitist, and un-accountable (minus the last quality, pretty much me in a nut shell.)

This is exactly what I want to avoid. Back in BC I was having problems as a starting tank and would tank all the way up to Kael'thas Sunstrider in MT and then they would drop me just because I didn't have a set of purples and asked for an explanation..... I was perfectly competent and capable of picking things up quick.... PUGs are not my first choice.

Thanks for the advice. I will work on building members and have met another tank in HoR heroic that wants to play DPS and told me that he would work with me. He and his guildies offered to take me to ToC and Onyxia to get some experience. We will see how that goes.