Inferno928

Well I want to start by saying I'm a complete noob to the raiding world.... I've done some casual raiding yea but it was as a ranger so of course my role was simply to unload when the raid leader told me to. I recently took control of a guild (As an Illy) sometime last December and we're finally in a position to start raiding. We have VERY little experience with the whole deal as a whole and I'm looking for a hand in figuring things out. I'm on a PvP server and we're a factioned guild so that adds a whole nother twist on the situation...Restricted to good classes only. In essence we have only two other Qeynosian guilds on the server making SOME raid progression with the second only beginning quite recently.

I'm looking for some help, not on individual name strats per se but rather help on developing those strats as a whole. What are some strats you blue server players use in developing strats? So far I know about using ACT to track AOEs and there is something about reading scripts but I'm no quite sure what it means to read a script. Any other insights you might be able to offer would help greatly.

P.S. I've people get flammed like hell for askin advice. If you really don't want to offer advice just don't post.

BTW we have hit SOH and PR a few times and it hasn't gone well....Don't laugh, you try pullin off a raid with a tiny player pool of Qeynosians only who have no clue what they're doing.

Gwanath

Personally I'd warm up in like Labs or a couple of the other KoS zones. You probably won't get any loot upgrades, but it'll give you a chance to get your game faces on and not get overwhelmed by every AoE.

A few things to remember about raiding:

Group setup is IMPORTANT. There are threads galore about the best group balencing in raids you can get, but you're going to have to modify those in light of being restricted to good classes only. Not having Assassins is really going to suck, you'll need to stock up on Wizards as your primary T1 DPS class.

2nd: Be sure the people you bring have their game faces on, raid time isn't the time to be f'ing around. Be at least serious and committed to winning. I'm not saying don't have fun, but don't let it get out of hand.

3rd: Healers and MT. It's all about stability. A MT that holds agro and healers that keep him from dying. Get this down pat and you're well on your way.

4th: Gear and skill. Make sure your raiders are geared out in RoK legendary gear. It's easy to get and there's no reason not to have it. Masters aren't important until you get to higher tier raiding zones but definitely nice to have. Also, have your raiders do some research on their classes. There are good threads in most of the class forums on EQ2 on how to raid with your class. Have your people read them. A lot. Then have them test it out and see what works for them.

5th: Raid leader research. As the raid leader, or whomever you designate as such, it's your job to research how the encounter works. You're not killing Avatars, so someone's done it before you and more than likely there's a strat or 3 out there for you to read. Read them all, decide which you think is best, then implement. And be prepared for when people mess it up, don't start screaming, just go over the strat, again and again until everyon's got it right.

6th: Loot. The ever important loot. Decide BEFORE you start raiding what your loot distribution policy is and make sure EVERYONE is ok with it before you start. This will save a lot of grief.

7th: Be confident. As the leader, if you waffle, the whole guild will waffle. Be confident, cool and collected. They look to you for their strength whether they realize it or not.

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Signature courtesy of Vegaxe.

Klug

All encounters are scripted, meaning a programmer wrote out some code for the mob to follow.

Certain events occur at certain times, sometimes on a simple timer but sometimes in response to player actions.

Reading a script means to correlate what a mob says and does over time during the fight to what your raid force did/didn't do.

Sometimes mobs emote or say things that give you a clue as to what just happened.

Sometimes there is a big red message across the screen.

Sometimes you look through your log and notice that every time I hit the mob with a poison-based nuke the mob AoE'd the raid.

Stuff like that

Oh, and always always always look at the buffs the mob has on before the fight and make sure you understand what they do.
Also look through ACT and see what buffs the mob casts during the fight, and see if there is something that triggered it.
A lot of empirical testing goes into this, so keep at it

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Klug Svear
Retired

boli

Best you can ever do is spend HOURS reading up on every class and how they work together and which buffs and debuffs they bring to a raid enviroment.

Its a long process that doesn;t need to be done all at once but you'll thank yourself for it when you pretty can start building your own raids instead of copiying and folowing other people's ideas.

Thundaarr

I think lack of brigands would the single most limiting factor raiding with qeynos only. Assassins are nice, but a good wizzie or ranger can make the drop off in dps not as noticable. As said before, ACT is your friend, sometimes you will have to pore over the logs to get timers for AE's, and events in the mobs script.

Group make up is VERY important in raids. Always remember that while a certain group set up would not work in a heroic situation, in a raid it will work in perfect harmony. An example of this would be the typical "dps" group in a raid. Where you can have troubador, illy, ranger, wizzie, warlock, healer.

Try and not have duplicate classes in the same group if you can help it, as you will generally be wasting a buff. Even 2 of the same sub-classes will suffer in their ability to help the raid if you put them in the same group often. An example of this would be troubador and dirge...some are exceptions to the rule though, like the aforementioned wizzie and warlock. One thing as a raid leader is that you will get your raiders asking for specific types of groups....try and balance your overall raid effectiveness rather than catering groups around a specific person. Peeps (specially the dps) will always want the most optimum group they can get, but making a group with a mystic, dirge, troubador, illusionist, and paladin... just so the ranger can squeeze out a few extra dps will not always be the optimum solution.

Banditman

Most importantly, know YOUR raid force. What works for some people may not (probably not!) work for you. Reading what strats other guilds employ will guide you to finding what will work for your guild, but assuming that you can read someone else's strat and then just make it happen exactly is pretty crazy.

Know what other guilds do, then apply those ideas to your raid force, tailored to your individual strengths and weaknesses.

simpwrx

Another very important thing for a PvP guild is make sure everyone has an AA mirror as raid spec and PvP spec are normally very different and the right AA spec can make raids tons easier. Ask you members to read up on thier class boards here as most have some really good advice on raid AA specs and how to max out performance in a raid setting.

Uddjubb

ACT is your friend.

Antrig

One thing I haven't seen mentioned - <right><click><examine> You want a few people to do this on effects showin up in your detrimental effects window on AoE's etc Actually reading the spell description (after the fight) can help a lot.

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Illusionist/Paladin/Dirge/Templar/Scholar

Krov

Little things :

Telling your scouts to run diffrent poison types.

Wizards rotating debuffs so there constantly up to max out dps.

Macros so non stacking abilitys are not wasted.

Start small and work up .... I wouldnt start at kos perhaps eof content . The mobs will be green but provide minor upgrades over t8 legendary (some of them)

The understanding of your raid force that you WILL DIE ALOT and not to get frustrated.

- Krov