Ways To Distinguish Yourself As A Core Raider

Unclefu · **Posted:** Sat Feb 14, 2009 6:02 pm

Core Raiders and Aspiring Players Can Distinguish Themselves in the Following Ways:

Research of class mechanics

Including support for optimal playstyle, talent allocation, relative values of stats on gear, etc.
The Elitist Jerks (EJ) forums are generally considered the best class mechanics resource, though take care to identify what information is considered credible by the community.
DPS should use a spreadsheet, simulator, solver, or other piece of software (whatever is considered the accepted standard tool for your class on EJ) that allows you to model a typical fight in order to make choices concerning gear and playstyle, and to get an idea of your expected performance.
When a patch brings class changes, you are expected to stay current with the new theorycraft and its implications for your playstyle/talents/gear/etc.

Improvement through analysis of raid parses

The guild uploads parses of its raids to WoWMeterOnline (WMO).
DPS players should review their performance each week, trying to identify the sources of differences across time as well as between you and others of your class/spec. Often differences are due to fight length, raid support, crit rate, latency, and proc rates, but accounting for these makes it easier to identify differences from elements within your control, like dps time and the number and proportion of abilities used.
Using a spreadsheet/sim/solver can be extremely helpful - if you can model the fight conditions accurately, you can look for differences between the parse and your theoretical results.
Healers can review the Healing Target Analysis section of parses, which together with Healing Done gives a more complete picture of the fight.
You're encouraged to participate in discussions within your class/role forums regarding how to analyze raid parses.

Use of addons and UI customization to improve efficiency and performance

A thoughtfully constructed UI can allow you to become more effective in complex encounters. Think critically about how you can streamline the ways you interact with the game. Experiment with addons that add helpful functionality to your UI.
Things like layout, positioning, fonts, colors, textures, notifications, relative size, choosing bars vs. text, etc. may seem like purely cosmetic considerations, but they can allow you to take in and process the same amount of information with less direct attention, letting you focus more on your environment and be faster about moving out of the proverbial fire.
It is helpful to approach your layout by listing the things you need to monitor in order of priority, and distinguishing things you must constantly watch from things you occasionally watch. This can help you to customize your layout and each component in a way that minimizes the attention required to perform the ordinary functions of your role.
The UI discussion threads on EJ contain screenshots of others' UI's and can provide helpful insights and ideas for layout and addons.
Likewise, key bindings can make a significant difference in your performance. Consider rebinding the letter keys surrounding your movement keys - these perform functions that are uesless in raids (like reply, character pane, etc) and can be rebound to other keys. This frees up more bindings that can be used without taking your hand away from your movement keys. Also consider using modifiers like Shift, Ctrl, or Alt to increase the number of key bindings available to you. The more you can do without clicking/reaching, the more you can do on fights that involve maneuvering.
Changes both to your UI and your keybindings take time to adjust to. In the short run, players generally see an increase in required effort and attention. Because of this, many players are reluctant or unwilling to make such drastic changes, but the willingness to do so demonstrates a strong desire to improve.

Coming to raids on time and prepared

Show up on time to raids with gear repaired and consumables/reagents on hand.
Waiting until before a raid to buy consumables/reagents shows less dedication than being stocked and prepared well in advance.
Running out of consumables or reagents during a raid is also something a serious player should take measures to avoid - always bring more than you expect to use, for farm content and progression content alike.

Use of best consumables, enchants, and gems

Consumables, enchants, and gems matter a great deal - they constitute a very significant proportion of your performance. As such, cutting corners on these shows a definite lack of seriousness.
Use the best consumables available for your class and spec.
This includes food that requires northern spices - if you don't have the cooking skill to do the dailies, level your cooking! It's actually quite painless and can be done in less than a day with minimal cost if you search for a leveling guide online.
You should use flasks over elixirs, assuming they are of greater benefit. Each raid lasts 4 hours, so there should be no need to carry elixirs to fill in gaps in flask duration.
You should farm, if necessary, for the best available enchants (yes, the expensive ones), the only exception being crappy gear that will soon be replaced. Any mainspec upgrades you take from 25man raids should receive top-end enchants.
If you have your eye on an upgrade for a specific slot, you should farm to have the enchant mats (or the gold to purchase them) ready before you get the upgrade, so that you can enchant the item before the next raid.
You should use rare (blue) quality gems in all sockets - no green quality gems.
You should know your optimal gem choices for each socket (meta and each color, dependent on socket bonuses).
Upgrades from 25man raids should be properly gemmed before the next raid.

Staying focused during raids

Raiding shouldn't feel like a second job, but everyone's time is something you should take seriously.
Don't be excessively chatty over vent or raid chat, particularly before/during boss encounters or any other time where focus and raid coordination is required. Be social so long as it doesn't impede upon the raid's performance.
Watch for announcements/assignments/questions/ready checks/etc in raid chat, vent, your class channel, and tells. Being generally unresponsive is taken as a sign of lacking focus and interest.
Don't divide your attention between the game and other things. You're going to royally piss others off if you miss callouts/assignments/announcements/etc. because you were watching TV.
Avoid excessive AFKing. If you have something you need to take care of, try to save it for the break at 8pm if possible. If not, try to AFK during trash rather than before a boss, and always notify the raid and your CO and let them know how long you'll be gone.

Desire to improve and willingness to take constructive criticism

You should be interested in pursuing any changes which will yield an improvement in your performance.
Don't take suggestions for improvement as a personal affront - there's nothing wrong with making mistakes or doing something wrong so long as you're more interested in improving than making excuses. Your focus on improvement speaks more to your worth as a player than the mistakes you make.
However, don't wait for others to point out potential improvements - actively search for ways to improve by analyzing raid parses and researching class mechanics and addons, etc.

Troubleshooting strategic and tactical challenges of complex encounters

Read up on boss strats for upcoming encounters. Read from multiple sources, as different sources may contain conflicting information or provide different tips or approaches for a given element of the fight.
Recommended sources include bosskillers.com, wowwiki.com, and stratfu.com.
You should also look for good streaming or high-quality videos of the fight from different perspectives to get a better feel for what to expect.
Participate in guild forum strat discussions for progression encounters the guild is currently working on.
Be patient during raids if the group needs to discuss potential tweaks to its strategy - better yet, contribute to the process by offering any input you may have from your own personal observations. It's important to glean insight from people who may have a unique vantage on a specific fight element by virtue of their role/class/position/assignment/etc. Don't whine or rush the raid - if all encounters could be beaten by mindlessly zerging the boss, many of us wouldn't be playing.

Maintaining a professional and positive attitude

Don't put yourself at odds with your teammates or behave like a hotshot who thinks he's a one-man army. The cohesion of a team is integral to its productive capacity.
Avoid calling out players for making mistakes - notify their CO so it can be handled without wasting the rest of the raid's time.
Avoid complaining about a problem unless you're focused on finding a solution. Identifying a problem and asking what can be done to address it looks much better than just pointing out that something is being done wrong.
Represent the guild tag with maturity and professionalism - don't argue or talk smack in trade/general chat, in groups, or in tells. Remember that the people you're arguing with are stubborn and opinionated - you aren't going to convince them that they're wrong.

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