| Do your raids need more structure or do you get confused when attending a raid? Here are some tips on Raiding in EverQuest that were written by your fellow community members. |
| A Raidleader's Guide to Raiding "He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command." - Niccolo Machiavelli Gray clouds blanket the sky, blocking the carnage of war from the eyes of the gods. Snow falls on grim faces. Gloved hands clutch the hardened wooden handles of spears and swords. Cold eyes, alive now but perhaps soon dead, stare over the dunes of white snow. A rumble grows in the distance. It gets closer, followed by the rings of armored plates crashing together. The first giant appears over the horizon. Another appears beside it. Then another and another. They are huge. They roar the name of Rallos Zek and raise their own swords, ten feet long and sharp as razors. One adventurer holds his sword high into the air and returns the roar. A battle explodes in sweat and steel and blood. At one time or another in our paths as adventurers on Norrath we might find ourselves at the lead of one such battle. Few of us are born into leadership as the warlords of Felwithe are. Sometimes we find ourselves leading three dozen people without an ounce of experience under our belt. Sometimes a guide like this is all we have. This guide outlines a crash course in leading a raid. Rather than specific tactics against various beasts, this guide outlines the strategies and basic tips for leading a successful raid. For many powerful warlords, this guide will help little. The following guidelines are written to last the ages, whether you target Emperor Crush or Fennin Ro. Let us begin. Plan Ahead Before any successful raid can begin, one must seek all knowledge of this raid. Read message boards, post questions, seek answers from the great oracles of Google. Most have fought your battle before, learn from their triumphs and their mistakes. There is little worse than a raid leader who does not understand his or her own raid. Do not fear asking for help from those who have battled what you soon face. Add an advisor to your command group. Ask for help from them, and them alone, through tells or in a group chat. Do not ask an entire raid for advise or you make your ignorance clear to all and that leads quickly to failure. Decide Swiftly and Stay with that Decision Be decisive in all of your actions. Choose a path and stick to it. Know exactly what it is you seek and exactly how you plan to get there. Do not lead by bureaucracy, only you command. Do not allow any other to speak for you except for a single delegated second-in-command. If voices rise up in protest, crush them down or let them leave to their own path. You lead raids against Norrath's mightiest beasts, do not let someone's loud voice quiet your own. Start On Time Choose a time for your raid and start within 30 minutes of the start time. If you do not have the forces to start within 30 minutes of your start time, do not waste your time or the time of everyone who showed up on time by waiting for stragglers. Choose another time and cancel the raid. Remember that every person at your event spends their time on top of your own. A single hour raid with 30 people takes up 30 hours of people's time. Do not waste 15 people-hours waiting for people to log in. Do not insult the promptness of those who showed up on time by bowing down to those who do not. Be prepared to cancel your raid if you cannot start on time. End On Time "The way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death." - Miyamoto Musashi Have an end goal and an estimated time. Tell people how long a raid should take and end it on time. Do not drag those who would fight with you through hours of unscheduled events. Do not change the focus of a raid half way in and end up turning a two hour raid into a six hour one. Generally, plan all raids for under two hours. People won't want to battle much longer than that. Delegate There are many jobs on a raid and no one person should do them all. Delegate out the portions not requiring your personal attention. Use people you trust to assist you with individual tasks. Assign a second-in-command to lead the raid should you die or go linkdead. Make sure he or she understands what the raid needs to accomplish at all times and is prepared to step into leadership at a moment's notice. Assign a scout, a puller, a main tank, a loot distributor, and group leaders. Choose people you trust. Make sure raiders use the chain of command starting with their group leader first, the second-in-command next, and finally you. Move "Fixed fortifications are monuments to the stupidity of man." - George S. Patton. Always keep a raid in constant motion. Always have beasts in the camp to fight. Stay still for as little time as necessary. Do not waste too much time buffing or planning. You should already be prepared and ready to do what you need to. Keep a raid constantly moving and attacking. The more you wait, the less people will be ready when you do. Avoid people going afk by keeping them constantly in battle or constantly running. A raid should be a whirlwind of motion from the minute it starts until the minute it ends. Define Goals and Rewards Before a raid is called, know the goal of the raid. Keep this goal in mind at all times and stick to it. Do not change a raid's goal. If treasure is involved, make sure it is clear to all raiders how treasure will be distributed. Make sure your treasure distributor, the person you delegated treasure handling to, understands clearly how loot will be distributed. Should loot be distributed randomly, roll on it as soon as you can, do not wait. Compose Balanced Groups "Know your enemy and know yourself and you will be successful in 100 battles" - Sun Tzu, the Art of War Know Your Tools There are many in-game tools to lead raids and we gain new ones often. Understand how these tools work. Spend some time learning about them from other successful raid leaders. Read up on new features. Experiment with them before you lead a raid. Use the raid window, the "raid lock" feature, and the new raid voice macros to assist you with your battles. Think forward When planning a raid, plan raids that others have not done before. You will not get people to come on an event that may be many years old. Our world constantly shifts and changes and it is important that we change with it. Find new fun events that few have done before and always keep your eye forward to new events. You will watch your ranks swell if you continually fight forward. Don't Let Perfect Be the Enemy of Good "The Marines don't want robots, they want killers." - Full Metal Jacket Keep control of your raid but not too much control. You don't want to waste time on pointless exercises in discipline. Keep your raid hungry and make sure they stay focused but remember that they are each individuals. As long as the raid is fun and successful, little else matters. If you continually move your raid, your raiders will have little choice but to follow through with you. If you stay still, they are more likely to run off on their own or sit where they are when you need them to move. These are just a few guidelines for leading a successful raid. The best way to learn how to raid is to raid. As you join other raids, watch how people lead them. Whether good or bad, you will learn much watching the leadership of others. Raids come in many varieties. No one set of rules will work for all possible circumstances. Use the rules above and your chances for success increase. Ignore them and the folly is yours.
Rules for taking part in someone else's raid Rule #0: Always follow orders.
Raid Etiquette Please show up on time. The sooner everyone is together and buffed, the sooner we kill a target. If we are done very fast, we might get to kill another target. More kills = more loot = more happy people. Buffing Coordinate with others of the same class regarding buffs so efforts are not duplicated. Coordinate on who is handling what rebuff post rez and if stragglers show up. We don't have raiders below level 61 (except on the rare occasion that the raidleader permits it), so use the best group buffs available. If we don't have the buffers, please get leveled and work on getting the spells to achieve being able to help buff with these spells. Those who have to buff an entire raid by themselves will be greatly helped if you can eventually be able to contribute. Communication When given the call to raid, if you are available to raid, gather wherever the raidleader indicates. Who cares what the target is, just show up if you can raid. The raidleader will make a note if there is an access related restriction. Other than that, if you are ready and able to raid, show up to raid. The only target you should be interested in is helping the guild. Organized guilds don't get into the target asking deal, in fact many will boot you from the guild if you ask for the target before it is announced as the status quo appears to indicate that asking what the target is equates to n00b or greedy individual (whether or not this applies to you is not the question, but I am making it clear the reasons why it is discouraged). If you have a question related to the raid, ask either your group leader or the authority of the specialized task (i.e. if you are a healer, you can ask your healing related question in healing channel). Chances are the raid leader is in tell hell as it is. If you are neither an officer or groupleader, your tell to the raidleader will more than likely be ignored for the sheer fact that the raidleader will be selective on who out of the 50 tells to respond to to keep from sitting there for half an hour just responding to tells with questions that have long since been answered. If you need to go afk for whatever reason, be sure to let your groupleader know. This way there is no mystery as to what is happening with you. Instruction You pay attention and wait for instructions. You don't start spouting mid instruction. This is an event. You wait for instructions from those managing. If you are not managing then wait for instructions from those who are. In the middle of a funeral or a wedding you don't spout your mouth off mid way. You have a coke and a smile and shut up. Don't cop an attitude, don't do anything to delay or complicate matters, just shut up and await instructions. Thank you. Preparation There are some encounters that persistently dispel. There are some encounters that require underwater travel or fighting. In your journeys you should always keep an insta-clicky item (an item that casts some sort of buff, even if it is junk, instant cast) and an enduring breath item. The insta click item is great when you have a mob that fires a dispel, quickly click your insta-click item so you have that buff back up to absorb the next dispel. Obviously have invis potions. Preparation is SOLELY your responsibility. It is NOT anyone else's fault if you are unprepared. Have a means of leaving the raid available (i.e. gate, Origin AA, gate potion, QoK potion to go with your gate neck). Whether it be at the end of a raid or in the middle, be prepared to make your exit as needed. Very important, know your way around. Maps for most zones are standard now. Most of you are adults. Those of you who aren't are very close to being adults. Learn your way around. It will help a lot when travelling to raid destinations that are more than a couple of zones away. It's courteous to the raid to be able to make it to the destination efficiently. Please learn your way around. Responsible people shouldn't have to be delayed because you don't know the way. Execution It is very important to keep a tight camp. It makes player management and mob management a lot easier. The whole raid should stay somewhat tightly packed unless told otherwise. To make it simple for those of you who have a tendency to believe that when words run together you do the opposite of what is instructed, read this CAREFULLY: Everyone except the puller/MT/OT should stay back until assist is called. Once assist is called, then everyone should surround the mob or push the mob in the corner depending on the strategy. It is important to balance the mob and lock it in place. Pushing the mob around is bad for several reasons. Among those reasons: 1) you may end up pushing everyone out of healing range for the healers 2) you may be pushing the mob into a position to aggro other mobs 3) some classes will have a hard time dishing out the damage, especially when they are doing most of the damage if the mob is pushed into a bad position (rangers, rogues) 4) line of sight may get messed up. This may lead to an extreme drop in DPS, or casters getting hit by a harsh Area Effect spell that we placed them earlier to avoid. There are more reasons, but that should be more than enough to say there is no justification for it. Bottom line is lock the mob in place. Balancing a mob is like intercourse. If you position correctly by finding the 'opening' on the target the motion is smooth and you can lock the target in place. If you miss the 'opening' you may end up pushing your target back with your attack and perhaps involuntarily aggro your target. Also very important, unless you are asked to offtank, don't do it. You may think you are trying to be some sort of hero, but you are not. We have a plan in place. Our success is all a matter of executing the intended plan. So stay in the reset position and assist the MT when he calls for it unless you have been instructed otherwise. Once the mob is dead, everyone resets back into the initial position waiting for the next assist or move call. You don't stand around scattered all about. No popping jesters on raids. They tend to do things like make people look like adds in camp, which gives the chanters heart attacks, grow people who should be shrunk, shrink people who need to be big, and generally get in the way. Jesters are fun but do not have a place on the raids. Steadfast servants are good little imps and they can come out to play. Jesters are grounded. Thanks Target Post-Mortem Once the intended target is dead, there is the issue of loot distribution and/or hail for flag. Once the target goes down, be sure all adds are handled first and camp is clear. Do not run up and Hail NPCs until the raidleader gives the go ahead. Also pay attention to the raidleader's loot handling and follow instructions accordingly. If you are not the RL or an officer, then unless you have been given the authority to do so, you don't award loot, you don't step on toes. You sit tight and follow.
Raiding Guide While some of the information in the guide is about the way my guild, Defenders of Fae handles raids, most of it is general and will apply for all raids. To make it easier to read, this whole article is divided into several sections.
Guide to Raiding Gather before the Raid Starts Do your homework Some events have "special rules" that you may need to be aware of, usually with good reason. If your Raid Leader tells you not to use swarm pets, not to use fire or ice spells, not to use /say, etc, there will be a good reason for doing so. /assist Be self-sufficient Channels Buffs Know your role in the raid If you or your group are assigned a specific role, do it! - it may be that group 3 in the raid has responsibility for handling adds, or clicking triggers at a certain time. If that is the case, this task is your highest priority - showing how much you can crit for is of little use if you're forgetting to close the coffins in FC2, for example. Look out for your group members - if somebody dies whilst the raid is moving somewhere, you should already be dragging their corpse to a safe rez spot. If you happen to be that corpse, it may take a few minutes before you get a rez. Safe rezzing is more important than beating the hover timer, remember that the clerics often have more important things on their mind, such as keeping the rest of the raid alive before worrying about the dead. Some events are downright dangerous to rez into - Sendaii, for example, and any other raid that has large AE nukes going off all over the place. You may be able to take it when geared and buffed, but if you rez into an AE, all you're going to do is give the necros more corpses on which to use Wake The Dead. Unless it is part of your role, do not steal agro from the people that are supposed to be tanking mobs. Know who is in your group, and what they are doing - don't rely on the fact that you have a cleric in your group; if that cleric is spam healing the MA, they won't have time to heal you. On some raids you may not even have a healer in your group - it is then even more important that you don't agro mobs that you shouldn't. Again, the point of a raid is to beat the encounter, not to demonstrate your amazing dps or mega-crits. Do not train the raid |
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