Raiding! The Basics
Welcome all to a new series of posts I’m working on. For some people, they’ve only had a taste of instances, maybe never even got to touch a heroic, let alone level-70 raids like Karazhan. This series is for those people wanting to know more about how these things work, and how you can be better at it. Let’s go over some of the basics today…
(NOTE: these posts typically have links in them that go to other websites that delve into deeper detail than I will, in case you’re curious to learn about the nitty-gritty.)
What’s An Instance?
Have you ever completed an elite quest? You know, where it’s too hard for you to tackle solo and you need the help of others? Well, think of an instance just like that, only you’re in an entire area with four other people. You take on elite mobs/bosses. Typically, the loot you get here is much better than just questing. (Typically blue/rare-quality.)
What’s A Heroic Instance?
A heroic instance, ‘heroic’ for short, is like a regular instance. In this case though, they’re designed for players 70+. They’re much more challenging, but offer much better loot in exchange. (Typically purple/epic-quality) In addition, they also give out Badges of Justice which you can collect and turn in for rewards. (More on that in the next post.)
What’s A Raid?
A raid is like an instance, but there are always more than 5, less than 41, players involved. They’re much more challenging, but typically a lot of fun if everyone’s prepared. Raiding is typically very complex, requiring precise coordination, teamwork, gear and player skill. Right now, the ‘highest’ instance you can go to is the Sunwell Plateau, where you take on Kil’jaeden himself.
YAY! Let’s do Sunwell Plateau!
Err, no. We can’t. Why? Well, we haven’t progressed yet to that level yet. “What’s progression,” you ask? Well, you’ve already experienced it leveling up. As you level, you gain new abilities, talents, gear, etc, making you able to take on new content. 70 is the maximum level at this time. So, no newer abilities/talents. What you can continue to improve though, is your gear. Basically put, progression is getting to new content, getting better gear out of that content, then moving onto the next level of content. Rinse, repeat.
How Do I Know What To Do Next?
Just like zones, raids/instances after 70 have certain gear requirements in order for you to complete them while still be challenging. Basically, here’s how you would progress through the content:
- Heorics (Various. Almost all instances released in The Burning Crusade have a ‘heroic’ mode.)
- Karazhan
- Gruul’s Lair
- Magtheridon’s Lair
- Zul’Aman
- Serpentshrine Cavern
- Tempest Keep (The Eye)
- Caverns of Time (Battle For Mount Hyjal)
- Black Temple
- Sunwell Plateau
(You can see a, large, listing of of all instances HERE.)
So let’s say you’ve reached level 70. (Congrats, by the way!) Where do you go from here? Your first stop will be heroic instances. As mentioned before, heroics are the same instances you’ve been to, but much harder with much better gear. The other big difference, is that you earn Badges of Justice from this point forward. (More on that, later.) Your goal at this point, is to upgrade what you’re wearing. Most of your gear may be green/blue to start, but you’ll, slowly, start to get purples soon enough.
There will come a point in time where you’ve run the instance 10,000 times (OK maybe not that many), found every possible upgrade and simply have nothing really left to collect except for badges. When you’ve reached that point, you’re ready to move on. The problem is, you need a group of people who are at the same point. That’s why you can’t just do an instance once and move on. In a guild setting, everyone works together at the same goals, then move on as a group.
Websites That Can Help
Without getting too much into gear, since that’s for the next post, there are two web sites that you can go to that will give you a general idea as to what you’re ready for: Be Imba! & WoW Heroes. They aren’t perfect, but they can show you where you’re approximately ready to tackle. For example, if you look up Kibibi, I’m pretty much ready to move onto raids like ZA, but no where close to Black Temple.
How do these websites work? Well, they look at your Armory information. They take into account what kind of gear you got, what kind of augments you have, what your talent build is, add that all together and guesstimate where you’d probably do well at. Again they’re far from perfect and sometimes flat-out inaccurate, but they can give you a more visual look at where you should be going.
In the next post, we start to look at your gear!
July 16 2008 08:18 am | Raiding!
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