I just wanted to post a reminder for everyone, because there are two badass events happening this Sunday.  If you mssed the initial posts, or thought “I’ll sign up for that later… well you’d feel like a damn fool if you missed them.

Don’t worry, thats why I’m here for you: To make sure you know about the all the cool stuff and avoid awkward social situations with tips like this one:

When you’re in an elevator and you feel like you might have gas, try to wait until the door opens and someone very old or very young gets on before letting go.  People will forgive those they expect foul odors from much more easily than they will forgive those living between puberty and dimentia.

As for events, here’s what you don’t want to miss this Sunday:

1) Kickin it Old School in the ruins of Ahn’Qiraj at 2 PM Server

2) Do you Know what I Know: Trivia with Beansey on ventrilo at 5 PM server

Be well, love fiercely, and spread the word,

Ecco

It was an exciting week in ECC.  Yes, yes they were some raids, and some great achievements earned, but it was also the week that Arch and Lauro got totally smashed Friday night, and entertained us all on vent.  Easily the highlight of 2010!

The rest of this week’s blog is skewed largely toward raid content as those are the easiest events for me to track without direct input, but there are many many other awesome things going on in the guild.  I just need YOU to tell ME about them.  the next time you do something in game that excites you, or you are excited by another player or something in the forums, please do take a moment to shoot me a PM on the forums, an in game email, or leave a comment here or in the Public ECC forums.  I’d love to share your achievements and news with the guild in the Weekly Happenings on March 15th.

Achievements:
Kalessina followed in Ronzily’s footsteps from last week and finished off his Glory of the Hero meta-achievement by Picking up Share the Love on Wednesday. 

While I find the Red Proto-Drake to be quite sexy, I know Kal, Myself and many many others have long coveted the Rusted Proto-Drake awarded from Glory of the Ulduar Raider for quite some time.  Well Kal and many others are got within striking distance after picking up Knock, Knock, Knock on Wood last night, so big congratulations are in order!

Please PM me or leave a comment here if you have an achievement or other significant character accomplishment to include in next weeks column.

New Members:
Welcome to the family!

Ambassador Cassandrad - 80 Night Elf Priest
Daedzi - 15 human Priest
Carthery - 56 Human Mage

Please keep an eye out for them and send a warm greeting the next time you see them on.

Guildie of the week:
The guildie of the week (chosen entirely by me) is Honeym (AKA Zookeeper).  Many know Honey as a mentor coordinator, and long time member of the guild.  I chose to single Honey her out this week for a couple of reasons.  Chief among them is her unending kindness and warmth.   Unlike many of us who push the bounds of bawdy teasing at every opportunity, Honey always seems to offer hugs, friendly ears, and heals for anyone who needs them.  Of course, she doesn’t shy away from the occasional innuendo or outright tawdry tale, either.

She’s a great example of what ECC is all about: Good hearted, community minded people that like to relax, have fun and share laughs.

If you’d like to nominate someone as member of the week, please PM me your reason for supporting your nominee.

Forum Post of the week:
I’m going to go with a quick little post by Thoranbrook from this past Monday about Wowpopular.com.  Its nothing earth shattering or significant in the history of ECC, but its the kind of helpful resource sharing that thoughtful WoW veterans can always do more of to help out newer or more casual players.

Coming up:
Later this week I’m planning my first editorial column, on 10 man raiding.  In the longer view I am looking for an interview victim subject brave enough to follow Beansey’s act in the “Getting to Know ECC” segment. 

As always, this column is littered with requests for your information.  Please.  I am begging here.  Take a moment to follow through with sending me any achievements, suggestions or even just general thoughts you’d like to share.

Be well and love fiercely,

Ecco

Beansey (you may know him as Gnurman or Manski as well) was kind enough to be my first victim for the segment.  I hope you have as much fun reading about him as I did interviewing him. 

When you finish reading, please take a moment to check out the trivia contest that Beansey is running.  Its called “Do You Know What I Know?” and its happening Sunday, March 14th at 5 PM Server time.

[Ecco]: Would you mind starting by telling me a little bit about yourself outside of your WoW life?

[Beansey]: I’m a father, a husband, huge movie buff, Raider Nation Passport Holder. I like onion rings and shooting Nazis in Call of Duty

[E]: A Raider Nation member?  How do you feel about Gradkowski getting a 2nd round tender?

[B]: I am going to stay mum as mentioning my beloved Raiders makes me see blood and poop nails, but I do like Gradkowski and hadn’t heard.

[E]: What got you started playing WoW?

[B]: I was a huge Warcraft buff before hand, had never been disappointed in any Blizzard game to date. I figured it was worth a shot.

[E]: Had you played any MMOs before?

[B]: Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot

[E]: Do you miss either game?

[B]: As I slap my arm trying to make the vein come up for WoW… I mean… No

[E]: So with 3 MMOs under your belt now, it seems like you’ve been gaming for a while.   How “out” are you as a gamer in your real life?

[B]: Oh no, let’s see, EQ, DAoC, Champions Online, City of Heroes and Villians, and Star Trek Online… and WoW.  But to answer your question, I met my wife in BRD

[E]: Wait, back up.  Can you tell me the story of meeting your wife in BRD?

[B]: Absolutely.  I was a healer at the time (Druid) and in a huge guild. I was asked by a friend to help out with some BRD. I logged in and there was this Gnome mage named Thimblefinn.  I liked her name, thought it was clever, and so I started talking to her.

That night I kinda thought she thought I was an ass and wouldn’t want anything else to do with me.  We talked alot, dunno why. She would find me online and discuss her day, or issues with her love life… kinda drove me nuts.

Then one day she asked me to jump on vent and told me she was so in love with me she couldn’t see straight. I moved two thousand miles to be closer to her.  That was the beginning of the best thing that’s ever, EVER happened to me.

[E]: Wow! Thats amazing.

[B]: Also there were two other guys who were kind of into her to some extent, and I got to tell both of them that they lost.

[E]: How much time was there between meeting and moving?

[B]: About four months

[E]: That’s pretty quick.

[B]: Makes it sound like a [Match.com] thing eh? It should be told that she lived in BC, and my best friend lives in Northern Washington

[E]: That doesn’t make it any less daring.

[B]: There were some rocky patches, and there will be more. But Joy is the most awesome person ever, and an incredible lay… just saying.

[E]: Do you mind if that last bit makes it to print?

[B]: Nope.  She’d be the first to tell you.  She’s laughing now.

[E]: Maybe I should be interviewing her.  Why hasn’t she joined ECC?

[B]: Her account is down right now.  Our son is a needy boy, and doesn’t seem to like me much.   She does have a rogue in the guild though, and she’s coming back for Cataclysm

[E]: Maybe down the road when she reactivates, we’ll get her side of the story.

[B]: NO!  I mean… Ummm, she’s shy… yeah… that’s the ticket.

[E]: Will you play together when she gets back, or do you need your space from each other in WoW?

[B]: Hell no, I love playing with her, and she’s a slammin pally healer… and a great tank too.

[E]: I want my wife to take lessons from your wife.

[B]: It makes for some stories we cannot share with out families, though.  We can’t really brag about a vacation in the barrens.

[E]: Well that gets back to the question you never answered: How “out” as a wow player are you to friends, family, work?

[B]: I am not a shy person. I love to talk about what I love, and I love gaming.

[E]: Are you comfortable telling people you don’t know well that you play WoW?

[B]: Oh hell yeah, how else will I meet gamers?  Last night I told the guy at Taco Bell that he needed to transfer here so we can get another pally healer.

[E]: You’re our British Columbian recruiting office!

[B]: I live in Alabama now, but I’ll work here too.

[E]: Speaking of working for the ECC, can we plug your event coming up?  Talk a little bit about what drove you to do it, and why a trivia contest?

[B]: I was in the last guild meeting, and I saw some people upset at a loss of a “family” feel to the guild.  Honestly I disagreed. I feel that with a minimal effort on my part I was a part of the family.  However, I remember being younger and how hard it was to just put myself out there. How hard it was to risk talking to people for fear that I would be rejected.  So, I wanted to put forth a touch of effort to get some people who may not join vent and be social an excuse and a format to come on. A way to introduce themselves to us as a body.

Its a trivia contest for two reasons:

  1) I can do it in vent, and people do not have to stop farming or instancing or boppin around and come to Ironforge, or Stormwind or whatever.  They can keep doing whatever it is they want to do.

  2) Trivia means that those of us that have a nerd flag can raise it high.

[E]: The funny thing is I had been talking to a friend before you posted and we were talking about how getting on vent makes such a difference for newer folks but it can be so hard to get them on and comfortable.  I was thrilled to see you were 5 steps ahead of that curve.

[B]: I hope it helps; I want the new folks to hear us and know that we’re just gamers, like they are.

[E]: Can you give a tiny preview of what to expect… a category heading or two?

[B]: I’m working on that honestly. I work 50 hours a week and have a wife, two kids and a plethora of other excuses.

[E]: Okay, keep your plans close to the vest, I see how it is.

[B]: Well, suffice to say Video Games will be there… Movies, some sports stuff… You know, topics that people who like couch sitting would know.

[E]: Are 8-bits fair game?

[B]: I wasn’t planning on reaching that far back

[E]: Drat!  That’s my long suit

[B]: I will be putting on my announcer voice and getting crazy though.  I just hope a few new people come along.

[E]: I’m looking forward to it.  Is there anything else about you as a person or player that you really want others to know?

[B]: Yes, yes there is.  I like pudding.  I like pudding A LOT… and hamburgers.

[E]:  Any Particular flavors? Butterscotch?  Pistachio?

[B]: Chocolate is okay, vanilla with caramel sauce is king though

[E]: Ah, so you dress it up a little.

[B]: There’s another way to eat it?

[E]: Sugar free or full on sugary?

[B]: I’m Diabetic.  So, sugar to the free is all for me, but as a warning for you kids out there who don’t know: Sugar free chocolate is a laxative… seriously.

[E]: This interview is supposed to be about you, not me, but I just have to say: A bag of sugar free Reese’s PB cups, and an airplane flight are a bad combination.

[B]: HOLY CRAP!  That was the first candy that I ever ate sugar free.

[E]: Did you have to throw away your pants too?

[B]: No, but I had to hold myself off of the seat.  It was all raw and sensetive

[E]: We’re going to have to rate the blog “PG-13” now… unless you say “asshole” again; then we’re at “R”.

[B]: And you used up my last turn there.

[E]: Well, in that case, maybe we should wrap things up. I think we should leave people wanting MORE Beansy, but I do have one last question

[B]: Shoot

[E]: You use Gnurman, Beansey and Manski as handles… can you pick one for all of us to save on the confusion?

[B]: Mystery is my calling card…. ::POOF::

[E]: How about we use Beansey.  That’s what you’re listed as up and down my chat log now.

[B]: Sounds good.

[E]: Thanks so much for taking the time to chat, Beansy.  You’re going to be a tough act for the blog to follow.

[B]: Nah, and I had a good time yo, but my shy wife is giving me looks.  So, I’ll have to say g’night.  G’night!

[E]: G’night!

This is the first installment of what I plan to use as a weekly Monday column.  Please see below for ways you can contribute.

Achievements:
Ronzily after months of being stuck on one-achievement-to-go for Glory of the Hero, finally managed to secure Split Personality last week, and has a fiery new red proto-drake to show off.

Please PM me or leave a comment here if you have an achievement or other significant character accomplishment to include in next weeks column.

New Members:
Welcome to the family!

Arrielle - 80 Draenei Hunter
Goewyn (the patient) - 80 Human Warrior
Korok - 65 Human Warlock
Jehezzel- 62 Draenei Deathknight

Please keep an eye out for them and send a warm greeting the next time you see them on.

Luenyar announced that the Cherry Poptarts have seen some slowdown in their sign-ups and as such will be switching to a less frequent schedule.  If you want to get in on some official raiding with ECC, I’m sure they’d be excited to have some fresh blood.  Last I checked they were clearing ToC, and hoping to make some attempts at Marrowgar at some point in the near future.  If you’re interested in joining an official ECC raid team, the place to sign up is right here.

Guildie of the week:
The guildie of the week (chosen entirely by me) is Avvala.  Avvala has been with the guild about 10 months now, and amidst working his way up to Third Time’s roster he has run with all three official raiding teams in one capacity or another, and has made numerous unofficial raiding teams a success at every level, and has recently opened up his own unofficial raiding team Kickin’ it old School to lead folks through old school content.  Many thanks to Avvala for being dependable, humble and above all helpful.

If you’d like to nominate someone as member of the week, please PM me your reason for supporting your nominee.

Forum Post of the week:
Manski is going above and beyond in responding in a positive way to the hunger folks have to get involved and laugh together and has announced a truly exciting event (with great rewards) on the general forums.  Check it out, RSVP and help spread the word.

Coming up:
Later this week I’m planning the first in a series of interviews with your very own guild mates, so keep an eye out for that.  In the meantime, I want to share with you a little bit about my vision for this blog.  My hope is to make this a place to celebrate the awesome community we have here in ECC by highlighting the cool things going on, and the inspiring people that make this community what it is.  In order to do that, I need you to help.  The column is littered with requests for your information.  Please take a moment to follow through with sending me any achievements, suggestions or even just general thoughts you’d like to share.

Be well and love fiercely,

Ecco

For starters I just want to share with you all some things I think might be valuable to have here in the blog, and if you should be so tickled as to leave reactions or thoughts in the comment, well all the better.  So, off the top of my head, these are some of the things I think are worth the price of admission.

1. Weekly happenings: New members this week, notable achievments earned, raid progress made, any big character changes folks are excited about.
2. Guild Member interviews: an occasional chat with a guild member (with an effort to target folks at all level of the guild from XOs to raiders to total WoW newbies.
3. News and Links: For when big or exciting changes come up, direct links to the blues, and secondary links on what people are saying.
4. What your officers are up to: An occasional update on the content that our excellent officer team is providing and ways that you can can get involved in their area.
5. What ECC means: anecdotes that illustrate what a special community ECC is.

Be well and love fiercely,

~Ecco

~Lauro

I’ve had an absolute blast writing for Ex Novus, even if it didn’t quite turn into the real ‘guild blog’ I had originally intended it to be. There have been times when I was working on 5 blogs at a time, if that shows you how much fun I had writing here. I think it’s time for me to evolve and do something a bit different. Thus, unless anyone else wants to step-up and take my place, Ex Novus the blog will be shut-down.

My new home will be The Rainbow Gnome (http://rainbowgnome.com) There, I’ll still continue my commentary about the game I love. (With a few twists and sprinklings of RP here/there.)

Almost all of my posts have now been ported-over to their new, shiny home. The old copies here will soon get deleted to help me pick out the ones I want to save. A few guild-specific pages/posts will get re-tooled so it can be used on our main website, www.excincin.com.

Mucho thanks to our wonderful GM, Archaion, Laurowene and Sinfall for allowing me to use this space, and helping me maintain it!

This will serve as the first in a series of blogs for ECC members who want to get information from the Wrath of the Lich King beta firsthand, from a guildie they can trust, even if I AM relatively new to the guild.  What I post here will be from the viewpoint of either my Night Elf Death Knight Tyrenda (currently level 72) or from Allassea (still sitting at 70) from the NORTHREND (PvE) Beta server.

I will try and cover as much newsworthy tidbits as I can, so feel free to add comments and such on what you would like to ask me.

My first blog will be on the creation and coming of age of your first World of Warcraft “hero” class: the Death Knight.  

I firmly believe that if you have a level 55 character currently and are planning on buying WotLK you should create at least ONE death knight.  There are no class restrictions, and sad as it is to say, I’ve seen more than my fair share of gnomish death knights running around.  From a pure lore aspect, the storyline that you follow from creation to entry into Azeroth is nothing short of amazing.  With that said, we begin.

You create your Death Knight on any server/realm.  If you have a 55 somewhere, you can create a Death Knight on any server.  For ECC folks, just because we’re on an RP realm, you aren’t limited to RP/PvE servers for Death Knight creation (currently anyways).  You will notice that the same hairstyles/piercings/tattoos as your normal characters, along with (for now) the same available hairstyles.  Yes, pigtailed gnomish DKs exist…  Your skin tones, however, are a bit…muted, and your eyes are glowing faintly white, much like the Lich King himself.  So now you have your freshly minted Death Knight in whatever flavor you like.  Keep in mind that racial traits such as Gift of the Naaru, Shadowmeld, and Escape Artist are still viable as DKs.  Basically it boils down to what you like to play.  Personally for me, the female Night Elf swing animations are the “least disjointed” so Tyrenda was born.

Below is what you see after you watch the opening cinematic (which I HIGHLY advise against skipping, it’s cool):

Yeah, pretty imposing…

Next blog entry:  The Death Knight and You, or Make Villagers Poop Themselves…

Here we are! It’s the last post in this series and it’s more or less a wrap-up of everything else we talked about, as well as a few other things I thought I’d throw in…

(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.)
(Briefly) What Did We Discuss?
Well we started with the basics, didn’t we? We talked about what raiding was all about. More importantly, I explained about progression, and how that explains why we raid to begin with. Then we went over the topic of gear, and how to enhance it.  Next up, we discussed about improving yourself through consumables. In the last post, we talked about what goes on in a raid, and what to expect while you’re there. We pretty much went over all of the highlights. If you didn’t understand raiding when you started, you should at least have a better idea now.

Being Prepared
Something I didn’t really touch on in the last post, and I really should have, which is being prepared. Many people will hop on 15 minutes+ early to make sure they’re ready to rock come start time. You really should too. There are two reasons why the raid starts late: needing to find subs, and players forgetting one thing or another, and having to go back for it. So, before you head to the instance from a capitol city, ask yourselves the following questions…

• Is my game patched, mods updated and Vent ready to go?
• Do I have enough reagents?
• Do I have enough food/water?
• Do I have enough health/mana/special pots/flasks/etc?
• Am I wearing the gear I need?
• Did I unequip the riding crop? (Or other trinkets that won’t really help you, LOL)
• Did I bring a pet? (It’s tradition with our guild.)
• Did I bring enough bandages?
• AM I READY TO GO COME START TIME???

Being ready to go come the start time of the raid, ensures everyone has the maximum amount of time to do as much as they can. Even though I’ve raided plenty of times, I go over that check list right before I leave a capitol city, so I won’t burden anyone to have to wait any more than they have to.

Do I Have To Use Mods?
With our guild, yes. We require only a few mods to be used while raiding. Now, there are some people who don’t use any mods at all. (More power to them.) It’s certainly a big challenge to run a raid without any mods, but it also takes quite a bit more skill do to so. (For most players, at least.) Out guild doesn’t ask you use 1,001 mods, just a few. The reason why is that the vast majority are used to monitoring certain things to get us through the instance…

• Omen is a threat meter. Basically, it tells you how much aggro you have, as well as everyone else. Why is this important to have? It warns you if you’re exceeding the aggro of the tanks. (Because, especially if you’re a fragile class like a mage.) There are many times when exceeding aggro causes wipes, so we’ve found if everyone can see where they are at in the aggro table, they can back-off DPS if needed.
• Deadly Boss Mods: Figuring out boss strategies is very exciting, but with how dynamic World of Warcraft’s content is, that’s only half the battle. Deadly Boss Mods makes the other half of that a walk in the park, thanks to a wide array of data hand-entered by the authors, that will display boss ability cooldowns, warnings for specific abilities, and a lot more.

Those two are, primarily, the two mods we require for raiding. Now, there are plenty of other mods available that will better help you through a raid. THIS list on Curse is a pretty good list of those other mods you may want to look into.

Additional Help
There are many other resources that, for one reason or another, I didn’t include with many of the original posts. I hope to give you some more help here, (In no real particular order) …

• MMO-Champion: Mega site with all kind of good information. For this series, they have detailed guides for all TBC raids.
• Kaliban’s Class Loot Lists: Super guide to help you look at gear just for your class. There’s even a class gear planner.

Separately, I wanted to list quite a few series that WOW Insider has, since they too have a wealth of information…

• WOW Insider’s Gearing For Kara Guides: Starting with Kara? These guides can help you out!
• Raid Rx: Posts on raid healing.
• Ready Check: Posts on raiding in general. Quite a few good reads with some boss strategies thrown in for good measure.
• Build Shop: Posts discussing various class talent builds.

There are literally millions of pages on the ‘net for World of Warcraft. There are many, many strategy guides, blogs, and mega sites that can help you out with not only raiding, but the game in general. In the LINKS section of my blog, I’ve listed quite a few of them that may help you as well.

Lastly, always feel free to ask people for help. In our guild, we’re more than willing to take the time, be patient, and walk you through anything you dont’ understand. After all, we’re a team. We’d much rather everyone go in prepared and not knowing what to do and cause a wipe.

Thank You
Well, there you have it. My first series and from some of the comments I’m getting, it was a good one! I hope everyone enjoyed reading it as I enjoyed writing it. More to the point, I hope this series helped some of you, even if you only learned one new thing. Thanks again to my guild and everyone else who gave me the support to push me to finish this!

/bow

We’re winding down now! You’ve got the gear, the enhancements and the consumables now. You’re just going to go in and just pwn everything in there, right? RIGHT?! Well, not necessarily. Raiding is very different from even heroic 5-man groups. In this post, I want to talk specifically what goes on in a raid, and what to generally expect.

(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.)

It’s An Over-Sized Instance
If you’ve never attended a raid before, it’s basically any other instance you’ve been to before, but usually much more difficult and much much bigger. There’s more trash, bigger/badder bosses, and everything is generally much more challenging. If a group is going into a particular instance for the first time, there’s going to be wipes, frustration, and learning going on. Not to mention, the loot is usually much, much better than you’d get in even heroic instances.

Instead of just working with 5 people though, you’re working with 10 or more. The dynamic changes drastically. No longer are you just a small group of people tackling content you couldn’t solo, you’re taking on content that needs an entire team of people to do it! Everyone needs to be able to work together as one to even take out trash mobs. When the boss fights come up, things can get rather crazy for the first (few) times as people learn what they should be doing.

Know What You’re Up Against
Raid leaders will generally direct you as to what to do. Kryj, Gwid, Arch and other typical leaders will tell you when they’re pulling, who to take down first, and who needs to do what in general. It’s incredibly nice of them, but it can take precious time to do it. (Not to mention, some people learn better reading than hearing things.) If Karazhan is going to be your first raid, there are some really tough fights where you’ll need to know what to do, what positions to be in, when to run away, etc.

What I’m getting at here is that it will help you, and the rest of the raid, tremendously if you take a few minutes and read a strategy or two. It’s not required for you to know what to do blindfolded and your hands tied behind your back, but having at least a general idea of what’s going to happen will give you a leg-up and possibly help prevent those early wipes/frustrations that sometimes happen. Here are a few sites I go to and recommend for strategies:

• WoWWiki: Just type the name of the boss or the instance and you should be able to find a tactics guide fairly easily.
• Boss Killers: This site is great if you’re also looking for videos and the like in addition to just text.
• AmpWow: Another good site that also provides pictures for you to better see how placement needs to go.

Learn, Adapt & Be Patient
Even when you, if only briefly, read a strategy guide, it’s not quite the same as actually being there (relatively) in person. Boss fights especially will not always go as how you’ve read because there are so many factors that can effect the outcome of an encounter. (Gear-level, buffs, player/boss placement, adds, mistakes, etc.) So many times, even for seasoned raiders, a simple mistake is made that ends up killing everyone.

But we’re talking about new(er) raiders. When you first start to raid a particular instance, you may wipe, over and over again, until finally everyone ‘clicks’ and take down that boss. It’s important, especially if the group wipes, for players to recognize what went wrong, and how to improve if that same thing happens again. Sometimes, you’ll end up not only trying to make sure you don’t make a mistake, but compensate for someone else if they do.

Everyone has their own roles to fulfill, yes, but players also need to be flexible enough to support each other should the time come. (And, it will come sooner than later.) Eventually, when you raid with people long enough, you see how they play, how they react to an ‘oh shit!’ moment, and how they can support someone if needed. So, you’ll be doing a lot of learning when you first start to raid.

Listening & Patience
You’ll be doing a lot of listening, at the very least. Our guild uses Ventrilo for voice chat, which is infinitely better than trying desperately to type to someone to get out of a void before they’re killed. So while you’re in battle, you’re also going to have to make sure you can listen to commands/hints. The raid leaders will be barking at who to focus on next, healers may call out if you’re being effected by a debuff or are out of range, etc. Sometimes things can get heated, but take it all in stride as usually it’s nothing personal.

I also want to stress patience. No one clears Kara as a group and makes a full clear the first time. People can get frustrated when you spend almost half of the raid time wiping, releasing, running back, only to wipe again and start the process all over again. While you’re learning, while you’re adapting, you need to be patient in the mean time. I remember when I first when into Kara and wiped again and again at certain bosses. Eventually though, we got through it and now it seems like old hat.

Loot Rules & Courtesies
A big reason why we raid to begin with is the loot! There’s a problem that can sometimes come with loot though: drama. Drama absolutely sucks, and can come from loot ninjas, bickering over secondary sets, etc. So, guilds/groups that raid generally run some kind of loot rules. Our guild particularly runs a loot system called Suicide Kings. (Our members can access those rules, and the rest of our raiding rules HERE.)

In essence, we started raiding originally with 10 people. Those 10 people drew random numbers to become 1st-10th on a loot list. When a piece of loot drops, if number 1 wants it, they take the item and go to the bottom of the list. So, the list constantly changes because if someone desires something, they go to the bottom of the list then work their way up as others get loot. There are also secondary/third lists, but that’s best left to be read later on your own.

Lastly, as a courtesy to all raiding members, don’t loot trash until all of the fighting has been finished. The reason being for this is that if you loot something that needs to be rolled on, it pops up a window that can block buttons for other players. (Thus, sometimes, causing wipes because someone couldn’t click that one button that would have saved them.) Also, it’s usually a courtesy to leave the boss looting to the raid leader. (And they will typically wait to loot until everyone is alive and ready to discuss who gets what.)

How Long Will It Take?
For our guild at least, the standard time is three hours. Typically, we schedule raids from 8PM-11PM. If, at 11PM, everyone agrees to continue, then we usually do. (Typically to try to have a full-clear.) Of course, that’s how long it will take for a particular day.

It you mean, ‘How long will it take me to make it to a full clear,’ that really depends. I think for myself personally, I attended a Karazahn raid for the 4th-5th time before we finally downed the Prince. It really just depends on the group make-up.

But lastly, if you’re asking ‘How long will it take me to get every possible piece of upgraded gear in a particular raid,’ well, you may be raiding for quite a while, LOL. Arch will tell you first-hand that sometimes it seems like a particular item will always seem to refuse to drop when he’s in the raid that day, yet will drop the next day and will have to be dis-enchanted. For Kara, there are two tier-4 pieces that drop, but they won’t drop for every class, every time you down the bosses. So, You’ll be going into an instance time and time again before you actually ‘finish’ getting all of the upgrades you can possible get before moving on to the next.

Have Fun!
Most importantly, have fun when you’re in the raid. After all, if you’re not going to have fun at something, why do it to begin with? Especially with our guild, we raid because we enjoy it. We like seeing newer members blossom and progress and join the ranks of people who have successfully cleared a raid for the first time. If you take no other thing I’ve mention in the article home, please, take this one.

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Well now, we took a look at what to expect when you’re actually in the instance. (Hopefully, you’ll have a rough idea how the fights go by doing a little homework, too.) I know sometimes it can see like there’s so much to read/do just for raiding, but it’s all worth it in the end. Not only do you have fun with other players, but you get to experience new content. In the next post, we’ll be wrapping things up!