Raiding Instances Guidelines: 25-mans.

1. No action is taken unless directed by the raid leader.

25-man raids should be treated differently than the earlier instances in the game. In a Raid, the role of the raid leader is to direct the group with his or her knowledge of the instance. They are the ones responsible for determining the best strategies to defeat trash mobs and use against each boss. They determine main puller, main tank, target assignments, healing rotations and even the order in which targets are to be taken down (or assign raid members to arrange those details). Failure to follow orders will result in being kicked at the raid leaders' discretion and possibly even suspended from other raids if there are repeated mishaps.


2. Your First Aid Skill should maxed out and if you're not a Main tank you should be using it.

If you are not the main tank you are not a Priority for the healers' mana. The tanks are there to control aggro, and they are uniquely equipped and talented to handle damage better than anyone else in the raid. The more mana the healers run through the tanks, the longer the tanks (and the Raid) will last. If you are ranged you should not have agro anyway. So use a bandage. In many fights, do not expect to be healed. Let the healers conserve their mana for those who cannot bandage themselves during the fight. If you ARE going to get healing - the raid leader will probably tell you so before the fight (or you will hear them telling the healers that your class needs to be healed).


3. Control Your DPS!!!

If you are trying to hit the top the of damage done list at the cost of not letting the tanks control aggro you will be kicked at the raid leaders' discretion. The raid leader will call for light DPS, all out DPS, or no attacks whatsoever. Normally you will be able to attack after the tank has a few thousand threat on the mob, start with light DPS this means only wands, auto shot and normal melee attacks. Wait a second or two to pop trinkets and cooldowns, just in case the tank has some unlucky misses or resists. If a tank loses control of the mob, you will be told to stop DPS to allow him to regain aggro. If you’re a hunter Feign Death, rogues Feint/Vanish, priests Fade, Druids Shadowmeld - whatever it takes to get the Tanks back to the top of the aggro list, do it.


4. Channels of communication

In a 25 man raid you should avoid talking during a fight. Most questions or suggestions should go through raid chat not vent. It might be nice to flash your damage meter but if someone is typing a message it will be lost in the meter so please refrain from spamming it. In between pulls, the raid leader may ask questions of you, or ask you to say something during the fight when something happens (ex. "tanks, please should shout when/if you get netted by the boss" "healers call OOM").

The time to tell jokes and chat is during breaks, not when the raid is fighting a boss or even trash mobs!


5. Be on time, Be prepared, Be at the instance. 

25 man raid invites will start 15-30 mins before the run. This is plenty of time to stock up, unflag your PVP and get to the instance. At the raid leaders' discretion you might lose your spot to someone else if you are late. Generally your spot is forfeited 5-10 mins before the run. Starting early is always preferred if possible. Real Life is bigger than the game - but remember that being late or not on at all can ruin the event for 24 other people. Please let the raid leader know if you cannot make a scheduled run, or if you are going to be late!

Casters have all your reagents, at least 2-3 full stacks, rogues have your poisons and powders, Hunters have pet food 2-3 stacks and a full stock of ammo (3200+).  All classes have their bandages made and ready for use, healing pots, mana pots and what ever scrolls and pots you might need.  You should have either a flask or BOTH 10 Battle and 10 Guardian Elixirs (flask or two is recommended on non-farm nights).  In addition you need a stack of buff food appropriate for your class. 

It's best to not expect a summons.  Sure someone is probably parked there already, however, it takes longer to summon 23 people.  And we expect to be doing the first pull at start time.  So if at all possible get yourself to the instance area (ahead of time if you know you are going to have to log on a little close to the invite time.


6. Class Balance. Sign up and please show up. 

If you sign up but do not show up for the run as scheduled, we may not be able to field the right mix of classes to tackle the planned content for the raid. We can sometimes make up for missing people with alts or mains of members that seldom raid, but the performance of the raid team will suffer. So please participate and show up - the guild needs all of it’s members for us to be successful.


7. Who Posts Raids and why?

Only Guild Officers or non-officers who have gotten permission from a Mentor or the Guild Leader may post 25 man Guild Raids on GEM. This is to help avoid two runs to major instances on the same night (which makes it tough to fill either of them), and also helps ensure that the Guild leadership can manage our Raid IDs with the Instance Resets in mind, so that we can run split the tougher instances up into two or even three runs and make full clears possible.


8. Why are we doing all of this?

The Serenity Knights Guild is about Fun, Friendship and New Adventures in the World of Warcraft. For many of our members, New Adventures means having the opportunity to explore further into the amazing content that Blizzard has built into the World of Warcraft. We intend to see all of the Raid content in Wrath of the Lich King, and doing this requires that all of our raiders be at their best. There are few things in the game as Fun as figuring out an encounter together, and overcoming it as a team by collectively using our wits, skills and resources. Finally working together in large groups helps forge new bonds of Friendship and trust in the Serenity Knights family. So doing major Raid Instances together is consistent with the mission of our guild, and is one of the major reasons that this family exists.

Raiding is deifinitely not the only thing in WoW that delivers these three keys - but it is one of the biggest and best things we can do as a group to get the most out of the game TOGETHER. And being together with friends and exploring this game is the major reason that most Serenity Knights pay for that subscription every month. We will never become hard-core raiding jerks who do 25-man instances seven nights a week, however; we are still trying to progress so we can check out more content.  So this will require you to participate regularly for us to do so.