Raid101

From RaidWiki

Inner Circle raids are currently open to all members and we have a back fill policy with <What>. Any spaces available at start time are extended to members of <What> who would like to join. We maintain an in game chat channel #innerwhat for communicating back and forth.

Contents 1 Equipment recommendation 1.1 Armor and Weapons 1.2 Spells and skills 1.3 Potions and Consumables 1.4 Equipment status 2 Raid conduct 2.1 Before the raid 2.2 Communication 2.3 Going AFK 2.4 Command 'all die' or 'wipe' issued by raid leader 2.5 Active items and doors in raid zones, zone in/out 2.6 Group leader duty 3 Tactics 3.1 Assisting 3.2 Debuffs 3.3 Area of Effect spells 3.4 Mesmerized mobs 3.5 Movements 3.6 DPS players - agro management 4 Raid grouping 5 Raid Class Definitions 5.1 Main Tank (MT) 5.2 Plate Healer 5.3 Chain Healer 5.4 Leather Healer 5.5 Other Healer 5.6 Mage Utility 5.7 Scout Utility 5.8 Fighters 5.9 Ranged DPS 5.10 Melee DPS 5.11 Main Assist (MA) 5.12 Off-Tank 6 Forming the groups 7 Back up Healing 8 Class Specific Benefits 8.1 Fighter 8.1.1 Berserker 8.1.2 Bruiser 8.1.3 Guardian 8.1.4 Monk 8.1.5 Paladin 8.1.6 Shadow Knight 8.2 Mage 8.2.1 Coercer 8.2.2 Conjurer 8.2.3 Illusionist 8.2.4 Necromancer 8.2.5 Warlock 8.2.6 Wizard 8.3 Priest 8.3.1 Defiler 8.3.2 Fury 8.3.3 Inquisitor 8.3.4 Mystic 8.3.5 Templar 8.3.6 Warden 8.4 Scout 8.4.1 Assassin 8.4.2 Brigand 8.4.3 Dirge 8.4.4 Ranger 8.4.5 Swashbuckler 8.4.6 Troubadour

Equipment recommendation

Armor and Weapons

• Unlike fighting Heroic content, when fighting Epic's Resists matter. What seperates good raid gear from other gear is the combination of stats, mitigation and resists. For raiding resists are AS IMPORTANT if not more important than stats and mitigation.

• You need around 3500 in all resists to survive entry-level T7 raiding; however, your target for KoS raiding is 6k in each resist, for EoF look to get 8K+.

• When signing up to a raid, check the zone strategy for any special resists needed.
  • Try to get at least 6000, preferably more, in those.
  • Also buy a couple of Exceptional xxxx Reprieve (where xxxx is Noxious, Mental or Arcane). They are made by Alchemists and ward against damage, and can be used from level 62 up.
  • Consider buying Grandmaster cure potions for the damage type we'll be facing.

• The EOF instances often throw up some pretty decent treasured resists gear if you want to go farming.

• If you can't afford the best equipment, you can buy some cheap Handcrafted resist jewelery to swap in when we get to an enemy with a nasty AE. This can be very efficient, especially if you have several sets for different types of damage. For instance, buying two handcrafted earrings, two finger rings and a necklace with cold/heat resists will give you over 3500 vs. cold/heat.
  • Mastercrafted T7 resist jewelery gives roughly +900 mitigation in either heat/cold, poison/disease or magic/divine.
  • Handcrafted T7 resist jewelery gives roughly +700 mitigation in either heat/cold, poison/disease or magic/divine.

• Some mobs are immune to some types of damage, and more vulnerable to others. If you're doing melee DPS, it's a good idea to bring several different weapons (pierce, slash, crush).

• Keep your old armor if it provides resists your replacement pieces do not have
  • Make Equipment macros for swaping gear easily
    • Default Gear Macro
    • Poison Resist Macro
    • Disease Resist Macro
    • Heat/Cold Resist Macro
    • Divine Resist Macro
    • Magic Resist Macro
    • Disease LOW Macro (needed for FTH)

Spells and skills

Please try to upgrade key spells to A3 as fast as possible. Post a workorder in the tradeskill section of the forums for ANY spell that is not atleast A3. Guild stores may not be available immediately to fullfill the request, but the post will serve as a reference to what you are lacking.

Potions and Consumables

It's a good idea to carry a stack of these on you at all times, even outside of raids:

• Totem of the Chameleon or Totem of the Jaguar (if you don't have your own invisibility)
• Totem of the Beholder (power regen)
• Totem of the Butterfly (see stealth for DT)
• Status Purchased mana clicky
• Status Purchased rez clicky
• Status Purchased Stun immunity
• Grandmaster's Arcane Reprieve, Grandmaster's Noxious Reprieve, and Grandmaster's Elementary Reprieve. These wards against different types of damage, and are sometimes necessary to survive AoE's. Usable from level 62 and up.

Equipment status

You are expected to come to raid with your equipment at 100% condition. Plan time before raid to stop by mender to make this true.

Raid conduct

Before raiding, make sure you are registered at:

• The Inner Circle forums
• Claim your Character
• Sign up for raids

Before the raid

Make note of the time, meeting place, and any special resists needed.

Be at the meeting place at or before the prescribed time. If you are late, your place may go to someone else.

Communication

• Raid chat (/raidsay) is primarily for raid leader, MT/MA, and for urgent messages like "Adds incoming!".
• Some raid leaders allow jokes, welcomes, congratulations, etc. in raid channel, but consider using group chat or guild chat.
• If you have something important but non-urgent to say, tell it to your group leader, and ask him/her to notify the raid leader. This is so the raid leader doesn't get swamped with tells.
• Use /say, /gsay and /raidsay in macros only when necessary. For instance:
  • Brigands are expected to announce debuffs
  • Necro's are asked to announce Lifeburn
  • Bruisers are asked to announce Drag
  • Guardians are asked to announce Plant and Reinforcement

Going AFK

We usually have a 5 minutes pause every couple of hours. Be sure to use the AFK flag if you leave your computer.

If you absolutely have to go AFK unexpected, please

• tell it in group
• set /follow on your group leader and tell him
• set up /AFK flag (remove it when back) so all can see you are AFK

Command 'all die' or 'wipe' issued by raid leader

In such case, find some nice place possibly not on spawn point of any mob, close to original fight and wait for encounter to come kill you, will not take long. If you can feign death, only do so if the Raid Leader has deemed FD safe for zone/region. Do not try to run away for your life out of visual contact from battle-field. Once dead, stay dead. Do not click revive automatically, wait for raid leader instructions on how to proceed. It is possible clerics will need to revive you where you are, or all will have to revive at same time, or all need to be dead before first person revives so aggro breaks properly/effects removed, etc. When asked to revive make sure you selected right instance.

Active items and doors in raid zones, zone in/out

• No one opens doors. Only people authorized by RL (typically main/off tank) can open doors.
• If you spot an active item in the raid zone DO NOT CLICK on it. One click can spawn a named that wipes raid, zone people out, and possibly ruin the entire night. Notify your group leader if you think people are not aware of the active item.

Group leader duty

• Kick/invite people in/out group as fast as possible to follow RL commands quickly.
• Group leader can't go AFK until he gives leadership to another active group player.
• Receive questions/ideas from group members and pass them on to raid leader.

Tactics

Assisting

At the beginning of raid, raid leader will tell you who is Main Tank (MT) and Main Assist (MA). Be sure to remember this.

The MT's job is to keep the mob hitting on him. The MA's job is to show people who to hit.

All DPS classes (scouts, fighters and mages) should target through the MA, unless othewise instructed. All healers should target and heal the MT first, and take care of group members second.

• Do not attack BEFORE assisting message!

• The MT usually warns a couple of seconds before he engages. Don't attack yet.
• The MT then tries to build up hate with the mob. Don't attack yet.
• When the MT has enough hate, the MA will tell you to assist. Now you may attack.

• Do not target anything else unless you're told. Exception: Healers can target what they want for healing purposes, and may do CAREFUL DPS through the MT. (The CAREFUL applies doubly to Furies ;)

Debuffs

Debuffs are important to raid success, but some are greatly more important that others. Try to apply them in this order:

1. Attack Speed - Lowering the attack speed of target will reduce incoming DPS drastically (not movement speed!)
2. Reuse Speed - Swipe, and other debuffs that increase reuse speed drastically reduce incoming DPS
3. DPS Reduction - Lowering DPS mod will drastically decrease incoming auto attack damage.
4. Combat/Casting Skills - Lowering Pierce/Slash/Disruption/ETC drastically lowers incoming DPS
5. STR/INT - Further lowers AutoAttack and CA damage output
6. Mitigation/Wis/Resists - Once the DPS reduction buffs are applied, now lower the mob's resistances to attacks
7. Max Health - Lowering max health can drastically shorten epic fights
8. Max Power / Power Drains - Totally useless. Epic's can cast with 0 power. Unless you are leaching this power to your group, forget about these debuffs.

Our first priority is lowering the incoming dps so we can stabilize the fight and let healers catch up, after we've lowered the mobs outgoing dps, we debuff him for incoming dps and beat it down. Failure to lower the mobs outgoing (or our incoming) dps can lead to unnecessary wipes.

Area of Effect spells

Sometimes the raid leader will tell you not to use AoE damage. Sometimes encounter-only AoE is allowed, sometimes no AoE at all. Every raid member HAS to know their spells and make sure they don't cause AoE when they shouldn't.

Remember:

• Single-target spells have a RED background.
• Encounter-only AoE spells have a GREEN background.
• Cross-encounter AoE spells have a BLUE background.

• Tank and mage pets do AoE. As far as we know, scout pets only do single-target damage.
• Some dumbfire pets AoE. Protoflame, Forge of Ro, Ring of Fire, Pyromancy, and more.

• Pets should be set to NOT defend themselves or their master - in game commands for this are "/pet preserve_master OFF" and "/pet preserve_self off"

• Buffs can cause AoE - for instance a damage shield on the tank can cause damage to the entire enemy encounter.

Mesmerized mobs

Mesmerized mobs are now immune to AE. Casting an AE Spell/Combat Art will only wake up the mob you're targeting. Of course, only that mob will take any damage.

However, you should be very careful casting DoT AE spells. If a mob is hit by a DoT spell, and then mesmerized, it will wake up every time the DoT causes damage.

Certain abilities still hit mezed mobs. Be careful of Huricane, Berzerker AA AoE, and other abilities.

Movements

If raid force has to move one person is selected as the person that has to be followed. NO-ONE can outrun this person even if he knows where raid is moving.

DPS players - agro management

DPS players, please control your damage output so you do not take agro from main tank. Main tank has limited amount of abilities he can play to hold agro. All tanks play them in most effective manner during the fights. There is no way for tank to be able to hold agro in case you are aproaching your full DPS potential, it is fact. It is not prestigious or funny when you steal agro to show your damage output is so strong that you can do that. The fact is, it just shows poor level of playing abilities and discipline of that DPS person. Some encounters it is critical not to peal agro. If the raid leader announces we can not allow for pinging, you MUST control your dps.

If requirements on DPS players should be put in 3 lines it would be:

• never take agro
• watch for resist report given by Raid Leader
• do as much damage as possible with proper skills/spells

...in this exact order.

Raid grouping

If you're leading a raid the set-up is all important. You need to do the best you can with the classes you have available.

Raid Class Definitions

For sign-up & grouping purposes the classes fall into several categories. Knowing these class categories can really help with the quick and efficient formation of a raid force.

Main Tank (MT)

Any fighter class able to hold aggro & live through the beating (preferably plate wearing)

Plate Healer

Either of the cleric type healers that wear plate armour

Chain Healer

Either of the Shaman style healers

Leather Healer

Either of the Druid style healers

Other Healer

Any of the 6 priest classes

Mage Utility

Either of the Enchanter classes that can mezz mobs & have regen

Scout Utility

Either of the Bard classes that have regen

Fighters

Any of the fighter classes that aren't down as MT

Ranged DPS

Any class that can sustain 900+ dps while staying at range. Primarily mages and rangers

Melee DPS

Any class that can sustain 900+ dps when in melee range, primarily scouts.

Main Assist (MA)

Any class, though usually a fighter, who directs the DPS onto the correct target

Off-Tank

Any tank who will be in charge of secondary targets.

Forming the groups

There is one typical raid set with two tanking groups that is used very often. In these two groups are typically one tank, two healers, one hate buffer, one mage, and one dps transfer scout (swash/ass). The whole group buffs as much as possible thetank.

Typical strategy is that one of the tanking groups is Main Tank (MT) group. This main-group pulls and keeps mobs on its tank. The tank from off-tank group builds aggro on the MA's target mob. He attempts to take aggro of the MA's target. The idea is to place him as high on the hate list as possible. The DPS transfer scout should pick one mob from the encounter and stay on it, preferably not the MA's target. This builds hate for the MT on the off target mobs allowing for AoE dps classes to maximize their potention. In short, the dps transfer scout's job is to stay higher on an off mob's hate than the sum of the warlock aoe dps.

All members are in Main Tank group to provide beneficial spells/buffs on their tank as their primary objective. Mana-regens also provide power to entire group. The objective of this whole group is to keep dedicated tank in the best shape and alive all the time. So by default stick very close to your tank, or at Raid Leader's command 'maximum distance' at maximum distance from him to keep him still under the influence of your buffs and within your effective healing range. Make sure you understand what your tank is about to do as it is likely you will have to follow him forward and back with pulls or other moves, so he stays 100% time under your protection. This is expected to be your default behaviour.

Back up Healing

Some classes have the ability to heal or revive even though they're not a priest. This can be useful if you're short on healers – just place a necro & a pally in the group and they can provided limited healing. It is also imperative that you make sure all non-healing classes who can rez (necro, dirge) make this their number 1 priority in the raid, so the healers can maintain their focus on keeping people up.

Class Specific Benefits

Fighter

Fighters, also referred to as "Tanks", use brute strength and sturdy weapons to deal physical damage to their enemies.

• All fighters have a buff that increases avoidance. Can be cast on any raid ally (since GU#37). Useful to reduce wear & tear on the MT.

Berserker

Armour: Plate
Raid class definition: Tank/Melee dps

• With the right set-up Zerkers can make an excellent tank or off-tank as they do a lot of damage at the same time as holding agro
• Has many AE attacks, which helps them keep aggro from many non-linked mobs

Bruiser

Armour: Leather
Raid class definition: Fighter

1.Useless in most raid tank positions
2.AA abilities Drag extremely useful for positioning mobs and getting a mob out of the casters/healers.
3.Can, when properly played be the best DPS fighter, averaging, in prime conditions over 2k dps.
4.Leather wearer, means low mitigation, but high avoidance, but a large part of the avoidance is contested, and thus refer to point 1.
5.Raid wide buff that increases damage of combat arts by 89.6, as well as the effectiveness of taunts and de-taunts by 20%
6.Self heal for 42-46% max health every minute and a half
7.Close mind makes the bruiser immune to all control effects for 30 seconds
8.Dirges are your best friend. Illusionists, Furies, Inquisitors, and paladins(amends) or guardians(moderate) are the next best.
9.Feign death refreshes every 10 seconds, as well as a self mitigation boost for three minutes, all to help you in tanking the Second named in Freethinker's Hideout.

Guardian

Armour: Plate
Raid class definition: Main Tank, Off-tank, Fighter

• The favorite for Main Tank for most raiders because of the combination of protective & taunting spells together with some serious plate armor

Monk

Armour: Leather
Raid class definition: Fighter

• Have group & single feign death – useful to avoid total wipes and for ratting out nasty traps.
• Useful for pulling and taking the first blow from a mob (using Tsunami).
• Useful as an off-tank. Can "peel" adds off other raid members using their high DPS.
• Group buff that increases Haste and Casting Speed makes monks useful in both mage and scout groups (since GU#37).
• With AA's:
  • Can cast Altruism on a raid member, which gives them auto FD instead of actual death – useful for main tank healer. Void if the monk dies first.
  • Moongoose Stance has a chance to reduce hate every time the target melee attacks. Can be cast on any raid ally (since GU#37). Useful on scouts and berserkers that tend to get aggro (unless the monk uses the buff on him/herself!).
  • Evade Check is a detaunt that reduces hate for all non-fighters in group (since GU#37).

Paladin

Armour: Plate
Raid class definition: Fighter

• Have limited healing abilities
• Can revive in-combat
• Best hate transfer in game (can transfer around 40% of group ally's hate to themselves)
• Buff that increases physical mitigation of any raid ally (since GU#37). Useful to reduce wear & tear on the MT.

Shadow Knight

Armour: Plate
Raid class definition: Main Tank, Off-tank, Fighter

• Buff that increases physical mitigation of any raid ally (since GU#37). Useful to reduce wear & tear on the MT.

Mage

Mages wield powerful forms of magic to strike down their opponents, but wearing cloth armor need to be kept out of harms way as they die really fast. Chanter classes can mezz the enemy to limit the number of mobs a raid is fighting at one time.

Coercer

Armour: Cloth
Raid class definition: Mage Utility

• Can mezz adds (provided not epic)
• Can root Epic targets since Game Update #36
• Can mem-wipe mobs of all aggro, but it's tricky to do. When an important mem-wipe is needed (i.e. to split Vyemm & Alzid) place a troubadour with increased subjugation buff and short term INT boost in the same group.
• Have power regen for group

Conjurer

Armour: Cloth
Raid class definition: Ranged dps

• Have ability to cast plane-shifted tank pet to pull mobs with a big initial hit
• Can provide raid with power regen shards
• Can Call of the Hero players to port them from a different part of the zone to the raid force.

Illusionist

Armour: Cloth
Raid class definition: Mage Utility

• Can mezz mutiple adds (provided not epic)
• Can root Epic targets since Game Update #36
• Have power regen for group

Necromancer

Armour: Cloth
Raid class definition: Ranged dps

• Have limited healing abilities
• Can provided raid with power regen hearts
• Can revive players in-battle

Warlock

Armour: Cloth
Raid class definition: Ranged dps

• Area Effect specialist - very high DPS against large linked groups. Useful for quickly taking out large groups of weaker enemies, or burning down encounter members that are not directly targeted (like Doom Ravager Ru'ystads two friends).
• Group-wide casting skills buff (+Subjugation / +Ministration / +Ordination / +Disruption). Useful if the mage group gets spell resists. May also be useful to boost a coercer trying to mem-wipe. Effect radius: 50 meters.
• Group-wide noxious resist buff. Effect radius: 50 meters.
• With AA's:
  • Vacuous is a group buff that increases all taunts/detaunts by 25% (since GU#37). This may make the Warlock useful in the MT group. May also be useful to reduce hate of a DPS group, provided the DPS:ers are using their detaunt spells.
  • Volatility reduces the casting range and area effect radius of an encounter by 20% (since GU#37). Works on Epic targets. May make it possible for ranged DPS to avoid area effects.

Wizard

Armour: Cloth
Raid class definition: Ranged dps

• Uber dps, but will need hate control in group to use it to best effect

Priest

Priests augment and replenish the health, and ward off attacks, protecting their comrades to help them survive longer in combat. Each class has different group cures (Arcane, Elemental, Noxious, Trauma) so depending on the mobs you are fighting make sure you have one healer with the correct group cure in the MT group.

Defiler

Armour: Chain
Raid class definition: Chain Healer/Other Healer

• Group cure = Noxious and Trauma
• Group augmentation that increases the noxious resistance and health pool of the defiler's group. The noxious resistance protects more against disease than poison

Fury

Armour: Leather
Raid class definition: Leather Healer/Other Healer

• Group cure = Elemental and Noxious
• A group augmentation that increases the elemental resistance and health pool of the fury's group. The elemental resistance protects more against heat than cold
• Agitate - single target melee buff that gives increased STR and a proc that increases attack speed and DPS (can be enhanced to proc more often with EoF AA)
• Hibernate - A delayed group heal which will trigger 10 seconds after casting - decent heal and can be enhanced with EoF AA to trigger early if a group member's HP fall below 10%.
• Group INT/WIS buff which when enhanced with EoF AA will give group members a large INT boost and good WIS boost.
• Ferine Vim - single target INT + power buff (so so make your mage group happy by giving them a fury). It requires 1 concentration slot. Can be cast on multiple group members provided you have enough concentration slots free (dropping the group mit/hp regen buff will allow you to have 3 active vims).
• Using the druid AA STA line (Serenicist) a fury has the ability to make the target of any beneficial spell temporarily immune to stun/stifle/knockdown (chance to proc with each cast, chance increases with AA points spent), as well as having an ability which renders the fury immune to stuns for 30 seconds.

Inquisitor

Armour: Plate
Raid class definition: Plate Healer/Other Healer

• Group cure = Arcane and Elemental
• A group augmentation that increases the arcane resistance and health pool of the inquisitor's group. The arcane resistance protects more against mental than divine and magic.
• A good healer for melee dps groups as they have a buff to increase attack damage
• Can cast Verdict – timed correctly when mob hits 2%HP Inquisitor can kill him stone dead with this spell.

Mystic

Armour: Chain
Raid class definition: Chain Healer/Other Healer

• Group cure = Noxious and Arcane
• Group augmentation that increases the noxious resistance and health pool of the defiler's group. The noxious resistance protects more against disease than poison

Templar

Armour: Plate
Raid class definition: Healer/Other Healer

• Group cure = Arcane and Trauma
• A Templar in the MT group can increase the tanks health & mitigation considerably.
• Can cast Sanctuary – with AA modification this group augmentation can last 36 seconds & protects group from control spells (stun, stifle, fear, pacify, root) – useful for tough pulls (3 min reuse timer). Remind your MT to call for sanctuary if he knows the mob uses control spells. The Templar must stay within range of the MT for him to be covered.

Warden

Armour: Leather
Raid class definition: Leather Healer/Other Healer

• Group cure = Elemental & Trauma
• Group resist buff = Elemental and Trauma
• A group-wide temp-buff that wards against elemental damage and increases resistance to it. Useful to avoid being one-shotted by elemental area effects.
• Has the highest healing amounts in game. Useful if the MT/group is subjected to massive amounts of damage for more than a few seconds.

Scout

Scouts use stealth and cunning to explore areas and strike devastating damage to their foes. Bard classes use music to augment group strengths & debuff the enemy.

Assassin

Armour: Chain
Raid class definition: Melee dps

• Very high single-target DPS
• Single-target physical and noxious debuffs
• High hate transfer, useful in MT group to help MT keep aggro. (can transfer around 30% of their hate to a group ally)

Brigand

Armour: Chain
Raid class definition: Melee dps

• Excellent debuffs

Dirge

Armour: Chain
Raid class definition: Scout utility

• Can revive players in-battle using both a single-target and group rez
• Has a single-target heal-over-time that will replenish an ally's health at the cost of the dirge's health. The dirge is stifled but can still move about to melee-attack
• Has a group power-regen buff
• Has a hate gain buff, appropriate for the main tank. Can also be used on non-tanks that need to maintain hate with the mob
• Has group STR/AGI buff, group parry, group DPS, group ranged/slashing/piercing/crushing buff. This makes the dirge excellent for buffing the melee group, as well as the MT group.
• Buffs a group's noxious resistance
• Debuffs the mob's attack speed as well as physical/magic/disease

Ranger

Armour: Chain
Raid class definition: Ranged dps

• Miracle shot – super-long-range attack can allow distant pulls, but be careful of highly social mobs dragging the whole room with them
• Confounding arrow - A ranged combat art which will increase the aggro of the target mob towards the next person it hits for 10 seconds. A risky but useful ability if timed correctly.

Swashbuckler

Armour: Chain
Raid class definition: Melee dps

• Please add details here

Troubadour

Armour: Chain
Raid class definition: Scout utility

• Power regen for group
• Troubadours can hold one non-epic mob mezzed
• Has hate reduction buff for non-fighters
• Has group buff to increase subjugation – useful for mem-wipes (see coercer)
• Has group buffs to improve resistance on "magic, mental & divine" and "cold & heat"