Ready Check: Leading the fray
by Jennie Lees 
Oct 4th 2008 at 7:00PM
Ready Check is a weekly column focusing on successful raiding for the serious raider. Hardcore or casual, ZA or Sunwell Plateau, everyone can get in on the action and down some bosses. Or motivate 24 other people to do so!
For many guilds, raiding is in a bit of a lull at the moment, with far more focus on the future rather than the present. One of the things that can keep raiding life interesting is to try out different things; play an alt, try a weird setup, revisit old content...
How about a slightly different challenge? Something that will stretch your ability to multitask, to communicate, to deal with people; it'll try your patience but provide immeasurable rewards when that patience pays off.
No, I don't mean running for an election. I'm talking about raid leading.
Some of you might be a dab hand at leading raids already, but there are plenty of people who've never given it a try. Well, now's a great time. Why? People are looking for a bit of a change – something to make the dark days before WotLK more exciting. Sure, the incoming patch will shake things up a little, but the challenges presented to raid leaders by 3.0 are an excellent place to start learning the tricks of the trade on content that's familiar and (hopefully) easy.
The Good
Leading a raid can be a lot of fun when everything goes well. Sitting back and watching a boss die like clockwork -- knowing you helped make it happen -- is a great feeling. Working out and implementing a new strategy means a lot of sweat and tears, but when it all comes together and you get that first kill, the work truly pays off.
It can also be a good way to fix things you personally have issues with in raids. Of course it's not a platform for a personal vendetta, but if you feel your raids are too disorganised, too slow, too sloppy... by taking charge, you can do something about it!
Alternatively, you might be looking at leading raids simply because there's nobody else competent enough to do it. Sadly, this does happen; people leave, burn out, or you might just be planning on running PuG raids. If you're not keen on doing it and don't enjoy it, don't fall into the trap of becoming a martyr; raids led by someone who doesn't want to be there have an entirely different atmosphere from those led by someone who's actually enjoying their job.
The Bad
Sadly, everyone has bad days, and when you're leading a raid this can cascade into much larger proportions than when you're 'just' a member. One error by one person, another by the next... nothing's going right and you're the one who has to keep people's spirits up and stop their frustration causing even more mistakes. It's certainly not easy, and if there isn't a happy ending to that particular raid, it can put a shadow over your own evening.
Being the go-to person for raids can become quite a weight, also, as people start coming to you both during and outside raids for various reasons. Maybe they want you to run a retro raid at the weekend, or perhaps things are going wrong and they're bombarding you with suggestions. If there aren't many raid leaders, taking a day off for whatever reason becomes less of an option, too; this can also cause tension in the ranks as people complain that you're "always" in for bosses. (Solution: tell them to lead the raid themselves!)
There are also a few things you might do as a novice raid leader – we'll come to those a bit later – that can cast doubts over your own suitability or competence and knock your self-confidence. Don't worry. Everyone had to learn from scratch once, and if you start leading raids in a fairly safe environment (such as farm content) it's a lot easier. Some people don't like leading farm raids and prefer to lead progression raids – this might be you – but it's still easier to start out with content you know.
The Ugly
Being in charge and the power that comes with it can have their 'perks'. There are plenty of stories about raid leaders and master looters taking bribes for items, prioritising their favourite players, or simply using their leadership as an unfettered soapbox to scream obscenities at people. Obviously, this is down to your personal sense of morality and leadership style, but if you're only after the golden crown so your best friend can get a warglaive, be careful – you might not have it for long.
Top Skills for Raid Leaders
Multitasking, first and foremost. You need to be able to play your own class while being aware of what else is going on in the raid, and handle the masses of information coming at you from different channels, ventrilo, whispers and the game itself. If you're the sort of player whose idea of a fun fight is being told to stand in one spot and press 2 for five minutes, this might be a difficult adjustment to make.
Situational awareness. Related to multitasking, you'll need to assess the raid and make on-the-fly decisions at times, such as calling druid resses or even calling a wipe. A lot of roles lend themselves to this quite easily – DPS often have a lot of time to focus on the bigger picture, healers are generally watching the whole raid anyway, and tanks have to be clued-in to what's going on around them at all times.
Communication. Whether by voice, text or psychic brainwave broadcast, you need to communicate with your raid and with individual raiders to keep everything together. This leads on to..
Good people skills. Not an absolute requirement – some people with more abrasive styles can be excellent raid leaders – but depending on your particular approach and your raid, you might need to balance out a lot of 'people factors'.
Game knowledge. This should go without saying, but it's surprising how often raid leaders who seem clueless about some very basic mechanics pop up. Arranging raid groups means you need to be aware of class dependencies and buffs; knowing about threat mechanics can help when calling resses. Working out a new strategy or understanding an existing one also requires you to do your homework.
Patience. Again, not something that every raid leader possesses, but it can certainly help during the tougher raids.
Mistakes Novice Leaders Make
Stepping up to run a raid for the first time can be daunting, but don't worry if you screw up. Everyone has, at some point. It depends a lot on how your guild runs things as to how likely you are to run into the following pitfalls (and it's not just new leaders that make them, either).
Overlooking details. From not promoting the main tanks to leaving dungeons on Heroic Mode, someone will utter the WoW equivalent of a polite cough and gently remind you... usually before it's too late.
Being under- or over-hasty. Nerves and unfamiliarity can be contributing factors to this; you either call a pull without realising the healers don't know what to do, or you spend ten minutes sorting out everyone's exact position when 90% of them already know where to stand. Either way, getting the pace right can be hard, but try to keep abreast of people's mood – if they're getting annoyed at waiting, you might be taking too long!
Not having a clue. You're not a superhuman – it's quite normal to be leading a raid for the first time and realise you don't know everything about the setup for a specific fight. Usually someone else in the raid will, so don't be afraid to ask. If that's not the case, read up on the fight, watch videos from the perspectives you don't play, and ask people who do know the drill.
Trying to do everything yourself. Taking on the responsibility for raid leading, strategy, loot distribution, rotations, group setup, positioning as well as doing your own job can be a huge amount of work, and leading at this sort of level will burn you out eventually (trust me, I've been there). Share what responsibility you can. Perhaps another officer can sort out loot while you arrange who will be rotated in and out for the next boss? Maybe your classleaders or role leaders can tell you who needs what loot?
Conclusion
Raid leading can be difficult, but it can also be incredibly rewarding. A lot of people don't necessarily realise the amount of work raid leaders do put in, both during and outside of raids; hug your local RL today!
While leading has its good sides, there are downsides too, and having experienced overwork and burnout personally I can definitely vouch for the relief of being back in a relatively mundane 'raider' position. It isn't necessarily for life – but I wouldn't exchange the time I spent raid leading for anything else.
Give it a go – you might just like it! And for those of you in the raid leader's shoes, I'd love to hear your own raid leading tips and advice for any first-timers out there.
Further Reading
LF Raid Leader PST (WoW Insider)
How to Build Raid Groups (Fusion)
Raid Leading Mods and Addons (Elitist Jerks)
Wilgje's Raid Leading Guide (official forums)
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Guilds, Raiding, Ready Check (Raiding)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mixa Oct 4th 2008 8:08PM
Yep just leveled a warrior so i can RL yippy!
Cowbane Oct 4th 2008 10:01PM
"tanks have to be clued-in to what's going on around them at all times." *cough cough*
Aigarius Oct 4th 2008 10:18PM
It is easier to lead the raid as ranged DPS. In many situation the tank does not see most of the action because of staring in the knees of the boss. And the MT have much more stuff to worry about than calling out rotations or checking healer mana levels.
Niko Oct 4th 2008 8:53PM
What's that addon? (the one of the readycheck)
pongo Oct 4th 2008 9:39PM
Type /readycheck in game when you are a group leader. No need for an addon.
Grimvader Oct 4th 2008 10:20PM
@Pongo-Thats not the WoW ready check thats a different kind, so I just geussing it actually is an addons ready check
Jennie Lees Oct 5th 2008 9:54AM
It's the default, I just use Skinner and ClearFont2 to make my UI pretty.
Foxfyr Oct 5th 2008 10:04AM
Looks like a normal ready check.
Though the window seems to be skinned by Skinner
Milk Oct 4th 2008 9:08PM
Horde!
swaldman-kw-wowinsider Oct 5th 2008 2:19AM
My biggest tip: don't interfere. If you are with an established raiding group, they will mostly know what to do. Don't tell them unless you need something to change. It slows people down, it annoys people, and it adds extra stress. The best raids run themselves :-)
(plus, there's an old adage that once you give an order for something once, you have to give an order for that thing every time. If you have raiders with initiative, it's much easier to stop them using it than to get them to start again)
swaldman-kw-wowinsider Oct 5th 2008 2:20AM
Oh, and FWIW I reckon the most difficult position from which to lead a raid is the tank. You can't see much from where you are, and a momentary lapse of attention to the tanking will frequently cause a wipe.
Pretty much anybody else can do it; healers already have an overview of health bars and will usually have a better understanding of raid dynamics than the dps do, but have a tendancy not to look "out the window" at the game world;
Melee dps have (some) time to spare but, like the tanks, can't see anything; ranged dps have time and can see, which is nice ;-)
Tenchan Oct 5th 2008 3:10AM
The best way to start learning raid leading is to run with a trusted and experienced assistant leader for a while, who can take over more difficult or time consuming duties such as explaining fights or positioning while you get used to the job and the dungeon.
And, as the poster above me stated already... while somehow, these days, a lot of people expect the tanks to raid lead (which contributes a lot to tank burn out, I can tell you that), it's actually not the best choice. Tanks are extremely busy tanking already, and they should be. Healers and CCs are a much better choice (assuming all members are equally qualified of course).
Shivere Oct 5th 2008 4:36AM
Lmfao, tanks having it hard? Get healers to do raid leading? Healers have the hardest job in the PvE aspect of the game; both tanks and DPS have it much easier. I take it that you are either:
a) Not competent at either tanking or raid leading.
b) Not a tank, but are so narrow minded like 80% of the WoW population and believe that tanking is the hardest job in the game and that whenever something goes wrong it's because of the healers, because you think they have such an 'easy job'.
People like you make me sick. Instead of hugging your MT raid leader, give your healers a hug.
Jennie Lees Oct 5th 2008 10:02AM
Tanking can be a difficult job on many fights until you get used to them, and if you're the sort of person who makes a good raid leader, you're also going to be pretty well aware when it *is* the healers' fault and when it's your own fault. Combat logs, meters, death logs and generally knowing "ok, that person shouldn't be spamming Renew on me" versus "whoops, I forgot to save rage for spell reflect" all help. Of course, if your tanks and healers are the honest types who own up when something goes wrong and it's actually their fault, that helps a lot too.
My personal perspective on raid leading which I didn't specifically mention in the column is that of tank and leader, so I guess I'm a little biased. Sure, it's hard to see things at times due to a big monster in your face, but that's really not so much of an issue for tier 6 and beyond. A lot of the time you don't even *need* to see things in the game if you have decent enough addons set up. As a druid I always had a full grid which also showed me things like low mana, range, certain fight-specific debuffs etc; who cares if all you can see is Bloodboil's face when you can see the Bloodboil debuffs light up and know exactly who's failing to move? That plus boss timers and paying attention to yells etc, and you don't necessarily need a backseat view to lead well.
The only times it can become an issue is on a tank-sensitive encounter when you're learning, and you really are concentrating hard on your job, leading to neglecting the raid a little. But the same can easily be said of a healing-sensitive encounter or DPS check, and ideally you have officers or fellow raid leaders of different classes who can help out if you really aren't in a position to lead something yourself.
Charlie Oct 5th 2008 4:43AM
One of the biggest problems i see with guilds in the lower tier raids are their raid leadership. Their biggest problem is that they take so long to explain fights that by the time you get around to doing them, its just boring.
For example. You don't have to tell people what the boss does. You just need to tell them what THEY need to do. For example; Quick Shade of Aran explanation:
"Stay out of the Blizzard, Move to the wall when you get sucked to the center, don't move during flame wreath. Interupters interupt. Go."
Thats all you need to say. I have seen RLs in some of my friends guilds take 10 minutes on this fight when there are 3 new people in the instance. Its deflating and sucks up raid time.
Muse Oct 5th 2008 12:57PM
Agreed. And fights like Maulgar are exercise in patience for healers, who want to know who's tanking and who they're healing, and then are happy. Then the DPS spend another 20 minutes figuring out precisely who is doing exactly what. (and then of course a DPSer messes up, raid wipes, and another 20 minutes is spent going over everything again, during which the healers are tabbed out and reading wowinsider while keeping ears peeled for the readycheck)
MindMage Oct 5th 2008 5:26AM
Recently I started running a raidgroup in my guild. Came as a spontaneous decision, because a lot of new members in the guild had recently leveled to 70, and were busy QQing in /g that nothing ever happens here. "/g LF9M karazhan" and we were in kara, and wiping horribly. We didn't even down Attumen that night.
So, couple hard words and wowhead links later, there was a new record in our guild's raid signup webpage, people started to take these runs seriously, and now we have gradually progressed from wiping on Shade, to one evenig kara, to doing ZA and planning on doing 10-man progression in WotLK.
What I wanted to say here - don't be afraid to step up. It's nowhere as bad as it might look like. The most demanding skill of a raidleader is being able to prat on voice comm for most of the evening. And leading from the position of the MT isn't as hard as people make it sound. If you know your thing, you'll have tons of spare time.
One more thing - if your group has people you know are expierienced with the instance, allow them to speak. Retain the right to last word, but don't silence them because you are the leader. They might see things you have overlooked, and that might mean a ton.
Eamara Oct 5th 2008 10:12AM
Two tips I'd strongly suggest, coming from a raid leader currently on an extended break until WotLK:
1) Don't take too long explaining tactics. Just because there's one or two new people in the raid, doesn't mean you need to explain everything about the boss to the whole raid. It wastes time, and is patronising. Simply ask the new people if they've read up on the boss encounter, and if they have, then tell them what they need to do (heal who, tank what, DPS when) and just go. Yes, you may wipe due to a dumb mistake from them, but then this leaves them feeling pretty stupid, and you can bet it won't happen again. And if it does, then you kick them out and get someone else in.
2) Do "not" try to do everything yourself. That was my mistake; I tried to distribute loot and be admin for the loot distribution system, assign healer targets, assign tanking targets, CC targets, marked up mobs, assigned Misdirections, etc... This is a one way ticket to burning out, hence my extended raid leading break. Get a healing leader, someone else to manage the loot distribution system, maybe get the MT to mark, stuff like that. Delegate, yet ensure people know you are the one in command.
Trosh Oct 5th 2008 8:03PM
Because the nature of tanking means you have to have a pretty good understanding of the encounter, the phases, the changes and everything, i don't mind being Raid Leader and MT.
I ran mags yesterday and there was only 1 dps who didn't know the encounter and he whispered me, telling me so. My response: just follow everyone else, banish the elementals!