BoK brings up something I've thought a little bit about lately: their guild will
occasionally run an encounter "blind," which means they'll go in without researching or learning any boss strategy ahead of time. This is generally something that only the highest-level guilds often do, and even then only on the PTR -- by the time bosses hit the live realms, their abilities are usually
posted online somewhere. But some guilds enjoy a challenge, and doing a raid without knowing what's coming definitely keeps you on your toes. A lot of raiders think that's actually the "right" way to do it -- Blizzard's game doesn't come with strategies installed, so if the designers created the fight correctly, it should be clear, just from watching buffs and boss animations, what to do during a fight.
So today's query is: have you ever run something blind, or would you like to? I haven't run any raids blind -- my guild raids so little already that when we do, it's best to be fully prepared. But I did
run the new 5-mans blind on the PTR, and it was an interesting experience. You really have to stay alert and try to analyze the fight as you're doing it, look for buffs and balances and try to position yourself as best you can, all while running your usual casts and abilities. It's a fun challenge, though as the fight gets tougher, it's probably less fun -- we were running with premades on five-mans, and I doubt a high-level raid would be as easy on us. Still, some of you must do it regularly, or at least be interested in going blind. What say you?
Tags: abilities, balances, blessing-of-kings, blind, buffs, casts, challenge, experience, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, guilds, hodir, instance, ptr, raiding, raids, world-of-warcraft-discussion, world-of-warcraft-hot-topics, world-of-warcraft-topics, wow-discussion, wow-hot-topics, wow-issues, wow-topics
Filed under: Virtual selves, Guilds, Breakfast Topics, Instances, Raiding
Dec 2nd 2009 at 8:00AM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Justin Heard Dec 2nd 2009 8:07AM
I really don't get to raid enough as is.. only been through Naxx and even then not all the way through. I can never get the guild together to do anything it seems. If I do anything blind it will be the new 5 mans, and i'll make sure to do those when the new patch drops... LFG I go!
Altima Dec 2nd 2009 8:08AM
I believe going in blind, is a chance to experience it first and learn what to do, how can i do better and knowing how to handle the fights. When patch 3.2 hit my guild wanted to try h toc first, at the time we were gearing up for raids, we had a few problems but eventually learned from our mistakes and completed the instance. It was the best experience anyone can gain from doing it blind
bushkanaka86 Dec 2nd 2009 10:37AM
I love running things Blind. It is nearly impossible in WoW though.
I play LOTRO occasionally and in that game, there is no way to know the fight ahead of time. There is no PTR so everyone is blind (except the Beta testers). There is no "wow.com" for that game and no one to tell you the fights.
In the last expansion for that game, I leveled as fast as I could so that I could do all the instances before anyone knew the fights. I got a group of guildies and ran in and did all the instances for the first time with them before anyone else knew what was going on. We basically created the strategies for our server in those instances.
It was the most fun I have ever had. If possible, I will try to get some guildies in WoW to run the 3 new 3.3 5-mans blind and see if we can do it.
Sky Dec 2nd 2009 11:07AM
I think everyone does 5-man heroics blind. I mean it would be pretty sad to look up "strats" for a heroic
nekorion Dec 2nd 2009 12:44PM
@Sky
Sometimes knowing a fight, and how to do it properly to not let the rest of your group down makes me less "sad" than looking up strats for it.
I don't need to know exact numbers and such, but it's nice to know if I should drop a cleaning totem, or drop healing steam and cleanse manuallly
Sqtsquish Dec 2nd 2009 2:53PM
my guild even though we are casual would always go into a fight blind unless we're running extremely low on time.
Shaverdian Dec 2nd 2009 8:09AM
I've done it multiple times before, personally, I enjoy the learning experience.
fearthefireblade Dec 2nd 2009 8:42AM
Agreed, love it!
The most fun I think I've ever had in game is when our guild took down Anetheron back in Hyjal. Nobody knew the fight. We worked out that the healers had to stay away, that the offtank had to pick up the adds, that we should use wound poison and the positioning, which is huge in that fight, all by ourselves.
Sure it took longer, but I contributed to the strategy of the fight, something I've never done since reading guides. That made it all the more fulfilling when he died.
Tbah Dec 2nd 2009 10:12AM
The single best thing in the game.
Love to wipe while learning bosses and understanding why what happened, as well as the feeling when you finally conquer them. The guild I used to be in did this a lot, as we were doing for server firsts and there weren't a lot tactics available for bosses. Also adjusting the tacts for our raidgroup and perfecting them... love it.
RedMosquito Dec 2nd 2009 10:34AM
This.
Learning Flame Leviathan when Ulduar just came out was one of the single most fun things I've ever done on this game. I've never leaded a raid in my life, and probably only one or two dungeon runs. Yet I caught myself figuring things out about the encounter and telling people what to do, trying to come up with a winning strategy. It was a blast.
Zenith Dec 2nd 2009 8:12AM
I actually thought of doing this a while ago, but there are some inherent problems:
-Other guildies wouldn't even attempt it without some sort of idea
-My own lack of willpower to avoid reading anything with a spoiler tag
FoxOfWar Dec 2nd 2009 9:58PM
This. So much this, on both accounts. I'm a sucker for all things PTR, but I usually manage to avoid all videos and boss tactics. Everything else the new patch though? - I know before most of my guildies do xD
But I guess it takes a certain kind of nutso to find the fun in learning things instead of downing everything with a *cough* to the boss's direction to collect loot...
Doing Karazhan with next to no tactics or knowledge beforehand(despite us starting very late in TBC) will probably be my best raiding experience always.
cmichaelcooper Dec 2nd 2009 8:14AM
Running things blind has become a romantic notion because there are so many resources for researching encounters now. Those resources weren't nearly as important with other games in the past. I never look up strategies for defeating encounters in Baldur's Gate 2, for example. If I died, I reloaded and attempted the encounter again and altered my strategy.
But dying in WoW has consequences in the form of 10 or 25 people paying repair costs, wasted buff items, and wasted time. So fighting blind becomes too risky for most raids.
Res Dec 2nd 2009 9:16AM
Yeah that's the main issue.. it's fine in solo games if you're willing to take the risk. When you have the rest of the raid facing the consequences just because you enjoy the blind experience it gets a little selfish. Time is probably the biggest factor and most valuable resource that people aren't willing to part with.
All that said, it kind of IS the point of the game to figure stuff out for yourselves and conquer content without having watched the fight 20x on warcraftmovies.com or read strats in blogs first. When that content is available though it's really hard to ask 9 or 24 other people not to take advantage of it.
eric_keyes_graff Dec 2nd 2009 8:24AM
Going into an Instance blind, raid with no study time? Who does that these days, I hear next month all the data mining your gonna be able to play the beta beta pretest so you can be Over geared on as many servers as possible: ) Running blind is the innocence of Killing Hogger, but running in a guild and getting the world first? That is what it feels like to be the best.
Running blind on a side note:
So you've been off for 3months, time to get going again. Please do this at the minimum running a raid when the blind lead the blind isn't the High Percent Shot!
"YOU ARE NOT PREPARED!" l.dog
If its a Pug I'd say at least know where your going, have buff food, pots ect. Repaired with gold repair money, and some bag space. Then if I were leader Honesty from anyone who doesn't know the fights I will set up a channel for them to type and expect them to ask questions. Of course you trust them at the start otherwise its likely to fail.
p.p.s. anyone know of an wow addon that has spell checker?
boatarific Dec 2nd 2009 11:07AM
what?
Folin1 Dec 2nd 2009 4:25PM
to the PPS
Misspelled is a spell checker
blizzardsprules Dec 2nd 2009 8:17AM
being a PuGer and not in a guild (i was but i realised i always join elitest asshat guilds) it would be stupid for me to run a blind raid lol
cassandri Dec 2nd 2009 8:34AM
Hmmm I did Magisters Terrace with some friends the day it was release and it wasn't pretty. Didn't help that we had terrible CC in the group... and I wasn't helping as a Shadow Priest that's for sure.
Personally I do most progression fights "blind", in that I don't watch videos or read strategies. I like someone giving me the DPS heads up right before the pull "kill adds" or "watch for fire" or whatever so I'm less likely to wipe the entire raid. But I definately like as little information on a *boss* as possible.
First impressions count for a lot.
McRaider Dec 3rd 2009 11:10AM
I did ToC5 blind and I think we only wiped once. We were a bit imba geared tho, but it's a nice challenge to do them without knowing what to expect. I will absolutely do the new 5 mans blind! With our gear and experience, I think we'll just heal through all the stuff tbh, tho...