Surely not having to stare at the chat window and rather, at the surroundings/actual boss/situation makes for better awareness and reactions? It just separates things out, you only have to listen rather than try and watch multiple things at once.

I'm not sure if I've totally understood, but you don't use voice chat at all or you just don't have a raid caller? Because, if you're not using a form of voice chat and -all- commands are going out via raid chat, that'd be seriously penalising yourself or I would've thought.

I usually raid lead and generally seem to fill this raid caller role too, calling out instructions, abilities, percentages etc. It keeps me focused and on the ball, with quick reminders to everyone else as well. One advantage I can think of having someone call things out rather than waiting for the in-game raid chat warning (if that's what you're using) is that I can call out things I know are coming up but haven't happened yet so people can prepare. Crackle of Nefarian for example or anything with a timer.

If you don't need one, then props to you, I've probably not fully grasped your situation from what you mentioned, but there are certain advantages to having a raid caller.

In many cases, yes, the fights can be done without someone calling everything out.

But the fights go much faster, more smoothly, and with less snags if you are calling things out, than if you aren't.

You say your guild is #3 on your server? That's awesome! But imagine how much better they'd be if you removed the "having to stop and type" part of the equation out of the mix. Having to stop and type things out that are vital for the raid to know means your hands are away from your mouse, your macro keys, and you're not moving, you're just standing there for a few seconds doing nothing but being dead weight.

Now imagine you can actually keep casting and doing things while communicating with the entire raid.

Really, it doesn't take a genius to see why Vent/Mumble/VOIP makes raids go smoother and is just a good idea. I don't fathom why people would flatly refuse to use it out of pride alone. (There are perfectly legit reasons not to use VOIP programs, however, I don't feel that arrogance is really one of them)