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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: What was your first raid experience?
by Jason Christ 
Sep 24th 2011 at 8:00AM
After reaching max level for the first time in Wrath of the Lich King, I started to really enjoy heroic 5-man dungeons. I'd heard of raids and seen them forming in trade chat, but I was terrified to try my hand at them. I was tanking the 5-mans, and while they were generally pretty easy, I didn't like the thought that my performance as a tank could make or break a run for others.
Finally, after gathering enough gear, I applied to an ad for the weekly raid quest to kill Lord Marrowgar. We zoned in and the other tank started pulling the opening trash. I wasn't sure what exactly to do, so I just hung near him and tried to attack what he did. Then I was asked to make a pull. Having recently facerolled several heroics, I threw my Avenger's Shield into some mobs and charged in. I quickly discovered that this trash was not the same as 5-man trash.
After being kicked from the raid, I licked my wounds until the expansion was in its waning days. Eventually, I joined another guild's raid and made it all the way to tank the Lich King himself. I didn't get the kill, but I discovered that raiding could be fun. Along the way, I found a new guild to call home.
So what was your first raid experience? What were you feeling when you first stepped into the raid? How did it go? Did it make you invest in raiding more heavily or dissuade you from doing it ever again?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 5)
Dreamstorm Sep 24th 2011 8:42AM
Karazhan, the night I dinged 70. I didn't even know what raiding WAS that day. Best. WoW-Day. Ever. :)
xyna Sep 24th 2011 8:46AM
TOC 10man!
I just quited aoc and got intressed by wow, so i started a hunter, soon i was level 80 and started adventuring at raiding i remenber, my first pug! *-*
heheeh we wiped on the northrend beasts 3 times but then we got it all right and did it all!
DarkWalker Sep 24th 2011 11:29AM
TOC 10 also.
I was a newb 5-man tank, mostly geared in crafted gear. As soon as the LFD was released, I started doing a couple hours of random heroics daily, in two weeks had a passable raiding set and had found a new group of players that wanted to cut their teeth at raiding, and in another month and half we went from wiping on Beasts to farming Anub. BTW, just one 4-6 hours raiding night per week.
After that, we went and beat ICC 10. Unfortunately, CATA killed our raiding group; I dropped out of the game myself when it dawned on me that pugged random heroics were not fun anymore, but I wasn't the first to leave.
puffcake Sep 24th 2011 8:47AM
My first raid experience? Karazhan...a month ago...am I late for the party?
Gendou Sep 24th 2011 8:49AM
My first actual experience in a raid? Ten-manning Upper Blackrock Spire.
My first actual raid experience? Zul'Gurub.
Sayis Sep 24th 2011 8:50AM
My first raid experience was on the very same day that I hit level 80. I had full blues and greens without a single epic, and my friends pulled me into our weekly Naxx raid, back when Naxx was the only raid out. I believe I pulled around 1.2k DPS, because I had no idea what I was doing rotation-wise, but I survived pretty much every fight minus Heigan's Dance. I ended up getting a bunch of gear and becoming a core raider soon after, and I've been raiding ever since. Even though Naxx was easy, and by no means the coolest raid, that time was some of the most fun I've had with WoW.
blanchard1992 Sep 24th 2011 8:55AM
Level appropriate - Bastion of Twilight. I had friends off WoW who had invited me into their guild soon after I was Heroic ready (in about April). After a while, they invited me to their raids of which I was tentative about going to, but I eventually went to one of their farm raids. I read up on the tactics, got everything ready and off we went.
Did Halfus after a wipe and then spent the rest of the evening wiping to Valiona and Theralion. I had read the tactics and understood them, but I hadn't the capability to actually act upon them.
We eventually managed to get them down and I scored the Drape of the Twins off them. Felt a bit down after it, but the guildies thought I did OK for a first time and have been raiding with them when I can. Downed Raggy last week just before the nerfs, was pretty good ^_^
Did MC at like level 65 once before but that was full of 80s and we just blasted through it. :P
Zura Sep 24th 2011 8:56AM
Prince malchezar in Kara, in a pug group, as a resto shaman. I had healed through some herioic 5mans, no small task in bc (just finding a group for something like shadow labs or arcatraz was a huge effort). I did fine on trash leading up to him, and thought things were going well. Then I found out how important mp5 was. I was going oom a third of way into fight, and had to back out.
Mortenebra Sep 24th 2011 8:57AM
Karazhan. My first love.
Mortenebra Sep 24th 2011 9:22AM
Awww man, I wish the comment system hadn't eaten the rest of my comment. /sigh
Back in the early days of BC, my blood elf hunter was meant to just be an alt; she was created, mostly, to appease some people I knew who played Horde on that server. I wasn't terribly serious about leveling her until I was invited to a guild my rl friend had found, and I'd found a family to be a part of. Well, I take that back: I wasn't serious about leveling until the GM and his wife kept urging me to reach the level cap and gear up. I didn't quite understand it until I met and talked to the guy who would be our main tank/raid lead.
Apparently, I was the 10th (wo)man to complete the team. And, not only that, I was the hunter charged with speccing, learning, and gearing (2-piece D3 set bonus!) for optimum kiting/trapping duties in Karazhan. Up until that point, I hadn't even heard of Karazhan! Here I thought I was just supposed to be the elf girl with a fearsome cat and her trusty bow. For the better part of a month, I ran heroic dungeons endlessly with my MT so we could learn to work with one another, coordinating pulls and the such, and I could learn to set my traps and kite mobs into them. For the occasional challenge, I was given a caster mob to trap!
When the time came to step into Karazhan, I was nervous. So very nervous. My brain still hadn't gotten around the fact that I-- a DPS, a non-tank, a crunchy target-- was supposed to obtain aggro for part of combat. I stood in the foyer, fidgeting in front of my computer, waiting for the ready check. When the time came, I told myself I'd practiced and there was no turning back.
The pull went off flawlessly.
We pulled the horses away from one another enough to allow for the multiple-target abilities, but not so far that the horse would go charging off to the person furthest away. I had to kite my mob into my trap without taking a spectral hoof to the face, but also without losing aggro to the healers. When combat was over-- and no one died-- I congratulated myself for those endless dungeons as time well spent.
My biggest challenge, however, would probably be during Moroes as the jail-keeper of that damnable arms warrior, keeping him trapped until told otherwise. That was when I had my own healer assigned to me, which was a very big deal in my mind because only tanks got their own healers! Boy did I feel important! Or maybe it was sneaking into the Menagerie behind Curator to grab that last group of mana wyrms and MD them to the tank waiting in the alcove behind me. Better yet, perhaps it was keeping aggro with my few melee abilities as the beam-dancing partner of my main tank on Netherspite-- a result of partnership between myself and the tank, his apparent trust in me, and the fact that I had the most health, second to the tanks (who knew??).
I fell so in love with being a hunter that I practically lived, breathed, and feasted upon huntering.
Karazhan ultimately shaped me into the hunter I am today. I know all of the tools in my arsenal largely because I had to use the majority of them throughout Karazhan. In a day when DPS was-- and, for a good portion, still is-- the "replaceable" slot in a party, I made damn sure I was an irreplaceable member of the team through skill and utility. Thanks to Karazhan, I went from being a rookie blood elf girl to a veteran huntress and a veritable force to be reckoned with.
So, thank you, Karazhan. You were my first raid and you'll always be first in my heart.
vegetto375 Sep 24th 2011 9:03AM
The very first raid I ever set fot on was ZA they were recruting people for las boss Hakkar. I had no idea what a raid was heck I barely knew much about 5-mans. it was the last boss and we wiped till we call it quits. I was fored to take some time of cause of RL and the wrath came in. I dint get to 85 until after 3.3 (I remeber this cause my DK used the DF to get his last 2 or 3 lvls. The trade channel was always full of LFM for this and LFM for that, me I was so scared to even step inside a raid until someone asked to if I was saved for VoA. Ofcourse I wasnt and i kind of new what beng saved was cause of DF and me doing 5-mans.
So into VoA I go we did the fire boss and down him it fealt cool I i enjoy it. From then own I did the ocasional weekly raid boss and not much. The very first time I was in a no shit raid was when i joined a pug for ICC on my shamman. there was vent and explanations and I dowladed DBM for the frist time sinceI had no idea what it was or what it did. My first time in ICC and my first time doing current tier level and I we down the first wing got my achivements and I was happy an hooked.
Sorry for the ramble but I considered all this my first raid experiences.
DeathPaladin Sep 24th 2011 9:05AM
Late in BC, post patch 3.0, my guild stomped all over UBRS, and then made a hilariously failed attempt at taking down Razorgore that I described in detail a few years ago. The short description: failed attempt, respawn while recovering, panicked running about, cursing the locked door that did not allow us to escape. It was fun.
My first real raid was not long after that, when we pulled together 10 people to clear Kara up to Shade of Aran. The next week we succeeded in a full clear of Kara.
Silversol Sep 24th 2011 9:08AM
Karazhan... well after getting the key.
nekoali Sep 24th 2011 9:08AM
Ah.. fond memories. My first raid was when my priest got pulled into an old level 60 40 man Molten Core raid. The group had wiped on Majordomo and some people had to leave, so people were yanking in friends and people they knew, and I got tapped. One warlock summons later, I'm staring the giant snake guy and his dance party in the face. Seeing some people still dead, I went about my priestly duty of rezzing them.... and promptly face pulled Majordomo, about 2 minutes into my first raid. :)
Thankfully they had a sense of humor about it. After a couple of attempts, we beat him down and they even gave me the Eye of Divinity from his chest...
Yllys Sep 24th 2011 9:11AM
The original ZG on my mage. I got pulled in at 58 I think since my guild needed warm bodies. I had hardly ever even run any dungeons. Our raid leader was very patient though - I had no idea what he meant when he said 'take your sheep target from what i have targeted' (before raid icons). He explained how to do that, and I concentrated on tracking my sheeped snake amid a couple of others. I doubt I did much dps, concentrating so hard on managing my sheep.
But it was great fun and I loved ZG then (now, not so much). And I've raided ever since.
jc Sep 24th 2011 9:19AM
Molten Core. I bought the game on release day, and I was about level 56ish in plaguelands leveling when a warrior by the name of Moctezuma whispered me asking if I would be interested in forming a raiding guild and he had heard from a friend of his that I was a good player (still no idea who that friend was) As soon as I hit 60 we had 50 or so people in the guild ready to raid, I was lucky enough to have a spot every week from then on. We had Major domo on farm within the first week but getting rag down took a few months.
Since then I've raided everything from vanilla to lich king, at a post casual rate. No world firsts or anything but competitive serverwise. Haven't stepped foot in a cata raid yet :P
jonna.rantanen Sep 24th 2011 9:30AM
My first raid ever was karazhan back in tbc. Had dinged 70 about day ago and the guild already invited me on board. When I stepped in instance my laptop froze and I couldn't log back in. That was my first raid.
sinceritystar Sep 24th 2011 9:30AM
I finally hit level cap in July or August of 2009. I was in a guild with my boyfriend, who has been playing since BC, and the guild pulled me in for Malygos. I remember being terrified. My boyfriend walked me through it, told me to just stand near him and kill what he was killing (he was a boomkin, I was a mage). When it got to the dragony bit, I died pretty quickly (although I'm proud to say I lived longer than some).
After that I became a "real" raider. We did Ulduar and ToC, and both of us stopped playing for awhile until ICC came out. When that hit, we got our friends back together and were one of the first guilds on the server to clear the first wing. Unfortunately, the guild sort of fell apart after that.
One of our friends contacted us, and told us that about 4 or 5 of them had server/faction transferred. My boyfriend and I jumped at the chance to be Horde again, and once again, we got the guild back together for Cata. Once again, we were one of the top progression guilds on the server. And once again, we fell apart - my computer died, one of our healers got grounded, and some people just disappeared, unwilling to wait for my new computer or our healer to behave himself.
Oh man. Fond memories.
Brett Porter Sep 24th 2011 9:31AM
My experience sounds pretty close to the OP. I too never hit max level until Wrath (am a Wrath baby, only having started a few months before the expansion) and was pretty content with just maxing my gear out to what could be gathered via Heroic dungeons, with the occasional badge gear.
I had moved my main over to Icecrown-US-A to support my WHU toon, and was asked to join up with the weekly raid put together by DHS and Wyrmfoe. I had no clue what I was doing, but was DPS so thankfully I wouldn't have been scrutinized as much were I tanking. After that, I joined up with some other DHS folks for a pretty casual 10 man group. We have since fallen apart, but I had a great time with raiding because of that.
Currently I raid on my 85 hunter (only other level capped toon) as a reliable alt in case a rDPS is missing from the Wyrmfoe Sunday/Monday raids. Still having a great time!
Amaxe Sep 24th 2011 9:34AM
Karazhan