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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 4 of 5)
Lissanna Sep 24th 2011 11:37AM
Since I don't count the UBRS runs as a raid experience, my first raid was Molten Core. I remember going in there as a PUG, since my guild wasn't a raiding guild. I remember the drama of when I decided to leave my friends behind when I went to join my first raiding guild. Oh the drama, lol.
thomas_grebmarg Sep 24th 2011 11:44AM
Has to be 10 man UBRS, back in vanilla. I was level 52 and got the draconian deflector. Best pre-40 man shield available.
Coldbear Sep 24th 2011 9:47PM
Bastard. Piece of luck person you.
joak_244 Sep 24th 2011 11:51AM
Mine was ToC!
I remember when my brother told me about the game and then just urged me to come play with him because "they needed a bloodlust" (he was playing with friends). Then I lvled my shaman kind of fast (in a month) and the day after I dinged 80, I was invited in a ToC 25, back when our guild did two 25man raids every week.
I just remember that I didn't know what the fuck to do, I was just following people and having A LOT of fun. I didn't top the charts, but I wasn't dead last too! It gave me some confidence that I could compete with these guys even with blues and a clunky rotation.
My Enh shaman is now often topping the charts, and still raiding today! Raiding is just plain awesome. No other game can give me that feeling.
Kendro Sep 24th 2011 12:00PM
Scholomance, with a 34 manned raid. We didn't even get half way through. This should have been middle of January of '05, most of the raid was wearing level 48 greens. I literally had very little clue of what was going on, just that health bars were dropping really fast everywhere and time could be afforded to look around. After Scholo we went to Strat then LBRS.
winterhawk Sep 24th 2011 12:07PM
My first raid was Karazhan. I was a total noob with a rogue, had no idea what I was doing (he was my first character, and I pretty much flailed around hitting stuff while choosing gear based more on what it looked like than what it actually did to make me hit harder). Raids were something more advanced players than I'd ever be did.
A friend I'd quested with a bit took pity and invited me to her guild, which was actually one of the better raid guilds on the server at the time. I started getting curious about this "raiding" thing and wanted to go along, but I never got invited. Then one night somebody didn't show up so I got to go along on...the animal bosses! I was so excited--I was *raiding*! We killed the spider boss, and lo and behold--it dropped a leather belt! I couldn't even believe my good luck when...they let me have it! (I realize now it was crap and everybody in the raid must have had better, but...it was my first real purple!) After the raid my friend and a couple of others explained a little to me about things like aggro, and hitting the correct targets, and trying to do something to improve my DPS (I didn't have a meter, but I'm sure it must have been abysmal). They only ever took me along a couple more times, and I don't think they were sorry to see me go when I left.
I joined another raid guild and things got a little better. I switched mains from a human rogue to a blood elf mage, and he became my raiding main until last year when I switched to my DK tank. I'm raid leading a group that's 3/7 heroic FL now (1/7 pre-nerf) and I feel a lot more confident, but I still kind of look fondly (and exasperatedly--I must have been so frustrating for those "real" raiders to put up with, and I thought I was doing fine!) on those early days when "raids" were big scary things.
rkaliski Sep 24th 2011 12:12PM
My very first raid experience was ZG back in the Vanilla days. I was actually a 59 and the raid leader asked me to leave because she thought my agro radius was pulling too many of the adds in the beginning. I was DPS. The RL sucked and really didn't know how the adds pathed or when to pull.
My next was URBS which had just gone to 10 man. Even with the nerf to the packs of adds it was still a very very challenging instance for anyone not in raiding gear. This was the start of getting attuned for molten core, blackwing lair and Ony.
I've alternated the whole time I played WoW between being DPS and tank. Tanking a raid a whole lot more difficult than any 5 man or even heroics.
ravyncat Sep 24th 2011 12:12PM
The first one for me was Naxx in Dragonblight. That was also the first raid my guild started doing together as a raid--before various members had pugged to raid. We went in together with a few people from another guild to make a full 10 man.
Now it seems so easy--we have been farming it for transmog purposes. But it was hard and scary for my newly 80 self. I remember how fun it was to hear all the explanations for each fight from the raid leader who was (appropriately) named Tank. If I mention mechanics when we are zerging through, I still mention the same things he said.
I was so very very bad...
"Fire" killed me often but I learned to be wary of it. I learned the all important Do NOT Release! when you die in a raid after it caused me to miss the achievement for killing that stupid dancy boss. The jump from platforms to another platform got me too. I spent that fight slowly dying in a green slime canal.
I don't think I did even 800 dps back then. I was a frost DK back when frost DK's were for tanking and not much else--and I was a bad DK who just randomly pushed buttons. I was also wearing mostly tank gear and I happily got even more tank gear from Naxx.
*cough* I was not a tank. >.>;;
I got better though! Really. XD
shadows Sep 24th 2011 12:20PM
Karazhan. I was brought in on my healing priest because they needed someone to shackle - specially on the Morose fight. - Had to farm gear with hit to make sure it wouldn't break too often.
Jaq Sep 24th 2011 12:19PM
Two stories here:
My first raid experience? I dinged 80 one evening while my guild was planning a Flame Leviathan run in Ulduar. Yes, boys and girls, back then people would go after Flame Leviathan in attempts to farm gear off of it, then go back to Naxxramas. My guild, a little short handed, decided as a level 80 present to stick me, with my Savage Saronite gear and the axe from the Amphitheater of Anguish, in a turret. 20 minutes later I got the achievement for taking down the turrets, which NO ONE did after 3.2 or so, lol.
Second story: I was mining about two weeks later one weekend, my guild working on Naxxramas. I actually had a couple of drops off FL at this point and had replaced the axe with a Titansteel Destroyer. Again, my guild was coming up short on people, so I was dragged in, kicking and screaming, and I wound up in a Naxx 25 that killed Heigan, Loatheb, Patch, Grobbulus, and Gluth. And I loved every minute of it despite being an utterly clueless n00b.
From those two utterly clueless n00b experiences I dragged myself up to the point that I was first my guild's best DPS and an officer, then to the guild's main tank for tier 11 and 12. But it all started being totally lost in Ulduar and Naxxramas.
Pavel Sep 24th 2011 12:29PM
Kara the day I turned 70 and my guild attuned me to it.
Philster043 Sep 24th 2011 12:32PM
Zul'Farrak in 2009. My guild at the time and I had decided that we would try our hands at raiding when we collectively dinged 65+ and would do so by training first at Zul'Farrak. None of us had ever raided before except for our second healer. Funnily enough, the second healer bailed on us right before the final boss (even after saying he promised he'd be with us the whole way) saying he had to help somebody else. We managed to down Hakkar anyway (with me one-man healing), but suffice to say, that experience soured me on keeping that priest around in the guild.
We then tried Black Temple, but we obviously weren't ready for it yet. Or well, we had no idea how to go about it. We ended up doing more heroics and leveling until 80 and gradually the guild just collapsed because there wasn't a sense of anybody trying to get better at what they did.
If I had it to do over again? I'd probably have waited on the raids until I could learn more about them myself, either in PUGS or watching tankspot videos. Hindsight is 20/20.
Philster043 Sep 24th 2011 12:35PM
I'm sorry, Zul'Gurub I meant to say, haha.
xSushi Sep 24th 2011 1:16PM
Back in vanilla I grouped up with some people while questing in my mid-30s on my first toon... we chatted and joked and they invited me to their guild. I mostly read guild chat and did my own thing until I got to 60. By then I knew more people in the guild and they helped attune me for MC, Ony, and BWL.
One Thursday night after work I got an invite to a giant group that had 30+ people and growing. Someone summoned me to Dustwallow Marsh and we stepped foot into Onyxias Lair. After a long explanation of things I didn't understand fully... buffing, and trash pulls; I started my raiding experience against a crazy dragon who would breathe flames, cleave, tail sweep, and fear me into some eggs.
I loved the abuse... I kept coming back for more :)
Prelimar Sep 24th 2011 5:31PM
yep, onyxia was my first, too. it was my first guild, and i was terrified. i read up on it, was as ready as i could be, and it was just a crazy wipe-fest. but MAN, was it fun. i loved every moment. i had no idea what i was getting into when we went in, but i've been hooked ever since.
Sadie Sep 24th 2011 1:19PM
My first raid, as a brand new 80, was Onyxia. A friend asked me to fill in when a pug he was in lost a healer. I had no idea what I was doing, didn't know the fight, and the raid leader's incredible words of wisdom were, "Stay out of fire." Needless to say, I died a lot, got booted pretty fast, and was terrified of Onyxia for many weeks after :)
Bryce Sep 24th 2011 1:27PM
Onyxia, was brought in not knowing wtf to do and was scared i was gonna screw up. Let's just say i found out what deep breath meant when they yelled for me to move.
Tirrimas Sep 24th 2011 1:46PM
My first raid was Naxx, after Wrath dropped. Our guild had already moved on to Ulduar, so for them it was "retro". I love the raid dynamic and the experience, but my real life doesn't mesh with my guild's raid times, so I don't get to very much.
(No, I'm not finding another guild. I'd rather sacrifice raids.)
dodgeballer2005 Sep 24th 2011 1:56PM
I was a BC noob and I have played since Classic. My first raid was Kara around the pre-Wrath patch. My experiences were of fun.
GhostWhoWalks Sep 24th 2011 2:06PM
AQ 40. What an amazing slog that was. We got stuck for 2 hours at the Twin Emperors before we finally figured out how to beat them and what we were doing wrong. The sheer size of the place is incredibly confusing, but it's also an amazing place to plow through.