Cross-realm raiding resource guide
by Mathew McCurley 
Feb 20th 2012 at 5:00PM
Over the last few weeks, many cross-realm raiding websites and resources have popped up. If you're looking to get into a cross-realm raid, here's a handy list of many places out there that are putting together old raids without the hindrance of those pesky servers.
- Twitterland Raiding http://twitterlandraiding.com/
- LFRaid.com www.lfraid.com
- Cross Raid www.cross-raid.com
- OpenRaid US http://www.openraid.us/
- OpenRaid EU http://www.openraid.eu/
Ever wanted to get a group to do Firelands achievements for your mount? What about a chance at the heroic Lich King fight on 25-man? All of this and more is out there for you with cross-realm raiding. Go have fun.
If you have any other cross-realm raiding resources, please let me know at mat@wowinsider.com or in the comments and I will add them to the list.
A quick disclaimer Giving out your RealID email address to anyone is risky business because it is your Battle.net account name. BattleTags, a new feature that will let you give out user names instead of an email address, will be coming soon, so if you want to wait for that because you are leery about giving away your email, wait. If you are protected in the best ways you can be by having an authenticator on your account and a good password, you should be fine.
Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dreadpirate Feb 20th 2012 5:07PM
To follow the disclaimer.
I dont trust these sites, i suspect more than one has been setup as an easyway to gather a nice database of battlenet email addresses for hackers to target.#
May investigate it when battletags are active but till then i wont go so far as even looking at these services
Pathanther Feb 20th 2012 6:34PM
Actually the site for Twitterland raiding, does not ask you to put your realid in, it is only requested by the people who make the raids, and even then. the raid leader would just invite everyone to mumble and give them theirs instead then accept them.
veemac10 Feb 20th 2012 6:48PM
I am a member of Twitterland Raiding, and they do NOT ask you to add your Real ID ever. It's up to the user (YOU) to do so. Obviously, you can't cross-realm raid without giving your Real ID to at least the raid leader. But, I ran Heroic ICC with them last weekend, and I had an absolute blast! Thank you very much WoW Insider for pointing me to them in your other article. :)
-Branni
Saz Feb 20th 2012 7:10PM
I can't speak for the other sites, but with Twitterland Raiding there are no "mass database" shenanigans going on. It's up to the member whether or not they wish to publicly give out their Real ID. If they wish their Real ID to remain private, they may directly contact the leader of the raid they wish to attend. Raid leaders in turn are expected to NEVER share the Real IDs of the raiders with anyone, regardless if the person makes their Real ID known publicly or not. Naturally we encourage everyone, particularly those who make their Real ID public to our forums, to use an authenticator and be safe with their account.
I suspect that many are waiting for the Battle Tags to go live before joining up, which is completely fine! Once that feature is live, TLR will be naturally working that into the already established system.
~ Saz, the button pushing monkey behind Twitterland Raiding
Chris Gonzalez Feb 20th 2012 8:28PM
Having just made an account on OpenRaid, the site highly recommends getting an authenticator before you release your RealID. For $7 or free if you have an Android or iOS device, that's not asking much for the ability to enjoy worry-free raiding before BattleTags come out.
Kimpossibru Feb 21st 2012 2:10AM
Hi there! Thank you for linking to OpenRaid. I'm the developer of OpenRaid (site has over 2500 members). I wanted to reply about the real ID part. On OpenRaid you control who sees your real ID. Real IDs are only shown when strictly necessary. This is when you sign up for a raid and get approved. Then, and only then, your real ID is shown to the raidleader. We also encourage use of an authenticator. Still worried? You can still raid: don't fill in your real ID and create a raid. You can still crossrealm raid, then, since you are doing the invites (can't see addresses in game).
Anyway check out OpenRaid.eu / OpenRaid.us!
Dreadpirate Feb 21st 2012 2:54AM
Kimpossibru, Its all well and good saying openraid only reveals you raidid and is only revealed when nesscesary. That Doesnt Change the Fact its sitting on Your Database and I would have to take it on trust that you would not use it or sell it to others for hacking/phising attempts.
Twitterland system seems better to me id its as folks have said here as would be a smaller element of risk, but still to my mind only a fool would share their battlenet id before battletags are introduced.
Just to note i do take my account security Very seriously, I Have had an authenticator Since launch and an Email Address Created exclusivly For my Battlenet Account And Used Nowhere Else.
Unfortunatly Anysystem that forces you to reveal part of what i would consider secure informaition "Ie Any part of you login detail's" Is inherently flawed from a safety perspective
admin Feb 21st 2012 3:56AM
Hi Deadpirate,
I understand your concern of course, I'm just saying how it works :)
Regardless, when Battletag comes out you are most welcome to join us!
Malon Feb 21st 2012 4:18AM
Twitterland Raiding is a great site - myself (@ArcaneTactics - for Mage tips and theorycrafting #shamelessselfplug) and @spellboundsaga are doing a cross-realm EU Alliance Firelands raid tonight, and there are a ton being organised every week. Primarily they're on the US at the moment - we need more EU tweeters and bloggers to join in.
squishy Feb 21st 2012 2:50PM
@dreadpirate
::sigh::
the whole point of cross-realm raiding is the use of the battlenet id. if you don't like it, if you feel don't know how to choose a secure password or are too cheap to buy an authenticator, then don't use it.
but don't sit there and shit on the thread because it's something you don't like. move along to something you do like and stop being negative nancy.
Dreadpirate Feb 21st 2012 4:13PM
Squishy all your troll like comment shows is that you Either have not understood or have not read the comments above.
Ive had an authenticator since they launched "When the P+P charge was around double the cost of the authenticator itself". my password is as secure as it can be and still be within the bound of normal human memory. And as i said my battlenet email is exclusive to that purpose and has never been given out elsewhere.
Battlenet id using the email address required to log in to your account is a flaw in the security of the system and one that Blizzard have tacitly acknowledged with the upcoming introduction of battletag's "Which should have been there in the first place avoiding all the issue's there have been along the way"
or to put in simplisticly for you."excluding the obvious pc firewall Anti virus etc"
I currently have 3 layers of security to my wow account "secret email, password and authenticator"
Using one of these services or realid i effectivly only have 2 "Password and authenticator"
Which is more secure?
Matt Feb 20th 2012 5:08PM
the OpenRAID US domain is for sale, and Crossraid seems to be broken. LFR seems to be working though, in addition to the Twitter thingamajob. These have all been vetted, yes?
Ailuvan Feb 20th 2012 5:36PM
Lfr's front page is fine, but I haven't been able to create an account for at least 2 weeks.
Philster043 Feb 20th 2012 5:09PM
I and two of my own realm friends actually just did a cross-realm ICC10 raid with some good friends of ours from a low pop server who never got to do PVE stuff. It was awesome helping them get the Kingslayer title!
Belfonisis Feb 20th 2012 5:13PM
openraid.com is nothing. I think maybe it is supposed to be openraid.us, which appears to be something?
Alex Ziebart Feb 20th 2012 5:31PM
You are correct. I've fixed it.
Krsnik Feb 20th 2012 5:30PM
Every so often we'll have open sign ups for Cross-Realm Raids over on www.reddit.com/r/wow.
Alliance runs at least once a week on Sat. at 8pm EST, not too sure about Horde but if you keep your eyes peeled (hint: http://www.reddit.com/r/wow/new/) something is bound to pop up. Just last Saturday, Alliance cleared Algalon and most of Ulduar 25 man achieves in a single run.
Pryn Feb 20th 2012 5:33PM
In regards to the disclaimer, there is another element which puts me off passing out my RealID. Being a female player with a very obviously female name which will show up in B.Net. I'm additionally "unfortunate" that my married name that I use with B.Net is shared with an actress huuuugely popular among sci-fi culture which has a heavy cross over into gaming. It put me right off the whole forum realID stuff and more than that it would put me of cross realm raiding. When Battletags are go, it'll level the playing field for me :)
Ailuvan Feb 20th 2012 5:42PM
Likely story, "No, that's not me, the famous actress that also plays video games hehehe" ;-)
Pyromelter Feb 20th 2012 6:57PM
I would guess it would have to be an uncommon name for you to be recognized, someone with a last name like Fisher or Wilde wouldn't turn heads.
Now if you're married last name is Dushku...