Mooonfire!

…is this Monday? This is, isn’t it. It’s Monday. Fire the time machine back up, boys!

Llanion is on vacation; comments may not be approved until he returns (hang in there!). Thank you for your appreciation.

So I picked up my Champion of the Naaru title recently. My guild, alas, does not do 25-mans… and the title requires a kill of both Magtheridon and Gruul the Dragonkiller. Each of these is a 25-man raidboss.

My objective was clear: Get into a 25-man raid as a pickup player.
My obstacle was equally clear: I like my guild and have no intention of leaving.

So here’s how you can go about getting into pickup raids:

Pretend You’re Applying For Real
This means you need a good few things. Many of these I stole borrowed from Seri’s Guide to Applying:

How to go about making contact

• Find (using WoWJutsu, your realm forums, WoWWiki or some other resource) a guild that seems to be running the content you want to be running.
• Use the Armory to figure out who the guild leader (and possibly officers) are.
• Put these people on your friends list and stalk wait for them to come online.

Sell Yourself

• It’s critical to make contact well. You want to make a good impression. Don’t whisper as soon as they come online. Really don’t whisper if they appear busy (In a raid, in a battleground, in an instance).
• Ask for attention first: “Excuse me, do you have a moment?”
• If they say no, thank them for their time and move down the list, find another officer, or check back later. (Give it some time. I know people who think that “Ask again later” means “every ten minutes”. Remarkably, this is not so.)
• If they say yes, ask if they are running the content you’re interested in and if they have any need of a (your class/spec here). (”Is your guild running Gruul’s/Magtheridon? If so, do you need a spare healer?”)
• If they say they aren’t running that content, you’re out of luck. Move down your list of possible guilds. Be certain to thank them for their time; there’s always the possibility that they’ll want to take you for other things if they like the sound of you.
• If they say they don’t need a (your spec here), thank them for their time and move down the list. If (and only if) you have the skills and gear to support an alternate spec (and assuming you’re not, say, a rogue, whose specs boil down to “I can stab things many ways”), you can consider asking them if they need an (your class, alternate spec here). (”I see. Would you have any need of a tank? I have the gear and abilities to fill that slot as well.”)
• If they need you in whatever spec, and you’re willing to go as that spec: Go, respec right now, put on your gear for that spec and ask them if they’d like to inspect you. If you can humanly manage it, offer to come to them, not the other way around. (”You do? That’s great! If you’d like to double-check my gear, I’m on my way to Shattrath now.”)

Contgratulations! They’re willing to look and see if you’ve got what it takes. Now:

• You will need: Gear in good repair
• You will need: Gear appropriate to content (Just because it’s epic doesn’t make it right. PVP gear particularly is prone to this myth.)
• I’m repeating this because it’s very important: PVP gear is epic. It is NOT always better for PVE than even some blues.
• Enchants are important. Have the enchants appropriate to your class.
• Is the spec you have now the spec you’re going to be using?

The leader-type inspects you and approves of your gear and spec. You are given a spot in the raid!

• Great! You’ve made contact, you’ve been approved. You’re not done yet: Find out what time the raids are!
• Be at the appropriate summoning stone at least fifteen minutes before they normally form their group.
• Bring your own consumables and many many extras.
• Be proactive. Do they use Ventrilo? Ask. Do they use any other specific addons? ASK. Ask well before the raid. Your goal here is to be at the stone, set up, waiting, stocked to the teeth with potions and bored out of your skull a full quarter-hour before the raid leader types ‘/invite’ for the first time.
• Keep in touch with your point of contact. You asked the guild leader? Good. Ask them to assign you work. If it’s not their job to manage you (You’re a healer and they have a lead healer) they’ll assign you to the appropriate player- this is your new repository-of-all-knowledge.
• Learn the fights first: Bosskillers.com, wowwiki and Wowhead all have boss stats and strategies. Know all the fights you expect to do. Know all the fights you might possibly do. For my pickup night of Gruul’s and Mags, I researched those and the first fight in Tempest Keep and SSC, just for kicks.
• Make your qualifications and abilities clear. (”I know the strategies, I’ve seen a couple videos but I’ve never done this fight.”)(”I’m better at handling tank heals than raid damage, really.”)
• Don’t assume they know your abilities. A competent (obsessive?) raid leader should know the abilities on all their raiders. Assume they know nothing about your class.
• Be relentlessly positive and put out your absolute best play. This means you should probably not show up drunk.
• Be a conduit. They need more healers? Tanks? One of the DPS set his cat on fire? Offer to find a replacement if there’s a player in your guild or on your friendslist that you know can do the job.

With these tips, you also may join a raid as a pickup. Who knows- they may try to tap you again later, or even recruit you as a regular!

Good luck out there, and remember:

Don’t stand in the fire.

One Response to “Getting Some Action”

1. Seri Says:
   September 29th, 2008 at 12:39 pm

   Awesome tips. And I’m not just saying that because some of them are mine.

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