For The Paladin

I finally managed to get rid of that nasty virus, and now that I’ve reinstalled windows and installed and patched WoW I’m back in the game. So far I’ve gotten to 40 frost emblems and while I know it’s not enough to get any T10 pieces (which cost anywhere from 60 to 95 badges, which is a lot for someone who isn’t raiding ICC), I can say that my gear is improving thanks to the massive amount of triumph badges you can collect from doing 5-6 instances in a row.

Speaking of frost emblems, what piece should I get first? Click on my armory and let me know what you think!

Recently, I had gotten an invite from a RL friend to raid in a 10-man Trial of the Crusader as a tank. The problem was that because I was the Main Tank (and because I was given Raid Leader status to find another 6 people to raid alongside us), I was given the privilege of being the Raid Leader.

Now let’s get one thing straight. I can take orders no problem. I can also play my class pretty well and know all of the fights for all raid bosses up to Ice Crown Citadel. But ask me to lead a raid to downing a boss? You’re better off finding someone else to fill that position. Which leads me to this post: What does it take to be a good Raid Leader?

Communication

Obviously, communication is key. The ability to communicate with your raid and to make sure that not only they can understand you, but that you can understand them. All of the successful raids I’ve been in have had a Raid Leader who was constantly talking on Ventrilo, making sure that everyone was ready to go before each boss battle, tossing out bits of information here and there throughout the fight, and always keeping our spirits high when things weren’t looking so good. So make sure that if you plan on leading a raid, having good people skills is a major skill to have.

Strategy

How are you supposed to kill a boss without knowing what the boss does? Read up of course! While it’s important for the Raid Leader to know the strategies, it’s also important for the raid to read up on them too. In the case of “OH NOEZ I FORGOT TO READ THE STRATZ!” at least your Raid Leader can let you in on the information that your class is required to know in order to defeat the boss. I will admit that at times I would be thrown into a raid where I had no idea what was about to happen, but the Raid Leader was always there to show me who I was healing/where I was standing/what I was doing when a certain event happens.

Preparation

What do I mean by preparation exactly? You should be well prepared in game as well as out of game. In game, being stocked on all the necessary pots/buffs/enchantments is key not only in maximizing your DPS/Healing, but it also gives you that added bonus for your characters when their gear is lacking (but if you’ve ever raided before, you should already know that). Out of game, it helps that when a Raid Leader has set up a few hours to raid on a certain day, they are around for those hours uninterrupted. Raiding can be serious business when it has to be (just look at the top 10 raiding guilds in the world, do you think they got there by casually downing bosses?), and it takes a certain kind of focus to accomplish something as epic as a world-first kill. Rest assured, this post isn’t exactly about that, but even for raiding on a casual scale you need to focus and you need to be prepared to sit through wipes, especially if your raid is a PUG.

Anyone else have any good key components to being a good Raid Leader? Leave a comment or shoot me an email!

~Baros

My computer got hit with a virus the other day, and with no other way to play WoW, i’m stuck not playing Baros until I can get it fixed… Crap.

I’ll update as soon as I can get back to a working computer.

~Baros

Hey all!

It’s been a while since Baros has returned to Azeroth, and after a small hiatus, it feels good to be back. But I feel like after such a long period of time that I’ve been gone, a lot has happened and I have a lot of catching up to do. But it does help that:

1) It’s so much easier to get groups for instances (so I can pick up emblems for better gear).
2) Being a Protection/Holy Paladin, it allows me to pick up groups even faster because I’m 1 of 2 VITAL roles in a party (can’t run instances without a tank or a healer).

Since coming back, I’ve replaced my chest piece with Turalyon’s Breastplate of Conquest, which I find to be much better than the last piece I had (which at the moment I can’t even remember because it was that bad). I also got my hands on Rimefang’s Claw…now if only I could find an enchanter on my server that will give this thing Blood Draining.

I also got to check out the new (at least to me anyway) heroic instances – The Forge of Souls, The Pit of Saron, and the Halls of Reflection. I will cover each of these instances later in the week. Each of these instances provided a brand new story to envelop yourself in while attempting to help the Alliance free themselves from the wrath of the Scourge, and I had a blast doing them.

So now with Patch 3.3.3 out and ICC ready to be taken down, expect to hear more from the adventures of Baros, FTP’s Paladin in Training!