More so than ever you'll find casual players mixed in with the hardcore raiding crowd. Once upon a dream, the Raider was a specific type of player that was set apart from what I prefer to call 'normal people'. Seriously, we're nuts. No joke. This creates a unique dynamic in that the "Elitist Jerks" must learn to temper their ePeens in accepting new blood into the mix. Instances like Trial of the Champion and the ICC 5-man dungeons could be farmed to your heart's content and gear you enough to be brought along into Icecrown Citadel. If you've already done this, you've got one giant foot inside the door. You need only one other big thing to help make you a successful raider and that's raid awareness.
How well do you know the fight? Are you paying attention to the other classes with you? Do you know what they bring to the table and what to expect of them? Is that really fire you just ran through? Did you just forget to run Necrotic Plague to the off-tank? These are only a few of the hundreds of questions that SHOULD be running through a raider's mind and processed at breakneck speed while taking care of your own role. One of the greatest things that will help you faceroll some of the needed thinking are raid add-ons. Everyone has their favorites but make sure you have some of the key ones listed below before you even think about stepping foot past the swirly vortex at the raid's threshold.
DEADLY BOSS MODS (aka DBM)
Simply put this is a ready-to-roll add-on that alerts of you of important events happening during boss encounters. You'll get picture, sound and audio cues when you need to pull your head out of your butt and run somewhere safe. It's hard to ignore a scary voice yelling in your ear "Run away little girl! Run away!".
RECOUNT or SKADA
Can't measure your ePeen without a ruler and that's what either one of these will do for you. Mostly obsessed over by the DPS crowd, these add-ons will tell you just how much DPS, HPS, interrupts, damage taken, deaths, etc... you're cranking out. One can babble on about how skilled they are but the proof is in the pudding. Go hit a training dummy in any major city and really see what you're able to do. If you're still not cranking out the hurt you need, find anyone in your guild that you know is a successful player of your class to help mentor you.
Can't measure your ePeen without a ruler and that's what either one of these will do for you. Mostly obsessed over by the DPS crowd, these add-ons will tell you just how much DPS, HPS, interrupts, damage taken, deaths, etc... you're cranking out. One can babble on about how skilled they are but the proof is in the pudding. Go hit a training dummy in any major city and really see what you're able to do. If you're still not cranking out the hurt you need, find anyone in your guild that you know is a successful player of your class to help mentor you.
OMEN
Don't question this one. Just get it. You need to know when you're pulling threat. The tank is trying with every fiber of their being to keep the boss's attention short of flashing them. You need to do your part in making sure the meat shield stays the shining star. Omen will also give you a visual aid in seeing your threat rising so you can preapre to press your "aggro reset button". It exists, I swear. Learn by what abilities you have to do that, so when you see your threat about to overtake the tank you can drop it like it's hot. Please do not use the in-game threat meter because it is not as accurate or easy to track as omen.
Don't question this one. Just get it. You need to know when you're pulling threat. The tank is trying with every fiber of their being to keep the boss's attention short of flashing them. You need to do your part in making sure the meat shield stays the shining star. Omen will also give you a visual aid in seeing your threat rising so you can preapre to press your "aggro reset button". It exists, I swear. Learn by what abilities you have to do that, so when you see your threat about to overtake the tank you can drop it like it's hot. Please do not use the in-game threat meter because it is not as accurate or easy to track as omen.
GRID, HEALBOT, VUHDO (or ANY raid frames)
In any given encounter a million and one things is happening on the screen. Lotta pretty lights, sounds, colors and the occasional vile spit being flung across the room. Very distracting. Having a raid frames add-on can boil all that hoo-ha down to neat little tic tac toe boxes that give you visual alerts on not only what is happening to each player but also how much health/mana they've got. Healers obviously benefit the most from these because they can heal players with the click of a mouse button on a box, but anyone and EVERYONE benefits from learning to watch and read raid frames. It's like the matrix for raiders. After staring blankly at them through many raids, you can assesss what's happening at lightning speed.
In any given encounter a million and one things is happening on the screen. Lotta pretty lights, sounds, colors and the occasional vile spit being flung across the room. Very distracting. Having a raid frames add-on can boil all that hoo-ha down to neat little tic tac toe boxes that give you visual alerts on not only what is happening to each player but also how much health/mana they've got. Healers obviously benefit the most from these because they can heal players with the click of a mouse button on a box, but anyone and EVERYONE benefits from learning to watch and read raid frames. It's like the matrix for raiders. After staring blankly at them through many raids, you can assesss what's happening at lightning speed.
These are your must-haves for raiding. You can find all of them on Curse.com's website. There are dozens of other add-ons that are very helpful like pally power, titan panel, power auras, etc that are fun to use but they will vary per class and play style. Get your basics down though and start filtering through the rest. Don't overload yourself either. I personally only use the 4 above along with power auras and that's all. Too much clutter can also lead to bad raiding.... not to mention phished accounts.
More than anything, don't be afraid to approach some of the seasoned raiders in your guild. Most good raiding guilds will have people who are there to help and you need simply to ask for it. Be open to critique and listen well. Trust them. They will not steer you wrong.... unless you totally ninja'ed loot from them at one point.
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