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Original Post
Karazhan And You!
Everything you need to know about raiding Karazhan with Paladins of the Phoenix
Table of Contents
1) Pre-Raiding
2) Raiding
3) Post-Raiding
1) Pre-Raiding
Before you think about Raiding Karazhan with us there are a few things you should know to save some time and effort. First, you need to do the keying or attunement quest line. After that, meeting the minimum gear requirements is extremely helpful. Once you’ve tweaked your class and play style to your liking you then need to know where to signup for our runs and you’ll also probably wonder why you don’t get into every run right away. This section will address all of these issues.
1.1) Attunement/Keying
To be able to enter Karazhan you must have the key that unlocks the gate. But unlike places like Shattered Halls where only one person needs to open the door, you also need to be ‘attuned’ to go into the dungeon. Getting the Karazhan Key also gets you attuned.
First you must be at least level 68 to get the quest. Then you must travel to Deadwind Pass in between Duskwood and Swamp of Sorrows. At the southern end of the zone you will find Karazhan. There is an Archmage Alturus there who will give you two quests that will start you on your attunement. The attunement involves a bit of traveling to start with and will eventually take you through Shadow Labs, Steamvaults, Arcatraz
and Black Morass.
To learn more about the Attunement Process and the quests involved visit this page:
WoW Wiki's Master Key Guide
1.2) Recommended Stats
The following is a list of classes and the recommended gear stats for starting out in Karazhan. The better stats you have, the more help you would be to the raid. Never stop working on your gear just because you meet these bare minimum recommendations. These Recommendations are unbuffed stats.
Tanking
Warrior:
10k Health
40 Defense
13k Armor
15% Dodge, Block, Parry
Paladin:
10k Health
470 Defense
12k Armor
+200 Spell Damage
Druid:
12k Health
400 Defense
13k Armor
20% Dodge
DPS:
Warlock:
6k Health
7k Mana
+500 spell damage in primary magic school
Mage:
6k Health
9k Mana
+500 spell damage in primary magic school
Shadow Priest:
6k Health
8k Mana
+500 shadow damage
+10% Spell Hit Rating
Boomkin:
6k Health
9k Mana
+500 spell damage
Elemental Shaman:
7k Health
8k Mana
+500 nature damage
Rogue:
7k Health
1500 AP
Hunter:
7k Health
280 Ranged DPS
1500 AP
DPS Warrior:
8k Health
1500 AP
+70 Hit Rating
Feral Druid:
8k Health
1500 AP
Enhancement Shaman
7k Health
1000 AP
20% Crit
+70 Hit Rating
Retribution Paladin
7k Health
1200 AP
20% Crit
+70 Hit Rating
Healing:
Paladin:
6k Health
8k Mana
+800 Healing
60 MP5 (while casting)
Priest:
6k Health
8k Mana
+1000 Healing
100 MP5 (while casting)
Druid:
6k Health
8k Mana
+800 Healing
60 MP5 (while casting)
1.3) Raiding Mentality
We expect all members who wish to attend raids to adopt some raiding mentality. We wish to succeed at raids and we know we can succeed with some concentrated effort. We don’t expect you to have the absolute best gear and best spec and be the fastest and top the DPS/Healing charts. We just expect you to do the best you can and keep up with everyone else.
If you feel you do not understand your class inside and out yet, give yourself some time to work on it. Do more instance runs, do some research and talk with other people of your class to find the help you need.
Karazhan is a RAID and must be viewed and treated as such. It takes highly skilled, focused and dedicated players to complete raid instances. This is not your average 2 hour 5-man instance with a couple bosses and a few trash mob pulls between. If you're just going because you have a quest to complete then you may find that we won't be taking you for long stretches because you are not a dedicated raider. We want to be fair and bring everyone along but we also need to be fair to the people who like to raid and go to raid, not just for quests. If you are consistently low in tanking ability, healing or dps you might find we don't take you very often too. This is because we have to stack the group with our absolute best people to make up for whatever is lacking. So we're probably not going to take you until we know we can practically 9-man it. This does not mean we will not take you at all! This means you may have to be patient while we work out a way to take you.
Please keep in mind that we're trying to provide what the raiders in our guild want as well as what other people want. If you want to step into the raiding enviroment, we expect you to adopt some raiding standards for the success of the raids.
1.4) Signups and Kara Rotation
Now that you’ve gotten keyed, geared and feel you understand your class well enough to raid with it’s time to get signed up for some Karazhan runs! Be sure to check our events forum here to see when signups are posted. Signups are done via PhPRaid which is a program on our website that helps us keep track of signups. The Forums and PhPRaid have two separate databases so your username and login for the forums will not work for phpraid. You must go through registration for both areas.
Once you’ve signed up, be sure to check back and see if you made the cut into the week’s group or not. If you are not in the group but you are on Standby, please be online and ready to go as if you were going to Kara. Sometimes we have last minute cancellations or emergencies and it’s nice when people who are on standby are online to assist.
Events Forum
PhP Raid Signups
You may notice that you don’t get into all the Karazhan runs right away or that you might go a week without getting into a Karazhan run at all! PotP has many casual raiders whose time and availability is in constant flux. We also try to make sure our new people don’t get thrown into a run where the bosses will be extremely tough. There’s a lot to be said for the group cohesiveness you get from running with the same people over and over too. We came up with a solution that works for our guild.
Friday Runs aka the Intro Runs. The Friday group is where new people will find themselves most often until they are better geared and experienced. This is their ‘Introduction’ into Karazhan. We cannot have too many new people in any run, especially Intro runs because you begin to loose that group cohesiveness, making the run harder or making it fail entirely. So if we have an influx of new recruits or availability you may find that the group rotation has you sitting out a run or two. We try our best to make sure nobody gets left out of a run three times in a row. If it does happen, we generally send a PM on the forums, explaining why.
Saturday Runs aka the Progression Runs. This is the group that’s a little more hardcore. This run is meant to try and get further along in the instance and attempt new bosses or continue working on bosses we’re stuck at. Generally speaking these runs require that you’ve been on a few Thursday runs first. We also will bring people who have a solid grasp of their class and play it very well. To get into a Saturday run you also must be well geared because a lot of the later bosses in Kara require a lot of skilled tanks, healers and dps.
1.5) Preparation
When you do get slated for a Karazhan run be sure that you are prepared to go. Raiding is not like your average 5 man instance. There are 9 other people there counting on you to do your job well so the night will be a success. To make a good first impression, be sure you are well prepared for the night. If you have not raided before, here are some tips to keep in mind when preparing for a raid.
- Reagents - Bring LOTS of them. You will burn through
more than you think you will so bring an extra stack
or two until you are used to raiding and know about
how many reagents you use up.
- Consumables - Potions/Flasks/Elixirs and foods can
give you that edge you’re looking for in a boss fight.
If you desire that edge, be sure to bring your own or
compensation for someone in the guild who may offer
you some.
- Repaired - Nothing destroys momentum more than hearing
“Guys I’m turning red I gotta go repair”. Don’t be the
person who has to go repair after only two deaths.
Until you are Honored with the Violet Eye you won’t
have a quick way to repair near Karazhan so take care
of that before you head down to Deadwind Pass.
- Prompt - Be early or at least on time to every run. If
you are going to be late, figure out a way to contact
the raid leaders and let them know. It will be their
call on whether or not to replace you. If you no-show
to a run you are highly unlikely to be invited back to
another run unless you give an explanation to the raid
leaders of what happened.
2) Raiding
Well you made it and you’re ready to go! You need a little guidance on the way we run things. Perhaps you’re not sure what targets you should be attacking first or you have questions about our loot system. This section will cover what you need to know about what to do while you’re raiding.
2.1)Rules and Guidelines
These are general rules and guidelines to follow while raiding with us. These are in place to help us be better coordinated and to move along quickly through the instance. There is a lot of ground to cover for just two nights of raiding so it is ideal to make as much progress as possible in both runs.
- Keep Ventrillo Clear - We like to try and keep the
chatter in vent down to a minimum. During boss fights
and during looting no one should be talking in vent
except the raid leaders. Sometimes we slip up on this
rule but we always try to keep it in mind and keep
reminding people to cut the chatter down.
- Redirect your Chatter - We know people need to talk
and cheer and be excited when you down a boss or tell
jokes to boost morale. We ask that you redirect your
chatter into Raid Chat.
- Buffing, Healing, Tanking - Assignments like these are
usually given in Raid Chat at the beginning of the
run.
- Questions should be directed to the Raid Leader via
whispers. Questions may be asked also in Raid Chat
during a Boss explanation. It’s likely the Raid Leader
will answer your question during the course of the
explanation so please don’t interrupt over vent.
- Suggestions - Oftentimes people have a friend who says
a boss fight should be done suchandsuch way. Another
person in the raid might have a brother who does the
fight soandsos way. The Raid Leaders will decide what
will be the course of action that the raid will take.
If you have a suggestion, please whisper it to them so
as to prevent confusion over vent or raid chat when
instructions are being given. What works for another
guild might not work for ours but we do take all
suggestions into consideration.
- Questions about Loot and Suicide Kings should be
directed to the Master Looter.
2.2) Know your Leaders
Please be aware of who is leading the run and respectfully let them do their job. Raid Leader is a high stress and thankless job. There will usually be at least two leaders; a Raid Leader and a Master Looter. Sometimes the jobs are interchangeable and sometimes there will be two or three leaders sharing the work. Make sure you know who they are so you know who to talk to if you have a question or suggestion.
Please do not try to take over the run because you feel you may know how to do something better. This ruins morale and group cohesiveness. Oftentimes they are looking at the whole picture and you may only see a small part. Whisper them suggestions if you feel it’s appropriate but never demand something from your raid leader. Should you wish to try your hand at being a part of the raid leader group, contact Rill or Lemming about it and we’ll see where we can work you in.
2.3) Standard Raid Icons
Kill Order:
Skull
X
Triangle
Shackles:
Square
Moon
The rest of the Raid Icons are Versatile in our raids and will be used for just about anything. Pay Attention so you know what they are for!
2.4) Bosses
Boss Fights will be briefly explained and questions will be answered. All boss encounters have a writeup associated with them on our Raid Chat Forums. If you know what bosses we’ll be doing ahead of time please take the time to read the strategy and find out a general idea of what needs to be done and what is going to happen during the fight. Some fights require things like targeting macros. It’s extremely helpful when raid members have those setup beforehand as it helps the raid move more quickly.
PotP Boss Writeups
WoW Wiki Boss Writeups
2.5) Loot and Suicide Kings
All green loot and higher is lootable only by the master looter of the raid. Green loot is mailed to raid members at the end of the raid. Blue BoE loot is sent to the guild bank. All BoP loot is distributed using a loot system called Suicide Kings.
Suicide Kings keeps a list of all the people who come raid with us. People at the top of the list have loot priority over people further down the list. Once a person has received a piece of loot they ‘suicide’ and drop to the bottom of the list. Other raid members then move up. Raid members who are not currently in attendance do not move up or down but stay frozen in place while raid members who are in attendance move places around them. We feel this system keeps things fair and takes out the randomness of rolling for loot. For examples and a little longer explanation visit this topic:
Suicide Kings Explanation
Suicide Kings is a third party addon. Only one person in the raid needs to have the addon installed in order to use it but any member is welcome to download it and have the updated SK list synced to them. If you have questions or want a more in depth explanation of SK please contact Rill.
Suicide Kings Download:
http://www.curse.com/downloads/details/8675/
3) Post-Raiding
When all is said and done it’s time to take stock and see how you did on your Raid and if there is room for improvement.
3.1) Assessing your Performance
At the end of the raid, the raid leaders will generally assess how the raid went and whether or not individuals seemed to struggle. Only rarely will a Raid Leader approach a member about their performance. Should this happen to you please keep in mind that we're not trying to anger you, cut your out of runs or we don't like you. We approach you in the best way we can because we want to help you. We want to take you on runs and we want the raid to succeed.
If you feel you are struggling whether in healing or in DPS you may consider getting a DPS/Healing meter to see how you measure up to other people in the raids. It is wise to also take some time to think about each boss fight and take a good look at what was happening and what you were doing and seeing if there was perhaps something you could tweak or something you could change to help the raid do better.
It’s a thought process like this that helps us all be better raiders and progress further into Karazhan and soon into other raids as well.
3.2) Help and Direction
If you find that you are struggling and don’t know what you can do about it consider talking with the Raid Leaders, Guild Leaders or just other people of your same class who go to Kara with us. You can also find a lot of good advice on gear, spec and shot rotation on the forums. With a little thought and research you can find the help you need. There are people in this guild willing to help and give you that nudge in the right direction if you seek them out.
3.3) Add-ons
Sometimes Add-ons can assist with your performance and provide helpful information. If you are comfortable with installing addons into your World of Warcraft interface then consider some of the following. Please note that we do not require anyone to use any addons. Also note that specific class addons are not included here.
Omen Threat Meter
Likely the most used addon in our guild. This meter helps you know where your threat is in relation to tanks, healers and other dps.
Download here:
http://www.curse.com/downloads/details/9101/
Deadly Boss Mods
This addons gives you warnings and notices when a Boss is about to do a certain ability that you need to watch out for. It also has several other helpful features.
Download here:
http://www.curse.com/downloads/details/4940/
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Karazhan and You!