Securing a raid spot

As promised, here are some tips on securing a raid invite if you find yourself in a similar position to me, trying to carve out a spot for yourself in an established raiding guild. Most of these are from personal experience but a couple are from previous guilds and watching others struggle with similar issues in the past(some more successfully than others).

1. Be patient - don't bitch about not getting in the raid, keep showing up on time and keep a positive outlook. Eventually there will be a night where another melee dps is needed and your name is called by the raid leader. If you are a dick about not getting into raids this wont happen and you will never get in, and probably find yourself poorly thought of. This leads right in to my next point:

2. Be ready when your time comes - You can't out dps shitty gear, you just cant. But you can watch the tankspot videos on the fights you will be doing several times, read the strats and the boss abilities until you know them all by heart, and come ready with flasks, food, and a positive outlook. Raid leaders look for this as much if not more than your dps on your first few raids.

3. Ask thoughtful questions in tells - Find your class leader and ask a question that lets them know you have been doing your homework. Do not ask "what does this plague on me do?" or somethign similar, you should have read about that before coming. Ask something that shows you have been thinking about the fight and your roll in it, and have a strategy question on how best to deal with a particular aspect or mechanic (I am often asking about using cleave and when it is an is not apropriate on fights with adds). This does two things. First off it hopefully makes you better at the fight, and secondly it shows your class lead that you care enough to try to do your job right and have been doing your homework prior to the raid.

4. Don't count on your guild to gear you - Do PuG raids if you don't get into a guild run, do your daily heroic and weekly raid, do VoA 10 and 25 man each week, buy crafted gear where it's an upgrade. Asking for a raid spot when under geared is a tough ask as is, don't make it harder on yourself and your guild by being a charity case. Take personal responsibility for your own toon.

5. Volunteer to help outside of raids - Guildies are always looking for someone to help them out. You may not particularly care about WSG or honor, but if you can help a healer finish an achieve you should go. If you can tank an alt run Ulduar for the weekly you should do it. In general get your name out there and try to develop a reputation as a helpful guildy that's nice to be around. And finally:

6. Don't be the guild bitch - Work hard, know your shit, but know when you are being taken advantage of. Don't blow 2000 gold buying mats and flasks for a raid you never get in. Being reliable is one thing, but being at the guild's beckon call is another. At a certain point take care of yourself, the guild will respect you more in the morning. Either that or you need a new guild, there are plenty out there.


Looking back over this list I see there are no warrior specific tips in there. I guess it all comes back to what i said in yesterday's post: as a DPS warrior we don't do different things than other dps classes, we need to do the same stuff better.

Thoughts?