For someone who hasn't raided properly in WoW before...

[Deleted]

Yes but no one cares about your crappy unnamed pvp sand box game, they can't quantify it into Heroic raiding in WoW or even prove that you are telling the truth.

And I know no one cares about my 'crappy' unnamed PvP sandbox game. Like I also mentioned, I'm NOT going to be applying to guilds with any of that stuff. I put it in this thread so that people could get a little bit of background on me and hopefully that would help with advice. It was not for people like you to feel better about themselves by putting on their monocle and tophat and say "Ohhhhh, how quaint, he thinks he can join a raiding guild with that! Ohohoho, what a fool."

I've posted my reasoning for putting that stuff in there a few times now and it seems you didn't read any of my other posts, so apologies if I sound a bit disgruntled.

[aziras]

-This might sound stupid but make sure you are in a comfortable environment while raiding. If you can help it make sure there are no distractions around you especially when you are new to a guild. I realize that can be hard for parents but it is something that can make or break a raider from a raiding guild. And get a comfortable chair if you can afford it. If not then make room in your budget. You're going to be in the chair a lot and gotta keep that posture good!

This cannot be repeated enough. One thing is the hardware, but like any other workplace, you need a good table and a good chair, plus proper lighting and airing.

Another important thing is to consider your schedule. If you plan on raiding X hours/day, make sure you have time for practical things such as sleeping, hygiene, and eating. As well as outgoing practical things like shopping. If you hole yourself up and go full on hermit you risk screwing up your life. It might be fun to do hardcore raiding for another decade, but what about after that?

Or even more importantly, budget in some exercise. Not only will that make you able to perform better, it will also give some non-game structure to your schedule. Picking a social exercise routine once/week (like going biking with someone) is good for the schedule, as you need a balance to the raid schedule. If "meeting the raid schedule" is the only commitment you have to other people, you will go down the rabbit hole. You can easily live up to your raid commitment while still having other commitments. But also some personal exercise routines will be good. Something like going for a 1h run every morning will keep your body in gear, while giving you some time to reflect and think. It is perfectly fine to use that time to contemplate the game, progress, farm routes, etc. The point is to just get your pulse up and keep your muscles moving.

[Aphrel]

u can usually find most basic raiding 101 on icyveins. After that, you wanna always be looking up boss guides (fatboss does excellent guides wich highlight the important parts of encounters) be4 your guild get to them. You will wanna play alot in the start so your optimal rotation become familiar and even second nature to you, so when you are on a new boss you can focus on learning the mechanics of that bos while still doing your dps rotation and preform well.
But most important of all, be active, consider raiding as something important, something you show up to even if you arent in the mood or if your tired (Myself i approach raiding similarly to how i approached fotball be4, even if your tired you dont just skip an important match because you rather watch a movie, you have a sort of obligation to your teammates to show up and preform). There will be times when you arent in the mood for a raid, when youd rather go to sleep or watch a movie, what sets a hardcore player apart from a casual one is that the hardcore player puts the guild first and doesnt let it down.

[schwank05]

... and coming back in time for Warlords of Draenor, can anyone give me some pointers and a good 'strategy' for breaking into the 'hardcore' raiding scene?

I've played WoW before with my brother, but we both played casually and joined a guild of his friends back in Wrath. My only raiding experience has been Ulduar, but we didn't manage to finish it (not because of a lack of skill, but we all had different things to do, both in and out of game).
I'm going to be coming back to the game in a few days. I'll level a new character from 1 - 90 and should (hopefully) make it to max level with time to spare before the expansion release.

So, when the expansion does hit and I start making my way to 100, what goals should I make sure I'm hitting to give me the best chance of getting into a hardcore raiding guild? It might seem like a really stupid question, I get that. I'm wondering if there's anyone else who's been in my position in the past and might have some tips that would help me out a little bit.

I'm not completely new to this kind of stuff. I've been playing MMO's for fucking years. Recently, I've been playing a mainly PvP sandbox game. The PvE in said game isn't mechanically complicated - probably the opposite. It was just buggy as hell. Some boss encounters took an hour+ because we'd have to do it in a way that probably wasn't the right way, but the only possible way, if that makes sense. In most cases, as the guild leader, I was leading these... cough, 'experiences'. I've spent hours coming up with new tactics, different ways to beat bosses, and much, MUCH longer wiping on said bosses. Sometimes that's the only way to learn. This game had no real fansites, no video guides, zero guidelines. When we came to a new boss, we'd basically say "Well, let's all just run in and hit it a few times and figure it out from there".

The mental prep, the taking criticism, the concept of 'doing what's right for the rest of the group, even if it sucks for you' stuff isn't new to me at all. But WoW seems like a different beast. I guess I'm talking less about the basic stuff and more about the ways I can make myself look as appealing to hardcore raiding guilds as possible. What can I do, as a 'new player', to make my way to the end goal of being in a core slot of a raiding group.

Thanks for reading!

I'd Pre order WOD. Then you can get max level character for free. and not have to waste time leveling 1-90.

[Gorsameth]

Others have already mentioned it but I'll just repeat it.

The way to hardcore raiding is a road. (almost) No Mythic guild will take you fresh out the box, you can try and apply but don't expect anything from it. Aim for a Heroic guild cause they are much more likely to take you. Fortunately the start of an expansion is a great place to start on this. Show dedication, while trying to find a guild work on your gear. It is a definite sign for anyone checking you out that your wearing a large set of hc dungeon items fast. It shows your putting in the time to get better.
Once you find a decent Heroic guild that will take you and you start clearing bosses you need to make a choice. Either you stick with your current guild, which is by no means a bad choice, or you start looking for greener pastures.
The thing is that a Mythic guild will expect you to have the boss kills to prove your mettle. A guild progressing on the first few Mythic bosses will like you a lot better if you have fully cleared Heroic.
A guild progressing far into Mythic will like you a lot better if you have several Mythic bosses killed already.
The fact is that unless you somehow get into a good high end mythic guild from the start (because their need some people asap to have a workable roster for example) your going to have to guild hop your way to success.
Now don't go overboard with this. You want to make it to the top in 2, maybe 3 hops. You don't someone to check you out and see your switching guilds few weeks. It's a progress that can take a good while.

As others have said becoming friends with people in high end guilds can help but it is by no means required, keep your eye out on sites like wowprogress to see which guilds are doing well and where you might want to try and end up. Then watch them for spots opening up.

A further thing I would point out, be careful when applying to a better guild then your currently in. There are plenty of guild leaders who do not take kindly to such behavior and will kick you if they find out. And yes I have been in guilds where the GM would look around the application forums of other guilds to find 'deserters'.
If application forums are public try contacting the GM or officers and inquire about if you can drop off your application privately to 'avoid upsetting people' or whatever.

[Deleted]

u can usually find most basic raiding 101 on icyveins. After that, you wanna always be looking up boss guides (fatboss does excellent guides wich highlight the important parts of encounters) be4 your guild get to them. You will wanna play alot in the start so your optimal rotation become familiar and even second nature to you, so when you are on a new boss you can focus on learning the mechanics of that bos while still doing your dps rotation and preform well.
But most important of all, be active, consider raiding as something important, something you show up to even if you arent in the mood or if your tired (Myself i approach raiding similarly to how i approached fotball be4, even if your tired you dont just skip an important match because you rather watch a movie, you have a sort of obligation to your teammates to show up and preform). There will be times when you arent in the mood for a raid, when youd rather go to sleep or watch a movie, what sets a hardcore player apart from a casual one is that the hardcore player puts the guild first and doesnt let it down.

Yeah, I've been watching so many FatBossTV guides for WoD and Pandaria stuff, mainly for fun. They're awesome guides and I'm looking forward to being able to use those properly

[Zinge]

What classes are changing that drastically? The classes I play just seemed to be tidied up a bit, or at least according to the PTR. Nothing I found significantly game changing for my classes and specs. Mainly simplifications and cleaning house.

Are any changing to a point that you would need to relearn them?

Not that it negates your point that whatever he chooses will be changing, I was just curious in general.

PTR=/=beta. Level 100 talents completely re-work playstyles for most, if not all, classes.

For the OP: The thing that separates great players from the good/decent/bad ones, is knowing your entire toolkit and thinking outside the box. Knowing that Priests can Guise Blackfuse sawblades or aim/mesmerize on Paragons is huge, but being able to figure that out is even bigger. Seemingly useless spells and abilities can be immensely useful given the right circumstances.

You have to be able to predict movements, not only of the boss, but other players. You learn this from playing with the same group of players and learning their tendencies, and also by knowing how other classes/specs perform their roles.

You shouldn't die to easy things, aka, most of the game's "threats." Seriously, dodging fire is super easy. Raiding at its core is: move out of of stand in something; stack with the raid or spread out; do great dps and don't die. There are ways to min/max all of these (e.g. a meteor is about to land on you and you are standing in the circle--what do you do? Minimize your movement and maximize your dps by moving to the edge of the circle where you won't get hit), but the basics should be established first.

I've been raiding since BC, so it's second nature to do all of the things I do in any given raid. I would say watch boss kill videos of top players in your specific spec. They will do things you never thought of, or they will make the basics more evident. You're going to have to work through the ranks as everyone has said. During that time, focus on learning mechanics, movement, and survivability. DPS/Healing can come second. Obviously, you don't want to entirely neglect dps/healing, but if you're dying every pull, you're going to be worthless and likely kicked from the raid.

[PessimiStick]

PTR=/=beta. Level 100 talents completely re-work playstyles for most, if not all, classes.

Not Rogues. Our level 100 talents are pretty much all junk right now.

[Comp]

PTR=/=beta. Level 100 talents completely re-work playstyles for most, if not all, classes.

For the OP: The thing that separates great players from the good/decent/bad ones, is knowing your entire toolkit and thinking outside the box. Knowing that Priests can Guise Blackfuse sawblades or aim/mesmerize on Paragons is huge, but being able to figure that out is even bigger. Seemingly useless spells and abilities can be immensely useful given the right circumstances.

You have to be able to predict movements, not only of the boss, but other players. You learn this from playing with the same group of players and learning their tendencies, and also by knowing how other classes/specs perform their roles.

You shouldn't die to easy things, aka, most of the game's "threats." Seriously, dodging fire is super easy. Raiding at its core is: move out of of stand in something; stack with the raid or spread out; do great dps and don't die. There are ways to min/max all of these (e.g. a meteor is about to land on you and you are standing in the circle--what do you do? Minimize your movement and maximize your dps by moving to the edge of the circle where you won't get hit), but the basics should be established first.

I've been raiding since BC, so it's second nature to do all of the things I do in any given raid. I would say watch boss kill videos of top players in your specific spec. They will do things you never thought of, or they will make the basics more evident. You're going to have to work through the ranks as everyone has said. During that time, focus on learning mechanics, movement, and survivability. DPS/Healing can come second. Obviously, you don't want to entirely neglect dps/healing, but if you're dying every pull, you're going to be worthless and likely kicked from the raid.

Gotcha. I've only kept up with the two classes I main, and their 100 talents don't change much playstyle-wise. I haven't kept up with other classes so I'll take your word for it