How did you first get into raiding?

[Lochton]

Logged onto the server of my choice in Vanilla, people stared at me for some moment and then just went.. "You look decent, join us?"

And I was like.. uhm... "oookay?"

Quite happened a few times... As well on my DK on another server, "huh.. okay gear.. year, come tank DS25N" wasn't even looking for it.

[shanattah]

my first actual raid instance was aq20 during my guilds progress raid, I was lvl 56 at the time I think. Just filling a raidspot. stopped playing shortly after that and came back like 4 months before BC and the guild wad just playing casual then so we did AQ20 and ZG with some joint raids to 40 mans. in TBC I raided hardcore from the start and mostly been since then.

[Lochton]

Think, my frist was... Molten Core..

[GoKs]

Well I started playing in 4.3 so I am reletavily in-experienced so dont have much stories to tell. Can only remember how difficult it was to get a pug for a raid those days (even today without achivs, lucky I joined a decent guild), every one you asked wanted a higher gear level or an achi, so I started LFR, in the LFR the people used to kick you because of low gear level and told you to go do dungeons, then in dungeons they used to cry that you dont know what to do (back then I didnt know of DBM and sites that gave some insights into the fights) although the ones with the largest mouths usually pulled the whole dungeon and would then point fingers when we wiped, and told you to find a guild that will help you get geared. There were some good ppl that saw the noobness and explained what to do (Thanx to all who helped).

Eventually got a pug for DS10N and learned what to do through some sites (info given by a random friendly player), got thrown in the deep end (spine) and in all my excitement somhow pressed R on my keyboard and instead of running to the side to hold on for dear life, started replying to my friend "wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaa...." needless to say, was sent flying and got the boot.
I did get a lucky pug or 2 after that but never made it through the whole DS raid. Then MoP released and I found a guild, we were all noobs and took us a while to clear MSV, never cleared HoF or ToES as a guild (damn you Garalon). We got better, cleared ToT (current) and SoO we on heroic progress on Iron Jug.

So my first raid was DS and my first raid cleared was MSV.

[khalltusk]

Ok for me it all started back on Skullcrusher.

I joined a guild called blades of excelsior or something like that. Run by a guy we shall call him bob(a hunter i will come back to him later). So we get into an MC run theres no team speak or vent (I was on a private vent with a few friends) the guild did not have one. We wiped on firelords multiple times until the raid ended. Never even saw a boss!

No explanations were given initially then after a few wipes some details were explained.

So the guild broke up and we moved server. I then joined a PVP guild called Grand theft kodo. We quickly became the number 1 PVP guild. Then members from there went to form a PVE guild (became the number 1 PVE guild on our server) I went and joined a different PVE guild called flawless with a few irl friends.

Bob was there as an officer I think. Now he caused a bit of drama accusing the GM of stealing items (the GM showed extensive screen shots showing hes taken nothing). Bob left the guild after a point to form his own guild which failed miserably!

So flawless managed to clear MC BWl and most of AQ40 (got to princess/twin emps I think!) did a few bosses in Nax too. I then quit PVE until TBC came out and eventually after leaving a PVP guild who did the odd kara run went to a guild called midgard. We were 4th on our server then moved to 3rd. At the end of TBC we killed felmyst then the wrath pre patch hit and we got a server 2nd on KJ on that night! (hilarious I tell you).

Wrath pretty much continued as tbc left and we cleared Nax 25 did 3drakes got immortal and killed maly. Ulduar hit our 10man runs killed algalon and 25man were doing the keepers on hardmode when totc was released (super fast imo and ruined raid progression for us). I quit during totc as I hated it, 10man was super easy and and 25man was easy until the last boss and it was just a boring raid in general.

Came back for cata and did the 1st tier of raid content on normal (which was fun and the difficulty was pretty good) went onto heroic and was enjoying it but part of the fun was lost as we cleared it on normal 1st and were re-doing it on heroic. We kinda got bored and just left the game.

Came back for DS a bit then returned for MoP and aside a month or two break stayed subbed throughout and dropped in and out.

Seen a lot of loot drama in my time and other guild related drama. I always enjoyed it had my popcorn ready

[ringpriest]

I was carried through MC by my guild in late vanilla and helped to gear up so that I could off-tank on my warrior. I swapped to priest in BC, and a few weeks after I'd hit 70, was told/asked, "We need a priest for Kara." and the rest was history.

[Warlord Booty]

I got guilted into it. I was apparently one of the best shadow priests on the server, they needed/wanted a mana battery, and had one of those "/g come on, 97 people online and NO ONE WANTS TO RAID? WTF are you even here for" and I'm like .... uh.... and they I got IMs from the officers asking to raid cuz "Your the #6 best dressed priest on the server and you DON'T raid? How the hell does that happen? And you'll be fine, we've all done heroics with you and damn you're good" Yep, stroke a young girls ego and you get a superstar.

[BergErr]

WoW raiding.
Friends been nagging me for years to raid with them. Quit Lineage2 to play something casual so wow raiding seemed like a good option.
Hit lvl90 on a weekend, were in a core spot next reset.
Still raiding since.

[Deleted]

After playing the game for years, I finally had a handle on how things worked (I played super casual) and rolled a priest horde side with a RL friend who I had finally convinced to play. I soon outlevelled him and got to tbc dungeons (this was a couple of months into wrath) where I met a boomkin from a guild who were short on healers. eh and I started chatting, I admitted I was interested in raiding but wasn't very good. Supposedly I healed the dungeon fine and he (I wish I remembered his name, I feel bad that I don't) encouraged me to sign up for the guild when I hit 80.

It was the impetus I needed and I soared through the levels hoping to finally get to raid and I did. Until the guild disbanded 10 months later.

[Deleted]

A friend invited me to, like the last 2 weeks of beta, and dragged me along on release day of WoW to buy a copy.
He was talking about dungeons, raids and all sort of stuff. I was totally clueless.

He leveled way faster and was playing in a top 10 or 20 world or EU guild, and was doing raids early on. Watching him raid made me want to do it as well.
So i found a guild that was raiding and no life mode activated! :-P

[Zheo]

My friend at work who had gotten me into WoW had me invited to his guild which merged with another guild. The first night of my membership I got ninja invited to a group for Naxx (I didn't know Anton the fights) and I remember very vividly dying on heigan - stupid safety dance. That was the beginning of my foray into raiding as a nowhere nearly geared properly dps death knight. Now, I tank lol

[theostrichsays]

Well I started playing in 4.3 so I am reletavily in-experienced so dont have much stories to tell. Can only remember how difficult it was to get a pug for a raid those days (even today without achivs, lucky I joined a decent guild), every one you asked wanted a higher gear level or an achi, so I started LFR, in the LFR the people used to kick you because of low gear level and told you to go do dungeons, then in dungeons they used to cry that you dont know what to do (back then I didnt know of DBM and sites that gave some insights into the fights) although the ones with the largest mouths usually pulled the whole dungeon and would then point fingers when we wiped, and told you to find a guild that will help you get geared. There were some good ppl that saw the noobness and explained what to do (Thanx to all who helped).

Eventually got a pug for DS10N and learned what to do through some sites (info given by a random friendly player), got thrown in the deep end (spine) and in all my excitement somhow pressed R on my keyboard and instead of running to the side to hold on for dear life, started replying to my friend "wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaa...." needless to say, was sent flying and got the boot.
I did get a lucky pug or 2 after that but never made it through the whole DS raid. Then MoP released and I found a guild, we were all noobs and took us a while to clear MSV, never cleared HoF or ToES as a guild (damn you Garalon). We got better, cleared ToT (current) and SoO we on heroic progress on Iron Jug.

So my first raid was DS and my first raid cleared was MSV.

It is actually incredibly rare (in my recent experience) to see a guild hold on and improve like that over the course of a expansion, most groups have such high turnover because 1 or 2 people think they are significantly better then everyone else and it is a never ending pattern. Kudos.

[Chirri]

First ever ever raiding, was probably Vox.

First WoW raiding was Kara; I'd been invited to a few during Vanilla but I was just trying to re-level my Priest as a different race and wasn't comfortable with the responsibility I associated with raiding (due to the previous MMO) so put it off til my SO's raiding guild was short a healer one night and invited me to fill the spot. They were kind smart alecks, and it was fun, so I stuck with it. It probably wasn't as "epic" as it would have been had I never experienced any sort of raiding previously, but it was lots of fun for a very long time and remains a place full of good memories.

[Morbownz]

Needing gear for PvP was my motivation at first, I was playing a Rogue and at 60 all I did was PvP and a few dungeons every now and then. I got to Rank 11 when I began to really understand the PvP system and realised that I'd need to join premades and just farm 24/7 to upgrade my blue weapons...which was something I really didn't want to do. My bro had started to raid MC and get epic items, and so I decided to look for an MC Guild. I joined an MC Guild and on my 2nd raid I got a Gutgore Ripper. My problems were solved instantly thanks to raiding. The Guild were getting close to killing Ragnaros when I joined in early 2006 and within the month we killed him and I experienced the "Guild first kill feeling" and through this experience I felt a closer bond with my new Guild friends...it was really cool. I loved WoW so much back then, I felt completely connected to PvP and PvE and my new friends... they were all equally important to me.

[Deleted]

Ok for me it all started back on Skullcrusher.

I joined a guild called blades of excelsior or something like that. Run by a guy we shall call him bob(a hunter i will come back to him later). So we get into an MC run theres no team speak or vent (I was on a private vent with a few friends) the guild did not have one. We wiped on firelords multiple times until the raid ended. Never even saw a boss!

No explanations were given initially then after a few wipes some details were explained.

So the guild broke up and we moved server. I then joined a PVP guild called Grand theft kodo. We quickly became the number 1 PVP guild. Then members from there went to form a PVE guild (became the number 1 PVE guild on our server) I went and joined a different PVE guild called flawless with a few irl friends.

Bob was there as an officer I think. Now he caused a bit of drama accusing the GM of stealing items (the GM showed extensive screen shots showing hes taken nothing). Bob left the guild after a point to form his own guild which failed miserably!

So flawless managed to clear MC BWl and most of AQ40 (got to princess/twin emps I think!) did a few bosses in Nax too. I then quit PVE until TBC came out and eventually after leaving a PVP guild who did the odd kara run went to a guild called midgard. We were 4th on our server then moved to 3rd. At the end of TBC we killed felmyst then the wrath pre patch hit and we got a server 2nd on KJ on that night! (hilarious I tell you).

Wrath pretty much continued as tbc left and we cleared Nax 25 did 3drakes got immortal and killed maly. Ulduar hit our 10man runs killed algalon and 25man were doing the keepers on hardmode when totc was released (super fast imo and ruined raid progression for us). I quit during totc as I hated it, 10man was super easy and and 25man was easy until the last boss and it was just a boring raid in general.

Came back for cata and did the 1st tier of raid content on normal (which was fun and the difficulty was pretty good) went onto heroic and was enjoying it but part of the fun was lost as we cleared it on normal 1st and were re-doing it on heroic. We kinda got bored and just left the game.

Came back for DS a bit then returned for MoP and aside a month or two break stayed subbed throughout and dropped in and out.

Seen a lot of loot drama in my time and other guild related drama. I always enjoyed it had my popcorn ready

He/she asked what was your first raid experience or what got you into raiding... not you entire WoW history.

[Trickname]

(Not including UBRS and Strat) Was in a guild back in Vanilla and was asked if i wanted to come to ZG....I had no idea what it was and just said "sure" and discovered I was in a 20 man group.

[beefster]

by pugging a icc10 man on trade channel not knowing how to raidlead i got to sindragosa on my first pug that i put together i was so proud and i got alot of loot like 6 items that run so happy happy times back then LFR killed all that but flex brought it back so i am happy again i killed garrosh flex on my first attempt last night we 25 manned it it was so much fun on my priest madamezen frostmourne

[Louis CK]

He/she asked what was your first raid experience or what got you into raiding... not you entire WoW history.

It was an interesting story, as have all of them been. Thanks everyone for sharing so far, it's been a blast to read. <3

[Deleted]

The mix of curiosity & my ex bf. It was back in classic when I saw my ex bf play WoW and after some time I got curious and played WoW myself. 2 or 3 months later I was in the same raid group, clearing MC.

[Norjak]

I started running on my Hunter with a couple of friends who played tank+heals, we started out in Undead Strat and ran all the lvl 60 content (Scholo, Strat, LBRS, UBRS, Dire Maul etc) and eventually got enough to start dabbling in ZG and AQ20. I think we mostly raided the 20-man content with around 17-18 players, whoever was online. I managed to do an Ony pug and a partial MC pug towards the end of Vanilla.