Do you learn bosses before attempting them?

[gamingmuscle]

(if your doing this in a guild run your a complete waste of space)

Videos/Strat guides are useless for me. I've never been a read/watch it and learn it fellow. I won't remember anything from a video or strat. I have to do it.

[vulena]

I am aware of the general response to mechanics before I go into a raid, yes.

Otherwise I'm just going in to die immediately and am wasting everyone's time.

[turboether]

Everyone learns the fights by doing them. Video guides and the dungeon journal prepare you for mechanics and flow of the encounter so you don't waste several wipes mousing over ability icons and wondering wth killed Timmy for the fifth time so you can tell him what he needs to do differently to survive.

[unbound]

While there are certainly people that are too lazy to look up the boss mechanics, I've also pugged with small guilds that do fights very differently than my guild does or even different than the standard guides.

Just something to consider.

[Prokne]

I find it a lot more fun to just go in to the fight not knowing exactly what will happen. Part of the fun of games is figuring out how to beat them on your own or with your team. Copying someone else's strategy is boring. The only reason would I watch videos now before doing a raid is to see what the mechanics look like, not how to defeat them.

[Nellise]

I used to when I was in a server-first/top100 type guild, but now that I'm only doing normal/heroic with friends I don't bother unless I see a bunch of threads on here or the WoW forums asking for help with a particular fight (like Archimonde this tier). If we get stuck on something for a few hours I'll look up how to fix it so people don't get frustrated, but especially on normal it isn't often necessary. I get bored once a raid is on farm, so doing it this way drags the content out a bit and keeps it fun for longer for me.

[Razecog]

Yes. Knowing how the boss works before you pull prevents the glorious 20 second wipes. (most of the time.)

[Serissa]

Just basics. Interrupt something, avoid something, run away or group with something. Real encounter is best lesson. Strat or even video will never teach you boss. Even "20 sec" wipe will teach you more than best video available. IMO.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

No I learn them after we kill them.

Serious question lol?
You learn as you go.
That's what progression means.

[Gsara]

No, but lots of ptr work was involved. Video's and guides usually weren't released for the boss we worked on at the time.

[Duravian]

Never, OP. I like to learn by doing, but my friend argues that I'm bringing my team down by not having some basic idea. I say fuck that, because I pay for this game to play it the way I like. I'm not going to turn World of Warcraft into some college course to avoid the wrath of easily angered gamers. I have much more fun going into a fight when it's a mystery anyway; that way, during a fight, I can learn on my own what to avoid and what not to avoid, etc.

[Halicia]

If we're doing a guildrun, 'we' generally learn by doing for the first few weeks. We aren't 'racing for world/server firsts' or anything, so there's no reason to spoil the best part of the fight, imo, which is 'solving the problem' of how to beat it. Often we come up with strategies better for our group than the ones we're told are 'correct' by beta videos.

Then personally, I will generally pug thru the rest of the raid in the remainder of the week to gain familiarity with it.

After a couple weeks, it'll reach a point where the 'easy' bosses are done, and we may be hitting roadblocks in our 'progression', that's when i start watching the videos. Generally one fight in advance for what we plan on progressing on next.

If I'm pugging into groups though, I'm generally fine with sticking to the journal. Depends on the group and how serious I feel like raiding that day.

[Deleted]

Sometimes, honestly I usually just wing it. And have learned the strat after 1-2kills.

[schwarzkopf]

No, the only way I could (LFR) isn't enabled in time and I have no other tool available to learn them. But for most bosses, 1 or 2 goes and I'm fine. For some it can be 5 or 6

That disability is why I'm in casual/Normal guilds.

[Saybel]

Nope, it takes me only a few pulls to adjust to mechanics.

[Piando]

I play in a guild where we deliberately don't watch guides to make our own strategies. We only use the Dungeon Journal (which contains most information you need anyway) and very rarely wowhead (last time used on H Garrosh). Of course this takes a bit longer than looking up strats beforehand but it's also quite fun to not do mainstream stuff. And it leads to hilarious wipes like our first pull on Mythic Hans and Franz when everyone ran around like headless chickens after the first plates started glowing.

[Deleted]

Ofcoarse. But i've always found online guides for encounters to be pretty useless. I learn more from 1 attempt then i do from watching a guide 10 times