Venturing into raiding. Looking for tips...

[Isendar]

So i'm a bit behind. I play a Ret/Prot Pally on Kil'Jaeden server. I prefer tanking but unfortunately I don't like leading raids (May have to force myself pretty soon). I've been watching videos on the old raids from when Cataclysm was first released (My guild stopped raiding once Cataclysm was released and I was stuck for a while without a good raiding guild).

I've got a pretty good idea of how most of the fights go in Bastion of Twilight, Blackwing Descent, and still a bit confused on Throne of the Four Winds. I've stepped into Firelands to tank trash on my Paladin but have not attempted any bosses. I work full time Sunday-Thursday Grave-shift from 11:00pm - 7:00am. It seems that by the time I am getting ready for work, the pugs are just about to start for the major raids. I'm a great tank. I have almost all my abilities bound to my SteelSeries Cataclysm Mouse and Steelseries Shift Keyboard. I have no problems using Ventrillo and I have great communication skills.

Unfortunately my new guild Virus is only running 10m Firelands with an experienced group. In the past month they have no ran old content so I take it they have graduated from pre-4.2 raids. I feel like my only options are to forgo Ret (Currently using it to crank out Molten Front dailies fast for better tanking gear) and take up (again) Holy and hope I can decently heal in raids, start my own 10-man pre-4.1 content raids, even though I have no experience, attempt to find someone who will lead one and I will co-lead for the experiece, (yeah...that might take a long while) or even stop playing my Paladin and take up my Mage or another decent dps so I can experience content.

Back in WoLK, people were desperate for a tank. Ruby Sanctum 10/25 and Lich King 10/25 all needed tanks every Friday night even if it was just the 1st four bosses for LK. Now it seems its easy to get tanks and when they do spam that they need tanks they need proof of achievements. I explain I know and have studied the fight but I don't get replies back.

I want to raid, badly. I do not enjoy PvP and am a firm believer that that is truly for end-game (I know that's not true, but that's my opinion). My time constraints suck but I don't think it's impossible with the time that I have to be able to experience content, at least at the normal difficulty levels. I have more time now than I did during WoLK but I feel like i'm much further behind. In WoLK I took one year off to bust my a** off at work and make lots of money via OT pay. That paid off now that I have a reliable vehicle and a refurbished Alienware desktop pumping out 50-60 fps in most areas. When I came back to WoW after that year, I caught up to the casual LK raiders in about 2-3 months via heroics/crusader raids/weekly raids. Unfortunately I have a feeling the same thing won't be happening since it seems people don't want to waste their time with (especially a tank) someone who's behind the raiding time.

All-in-all. What is your opinion? Should I just go ahead and lead my own raids even if they end in ultimate failure just to learn first hand the boss fights? Should I forgo Ret and take up Holy and learn to heal raids so I can be a viable choice than the lack of decent dps output by Retribution spec at this juncture? Should I just ignore the old raids and just focus on Firelands so I can at least see the end-game. Help me out here because I am totally lost this expansion around. This is the first expansion that I haven't taken most of the time off and come back later. Unfortunately I feel that I still may not see the end-game despite having more time to play!

[Muis]

For starters, if you think you can do the fights and studied them well, download Underachiever
This will link completed achievements.

If you prefer playing as ret instead of holy or prot, stay ret. You do your 'job' best in the spec closest to your preference.

Looking at your play time, I think it's hard to find groups that raid in the early morning or afternoon so (depending on realms of course) I think you'd be better off raid leading yourself. Dive into other specs, watch/listen to various boss fights with a different PoV video so you get a rough idea what to expect.

T11 raids are nerfed quite a bit, so the first bosses will not be ending in ultimate failure. My guild is mostly casual/baddies and managed most bosses - besides, RL first time will teach you the boss fights the hard way and more rewarding!

Maybe someone else can help you more with it. Good luck!

[Alvito]

Dont go and download and use an add on that gives you fake acheivements. If ppl do any sort of checking on that which is pretty simple in game and out, you will get caught in a dumb lie. Most likely burning your bridge with that group if not others. Some servers may not care about the people they bring into raids but others will black list ppl that do stuff like this as if they were a ninja or something like that.

Check your servers forum threads on wows website and see if anybody is looking if not try making your own thread. Test the waters on some trade pugs, even if they go poorly you will see fights and as far as tanking goes running with bad groups can really help you get better fast. While you may not get a ton of gear you can walk out with some good experience on different bosses.

[Deleted]

For starters, if you think you can do the fights and studied them well, download Underachiever
This will link completed achievements.

This is a disgusting piece of advice. Any raid leader worth his salt will see through it, best case you are on the ignore list of a PUG leader, worst case he/she will broadcast it in trade you are an achievement faker.

My advice - if you can't find a guild to suit your times - then you will have to try and do 'advertised pugs'. Post in trade whenever you're online about a set time for a pug to begin: "Firelands 10 man, this Sunday at bla bla, requirement to join: gearcheck plus bla bla bla".

Make it sound professional, you might struggle with numbers sometimes but as the weeks go on more people will turn up. I did this with Halion 25 and after the first few weeks we were one shotting him every time.

[Elta]

download Underachiever
Good luck!

Please for the love of all thats holy do not do this and fake your achievements. There is nothing worse than a player who links an achievement and shows up in to a a raid only to fail miserably and make a complete jackass out of him/herself.

Be Honest about what you know and don't know and be patient. Start your own raid team within your guild and experience the old content of BWD/BOT/TOT4W, and after a few weeks progress onto the first couple of bosses in FL.

[Obsession]

This is a disgusting piece of advice. Any raid leader worth his salt will see through it, best case you are on the ignore list of a PUG leader, worst case he/she will broadcast it in trade you are an achievement faker.

I do it on my alts frequently. Nobody has ever actually checked, and if people do broadcast in trade, trade chat will only care for about 5 minutes until they forget as they move on to the next thing. It is actually hilarious when I get the achievement for the place after having linked one.

Just don't link an achievement if you aren't 100% sure about mechanics (as cheesy as it sounds, have a friend quiz you), it is a little bit more difficult to double check things with the raid leader when you have shown you've already done it.

Also, I'll mention guild hopping just because it is an option. Apply for a 3-5/7 guild, they are usually desperate for members and will give you a chance.

You can hate me now.

[Alvito]

I do it on my alts frequently. Nobody has ever actually checked, and if people do broadcast in trade, trade chat will only care for about 5 minutes until they forget as they move on to the next thing. It is actually hilarious when I get the achievement for the place after having linked one.

Just don't link an achievement if you aren't 100% sure about mechanics (as cheesy as it sounds, have a friend quiz you), it is a little bit more difficult to double check things with the raid leader when you have shown you've already done it.

Also, I'll mention guild hopping just because it is an option. Apply for a 3-5/7 guild, they are usually desperate for members and will give you a chance.

You can hate me now.

I dont know about other servers but mine has a channel that pretty much all of the raid leaders or guild leads for the progression raids are mbrs of. Ppl on there talk a lot about the shit heads they run into as well as trying to help ppl find raids or get subs if they need one. Maybe this isnt a common thing on other servers but I doubt that because of how useful it is. Trust me if you get your name on there a few times ppl wont invite you to anything.