Hello, I am in a guild that has only done group content. We were thinking about giving the raid game a shot and now I am wondering if it is even possible to do current T1 raids with current group gear? Assuming aas, spells and skills are okay, is the gear check impossible to pass for T1 raids? I know ToV raids are not out yet but in general (prior expansions). The goal is to experience something new to keep people engaged without them quitting in frustration.
Yes. T1 raids are pretty easy really. It may be rough at first with a casual guild, especially if you didnt try it out in beta, but give it a try. Remember, you cant die if you dont try!
I think the biggest issue most guilds new to raiding are going to face is healing. Obviously keeping the tanks up is priority. But the number of AEs that go off during modern raids (even T1s) mean your healers have to be maximizing their volume of healing much more than they would be used to doing in the group content. Dead don't dps. Unless you roll with 27 SKs and 27 Paladins. Then, just carry on. There are T1 raids in TBM, EoK, and RoS (Gorowyn) that should be attempted first. There are enough instructions/emotes that go on in those events and you can see if your new raid force can handle those. Because there is no sense beating your head against a wall if people cannot understand what an emote is or to not stand in stupid (aka an aura) or know when NOT to dps.
T1 ToV is much lighter on healing and AoE's than TBL/ROS were. hell, they're lighter on just about everything than all the TBL raids. Virtually all of the aoe/dmg mechanics are avoidable in ToV, and pretty much all the mechanics are learnable through the group missions for 2/3 of events except for sleeper... so easy events to learn, but more importantly they have current / useful loot for people. There's literally no reason to ever go back to TBM raid wise. EOK is almost equally useless unless you're going after achievements... even then it's marginal at best. RoS (gorowyn, cactus) is maybe still marginally-useful for focus effects? I doubt it though. TBL is probably out of reach for the most part as a group-geared team, but you might could do doomfire. so yeah, IMO ToV T1 is the place to start for building / transitioning to a raid guild. Once it's all down, move back to TBL T1 as the gear there is still useful.
I would suggest starting with gmm. See how that goes at 115. I suggest trying the tier 1 TOV, but gear will be slow. So throwing in some tbl for muhbis wouldn't be bad. With the muhbis focus on weapons for dps.
I agree with those that are saying attempting earlier content, GMM, TBL, etc. I think as a new casual raid crew you’re going to struggle to get people to care versus those that are there for new scenery. It’ll also let whoever is leading figure out how to herd the cats.
I'm going to go the other direction from Cragzop and say the biggest hurdles for a new(er) raiding guild will be DPS and scripts. Healing isn't really that much of a hurdle in the T1 raids, usually. Instead putting out enough DPS to keep your healers and tanks from running out of mana and hp, respectively, tends to be more of a struggle. That and getting people to pay attention to event scripts to avoid wiping the entire raid through inattentiveness. And, I'll agree with Mehdisin. There's no reason to look any further back than TBL, and even that's a stretch simply due to the difficulty of the T1 raids. The aforementioned hurdle of paying attention to scripts gets even worse when people don't have juicy loot to look forward to from the event.
The tanks will need to be maxed, ready to glyph, and know how to play well. I'd recommend warming up on some TBL POF raid trash since that should be easy and provides many augs that are still BIS in ToV. Basically a guaranteed "win" that will give everyone some basic training. Pull more at once to step it up. If that goes well, try some of the easier raids mentioned elsewhere. The difference between raid trash and regular trash is enormous. The raid trash also has old school player > pet aggro rules. You'll not only be fighting against mobs, but player motivation. Find out where your capabilities lie, and stick to what is achievable, or you may do serious dmg to your guild.
Has your guild raided *ANYTHING* at all before? That's probably the biggest question of all. People need to be able to follow raid mechanics. Things you can ignore in the group mission and heal through, you cannot do that in the raids. You'll die very quickly. As others have suggested, try some older raids out first. The loot isn't important, it's learning how to follow the mechanics first. Then move up to harder raids.
I was in this position a year ago trying to lead raids with a lot of boxes combined with people who had never raided before in group gear. Start with Gorowyn. The raid is super forgiving, but still has a lot of mechanics that need to be sorted out. It has the raid splitting up, adds that put up a riposte disc, drakes that drop a bomb on the raid that needs to be moved away from, opportunities to burn, a fair amount of movement, and other dynamics. Importantly, people failing to comply doesn't wipe the raid entirely. Don't start with T1 ToV. You'll get blown away. We beat Griklor last night but got stomped by Great Divide and Sleeper. Our tanks are nearly fully TBL raid geared but the rest of the raid force is in group gear except for raid weapons for melee and focus items for casters. The Health/Mana/Endurance may be lower, but you'll want to farm conflagrant diamonds from Ring of Scale raids to make Legs/Arms for the melee characters for Cleave/Ferocity. Whatever you do, don't start in TBL. Unless you have an experienced raid force who just happens to not have gear, you're going to get burned.
