The Master Looter

Have you just dinged 80 and think you’re ready to start raiding? Here’s a handy guide to prepare yourself, gear-wise. This assumes, of course, that you are already well-versed with your talent specializations and spell rotations.

As you leveled up on your journey to 80, you may or may not have done a lot of dungeons. If you do mostly quests to get to max level, you may either find yourself in pieces of green gear or Karazhan epics from months past. The best way to upgrade your gear as you level is simply to do dungeons. The dungeon quests as well as the bosses will provide you with a plethora of quality blues. These blues will then help you get better blues. Your primary goal before getting ready to raid is to obtain as high level blue items as possible.

If you had lots of gear from Tier 6 raids, and the Sunwell, this probably does not apply of course. But for the rest of us, doing each Northrend dungeon at least once will provide you with most of the gear you need to start doing heroics. Heroics will then give you many of the item-level 200 blues you’ll want before you start raiding.

What’s in an Item Level?

Viewable with an add-on, or on a website such as Wow Heroes, an item level is a basic measure of the quality of a piece of gear, compared to gear of the same color. Green quest rewards from entry quests in Northrend have an item level of 138, for instance. For the most part, an item level 200 blue is better than an item level 187 blue, and an item level 200 purple is better than an item 200 blue – assuming the stats being compared are similar.

Blue item levels in Northrend can vary from 155 to 200. Blues with item level 155 to 187 are obtained from regular mode dungeons. Heroic 5 man dungeons drop item level 187 and 200 blues, and the last boss usually drops an item level 200 purple.

Item level 200 purples are your entry level raid gear at level 80. You can get these from crafting, exalted reputation rewards, and emblem of heroism rewards. You can also get them from Naxxramas, Archavon, Sartharion, and the last boss in each heroic dungeon. Tier 7 set items are of this level. Having item level 200 purples is good preparation for 25-man raids, and 10-man Eye of Eternity, where you will obtain the next level of gear.

Item level 213 purples are your next step up. These drop on 10 man mode from Kel’thuzad in Naxxramas, and from Malygos in the Eye of Eternity. Items of this level will drop in Ulduar when it is released. On 25 man mode, you can get 213′s from Naxxramas, Archavon, and Sartharion. Emblems of Valor can be redeemed for 213′s, which drop from 25 man raid bosses. Heroic tier 7 gear shares this item level. Being equipped fully in 213′s will help prepare you gear-wise for the toughest of encounters currently available in Wrath.

Item level 226 purples are currently the best in game. These drop off Kel’thuzad and Malygos on 25 man, and will appear in Ulduar on 25 man as well.

Raiding

Nothing seems to cause drama quite like looting disagreements. While most looting decisions are usually pretty clear cut, all it takes is one bad decision to upset someone. While it’s difficult to please everyone, there are a few ways to keep loot distribution as fair as possible. Here’s a brief analysis of all the possible looting methods you can use for your raid team:

Group Loot: This is probably the worst of all the methods. You can let people roll Need/Greed on the honor system, but this is probably best saved for 5 man dungeons.

Loot Council: This is the system we currently use in our guild. Officers will look at everyone’s gear who is rolling, and determine who should get the loot. Most of the time it’s pretty clear cut, but sometimes it’s difficult to hand out an item without someone getting upset. Subjectivity plays a large role in loot council. Many factors must be taken into account such as how much time each member has contributed to raiding, how good their current items are, and if healers & tanks should get priority.

DKP: Taken from the term “Dragon Kill Points” this is a system used by many hardcore raiding guilds. You earn DKP by participating in raids, and use the points to bid on items that drop. It’s a fairly complicated system for a casual raiding guild to use, but more serious guilds swear by it.

Loot Ladder: With a loot ladder, if you win an item, you move to the bottom of the “ladder”. This gives people priority to win loot if they haven’t won any in awhile. The problem with this system is that it does not take into account the amount of time each member has contributed to the raid, and does not take into account how big the gear upgrade will be. Nonetheless it’s a fairly balanced, and rather simple system to use.

Which loot system is the best for your raiding guild? If you’re a hardcore raiding guild, DKP is probably the only way to go. If you’re a more casual guild, Loot Council or Loot Ladder are probably more feasible. If you’re a dedicated 10-man team, Group Loot might get the job done just fine.

Just remember: You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time. But you can’t please ‘em all every time.

Raiding

I had much better luck tonight, and did not get disconnected during any of the boss fights. We defeated Razuvious on the first try, Gothik on the second try, and one-shot Four Horsemen. Patchwerk went down on the first attempt, and after a few tries we even got Grobbulus down – a guild first! We fought Gluth for the first time and got him on the third try. After a couple of tries at Thaddius we had to call it a night but tomorrow we will continue.

One of the offbeat features of Naxxramas is something that was not as much of an issue in Karazhan; unless you count falling off the ledge in upper Karazhan. I am, of course, referring to many of the tricky maneuvers required to make your through the instance, often risking life and limb while not even fighting any mobs! Previous to Naxxramas, there were a few situations like this in Burning Crusade:

The Gong Boss: Getting everyone to bang the gong at the same time in Zul’Aman was sometimes harder than making it through the timed prisoner event!

The Elevator Boss: The elevator in Serpentshrine Cavern is famous for many deaths. Paladins using their bubble prematurely after jumping ended up floor tanking at the bottom of the lift.

The Construct Quarter in Naxxramas is home to three encounters of similiar style:

The Frogger Boss: This is basically an economic stimulus package for the repair vendors.

The Pipe Boss: Fall off the pipe on the way to Gluth and you get to do the Frogger boss all over again!

The Ledge Boss: I fell victim to this one on our first attempt at Thaddius. Perhaps I need to go back to practicing at Super Mario Brothers?

Of course, the developers who created these challenges are the same ones who brought you doodad_nox_door_spider02.

Raiding

Last week, my guild faced off against the Four Horsemen in Naxxramas (10-man) and ran into an unfortunate situation. During our first attempt, people were just learning the fight and we wiped, which is nothing unexpected. Our second attempt went rather well, until one of the priest healers got disconnected. Our third attempt also went pretty well, until the other priest healer got disconnected! I was the only healer who didn’t get disconnected that night. It was getting pretty late so we decided to try again another time.

Fast forward to last night. I logged on and was asked to heal 25-man Naxxramas for another guild. After making my way inside, the raid leader explained the fight and everyone got to their positions. The people in the front of the room were still learning their roles so it was a quick wipe. The second attempt was going very well, with one of the bosses almost to zero health before the first switch, at which point the server decided to disconnect me. I logged back in only to see my corpse on the floor and the rest of the raid falling like a pile of dominoes. We tried it once more, and the server disconnected me again! I felt horrible, having wiped a 25-man raid twice, even though it was not my fault. What’s a paladin to do?

Here’s hoping that tonight our group of 10 fares better in the Military Wing!

Raiding