Reposting from the main boards- a good read :
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Courtesy of the fine folk at Black Phoenix, working to make a better tomorrow for the Argent Dawn community.
Okay, a lot of these posts of late have boiled down to "I'm angry 'cause I don't have the chance to do what you do!" I'm therefore going to share with you some not so top-secret information.
1. Play until you hook up with a cool group of people. The founding fathers of BRL were just a bunch of moops who hung out together doing UBRS runs until we were doing the place in 50 minutes or less. This isn't saying we were possessed of vastly superior skill, but if you play with the same people often enough you become familiar with their style of play and adjust your own accordingly, and eventually a seamless balance is reached. They don't have to be guildmates, either... almost none of us were when we started, some still aren't. Doesn't need to be a full 40 people, either, a good 10 buddies will get you well under way.
2. Read up on the encounters, ask advice, do whatever preparation you personally consider necessary, map out a strategy. Then be prepared to chuck it all out the window and die on the first pull. Several times. All the strategies in the world can't make up for just plain learning this stuff yourself, as each and every group is different... you'll have to adapt once you're in there. But with a solid base--those players you started out with--you'll get things down in no time flat.
3. Figure out what your needs are (x-number of healers, decursers, etc) and start personally inviting people you know to be good at what they do. If you're tight with another guild (or guilds), get their people in on the action. Do NOT go spamming for pick-ups in Ironforge or Orgrimmar... accept it just ain't gonna happen with a pug, which is why Blizz intro'd Zul'Gurub. You need people you at least know something about, who know their class and understand their role in these raids, and that are reasonably reliable.
4. Once you've got your raiders, a good 40-60 people to cover spots on nights others can't make it, you're ready to begin. This is by far the most difficult and lengthy part of the process. But the point is it can be done by anyone if they just put a little effort into it (or unless they're well-known asshats nobody wants anything to do with... if that's you, sorry I can't help you, but I'd suggest kissing some serious to win people over). Snag one of those free boards with the ads from Tickle to keep everyone posted, or have someone in your group with some web-savvy build you a website. You'll likely all be in different guilds, so communication is important.
5. Schedule your first attempt. And show up. Do you best, but accept that you probably won't plow through to Lucifron in the beginning much less Ragnaros. Your next attempt, SHOW UP. That's one of the biggest hurdles you'll face... people get discouraged, and there ARE people in on these things for the loot and not the fun of playing new content and overcoming challenges. Seperate the wheat from the chaff, bring in new people as needed, but don't give up and keep working at it. In a month you'll look back and say "Remember when we wiped on that first Firelord pull? Man, that was funny... now let's kick Golemagg's arse."
6. Loot. There's a good chance you'll see purple even before you take down the first boss. Do yourself a favor right now and use ML. FFA is fine if you're doing guild runs, but ML is necessary in the beginning, especially if you are dealing with 20 or more people in raid you're not all that familiar with. For BoEs the ML will collect and they'll be distributed whenever you choose, during or after the raid (you should also have all reached an agreement at this point as to what to do with Cores and Leather). Now you've finally taken down Luci in a hard-fought battle, and see all that purple! WAIT, DON'T LOOK YET! Make sure everyone's rezzed before you allow anyone to even THINK about looting that hand they need for that quest, otherwise ML might bug on you and people who were dead when the boss went down won't make the loot list.
7. Now a word about distribution. In the beginning, it pays to be somewhat lax. If someone can use the item (or it's class-specific) those eligible /random for it, simple. As things progress, however, you'll begin to notice you have the odd Warrior who comes on your raid and then never comes again who walks away with Might gear while your main tank for all these raids is still wearing gear he got from Scarlet Monestary. Same goes for other "regulars", who are starting to notice they're putting in more effort only to walk away empty-handed each run... at this point there's two things you might want to consider. The first is, gear up your MT first. The better-equipped he is, the better-equipped you'll ALL be that much sooner, believe me. Second is introducing either a modifier based on player attendence or adopting DKP (Dragon Kill Points... for every boss kill or attempt the people present are awarded points they can then "spend" on items that drop).
8. Be ready for #@%$!ing the likes of which you cannot believe. "How come so-and-so got an invite tonight and I didn't?" "How come I can't roll on that, it's clearly a Hunter wand?" etc. Bear with it as best you can, be as diplomatic as possible, cut loose the really disruptive and problematic people (and be prepared for them to post to these forums that you're a bunch of elitist jerks under lvl 1 alts afterward). As with all the other suggestions I've made, it all boils down to a little preperation, and whole lotta perseverance.
9. Don't let your raiders rest on their laurels when you're not raiding. Everyone should be farming resist gear on their own, working to make pots and food and bandages and repair bots for the raid, and getting their hands on as much gold as possible because repair expenses are MASSIVE. Pitch in, stay on top of others, help them make BRD runs for Burning Essence for their Librams, whatever it takes. This is all truly a group effort that extends beyond stepping through that portal and into the instance.
10. Profit!
So there you have it... it's not as difficult as it appears, just takes some dedication, and even then you can squeak by with little more than a core group of dedicated people working to bring in others and keep things running smoothly as possible. Before you know it you'll be excited rushing to these forums to regale others with your tale of triumph, only to get shot down for being egotistical and self-centered. Fun for one and all!
To sum up.
Find a good group of people and stick with 'em. Do your research, but be prepared to learn things the hard way. Actively recruit people and entire guilds to the effort until your needs are met. Set up a way (forum, whatever) for everyone to keep in touch and get to know each other a little better. Make a schedule and stick to it, win or lose, don't get discouraged. Figure out in advance how you're going to handle drops. Be prepared to change the way you handle loot as the need arises down the road. You will get complaints and lots of 'em... deal with them and the complainers to the best of your ability, but hang in there. Make sure everyone is working to ensure the continued success of the raid even when you're not raiding. Get phat lewtz.
Again, don't let this seem so overwhelming. There are plenty of people with real-life commitments and very little playtime walking around right now in epic gear. Most importantly, don't allow yourself to judge your raid based on the progress of others or their equipment, and don't judge them in return. It's a game, find a way to make it work for you as others have for them.
Couple additional notes...
1. Outdoor raid encounters. Man, this is a free-for-all, both by design and the way you approach them. Your raid will rarely if ever be around to tackle something of this nature, so wing it. Plain and simple. I have personally beaten Kaz and Azure with quickly whipped-together pugs, and suffered some humiliating defeats. Just take what you've got to work with when the world bosses pop and do your best. ALWAYS remember though, to be respectful of other groups who might beat you to it and do not grief the encounter. Not only can it get you banned, it's just plain uncool. Yes, losing out on these can be frustrating to the extreme... just keep at it, it'll happen.
2. If you've got access to Ventrilo or TeamSpeak, use it. It's incredibly helpful in co-ordinating people, but even if you can't use these you'll do fine (we didn't have Vent until way into things, now we don't know how we lived without it, but we did).
That's it for now... good luck to you! I promise you when you're victorious I'll be standing in line to say "Grats, guys!"
