7 Tips to Make Your Raid Go Faster

By Jon Prywes Platinum Quality Author

Last night I joined in on a Naxx 25 raid hosted by a guild needing just a few more to fill up the group. It was a fun and friendly group, but it seemed that 75% of the time was spent waiting, most of which was unnecessary.

Inspired by StratFu's Guide to Faster Raiding, and the 3 hours spent in Arachid Quarter last night, here are 7 ways to make Naxx - or any raid - go faster:

1. Keep pulling! Once you are done with one group of trash mobs, move onto the next unless a good chunk of the raid has died.
2. Don't stop for loot! Set loot threshold to rare or epic if using master looter, so green items don't need to be looted by the loot master. Have the master looter handle looting while the rest of the raid continues pulling trash mobs and clearing to the next boss. Spending 5 minutes handing out loot per boss * 25 raid members = Over 2 hours of peoples' time wasted per boss.
3. Don't hold up the raid for one person! Don't wait for one or two people who are not ready unless they are critical to the fight. If someone's having a computer problem, or is going to the AH to buy stuff, that's no reason to keep 24 other people waiting. Making 24 other people each wait 10 minutes = Over 4 hours of peoples' time wasted while someone tries to fix their add-ons, use the bathroom, or change a diaper.
4. Explain the boss fight while clearing trash! If anyone has any questions about the boss, they can be answered while clearing trash mobs. Waiting until you are at the boss to explain the fight is a big time waster. 10 minute boss fight explanation with questions and answers * 25 people = Over 4 hours of peoples' time wasted per boss.
5. Don't bring too many tanks or healers! You may feel safer with 7 or 8 healers in your Naxx group, but it's just going to gimp DPS and make for lazy healers. On my server, there rarely seems to be a problem of having too many healers, but it is still worthwhile to mention. With dual specs now available, this should be a moot issue.
6. Don't stop for buffing until a boss fight! If you need a buff refreshed, ask in raid chat. People will die during trash sometimes, and waiting for them to get buffed is not necessary. All buffs can be refreshed before fighting a boss. Just because one of your DPS overnuked doesn't mean you need to have the rest of the raid sit still while they man up and get buffs.
7. Get your consumables before the raid! It is nice when someone offers to hand out or sell flasks during a raid, but spending 10 minutes doing so * 25 raid members = over 4 hours of peoples' time wasted while handing out flasks.

The main idea here is that for every 2.5 minutes the raid is idle, an hour of time is wasted across the entire raid!

Most things that cause the entire raid to come to a screeching halt simply don't have to. Whether you raid seven nights a week, or just two or three, you can get more out of your raiding time by keeping the raid moving at all times!

Jon Prywes is a dedicated gamer & blogger. You can find gold making strategies, newbie tips, raiding advice, and other World of Warcraft articles on his blog at http://www.MasterLooter.com.

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