Zanbon!

The way I got involved with raiding was by joining a random PUG group i saw in trade chat. I whispered the person and said I had never raided before and would like to give it a try, told them I understood if they didn’t want to bring me but would like a chance to learn and the guy invited me. I basically ran around like a chicken with my head cut off the entire time and probably spent more than half the raid eating floor, but it was a fun experience and I definitely wanted to try more.

If any of your friends have raiding experience, you might ask them to bring you along on some easy content to get a feel for what it’s like to raid. If you have run any heroic dungeons, just think of them like mini raids… dungeons require a certain amount of coordination and teamwork to down the bosses. Raids are exactly the same, except the bosses have more health, hit harder, and the booby traps they set are a lot more unforgiving to mistakes! A lot of the mechanics in raids are seen in the heroic dungeons of that tier. Honestly, doing dungeons is a great way to practice raiding.

LFR is a GREAT way to learn how to raid. Since you’ve never raided before, I’d recommend queueing with some friends or guildmates who know the fights and sit on skype or vent with them and just have them narrate to you what you need to do. This is essentially how I learn fights on my tank/healer characters. Because my main is range DPS, there’s often mechanics I don’t know about from another role’s perspective and it’s like I’m learning the fight for the first time, even though I know it really well on my hunter. One thing to keep in mind with LFR is people tend to be incredibly hateful and rude in there. I don’t know what it is about LFR, but it brings out the worst in people sometimes. If people criticize you, ignore them. Everyone has to start somewhere and people often forget what it’s like to be doing something for the first time. You have as much a right to be in there as anyone else!

Do not get discouraged if you are low on meters or mess up the first time you try raiding. It’s okay to make mistakes as long as you learn from them! Focus on learning the fights and learning how to raid. Worry about doing your job as best you can and then maximize your performance later.