Raiding in WoW (Explained in FF Language)

The WoW End-Game Experience

WoW end-game is about Raids. Not camping HNM or farming gold, just Raids! Raids is anything above a party requirement (FFXI is 6 for party, WoW is 5). When you are in a raid (or alliance equilvalent in FFXI), you gain significant less exp, but its more organized and allows you to overcome challenges than might be otherwise be nearly impossible for a party.

So damn.. the boss of this raid is at the very top of this tower… I can’t even see lol…

For those who will never play WoW, or just want to take a zip of what’s WoW’s end-game is like, read on!

So what is a Raid in FF Language?

Raids is kinda like.. Dynamis + Jailer/Proto Omega,Ultima etc as boss. A dynamis in FFXI might only have 1 boss, but in WoW, each Dynamis (or Raids), have multiple bosses. Each drops different stuff for different jobs (or class), and each is significantly different.

Raids are instanced, no more of those “JP is in dynamis atm, we gotta wait” kind of stuff.

Raids do have requirements to enter. Like key items in FFXI, you need to have key item from bosses from Dynamis Jeuno, Sandy, Bastok and Windy to enter Dynamis Beacucedine. In WoW, its call the Attunement process.

Attunement is required even for the first Raid (Karazhan), kind of like Dynamis Jeuno, but its a really easy quest. To get attuned for further Raids, you must of course, get an item fron the final boss of each Raid (like key item in FF). Beating Dynamis Jeuno boss would drop an item, required to Attune you for other dungeons.

Is it any harder/easier?

Most of you probably wonder, so what’s the hardest Raid in WoW?

Dynamis-Tavaznia + AV as Boss = Black Temple of WoW Burning Crusade.

Access to Tavaznia is no where near the difficulty to get “attuned” for Black Temple. Just for pleasure, here’s the official link to get “Keyed/Attuned” for Black Temple. Like Blizzard said, its “Serious Business” lol…

Boss Illidan can be killed.. constantly with a robust and organized group, and with good equipment. AV on the other hand… is… no comment…

Since its the hardest Raid ever created in WoW, Blizzard had a trailer for it. Its very amazing.

I wish Tavaznia have a Trailer as cool as that too >.> but no.. just an announcements in patch notes :/ doesn’t even sound like SE cares…

So Raids? What?

Raids entrance are scattered, and can be anywhere. But waiting for a Raid isn’t boring :) Since you can kill Alliance (or your opposing faction). Typical raid entrance, oh this is on a PvP server lol. Get used to it :) You come out, get a beat!

Crowd Control

In Dynamis, the main Dynmais leader calls out assist, and everyone aims at that target. Red Mages and Black Mages automatically Sleepgas anything that is incoming, or Bard’s Lullaby, and Resleep when awake. Thus keeping things under controlled in FFXI Dynamis (Raids) isn’t really an issue.

In WoW, we don’t get this luxury of “AoE Sleeps”! Sleeps or mob disabling spell are all scattered into different jobs. Here’s a rough idea of how mob disabling works in WoW

Mage (Black Mage in FFXI), gets a Polymorth, a “Sleep” spell that will put a mob to “Sheep”, but only one target can be sheep at one time!

Rogue (Thief in FFXI), gets a Sap, where the targeted monster gets a Stun effect for… quite a long time.

Hunter (Ranger in FFXI), gets a “Trap”! When a monster “Steps” on the Trap, the monster is frozen for 20 seconds. The trap recast is by default, 30 seconds.

Before each pull, the “Raid leader”, allocates symbols on top of each monster, and when then Tank goes in and Provoke the “Skeleton”, my job is to “Lure” the monster that’s marked as “Diamond” into the trap, as described below.

Its not difficult, but it adds a bit fun and gives everyone a responsibility, rather than just going in and sing Ballad and rest of the time auto-follow on a friend *grin*.

Since not all class gets the ability to “Disable” mobs, so classes which can basically disable a mob from acting are also referred as “CC”, generally means you have the ability to do “Crowd Control”.

Raids Setting

In FFXI, Dynamis are in one setting, the dreamworld. In WoW, it can be in any setting. Karazhan is a “Ghost House”, whereas the “Battle of Mt. Hyjal” is experiencing a major event in WoW, where you take part in being one of the soldier and defend!

Here’s the “Ballroom” of Karazhan – the Ghost House! ALSO, The Dining Room!

How big are the Raids?

Very very big. An absolute clear of Karazhan (Dynamis Jeuno) takes around 9pm – 4am T__T, but rest assured if you don’t have the time! Raids can be saved, basically you just have to leave and next time you come in, everything would be like that (respective bosses already down etc), except of course, you want it to repop (reset the Instance).

Bosses hard? Fun?

Definitely all of the above. Lets go over some of the bosses… I personally like…

Wizard of Oz!! Yes you fight Tinhead lol… and also Strawman!

This boss is easy, slash and burn with assigned orders, asap!

Romeo and Juilet!

Same place, there’s Romeo and Juilet! (Renamed as Romulo and Julianne)

This boss is similar to Ying and Yang in Dynamis-Xar. Both must die within 10 seconds. I find this a bit hard since Juilet can heal, and god she heals a lot, so melees gotta keep her stunned, or stun whens she heals! Else you’d be off for the 10 sec timer!

Shade of Aran

Pretty fun boss, got to be the best boss so far in WoW. I think winning this boss requires each raid member to be fully aware of their environment. Can’t just sit there and do your usual thing.

This room has a 45 yard radius! Very small! So what’s so fun about him?

AoE Blizzard, that moves around the battlefield 24/7 until he’s dead! What does that mean? The “safe spot” keeps moving, so you got to KEEP MOVING around the room!

See that Blizzard circled below? That patch of AoE keeps moving at the outer perimeter.

Well you might say, just clustered around him? He’s got AoE silence, he cast it pretty frequently so… mages or people with MP can’t really stay near him =P

Ok.. then just keep moving and shoot, still isn’t fun! Well add a Flame Wreath!

Randomly targets 3 member of the raid group and surrounds them with Fire, if they move, “EVERYONE” in the room takes 4k fire damage in the room (around 550HP in FFXI, pretty critical, can kill low HP people).

Well sounds easy for the melee, just melee and slash? He also does an AoE, takes 5 seconds to charge and AoE anyone around his perimeter (25 yards, and the room is only 45 yards) for 9000+ damage (around 1100 HP in FFXI), means you’re dead if you don’t move out in 5 seconds, out of his radius!

So this fight isn’t about how to take it down, but how an individual control their character to avoid damage. Very fun boss, and puts your skill to the test, your skill of awareness.

Sounds easy still, just everyone DoT and run? He goes into Rage after 12 minutes =P

So yea, this is a typical Raid boss, can’t just sing ballad and heal at your safest spot, gotta learn how to maneuver around the battlefield.

So ok, can’t you just go Attune people and just farm Black Temple?

Nope! I thought about that too… the reason is this.

Healers cannot rest after they engage (or heal a person who is engaged)

This means, you have a set amount of healing power before your healers are exhausted, a… certain time limit to take down a specific boss before you all run out of MP and resources to continue. You’ll pretty much wipe because “you are all exhausted”. Consumables have cooldowns too (Potion have 2min cooldown), so you can’t use that as a way to extend the fight.

There are bosses in each Raids, to “test how equip you are”. If you are raiding with Walmart gear, you won’t be able to

1. Squeeze the damage required to kill the boss within a certain timeframe
2. Heal them quick enough because your healing gear doesn’t have any potency added (Walmart gear man, so probably not even light staff!)
3. Your tank is taking amazingly high damage, which makes healing you not efficient at all.

Given the three limitations, therefore if you can’t pass a certain boss in each Raid, you cannot kill the final boss for that specific Raid, thus cannot get the required item to get attuned for higher Raids.

This is one of the boss in Karazhan that does the “Gear Check” before you can proceed. No you can’t sneak around him! Even the strategy written on WoW wiki doesn’t say much, pretty much “Gear Check” lol…

So this makes MP pool AND proper healing gear important! MP Pool isn’t really that important in FFXI, since you can rest in mid battle lol..

A Raid Leader

A leader in FFXI is simply a person that can deforms and choose what to ally. That’s about it. In WoW, a Raid leader has a lot of responsibilities.

Raid leaders have a few more functions than raid members! Their raid panel allows them to

1. Move people in party simply by dragging and dropping!

2. Can place markers (Skeleton, Square, Triangle, Circle etc), on top of mobs or players.

3. Controls all the loot. (Can at least, call the Master Looter)

4. Perform “Ready Check”, and prompt everyone in the Raid a dialog box asking “Are you Ready??” Of course, if you aren’t ready, your name will be “greyed out” under the raid panel. Easily check who’s AFK!

Loot System in WoW.

So why would you want to fight higher and harder Raids?

Raids drop PvE equipment, discussed in my previous post. Raid equipment are classified into Tiers. You can treat it like AF in FFXI. Its not acquired through questing, but simply a “set of armor piece” dedicated to your job (or class).

Pre-Expansion Loot

Molten Core drops Tier 1 (AF1, tuned for Lv60)
Onyxia drops Tier 2 (AF2, tuned for Lv60) [Onyxia is only one of the dungeon that drops Tier 2]
Naxxramas drops Tier 3 (AF3, tuned for Lv60).

They aren’t AF+1, each AF tier is significantly better in all aspect of the previous equipment.

Burning Crusade (the expansion), added 3 more Tiers to the equipment.

Karazhan drops Tier4 (AF 4, tuned for Lv70) [Karazhan is only one of the dungeon that drops a piece of your Tier 4]
The Eye or Serpentshrine Cavern drops Tier 5
Black Temple or MT of Mt. Hyjal drops Tier 6.

So the Item just Drops?

Nope, they drop “Tokens”, which can be exchanged for “AF’s” from NPC in town! A token could be

Token of Tier6
Can be exchanged for a body piece.
Class: Warrior, Hunter, Shaman

What this means is, it rarely goes to a waste. FFXI drops the item, and if there’s no DRG, its going to autosort. Whereas Tokens, sure you might not have Hunters, but not even Warrior or Shaman? This make sure the effort doesn’t goto a waste, or minimize the chance of it going to a waste.

Mai’s Insights?

It definitely scales with skills and gear. In FFXI, having gil plays a major role in achieving stuff say… getting a relic. But in WoW, skills and organization is required to get the best weapons and armors, and of course, time investment! Its really hard to draw conclusion until I play and experience more Raids in WoW, but so far I like raids, simply because

Dungeons look like Dungeons…

Going up a dungeon doesn’t require a use of a TELEPORT! You walk up the ramp, and can look down, so it feels like you are really really fighing your way up. A good example of the opposite is Salvage. WTF? Is it going up or down lol? Its actually a tower? :D

I personally like to see how far I’ve adventure through. Afterall, we are “Adventuring” through a dungeon, I’d really like to see that I’ve fought my way up! Something like this… it really gives a feeling of satisfaction…

The above image is linked, can see a 1920 resolution pic for once!

And yea… for those that’s interested in reading more WoW End-game, The WoW-equivalent of BG is Nihilum! (The first to beat Illidan or.. AV in FFXI Language)