Leading the Raid

Over the last few weeks I have kind of been critical of my leading style. I have been thinking about what makes a good raid leader, and what kind of raids I enjoy leading, and what types of lead roles I prefer to have.

The Makings of a Good RL:

• Communication!
• It is absolutely essential for a RL to call things out, from everyone get near the snow mound, now get on the snow mound to hey DruidKittiez please battle rez that dead healer and then give them an innvervate.
• Tell your healers what the tanks are doing, in a long phase fight they may forget. Now Bob is going to dps and Joe is going to be on Acidmaw and Frani on Dreadscale. Tank switches are essential info for healers and it doesn't hurt to get reminders from the RL.
• Control the fight when something goes wrong. Frani is down! Joe taunt. Seems obvious but some tanks aren't always ready for this situation or they are off tanking something else and don't realize, and the RL's encouragement urges them to take quick action.
• Reminders when you see something going wrong, like healers spread out so you don't all get frozen, or spit on by acid. Dps move out of the freaking fire, but in a nice way ya know?
• Observation!
• In order to have effective communication you MUST observe what is going on in the raid. You can't call things out if you don't know when your healers are dead or alive, and who has aggro, and when that dps is standing in the fire.
• Control!
• You must be in control, and people have to listen to you. Maybe this isn't something you can obtain and usually RLs have this naturally if they are good.
• Don't let someone who is a strong leader take control from you, be confident in your choices and have them whisper you ideas, not call it out over vent. This will only confuse the raid.
• Sacrifice! 
• sacrifice? huh? Well you have to realize that in order to be a good RL, you have to sacrifice your own job in the raid to ensure that everyone else is doing theirs. Your dps should be lower because of this, and if you are healing, hopefully you are good at balancing both, and you probably shouldn't be the MT healer. 
• I don't feel as though tanks should RL, but hey if you are good at doing both. I have seen over and over again, tanks having the inability to see things going on around them because of a huge boss hovering over them.

Different Kinds of Raid Leading:

• 25 Mans-
• In these types of raids, it is a good idea to set up different types of leads so their are people focusing on their own group and ensuring this group is doing their job. The RL might also be the heal lead or dps lead, but not both.
• Trust your fellow leaders! Choose people you work with together well and assign them to help you if they are strong leaders. 
• When picking a leader choose someone who knows different classes so they can make appropriate assignments. Nothing like a heal leader who thinks it is a good idea to put the druid on MT healing and the pally on raid healing, I mean maybe it is possible but use your resources wisely.
• Choose a master looter, this makes your job much easier, and loot should be the furthest thing from your mind because you should be organizing the next fight, going over the strat and making assignments during loot or right after loot.
• I personally sometimes get overwhelmed when leading 25 mans, so I much prefer a 10 man raid.
• 10 Mans-
• This is my favorite raid to lead, only 10 people so much less micromanagers needed.
• You can do all of the assignments, plus manage master looting with no problems. If you want to have someone doing healing assigns you can, but should not have a problem doing it all yourself.
• You have much more control, and you can see who is and who is not doing their job, and you have time to whisper them and talk to them on a personal level without calling them out in front of everyone.
• For me it is much easier to be a strong raid leader in a 10 man, I feel much more comfortable being a good communicator in these raids, and I think communication is really vital to a raid's success.
• PuGs-
• Decide if you are willing to lead PuGs. I have decided a long time ago that I won't RL PuGs anymore.
• No one knows you in a PuG, they don't usually care what you say, they are usually slow, and they get angry really easily.
• If you screw up, people blame you even when no one listened to you in the first place.
• Many times you can get lucky in a PuG and have no issues. I use to start up 25 man VoAs, and Naxx PuGs, but I found that it is too stressful to organize a PuG, at least for me.
• Many times trying to find more people is the most frustrating part, and a lot of times no one is willing to help you. You have to spam trade, and LFM, and many times impatient people leave while waiting.

Premiere Leading Roles(in 25 mans):

• Heal Lead-
• This is probably my favorite assignment, preferably while not being RL. I like to organize the healers, and I try to understand different healing classes, and usually the healers are the most cohesive group realizing they have to work together to get things done.
• DPS Lead-
• This is a good assignment for me. It is easy to explain the dps's job, and to watch them to know who is standing in fires, etc. 
• Tank Lead-
• I don't tank a whole lot in raids, when I do it is typically a ten man, so there is no tank lead in those raids. But the tanks have to work well together and communicate with each other so this role is vital and someone needs to take charge and be a voice for the tanks. Good tanks are good communicators anyway.
• Raid Assistant-
• When I am a raid assistant, I feel like I should be looking for back ups, in case someone leaves the raid. Also maybe whispering the RL if someone isn't doing their job. Generally backing up the RL if he needs it.
• Master Looter-
• Booooo!! Much drama occurs around this position, and plus it is just not fun IMO, but there are few people out their who don't mind at all to take this job, so thank you master looters!
• The BIg One! (Raid Leader)- 
• This job comes with responsibility, and when you are a member of the raid you don't realize the pressure a RL faces. I will do this job, and I think I can do a decent job, but sometimes I prefer to sit back and be focused on a smaller group. So take this job with caution!

Raid Leading can be really rewarding, and I really enjoy being a part of the leadership in some way. It seems as though certain people are just made to lead, and WoW is no different. I kind of think the people who lead raids in WoW, lead in their real lives and maybe I am wrong, but good leaders just have a quality about them that people like to follow and trust.

So for me, I will enjoy my time raid leading, and trying to improve so that raids I am a part of can succeed.