Should I lead my own Raids?

[TarkaTarquol.4856]

So, I generally don't tag up when I raid. I always wait to see what other people tag and start up with. Definitely limits my options when I need a specific boss to kill, which in this current case is Soulless Horror. I forgot to grab the Coalescence item the past times I've killed her, and I need to kill her again to get it. Thing is, I don't want to throw up my tag and just take the easy DPS slot. I don't like asking others to perform roles I myself am not able to, which for SH is tanking and pushing. I don't have near any experience with these roles.

Should I still just attempt to make my own group even through my above misgivings about doing so?

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

Yes. It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it.

[nosleepdemon.1368]

Just fake it till you make it my friend. That's how I used to lead PUG raids way back during WoW vanilla. As poster above said someone's gotta do it.

[Vinceman.4572]

Leading a raid squad has nothing to do with taking over certain roles for bosses. Although I know some people that are moaning if they see commanders choosing one of the easier roles from the start it's your thing. Nobody can force you into stuff you don't like and it doesn't help the group playing a role for the first time if you want to have the kill. It's far more important that there is a competent commander who knows about arranging an efficient squad and doing everything for the success of the group be it kicking trolls, toxic ppl, very incompetent/lying players or making the right calls and call outs as well as motivating.

[Talindra.4958]

You dont need to be doing specific role to lead a group. Its not that bad as you think, its easier to get a team yourself than to wait for one to pop.Try put up a lfg and see how you go. If the team kill the boss its good if not its ok, make another team. Ignore those with bad attitude.

[Samnang.1879]

if u have thick skin yesi stopped commanding since w5 cuz it's annoying... ppl always RQ after 1 wipe... so i'm left feeling terrible... like is it my fault... u know like when ur boyfriend or gf leave u without saying anything n u feel like its ur faultthen there r those who r like super snarky "why dont u do this" "why dont u do that" "why u wearing this weapon, why u using this skill" and im just like bish, calm down its just a game jesus... we're not going to WW2 with nazis

so i always end up arguing with ppl and it just makes raid not fun for me. so i prefer to just join a group nowadays rather than lead cuz it's a BIG HEADACHE if u dont have thick skin.

i dont mind leading w1-4 cuz it's easy to carry ppl. but like w5-7... not possible to carry if ppl dont practice or lie about their exp

[thrag.9740]

Just tag up. Don't be afraid to be honest and straight forward about your knowledge. Ask questions if you need to. Remember, all 10 players in that squad want to succeed. So all 10 of them have a responsibility to be knowledgeable , not just the tag. If it seems like something is wrong, ask the group for guidance. Work as a team. Its the 10 of you versus the boss, not each other.

Also, since your worried about tanking and pushing sh I will give you my personal recommendations for super easy fool proof pugging sh:

For pushing: I recommend your druid have a sigil of frenzy on their longbow. It reduces the cool down of all visible skills by 2 seconds on enemy death. The undeads die and reduce the cool down of the longbow push and the glyph of tides. This way, even if their alacrity gets stripped by a scythe, their skills will be ready to go for the next undead.

Also, your allowed to just take 3 healers. 2 Druids with longbow for pushings + 1 heal tempest makes the fight stupid easy. Its really easy for undead pushing to get screwed up by someone using cc and accidentally interrupting the druid pushes. 2 druids pushing with longbow + glpy of tides virtually eliminates this ever being a possible problem. Whenever my static does this, the undeads will often die so far off the platform, the red aoe won't even be touching the platform.

For tanking: at the start of the fight, the first tank goes to the right side of the platform, your mirages load up condis, then your scourge hits epi. After about 20 seconds, the first tank moves the boss to the left side of the platform, and the scourge hits epi again. Usually the boss does a long animation around the 30 second mark, and the second tank should swap agro after this long animation. This initial epi is to clear our the wurms at the beginning. Be aware, there is a large spike of damage right at the beginning of the fight due to these wurms. After that, just move as little as possible as necessary to avoid the walls. And no matter what never stop the boss in the center of the arena. Additionally, its better to not even move the boss through the center of the arena, as the undeads could spawn and be cleaved down quickly.

I recommend the tanks just being tanky, like in full minstrels. Have the healing mantra and condi clense from the mantra + condi clense on shatter. The dps time limit on this boss is so forgiving it would shock you. Your not looking for a quick kill, your just looking for a reliable kill this one time. So safe strats should serve you well.

[TarkaTarquol.4856]

"Fake it til you make it." I was told these words before but I never thought I could apply it here as well. Silly me. Thanks all for your words and encouragements. As fate would have it, I managed to find a W5 team that got SH down very shortly after posting this - I was off-heal. Had a couple hiccups, but still got it decently quickly. Now I realize all that remains for me to do in order to get Coalescence is to slay the final boss I have yet to slay across all seven wings: Wing 6 Qadim. I've literally only had one time I was at this boss, and I was the Circle Runner. It... did not go well. But now I believe that as long as I make a group, and possibly even just list it as Practice a couple times, I can work on Qadim, work on Circle running if I want to, and just see how far I get. When I get more comfortable on Qadim, I can start to lead more experienced groups or attempt to be frank with existing groups and see if they'll let me in. I've got a Qadim instance until Monday; let's see if I can't get him down. :P

[Jojo.6140]

Now im curious: Why would people expect from the commander to play a more demanding role like tank or push? As commander you already have the additional work with setting up the group, seeing that everyone is exp, setting up markers, doing ready-checks and generally being the one who needs to make decisions. Why would this person then be additionally asked to play a demanding role?

[TexZero.7910]

@Jojo.6140 said:Now im curious: Why would people expect from the commander to play a more demanding role like tank or push? As commander you already have the additional work with setting up the group, seeing that everyone is exp, setting up markers, doing ready-checks and generally being the one who needs to make decisions. Why would this person then be additionally asked to play a demanding role?

Because most groups don't form without a tank/healer/specific role required for the boss.

[Henry.5713]

Commanders are usually the most or at least one of the most experienced players present in the squad. Which makes them a great candidate to take the job of the tank or "healer" as those roles tend to take care of a lot of mechanics and obviously moving the bosses when required. It's certainly much safer and more practical to take over those positions if you are already commanding and thus already constantly telling the tank what to do if they are new. Unless of course you are with a good static or just experienced pugs who do not require any "commanding" whatsoever. In which case it hardly matters who has the tag over their head.

That said, it still doesn't mean you can't jump on a DPS or off-healer and do just fine as the commander in pugs. It might be less pratical or optimal but hardly impossible. There are quite a few people who tend to form squads for Dhuum for this very reason - not being able to do either mechanics or take the tank spot. Whether this is a good or bad things is up to debate but if it gets things done for you, why not? Your squad, your rules.

[gateless gate.8406]

Leading raids is actually a great way to get into raiding, because no one can kick you, and you don't need to present KP/LI to anyone. You can also kick toxic players without the need for a "vote" on the issue.

It's how I completed the legendary armor collections. Bought my commander tag, watched + read all the raid guides, then just started a squad for what I wanted. I made it my goal to complete one new raid wing per week. It's somewhat nerve wracking because, even if you have a good idea of the boss fight, you may not know which "commands" need to be given out (ie, assigning people to do specific mechanics). However, other people in the group will usually start asking who is doing X and Y if specific mechanics need to be assigned.

Note: I started leading raids as an easy DPS spec (condi SB) so I could contribute good damage while still not knowing the fights perfectly. Nowadays I usually lead as heal Tempest so I can idiot-proof the squad, to a certain extent.