Building YOUR perfect raid team

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You don’t “find” a team, you build one. 

Great teams don't happen, You have to build them and it takes a whole lot of work. Hopefully this article helps you a bit in your work. You don’t have to be the smartest or the most talented X to be successful.. you just have to out-work all your competition :)

I’m over-articulating the “you build” point for a reason. I think, like anyone who’s dreamed of being a professional athlete/popstart/etc, most people imagine these folks are “discovered” when in fact it’s mostly drive, relationship building, and pure hard work that gets these folks to the top



Building your team is step #2 in this process. Step 1 is actually defining what you want in your team. Here’s what I wanted when I built my latest raid team.

Frontallobe’s ideal raid reqs.
1. Friendly
2. Adults (22yo min)
3. Mature but silly
4. Like to raid for the puzzle not the loot (ie: enjoy wipe nights)
5. Hardcore mentality with a casual schedule
6. Similar skill and research effort
7. The desire to try new non-video-cookie-cutter strats
8. Has preferably raided seriously in the past

I think a definition of successful is in order before I continue as I’ll be using it a lot as a measuring stick pushing forward. Success :: Progressing through content while enjoying the journey.

Notice, I have nothing in my list about gear requirements, achievements, or classes. If you want a successful team you need to get the right people on the bus FIRST. You can decide where everyone sits and their roles later. I’d much rather have people that meet my above metrics than say an immature, loot whoring, raging 7/7 HM bear tank. You don’t want a win fast / lose fast team. You want a team that’s in it for the long run. The only way to fill a team like that is finding 10 (or 25) people with a few things in common:

Your team needs a few things in common to be successful in the long run.

1. Attendance
2. Attitude
3. Skill
4. Goals
5. Class/Spec

Keep in mind that world 1st type guilds need to have a different priority list. This guide is for the rest of us. 

Here’s what to look for in each by priority.

Attendance: Without getting the same team together each night you spend an unnecessary amount of time teaching new people. No matter how good someone is, attendance is pretty clutch. If they can’t make 90% of the nights then you need to move on and recruit someone else or possibly change your raid nights. I can’t express how much faster you down content with the same people logging in each night. You start knowing who’s gonna do what when and that’s hard to quantify its importance but it’s huge. This being said if your goals are a bit more relaxed than mine then a rotating team can be successful as well. Drama-filled most times but successful. 

Attitude: Someone who wants to learn, doesn’t mind feedback, listens on vent, rarely goes afk, does his/her own research, comes prepared by watching videos, embraces wipe nights, enjoys challenges, doesn’t get personal with other’s faults. Someone that enjoys the journey, not just the loot. Look for people that share the same frustration levels and seriousness levels. I personally enjoy being silly on farm bosses and getting a-game serious on progression bosses. I expect the same from my team.

Skill: This is so clutch. If you get a guy that’s leagues better than everyone he’s going to get frustrated. The inverse is true as well. You can only keep 9 people happy about carrying your girlfriend’s kid brother for so long. It’s not about finding the most skilled players. It’s about finding like-skilled players.

Goals: Another pretty obvious metric that is often overlooked until you gear someone who leaves to “upgrade” to a more progression minded raid team. You have to make sure your entire team is on board with your goals. Is your goal to clear regular mode raids about the time the new tier is coming out? Is it that all HMs will be down by this time? Is it something in the middle? Is it even more casual? You have to all be on the same page or someone’s going to feel too pressure or under-challenged. I like to talk to my team when a new tier comes out. “Ok guys, how we feeling? We burnt out or are we gonna crush and try to 7/7 HM this bitch?” I get their feelings and come up with a center line approach and voice the team’s goals in a concise way. “Ok in FL, our goal is to clear reg mode quickly as possible and then work on HMs until next tier almost assuming we will not clear it all in time. All on board?”

Class/Spec: I begrudgingly listed this on my metrics list out of matter of pragmatism. In short, you could have the greatest tank buddy in the world apping to your team but if you already have two tanks and no one wants to swap roles then you really can’t take him/her. At some point you basically need 2 tanks, 3 healers, and 5 dps. That being said, I will get good people to swap specs, alts, etc before I ever fill their position because they aren’t X class/spec. Get people who want to be on the team regardless of role and this becomes much less of an issue.

A note on composition: A raids comp is what classes you “need” to bring to be successful. This used to be a much bigger concern in previous patches but now with many overlapping buffs, skills, and evening out of class roles you can be much more lax (see: homogenizing of classes). Example: We successfully ran 3 mages in the early parts of cataclysm because the above three metrics were there (attendance, personality, and skill) but this does mean it’s going to take longer for people to gear up. You have 60% of your DPS team and 33% of your heal team rolling on the same cloth stuff while you shard all the leather and dps plate. It’s just going to take a bit longer but if you have the right people on the bus you’re enjoying the journey so who cares? Unless you’re in a top X guild then you’re not racing anyone but your own goals. So take a breath and do what’s fun. A diversified comp is nice, but not necessary anymore. See what buffs your proposed team brings with this calculator: http://raidcomp.mmo-champion.com/

A note on gear: Gear is by far last on my mind. You can gear a great person and player up but it’s quite difficult to teach someone social skills, maturity, and attendance. With all the craftable epics, rep rewards, and easy heroics gear is a non-issue. The above metrics are much more difficult to attain. Anyone can get carried and have amazing gear with little to no knowledge of the raids, their class, or basic social skills. Look at their gear last. When you love the above 4 simply tell them they need to get cracking on gear and have xxx iLVL minimum by raid time. Easily attained by heroics, troll heroics, Baradin Hold, valor points,  and boe epic drops on AH.