Raid

Raid Dungeonse

Upper Blackrock Spire (closed) 20 60 Loot Zul'Gurub (closed) 20 60 Loot Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj 40 60 Loot Onyxia's Lair (closed) 40 60 Loot Molten Core 40 60 Loot Blackwing Lair 40 60 Loot Temple of Ahn'Qiraj 40 60 Loot Naxxramas (closed) 40 60 Loot Karazhan 10 70 Loot Zul'Aman (closed) 10 70 Loot Gruul's Lair 25 70 Loot Magtheridon's Lair 25 70 Loot Serpentshrine Cavern 25 70 Loot The Eye 25 70 Loot Battle for Mount Hyjal 25 70 Loot Black Temple 25 70 Loot Sunwell Plateau 25 70 Loot Naxxramas 10/25 80 Loot The Eye of Eternity 10/25 80 Loot Vault of Archavon 10/25 80 Loot The Obsidian Sanctum 10/25 80 Loot Ulduar 10/25 80 Loot Trial of the Crusader 10/25 80 Loot Onyxia's Lair 10/25 80 Loot Icecrown Citadel 10/25 80 Loot The Ruby Sanctum 10/25 80 Loot Baradin Hold 10/25 85 Loot Bastion of Twilight 10/25 85 Loot Throne of the Four Winds 10/25 85 Loot Blackwing Descent 10/25 85 Loot Firelands 10/25 85 Loot Dragon Soul 10/25 85 Loot Mogu'shan Vaults 10/25 90 Loot Heart of Fear 10/25 90 Loot Terrace of Endless Spring 10/25 90 Loot Throne of Thunder (5.2) 10/25 90 Loot Siege of Orgrimmar (5.4) 10/25 90 Loot Highmaul Flex 10-30 Mythic 20 LFR 25 100 Loot Blackrock Foundry Flex 10-30 Mythic 20 LFR 25 100 Loot Hellfire Citadel (6.2) Flex 10-30 Mythic 20 LFR 25 100 Loot Emerald Nightmare Flex 10-30 Mythic 20 LFR 25 110 Loot Trial of Valor (7.1) Flex 10-30 Mythic 20 LFR 25 110 Loot Nighthold (7.1.5) Flex 10-30 Mythic 20 LFR 25 110 Loot Tomb of Sargeras (NYR; 7.2.5) Flex 10-30 Mythic 20 LFR 25 110 Loot

Leading a raid can be like herding cats, but by the graces, they're your cats. - Stylean Silversteel, TCG

Raid groups are a way to have parties of more than 5 and up to 30 (usually 10 or 25 on later raids; 40 for some old raids) people, divided into up to 8 groups of up to 5 players. The terms "raid" and "raiding" primarily and traditionally refer to PVE raid-specific instances and zones. As party leader, a player can convert their group into a raid group by accessing the "Social" Panel, selecting "Raid", and choosing "Convert Group to Raid." From then on, any new players invited to the group will join the raid group (up to a maximum of 30; 40 for some old raids). This requires at least 2 people (i.e. a party). A person alone cannot form a raid group.

While in a raid group, players do not receive credit for completing quest objectives unless the quest calls for a raid. Players also receive an experience reduction for any mob killed while in a raid group. These are to prevent players from creating very large groups in order to complete normal quests or other game content intended for parties of 5 or fewer. This experience reduction is simply that the usual "group XP bonus" is not applied while in a raid group.

Generally, the minimum level to enter a raid is level 50 (non-expansion) with the minimum recommended level being 60.

Many instances requiring a raid are also subject to a raid timer.

In Mists of Pandaria

This section concerns content exclusive to Mists of Pandaria.

Note: This is a generic section stub. You can help expand it by clicking  Edit to the right of the section title.

In Patch 5.4, a new Flexible Raid tier of difficulty introduced roughly between Raid Finder and Normal mode difficulty. It will scale down the bosses and drops from 10 to 25 1/2 players.

In Cataclysm

This section concerns content exclusive to Cataclysm.

As of Patch 4.3.2, players can use Real ID to form cross-realm raids, but not with normal or heroic Dragon Soul.

In Wrath of the Lich King

This section concerns content exclusive to Wrath of the Lich King.

In World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, all 25-player raids are also available to complete with 10 players. This is so that more players will get to see end game content. Even the Lich King encounter is available as a 10 player raid.

Raiding as end-game content

Raids are designed as activities for people whose characters have reached the maximum level. As the game does not permit further increase of skills, or introduce new abilities, the only avenues remaining to enhance a character lay in "better gear".

Almost all raid events and bosses require that the raid members have particular levels of gear and skill, expressed as dps, damage mitigation, and/or healing ability. In addition, a majority of such bosses also require the group use particular, sometimes unique tactics. While occasionally those tactics mirror those used by smaller groups, they often require things that smaller groups simply don't have the diversity to do.

Given these unique requirements, most raid boss encounters require some amount of practice to defeat. Sometimes the peculiarities of a boss encounter are such that being vastly overgeared/overlevel will not permit the raid to ignore the designed tactics.

Raiding guilds are guilds that devote some or all of their collective time to playing in raid instances, defeating (or practicing to defeat) raid encounters. They have the advantage of being able to get to know the abilities (or lack thereof) of their various members, and adjust their tactics accordingly. They also have a shared investment in the success of not just that raid, but future raids as well, a feature that "pick up raids" lack.

Raiding guilds often use additional measures to enhance their chances of success, notably Voice_over_Internet_Protocol software, and particular addons that provide timing, threat, and other services not available in the base WoW client.

Raiding guilds and time commitment

There is some academic discussion about the concept of raids as they currently are designed in major graphical MMOs, primarily centered on how much of a player's time they consume. A typical World of Warcraft raid can take 3-4 hours once the group is able to complete it, and can take much more time over many sessions to get to that point. Basically, that it can take up as much of one's time as permitted. Generally, though, practical considerations (work/school schedules, fatigue, etc) will place limits on how much time a group spends raiding.

There are, of course, extreme examples, such as a Final Fantasy XI raid that lasted 18 hours before they decided to quit.. World of Warcraft mitigates such long boss fights by adding enrage timers to bosses to ensure that a single fight does not last too long.

Given the amount of time involved to be successful, there are some game developers and academics that feel that raiding can be a focus for obsession, impacting a person's ability to care about real life goals and accomplishments. Players should be aware of these factors when deciding if they want to get into raiding or to what extent they want to get into raiding.

Starting a raid

The leader of a party can convert the group to a raid by clicking the "Convert to Raid" button in the Group window. At this point it becomes a "group of parties" with up to 8 parties, each with 5 characters. The leader of the raid can drag characters between groups to move them to different parties; typically, this is done to achieve some strategic goal such as distributing shamans and paladins to share totems and auras or warriors with rogues for Battle Shout (note that this is no longer needed in current patch). The leader can promote other characters, which gives them the abilities to invite and kick from the raid and also use the broadcast raid warnings (using the "/rw" command).

See Raiding for newbies for further details.

Raid mods

Main article: Raid AddOns

There have been many mods produced specifically for raiding.

Raid instances

Azeroth

Broken Isles

10 to 30-player Flex (Normal/Heroic), LFR 25-player, Mythic 20-player

Level 110

• Emerald Nightmare
• Trial of Valor (added in Patch 7.1)
• The Nighthold (previously called Suramar Palace)

Eastern Kingdoms

10-player

Level 60

• Lower Blackrock Spire
• Upper Blackrock Spire
  • Converted into a 5-player dungeon in Patch 4.0.3a

Level 70

• Karazhan
• Zul'Aman (original added in Patch 2.3)
  • Returned as a level 85 5-Player Heroic in Patch 4.1

20-player

Level 60

• Zul'Gurub (original added in Patch 1.7)
  • Returned as level 85 5-Player Heroic in Patch 4.1

25-player

Level 70

• Sunwell Plateau (original added in Patch 2.4)

40-player

Level 60

• Molten Core
• Blackwing Lair (added in Patch 1.6)
• Naxxramas (original added in Patch 1.11)

10 and 25-player

Level 85

• Baradin Hold (faction needs to control Tol Barad)
• Blackwing Descent (in Blackrock Mountain)
• The Bastion of Twilight (in Grim Batol)

Kalimdor

20-player

Level 60

• Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj (added in Patch 1.9)

25-player

Level 70

• Caverns of Time: Battle for Mount Hyjal

40-player

Level 60

• Onyxia's Lair (original)
• Temple of Ahn'Qiraj (added in Patch 1.9)

10 and 25-player

Level 80

• Onyxia's Lair (added in Patch 3.2.2)

10 and 25-player

Level 85

• Dragon Soul (added in Patch 4.3)
  • Starts in Caverns of Time

10 and 25-player

Level 90

• Siege of Orgrimmar (added in Patch 5.4)

Kul Tiras

Note: This is a generic section stub. You can help expand it by clicking  Edit to the right of the section title.

Pandaria

10 and 25-player

Level 90

• Mogu'shan Vaults
• Heart of Fear
• Terrace of Endless Spring
• Throne of Thunder (added in Patch 5.2)
• Siege of Orgrimmar

Northrend

10 and 25-player

Level 80

• Naxxramas
• Vault of Archavon (faction needs to control Wintergrasp Keep)
  • Archavon the Stone Watcher
  • Emalon the Storm Watcher (added in Patch 3.1)
  • Koralon the Flame Watcher (added in Patch 3.2)
  • Toravon the Ice Watcher (added in Patch 3.3.2)
• Chamber of Aspects
  • Obsidian Sanctum
  • Ruby Sanctum (added in Patch 3.3.5)
• The Eye of Eternity
• Ulduar (added in Patch 3.1)
• Trial of the Crusader (added in Patch 3.2)
• Trial of the Grand Crusader (added in Patch 3.2)
• Icecrown Citadel (added in Patch 3.3)

Draenor

10 to 30-player Flex (Normal/Heroic), LFR 25-player, Mythic 20-player

Level 100

• Highmaul
• Blackrock Foundry
• Hellfire Citadel (added in Patch 6.2)

Elemental Plane

10 and 25-player

Level 85

• Firelands
• Throne of the Four Winds

Outland

25-player

Level 70

• Gruul's Lair
• Magtheridon's Lair
• Serpentshrine Cavern
• The Eye
• Black Temple (added in Patch 2.1)

Zandalar

Note: This is a generic section stub. You can help expand it by clicking  Edit to the right of the section title.

Raid outdoor

This section concerns content that is out-of-date. Reason: Needs and info.

Azeroth

Outdoor

Level 60

• Dragons of Nightmare (1.8.0)
  • Emeriss
  • Lethon
  • Taerar
  • Ysondre
• Highlord Kruul (Dark Portal opening event, pre-

Kalimdor

Outdoor

• Azuregos (1.3.0; became quest-giver in Azshara in Patch 4.0.1)
• Omen

Eastern Kingdoms

Outdoor

Level 60

• Teremus the Devourer
• Lord Kazzak (1.3.0)

Outland

Outdoor

Level 70

• Doom Lord Kazzak
• Doomwalker

See also

• Flexible Raid
• Instance
• Instances by level
• People in your Raid (silly)
• Raid AddOns
• Raid Finder
• Raid world markers
• Raiding for newbies
• Raiding guild

External links

Official

WoW Official Game Site (US) Dungeons & Raids

WoW Official Game Site (EU) Dungeons & Raids

Guides

• ...

News

Kotaku.com One Of The Best World Of Warcraft Guilds Calls It Quits Nathan Grayson Friday 4:20pm

       Paragon.fi End of the road by Seita on Thu, 25/02/2016 - 11:16

WoW Insider Siege of Orgrimmar updating to Warlords-mode raiding in 6.0 by Anne Stickney Feb 4th 2014 1:00PM

MMO-Champion Armory Stats - Player Raid Completion, Blue Tweets, Poll - World PvE Content, Fan Art by chaud 2013-12-01 09:23 PM

WoW Official Game Site (US) Warlords of Draenor: Dungeons and Raids by Bashiok, Nov 9, 2013 2:00 PM PST

WoW Official Game Site (EU) Warlords of Draenor: Dungeons and Raids by Bashiok, 09 Nov 2013 22:00 GMT

MMO-Champion Armory Stats - Player Raid Completion Rates, Blue Tweets, GW2 on Sale, Fan Art Update by chaud 2013-10-20 10:41 PM

WoW Insider How long is too long for a raid? by Matthew Rossi Aug 23rd 2013 2:00PM

WoW Official Game Site (US) A Raid for All Seasons: Flexible Raid Preview by Nethaera, Jun 6, 2013 6:00 PM PDT

WoW Official Game Site (EU) A Raid for All Seasons: Flexible Raid Preview by Nethaera, 07 Jun 2013 02:00 BST

Wowhead News 25-Player Raid Changes: Thunderforged Items Coming to the PTR Soon by Ashelia 2013/01/23 11:13 AM

WoW Insider Mists of Pandaria: First raid testing schedule announced by Robin Torres Jun 21st 2012 6:30PM

WoW Insider Mists of Pandaria Beta: Raid testing to begin Friday, June 22 by Fox Van Allen Jun 20th 2012 8:30PM

WoW Insider The case for cross-faction Real ID raiding by Matthew Rossi Feb 28th 2012 8:00PM

WoW Insider Ready Check: Catacysm raid changes a tier later by Tyler Caraway Jun 17th 2011 4:00PM

WoW Official Game Site (EU) Raid Updates for 4.2 Takralus 24/05/11 19:24

Info

WoW Insider Drama Mamas: When casual raiding is neither casual nor raiding by Robin Torres Apr 16th 2012 12:00PM

WoW Insider Raid Rx - a blog series on raid healing issues by Matt Low

WoW Insider Ready Check - a blog series on raiding issues by Tyler Caraway

       WoW Insider Ready Check: Dealing with a dead tank by Tyler Caraway Sep 9th 2011 3:00PM

       WoW Insider Ready Check: Dealing with a weak healer by Tyler Caraway Sep 2nd 2011 1:00PM

       WoW Insider Ready Check: Dealing with a low DPSer by Tyler Caraway Aug 26th 2011 9:00AM

       WoW Insider Ready Check: Preparing your raid for 4.2 by Tyler Caraway Jun 24th 2011 6:00PM

       WoW Insider Ready Check: How to deal with multiple wipes by Tyler Caraway Jun 10th 2011 1:00PM

       WoW Insider Ready Check: Is your raid group socially compatible? by Tyler Caraway Jun 3rd 2011 6:00PM

       WoW Insider Ready Check: Who pays for raiding supplies? by Tyler Caraway May 27th 2011 7:00PM