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Recently I’ve advanced high enough in Warcraft to begin doing 25-man raids. My current toon (character) is a level 77 Female Orc Rogue named Mavrana. The max level at the moment is 80, so she’s up there in ‘age’, but nowhere close to as powerful as she can be. Yet.

Essentially, a raid is a group players that get together and complete a section of the game as a team. One of the biggest goals of the raid, aside from the completion of an awesome chunk of game content, is to help gear up your toon. By gearing up, I mean winning armor pieces, weapons, gems, and other things to make you more powerful. This stuff drops off a boss, or various other mobs (monsters) in the game.

The real fun, however, comes from organizing 25 people to do a raid. But let me first bring you up to speed on how insanely complex that really is.

In Warcraft, the first times you’ll group with other people are most likely to do instance dungeons. These are normally 5-man teams (a party) that enter a special section of the game together. One person is the party leader and generally organizes the event.

Your typical 5-man party will contain a tank, DPSers, and a healer or two. Depending on the instance, you might need one main tank, one healz, and the rest DPS. Or you may need a main tank, and off tank, a DPS, and two healz.

What the hell are tanks, DPSers, and healers, you say?

A tank isn’t the military thing you are most likely picturing, although the name comes from that. A tank is responsible for taking as much damage as possible during a fight. They need to hold aggro (the aggression, and thus attack focus) of the mobs. Basically, when you piss something off by attacking it, you want to make sure it is attacking the tank.

DPSers are the guys who are there to beat the crap out of a mob. They are there to damage the mobs, but not damage them so much that they leave the tank and start wailing on the DPS. My rogue, while not the most powerful DPS, is suited for such a job well.

Healers are exactly what you think they are. They are primarily there to keep folks alive by using spells, resurrect them if they die, and generally play fairy-godmother to all. At least on our server (Proudmoore), healers are getting tricky to find. I think after I play Mavrana up to 80 and get her geared up, I’ll roll a healer.

There are also secondary jobs that folks have. My rogue can stealth and stun a mob, thus putting one monster to sleep while we wail on the others. Some DPS have the job of crowd control, which means if monsters are running away from the main tank, they have to go bring them back. Sometimes healders/spellcasters have to help as well. There are folks who are good with long-range attacks to ‘pull’ in the mobs, and some who are good at ‘kiting’ enemies to move them around the playing field.

There’s a complex dance of strategy, communication, and competency with your character that happens in Warcraft when you are playing with other people. Finding other players that are helpful and friendly is ESSENTIAL to the Warcraft experience.

There are, after all, other people on the other side of the monitor.

I was very fortunate to find a GLBT guild called . The people are amazing in-guild, and a guild is basically a collection of folks who regularly play the game together, do stuff for each other, and help out new players. I’ve found a ton of awesome geeks (I say that with love) to play with, and every time I log in, I realize I’m not playing game, I’m part of a community.

So, like I was saying, a 5-man is far from easy. The five of you are in game, headsets on, hopefully connected using

Now, imagine if you will, quintupling that experience. Not 5 folks playing together, but 25. Not one tank, but several. Masses of DPS. Handfuls of healers. 25 people on headsets, talking together. The logistics are impressive to say the least. It requires organization, extensive communication, and strategy that constantly has to adjust for the group composition. It’s wicked challenging.

Have you ever tried to go out to dinner with 25 people? That’s full of drama. Now picture spending 3+ hours (sometimes 10+ over a few days) together in battle. It’s pretty amazing.

I will repeat: I’m very fortunate to have an awesome guild of really cool GLBT folks in Sunwell Plateau raid. Click any of these pictures for larger images.

The power that female singers have over me is stronger than the pull of good sex.

Yes, you read that right. Sorry boys, you just can’t compare.

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