I want to try PVE/Raiding

Moon Guard
1

I have played wow for over 15 years and been predominantly a PVP player. Huge thank you to Magefold who I met on trade chat and thank you for answering my questions. To be perfectly frank, I used to be a good player but I’m kinda washed and past my prime. I have thoroughly enjoyed doing arenas, rated bgs, twinking, randoms bgs, everything pvp. I still have a deep love for all things pvp and that will never change but I know there is a whole different part of the game I have never engaged in that maybe I should.

I have never done a single raid other than stuff like Vault of Archavon when it was current content to get PVP gear.I would like to join a casual raid guild who is okay with taking on someone who knows almost nothing about raiding or PVE in general. From what I understand, and tell me if I’m wrong.

  1. You have to do mythics (never done a single one)
  2. In order to do a mythic, which is essentially a heroic dungeon but harder you need a “Key”
  3. You can get a “key” by doing Mythic 2 or harder?
  4. Its impossible to raid without doing mythic+
  5. You should do LFR to get gear

Perhaps this will automatically disqualify me, but I have zero interest in dungeon spamming. It would be fun to do a raid but if I have to dungeon spam a bunch of times in order to raid, perhaps its better if I stick to PVP. Is it possible to do normal raids without all the other stuff? Also a veteran RP’er so please feel free to hit me up whenever. Thank you.

1 Like
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Hello, fellow potential new raider. Let me help you out a bit here.

Yes and no. When it comes to raiding, at least at “normal” levels, it’s certainly helpful to have a higher level of gear to make the bosses less difficult, but it’s not necessarily a requirement. The only hard requirement of raiding is a specific ilvl, which you MAY need to run dungeons to obtain.

Baseline mythics, called mythic 0, do not require any keys. You can just run on in there. They are a harder heroic dungeon, correct. You’ll need to do the mechanics correctly to defeat the bosses there, so it’s advised to pay attention to what’s going on during heroics, as they’re doing the exact same stuff.

Last I checked keys could be obtained from 0 or higher, or talking to some guy somewhere in the main city (don’t know who it is since m2 hasn’t been released yet).

Depends on the level of raiding you’re seeking. Normal raids, mythic + not required at all. Heroics? Not necessarily required either, but highly recommended. Once you reach mythic raiding, it’s more or less a requirement to keep your weekly vault filled to give you the best chance at filling out your gear without relying on the raid.

Which sorta brings me around to the point of them in the first place; they’re a separate challenge in and of themselves, but they’re also another path to gearing.

In this case, I would say your best bet for raiding would be to stick with normals for the time being. Unfortunately in modern wow, dungeon spamming is simply part of the grind, both for gear and for crests to upgrade your gear.

It’s possible to do raiding without doing this, but at some point you may be very heavily hindering your team. You’ve got to keep in mind that raiding is a team sport, and you need to be willing to do what is required in order to help them, and you, succeed.

That being said, there may be some casual groups out there that don’t have huge activity requirements, and I’d definitely try reaching out to them!

Hopefully this helps.

3

Greatly appreciate your through response and clarity. From what it sounds like, normal raids may actually still be on the table. Anything else is way beyond what I have a desire to do, but who knows, maybe I do some normals and get hooked and want to do more.

Last question, I try to have as few addons as possible. Don’t even use gladius because the default UI is actually solid these days. Is it required for me to use things like DBM, weak auras, and recount (may be aging myself, not sure if this is even used anymore)?

I think the next move is to just find a normal raid group on the group finder. Hopefully the pvp gear I have will be good enough and if not, its okay wasn’t meant to be. Excited to try and appreciate your help!

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This one’s gonna depend pretty largely on the group you’re running with. Most guilds will require DBM as their baseline since it’s easier to install that then it would be for a raid leader to micro-manage every boss ability for every single person.

As far as WA goes, I don’t require it for my raid. Some people might as it can do some pretty cool stuff. Recount’s usually optional for anyone who’s not raid leading.

I would highly, strongly discourage the use of PvP gear in PvE content if you can avoid it. Unless someone who actually does a lot of PvP wants to call me out on this, I’m pretty sure their overall stats are much lower than gear you’d get from PvE content, thus eliminating any usefulness they’d have except as a temporary slot filler.

In other words, if you and another guy have the same ilvl, but your gear is pvp and his is not, even if you are the exact same skill level, he will always do more dps than you, and that amount can be pretty darn significant.

I mean, give it a try. But I wouldn’t be surprised if you were removed from the group as soon as someone inspected you because of that. People want their players doing their best possible damage/healing/etc, and you can’t do that with PvP gear.

5

Getting into PVE these days is probably as easy as its ever been! Xanthion’s response is very much on the mark, but I figured I’d give some input here too.

  1. Find what level of skill you want to play at and don’t feel pressured to maximize your gear. Nothing will suck the fun out of the game than goading yourself into feeling like you NEED to be BiS’d out. Vying to be the best you can be is great and all, but if you’re not pushing for Cutting Edge, don’t feel like you need to sacrifice your fun for the sake of optimization.
  2. Mythic Keystones are a great way to supplement your gear, but you can absolutely just stick to raiding if that’s what you prefer. Some weekly affixes are pretty fun, and if you find a coordinated group you vibe with, you might be surprised by them!
  3. Finding guilds or communities online for coordinated group content is awesome. There’s some community discords you can check out that have TONS of different scenes and groups for you to check out. Easily the best way to get into content, especially if you’re a DPS trying to do keys.
  4. Don’t be afraid to try and lead your own group! It can be intimidating at first, but just take the time to watch the videos or read the dungeon journal, and you’ll be fine.
  5. There’s a lot of avenues to gear up now between dungeons, raiding, delves, and more. Just take it at your own pace and have fun, and push into higher levels when you think you’re ready!

Most importantly, have FUN. Everyone’s perfectly capable of being good at PVE without being sweaty. Don’t let them get you down, and have a good time :smiley:

6

Restating some stuff, but another perspective on answers.

  1. (and #4) Mythics accelerate gearing, and in case of cutting edge stuff (best in slot items) sometimes are better. Entirely possible to do up to Heroics raids without ever touching them, but the journey will be a lot longer. One clear of a raid per difficulty per week is the limit for that gear output, you can get as much gear from M+ as you have patience for.
  2. M0s (baseline mythics) are one clear per week per dungeon, no key required, and provide a +2 key on completion. M+ (Mythic+) are timed runs and require keys.
  3. Building off the above, completing M+ in time rewards higher level keys. Faster completing, higher key.
  4. See #1.
  5. Bountiful Delves are currently a great source of gear. Dungeons are next best. LFR is one of the worst ways by time investment and limited availability, but if it’s all you want to do, then technically gearing purely off of LFR will enable you to do Normals.
  6. I’d say DBM is required, Details (Recount) is very helpful, and WeakAuras is helpful but confusing if you’re unfamiliar with it. The previous two sort of run on their own.
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There’s lots of good advice in this thread so I won’t duplicate (except to say having fun is a good goal, though sweaty can be fine if that’s your thing).

There are a bunch of guilds on Moon Guard now who run at least normal raids, and if you’re dps it’s not hard to find a spot. However, I want to recommend wowmadeeasy(dot)com as a great community discord (35k and growing) of people whose stated goal is to provide a friendly and civil environment for doing m+ and raids at all levels of difficulty. Pug groups can be pretty awful tbh.

I have never been a big fan of m+, and I don’t usually have trouble getting into m+ pugs since I usually heal; however I just don’t enjoy it as end-game content as do so many people now. In my recollection blizz started necking down how much gear dropped from raids (I think it was in BFA) and it was expected players would do m+ to help gear up. Now many must-have trinkets and other gear come from m+ so “serious” raiders pretty much have to do some m+. Ideally you find people you enjoy doing them with, but at normal raid level they’re probably not necessary.

Deadly Boss Mods (or GTFO) will help, I’d recommend not resisting using that add-on. Details is the add-on meter most used now but I’m stubborn and still prefer Recount. Regarding WeakAuras, you may find that there is a particular tough group mechanic on a boss fight that someone has written a good WA for, and your raid lead will ask you to DL it, it’s generally a good thing.

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Greatly appreciate the responses from everything and for the clarity. I think I understand the next steps. Looking forward to it, thank you!

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LFR gear never mattered.

Depends what you aim for. If you plan to go high, you got to invest into M+ since it’s a gear source. The M+ isn’t for necessarily for drop, although it can be farmed for it. But the Vault is what what you seek to build on a weekly basis, so you have the better choices, and able to keep upgrading.

Then you probably need a group that do things casually. You won’t progress quick, but to expect the best and not putting effort at being the best, it will be difficult to make high end friends.