What is Raider IO?
This question seems to be one that’s confused all the time. Some people think it’s a determination of skill. Some think it’s a way to separate people who play casually and the “elitists” of the game. Some people think it’s like arena rating in that if you win some you gain points, but if you fail a key you lose points. None of these are correct in any way. This post is intended to be my way of clearing out the air for anyone who doesn’t actually know what RaiderIO is or how it works.
Raider IO is basically an armory
It’s a way to see what content has been done by an individual character. It shows which keys they’ve run, how many times they’ve run it, whether those keys were timed or failed, etc. On top of this, it shows other character based information such as: Raid progression, gearing and talent choices, etc.
Outside of the character screen, there are other useful tools. There’s a:
- Realms list, which you can use to determine the active population of any given realm (or connected realms) as well as the horde/alliance ratio.
- Listed guilds in each realm to for those that may be looking for one. Some guilds have descriptions written for what they’re looking for in the current or next raid tier.
- Weekly Route Update, which shows you the recommended routes for each dungeon on a weekly basis for affixes. These work best if you have the addon called Method Dungeon Tools, but it isn’t required.
There’s more to Raider IO than just a score. It is a tool, and while some people use the tool wrongly, other people blame the tool wrongly for not understanding completely what Raider IO actually is.
Well then what is the score?
The score that you see on your character is the sum of your best keystone runs per dungeon. Yes, you read that right. Only the best run of each dungeon is taken into account for your score. If you have a timed +9 Freehold under your belt, but join a +6 Freehold that fails the key, then your score will remain the same.
Each key level has a score for it, and then IO gives you additional points based on the time remaining. The base score for timing a +2 is 20 points. If you time the +2 with 10 minutes to spare, you’ll likely see a number around 25 points.
However, if you fail the key (but still complete it) then your score is reduced to whatever the base score of the level below it is. It is then further subtracted based on how much time you went over.
Can you give an example?
I sure can.
Let’s say you have completed every single dungeon once at a +10 level with only a second to spare. There are 12 dungeons, and a +10 keystone gives you a base score of 100. So currently, you have a 1200 raiderIO score.
So what happens if you run a +11 Tol Dagor? That’s worth 110 points, so is your raiderIO score 1310 now?
No. The only additional points you’ll receive are the extra 10 point difference between your previous best run (which was a +10 for 100 points) and this new best run. This means that your score has bumped up from 1200 to 1210. Like I said previously, RaiderIO only takes into account the best run of each dungeon for your character.
So why do so many people dislike Raider IO?
I’m sure there are a plethora of reasons. I can name a few off the top of my head:
- Some people just want the game to be more simple and community driven, with no need for an addon to tell them what content the other person has done.
- Some people don’t want to take a little bit of time to run lower dungeons so that they can get the experience needed to run higher level dungeons. This seems to be especially true for people with alts.
- Some people actually want to be carried through the content so that they can get the gear without doing the work.
- Some people just haven’t taken the time to understand what IO is or how it actually works, which only leads to blind frustration. Ya know, much like that guy Illidan. Heh heh heh.
There are so many reasons as to why some people dislike Raider IO, and those reasons are usually selfish. For some, it may just be innocent ignorance by reading the posts of those who don’t like Raider IO (and once again, usually for selfish reasons).
So is Raider IO perfect?
Absolutely not. There are suggestions flowing in all the time in the Raider IO discord about how they could improve their website/addon. People can buy carries for different keys so that they have an artificial score. They can have guildies carry them through mid to high level keystones. There are people who abuse Raider IO and exclude anybody else who is below their personal score (come on, nobody needs to have a 1k io for a +7 Atal’Dazar).
That being said, it works very well when used correctly. I’ve only had a handful of runs that have turned sour over the course of the expansion.
I start with looking at the person’s score, even if it’s a little low. If they have a couple of timed runs of the dungeon I’m trying to do, I’ll let them in. If they have no timed runs of the dungeon I’m doing and it’s any higher than a +6, then odds are I’m not going to invite them. Inviting somebody to your Mechagon Workshop +10 if they only have a single timed +2 is probably not a good idea. You’re not discriminating against that player, you just know that they have a low likelihood of success compared to somebody else who has a couple of timed +8/9’s under their belt.
How do I start building a score?
Go run some keys! If you’re fresh and are doing m+ through group finder, start in the +2-4 range. If you’re as good as you think you are, then they should be a breeze! After you’ve had a little bit of experience across the dungeon list, Start moving up to the +5-7 range. After that, go through to +8-10’s. Nobody is telling you that you need to do every single dungeon at a +2 level in order to be invited to a +3. That would be absurd. But at the same time, you can’t expect people to trust you’ll do well in a +10 when all you’ve done are +4’s or 5’s.
Another way to go about it is to find a guild that’s interested in running mythics. I’m in a casual heroic guild, and we do the occasional m+ runs. There are guilds out there, though, that enjoy running more m+ than raiding.
Summary
Raider IO is a tool. Some people use that tool abusively. Some don’t even know what the tool does. This isn’t the end all be all thing that people are restricted to. There are requirements that some people expect you to have before entering their keys. Raider IO shows many things, but the main purpose of it is to show if you’ve met the criteria/experience that a person would prefer you to have.
Now get into those dungeons and kill all of the things. Most importantly, though, have fun doing it! And make some friends!
