So you wanna get some sweet mogs eh? Maybe a mount? Maybe some achieves? Maybe you’re just sick of your weekly mythic lockout getting toasted due to a failed run. Well, well, well. You’ve got some learnin to do ya scrub! Here’s my guide based on my experience from doing this. So sit back and relax. For I shall teach you the ways young Padawan. YMMV.
Assumptions:
You must assume that your pug will have minimal experience with the raid. In fact, they may never have been there before. Mostly because those who have got experience likely got those cosmetics when it was current. So assume you’re dealing with newbies or casuals (like me). Once you’ve set your assumptions correctly, you will understand the need for these rules. This will ensure you give you and your group the highest odds for clearing.
Note: As SL wears on, this guide may need to be edited to account for ilvl creep. But until we’re all 300+ilvl, this is what you’re gonna have to do.
Rules:
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For norm and heroic runs, do not start the instance with less than 10 players. For mythic you need at least 15-20. Why? Because must account for the leavers. There will always be a certain amount of people who bail part way through the raid. Always. If the amount of people who leave reaches critical mass, bam! You just got yourself a failed run.
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Try to get a warlock. People are lazy. I’ve lost count how many times I list “NO SUMS” and Every. Single. Time. The moment a new person joins… “Sum me pls”. Every. Time. If you can’t get a warlock, prepare to camp that stone. Warlocks are also useful for summing mid run to replace the leavers. If necessary, carry a level 50 warlock for this alone. They will have one purpose. Lock box and stones
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Set the difficulty of the raid to something other than the difficulty you are actually going to do. Why? Let me tell you what happens if you don’t. Due to the large sub loss, getting BFA raid mog runs takes a long time. Sometimes upwards of an hour if at all. This combined with the fact that people are only interested in FRESH groups, means that that trigger happy toon who’s sitting 10ft away from the first boss will inevitably pull. And if there’s a few others with him, then bam! First couple bosses down and your run has just started prematurely and is no longer fresh. Chances are you were still outside the raid too, still summing the lazy people. So no loot for you! I’ve seen this happen many times. Especially during Legion. But if you set the raid difficulty to norm, for a heroic or mythic run, you’ve just saved your run and far more importantly, the mythic lockout for the poor idiots who lemming’d after the first puller while they were inside the instance.
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Be honest. Certain BFA bosses are just not gonna happen. Maybe on norm or heroic but definitely not mythic. Ghun is your pug killer in Uldir and Mekkatorque in BoD for example. The vast majority of pugs have zero chance of downing Ghun even on normal. You might get lucky on rare occasion but the reality is your simply far better off waiting on bosses like Ghun until we’re all 300+ ilvl. Don’t even bother attempting anything passed norm CoS. Nor are you gonna clear heroic/mythic nyalotha. It’s not gonna happen. Stick to Uldir and BoD for and at most norm for the latter raids. At least if you want a reasonable chance to clear.
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Set the minimum ilvl in the actual ilvl field in the LFG to 180. Too many times I see pugs fail because half the raid is either sub level 60 or ilvl 140 and are just dead weight. These people are wasting yours and everyone else’s time. Setting the ilvl cut off prevents them from even being able to apply.
Special rule:
Mythic BoD. Blizz put in an npc that ports you to Jaina at the start of the raid. DO NOT LET ANYONE SPEAK TO THIS NPC! Immediately kick anyone who gets too close. Trust me on this. You will completely destroy your mythic lockout for the week for BoD with zero bosses down. Why? Because that npc will force teleport anyone zoning into the raid to Jaina. And your pug is not gonna be able to down mythic Jaina. As a result, you will have no way of going back to the start of the raid. You’re screwed.
If you’ve read all of that, well done! You’re now far more likely to have a better experience farming those mogs! And like I said, as the ilvl creep kicks in, you may indeed start to be able to defeat the later raid tiers on harder difficulties. But at least for now, these are the rules to follow.
