Catching up to the rest of the raid
My guild isn't exactly Death and Taxes, but we've done pretty well in raiding post-BC. We have two groups that can clear Karazhan and we've been working on the 25-mans. However, our raiding schedule is Monday, Wednesday and Thursday -- the three days that I've had night classes since the beginning of January. So I've mostly been sitting and waiting on the sidelines with my rogue while leveling up a pally. Now, finally, the summer is here, and I was able to attend my second-ever Karazhan raid Thursday night.
I came prepared with elixirs, potions, poisons and everything else one might need for a raid. I had read up on the strategies and even had a little map. There was only one problem -- I pretty much had no clue what I was doing. There's a big difference between reading the strategies and executing them properly when everyone else in the raid has done it before. In the space of a couple hours, I:
Became lost the instant I got inside and required a summon
Got confused about the raid symbols and broke the shackles on a ghost
Spent half the time on Shade of Aran desperately spamming Kick when it was on cooldown
Killed my pawn on the chess event
Got lost again after the chess event and ran directly into a flesh-eating beast
And, last but not least, got enfeebled during our second try on Prince and ran for safety right under an about-to-drop infernal.
About the only thing I didn't do is blow up the raid on Aran, but it still wasn't a stellar performance. Needless to say, I was embarassed, and was almost relieved when Malchazeen didn't drop -- I hadn't played well enough to deserve it. I took my new cloak, apologized for sucking, and headed off to farm, promising myself that I'd do better next time -- if they ever let me come again.
How do you catch up to the rest of your raid when they're ahead of you in progression? And how do you handle the gear gap when joining up with such a group? Is there any way to compensate for fight experience and gear, or do you just have to sort of tag along until you're equal?
