As I get back into the swing of things after a long hiatus to get new forms of income going (not wow gold related money), I am now back in the swing of things to get my alts geared again.  Even though I had not stopped raiding with Verdin.  Back around September of last year I found a group that was working on achievements, it soon turned into the latest content group, as it seemed we were having a hard time keeping people coming back.  Which while working on new content is great, I would still like to get all of those dungeon / raid achievements. But one day 3 days after several runs I volunteered to be a replacement on I soon found an invite waiting for me when I logged on  for 10 man Saturday runs.   I became a regular in this group after volunteering several times, and each time we left I made sure to let them know that I would be interested if they needed a regular.   Maybe it was the fish feasts (which come rather fast when you decided to level fishing on your 7 level 80′s when only Dangerously Delicious is the fishing daily).  Maybe it was the the Tundra Traveling Mammoth that came in handy for repairs and regents.  Or perhaps I was not an ass and did not whine about not getting gear.  It was not because I was the only lock, they actually had one.   I can also tell you it was not dps, as I was the lowest in our ten men runs (frankly I am amazed they kept having me back).  Granted because of them I have the gear that keeps me now around number 2 to 3.  Not to mention asides for a trinket and my wand I am all Ice Crown Citadel 10 / 25 gear.  We still try to get achievements on the old stuff when we can, perhaps next exp we will come back in tier 12 or such and cream the places for those achievements.

Finding a group is not always simple.  But there are a few ways.

1. Join a guild that likes to raid, some guilds such as Fruit of Elune (on my server) exist only to raid.
2. Pay attention to looking for group channel.
3. Look through wow’s forums for your server.
4. Queue for a raid you areinterested in being in.  (this is where I found my Ice Crown Citadel 25 men group)

Some of the random pugs I have done on my server have given me their channel because they were happy with my dps or healing (not sure why some of them like my rogue, Vulpes is probable one of the worst rogues on the server), this is often a great way to find groups.  Often I will team with people from these unique channels just because I know I will have less of headache.   Currently I have 8 channels.  I found my ten men group via the channel method.

Make sure you find out:

1. When the raids start and end, not to mention when the raid will actually form.
2. Loot rules, some do dkp I am not a big fan of.  My icc 10 man does main spec free roll, off spec greed roll.  My 25 man does one piece per run,  trinkets and tier for regulars only (thankfully I am now a regular with them).

I can not tell you how many times I have seen drama over loot, even after the loot rules were stated.  Often because people were not paying attention.

The secret to being a regular is simple:

1. Do not be an asshole, there is only so much people are willing to put up with.  It does not matter that you may at the time be the best healer, best dps, best tank.  There is always some one out there that is better then you.   I can tell you some of the groups I was in I left because I simple could not stand the drama, not to mention when the drama took place over vent.   I know people that have quit wow just because of drama from raids.  I even had a friend that transferred to another sever just because of the horrors of organizing a Molten Core raid
2. Be on time, for that matter be ahead of time.  Make sure you are ready to go.  In the past I have gotten into groups just because regulars were late.  Its how I became a regular because I was on time, and ready to summon people on location.  I can not stress enough to be on time.   If you are not going to make it give the group advance warning so they can find a replacement.  Chances are if you do not give advance warning, your replacement may become their regular.
3. Make sure you are speced and glyphed for the job.  You can find many recommendations for speccing and glyphs in the class forums on worldofwarcraft.com.
4. Look up boss fights,  I will go to http://www.wowwiki.com/Portal:Main , youtube.com, and various other sites to look up for what I need to do.
5. Come prepared

• Make sure you have the gear so your not just along for the ride,  seldom do I see groups that want to get your character all epic, especially after years of getting burnt to only lose the people they geared to other groups. Its not hard to get geared just make sure to do a daily heroic random, more if you have time.
• Make sure your gear is enchanted and gemmed.  Don’t settle for the lowest grade, if you have epic gear get epic gems.   There is no excuse especially since gems are way easier to get with stone keeper shards.  I have seen voa random pugs that drop people for not gemming and gearing and replacing them with under geared people that did gem and enchant their lesser gear.
• Make sure you have your flasks.    These days its far easier to get flasks then when wow first started.
• Bring food, there is no guarantee that your party will have fish feasts, better yet bring your own fish feasts that way everyone gets buffed.
• Come fully repaired, and make sure you have the gold to pay for atleast 2 full repairs.  These days there are tons of randoms, absolutely no excuse for not coming with repair funds.
• Make sure you have full regents, ammo, poisons, soul shards, back up water in case there is no mage.
• Mana and Health Potions are a must.   As well as Bandages.  You can’t always count on healers to keep you alive.  Leveling First Aid is a must.

Mods, there are some that are a must have.

1. Deadly Boss Mods (absolutely must have)
2. Omen Threat Meter, allows you to see if you are pulling too much threat or not enough.
3. Xperl, or other mod that allows you to see your raid (if you are a healer know who needs to be debuffed or healed).  It also allows you to see who is buffed and who is not buffed.
4. Pally Power, if you are a pally and you do not have Pally Power, you fail.  This helps pallys to manage who does what as far as pally buffing.  Not to know who is to blame when

Not absolutely required but highly recommend.

1. Keep Cooking, and I can’t believe I am saying it fishing at maxim level.  If there is any fishing daily that you do its has to be Dangerously Delicious asides for vendor trash and clams, you will get at least enough mats for 3 – 6 fish feasts.
2. Make sure that you have leveled your professions to the point you can take full advantage of them.   Examples Pandion (leather worker) bracer / leg enchants – Rasbora (tailor / enchanter) leg / cloak / ring enchants – Larus (alchemy / black smith) endless mana / health potions, endless flask, extended flask by 1 hour, gloves and bracer gem sockets – Meriones (Jeweler) 3 better quality gems – Plec (engineer) boots, gloves enchant – Verdin (herbalism / inscription) periodic healing and shoulder enchant.  I know I failed to mention skinning and mining.  I am not a big fan of the mining buff as it gives only a hp buff, however skinning = critical strike rating, and I always like crit
3. Dual spec.  Its easier to find a group if your able to do dual function.  tank / heal – tank / dps – heal / dps.  I was able to get my hunter into a few runs of ICC just because I was willing to spec to survival so the group had more mana regen.

If the group is just starting, be prepared for a lot of wipes.  Some encounters take trial and error…………. and fine tuning.  While my group has not made it to the Lich King yet, we make progress every week, everyone gets better gear.   We did not get many attempts at toc 10 when we decided to stop working on achievements, so were not ideally geared for icc 10 man to begin with.   Though we had the benefit of commonly reoccurring group.  Perhaps are problem is, is that we only raid for three hours every week.

I am not saying every group is the right group.  Back in the days of Molten Core I tend to think I was too patient, because it took me two months to get to the first boss (commonly referred to as Lucy) to finale get my first tier piece, it was another month before they were able to reach this boss again.  So there may be a point where there is too much patience.  Granted its far easier to get geared and consumables these days.   I doubt Lucy and many of the bosses would have lasted long if gearing had been the same as it is now.  My second MC group was worse, even though we got through more.   My guild had made a alliance with Unknown Entity (a guild to this day I have yet to meet very few worth while grouping with), the worst part is they plotted to remove us from the group that we helped form openly on their own forum.  Top that off with their leader and some girl that grated my nerves every time they talked on vent, so I had to keep the volume on the speakers down to keep my house from shaking so I could not hear anyone but their loud ass mouths.  Their open defiance on their forum is what ended up ending our raiding with them.   The bottom line is I raid because I want to see all of the content, but if I am not having any fun then it defeats the very reason I pay a monthly subscription.  If your not having fun with your group you probable should consider finding another group.