Welcome to Classic World of Warcraft endgame. Most of your activities at this point revolve around a mix of raids and high-level dungeons. You already know how to run a dungeon because you’ve been doing it since you were level 15, but raids are fairly new, with most of them accessible as late as level 55.
The first time you walk into a raid, you’re going to play it like a dungeon because that’s your frame of reference, and other than the fact that there are more people within your group it looks exactly like a dungeon. Lower and Upper Blackrock Spire are literally in the same dungeon after all, and one is a regular 5-player while the other is a 10-player raid. In some ways, raids and dungeons are the same, but they also have some important differences. Here’s a list of a few of them.
10 The Same: Know Your Role
Whether you’re a Tank, Healer, throwing DPS or doing a combination of any class roles, the rules are generally the same in a dungeon as for a raid. The mechanics for a raid are more precise, meaning you often have a more elaborate plan, but this basic principle remains unchanged. In both dungeons and raids, you might have a certain place to stand, something to shackle or banish, or a certain player to heal or buff. You have to know your class and how to play it. Although these dynamics are more common raids, they happen a lot in dungeons like Stratholme and Blackrock Depths.
9 Different: Bag Space
In dungeons, your bags fill up fast, so empty them before you go. Plenty of low level or useless items will drop that you can sell for gold or disenchant for reagents and other materials. Raids, however, are on a totally different level. You get there with your bags full to bursting and leave considerably lighter. In raids, you need to bring a lot with you, and consumables like potions and buff foods are just the tip of that iceberg. Combo classes might even need space for another set of armor depending on their roles.
8 The Same: Loot
We’re not talking about the quality or rarity of the drops in this section. This references the protocol when something rare or valuable drops. You’ll hear the same discussions about rolling for “alts” or “off-spec” if the item is fairly common or your group has seen it before. In certain raids, where random drops just aren’t as common and the items that drop from bosses tend to be extremely popular, groups will designate a Master Looter to ensure the right players gets the right stuff. This tactic can be used in dungeons as well but it’s not as common.
7 Different: Number of People
This one is obvious, but we still have to point it out. It’s worthy to note that you can bring a raid group into a variety of places, including dungeons if you have several friends that want to go. However, you can’t always finish the same quests as a raid group, so that doesn’t always work and dungeons are overwhelmingly for five people. Raids, on the other hand, start with 10-player at Upper Blackrock Spire to 40 for Molten Core. Considering how complex a raid can be, you can see it might be daunting to put together a Pick Up Group (PUG) for a raid in Classic but in the modern retail version of the game, it’s possible.
6 Same: Keys
These are literally keys, the metal bits that hang off a chain on your belt that you need to open doors. All of the keys available for both dungeons and raids have an Engineering or Lockpick workaround, which is another thing both dungeons and raids have in common when you’re talking about keys.
Another common theme is that all of the keys for both dungeons and raids are often optional. They don’t restrict your access to anything, only provide a shortcut or help you finish a quest. There are a few exceptions to this rule, like the keys to Scholomance and Undead Stratholme, among others.
5 Different: Attunements
One of the new things that hit you about raids is the need to get “attuned.” Players often don’t even hear this word until they get closer to the level cap. You can walk into most dungeons without even thinking about it, although level restrictions might keep you out, you never need attunement to get into a raid, with UBRS being a possible exception, where you need a key instead. Some are on the easier side, like the Molten Core attunement, which consists of touching a rock to finish a quest. No, really, that’s it. Compare that to the elaborate Onyxia attunement, which consists of a long quest chain and several visits to UBRS.
4 Same: Boss Fighting Strategies
Granted, this is always true for dungeons at lower levels. You don’t come across more complex boss fights until high-level dungeons like Scholomance or Stratholme, but even Shadowfang Keep and the Cathedral in the Scarlet Monastery require some kind of planning. Sally Whitemane is one of the first bosses you’ll encounter with powers like Sleep and Resurrection. This might also depend on the composition of your group, for example, if you have a Warlocks that can Banish demons or Priests that can Shackle.
3 Different: Class Assignments
In dungeons, your role is implied by your class and little more, with combo classes like Shamans, Druids or Paladins the only classes at lower levels to take on more complicated roles. Mages, for example, are just DPS, and their spec doesn’t really matter at this point, but a fire Mage won’t be very useful in a place like Molten Core.
In a dungeon, a Warlock might give the Healer the soulstone just to be nice but it’s not necessarily a requirement. In a raid, on the other hand, warlocks are given soulstone assignments along with providing healthstones, which overlaps into the beginning of this list, “Know Your Role.”
2 Same: Grinding Rep
There are several factions in World of Warcraft that players need to make friends with. Sometimes it’s for attunement or to finish a quest, but more likely it’s the access to the Quartermaster’s extra phat loot. Players run both dungeons and raids solely for the purpose of grinding rep with certain neutral factions in Azeroth.
It really impresses the Hydraxian Waterlords when you tear through Molten Core, for example, and the Argent Dawn rewards rep for turning in Scourgestones which drop from undead all over the Plaguelands, including the dungeons.
1 Different: Real-Time Communication
Being able to communicate with the other members of your party in real-time is always helpful, but in dungeons, it’s an option whereas in raids it’s essential. The biggest differences between dungeons and raids are found in the more complex trash and boss fights. If things don’t go as planned, such as losing a Tank or Healer very early in the encounter, your group will have to improvise. That works a lot better of you can talk about it in real-time instead of typing. There are only a few seconds to spare between you and a wipe, and we’re gamers, not typists.
