Patch 4.3 introduced the perfect way to raid for your alts, looking for raid – lfr. Personally I enjoy having the possibility to raid a bit with my alts, even with low experience or bad gear. You don’t need to be in a guild, there is no pressure with consumables or people raging on vt – just plain simple and kind of fun raiding. It helped me improve my skills and motivated me enough to level up 2 of my alts I haven’t touched since vanilla. But how do we use the LFR system to our advantage?
Eliminate the Competition!
If the Raid Finder pops up and shows that 1/8, 2/8, 3/8 of the bosses are killed you can join and check the raid without penalty in case tehre is too much competition, you can leave right and queue right away again. Only on 0/8 you get 30 min deserter debuff. With Deserter debuff I log another char and test my luck again.
As soon as joining the raid you should check the competition. For example if you are looking for tier token, then leave the raid as soon as there are 5 or more (6 for vanquisher) rollers for it. Even with 5 rollers it is unlikely that you actually win something. You have the whole week to complete the runs, there is no disadvantage leaving raids and hoping for better chances next raid.
Usually I divide raids into tier and weapon/trinket gathering. I am not that picky when it comes to tier, but as soon as spine and madness is up I will immediately leave if the chances are bad.
One thing you should keep in mind, there is a role bonus for loot but overall the system is really stupid. A balance druid is classified, as a feral druid as dps. This means both would get a role bonus when rolling on the agility staff, or int trinket.
Use this system to your advantage. As enhancement shaman it is not difficult at all to find a raid where you are the only dps shaman and there is no rogue. Should the axe drop you’d be the only roller with role bonus.
What can you do about competition?
At first, vote kick your competition. You will often notice that many people have already 2-3 votes on them, since people already do that en masse. It is better to get the competition out than actually being kicked.
They are afk? Play like crap? Missing enchants? Whine about it in raid chat. Whining sucks, everyone hates whiners, but they hate slackers even more! You’d be surprised how many people like to vote kick people for no reason, especially once the window pops up.
NEED!
The system does not reward you for being nice, there is only drawbacks. I know it sucks, personally I prefer to pass loot to people who need it more, but LFR is different. Everyone needs on everything they can and you can’t expect this kindness. LFR means that once a week you will be able to roll on loot per boss. It does not matter, if you pass, greed, need.
Even if you do not need and item, you can try to use it to get an item someone else won. For example I won two leg token on my shaman and was able to trade one of it into a glove token that a warrior won to get 4 piece bonus.
If you don’t want to be an ass you can, at the end of the raid when it is clear that you won’t be able to trade your won items for anything useful, give out the surplus loot to other players.
Arrange Rolls
Of course it is always a risk, but you can try to arrange rolls with other people. Ask if they need the item you are after (and also risk to make them even aware of it, since some of them will roll on it, just to piss you off) or simply inspect them. If they have the item already it may be possible that they are not interested – apart from vendor value – to roll again.
Other than that you could maybe convice a – as enh shaman – elemental shaman, that you roll for him on int gear, while he rolls for you on Agi gear and then hope the player holds the deal.
Friends
Bring friends, it makes all of the above easier! It is always good to have people you can trust. You can focus your vote kicks, get a higher chance to win rolls and manually trade loot.
Weapons
- Blade of the Unmaker – Rogue
- Electrowing Dagger – Rogue
- Finger of Zon’ozz – Mage, Priest, Warlock
- Gurthalak – Death Knight, Paladin, Warrior
- Kiril – Druid , Hunter
- Maw of the Dragonlord – Druid , Paladin, Priest, Shaman
- No’Kaled – Shaman, Rogue
- Rathrak – Druid , Mage, Priest, Shaman, Warlock
- Razor Saronite Chip – Rogue
- Souldrinker – Death Knight, Paladin, Warrior
- Titahk – Druid , Mage, Priest, Shaman, Warlock
- Vishanka, Jaws of the Earth – Hunter
Trinkets
- Bone-Link Fetish – Death Knight, Paladin, Warrior
- Crech of the Final Dragon – Death Knight, Paladin, Warrior
- Cunning of the Cruel – Druid, Mage, Priest, Shaman, Warlock
- Eye of Unmaking – Death Knight, Paladin, Warrior
- Heart of Unliving – Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman
- Indomitable Pride – Death Knight, Druid, Paladin, Warrior
- Insignia of the Corrupted Mind – Druid, Mage, Priest, Shaman, Warlock
- Resolve of Undying – Death Knight, Druid, Paladin, Warrior
- Seal of the Seven Signs – Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman
- Soulshifter Vortex – Death Knight, Druid, Paladin, Warrior
- Starcatcher Compass – Druid, Hunter, Shaman, Rogue
- Vial of Shadows – Druid, Hunter, Shaman, Rogue
- Will of Unbinding – Druid, Mage, Priest, Shaman, Warlock
- Windward Heart – Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman
- Wrath of Unchaining – Druid, Hunter, Shaman, Rogue
Tier 13 Token
- Corrupted Conqueror – Paladin, Priest, Warlock
- Corrupted Protector – Hunter, Shaman, Warrior
- Corrupted Vanquisher – Death Knight, Druid, Mage, Rogue
This tactic has worked out well for me, below is most of the loot i got this way (alone) over the past 2 weeks:
Myrddin:
- Obtained Rathrak, the Poisonous Mind.
- Obtained No’Kaled, the Elements of Death.
- Obtained No’Kaled, the Elements of Death.
- Obtained Wrath of Unchaining.
Katya:
- Obtained Kiril, Fury of Beasts.
- Obtained Wyrmstalker’s Tunic.
- Obtained Starcatcher Compass.
- Obtained Wyrmstalker’s Legguards.
- Obtained Sporebeard Gauntlets.
- Obtained Bracers of Looming Darkness.
Pathfinder:
- Obtained Deep Earth Grips.
- Obtained Girdle of the Grotesque.
- Obtained Treads of Sordid Screams.
- Obtained Kiril, Fury of Beasts.
- Obtained Deep Earth Headpiece.
- Obtained Deep Earth Spaulders.
- Obtained Will of Unbinding.
- Obtained Molten Blood Footpads.
- Obtained Mycosynth Wristguards.
- Obtained Mycosynth Wristguards.
Stormfront:
- Obtained Spiritwalker’s Grips.
- Obtained Petrified Fungal Heart.
- Obtained Spiritwalker’s Cuirass.
- Obtained Spiritwalker’s Legguards.
- Obtained Spiritwalker’s Spaulders.
- Obtained Dragoncarver Belt.
- Obtained Imperfect Specimens 27 and 28.