Thanks to Rasime for this piece.

Before the raid!

1. Stay Positive.
It is natural to be excited or even nervous about attempting a new boss in the current highest tier of raiding, but you need to enter the instance with the confidence in yourself and your team that you have all done the necessary preparation to down that boss!

2. Don't Bottle things up.
You need to be entering the instance with a clear focus. If you are having trouble getting your head around a certain boss or are even having problems with other players; you should clear the air before you get in. This could mean popping on vent early and chatting to the people already on, or a quick discussion with an officer. The thing this avoids is drama that will distract other raiders or put them off their game.

3. Plan Ahead.
Don't wait until 10mins before the raid to check if you have got all your flasks, foods and reagents. Perhaps the night before or at the beginning of the week you could go out and buy/ farm the matts for up coming raids. Nothing sucks more than walking into a raid with only 100 symbols of kings and 2 flasks- if you don't know what you will need to carry with you then ask another raider or member of your class in advance.

4. Feeding.
It is unwise eating a HUGE meal before raiding as your body spends a lot of effort digesting it all and this will only draw on concentration. You are better off eating earlier, healthily and regularly.
Going with this: Fizzy Drinks, Energy Drinks and drinks such as Tea & Coffee contain Caffeine that will 'pep' you up but will leave you in a concentration slump shortly after so should be avoided where possible. Similarly Alcohol is renowned for increasing reaction times, as fun as playing wow drunk is- raiding while drunk just reduces performance.
The best thing to drink would be isotonic sports drinks or water; these help keep you hydrated and your mind ticking over.

5. Distractions.
Raiding should be your number one priority, closely followed by breathing. Put phones on silent and shove them just out of arms reach, turn off your tele and put on some decent music. You will need to be anti-social and ignore the rest of the people living with you during the raid so make sure you give them a heads up that the PC and you will be out of bounds for the next four hours.


During the Raid!

1. Relax.
Somebody may have just ninja pulled and wiped. Before you shout at them stop, take a breath, calm down and think positive. Shouting at that mage for smashing his head into blink is only going to disrupt his focus and yours as well. Just release and run guys!

2. Instructions and Questions.
Before all the fights there will be a brief run down of who will be tanking what and you will be expected to work around the combinations. If you are unsure of what you are meant to be doing or where you are standing then ask before the pull- it is better you are told a second time and the boss is one shotted than you Mana Detonate on a healers face and cause a wipe.

3. Staying in Control.
A tank has gone down. The boss is being trained across the raid spewing fire on everybody while the remaining tanks rush to pick up the dozens of whelps now spreading towards the healer crowds. You may be called on to save the raid here: Do not just blow a CD and run away. We have vent especially for these situations- somebody could call out for a Battle Rez, or perhaps you may be asked to kite an add off a healer. It is never okay to just wipe it until the raid leader has announced it.
You need to stay cool and focused on what people are saying, where people are running and what the fight is doing. So just keep doing your job and pay extra attention.

4. Honesty.
If anybody is going to say ‘you suck’, it’s going to be yourself. If you body pulled you need to say it yourself; don’t think nobody noticed and then let somebody else take the blame. Just own up and move on. Similarly people don’t need to say ‘*sigh* Das ran through a cloud again’ because usually the people saying this are only covering up for the clouds they ran though earlier.


After the Raid!

1. Bed Time.
The raid has been called for the evening, no matter how successful it was, it never hurts to check performance. Afterwards on vent we usually discuss what went right and wrong; which is a perfect chance to reflect and comment on events.
Check your recount, how much healing did you need as DPS? Was the damage part of your class mechanic or was it avoidable? You might be surprised how much strain you actually put on the raid by standing in the wrong place but as long as you learn for next time its al right.

2. Stay Positive!
You may have spent the whole evening wiping on trash. Another day another raid, if you found something difficult it’s likely you are not the only one who did.
Raiding is 30% luck, 30% Technique and 40% Class Proficiency. The more you practice the better your technique becomes.

Remember-– you did the best you could and no one can fault you on that. Stop wasting time criticising yourself for where you think you went wrong. You’ll probably find that you have done better than you thought. Focus on what you did right and learn from your mistakes.

3. Plan your next steps.
While lying in bed, sitting on the bus or bored at work. Think about what will be happening next. Read up on the next boss, theorycraft talent builds glyphs and rotations for maximising your efficiency and minimising your suckage.