25-man Raid Composition & Raid Leading Basics

1. Building a 25-man Raid Composition

A 25-man raid composition has to be built very carefully around class choices.
You need full buffs and a good melee/ranged balance, plus a mix of class types so loot can be distributed evenly.

1.1. Raid Composition (DPS Core)

When building an ICC raid comp, you generally want as many warriors and mages as possible, since they are your main damage dealers.

Other classes and specs usually do less DPS and can instead support warriors and mages, helping them deal more damage.
The overall comp is heavily dictated by your tanks and healers.

1.2. Choosing Healers

A Holy Paladin and a Discipline Priest are mandatory.

The ideal third healer is a Restoration Shaman, because they bring:

• Bloodlust
• Wrath of Air Totem (5% spell haste)

If that’s not an option, you can take a Resto Druid or Holy Priest instead — but then you’ll need an Enhancement Shaman for the spell haste buff.

Also remember: the raid still needs the melee haste buff (from a Blood or Frost DK).

4-healer setups

If you need to run a 4th healer, they can be:

• Restoration Shaman – versatile healer with Mana Tide Totem
• Restoration Druid – primarily AoE healing with Innervate / Rebirth
• Holy Priest – primarily AoE healing with Divine Hymn
• Holy Paladin – primarily single-target healing with a huge toolkit of raid externals / saves

1.3. Choosing the Main Tank

Death Knight (DK)

Gives 3 key buffs:

• 10% Attack Power
• 20% melee haste
• +155 Strength/Agility (Horn of Winter)

Hysteria for the top DPS (usually a Feral cat).

Bear (Feral Druid)

Provides:

• Mangle – 30% increased bleed damage
• Faerie Fire – -6% boss armor
• 5% melee crit

Also brings Innervate / Rebirth when not actively tanking.

Protection Paladin

Brings a huge set of buffs, debuffs and raid CDs:

• Greater Blessing of Kings / Greater Blessing of Might / Greater Blessing of Wisdom / Protection aura
• Hand of Salvation / Hand of Sacrifice / Hand of Freedom / Hand of Protection
• Lay on Hands
• Divine Sacrifice
• Judgement of Light
• Vindication

Protection Warrior

Gives:

• Faster Sunder Armor application
• Threat redirection from top DPS
• Demoralizing Shout
• AoE stun that works not only on undead (unlike paladin’s)
• AP shout

However, this is not a priority choice, since many important raid buffs are missing and it costs you an extra slot that could go to another warrior or mage.

1.4. Choosing the Off-Tank

• Protection Paladin
• Protection Warrior

Avoid running two tanks of the same class.
The only acceptable exception is 2× Prot Paladin, since they are extremely valuable for raid-saving cooldowns.

1.5. Support Classes

Recommended support classes:

• Combat Rogue – at least 1, at most 3
• Marksmanship Hunter – at least 1, at most 3
• Balance Druid – at least 1, 2 are recommended
• Demonology Warlock – you only need 1
• Unholy DK – you should have 1
  • Mandatory because of the AoE debuff: +13% magic damage taken
  • Not as strong as a warrior in raw DPS, but if you don’t have enough warriors, you can take more than one
• Retribution Paladin – at least 1
• Shadow Priest – not mandatory, but recommended, especially if your healers are weak or you only run 3 healers

1.6. Recommended Overall Class Numbers

It’s recommended that your raid comp includes roughly:

Paladins (3 total)

To have all major blessings:

• Greater Blessing of Kings
• Greater Blessing of Might
• Greater Blessing of Wisdom

You will always have a Disc Priest, so the Prot Paladin blessing (Greater Blessing of Sanctuary) is not mandatory.

Make sure you have at least:

• 1 Retribution Paladin with Improved Greater Blessing of Might
• 1 Retribution Paladin with Vindication (reduces boss AP)

Druids (3 total)

Main reason: Lady Deathwhisper – she Mind Controls 3 players.

• If your main tank is a Bear, you usually don’t want to ask him to Cyclone.
• If you have fewer than 3 druids who can Cyclone, other classes must cover missing CC:
  • Fear
  • Polymorph
  • Traps
  • Stuns, etc.

“Pull Helpers” (4 total)

Ideally:

• 2 Combat Rogues
• 2 Marksmanship Hunters

→ for Tricks of the Trade and Misdirection on pull.

If that isn’t possible, you can run a 3–1 setup:

• 3 hunters + 1 rogue
• 3 rogues + 1 hunter

2. Raid Leading Basics

2.1. Pre-pull Checklist

Before pulling the first boss, the Raid Leader must make sure that:

• Tanks and healers are assigned
• Tricks of the Trade / Misdirection are assigned
• Paladin buffs are assigned
• The order of raid cooldowns is set:
  • Divine Sacrifice
  • Hand of Sacrifice / Hand of Salvation / Hand of Protection
  • Innervate / Rebirth
  • Hymn of Hope
  • Fear Ward
  • Holy Wrath
  • Army of the Dead
  • Judgements according to logic
    • e.g. Holy Paladin uses Judgement of Light only if he is the only paladin in the raid
  • Divine Hymn and Tranquilizing Shot
  • Pull helpers (Tricks of the Trade / Misdirection)

2.2. During the Fight

If someone dies:

• Make sure they’re actually in the game and not lagging
• Rebirth them as soon as possible

Priority depends on the boss, but in general:

• Healers should be resurrected first
• After a healer is Rebirth, give them an Innervate

2.3. Covering Dangerous Mechanics

All dangerous boss abilities should be covered by raid defensives:

• Divine Hymn
• Divine Sacrifice
• Aura Mastery
• Tranquilizing Shot
• Pain Suppression
• Hand of Sacrifice

All support spells must be used on the RL’s call and at the correct timing (Hymn of Hope and others).

2.4. Trash Clearing

• Assign a Discipline Priest to use Power Infusion on a Shadow Priest while clearing trash
• Use Hand of Protection on the Demonology Warlock and Balance Druid
• Use Hand of Salvation on Feral Cat Druid and Fury Warriors
• Maintain constant, controlled pulling of trash onto the tanks
• Chain Holy Wrath on large trash packs in turn:
  • stun 3 sec + 1.5 sec + 0.75 sec ≈ 5.25 seconds total control

3. Innervates (Assignments for Druids)

Innervate assignments should be based on:

• The healer’s mana needs
• How easy it is for the druid to use it

3.1. Druid Roles & Innervate Ease

• Balance Druid – easy, doesn’t affect DPS much
• Restoration Druid – easy, doesn’t affect healing much
• Feral Bear Druid – easy when not the main tank or not taking heavy damage;
  hard when main tank or under heavy boss/add pressure
• Feral Cat Druid – medium, loses a lot of DPS when forced to use Innervate / Rebirth

3.2. Healer Innervate Priority (by Mana Needs)

From highest to lowest:

1. Restoration Shaman – high
2. Holy Priest – high
3. Holy Paladin – high
4. Restoration Druid – medium
5. Discipline Priest – low

So druids should be assigned to Innervate targets based on:

• Ease of usage
• Healer mana needs

Example Assignment

Raid comp:

• 2× Balance Druid, 1× Feral Cat Druid
• Healers: 1× Restoration Shaman, 1× Holy Paladin, 1× Discipline Priest

Assignments:

• Balance Druid #1 → Rshaman
• Balance Druid #2 → Hpal
• Feral Cat Druid → Discipline Priest, since Discipline Priest has the lowest mana needs

4. Pull Helpers

4.1. Hunter Assignments

Misdirection (MD)

• Use on the main tank
• You don’t need to use it on cooldown unless required
  • Watch the Omen addon

4.2. Rogue Assignments

Tricks of the Trade (ToT)

• The first Tricks should go to the main tank
• All subsequent Tricks of the Trade should go to rogues
• If there is an Affliction Warlock in the raid, the rogue should give him the first Tricks of the Trade

Before the pull (any boss), announce to the raid if the main tank is changing.

5. Choosing Players & Role Priority

The most important roles in a raid are:

Tanks > Healers > DPS

• Always put your best players on tanks, as they have the biggest impact on the raid
  • If a tank makes a mistake, it will most likely lead to a wipe
• Healers are second in priority, since in some cases you can run 4 healers as a safety option.

5.1. Healer Importance

Approximate importance by impact:

1. Holy Paladin
2. Discipline Priest
3. Restoration Shaman
4. Restoration Druid
5. Holy Priest