Reference Web Sites

Brewall's Vox Raid Guide
Brewall's Vox Raid Loot Policies
Zinj's Monkly-Business post on dragon raid strategy
Neferti's raid info guide (has etiquette stuff, will get into that more another time)

This guide is most generally written for the typical raid attendee. The purpose is to give you all the info you need to participate and contribute to a successful and cohesive raid and to let you know what to expect. The raid can most generally be broken into the following stages:

Introduction/home page
0) Equipment/self preparation
1) Call to Arms
2) Arrival
3) Clearing Ice Giants
4) Setting Groups
5) Buffing
6) The Charge
7) Corpse Recovery (people usually die even on successful raids)
8) Loot Distribution

6) Charge

Remember, this is generally instructions on how to fulfil your personal contribution. For information on how charges are called, see the reference material.. But just be sure to follow instructions. I will call charges in shout, in the event that I should die my backup raid leader (Honeysong) will call charges or members of either of our group.

KNOW YOUR WAY AROUND!

Usually there will be at least someone who has been on a raid before.. For Naggy, it's pretty straight forward once you get to fire giants, so I'm not covering that until a future update. For Vox, there are pit traps and possibly other mobs to run into if you go the wrong way.

First, know how to find the king room. Know, if possible print, this page and the maps I'm putting up on it.

This map shows the route with the red line, dots placed for key landmarks along the route.

Know the map above. All clearing will take place in the king room, groups will be formed there as well. Sometimes I run buffs there or sometimes buffs may run at the bottom of the ramps, indicated on the map as the area to wait for the charge at.

When all is cleared, the raid will be moved to the point indicated on the map; I will refer to it as the bottom of the ramps. I'll try to add screenshots later, but you'll see what I mean. Follow the purple (pink? whatever color it looks like, hehe) line for this part.

When you are asked to charge, be sure to use only the middle ramp of the three. The path for this part is shown by the orange line. You will go up to one landing where you will turn right, then at the top of the ramp you will turn left. You will see a boulder in the wall on your right, this is the door to Vox's lair. Do not go down any ramps other than the one you came up. Also, in the hallway beyond the boulder door, there is a pit trap. Avoid these, and you're set up for successfully contributing to your raid.

GENERAL NOTE ON AGRO MANAGEMENT:
The general idea is to have warriors from group one, who will be the highest level warriors present, carry agro throughout the fight to ensure stable position of Vox near the center of her lair. All others should do their best, IN GENERAL, to not carry agro and to drop it as quickly as possible should they gain agro. This will generally vary by class though as to how to accomplish this.

There will be a general order of succession to ideally have followed for agro as main tanks die.. It'd be ideal to not have tanks die, but it's a likely possibility. First warrior in the lair from group one will likely hold agro initially, and probly (ideally) won't lose that til they die. Following them, agro should be carried by other warriors, then paladins as backup tanks.. Agro might be carried by nukers, who should just keep at it if they can until they die. All others should back off.. Healers may need to make judgement calls, though, discussed further below.

WARRIORS(main tanks):
LARGE RACES PLEASE GET SHRUNK! You will block the door/have a hard time getting in if you don't, and may even cause bad placement of Vox.

Use highest taunt weapons, probably dual wield.. Don't bother with shields (i.e.bash/stun for main tanks not needed). Paladins are the better class for interrupting and it's a tactic of questionable effectiveness.. Warriors are to hold agro as they'll take less damage and hence improve healer's effectiveness.

BARDS: Sing elemental and guardian rhythms. Use your best drum. Do NOT melee. As long as melee from your group are alive, you won't be too likely to be attacked, your danger is AE.

CLERICS/HEALERS-(NOTE- *ALL* read this section to know what you should do to get healed in the fight)
Know your groups role as it will affect how you need to fulfil your role as healer. Also, know some key spots in Vox's lair.. You should know where it is you should med between heals.

*Healers for Main tank groups:
You should know to sit out of AE range, and ideally if the tanks have positioned Vox properly, just inside the door to the lair should work well. (NOTE-INSIDE the door, in Vox's lair. Stay clear though so the addtionaly following waves can get through)

Since you are in a group where those taking damage set Vox's position, you will likely need to go in to heal. In general, people will be running out to their healers for heals, but for those carrying agro this could adversly affect the positioning of Vox.

If the group as a whole is in need of healing, go in and group heal. Aside from that, your first priority is maintaining the life of your bard, second should be the tanks.

*Healers for other than main tank groups:
Again, sit outside of AE range in Vox's chamber, near the door should be a good spot. Also, if you have a bard in your group that is your top priority.. Keeping the bard alive gives you less to heal and so will help you prevent gaining agro.

You should have anyone who needs healing have them come out to you. This might be something that's easily done with /follow, and a hotkey might be a good idea.

*ALL healers:
Try using small heals to reduce your agro gain. The object is to not gain agro. Unless you have a better guideline, heal at 3 bubbles health.. Since you may be lagged it might be a good idea to heal at that point as if your target had only 2 bubbles of health.

Stay in the chamber.. One area would best be used as that will enable those needing heals to most quickly find you. Watch for /yells . Anyone needing a heal that has lost their healers should run to the healer's area and /y for a heal.

BE SELECTIVE! If you a key class (warrior/bard) needs a heal and someone else does at the same time, heal the war/bard. Use your mana where it will do the most good, i.e. those that would prevent needs for heals by being best suited for tanking or providing improved resist.(bard)

If you have a monk in your group, watch for them to announce their use of mend. I ask monks to use mend for their first heal, this will help conserve mana and agro for the healers.

MELEE: (ranger, paladin, rogue, monk, shadow knight)
See the healer's section to know what you should do to get healed.

MANAGE AGRO!!!!! If you gain agro, stop attacking, step back and wait 5 seconds before re-engaging. (keep an eye on the text box, it could just be a riposte if you're only hit once.)

If you gain agro and can't drop it, just keep attacking in a spot away from the walls until you die. Don't bother too much swapping out weapons since if you're in a position where you'd need that, you'd probably die in the time it'd take. Just deal your damage as well as you can. And don't sacrafice any haste! If the warriors do their job, you'll be just fine to do as much damage as you can. And even if they don't you'll still need to deal as much damage as you can.

Monks, use mend for your first heal when you hit 3 bubbles health. Announce its useage in group so healers know that next time you'll need their heal.

Classes with stun: STUN! Especially to interrupt complete heal.. She takes 30 seconds to cast it, but then again how lagged are you? I will call for stuns to start (around 60%). Pally's stun. Anyone else (possible exception rangers) isn't worth the effort IMO. I'm convinced stun is really only a last ditch effort to prevent CH, but for the Paladins to stun can't hurt and may interrupt, it's just not something that can be relied upon.

ENCHANTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From the Vox raids I have been on, I have become thoroughly convinced that you are the first line of defense in preventing Vox's complete heal. I have seen successful prevention on raids with 3 enchanters, I have heard that 2 CAN be enough but have seen CH on raids with 2 enchanters.

That said, though, your first (chronologically) job will be to dispel Vox. Cast dispel twice. This will dispel cleric buffs on Vox, which will give a nice reduction in her AC/HP with less agro generation than a comparable amount of damage dealt.

ONE enchanter should tash Vox. The enchanters should work out IN ADVANCE amongst themselves who will do this. Once done, announce in OOC the success.
All enchanters, except the tash enchanter, begin mana sieve on Vox until she is dead. Tash ench, begin after completing tash.

Bind rush applies. If you gain agro, keep at it if you can and once you die mem mana sieve and charge back in. You should have bound at the bottom of the ramp.

Stand near the back end of Vox, this should help you prevent getting hit by AE damage.

SHAMAN(Debuff) All shaman need to communicate ahead of time who will handle what debuff. Ideally, we should have each individual shaman responsible for one debuff.

Announce success in /ooc

Hamar has been the best proponent of debuffing strategy, and a loyal attendee. Whenever he is there I'll probably have him coordinate shamans/debuffs.

Going by memory, and this is entirely as Hamar has suggest in e-mails I don't have in front of me, debuffs are: Malosi, ac, strength, slow..

DOT's
Shamans, after dropping the debuff on Vox, drop a nice DOT. I'm unfamilar with debuffing and what stacks though. Necros and druids drop DOT's as well.. especially Necros. NUKING CLASSES
A little feedback would be appreciated as to nuke selection, but here are my thoughts:
Select fire based nukes and don't worry too much about agro.. By the time nukes are called for, Vox's life should be low, others should have agro built and if you die you just mem nuke again and return.

Bind rush applies, you should have bound in the hall at the bottom of the ramp. Upon dying, mem your best nuke charge and go at it!

PET CLASSES
Mages: Summon WATER pets. These will resist Vox's AE. It has been suggested to use air pets to stun.. I'm still inclined to go with water as I don't fully trust the idea of stunning to prevent CH.

Pet classes: Have pets up, but DO NOT SEND IN UNTIL CALLED! If you for any reason expect they might go in (such as if you are hit with AE) only summon them when they are called to go in. The call for pets should be around 60% Vox's health.
NECROS: While I have your attention, do not use any nuke that changes Vox into a skeleton. It makes her hard to find and will take away from the effectiveness of the melee classes, and if she dies, it makes it hard for me to ensure fair looting.. And it deprives folks of a great photo op =)

BIND RUSH!!!

Let me put some big time emphasis on the importance of this! I've had a Naggy raid where Naggy went down due to the stubborn persistance of the folks on the bind rush, many of whom you wouldn't ordinarily count as nukers. Well, after a long bunch of effort, they did it!

Also, I've been a guest on a Vox raid where bind rush was not used. That one failed, and it should not have. 3 Complete Heals says they did MORE than enough damage, but the enchanters (there were 3 which is plenty) didn't get to come back in to finish their job.

Please, any caster, including healers, bind at the point where the raid charges from! If and when you die, what you do may depend on your class:
-Wizards: Plain and simple, mem your best nuke and have at it!
-Enchanters: For Vox you will want to mana sieve until Vox is dead. This assumes the initial dispel was done and tash was landed.
-Necros & Mages: Mem pet and acquire component. I'll try to have someone on hand to distribute bone chips or malachite.
-Necros: Mem a nuke or dot, just no turning dragons into a skeleton please =) It makes them hard to find, and can make ninja-looters harder to see.
-Mages: For Vox, you're all set.. Mem fire based nukage. For Naggy, you got things a little harder. No cold nukes available =( Try magic based, you might land them if the MR buffs were landed and are still there.
-Shaman: Mem debuffs and/or DOT's.. I'd put debuffs as priority I think, slowed the dragon might take a little longer to take down the next victim with melee.
-Druids/clerics: Assess the situation.. I'm just going to guess if you've died the rest of your melee in your group did too. If there is little to none available to heal, mem nukes.. cold for Naggy, fire for Vox.. If not available, I know clerics can also summon hammers and melee.

Feel free to send in corrections, I'm not up on the caster stuff so well so I appreciate any feedback and I'll update based on what I hear. =)