Things I've Learned as a Raid Leader

I haven't done a huge amount of raid leading, especially lately, but I've done enough to figure out a few things. Leading raids is difficult. It's a pain to get groups together. It's hard to deal with people who are always late or sign up without actually showing up or are just generally annoying to play with. It's difficult because you're interacting with real people with different personalities. On the other hand, successfully pulling a group of 25 people together and killing a major raid boss is extremely satisfying.

I write this from the perspective of a raid leader who is also the main tank, mostly because this is my experience but also because a lot of raid leaders do actually also happen to be the MT. The reason for that seems to some combination of research (good tanks already know the fight and naturally guide the rest of the group) and tradition (people just seem to be used to the image of tanks being out front and leading). Most of this is also fairly obviously, but I write from the view of someone with a smaller guild who is just starting to lead, which was me not too long ago.

The role of raid leader various across guilds. It doesn't have to be the main tank or even necessarily the person whose chat color is red. I generally see the raid leader as the person who the group trusts to hold the raid together and push the group to boss kills. Sometimes it's multiple people.

The most important thing I've learned as a raid leader is delegation, so most of what I've written can be summed up with just that. It's insane for one person to take on everything, especially in 25-man content. Here are a few things I've figured out:

Don't get discouraged - Sometimes it's easy to get a raid group together, but other times it can be heartbreaking when you schedule a 25-man raid and log on to see only 9 people signed up. Don't immediately give up. Start spamming guild chat. This is also where your friends list comes into play. Your biggest hurdle is crossing the 10-15 people mark. Once you've got that, you should have momentum to make it easier to fill the rest. Don't be afraid to go ahead and run with 2 or 3 slots unfilled.

You won't be perfect - And your group will understand this. I was very anxious the first few times I led Kara groups and was totally stressed out the first gruul raid I tried to help run. While you should at least have a decent idea of the trash pulls and boss fights of the raid you're in, no one expects you to know everything. Don't be afraid to ask for help or ideas.

Let someone else ML- You should be taking a break during looting and also getting the next trash mob group marked.

Let someone else assign heals/misdirects - You should take care of tanking assignments and marking, but that's it.

Let someone you trust call out critical events in the middle of boss fights - As has been said before on other tanking blogs and forums, when your entire screen is filled with the crotch of a huge boss, you're not in the best position to physically see what's going around you. Besides, the tanking rotation is more complex than any other class, so you've got plenty to do without having to worry about making sure you tell your cube clickers when to click.

Don't lead every raid - Even if you don't notice it, leading raids takes a toll, and you're asking to get burned out if you never take a break. Every once in a while, do a raid where all you have to do is show up on time, follow instructions, do your thing, have fun, and leave with some badges. This also gives raid lead experience to others.

So what does that leave to be done? - Plenty. Things like:
-Inviting/organizing the raid
-dealing with all the whispers you get
-getting each trash mob group marked quickly
-keeping an eye on your off-tanks to gauge their ability for future reference
-filling open raid spots from members who drop or have to leave early
-deciding which strategies to use & explaining the plans to the raid

Every guild does it a little differently, but those are the best things that have helped me out.