What do raids give players?
For many experienced players reading this article, the first thing that comes to mind is loot. That is, if you ask people around: why do they go on a raid? - they will tell you that they are looking for powerful equipment for their character. Although many players still prefer to entrust such activities to professionals in the boosting service. It's safer to order mythic boosting, completing raids, getting certain items and simply leveling from the pros than wasting your energy on it. Well, for those who want to do everything on their own, we note that in fact, everything is a little more complicated. It seems to us that a lot of people go on raids for a variety of reasons. We will try to list all these reasons.

The very first reason is simply that a person is in a huge group of people engaged in one single task - a raid. This can be a more or less clear and defined activity in boss raids, or a less defined activity in, say, epic battlegrounds. But the very knowledge that you are doing something important with other people is, in our opinion, the most important thing that attracts people to raids. Another reason is the player's desire to take part in some epic, significant events within the game. PvE raids usually serve this purpose. The scheme is simple and ingenious: you always have at least one current raid, which you can go to on one of four difficulties, and throughout the raid, you will be told the details of the events taking place in it. For example, in the Icecrown Citadel raid, well-known far beyond WoW, one of the most famous WoW heroes, Arthas, was defeated. The current raid contains difficult opponents, so the reward for defeating them is great: characters who have equipment from the raid are much stronger than characters who do not engage in raids or activities of similar complexity. Few people know: that character equipment has a level, and the developers, at the moment, adhere to the rule of 1 ilvl 1% gain. In other words, the power between characters 200 ilvl and 226 ilvl is 26%, not counting other enhancements. More or less permanent teams are formed around raids: in fact, small organizations that have specific (sometimes not very specific) goals related to raids. Many WoW players do not play raids with random people, they play in static sites that have been assembled by a very specific organizing player - the raid leader. Players go on raids because they are pleased (or simply accustomed) to being in a group that is familiar to them. Teams can be both more organized and very simple. There are many more reasons why people go to raids: gathering and collecting (in each raid unique items drop: not only equipment with a unique appearance, but also other things - pets, mounts)

What happens in a raid and who is opposing the players?
Typically, a raid consists of two types of battles: battles with groups of elite opponents (called trash) and battles with very powerful opponents (called bosses). The best raid bosses are guaranteed to drop powerful equipment, while trash drops have a small chance. Regardless of the add-on, most likely in any raid you will encounter:

A very simple boss in terms of mechanics, who has a lot of health and powerful damage. This boss is called Patchwork by the players in honor of the very first variation of such a boss that players remember. Such bosses are Gryazeshmyak from Castle Nathria and Shed'har from Ny'alotha.

Several bosses with special combat mechanics. The abilities of such bosses are usually associated with these special mechanics: for example, on Inerva Darkwain in the Mythic mode of Castle Nathria, players need to be able to quickly complete a triangle with three players, having 4 points of this triangle on the battlefield; on Inquisitor Za'nesh, players played football with dark spheres that had to be driven into the goal, avoiding obstacles.

Multiple bosses entered the battle at the same time. Such bosses are called council bosses. The Blood Council in Castle Nathria consists of three bosses, the Generals of the Stone Legion - of two. The Collective Mind in Castle Nathria also consists of two bosses.

A boss who is helped throughout the battle by many minions. They are called additional enemies. Such a boss is Kael'thas in Castle Nathria, Vexiona in Ny'alotha. A boss with a lot of phases. A phase in raid battles refers to segments of the battle with the boss, which are usually tied to the boss's health or the time of the battle, during which the boss uses abilities unique to the phase. For example, the Stone Legion Generals from Castle Nathria have five phases (players consider them to be 3 phases and 2 transition phases). In the first two phases, we fight with the first General, in the next two - with the second, and in the last - with both Generals.

And finally, the final boss, which usually has many difficult phases and non-obvious battle mechanics. Denatria in Castle Nathria has 3 phases and 1 transition phase. In the first phase, players cleanse themselves of their sins in order to be able to go through the transition phase, which begins at 70.5% of the boss's health. In the second phase, players fight with Ser Denathrius' assistants, dealing damage to him along the way. And finally, in the last phase, the final boss uses all his power to overwhelm the players (and often succeeds).

Although raids in World of Warcraft are difficult, they are always very interesting. Therefore, if you have never tried it, then it's worth starting.