Finding a place in a normal SoO raid

Question

So I have been playing WoW for a little while now, maybe a little over a year and have only just started getting into the fun that is raids.

It started because of the legendary quest-line requires you to go into raids to retrieve item drops from bosses. After I completed that I saw to reason why I shouldn't keep raiding for better gear, as my gear was pretty much on level with the flex raid drops it was time to start up normals.

Now here is my problem, there are always people asking for groups etc but a good 90% of the time they are asking for people with the achievement Ahead of the Curve. To be able to get this achievement you must Defeat Garrosh Hellscream on 10-Player Normal difficulty, how can I get this is no one is letting me into the raids without it?

I keep getting better gear via the timeless isle Ordos and Celestials and now have a iLvl of 555. Yet there are few willing to take me on because I do not have this achievement.

Is there anything I can do to better my chances to get into normal SoO raids? The only thing I can think of is try to get into a raiding guild but I seem to always join guilds that say they are raiding weekly but never do.

Answer 1

This tends to happen at the end of every expansion, where the people that have been playing longer just want to coast through and set higher and higher standards to get into their groups. It doesn't help that Garrosh on normal is a long fight, so people don't like to wipe on him multiple times. Unfortunately, your options are a bit limited:

Join a guild

The best option is to join a raiding guild that actually raids weekly. Note that SoO has been out for close to a year at this point, so many raiding guilds are experiencing fatigue. It becomes harder and harder to retain a consistent crew, especially as WoD beta invites begin to open up.

Something you can do is to look at guilds you think you might be interested in and see if they are actually inside the raid at the times they claim they raid. So, if a guild says they raid Tuesdays and Wednesdays, /who their guild on Tuesday night and see how many people are online and raiding. You won't be able to distinguish between LFR, Flex, or Normal, but if less than ten people are online, they may struggle to raid normal mode weekly. (Or, maybe they fill in with consistent out-of-guild members.)

Join a cross-realm group

It sounds like you're already trying this and not having much luck. There are addons like oQueue which can help with cross-realm raiding and may let you find some other group that doesn't require a Garrosh kill.

You can also try pleading by showing off your ilvl and your actual normal mode/flex mode experience. I don't recall significant mechanical differences between flex and normal aside from tighter dps/healing requirements, but it's been a long time since I've done Garrosh on flex. Maybe you'll get lucky and someone will waive the achievement requirement for you just to get their run going, especially if you demonstrate knowledge of the mechanics.

Or, you can try to cheat the requirement with an achievement faker or by linking someone else's achievement in the hopes nobody reads the name. However, if you do this, make sure you're prepared for the fight in advance, or else the raid leader will figure it out and be unhappy.

Lead your own raid

I'm sure you're not the only one in this position. You could try forming a group yourself (thus, setting your own requirements) and attempting to find people that are willing to join. Be prepared to spend a while setting up the group, and these groups usually are only good for one night.

If you don't need gear, extend and repeat until you work your way to Garrosh. Some people won't mind skipping the first half of the instance for a shot at the BoA weapons and tier token off Garrosh.

Answer 2

You could also try http://openraid.eu/

It is a site where people try to find people for raids during the next few weeks. There are raids organized with different requirements and for players with different experience, so you may have much more luck finding raid spot there then in /trade.