Raid Raid group s are a way to have parties of more than 5 and up to 30 ( usually 10 or 25 on later raids ; 40 for some old raids ) people , divided into up to 8 groups of up to 5 players . The terms " raid " and " raiding " primarily and traditionally refer to PVE raid - specific instances and zones . As party leader , a player can convert their group into a raid group by accessing the " Social " Panel , selecting " Raid " , and choosing " Convert Group to Raid . " From then on , any new players invited to the group will join the raid group ( up to a maximum of 30 ; 40 for some old raids ) . This requires at least 2 people ( i . e . a party ) . A person alone cannot form a raid group . While in a raid group , players do not receive credit for completing quest objectives unless the quest calls for a raid . Players also receive an experience reduction for any mob killed while in a raid group . These are to prevent players from creating very large groups in order to complete normal quests or other game content intended for parties of 5 or fewer . This experience reduction is simply that the usual " group XP bonus " is not applied while in a raid group . Generally , the minimum level to enter a raid is level 50 ( non - expansion ) with the minimum recommended level being 60 . Many instances requiring a raid are also subject to a raid timer . In Mists of Pandaria . In Patch 5 . 4 , a new Flexible Raid tier of difficulty introduced roughly between Raid Finder and Normal mode difficulty . It will scale down the bosses and drops from 10 to 25 1 / 2 players . In Cataclysm . As of Patch 4 . 3 . 2 , players can use Real ID to form cross - realm raids , but not with normal or heroic Dragon Soul . In Wrath of the Lich King . In " " , all 25 - player raids are also available to complete with 10 players . This is so that more players will get to see end game content . Even the Lich King encounter is available as a 10 player raid . Raiding as end - game content . Raids are designed as activities for people whose characters have reached the maximum level . As the game does not permit further increase of skills , or introduce new abilities , the only avenues remaining to enhance a character lay in " better gear " . Almost all raid events and bosses require that the raid members have particular levels of gear and skill , expressed as dps , damage mitigation , and / or healing ability . In addition , a majority of such bosses also require the group use particular , sometimes unique tactics . While occasionally those tactics mirror those used by smaller groups , they often require things that smaller groups simply don ' t have the diversity to do . Given these unique requirements , most raid boss encounters require some amount of practice to defeat . Sometimes the peculiarities of a boss encounter are such that being vastly overgeared / overlevel will not permit the raid to ignore the designed tactics . Raiding guild s are guilds that devote some or all of their collective time to playing in raid instances , defeating ( or practicing to defeat ) raid encounters . They have the advantage of being able to get to know the abilities ( or lack thereof ) of their various members , and adjust their tactics accordingly . They also have a shared investment in the success of not just that raid , but future raids as well , a feature that " pick up raids " lack . Raiding guilds often use additional measures to enhance their chances of success , notably Voice _ over _ Internet _ Protocol software , and particular addons that provide timing , threat , and other services not available in the base WoW client . Raiding guilds and time commitment . There is some academic discussion about the concept of raids as they currently are designed in major graphical MMOs , primarily centered on how much of a player ' s time they consume . A typical World of Warcraft raid can take 3 - 4 hours once the group is able to complete it , and can take much more time over many sessions to get to that point . Basically , that it can take up as much of one ' s time as permitted . Generally , though , practical considerations ( work / school schedules , fatigue , etc ) will place limits on how much time a group spends raiding . There are , of course , extreme examples , such as a Final Fantasy XI raid that lasted 18 hours before they decided to quit . . World of Warcraft mitigates such long boss fights by adding enrage timers to bosses to ensure that a single fight does not last too long . Given the amount of time involved to be successful , there are some game developers and academics that feel that raiding can be a focus for obsession , impacting a person ' s ability to care about real life goals and accomplishments . Players should be aware of these factors when deciding if they want to get into raiding or to what extent they want to get into raiding . Starting a raid . The leader of a party can convert the group to a raid by clicking the " Convert to Raid " button in the Group window . At this point it becomes a " group of parties " with up to 8 parties , each with 5 characters . The leader of the raid can drag characters between groups to move them to different parties ; typically , this is done to achieve some strategic goal such as distributing shamans and paladins to share totems and auras or warriors with rogues for Battle Shout ( note that this is no longer needed in current patch ) . The leader can promote other characters , which gives them the abilities to invite and kick from the raid and also use the broadcast raid warnings ( using the " / rw " command ) . See Raiding for newbies for further details . Raid mods . There have been many mods produced specifically for raiding . Level 80