Raiding 101

Equipment recommendations
Equipment recommendations are for T7 raiding
Armor and Weapons - Resists are the first thing you should look at. First make sure you don't get killed, then worry about your DPS or healing performance.
You need around 3500 in all resists to survive entry level T7 raiding (easy KoS zones). This is not hard to achieve using a mix of Mastercrafted, Legendary and Treasured gear. Probably need at least 5000-6000 in resists in the harder KoS zones.
When signing up to a raid, check if any special resists are needed.
Also buy a couple of Grandmaster's/Dedicated xxxx Reprieve (where xxxx is Noxious, Elemental or Arcane). They are made by Alchemists and ward against damage, and can be used from level 62 up.
If you can't afford the best equipment, you can buy some cheap Handcrafted resist jewelry to swap in when we get to an enemy with a nasty AE (though you'll lose the stats you get from better jewelry). This can be very efficient, especially if you have several sets for different types of damage. For instance, buying two handcrafted earrings, two finger rings and a necklace with cold/heat resists will give you over 3500 vs. cold/heat, and doesn't cost much.

Some mobs are immune to some types of damage, and more vulnerable to others. If you're doing melee DPS, it's a good idea to bring several different weapons (pierce, slash, crush).

There are two good reasons to save your old amor:
You can choose the armor with the resist you need for the moment.
You have a spare set if your repair status goes down to zero.

Spells and skills
Please try to upgrade key spells to A3 or Master. Especially:
-group buffs, heals, tank mitigation/avoidance buffs
-mob de-buffs, resist buffs
-damage

Equipment status
You are expected to come to raid with your equipment at 100% condition. Plan time before raid to stop by mender to make this true. Also plan to bring a couple of patch kits along.

Raid conduct

Before the raid: Sign up to raids on the boards, using this format:

Myname, level Class
For instance,
Maiah, 74 Conj

Make note of the time, meeting place, and any special resists needed.
Be at the meeting place at or before the prescribed time. If you are late, your place may go to someone else.

Communication
Ventrilo is HIGHLY recommended, even if you can just listen.
Ventrilo is primarily for raid leader, MT/MA, and for urgent messages like "Adds incoming!". Instructions and directions will be given in Ventrilo, brief instructions will be in Raid Chat.
Raid Chat is primarily for raid related comments, like LOOT ROLLS!!!
If you have something important but non-urgent to say, tell it to your group leader, and ask him/her to notify the raid leader. This is so the raid leader doesn't get swamped with tells.

Use /say, /gsay and /raidsay in macros only when necessary.
Unless your raid carefully coordinates debuffing, and people save their big nukes until you cast your debuff, people probably don't need to know.
Tell your group or make a macro to send tells to healers if you're a about to do a Lifeburn - not the entire raid.

Going AFK
We usually have a 5 minute pause every hour. Be sure to use the AFK flag if you leave your computer.
If you absolutely have to go AFK unexpectedly, please
-tell it in group
-set /follow on your group leader and tell him/her
-set up /AFK flag (remove it when back) so all can see you are AFK

Command 'all die' or 'wipe' issued by raid leader
In such case, find some nice place hopefully not on spawn point of any mob, close to original fight and wait for encounter to come kill you, will not take long. If you can feign death, do so. Do not try to run away for your life out of visual contact from battle field. Once dead, stay dead. Do not click revive automatically, wait for raid leader instructions on how to proceed. It is possible healers will need to revive you where you are, or all will have to revive at same time, or all need to be dead before first person revives so aggro breaks properly/effects removed, etc. When asked to revive make sure you selected right instance, most of the times wrong one is the default option.

Active items and doors in raid zones, zone in/out
Raid zones can be full of traps, for instance, mobs that spawn as soon as you click something. Don't click ANYTHING unless the raid leader says so, or you may wipe the raid.
There may also be items that need to be clicked for quest updates, and if not everyone does it in the right order, some may miss out on the update.
The same thing goes for quest NPCs: hailing these may spawn mobs or cause your buddies to miss their quest updates, so don't interact with any NPCs unless the raid leader says so.
The same thing goes for zoning: Clicking a door may cause the entire raid to enter the raid zone unprepared, leading to a wipe. Zoning out may cause you to get locked out, which means the raid will be understaffed.
Therefore, don't interact with ANYTHING in the raid zone unless the raid leader says so.

Group leader duty
Invite/kick people in/out group as fast as possible to follow RL commands quickly.
Group leader can't go AFK until s/he gives leadership to another active group player.
When RL says 'Everybody here?' group leaders immediately check if whole group is ready to action (fight, zone etc) and sends report to raid channel.
Receive questions/ideas from group members and pass them on to raid leader.
Answer questions from newbies in group, refer to experienced raider if a class question.

Tactics
Assisting
At the beginning of raid, raid leader will tell you who is Main Tank (MT) and Main Assist (MA). The MT's job is to keep the mob hitting on him. The MA's job is to show people who to hit.

All DPS classes (scouts, fighters and mages) should target through the MA, unless othewise instructed. All healers should target and heal the MT first, and take care of group members second.
If you make a macro, it should read "/target Mainassistname", not "/assist Mainassistname". Do not forget to update the assisting macro every time main assist is changed.
Do not attack BEFORE assisting message!
The MT usually warns 10 seconds before s/he engages. Don't attack yet.
The MT then tries to build up hate with the mob. Don't attack yet.
When the MT has enough hate, the MA will tell you to assist. Now you may attack.

Do not target anything else unless you're told. Exception: Healers can target what they want for healing purposes, and may do DPS through the MT.

Debuffs
Mitigation/WIS/Resist - Will make the mob go down faster. Use them as standard part of fight while assisting MA.
Max Health/Max Power debuffs decreases the mob's Max Health/Max Power by a fixed amount (more against Epics than Heroics, and more against Heroics than Solo mobs). Health debuffs are useful, but Power debuffs are meaningless since all mobs have huge power pools, and it's almost impossible to make them run out of power.
INT/DPS/STR - Will decrease the amount of damage the mob will do to us. Use them against tough mobs that risk taking someone down.

Area of effect spells
Sometimes the raid leader will tell you not to use AoE damage. Sometimes encounter-only AoE is allowed, sometimes no AoE at all. Every raid member HAS to know their spells and make sure they don't cause AoE when they shouldn't. As a general rule, never use AoE spells unless specifically instructed they are okie in that situation.
Remember:
-Single-target spells have a RED background.
-Encounter-only AoE spells have a GREEN background.
-Cross-encounter AoE spells have a BLUE background.
-Tank and mage pets do AoE. Scout pets only do single-target damage.

Pets should be set to NOT defend themselves or their master - in game commands for this are "/pet preserve_master OFF" and "/pet preserve_self off"
Buffs can cause AoE - for instance a damage shield on the tank can cause damage to the entire enemy encounter.

Mesmerized mobs
Casting an Spell/Combat Art will wake up the mob you're targeting. Of course, only that mob will take any damage. Theoretically, an AoE spell will not break mezz unless directed at the mezz'd mob, but this can be unreliable. Further, you should be very careful casting DoT spells. If a mob is hit by a DoT spell, and then mesmerized, it will wake up every time the DoT causes damage.
Also remember that some armor and spells will proc an AoE that will break mezz. Debuffing spells will not break mezz if the spell does NO damage.

Movements
If raid force has to move one person (usually the MT) is selected as the person that has to be followed. NO ONE can outrun this person even if s/he knows where raid is moving.

DPS players - aggro management
DPS players, please control your damage output so you do not take aggro from main tank. The main tank has a limited amount of abilities s/he can play to hold aggro. Even when tanks are played in the most effective manner during the fights, there is no way for a tank to be able to hold aggro if you are approaching your full DPS potential, it is a fact. Reduce the level of DPS to an amount that does not cause the mob to run after you. Do it even when it means you will not play your best DPS spell/skill and it will reduce your DPS output dramatically compared to the 'theoretical maximum' you could deal if the issue with getting aggro would not exist, it does. Main tank losing aggro to DPS is one of the RL's worst nightmares. It never passes unnoticed and is always considered to be fault of DPS person. We know you have wonderful spells/skills that if used will deal huge damage, and 99% of the time will make you aggro 1 second later. Do not play them, or play them just to finish the mob.
If requirements on DPS players should be put in 3 lines it would be:
-never take aggro
-watch for resist report given by raid leader
-do as much damage as possible with proper skills/spells
.......in this exact order.
It cannot be stressed enough. We love DPS players that do A LOT of damage while not getting aggro, but DPS people that do extreme amount of damage run risk of taking aggro which can result in disaster.

Resist reports
Raid leader may provide, if known, resist report on mob before fight or during fight. It will look something like this 'POISON CRUSH RESISTANT'. It means we do not want anyone to cast posion based spells and use crush weapons on this mob at all, not even once to try it. Even when it means that the role of player is reduced to clicking hex dolls and playing 1 debuff, please stick to that. There might be unexpected follow on fight where the saved power will be needed, so do not use it anyway assuming it makes no difference, it does.