Running a raid, start to finish

The raid lead's loop, start to finish: post the raid, lock the roster, run it, close it out.

1. Create the raid

Run /raid create, then pick the raid, day, and time. Start from a saved template with template:, or set public: to open a public PUG raid anyone can apply to. Prefer the web? Create it under Planner → New.

Hootus posts the raid with signup buttons and opens a thread for it.

Members hit Tank, Healer, or DPS, or mark themselves Tentative or Absent. Withdraw pulls them back out. On a public raid, guests and PUGs sign up through the public link.

The raid post updates as signups come in.

3. Lock it

Locking sets the roster, creates the voice channel, DMs each signed-up raider their group and voice channel, and pulls anyone already sitting in the gather channels into voice.

Automatic: with auto-lock on, Hootus locks 30 minutes before start. Change the window under Settings → Raid automation.
Manual: run /raid start to lock early.

More signups than slots? /raid start stops and lists who's in the roster and who's over. Shaping the roster in the web planner first is the safe move. Rerunning with confirm:true benches the extras instead, but it cuts the last people to sign up in signup order with no role balancing, so it can bench your only healer.

4. Sweep up latecomers

A normal start already moved people, so you rarely need this. /raid pull is for stragglers who join late: hop into the voice channel you want everyone in, run /raid pull, and it drags signed-up raiders into that channel.

Pull only moves raiders sitting in the configured gather channels. Set those under Settings → Channels. With no gather channels set, pull moves nobody. Anyone sitting in some other channel stays put.

5. Finish up

Run /raid finish. Hootus closes the raid, clears the voice channels, drops a farewell in the thread, and sends the attendance widget for review.

Forgot? Hootus auto-closes a raid 5 hours after start and deletes the thread a day later.

6. Log the loot

Loot goes in after the raid is finished. Run /raid loot on the closed raid and paste your Gargul export, and Hootus shows you a summary of items and top looters. Pasting again replaces the log, it doesn't stack.

7. Attach the raid log

Point Hootus at a raid logs channel in Settings, Channels and he does this on his own: post a Warcraft Logs link there and he matches it to the raid, records who was in each fight and which bosses died, and ticks the message. He reads that one channel and no other.

If a log never made it to the channel, run /raid log on the raid and paste the link, or use Attach a log on the planner. /raid log with detach: true takes one back off a raid it should not be on.

Why bother: signups say who meant to come and voice says who turned up, but only the log says who was in the room. The planner shows you where those three disagree, including anyone in the fights that Hootus does not recognise. He records no parses, rankings or percentiles.

When something goes sideways

/raid reopen undoes a start you fired too early. Signups reopen, everyone keeps their spot, and the voice channel gets torn down. Locked raids only.
/raid kick removes one player's signup from the raid.
/raid relocate moves the raid post and its thread into another channel.
/raid status prints a quick roster and role readout.
/raid attendance re-posts the attendance widget when you need it again.

Called it off?

Run /raid cancel. It DMs everyone signed up, marks the thread cancelled, and cleans up the voice channels.

Commands in this guide

/raid create · /raid start · /raid pull · /raid finish · /raid loot · /raid reopen · /raid kick · /raid relocate · /raid status · /raid attendance · /raid log · /raid cancel