This is just a few things I've thought of that might help everyone survive raids better and just make things a little easier during them in general...
First of all:
+10 All Your Gears. If it's a piece of armor that can be upgraded, UPGRADE it. (I know it goes against our instincts in a server full of people with Thanas, but in raids, DEFENSE COUNTS... DEF, DEF, DEF, the more DEF the better...)Under no circumstance should you wear these cards:
GHOSTRING -- A lot of monsters in raids are Ghost element, which unlike most other elements means they will just kick your ass even harder if you are also Ghost element... (EDIT: Actually, there is one circumstance. Bring along an extra GR armor for the waves with the Asura monsters...)
TAO GUNKA , SKOLL(s), or any card that lowers your defense or vit-defense for that matter... -- Self-explanatory, see above. You may have lower HP, but your new-found damage reduction will more than make up for it.
FALLEN BISHOP HIBRAM -- You need SP, and I don't think any raid mobs are demi-human anyway... If you're a sniper and you accidentally wear FBH through a raid, you'll run out of seeds in like 5 minutes... Just wear Firelock Soldiers if nothing else.
As far as armor cards are concerned, if you're a sniper/physical-damage-dealer then you should either be wearing 2x Gloom Under Nights, 2x Ktullanux, or a combo of the 2 for a third armor if you like, for damage... If you're a priest like me, or any other class that's not there solely to deal damage, then stick a Hatii card or 2 in there, maybe a Puppetring too. Those two in particular will freeze/stone a lot of mobs if you find yourself in a huge gang (fish fish fish fish fish), so I like 'em...
I'm not sure this even needs to be said, but everyone should always default their shield card to GTB. Preferably in a Valkyrja's Shield, which is good for further reducing damage from certain mobs (Item # 2115, dropped by Valkyries)...
This probably goes without saying as well, but Assassin Cross card is essential for priests. Maybe not all the time, as I personally don't think priests should just sit in a corner doing nothing the whole raid, but Nightmare's asura still hurts like hell, and nothing's more embarrassing than a dead raid priest... *Cough* ._.'
A Moonlight Flower card in your boots couldn't hurt, so you don't have to keep switching off GTB to use speed buffs.
Bring an FCP'er if you can afford to... Or just try to keep your distance. Several raid mobs like to strip things (or everything) when you get too close ... which is annoying.
I've been on a lot of raids where people obviously know what they're doing as far as killing things, but for some reason Kades' Sonic Blow still does like 50,000 a hit (for example) -- he does about 350 a hit to my priest, which just wears a knight set and Vit gaunts, so ... hopefully this will help some people.
That's all I can really think of at the moment, but feel free to add onto or improve on anything I've said so far-- or just tell me I'm full of BS, whichever.
