Getting into a good raid group can be tough. How do you do it?

I think I’m pretty lucky when it comes to raiding. I don’t mind doing LFR (much) and am in a guild that regularly runs normals and sometimes heroics, so I have easy access to raids that are more of a challenge if I want them. Since I’m not the raid leader, all I really have to show up with my gear repaired and consumables in order and in we go. (And, honestly, if I don’t have consumables, it’s pretty much a certainty that someone else will have some for me. ) As long as I’m willing to make a fairly minimal effort, I can get in on raids with a friendly group that’s unlikely to yell at me when I roll off the platform while fighting Argus. (They will laugh, though. I’m pretty good at rolling off platforms. What is with raids and their lack of safety railings?)

Not everyone has that, though. I know plenty of players who rely on LFR when they want to raid, though the LFR experience is, at best, disorganized. Casual guilds don’t always manage to delve into raids — and when they do, they often fall to pieces in the conflict between players wanting to push content and players wanting to keep things casual. And guilds devoted to raiding often have strict scheduling and gear requirements, which can put them out of reach of people who have to juggle WoW with work and family.

And recently, watching a pour soul beg for people to join his Mythic Nighthold run (which apparently got derailed at Trilliax), I started to wonder just what people do when they want to raid but don’t have a guild to help them do it.

Getting into a random group via LFR is as simple as a few mouse clicks (and some waiting). But if you want anything more than LFR difficulty? That’s trickier. And sometimes that means you’re stuck in trade asking repeatedly if anyone’s willing to heal Trilliax.

And even if you do manage to get a random group together, raids get difficult once you move beyond LFR — and especially difficult when you go all the way up to Mythic. They require the sort of coordination a thrown-together group is going to have trouble matching. Honestly, I can’t see how a PUG of this kind can be anything other than an exercise in frustration.

So I’m asking you, dearest readers. How do you run your raids? Do you LFR, rely on your guild, or go the completely random route? Or perhaps you’ve given up on the raid game because LFR can be a misery and it can be tough to get a random group together. Tell me your secrets so that I may steal them! (Uh. I  mean share them. Definitely share them.)