One of the most exciting things in World of Warcraft is learning to raid, and raid well. Yet not many people bother to master the art of raiding. Many will be at it for several weeks or even months and still not have gone on a real raid, due to the fact that can be that long before they even reach level eighty. Once there, the needed gear to join a group of raiders can be had from the five person instances, but it takes most a long time to get there. And a lot of people fail to become members of a guild, attempting to get through the raids with quickly assembled groups, only to learn too late that it's a real challenge to assemble such a team for instances more difficult then those requiring ten players.
While there are many critical elements to killer raiding, the most important is proper preparation; this is from the most highly ranked guilds in the country. So it's really no surprise that many players spend hours, weeks and months in preparation, attempting to make sure that every member in their group are up-to-speed on all aspects of raiding before embarking on one of the more challenging instances or taking down one of the bigger bosses.
The initial task to tackle in raid planning is learning the basics of the content that you will be facing, and how to best prepare. At this stage, determining who will lead the raid, the mechanics of your guild's protocols, and how communication will be handled during the raid are important elements here, more so that the actual strategy to be employed, or how your group will be composed.
The initial task for a potential raiding group is to pick who your leader will be. A good raid leader may not be the person who leads the guild (guild leaders have plenty of responsibilities already), but the person leading the raiding party will have an impact on just about every other thing your guild does - from gathering supplies to finding new players to building the protocols of the guild. This may hold even more true when the new guild system is put into play in Cataclysm.
The best person in charge of raiding is a player who is extremely knowledgeable with how the game works, the design of dungeons, and the roles of each class in a group of raiders. They shouldn't be an expert with merely their Rogue or their Healer. They should be able to understand and be able to order all classes that could join for a raid.
Importantly, they should also be strong, sound leaders. An individual with a lot of knowledge related to World of Warcraft who doesn't like people is probably not your best choice for a raid leader. They should be desirous of resolving issues fairly and resolving conflicts to keep party member from losing it. They should also be poised and shouldn't be one who would cause players to become mad with one another or shoulder the blame onto another player.
In a lot of guilds, there will be more than one person selected as the raiding party leader, so if you have a favorite, but he or she can't play when you can, you need to be able to make accommodations and be willing to work with and support whoever your raiding party may actually end up being.
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