Username
Password
The standard raid night for most guilds takes up between three to four hours of time. Some guilds have longer raid nights than that, and those are the guilds that typically tear through raid content the fastest. The more nights a guild spends per week raiding, the easier it is for their members to stay sharp and focused.
The key to being successful in WoW without it taking over one's life is scheduling raids. Certain nights are typically less socially demanding than others – for example, Friday and Saturday nights are usually spent going out with friends, seeing movies, dates, events, and other social functions. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursday nights, however, are typically less active. Notice that these are sweeping generalizations, so this might not be true of everyone, but they are true of most people. Raids must be coordinated to fit the schedules of either 10 or 25 different people, so it's important to keep in mind that scheduling for raids needs to fit everyone's needs, not just a few individual's needs.
In truth, guilds can (and have) progressed as far as Black Temple and Sunwell with only two or three dedicated raiding nights per week. How far one guild progresses as opposed to another depends entirely on how well the raid members work together as well as how well each individual raid member plays his or her class. The more nights a guild sets aside for raiding, the faster it will progress. For example, it is perfectly possible to progress into Black Temple with only one night per week dedicated to raiding, but it will take a lot longer to do so than if three or four nights were set aside.
Self-discipline is also important in keeping a distinct barrier between one's real life and raiding life. There are several guilds on my server that push their members until they physically cannot stay awake any longer and keep raiding. These guilds raid up to 6 nights per week and are extraordinarily demanding of their members. While they have seen much success as far as reaching and pushing far into Sunwell Plateau, raids leave most members drained both physically and mentally.
While it's tempting to keep pushing or to re-clear the instance when mobs start to repop so one can get another few cracks at a boss, sometimes it's best to simply call it a night and try again another night. One problem many guilds face from time to time is that of "burn out," when players are simply so tired of a particular instance that they stop showing up, or even stop playing.
On one of the loading screen tips, it says, "Remember to take all things in moderation (even World of Warcraft!)." This is something to keep in mind; sometimes to prevent burn out, it's best to cancel a raid. If many of the regular players in a raiding guild are getting tired of a particular instance, it may be a good idea for that guild's raiding leader to instead schedule a different instance, or perhaps to cancel the raid altogether and give his or her raiders an off night. This is obviously not a practice that is directly helpful in downing a raid boss nor something that should be done regularly, but it is helpful in keeping morale up, especially if said guild is halfway through a new progression instance and there hasn't been a new boss kill (or at least reasonable progress on a new boss) in weeks.
