A good way to balance zones ect... by yourself
 

Say your making a raid zone. Does anyone have a good method to balance it for say 6-8 people with out having 6-8 people to test?

math helps.

... ok sorry for trolling.

a few tips maybe:

- make it a bit harder then you feel its right, because you KNOW the zone, know the events, the abilities the mobs have etc
- calculate for what level and equipment the raid/zone is. create those toons as a gm and parse the dps output of the mobs and try to make it challenging, not impossible
- set up bots/mq'ed chars and try the event yourself. if you can do it, its probably too easy.

Math is definitely the secret. Get some parses for damage both single target (Tank) and aoe (rampage, spells, abilities) and compare that using the available gear, heals, mana regen available, etc. You want the encounters to be a challenge but not impossible.

No idea how to get parse is there a guide on it