World of Warcraft at Ten Ton Hammer

Get used to filling a required role

If you are like most players you have a favourite role to play in a group and don’t like to change out of it.  For most WOW players that role is DPS.  For many DPS is simply more fun, after all you get to charge in and kill stuff.  Being a tank or a healer just doesn’t cut it for most players adrenaline needs.  However, what do you always see being spammed “Looking for tank [or healer] for group for [instance or raid X] then ready to go”.  How often do you see “Looking for DPS”?  Didn’t think so.  DPS is replaceable, but that’s the next section, so we will leave it for now.

What this means is that if you want to find a group, learn to be flexible.  If you play a character that can either tank or heal, have one of those specs as your secondary spec.  Better than just that, get a set of gear and learn to use it.  Just signing up as a tank but not knowing the mechanics doesn’t do yourself or the group you go with any good.

Probably the worst example of this happened to me in the week after the release of the Dungeon Finder system.  The example is given here to warn players what they could look like if they go in unprepared.

I signed in on a lower level (level 74) alt to try out the random group finder at something other then level cap just to see how it worked.  Playing a hunter I expected a long wait but was pleasantly surprised to find a group in less than 2-3 minutes.  Having gotten into the group we started through AN with a Death Knight tank, awesome!  After the first pull, I noticed something wrong, the DK had low health, even for only being level 75.  Worse, he took way to much damage for a normal instance, what was going on, we almost wiped to trash.

I did a quick inspect and found the DK using unholy aura and mainly Pally healing gear!  HUH?  I promptly asked the DK to please put their tanking gear on as they must have forgotten their levelling gear on (politely ignoring the fact that they should have never been in that gear).  I was then told it was their tanking gear, they were using it since it had more armour than their other gear.  Double Huh?  When I tried to explain that it was Pally healing plate I was told to “#@*&% off, you are not the tank, I know what I am doing”.  I responded asking him to at least keep up Frost Aura for the extra threat, and was told “Leave me the hell alone, unholy allows me to attack faster meaning they die faster”. Triple wow! The healer was well geared and said, ok, let him try maybe I can keep him up regardless. Needless to say, we wiped and everyone left. Thinking about it afterwards I was even more shocked as WOW, this was a DK, meaning he already had a high level character and was still this clueless?

All this comes down to a simple point, don’t go into an instance and attempt to do something you don’t understand.  The DK may well have been a good DPS player, but as a tank he was literally clueless.  All you are going to do is waste yours and four other player’s times.  Take the time to learn these other roles with friends or try them on your own.  Read some of the basics on the class and spec you are trying, then get the gear ready, then practice in solo combat to get ready.  Once you are prepared try to find a group for an easy instance to try it out, preferably friends.  Once you have the hang of it, then jump into the random group finder and learn some more!

Remember, even those of us that understand a lot that goes on in the game don’t know everything.  The more you learn and understand, the more you realize there is to learn and understand.  This is a constant in WoW just as it is in any other part of life.

DPS is replaceable

Don’t get me wrong, good DPS is hard to find and even harder to replace.  DPS in a heroic or instance though is almost always replaceable.  What this means is that as a DPS player you should always go into an instance with something to prove. 

Play smart and surprise the tank and healer, make them count on you.  Remember any buffs you have, watch your agro, stun or slow down anything that gets loose and goes after the healer, and anything else you can do.  This is not typical DPS behaviour though, it should be, but tends not to be.  Strive for excellence to be your normal and it will make you irreplaceable.

Get rid of the bad apple

As much as it pains people to be mean, sometimes it is ok to be.  After struggling in a group for a while, if it really is obvious that someone just can not be there, use the vote to kick button.  This usually will come up with an under geared healer or tank, but can occasionally be a DPS. 

While it seems to fly in the face of the above statement that DPS is replaceable, you can generally get through an instance with low DPS.  If your tank or healer are not geared or capable though, you will never, ever finish the instance.  Give them a chance, sometimes a good player can pull it through even if under geared, but once it’s obvious lay the boot down on them.

While some players consider it rude to kick someone, I find it far worse that a player ruins the experience and wastes the time of four other players simply due to their lack of gear, skill, or knowledge.  I would however warn them and be as nice about it as possible.  Something like “Sorry but I just don’t think we can survive here with your tanking / healing.  We are going to try to find a replacement”.

The same can be done for DPS but really low DPS can still get you through.  Replacing DPS comes down to how fast you want to get through and how generous you are with carrying someone.  If it is a heroic and they are only doing 1200 DPS you may want to replace them, then again maybe not.  By the time the 15 minute time is up and you can replace them, you are likely almost done with the instance anyway.  If all DPS is so low that you are having issues, then maybe it is an option. 

Learn to cut your loses

Sometimes it happens that everyone in the group is horrible. Blizzard seems to do a decent job and putting together groups, but I have seen a few random heroic groups that don’t have a chance.  This could be a bad combination of poorly geared or player tanks and healers, all three DPS being super low, or players constantly AFKing or DCing.  Whatever the case may be, sometimes it becomes obvious that the group just will not cut it.

For example once I got put into a group on my Death Knight alt and we were given Halls of Reflection as the heroic instance.  While my gear is not great on the DK, it is just good enough to do HoR (being a harder instance than most) if I have a good healer and decent DPS.  We started the instance and the first wave took forever and we wiped on the second wave.  I then took some time to look at the group, and they were all in blues and greens, with only the occasional epic.  Knowing that I would eventually slip up and let something hit one of them, and that I require a lot of healing in the tanking gear I have (being an off set) it was better to just cut all of our loses and  leave. 

If we had been given almost any other heroic we could have made it through given some time.  Since the whole group was under geared though, it was far better to save everyone some time and just abandon ship.  You will come to these situations, learn to recognize them and get out quickly.