World of Warcraft at Ten Ton Hammer

The Dungeon Finder launched in patch 3.3 and has become an instant success.  It allows players from several servers to all queue together for instances making wait times for groups significantly shorter for many players.  It also allows players to earn additional badges that can be spent on items and a cool little Pug Puppy for those that collect pets.  It has some ups and downs though and requires a little bit of knowledge to get the most out of it. 

What should you know and how can you get the best experience when using the Dungeon Finder is what this guide looks at.

Expect a wait, unless you're a Tank

The first thing to know when you sign up for a group with the dungeon finder is to expect a wait.  How long the wait is really depends on a couple of things.  For example if you are looking for a random heroic I have experienced the following on my realm:

• Tank – Instant
  
• Healer – 1-2 minutes
• DPS – 10+ minutes

Wait times can be long as DPS

If you are looking for a lower level random or a specific instance at any level, expect longer waits.  I have seen waits up to 25 minutes for non-80 instances, but have also seen instant groups even when joining as DPS in a sub-80 group.  So while anything can happen, be prepared for a wait and have something to do in the mean time, be it crafting, farming, etc.  Expect longer waits on DPS and almost no wait when tanking.

Be Prepared and be Respectful

When you go into an instance, be prepared for your role and the instance itself. 

If you sign up as a healer, make sure you have your healing gear with you and that you have mana potions and water.  If you are a class that requires reagents for buffs, make sure you have some.  No mater your class make sure you have some food / water with you so that you can replenish your own health and mana in between fights.  Know that not everyone is going to be prepared, so it may be worth while carrying an extra stack of each, even if you do not use water, to hand out as needed.  When you do though, explain to players that they now owe someone in a future group and should pass on the food / water and a reminder to bring their own in the future.

As for the instances themselves, make sure you have a basic understanding of the instance, or if you don’t be sure to ask what you need to know before you start.  Most importunately make sure you have time for an instance.  Do not sign up for a run if you only have 10 minutes, you are not going to get anything done. When you leave you will make it harder on the other players to finish.

Remember when you enter a group in any game you are committing not only your time but other players’ time as well.  Do your best to make sure you are ready and prepared to go and survive.  If you are not sure you can stick around for a whole instance, don’t join.  If you are not sure you are geared for an instance, ask around before joining.  If you get into a hard heroic or instance that you know you are not ready for, leave the group and allow someone else to join in.

Learn to Lead

Knowing that you spend some time reading about WoW means you are probably more prepared than most WoW players already.  This also probably means that you know more about the instances than the other players do. If this is true, make sure you select leader when you are picking your role on the dungeon finder and make use of your knowledge.

When you enter an instance with a group, ask some simple questions such as:

• Everyone know this instance?
• Anyone have any questions?
• Does the tank want lead to mark (assuming you are not the tank)?
• Anyone need any of the fights explained?

In many cases everyone will know the instance, especially when running heroics, but you may find some players that don’t know them.  Taking a few minutes to explain something can save you a significant amount of time running back from the graveyard. 

If you see someone doing something wrong, explain what they need to do and why.  In general, people will listen to a polite, organized leader.

Help others learn

Select the roles you can fill

For many players instances and group play are not something they are used to doing, especially if they just finished levelling to 80.  Knowing that this could be the case  going in to a PUG be prepared for it and when you see someone that doesn’t know what they are doing try to give them a hand.

I ran into a great example of this when running a heroic daily with a guildie the other day.  I was tanking and he was healing, the group we got put into was a pretty solid group and by doing a quick look at my in game gear score mod I was thrilled, it looked like we would have all DPS over 3k pretty easy and it would be a fast run.  Then reality set in.  There was a Warlock that had really good gear (all level 232 and higher) but was only pulling 1200 DPS, worse he was pulling aggro from my Pally tank, huh?

Luckily the guildie healer plays a warlock as well and pulls huge DPS, so I asked him to look at the meters and see what was up.  He found that the player was using almost every spell they had, not any kind of rotation at all.  We asked the player what was up, and they said they had just switched to a new build.  The healer then looked and explained the rotation for that build (and corrected them that you never put 71 points in one talent tree).  Taking 5-10 minutes, while still fighting trash, to explain some basics to the player took them from 1200 DPS on the first boss to 3000 DPS on the second.  Once the player uses a proper build, which was also shared with them, their DPS will go up even more.   

Another less drastic example but a great way to improve a player’s experience is to teach players that they do not need to fill gem slots with the colour gem that the slot is.  Since using the Dungeon system I could not count the number of players that I have run into that still do not understand that the colours of the socket are just to get the socket bonus.  Many players are giving up a lot of their primary stat by following the colour of the socket instead of going for what they need.

There are many other things you can do to help others out.  If it is something simple and can be done quickly there is no reason not to.  Don’t feel you have to teach them the whole game, but a few pointers here and there can greatly improve how they play, and hopefully make your 20 – 60 minutes with them in the instance smoother.

Imagine how much more they will enjoy the game once they understand it a bit better.  Imagine how much better the ‘lock that almost tripled his DPS will feel about the game and how much more he can contribute to a group now.  Even jumping 200-300 DPS will give a player a huge advantage over what they were doing, and it really doesn’t take that much time.