2/22/10

So they didn't use the article, but since it's already written...

And because I ran into someone I actually voted "yes" to kick for the first time last night - ok, that first: There was a DK in my Heroic ... Old Kingdom, because I can't remember how to spell AK, who was in the group as DPS. We kept telling him - if you keep running out ahead of the tank, you're going to die; please stop taking us with you. Two wipes entirely caused by him running ahead of the tank and pulling stuff later, we get rid of him, and the replacement takes over as tanking, which lets our previous bear tank go cat. The rest of the instance (the last three bosses, skipping only mushroom man) was done in maybe fifteen minutes.

But yeah, I wrote up one of those "5 tips" submissions for wow.com, but didn't get picked. Since I've already got it written and that DK reminded me of it, I'm popping it up here.

Five tips for DPS running random heroic dungeons

Random heroics tend to get different groups of people together: the “Woohoo, I hit 80!” crowd, the “Damn it, I got rolled out of ICC-25 again” crowd, and the “All I do is heroics” crowd, possibly with some other miscellanies thrown in.

As DPS, you can use a variety of tactics to make the randoms go more smoothly, both socially and mechanically.

1. Don’t stress your tank and/or healer. You don’t know when you start a random instance how good your tank or healer is, so play it safe until you find out if it’s okay to open up the throttle all the way. As they say on WoW_ladies, you can’t heal stupid (and they don’t all say it, but you don’t heal jerks). Don’t be stupid or a jerk.

If you don’t already have an assist macro or keybind, now is a good time to make one. Personally I prefer to focus the tank and use a /targetfocus keybind (in my case, G), supplemented by an /assist keybind (for me, F). So after initially focusing the tank (also useful for my Misdirect macro as a hunter), I spend much of my time just using G->F to pick my targets.

Wait for the tank to hit stuff before hitting it yourself, including if you’re going to AOE a trash pack. Pulling aggro because your tank hasn’t had a chance to touch something stresses both the tank and the healer. And don’t run away from the tank when you do pull aggro. Running away just means you’re tanking it longer. Related to that: It’s not your job to pull. This is not Molten Core; this is a 5-man heroic instance. The tank can shoot/throw shields at/freeze/faerie fire mobs all by him- or herself.

Don’t stand in fires. Or lightning novas. Or bright green poison pools. You have projected textures turned on, right? If you can’t turn on projected textures because your computer is too old, at least watch your debuffs. The first time I healed Halls of Stone in a random heroic, two melee DPS stood in Sjonnir’s lightning nova. I’m an undergeared discipline priest, and the tank was squishy. The two melee DPS died because I had to spam-heal the tank to keep him up. If your healer says it’s okay to stand in Loken’s nova, then it’s okay, but don’t do it unless you’ve already gotten the go-ahead.

2. Don’t roll on gear for your offset until you find out if the active tank or healer needs the gear. It’s just not polite. Given the risk of things getting sharded if you greed on them, ask if the tank or healer is going to roll on something you want for an offspec, and if they don’t want it, then feel free to need. Loot rules vary from server to server, guild to guild, party to party, but needing for offspecs over people actually playing those roles will not make you a lot of friends.

3. If your class can tank or heal but you don’t have the spec or the gear for it, don’t queue for the roles just to get in faster. I’ve seen so many groups fall apart and had to sit out the 15 minute debuff because the warrior queued to tank as Arms in Arms gear. (And I’d rather re-queue than sit and wait for a new tank for yet another Halls of Stone run.) Queue as DPS, wait it out, and then tear the place up. I tend to do dailies during the DPS queue. (Or take out the garbage, make dinner, etc.) Just make sure whatever you do in the meantime lets you still see your screen, because coming back to your computer right as your “Dungeon is ready!” notice is expiring sucks.

4. Figure out the basic mechanics of your class before you get to the point of random heroics. Melee should stand behind mobs. Distracting shot is a taunt. Frost presence is bad for Death Knights who aren’t tanking. It’s okay if your DPS isn’t ICC-25 quality, as long as it’s not Karazhan-quality. (If you’re only doing 500 DPS at level 80, please, please, go find a mentor.)

Some of you have crowd-control abilities that can be used to supplement a new-ish tank who doesn’t have as much health as you might like, or a weak healer who can’t keep the tank up through more than a couple mobs at a time. (Traps, sheep, saps, etc.) I know we’re all AOE-happy nowadays (I myself have the talents to maximize Volley), but rather than drop group and sit out the debuff, actually using your abilities properly might make a run work out. If they ever make instances like Shattered Halls or Shadow Labyrinth again, you’ll be very happy to know how to effectively crowd-control.

5. Hold off a little on the /votekick until you find out if the person is hopeless or just new. You’ve been playing since launch. You’ve seen most of ICC-25’s current content die. And, oh, my God, that rogue is doing 500 DPS. Rather than immediately vote-kick them, first see if any glaringly obvious problems stick out. (In a rogue’s case, are they spec’d Subtlety? Mutilate with swords? Standing in front of mobs? Stacking spirit?)

A lot of new 80s are open to advice, and the more newbies you educate, the fewer abysmally terrible players you’ll run into. If they just don’t want to listen and are keeping you from actually finishing the instance, though, /votekick may be in order. If your DPS is good enough to get by with their minimal contribution, it may be faster to just keep going.

Running random heroics with someone of a different playstyle than your own can be frustrating (or, if you’re a fresh 80 and you’re looking at someone with tier 10, intimidating), but you can run randoms together successfully.

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