Elder Echo's top 10 dungeon tips

As my contribution to the Elder Blogging Event started off by Khi at Tree Burglar I decided to put down some of my general dungeon tips. In wow years I'm probably about middle aged and given my extensive range of alts I often have

Now a lot of bloggers have spoken about playing their alts and getting whinged at or told off by other people who think they can tell them how to play. Allow me to state firstly that I only give people tips when their playstyle is causing the party problems and secondly that I generally always try to do it via whisper.

That said playing on my balance druid and healing from said spec in randoms to get groups means I spend so little time actually doing any healing that I'm noticing what people are doing. So without further ado, here's what I've been trying to politely ask people do properly. So help be a constructive party member and don't do/ help out the newbies yourself!

1) Stop pulling shit that is miles away from the tank - this is fucking obvious. In addition to this let the tank get the initial aggro as they are more likely to hold it if you do.

2) Paladin tanks, stop casting exorcism when tanking groups of mobs. Your health spikes because WHILE CASTING YOU CANNOT PARRY, DODGE OR BLOCK! Ahem

3) All tanks - learn how to move with mobs. I understand that for many of you, the random dungeon system is first step you will take into tanking. That said, an important point to remember is that you lose a whole lot of avoidance if the mob isn't facing you. From behind you cannot block/parry/dodge, this is also the reason melee dps attack Bosses from behind.

4) Put your buffs up at the start and then renew them without asking. There's nothing more frustrating than having to wait for the one person who is too cheap to buff.

5) Look at mana levels. If your healer's mana is low then pulling more mobs is a guaranteed wipe unless they manage to pull something special out of the bag.

6) Hunters, please turn growl off. I know your pet can tank but its easier for the tank to pick up the mobs if they don't have to worry about your pet stealing one while they aren't looking. Its also a focus loss, so your pet will in fact do less dps while growling.

7) Warriors, hold off on charging in if you aren't tanking. Yes it gives you rage but it often prevents the tank from pulling stuff back. Wait for the tank to stop moving, then charge.

8) DKs, use Death Grip sparingly. Helping a tank out by pulling a caster into melee range is useful. Pulling a mob out of the pack is not.

9) Understanding. If someone is doing something wrong - try and tell them in private first. Often there might be a good reason for them doing something. For example most levelling specs differ greatly from raid specs. So if my druid doesn't have points in certain talents, I for certain know this and know why I haven't bothered taking them. Someone saying "OMFG NOOB USE MF" is unlikely to garner a positive response.

10) Loot. The pink elephant in the room. All I'll say is that the LFD system gives us a lot more gearing options and this loot will only last us so long. It's never nice to have someone be an ass with loot but ignore them and you never have to worry about them again.

/elderecho out

A Confession

I nipped onto an alt last night and I was a very bad balance/resto druid. I was running about trying to get 43 so my friends wouldn't outlevel me so badly that I couldn't play with them when we're all online.

I join the queue for the random dungeon as DPS. Nobody is on so I requeue as DPS/Healer and it still takes 10mins while I run about questing before anything happens.

Eventually I'm in ZF and quest items are dropping. Whilst trying to remain awake healing (seriously I can keep a tank up pulling normally with rejuv) I ask

"Hey guys, could somebody share the quests?"

No response. Completely blanked. I ask again and finally the tank answers

"No"
"Why?"
"Because it will take me longer to get the drops"

I'm not so naive to insist everyone I play with isn't a complete fuckwit but this was a joke. If I insisted on that I'd have a pretty lonely time and nobody would play with me either but that's besides the point. Who is that pathetically selfish though? In terms of quest xp in the grand picture the 2 ZF quests that rely on drops are maybe 10-12k each and with the amount you end up running the place through the random dungeon you'll finish it in any case by the 3rd run at the latest. Anyway I reacted completely maturely.

"Pull more. Lets get this done"

Tank runs around gathering mobs. Cat form, sprint,

"Find your own goddamn healer"

I'd feel bad about it but I figure considering most of the rest of the party had the quests too and said jack shit they were collaborators. At least, albeit obnoxiously, the tank said something. I'd also like to think that after that wipe they couldn't find a healer but maybe I'm just being to vindictive.

Now, whats the meanest thing you've done in WoW? It doesn't have to be justified, I'm just curious if anyone else has perhaps "overreacted".

/echo out

Edit: turns out I don't know how to type today. Also preview mode doesn't show shitty layout *angrybear*

Clueless DPS

Playing on my pally who I've  specced prot recently I had 2 of the most contrasting groups whilst tanking.

First was Mana Tombs. After a whole load of healer DCing and people going afk while we try to queue we finally get moving. Same level mobs and my gear isn't amazing, plus I'm noticing the healers mana regen isnt amazing (most probably an ele shaman healing). Everything is fine up until first boss only the 2 levels higher hunter keeps almost pulling aggro expecially on the first boss where you generally stop while dark shell is up. The DK then decides I'm not pulling fast enough and the rogue goes afk.

After a couple almost wipes prevented by me and the healer going nuts and keeping everyone alive I'm quivering with nerdrage. Apparently I don't know how to pull. I remind him I did this instance to death at 70, I know it better than him and I know its fucking stupid to try to chain pull Mana burning mobs because I'll oom, the healer will oom and we'll all die. I get told to l2p.

I snap. I cannot be held responsible for what happened:

"I'm going dps, if its such a fucking EZ mode instance you can tank"
"LOL NO U TANK NOOB. I only pulling because you wont. DK can't tank anyway"
"Go ahead start pulling"
/w healer: Don't heal him
nub dk has died

I let him die a couple times, taunted off the hunter only once the mobs he'd overaggro'd had killed him and generally did asshatish things like that. The instance continues with me getting constant grief from the dk, the hunter constantly posting meters, the healer being silent and the rogue afk.

Finally approach the end boss and clear. A resounding ignore on the dk so he can go be obnoxious elsewhere. One thing I did notice is that once I feel people are taking the piss I become completely intractable. Even about buffs. Like at one point the rogue was yelling for BOM. I ignored him then after a couple of mins asked him what the magic word was.

My other run in contrast was cool. Auchenai Crypts. A bit of a suicidal rogue with the wanderlust who otherwise seemed very apologetic when he accidentally pulled groups, a mage and a warrior who both did acceptable dps and didn;'t make me want to self harm and a resto druid who didn't care what his mana was like and urged me to keep going, even if he's on 5%.

Even with the annoying spawning ghosts and crap like that we still kept a good pace and cleared with no issues. Perfect run.

I'd have dropped group on the first occasion purely because I grow tired of that crap but at the time we were having trouble filling all spots regardless of tanks. I really hope any of the upcoming changes they're considering won't affect the ability to remove douchebags.

Meh, I've been so busy with work recently that dungeon runs are the closest I've got to pve

Wtb raid!

/echo out

Having the balls to fail

A bit of a change today. I'm going to try not ranting and instead try and reach out and help some people I think need a helping kick up the arse hand.

I was musing on some posts I see around the WOW Blogosphere and my first hand interactions with people I know on my server and it reminded me of when I was first getting started with proper raiding. Basically there's people I see every day who will often hold back their own progression because they're afraid of the tarring and feathering that often follows in most online communities when you make a mistake.

Now as a Raid Leader our squad is solid and we have no recourse to invite friend ranks let alone randoms for progress but in my alt runs I often ask people I know if they want to come along to some very easy content for some free purpz and a laugh. More often than not from the indiviuals I'm referring too I get back

Sorry man, I'm not sure I'm ready for x instance, I think I need to do more work on my gear.

or at least a variation of that. Now I know I'm an asshole sometimes and it could be they don't prefer my raid leading style (carrot and stick approach, mostly stick) but I think it's a problem a lot of basically good players have. They are suffering from "low self epeen™"!

Back in the days when I was just sinking my teeth into TBC content I was obsessive about my gear. I may not have had the best gear but for the access I had - I had the best gear in each slot available and enchanted and gemmed and I believed that if I wanted to get further I had to be in the maximum the previous content offered. I was not the only one in the guilds I was in who felt like this and often it was used as an excuse by the guild leaderships to call off raids or stop trying. When I joined my current guild I was completely broken of this. Initially we didn't have the best gear or even the best players on the server. We started Lich King content in blues and we cleared everything the first week. It took us a little longer to get the 3drake OS but still we were improving all the time and were trying to avoid getting complacent as we moved into Ulduar. Half of the time we'd down shit and I'd be thinking "I didn't think we'd manage that after the first 3 wipes". It wasn't uncommon for the people I was playing with. They were used to wiping and used to overcoming content by wiping on the fight and learning something new each time.

My point is DO NOT GIVE UP. Nobody can tell you that you cannot do the content you are attempting except you. Sure it might put a bit more pressure on the raid but we're strange beings us humans. We need adversity to grow and yet if we see the easy route we will almost always take it. Stop being humble because I've seen full t9 232 players pass on doing ICC because they thought they weren't geared and players in worse gear join and rock the meters. I have even tanked up to putricide ICC10 on a death knight wearing mostly naxx gear with a couple bits of T9. Sure it was harder and I had to work really closely with my healers to make sure if they were boner spiked, for example, I'd use something to try to stay alive but it was also a hell of a lot of fun. Coasting through content as soon as its nerfed isn't.
To the players who don't believe they deserve or are ready for higher content:

Only you know how good you are and only you can deny yourself opportunities. Sometimes it will be legitimate but remember: Failure will make you a better player because the awful feeling you get when you do let the side down is the perfect motivation to get better and never do that again.
Echosnare - Motivational speaker (2010)

And accept my goddamn invite to the purp train

/echo out

The new LFG system

If like me you have a couple alts you most likely think the new system is awesome. I honestly think its absolutely brilliant in some ways. In others, just by the nature of the system, it blows goats. I realise I'm posting behind the times a little here as the wow blogosphere has been filled with much the same over the past few weeks. Unfotunately my stomach and myself had a disagreement earlier in the week where I thought he should be filled with food a couple times a day and he didn't. Now I'm feeling slightly better I thought I'd release a little more bile (vomit related humour!). Another rant? Why of course!

Abuse
Below is an example of a guy (who I play with sometimes) who decided to be an asshole. What did he do? He and a pal from another guild repeatedly killed other players on the first pull in Gundrak Heroic using Tricks of the Trade to pull the first pack and refusing to leave. Because there is two of them they can't be kicked and everytime someone accepts they're just going to take the 15minute debuff and leave, they can refill it with more victims. Because one of them is in the tanking spot the mobs won't be picked up and most of the party will die and incur repair bills every single time. They did this for around 2 hours and killed people around 70 times.
Here's the shit that got  posted on our realm forums which is complete with screenies and drama.
Now I'm occasionally very immature. I have been known to deliberately provoke people and on accasion I've seen Trolling produce some pretty funny banter (like the time 3 of our members spent 2 hours patiently sending individual stacks of 1 fish to another member and completely spam filled their mailbox). But, I have never wasted 2 hours of my life just to piss people I don't know off. It just doesn't make sense.

Lootwhores
You play a plate dps. The pally healer rolls on your gear for their DPS spec because they play that usually. Ok its fair enough, I know I tank stuff on my DK because it means faster groups and I don't have a problem with this. You get to the second boss and a tanking item drops, and again the pally is rolling need because they "also tank sometimes". I've seen people roll for all 3 of their specs in heroics before. Normally I don't give a crap because the bulk of heroic loot is bad anyway and by this point everyone is normally rolling in enchanting mats and only doing the heroics for their 2 frost emblems. Its in the ICC heroics that this mainly produces the QQ and this is precisely why I only do these places with guildies/friends if I actually want anything.
Or a DPS wants an item so they wait for your debuff to run out so they can try to kick you and get someone who doesn't share their armor class/spec type this annoys me most. Mainly because I've had it twice even when I've been on echo who needs nothing from any heroic.

Elitists without a clue
The people doing it for just the frost emblems generally fall into 2 categories.
The people who recognise they outgear the instance and will tolerate the presence of everyone else because they know its just a heroic and its pretty hard to screw it up. They just want it to go fast and smooth and will generally agree to the optional bosses provided people are moving quickly and will do all reasonable things to keep the group moving at a reasonable pace.
The other category is made up of people who are similar in gear to the first type but severely mentally deficient and impatient. If they are a DPS they refuse to use aggro drops or Misdirects and will generally pull aggro and whine about how its the tank's (who they outgear) fault. They'll also often try and speed up the run by pulling other packs to AOE when the healer is running oom or the tank is miles away.

Achievements
Why oh why do some fuckwits insist on doing the achievements that still require some co-ordination? I'm not talking about the simple ones like On the Rocks. But occulus ruby void/emerald void for example are common ones players try and force the rest of the party to do. I can control an amber drake, I know when to put my rift up, I know when to fire my shock. It's not rocket surgery but some people really don't have a clue so the party will wipe repeatedly and the guy who begged you to do it is either putting a stupidly optimistic slant on how badly you just failed ("almost guys just 50% to go, we almost had it there") or nerdraging because he assumes its someone elses fault.

Know-it-alls in Lowbie Dungeons
Reading around a bit on the intarwebs I look at other blogs, generally hunter oriented. At the moment a lot of the blogs I'm reading are bringing it up.Being a bit of an elitist cockbag I figured I was immune to it. What I mean is, you join a group and some wanker in BOA gear spends the entire instance telling you how to play your class.
Example - I'm playing on the char I hang out with the missus on. A level 34 (currently) Balance druid. Now I'm basically spamming moonfire and the occasional wrath to conserve my mana pool which at the moment has a tendency to deplete rather alarmingly. (dreamstate soon wooo!)
A freaking hunter starts telling me to do things. A hunter in STRENGTH GEAR ARRGHGHGHGH!!! Ok so maybe just the strangth BOA Axe. He was telling me to use DoTs. Starfire is more than adequate and means I can spend the majority of the instance actually dpsing instead of drinking as everyone moves off into the distance. I will spend a good 70-80% of my time levelling in situations where I can't justify using them so I simply don't.
Now apparently this makes me a noob. A noob who was outdamaging his scrub ass. Of course any information I give him is met with "Lol l2p ur own clas noob". IT IS MY CLASS ARGHGHGHGHGHGH!
I don't normally bite. I normally am very calm and do something vindictive like forget to heal them/fail to taunt off them or even deliberately misdirect them. You know, something that kills them but leaves the people not annoying me alive. On this occasion, it was the good old vote kick before the last boss. It has the double advantage of being completely unexpected and such a massive kick in the balls that perhaps next time they won't consider being such an asshole again

The sad thing for me that really is kicking in is the lack of a community on your own server. Previously you instanced, pvped and hungout with everyone on your server. Now with instances cross Battlegroup, pvp the same and about 6 big cities to choose from its often like the only contact you have with the rest of your server is in pug raids and trade chat. Both of which aren't exactly the best place to meet people. RPers won't really see this as they have their own communities but for those of us who play for the pve its actually becoming more and more dissociated and I'm just not seeing all the people on my realm I used to.

/echo out