It finally happened. I ran an instance with an actual group. Last week. And I have to thank Blizzard's achievement system. If it wasn't for Hail To The King, Baby, I wouldn't have seen Utgarde Pinnacle in the near (or even distant) future.
This is my first group instance after WoW Classic. This means that I leveled several characters through Outland and 2 through Northrend to level 80 without stepping in a single instance. Crazy wacko eh? Well, if you read this blog you probably have at least a vague idea about where I'm coming from. I do like instances, I really do, but my time is limited enough that I cannot ever dedicate it to a group experience with any certainty. Besides, waiting on other people can be a bummer and it cuts down on my leveling/farming time. Oh and something else: usually I'm not available when people are looking for a DPS character. I'm either about to log off, or it's too late, or I can't stay much longer.
Having said this, I still enjoy a nice instance with a good group. Thanks to the aforementioned achievement, I spotted someone LF1M DPS in trade chat and since I had plenty of time at my disposal, I immediately whispered the person and I was promptly invited.
Now guess what my problem was. Since I had never been to this instance I had no idea how to get there. I knew where Utgarde Keep was, obviously, but not where the entrance to Utgarde Pinnacle was. So I played it cool as always. In fact this is the same strategy I used previously in Battlegrounds. When you're clueless, just follow the others.
So I got to Utgarde Keep real quick and just watched what the others did. I followed them and it was the same story inside the dungeon. Yes, I was a bit embarrassed to admit that I didn't know the instance but I bluffed my way through it nicely.
In the end, it was a very good group and we even finished the instance on Heroic, which was another first for me. To be honest I couldn't tell the difference. It just seemed like a rather easy instance to me.
So there you have it: another "priceless" piece of advice from a die-hard solo-ist: when placed in a new group situation and you don't want to appear a noob, just follow the others' lead and you should be fine. Of course, even if you never do instances, you should still know your role in a group and try not to make an ass of yourself.
Patch 1.0.5 commentary
12 years ago
5 comments:
Utgarde Keep is a fairly easy instance from what i;ve heard, i've not been myself but my guildies run it almost daily for all the new 80's because its fairly quick and easy and good for instance training as it were. Glad you got to taste an instance, since some are really good and fun, as long as your with a good group!
Grats! It's a good feeling when that last boss goes down knowing that an hour ago you didn't even know how to get there :)
For the few instances I've run I've either gone with guildies (who know I rarely run instances) or run as DPS rather than bear. It's much easier to run your first time through as DPS than try to be a tank for a more experienced PuG that will get frustrated quickly with your slowness.
In the spirit of playing solo, I also recommend going back and going through the old Outland and Classic dungeons. The change of scenery is nice and for most instances (I like Stratholme) there is some good gold to be made as well as a shot at a rare mount.
Well, like I said, even though it was on heroic, I found it easy. It was a bit tricky at the part with the dragon rider boss because of the AOE damage but I learned quickly that I need to get out of it and I also got to use the harpoon several times.
Now I'm sure gear and the experience of the others in the group played a large part. Even as a solo player, I'm mostly blue-ed and epic-ed out (though I still have 2-3 greens) while the others had nice epics.
With you admitting that you do not have good gear for dungeons, how well did you hold up?
Well, my gear is not THAT bad. I mean, I'm running ideal itemization here, while my weapon is a Nesingwary 4000 (epic, pretty good) and I also sport a few other epics and blues. The epics are all enchanted and gemmed.
Since this wasn't a raid but merely a heroic instance, it wasn't that hard.
I think the biggest advantage was that the other 4 people in my group were all raiders, hence very well equipped and they knew the fights well.
Like I said, when in doubt, follow what the others do and use your common sense.
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