Dungeon advice for 61yr old WoW player

Occasionally I get direct emails from readers asking me various things about World of Warcraft. If the question is simple, I answer it directly. For more delicate queries, I prefer to write a post because the answer is longer and the issue might be something that affects more people. Besides, extra help is usually offered from other readers commenting on the article.

A few days ago I received an interesting (but touching) email from a new reader of Wowalone, someone belonging to the older demographic. Here's his situation in a nutshell: he is 61 years old, plays WoW casually, is not in a guild but would like to run some dungeons with his level 70 Paladin. The problem is that he doesn't have a lot of time to do this because his wife is very ill and I assume he needs to take frequent breaks from WoW in order to attend to her. He says that WoW provides an outlet for his distress. I shall refer to my reader as My Friend, as I don't want to disclose his name.

His situation is something that I can identify with to an extent and I believe that, as a veteran solo WoW player, I can give him some useful advice.

My Friend, I perfectly understand how WoW can provide the much needed relief and escape from reality that we sometimes need when going through hard times. I am fortunate enough to not have an ailing wife or relative but during my long history of playing WoW I have lived during a time when real life really sucked due to several things conspiring at once to make it miserable. WoW was indeed my escape from all that. Whenever I played, I forgot about my worries. Unfortunately, I ended up escaping from reality a bit too often and for too long, which caused some additional problems in real life. Eventually I recovered from my addiction and that, in fact, is how Wowalone was born: I decided that I wouldn't be playing WoW again with other people. It would be just me, playing it whenever I felt like it, with no obligations and pressure.

You, My Friend, seem to be a lot like me: a solo player. That's not a bad thing and, in fact, you can accomplish a lot of things in this game even without playing with others. You don't need to be in an actual guild. I am my own 1-man guild and I like it that way.

I assume that you would really like to run a few dungeons, in a group. Luckily, this has been made really easy thanks to the Dungeon Finder Tool. Before you jump into that, there are a few things that you should do.

Do you really want to run dungeons?
As a solo player, this is one of the questions you should be asking yourself. It is entirely possible to complete the game (by reaching maximum level) with maximum enjoyment without setting foot inside a single dungeon. But dungeons are a very important part of the game and it is a shame to never experience one. Each has its own flavor and personality.

Do you want to run dungeons with a group?
If you have decided that you do want to run dungeons, there are two options from here. You could either solo lower level dungeons or run level-appropriate ones with a group.

Solo-ing a dungeon is entirely viable, provided you stick to those which are several levels below you. Depending on your skill and equipment, you should be able to solo dungeons starting 5 levels below you. At 10 levels below you shouldn't normally have any problems. For example, at level 70 your Paladin could easily vanquish any dungeon from Azeroth and could also take a shot at some of the beginning dungeons in Outland. Again, this is very dependent on skill and to a lesser extent on gear.

The advantage of this approach is that you can visit each dungeon at your leisure, whenever you have time. If you need to be away from your desk often, just retire your character to a safe area and come back later when you have time. If you can't finish a dungeon for some reason, no one will care. You can always attempt it another day. I highly recommend solo-ing lower level dungeons. There's a certain kind of pleasure to be had from clearing a lower level dungeon all on your own.

Running with a group is slightly more complicated. Thankfully, the Dungeon Finder Tool makes it a lot easier than before. A big advantage of using the tool is that you don't need to be in a guild, you don't need to have any friends and you don't even need to interact a lot with your group members, if you don't want to.

While anyone can jump into a group with the Dungeon Tool, it won't be easy the first couple of times. I remember that the first time the tool came out I was afraid to use it. You can read about my anxiety in this 2009 article. Once I  began running a few random dungeons, I loved the experience! I encourage you to read these two articles because they offer some insights into how a solo player can easily and safely join dungeon groups for lots of fun.

I can understand if you are anxious about joining a group with strangers. The best thing you can do is to click that "Join" button. The worst that can happen is for the group to kick you because you don't know what you're doing. But I doubt you are bad considering you've made it all the way to 70 and I have some more advice that should help you.

Being in a group doesn't automatically force you to become super social and make friends with everyone. In fact many people don't even say a word during these random runs. If you feel like talking that's also fine. My personal etiquette dictates that I will always say "Hi all" when joining a group and "Thanks for the group" at the end, even if no one else responds to my greeting. Sometimes people do feel like chatting and that's fine by me. I chat back. If not, I'm just as happy to run in silence.

Random dungeons runs usually last around 30 minutes. Before joining a group you should make sure that you have at least that time. Bear in mind that queuing up for a dungeon can take up to half an hour (but usually about 10-15) minutes for DPS specs. A trick I use while queuing is that I turn the speakers up and then busy myself around the home. When the join window pops up, I can hear the loud chime and run back to my computer to join the group.

If you join a group and something comes up which forces you to leave before the end, just apologize to the others and leave the group. People usually understand when someone needs to leave unexpectedly. If you are DPS, they won't mind a lot because a replacement is only seconds away. If you want to be particularly nice you could even tell them from the beginning that you might have to leave unexpectedly on account of your wife being ill. I don't think anyone will begrudge you that.

Now that (hopefully) I've convinced you to use the Dungeon Finder Tool to get into random groups, I will give you a few tips on how to prepare before joining your first group.

Choice of spec and role?
If you don't have dungeon experience, I urge you to spec as DPS, which in the case of your Paladin means Retribution. Do not make the mistake of joining as a healer or tank, before becoming an expert at running as DPS. Healers and tanks hold a huge responsibility and there's little room for error. For beginners, it is much more forgiving to run as DPS.

If you haven't specced your Paladin as Retribution yet, here's a quick spec I whipped up. It's just a suggestion but it could be helpful if you are undecided.

Rotation and damage
When questing on your own, damage and skill rotation are not particularly important. Usually it's enough to mash your main skills and the monsters will go down. In a dungeon, however, it is highly indicated that you are familiar with a proper form of skill "rotation". If you are not familiar with the concept, in a nutshell it means a sequence of skills used to maximum effect. This article is not meant to be a tutorial on how to play a Retribution Paladin so I would recommend that you head on to Elitist Jerks in the Paladin section and read everything you can about Retribution.

I am not familiar with your level of skill. Nonetheless, I still recommend this "elitist" site. Why? Because these people have exhaustively studied all classes and specs and they have nice primers on things like rotation, gear and so on. As a solo player who had never stepped in a group in a very long time, this site helped me a lot to learn how to deal damage, and later how to heal and tank.

Damage is also fairly important in a group setting. It is important in the sense that if you are really terrible, people might kick you from the group. If that happens, don't feel too bad. Even I, a veteran WoW player, get kicked from time to time, mostly because those who do the kicking are neurotic but I can always get into another group later. If people are complaining about your damage, explain that you are new at dungeons and are doing your best. Most will understand. Groups are usually good enough that a single under-performing player won't hold the group back.

If you know how to install and configure an addon I would also recommend a DPS addon such as Skada. This will give you an idea of how much damage you are dealing compared to the rest of the group.

Practice your rotation
Before going into a dungeon it is important that you practice your skill rotation to perfection. Find a training dummy inside a capital city and attack it using your skills. Or, you can practice directly on monsters. Try to use skills the moment they are off cooldown.

Dungeon tips
Now that you've decided to join your first dungeons, here are some general tips to get you going.

• Don't announce you're a beginner, unless people start complaining. Sometimes (but rarely) you might get kicked if you so.
• Always attack monsters from the rear, never from the front. Attacking from the front as melee DPS is poor form.
• Watch your threat level. I recommend an addon such as Omen. To make sure you don't generate too much threat, wait a second or two before attacking your target.
• Always attack the tank's target, unless otherwise told. You can use the F key to "assist" the tank, which means you will be attacking the same monster the tank is.
• Stick close to the group but never run ahead of the tank. The tank should always lead and pull, unless he says otherwise.
• If you are the only one who dies, it's probably your fault. The healer's priorities are, in this order: himself, the tank, and the rest of the group.
• Don't stress yourself too much over dying. It happens to the best of players.
• Don't be afraid to Need gear which drops, if it is an upgrade from what you have. Here are some dungeon loot rules and ethics that I use.
• Don't be upset if you get kicked from the group for whatever reason. Sometimes it happens, through no fault of your own.
• If you have to leave the group to attend to your wife, don't be ashamed to do so. If you can spare a few seconds it would be nice though to let them know why you are leaving.
• Remember that even if you don't complete the dungeon you can still get experience, loot, perhaps even some good gear which drops from the first bosses and also skill in playing your character.
• WoW players span a very wide demographic. There's a high chance that you will group with 12-year olds or people your age. Age is not always a factor but sometimes people will act like jerks. If that happens, try to diffuse the situation if possible and move on.
• You asked me about repairing items inside dungeons. Well, that's a tricky one. My advice is that you should always have your gear at 100% before entering a dungeon. Unless you die over and over and over, your gear shouldn't get destroyed from a single run. Even then, it is not gone forever, it simply becomes unusable until you repair it. There are certain Engineering gadgets which you can use to repair gear inside dungeons but that's too expensive to recommend. A trick that you could do is to make sure you join the dungeon from a city or area which has a repair NPC nearby. If your gear gets damaged, click the green "eye" icon next to your minimap and choose "Leave dungeon". This will port you outside the dungeon. Repair your gear and then choose "Teleport to dungeon" from the same icon. You will be teleported back inside the dungeon. Beware though: you will be placed at the entrance so you will have to run back to the group.
• It's just a game! No matter what difficulties you might encounter, remember to have fun.

Other tips

I can't imagine what your real situation is but here are a couple of extra suggestions. If possible, try setting aside 30-40 minutes when your wife is asleep. Or, try playing close to her if that is not distressing to her. You can always turn the volume way down or use headphones.

Wrap-up
I hope I have covered as many bases as possible. It is not easy to get for the first time into a dungeon with a group, especially when your play time is not set in stone. Thankfully, WoW has evolved to the point where dungeon running is now possible for almost everyone, even under the most stringent real-life constraints. You just need to adjust your mindset a bit and try to wrap dungeon runs around the spare time in your life.

Dungeon running gets easier the more you do it. Eventually it will become second nature. The beauty of the Dungeon Tool is that all this becomes possible without having to step into a guild.

If anyone would like to add some advice or correct my own, they are welcome to do so in the comments.

Dungeon loot rules and ethics

If you've been running dungeons using the random dungeon tool then the question of how loot should be distributed must have crossed your mind. When running with friends of guild members, this usually isn't a problem because the rules are set beforehand. Running with complete strangers is a different beast altogether. As we all know, internet anonimity tends to bring the worst out of certain people. In WoW, these people are usually called "ninjas" or "griefers".

Here's an anecdote to start this discussion off. A while ago I was tanking a random Dire Maul run with my druid. At one point, an epic BOE caster shield drops from a boss. One of the dps, another druid (druids can't use shields FYI :), says, "Can I need this for my shaman?". I say "No, it's a BOE epic, we all Greed for it". While the others rolled greed, I could sense that the other druid was struggling with himself. I might be mistaken but I got the vibe that he was thinking about Needing the shield. Eventually he rolled greed. Another dps (a mage I think), won the shield. Gratz to him. The druid made a nasty remark. I defused the situation by making a light-hearted comment. We moved on.

What follows is a break-up of the dungeon loot rules that I follow in random instances. These are by no means the be-all, end-all of loot rules but they seem pretty solid to me. Feel free to add your own rules or correct mine if you feel they are bad.

Green items (BoE)
I always GREED green items or choose the DISENCHANT option (if available). I don't bother needing greens because I'm usually better equipped than that. The only exception is at low levels when I'm sporting crappy gear. Then, I will NEED if the item is an upgrade. I won't need greens for off-spec, regardless.
I won't raise a fuss if someone needs greens, unless they need every green that drops, which has happened on several occasions.

Blue items (BoP)
NEED if it's main spec and an upgrade.
GREED otherwise or DISENCHANT.
NEED for off-spec only if no one else needs it for their main spec and not before asking the rest of the group if it is ok to do so.

Blue items (BoE)
NEED if it's main spec and an upgrade.
GREED otherwise. I don't usually pick disenchant because 1) I can make more gold selling it on the AH and 2) if the need arises I can always DE it myself.
NEEDing for off-spec is a tricky situation here. I won't do it but I won't mind too much if others do.

Epic items (BoP)
NEED if it's main spec and an upgrade.
GREED otherwise. DISENCHANT only at high levels (i.e. heroics or such) where the crystals are actually worth more than the vendor price of the item.
NEEDing for off-spec only if no one else needs it for their main spec and not before asking the rest of the group if it is ok to do so.

Epic items (BoE)
NEED if it's main spec and an upgrade.
GREED otherwise.
NEEDing for off-spec is kind of a no-no for me and NEEDing for alts is a big NO. The reason why I frown on needing for off-spec is because BoE epics can be sold for some nice cash and anyone can benefit from that, regardless of class or spec.

As you can see, the main point of contention is the epic (purple) BoE item. If an epic BoE drops and there's no one who can use it for their main spec, there will always be someone who will try to claim it for their off-spec or another character. It is possible that they are 100% honest, that they really DO need it for their off-spec but how would the rest of us know and why should we care? The rest of us could use the cash from selling that epic just as well. Furthermore, why aren't they running with that off-spec if they like it so much? When something like this does happen, usually the group asks the person to equip the item and that will ensure that they didn't need it just for selling.

A good BoE epic example is the Battered Hilt, back in Wrath when it was easily worth a few thousand gold. Let me tell you something. Anyone is entitled to roll need on the hilt in a random group, regardless if they have completed the quest chain or not. For several thousand gold, all niceties are put aside and I certainly won't mind if someone else wins the roll, as long as we all have equal chances of winning.

A way to make sure no one ninjas a valuable BoE purple is to have everyone roll need on it. Usually this doesn't work, unless agreed upon from the beginning, because some people are quick to roll greed so the rules of ethics dictate that I too will roll greed. Thankfully, it seems that Blizzard is feeling our pain because they will implement a feature in one of the next patches in which whenever someone needs a BoE epic, it will bind to them. Greeding will leave it unbound.

And then there are the super polite people who will ask if they can need an item for their main spec, even when it's BoP. I appreciate that but there's no need (pun not intended) to ask for something that is an upgrade and you can really use.

The bottom line is that there are different kinds of people in WoW, as in real life. There are a few jerks who are either inconsiderate or like to inflict pain on others and then there's the rest of us. Myself, I believe that the cover of anonymity is no excuse for acting like a prick and for that reason I will try to conduct myself in game same as in real life: with honor, dignity and consideration for others.

XP from questing vs dungeons

This question is more suited to tanks who get instant queues but lately I've been wondering how can one get more XP: by questing in a level-appropriate zone or by running random dungeons?

Let's say you are a tank (like my worgen druid) and would like to level as quickly and efficiently as possible. Would you choose to chain-run dungeons and skip questing or quest instead, with the occasional dungeon.

Because my main (and favorite) spec on the druid is tanking, I had the notion that I would chain-run dungeons and thus gain levels quickly. Well, it turns out that's not really the case. During the short time between The Shattering and Cataclysm there was lots XP to be had from dungeons, especially from the in-dungeon quests. That, alas, was nerfed. Dungeon quests that would give, say, 6000XP now give 3000XP or less.

From my experience I find that just by running dungeons over and over again doesn't seem to award lots of XP. The dungeon XP improves considerably when there are quests to complete but this is a one-time proposition and afterwards it doesn't seem as lucrative to run the same dungeon again.

On the other hand, simply completing a bunch of "yellow" quests (i.e. of your level) on your own in a questing area can be very efficient. As an example, the other night my worgen druid (level 51) quested for about 30 minutes in Burning Steppes and gained a whole level. If I'd played for another 15 minutes he would have gained yet another one.

Chain-running dungeons, especially as a tank, can prove very boring and repetitive. I love tanking on the druid but leveling via the dungeon finder doesn't seem especially quick.

For this reason I've chosen a combination between running dungeons and questing. This way I can have the best of both worlds. But this reasoning applies mostly to tanks. As dps I have to quest while queuing for dungeons anyway.

What about you? Do you prefer questing over running dungeons?

Don't piss off the tank

Just. Don't. Piss. Off. The. Tank.

I will be the first to admit that tanks in random groups can be jerks sometimes, especially since their queue times are zero and some of them take this as a license to be assholes. Most tanks I've run with (as well as most dps/healers) are nice, regular folks. Generally, people in randoms are well-behaved, in my experience, because they just want to finish the dungeon without too much drama.

I like to think that I'm a nice and accommodating group member. I always try to keep things civil and I don't want to upset anyone if I can help it. Now of course, when I'm running as a dps I prefer to keep my trap shut or else I might find myself booted but when I run as a healer I'm a lot more vocal and when I'm tanking, you better not fsck with me BIATCH!

When I tank, I have something akin to a "zero tolerance" policy or perhaps a "two strikes" policy. If you do something stupid, I'll warn you but if you do the same dumb thing again, you're on your own.

The other night I was running a random Scarlet Monastery Cathedral dungeon. As soon as I got in I noticed that the mobs were gleefully coming at me without being aggroed by me at all. After a couple of minutes I realized that someone was pulling them. It was the damn healer, of all people.

Fine, I decided to go with it, grabbing aggro and dispatching the mobs. The healer did a good job keeping me up but then he went and pulled more and yet more mobs. When we got to the actual cathedral he rushed in and pulled about half of the mobs. We survived and I said "Thanks for pulling for me". This remark got ignored of course.

Then he told me to pull the boss even though the room wasn't cleared. I decided to clear the room instead. What did the healer do? You guessed it! He pulled the boss. So what happens in Cathedral when you pull the boss and the place hasn't been cleared? All the remaining mobs, regardless if they are out of range or LOS, or in rooms, swarm you.

Since the healer felt that way, I decided to spare myself the trouble and declined to tank that nasty pull. I'm sure that if I had cooperated we might have been able to pull it off. The reason I didn't is because it creates a precedent and sends a signal to that healer and perhaps to other members of the group that it's ok to pull mobs whenever you feel like it, disregarding what the tank may feel about the situation.

So I did the only sensible thing, which is to shift to kitty and haul my ass out of the dungeon, while the group was being raped. Since I didn't have any aggro from the dozen mobs + boss, I didn't have any trouble running to the exit. On my way I typed "Have fun tanking". Maybe leaving like that wasn't fair to the rest of the group and I really feel for them but it was the healer's fault through and through.

It turns out that I'm a very good tank (so far) on my druid. I've received compliments on numerous occasions in regards to my tanking prowess. I don't make a habit of leaving groups at the drop of a hat despite the fact that my queues are instant. I respect others but in return I demand a modicum of respect, especially when I'm tanking. That healer had it coming and the group was doomed anyway under his... healership.

I've had another guy a couple of nights ago, dps this time, who was in a hurry or something because he kept urging me to pull lots of mobs. I ignored him and did my own thing. I'm not usually comfortable with pulling tons of mobs in random dungeons because healers are sometimes very good, sometimes bad but most often average and I go by the mantra "better it takes a couple of minutes longer than to wipe". Besides, successfully fighting large numbers of mobs also depends a lot on how efficient the dps is at AOE-ing them down.

So please, dear folks, whatever your role, give the tank some respect and in return you will receive it (unless the tank is a total dick in which case he's not worth a dry turd anyway). Unless the tank specifically requests it, DO NOT PULL under any circumstance. The tank sets the pace, not the dps and not the healer. If you don't like it, that's too bad, put up or shut up. If you really got the itch to go at your own pace I suggest trying a tanking class or spec. Let's see how you like it when others are trying to run the show for you.

Healed heroic Halls of Reflection, done it all

Well folks, I finally did it. I healed Halls of Reflection with my discipline priest. I've always been afraid of this, the pinnacle of Wrath 5-man dungeons. As a dps I've died many times in there but we all know by now that in order to be successful in this dungeon you need to have some very serious dps, among other things.

Thanks to the elemental invasion, I managed to get my hands on some nice ilvl 251 items. I also got some practice healing these new mini-bosses which are actually tougher than many heroic bosses. And then, after acquiring some more Justice Points by running several heroics as shadow dps, I bought a few ilvl 264/245 items from the Emblem of Frost and Triumph vendors.

Afterward I chain-healed almost a dozen heroics and found out that I can really do it.

My problem, of course, was the lack of gear. A healer in <= ilvl 200 gear isn't gonna do a great deal in a heroic unless he's very talented (and I can't claim that I am). Now that my gear is up to speed (average level is 233), I feel very confident in healing any heroic thrown at me.

In all fairness though, Halls of Reflection didn't seem as tough as I'd imagined it to be. Trial of the Crusader and Azjol'Nerub (both of which I healed subsequently) felt more difficult. It's true that in HoR we had really good dps and a good tank so everything went smoothly. I even gained the achievement to finish the gauntlet quickly. On the other hand, for the two other dungeons mentioned (ToC and A'N) some of the people were standing in poison and other crap (so I had to heal like crazy) and they also pulled too many mobs a few times (so I had to heal like crazy).

My main tool as a discipline priest remains Power Word: Shield which currently absorbs a little over 5000 damage self-buffed. What's nice is that at this point mana has ceased to become an issue, meaning that after 90% of fights (including boss fights) I'm left with 90% mana. Occasionally when someone screws up or they're not geared enough, I'll go down to 50% or so but even then I manage to pull through.

My biggest issue as a healer - and this probably comes as a consequence of not being very experienced - is that I often forget about more powerful spells that I have at my disposal. For example I always forget to use Power Word: Barrier which is an awesome spell especially for those moments when there's heavy damage incoming.

I've also been trying to use Smite in combination with Evangelism/Archangel, not that I need the mana but in preparation for Cataclysm. My feelings about this are mixed. On the one hand, it's a nice thing to be able to do some damage (no matter how puny) during downtime, and also heal a group member for 100% of the damage done thanks to Atonement. Now on the other hand, when the fight is frantic and I'm struggling to keep the group alive, there's no time to Smite and the whole concept becomes worthless. And then there's the third issue which is more of a personal one, and that is laziness. As a discipline priest I'm cool with popping PW:S and then taking a break.

At any rate, we'll see how all this comes together in Cataclysm, in a couple of short weeks. Until then I will likely continue to heal some heroics, especially since one piece of my gear is still a lousy ilvl 187 (my bracers).

Morons abound in low level dungeons

I don't know what's up with these low level dungeons but I haven't had the misfortune of grouping up with so many morons since... never. I've been doing a lot of heroics since the Dungeon Finder Tool hit, a few dozen in total. About 1 in 10 heroic runs turns out bad and usually the situation is fixed by getting rid of the offending member and replacing him with someone normal.

Low level dungeons however... man am I pissed! On my Priest I've been running a lot of dungeons lately, as I'm leveling. Currently I'm 47 and I've been in most instances from Deadmines to Maraudon. Unfortunately only a small number of them have been successful. It seems to me that as wonderful as the Dungeon Tool is, it has also attracted a whole lot of idiots who think they can jerk their way through to level 80.

I highly doubt that all these people are new players. I'm sure most of them have at least one high level character and most of them have surely grouped up before. In spite of this, I continue to be amazed by how much stupidity I encounter in these dungeons. Here are some of the types of asshats I've run into:

- melee hunters. Jeez what's up with these idiots? Why didn't they roll a rogue or something instead?
- retribution paladin tanks.
- paladin who insists to tank even though he's not the designated tank and everyone in the group tells him so.
- afk players.
- the dumbass who "needs" everything that drops. And doesn't communicate.
- tanks who pull whole rooms of elites and then bitch about the healer when the group wipes.
- tanks who keep on pulling regardless of the healer's mana.

I will lie if I say that none of these runs has been a success. I had the good fortune of running with a good team a couple of times. Just a few nights ago I joined a group for the first section of Maraudon (oh how I hate this instance). Myself as the healer, a pally tank, warrior dps, mage dps and rogue.

It became evident from the start that it was a good group. The tank had a proper Prot spec and she knew what the was doing. The dps were doing their jobs well, no one was jerking around or afk-ing. The tank was considerate to wait for myself and the mage to drink after fights and pulled only the minimum number of mobs. We downed the first boss quickly in that section and since we all felt we had a good thing going, decided that we would keep pressing onward.

Shortly after, the rogue left. He probably had other things to do which is fine and he did a good job anyway. We kept pushing forward, just the 4 of us. About an hour into the dungeon, we reached Princess. So we killed her.

So what's the big deal about this story? Well, for starters it goes to prove that skill is paramount and doing your job right goes a long way towards succeeding. Furthermore, a group of only 4 people managed to kill Princess and it's no easy feat considering she's about the toughest boss up to this level. Not only that, but she's level 48, with lots of HP, a nasty AoE attack and we were all under her level by a large margin. I was the "oldest" at 47 but the others ranged from 42 to 45 so I'm sure they had to deal with a lot of missed hits.

It may be a small accomplishment but for me, as a healer, I feel that I have gained a whole deal of experience in this small encounter. And it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside at the thought that there are still good players out there. I keep wondering if the quality of groups will improve as I approach 80. I certainly hope so.

Priest DPSes Deadmines and heals Shadowfang Keep

After returning from vacation I decided to give my Hunter a rest and stop doing heroics for a while. Instead, my fingers itched to get some leveling done on my Priest.

Two nights ago I took the plunge and used the Dungeon Finder to join a group for the Deadmines. I signed up as both healer and DPS. I specifically chose Deadmines from the Finder because I have always liked this instance. Of course, I haven't done it in a group for almost 4 years now so I was excited to go back there, and even more so as a healer.

What made me decide to finally do some dungeons with my Priest were two factors:
1) I finally got my Dignified Headmaster's Charge staff and I enchanted it with a scroll of +30 spellpower that I bought from the AH for the not-so-measly price of around 420 gold.
2) I wanted to see how easy and/or fun it is to level by doing instances instead of questing.

Alas, as luck would have it, I was assigned the role of DPS for Deadmines. I didn't mind though. I performed my job well enough. In fact I was the highest level character in the group at level 22. The others were 20, 20, 17 and 16.

All things considered, I believe we overpowered the instance by a comfortable margin. We blazed through it in 40 minutes (I remember in the old days it used to take 2 hours sometimes and countless wipes) and we didn't wipe at all, in spite of several bad pulls of about 6 elites. I think this goes on to prove once again that skill is very important and besides, all the guys in the group probably had high level characters, seeing that some of them were also sporting heirlooms.

Apart from getting the satisfaction of killing Van Cleef's ass yet again, I also got my sweaty paws inside a pair of Gold-flecked Gloves, dropped by Sneed. I gained one whole level while in there, going from 22 to 23.


The second night I used the Dungeon Finder to find a group for either Wailing Caverns or Shadowfang Keep. I got into Wailing Caverns as a healer (first time yay!) and things went ok for a short while but our DPS kept leaving. Eventually the druid tank got tired of this crappy dungeon and said he would leave. Since he was doing well and was also leader, I suggested we queued up for another dungeon.

We ended up in Shadowfang Keep. We started killing things but shortly into our foray we remarked that our DPS paladin was taking a lot of damage so I had to heal two people instead of just one. Both me and the druid tank noticed at the same time that he had Righteous Fury up. We both told him to take it off but there was something very wrong with the guy because he kept pulling mobs in an obvious attempt at tanking, but he was completely silent and oblivious of what we were telling him.

Since he pissed all of us off, we discussed it amongst ourselves and decided to kick him. Unfortunately we couldn't because we had to kick two other people earlier in Wailing Caverns and apparently we had reached our limit for voting to kick people. I know, weird. So we were stuck with him.

The guy kept on "tanking" although we repeatedly told him to stop that. He wouldn't or couldn't listen. Eventually I decided to stop healing him and then he started talking, but in /s, not in party chat. "heal pls". I let him die and he died many times but kept coming back for more.

What amazed me is that the guy was so persistent in his idiocy that I was inclined to believe he was a bot or something. He was basically tanking elites and no one was healing him, he would beg in /s for heals and would eventually heal himself when his health got too low. Amazingly he survived many such encounters by healing his own ass. Unfortunately some of our DPS were helping him out so he didn't die as quickly as me and the tank would have wished.

Well, this story is getting very long as it is but it's one of my weirdest encounters so I will finish it, dammit! To make the whole thing more interesting, he was also wearing a couple of cloth pieces, didn't have all his talents assigned and rolled Need on absolutely everything. For that reason I advised the group that we all roll Need from then on.

Just before the last boss, Arugal, we finally got him to remove Righteous Fury. I'm telling you, there was something very weird and creepy about this guy. In the end the run was worth it because I won the roll for another nice drop, namely Belt of Arugal. This dungeon lasted a couple of minutes over 1 hour and that's all thanks to that asstard. We also wiped once due to him rushing in the middle of a large group of elites.

Now a few thoughts on healing. I was a little bit nervous at first but I shouldn't have been. Healing is fun! I really love it. It seems extremely easy compared to DPS-ing and even more so than tanking, I'm sure. I use Healbot as an addon and even though it's not 100% configured correctly, I just need to click on the tank whenever he's below 3/4 health with Flash Heal and that's about it. Occasionally I would also heal another group member but that would happen rarely.

Easy job, healing. Perhaps it seemed so because I was a bit overpowered for Shadowfang Keep. Hell, I went in there at level 24 and I sported all those heirlooms with close to 100 spell power. Raid healing is a whole different beast altogether but I don't foresee ever healing raids. For that reason, once I hit 40 I'll most likely get Dual Spec and create a Discipline build which, I've heard, is awesome for single-target healing or in other words for healing 5-mans.

One final word about Shadow. I'm still leveling as Shadow, of course, but I'm starting to learn more about Shadow Priests as I go along and I tweaked the proposed build that I posted earlier. Instead of 2/2 Improved Spirit Tap (which I've been told is pretty much useless outside raids), I'm gonna get 2/2 Improved Vampiric Embrace. I've also shifted my talents around a bit so that they look something like this at level 30.

Now I gotta go heal another instance.

Random Heroic: The Pit of Saron

A couple of nights ago (sorry for the delay) I finished Pit of Saron, one of the new 5-mans introduced in patch 3.3. In case you didn't know that (solo players may apply, because I didn't know that from the very beginning either), you need to complete Forge of Souls before you can get into Pit of Saron.

Pit of Saron is, as far as I could tell, a step above Forge of Souls in difficulty. Yet, I finished it only on the second try. The first attempt was about a week ago and the group wasn't too good. Moreover, no one bothered to explain any strategy for the fights, so we wiped on the first boss. Truth be told, it might have been partly my fault because I didn't get the chance to research this dungeon before I was thrust into it by the random engine, and I assumed I could just follow the others and get it done. After that first wipe I realized that we weren't going anywhere and I excused myself.

On the more recent attempt, the group was very good. In the meantime I had also read a bit about the three boss fights and I was better prepared. So here are a few observations regarding said bosses.

Forgemaster Garfrost - From my perspective as DPS, there are a couple of things to watch out for, otherwise the fight is relatively simple. First, he throws huge saronite boulders at a random person. If you get hit by that, it's massive damage. Luckily you can see where the boulder is gonna land by the dark shadow it casts. Simply move out of the way. Second, once the boulder has landed, it persists until the end of the fight. Throughout the battle the giant will do some massive AoE damage and the only way to counteract this (as a ranged class) is to move behind the boulder. Since it was a safe location, I spent the rest of the fight firing from its cover. I'm not positive that's the correct strategy but the others were doing the same.

Ick & Krick - Now here's an interesting mechanic. One of these dudes piggybacks on the other, while shooting from his back at people. My understanding of this fight was fairly limited but it helped to stay out of any patch of poison that these dudes were spamming and to generally avoid any patches of "stuff" that could damage me. That's what worked for me. There's obviously more to this fight but if you need official strategies, please follow the Wowhead links. The only difficulty in this fight (which is very mobile, BTW) was that at one point I inadvertently pulled an elite from nearby while running around from these bosses but then I just ran toward the tank who picked it up.

Scourgelord Tyrannus - Big-ass boss. Starts off riding a dragon but then jumps down and fights from the ground. Meanwhile, the dragon is in the air, obeying commands from its master. The boss will occasionally point to a player and the dragon with bomb that player with frost damage. You can tell where the "bomb" will fall by the shadow it makes. Just move out of the way. However that didn't prevent people from being impaled on a spike of ice, which however didn't seem to do any significant damage but instead disabled you for a couple of seconds. This was another mobile fight where all I tried to do was avoid the various patches of nasty stuff on the ground. Fortunately the group was competent enough that I didn't have to experience any of the uglier mechanics, including death.

After finishing this heroic I got the usual couple of achievements, nothing fancy.

The Pit of Saron
Heroic: The Pit of Saron

Random Heroic: The Forge of Souls

Lately it seems like I've stopped churning out articles about random dungeons that I've been running with the new LFG tool. In fact I've been diligently running at least a random daily heroic, for the 2 Emblems of Frost that are awarded for the first random daily run.

This is in fact the 3rd time I ran Forge of Souls but only the first time I managed to complete it and get the achievements. This is one of the new 5-mans introduced in patch 3.3 and it's tougher than the previous heroics I ran. The trash is tougher and nastier. The bosses (although only two) have new mechanics.

For my first run, I found myself in a group with a neurotic healer who was constantly spouting rubbish and urging the tank and everybody to gogogogo! When we got to the first boss, Bronjahm, the tank stepped outside the ramp and fell to his death. For some reason the psycho healer started to pick on me, telling me that if I don't jump after the tank I'd be kicked from the group. I laughed it off and just to mess with him (note to self: don't tease crazy people in the future), I said I would pull the boss. So I got kicked from the group.

My second run was not too good. I had studied the strategy for the two bosses but it was my first time so I was a bit nervous. We beat the first boss but wiped at the second. We attempted it again and two of us died but I got the credit for finishing the dungeon, just not the achievements because I was dead when they finished him off.

So here's the strategy that we used for these two bosses, from a DPS point of view.

Bronjahm

The fight starts as usual. During the first phase, the boss will start channeling a purple tendril at a random player and yell something to the effect of "I will drain your soul". When that happens, the player who's being channeled needs to move as far away from the boss as possible (while still inside the circular room). A "soul" will spawn at the player's location and start slowly moving toward the boss. This "soul" is an elite with about 60K health.

At this point two things need to be done: 1) all DPS switches to the soul to burn it down as fast as possible; 2) the tank must kite the boss around the room as far away from the soul as possible. If the soul reaches the boss, it will heal him for a very high amount. On my third group we wiped the first time because some of the others didn't know the strategy and the boss healed repeatedly, slowly draining the healer's mana. In the end he couldn't heal us and we reached the second phase where we died.

The second phase of the fight is when he reaches 30%. He will teleport to the center and start channeling a swirling maelstrom of energy around the room. Everyone needs to move to the center right on top of the boss and melee him. Even ranged classes. Anyone caught inside the swirling energy will take massive damage and die quickly. At one point he will fear a random player and cause him to run through the energy field. At that point the healer needs to be on his toes and heal the hapless player.

Devourer of Souls

This one is the last boss and looks like a giant floating face. Ugly face.

The strategy here, from my understanding, is more chaotic. What I got, in summary, is this: avoid the spirits, avoid the purple patches on the ground, stop DPS when he casts Mirrored Soul.

What this means is that he will summon a bunch of floating spirits that move slowly toward players and do very little damage but are not targetable and there's lots of them. This fight keeps everyone on their toes because you need to run away a short distance whenever there are too many spirits on your ass.

The purple patches are something that the boss will cast at a random player, while teleporting on top of that player but they are pretty bright and not hard to avoid. He casts a bunch of them around the room and they persist to the end of the fight.

Mirrored Soul is the ability that he casts at a random player and apparently everyone needs to stop DPS, or the player will take all the damage.

Toward the end he will cast another spell that sweeps about a quarter of the room from a random player's position. Massive damage if caught in it. I was fortunate (I guess) not to experience this so I can't say more about it.

Yeah, I realize these strategies aren't exactly word of gospel but they should give you a general idea of how to handle these bosses. Additional tips and suggestions are always welcome. I advise you, of course, to read more under Wowhead's entries for each boss. Again, these are not extremely tough fights, provided that everyone knows what to do.

Here are the two achievements that I got:

The Forge of Souls
Heroic: The Forge of Souls

Random Heroic: Utgarde Keep

My second random heroic run for the evening turned out to be Utgarde Keep. Another mad rush to the end. I believe it took between 15 - 20 minutes. The tank was blazing through it as if his ass was on fire. At one point he was so ahead of the rest of the group that he almost killed himself due to lack of heals.

Apart from this, it was one of the easiest heroics so far.

The best part came at the end after we defeated Ingvar the Plunderer. I got a whole bunch of achievements, including 2 metas. Unfortunately I didn't catch all of them on the screen. Here they are:

Utgarde Keep <-- didn't show
Heroic: Utgarde Keep
Northrend Dungeonmaster <-- didn't show
Northrend Dungeon Hero

Random Heroic: Stone Halls

For the first random heroic of the night I completed Halls of Stone. It was another fun dungeon where the group was absolutely rushing through the mobs. I barely had time to loot stuff. At one point during the Tribunal of Ages fight, our paladin healer died but in spite of all the incoming elites and non-elites, we pulled through without a wipe. Someone managed to rez him during battle and we beat the fight.

So here's a tip for those of you who have yet to step in this instance, something that our healer learned the hard way. Get inside the circular room and don't stand on top of the stairs because the incoming mobs will aggro you first, if the tank is not vigilant.

Also, about 3 minutes into the fight there are big lasers that shoot at (random?) people inside the room, or at least at the ground where people use to stand. If you don't move from there pronto, you're toast, something that I almost learned the hard way.

Oh, and this is a timed fight, about 5 minutes total, and the main goal is to survive until the end, not to kill all the mobs. Jus' so ya know :) Go figure, now I'm an expert on this dungeon. Nah, not quite.

I didn't get to check out the surroundings much and I was only vaguely aware that I'm in my second Ulduar dungeon ever. The run was short and sweet though, especially since I got 4 achievements from it:

Good Grief
Brann Spankin' New
Halls of Stone
Heroic: Halls of Stone

Random Heroic: Utgarde Pinnacle

For the first time in history I, Darth Solo, (well not Darth Solo but my WoW Hunter) have run 3 heroics in the same day. The new LFG tool makes this so easy... 30 minutes a run is incredible. If I wasn't micro-managing other things I would have done 10 heroics, not 3.

Anyhoo, my 3rd random heroic for the day happened to be Utgarde Pinnacle. Another first is that I wasn't a complete virgin here. I had run this before, on normal, for the Hail To The King, Baby achievement during Children's Week. Back at the time, I had assumed we ran it on heroic but I guess we hadn't.

There's nothing much to say here except that this was another quick run. I was kinda ashamed to find myself on the bottom rung DPS-wise, assuming my Skada damage meter works correctly with cross-realm PUGs. On the other hand, it was a good thing because the other guys were well equipped and they (or we) kicked ass. The instance was over in no time.

And btw, I now have 48 Emblems of Triumph, yay.

Here are the achievements I got.

King's Bane
Heroic: Utgarde Pinnacle

Random Heroic: The Violet Hold

For my second random heroic of the day I completed The Violet Hold.

One interesting thing about the dungeon finder tool is that although it is supposed to be "random" it apparently gives a higher priority to instances that you haven't attempted yet. So far I haven't repeated any dungeon, except for Azjol-Nerub but I assume I was put into the same one because I hadn't completed it the first time.

At any rate, The Violet Hold was pretty cool. I liked the fact that it was blazing fast. Everything happens in the same room and there are easily-managed waves after waves of enemies.

In regards to achievements I got the usual ones:

The Violet Hold
Heroic: The Violet Hold

Random Heroic: The Oculus

The Oculus was today's random heroic. Right from the start, I gotta say this: it was one of the funnest dungeons I've experienced recently. Between the flying drakes, the floating buttresses and the final boss, fun was at a maximum.

I believe our group was very well geared and at any rate knew the instance very well. They simply blazed through everything. One of them also briefed me on the last encounter, Eregos. I'm gonna explain this at a very simplistic level but the idea is to pre-determine which group member uses the "3" skill on your drake's bar, on the boss. I forget what the skill does exactly but if I'm not mistaken, while you're channeling this, the boss is in a weakened state. Meantime, everyone else goes DPS on his ass using the "1" skill. At some point the boss "enrages". You will see a big warning on the screen. Everyone flies as far away as they can from the boss and waits for him to finish venting his frustrations. Meanwhile, he shoots pretty bubbles at random. If they burst next to you they deal massive damage so you have to avoid them. It's easy to do that since they move slowly. Once this phase is over, the next person in line goes and repeats the whole thing. Overall this was one of the easiest bosses, provided the strategy is known and understood.

Here are the achievements I got:

100 Stone Keeper's Shards
The Oculus
Heroic: The Oculus
Make It Count <-- for some reason this one didn't show up on screen.

Edit: I just read a bit on the strategy for defeating Eregos and oh boy am I a noob... Check it out in the comments section from Wowhead. The strategy is more involving than I had first thought. Those guys in my group really knew their stuff.

Random Heroic: Azjol-Nerub

Azjol-Nerub is my 6th random heroic and my 7 heroic post-patch 3.3. What's funny or strange is that the PUG tool picked this dungeon twice for me in the same night. The first time, I found myself at the entrance and the rest of my group wasn't in sight, not even on the map. They were probably at the end of the dungeon. I asked them where they were and they didn't respond so I dropped out since I wanted to experience the entire instance.

When I queued again later for the random dungeon I found myself inside the same one but with the whole group at the entrance. Maybe that's the way the tool works though.

This was another short dungeon, taking only about 30 minutes. The final boss, Anub'arak, was very interesting. The tank quickly filled me in with what I'm supposed to do for this fight. Truth is, if you don't know it, chances are you will die. In fact one of your group just did, but we did fine without him. And here's why.

You start fighting the boss. DPS DPS DPS. At one point he burrows into the ground and some of his buddies show up. There are a couple of elites which the tank handles. Meanwhile you keep DPS-ing the elites but as soon as some non-elite spiders show up, quickly take them down. Then switch back to the elites. During this time you will see the ground crack at random locations. If it happens below you, move at once. If you don't move, huge spikes will shoot up from the ground, impaling you for massive damage. I believe that's what killed our group member.

Once the elites are down, the boss surfaces and everybody resumes DPS on him. He does the same sequence 2 more times before he dies. This was a very cool fight for me, in which I had to pay attention to several things at once and I also had to stay on my toes and be prepared to move at any instant.

Here are the 3 achievements that I got in this heroic:

Hadronox Denied
Azjol-Nerub
Heroic Azjol-Nerub

Not so random heroic: The Nexus

Winter Veil has started and one of the items required to complete the meta-achievement, namely the Red Winter Hat, drops from a holiday-only boss in The Nexus, called Grand Magus Telestra. This boss has an interesting mechanic whereupon she grabs a member and whirls them around in the air while dealing some continuous but low damage. She also creates clones of herself that you have to defeat. I don't know if I'm explaining this right but if you're interested, read more under the Wowhead link.

My group was competent and we finished the whole dungeon quickly. Unfortunately I didn't win the hat, another did. For that reason I queued again for another Nexus, this time on normal. I waited almost 15 minutes before the dungeon tool found a group and these guys were all 70-71. I felt out of place in that group but surprisingly they were very good and we finished the whole dungeon in about 40 minutes without a hitch. This was by far the coolest and friendliest PUG since patch 3.3.

To cut a long story short, I won the hat this time but I suspect the other guys had no idea what the hat did, though I told them I would Need on it.

Here are the achievements I got in the heroic version. I also made my first 25 Emblems of Triumph.

25 Dungeon and Raid Emblems
The Nexus
Heroic: The Nexus

Random Heroic: Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom

For my 5th random heroic I found myself in Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom. I wonder who came up with this name. They probably thought it sounds cool but in truth it is unpronounceable.

My group was ok but we nearly wiped once due to some unexpected adds. Actually they all wiped except for me, who as a hunter just Feigned Death.

Another interesting fight was Herald Volazj who once again, as most of these bosses seem to do, had a surprise for little old me. What he does, and I quote Wowhead here, is this:

Insanity - Drive all players in the room to Insanity. During this time, players are phased and can't attack the Herald, but will fight 4 Twisted Visages who use the same abilities as the other party members. Once all the Twisted Visage of one player are dead, this player will help another party member until all Visages are dead.

So that one was fun. I figured it out after I fought about 2 of those guys. I didn't find myself in great danger here so the fight was rather simple. In between transformations everyone would resume what they were doing before, i.e. kick the boss dude's ass.

And that's about it for this heroic. Unfortunately I didn't get any extra achievements, except for the standard 2 for completing it.

Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom
Heroic: Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom

Random Heroic: Drak'Tharon Keep

My 4th random heroic was Drak'Tharon Keep. Good group but we wiped once on King Dred due to some adds.

The Prophet Tharon'ja was an interesting fight. I wasn't expecting to be transformed into a skeleton and to lose all my abilities. So I did what I always do: I started clicking those skills. I came close to dying there because I was losing health fast but then I figured that one of the skills should heal you since there's no other way to regain health. So once I started using that skill I was ok. By now I've learned one thing: to expect the unexpected on these major bosses.

Here are the achievements that I've... achieved.

Drak'Tharon Keep
Heroic: Drak'Tharon Keep
Oh Novos!

Random Heroic: Gundrak

My third random heroic using the new LFG tool happened to be Gundrak. There's not much to say here except that it was the quickest dungeon yet, at only 20 minutes. In that sense, it wowed me. My group was competent, although one guy kept dying, I don't know why. I came close to croaking once but I used a health pot and made it through.

Apart from that, I gained a whole new bunch of achievements. Here they are.

50 Stone Keeper's Shards
Snakes, Why'd It Have To Be Snakes?
Gundrak
Heroic: Gundrak

Random Heroic: Halls of Lightning

For my second heroic dungeon using the new LFG tool, I found myself in Halls of Lightning, which surprisingly is part of Ulduar. Never thought I'd find myself in Ulduar. Oh well...

This time our group wasn't that great and we wiped a couple of times. I died about 3 times total but I didn't mind as long as we finished the entire dungeon. This was also the lengthiest heroic so far and it took us 1 hour to beat it. It was late at night, after 1AM and people were tired.

At one point I made a fool of myself by trying to resurrect one of the dead members of our group and I picked the damn tank (which was a warrior) instead of choosing the healer! I do have an excuse though: for some reason I thought the tank was a paladin (oops!) and I guess I didn't realize the priest was dead. And I wasn't even drunk...

We wiped at the final boss, Loken, of course. Initially we used the "standard" strategy for this fight which is to hug the boss and when he starts casting his AOE, run like hell for the stairs (where's the damn stairs??), then when he stops go back, rinse and repeat. There are some problems with this strategy. I won't even get into them.

We then decided to adopt the "alternative" strategy which is to keep hugging the boss even when he casts the AOE and let the healer heal through it. It worked nicely so keep that in mind if you ever need it.

And that's it for Halls of Lightning. It was fun but not as good as my first random heroic. Here are the achievements I got. For some reason I didn't see the Heroic: Halls of Lightning achievement pop up on the screen.

Lightning Struck
Timely Death
Shatter Resistant
Halls of Lightning
Heroic: Halls of Lightning