Inside World of Warcraft

There a three mayor ways to have fun in World of Warcraft. One of these is running instance dungeons with a group of people. The other two are solo questing and PvP. The only way to have real fun in a dungeon is by working together as a team. If you don't operate as a team a wipe is inevertable.

Primary function

The first and most important aspect of group play is that all group members know what role they play in the party. Every partymember should commit to that primairy function and put it above all other things. If these primairy functions aren't clear only disaster can follow for the party. If a tank or healer think's that he or she is a damage dealers, then this will we the reason for immediate wipes. Similarly, the damage dealers must be clearly aware that they're not tanks, and thus avoid getting aggro by all means.

Tank

The tank is the group member who should take all the damage. Tanks usually don't deal much damage themselves, their job is to gain and hold aggro on all mobs and make sure nobody else gets hit.

The primary tank classes are the Protection Warrior, Protection Paladin and Feral Druid.

See the next page Group dynamics - Tank for more information on tanking.

Healer

The healers is the only party member that does no damage at all. Even if there is almost nothing to heal on some pulls, the healer should not deal any damage. They must save their mana to keep the tank and everybody else alive, and you never know when it's realy needed. When the healer have drawn more aggro by healing than the tank he/she has to stop healing everybody else except the tank. Healers always have the following healorder:

• The healer itself, if he/she is dead it can’t heal others. If the fight is almost over and other party members are dying to, the healer can choose to sacrifice and use its spirit form
• The tank, if the tank dies the group will most likely be wiped.
• All others.

Healing classes are the Holy Priest, Restortion Druid en if well speced and geared also the Holy Paladin and Regeneration Shaman classes.

See the next page Group dynamics - Healer for more information on healing.

Damage Dealer (a.k.a. DPS)

Every class has the ability, with the appropriate talent points and gear, to deal significant damage. Without sufficient damage from the group, it is likely that the healer's mana runs out before all mobs are death. A good damage dealer knows how to kill mobs without drawing aggro, a bad damage dealer doesn't and dies.

Other responcebillities

Within the party, members can have a secondairy responcebillity. And every group that goes in to a dungeon should have assigned these responcebilties to a partymember.

Leader

The leader of the party must mark all targets. Targets should be marked to determine the kill order and crowd control targets. Al icons can be used as long as the group agrees upon what icon is used for what. The following icon meanings are most often seen:
First target to kill;
Second target to kill;
Thirth target to kill;
Target to Polymorph/Sheep by mage;
Target to Sap by rogue;
Target to Freezetrap by hunter;
Target to Mindcontrol by warlock;
Target to Shackle by priest.

Puller

The puller starts the fight by pulling the first target. In groups of five this job of pulling is usually done by the tank himself.

Crowd control

Targets that are marked by the leader for crowd control should be controled by the right party member. The task goes beyond casting a spel or abillity ones. The moment the mob breaks the control, is should be controled again if it's not its turn to get killed.

Combat sequence

While clearing an instance dungeon, combats with a single mob or group of mobs are usually followed by short times out of combat. Each combat can be broken down into a sequence of phases:

• Preparation, prepare for battle;
• Pull, engage the battle;
• Aggro Building, let the tank do his/her thing;
• Damage Dealing;
• Aftermath, all mobs are dead.

It's very important that all group members strictly follow this sequence. Looting for example belongs to the "Aftermath" step, and should never be done during the combat. Another common error is to start dealing damage too soon.

See the next page Group dynamics - Combat sequence for more information on this topic.