World of Warcraft/Group Basics
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Many of the challenges in World of Warcraft are too difficult for any character to defeat alone. World of Warcraft is designed so that players often have to group up to kill bosses, run instances, and complete group quests.
When to Group:
- When the mobs you have to kill are just too powerful to kill on your own.
- When a quest requires you to kill a certain number of mobs. Each time your party kills one, everyone in the party gets credit for killing one.
- Instances are designed for groups; the mobs are too powerful for one character.
- When fighting elite enemies.
When Not to Group:
- For normal quests. You can group for these quests, but it is often easier and faster to do them on your own.
- If you have a quest to kill mobs that you’d be killing anyway for what they drop. When you group, you have to share the experience points and loot from the mobs you kill.
Before You Group:
- Make sure you have enough time to complete the challenge you’re grouping up for. Some group quests can take as little as fifteen minutes, while some instances can take as long as four hours. If you don’t know how much time your group will require, ask when you first join the group. Be up front about how much time you have. Nothing is worse than having a group that has to leave just before you’re about to finish a quest.
- Make sure you have all the supplies you need before you look for a group. This means drinks to restore mana and spell regents if you’re a spellcaster. If you’re a hunter bring plenty of food for your pet. All classes should make sure that your amour and weapons are fully repaired.
Contents |
Looking for Group
The LFG tool is accessed by the green eye on your toolbar, between the exclamation point (!) and computer symbol. If you select a group quest or instance, you'll see a list of other people who want to do that same instance or quest.
Roles
It’s best to take advantage of the diversity of classes available in WoW. While a group made up of a single class is possible, a group made up of a mix of classes is much stronger. The basic idea is a tank keeps the enemy from attacking other players, a healer keeps the tank alive, and DPS players do damage and kill the enemy.
Tank
The tank’s job is to take and hold aggro, letting enemies attack them instead of the other members of the group.
Tanks have a lot of amour, and high health, allowing them to shrug off hits that would kill a lesser player. Tanks have abilities (like shouts) to keep bad guys attacking them, rather than other members of the group.
Warriors make excellent tanks. Their mail, or at higher levels plate, armor does a good job of protecting them. They have an array of shouts and taunts that allow them to hold the focus of their enemies, which keeps the rest of the group from taking damage. For any warrior looking to tank, a shield is an absolute must have piece of equipment.
Paladins also make great tanks, with their heavy amour and high health. Again, a shield is a must for a paladin tank.
Druids can do a good job of tanking when they use their bear form.
Many hunter’s pets do well as tanks, especially those with high hit points and amour. Bears, gorillas, and tigers tend to be popular choices for pet tanks.
Healer
No matter how good your tank is, he (or she) is still mortal, and tanks die just like anybody else if they take too much damage. Other characters in your group are bound to take damage too. With a healer around, all that damage can be healed, and your group can keep fighting long after a group without a healer would be standing around the graveyard.
It’s important to remember that a healer's job is to keep the rest of the party alive, not do damage to the enemy. It’s perfectly alright for a healer to not use any offensive spell or attacks during a fight. If no one in the party is taking damage, then feel free to throw out some offensive spells or melee attack, but remember that a healer’s primary duty is to heal.
Healing spells contribute to your threat, so it’s important to let your tank build up threat before using your healing spells.
Priests make some of the best healers in the game. They have a wide variety of healing spells and a deep reserve of mana. Druids also make excellent healers, especially when they have chosen their talents and gear to make the most of their healing spells. Shamans can use their totems to heal groups. Paladins have a healing capability, but their healing spells and mana pools tend to be more limited than other healing classes.
DPS
Once the tank has the enemy’s attention and the healer is making sure you have enough health, it’s up to someone to do some serious damage and put the bad guy down. This is where the DPS classes come in.
Although DPS characters can do large amounts of damage, most can’t take damage as well as a tank. It’s important not to draw your enemies’ focus away from your party’s tank.
- Rogues use melee attack to do damage. Many of these attacks stun their opponents or provide other advantages.
- Mages have a variety of powerful offensive spells that can damage single targets, or multiple targets in an area.
- Warlocks and Hunters have pets and their own attacks, which add up to impressive damage.
- Druids have a cat form that allows them to deal out damage much like a rogue.
- Warriors can use dual weapons, or a two handed weapon to increase their damage.
- Shadow Priests have given up their healing spells for damage inflicting shadow spells.
Pulling
Your enemy is often found in groups. Just as a group of characters is more powerful than any of its individual members, so is a mob group. The best thing to do is to try to take them on one at a time, or at least in the smallest groups you can. The best way to do this is a process called pulling. One group chooses one character to move ahead of the group and attack one of the mobs. This mob is carefully chosen so that as few other mobs as possible attack with it. Usually a ranged weapon or spell is used, although rogues often use melee attacks. Once the mob is attacked, the character runs back to the rest of the group. The fight can then commence away from other mobs, preventing them from joining in.
Crowd Control
When dealing with multiple mobs, it helps to take as few as possible on at once. Some spells and abilities stop an enemy from attacking for a period of time. This allows you to fight them one at time.
Different classes have different crowd control abilities. Most of them only work against certien kinds of enemies.
| Class | Ability | Usable Against | Restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mage | Polymorph (aka Sheep) | Humanoids | |
| Priest | Mind Control | Humanoids | Channeled spell |
| Priest | Shackle Undead | Undead | |
| Rogue | Sap | Humanoids | Must be used before combat |
| Warlock | Banish | Demons and Elementals | |
| Warlock (Succubus) | Seduction (aka Charm) | Humanoids | Channeled Succubus (pet) spell |
| Hunter | Freeze Trap | Traps must be set properly | |
| Druid | Entangling Roots | Outdoors only |
With most of these spells, any damage done to the target will free them. It is important not to use any spell that does damage over time to a mob your party wants to crowd control. You must also be careful not to damage them with any spell or ability that does damage over a wide area.
Looting
Now that everyone has done their job and the bad guy is dead, it’s time for your rewards. This usually means looting the enemy corpse.
Sharing the spoils often leads to conflict within the group. To keep things running smoothly, there are a few rules, both built into the game and unwritten, that you should follow. When you join a group, it’s always a good idea to ask what the looting etiquette is before problems arise.
When a valuable item appears, each player sees a small menu box with the item and three options. Cooing the pass option (the red X) means you don’t want the item and you won’t get it. If everyone in the group chooses pass, the item becomes available to any party member who picks it up from the enemy’s corpse. Choosing greed (with the coin icon) means you want the item, but can live without it. If everyone in the group chooses greed, then the game automatically gives each player a random number and the player with the highest number gets the item. Need (dice icon) means you really want the item. Any player that selects this option will get it, unless someone else has also selected need.
Most groups use the informal rule that in order to select need, the item should be an improvement over the equipment that a character already has. Some groups insist that any item that is needed should be immediately equipped. When in doubt, ask permission before selecting need.
In all of the above systems, cash (copper, silver, and gold) are automatically evenly divided among all group members.
It’s usually considered impolite to loot a corpse while other members of your party are still fighting.
When a group finds a chest it’s common to roll to see who gets its contents. Each player types “/roll” on the chat channel, and a random number is displayed next to their name. Whoever has the highest number gets the contents of the chest.
Some items you encounter are bind on pick up. This means that the item will be soulbound to whomever picks it up, and they won’t be able to sell it to other players. If no one in the group can or wants to use item, the only option is to sell it to a vendor. Many groups prefer to disenchant the item, which yields enchanting ingredients that are not soulbound and can be sold at the auction house.
