Arcane Advice: A Mage’s Perspective on Dungeon Running, Part Four

Part Four – Loot!

For some, loot is the single greatest reason to run a dungeon. Unlike the more intangible rewards of downing a boss or “unlocking” content, loot is the single component of a dungeon which your character gets to take away with them after the instance is over. Loot is a permanent reminder of where your character has been and how far they’ve come. In some cases, the loot a character wears is a better indication of their accomplishments than their level, professions, or spec.

However, perhaps because of these factors, loot can be a major source of disagreement among party members. What follows are some tips to help keep dividing the plunder a civil and successful occasion for your party.

Determine your rules before any loot drops. Check with all party members before you’ve even downed a mob, and make sure everyone’s on the same page. If you’re using Need before Greed, determine when Need rolls are acceptable. If you’re employing the services of a master looter, make sure they are trustworthy and capable of carrying out their duties. If you’re on a guild run using specific loot rules, make sure everyone is familiar with your policies. Whatever loot system you’re using, make sure all group members agree to abide by it.

Bind-on-Equip Items. Make sure you establish ground rules regarding BoE items. Are players allowed to roll on them for alts? What if they're going to sell the item on the auction house? If you're doing a guild run, will the item go to the guild bank, or will it be sold, with the profits going into the guild coffers?

Check your quest rewards. Sometimes, the quest reward gives better loot than what drops in the dungeon itself. Before you make your loot roll, take a quick look at your quest rewards, and make sure there’s nothing better waiting for you when you get out of the dungeon. It makes little sense to make a Need roll, for instance, on the Attuned Crystalline Boots which drop from the boss Keristrasza when my mage can pick up the far superior Sandals of Mystical Evolution for completing one of the quests inside the Nexus.

Off-spec Looting. There’s a fair amount of controversy surrounding this subject. These days, what with the new consolidation of spell power stats, as well as critical strike, chances are at some point during your dungeon run you’ll encounter an item which is a “must-have” for multiple classes within your party. Here’s where communication is of utmost importance. Some questions to ask when considering hitting that Need button:

• Is this item something I will equip and use right away? If not, is there anyone else in the party who could use it right now?
• Is this a main-spec or an off-spec item? If it’s an off-spec item for me, is there anyone who might need it more than I do?
• If the item is main-spec for me, what armor class is it – cloth, leather, mail, plate? Is there anyone in the group who is restricted to a particular armor type for whom this might be a better fit?
• How well do I know my group members? If I am new to the guild I’m running with, what are their loot policies?

These questions are not designed to force anyone into being a loot martyr, but they are included here to facilitate a group discussion about loot. Usually there is no reason to be rushed or arbitrary in your Greed or Need selection – loot timers are long for a reason. Even if you’re the only person in the party who appears to have a claim on a particular item, it never hurts to ask before hitting that Need button.

Regardless of your party's approach to pulling, combat, wiping, or loot, remember that above all else, good communication is the best way to facilitate smooth dungeon runs. Whether you're a seasoned guild farming Illidan, or a new PUG just gearing up for Wailing Caverns, talking with your party members, determining strategies, and setting ground rules can save time, energy, and help to improve group performance.

Good luck in your dungeon runs! May your wipes be few, your kills be many, and all your loot be epic.

Arcane Advice: A Mage’s Perspective on Dungeon Running, Part Three

Yesterday we continued our in-depth analysis of running instances by taking a look at some tips and strategies for combat. Today, we explore what to do when all your well-laid plans go up in smoke, and you and your party have become puddles of sticky goo lying on the dungeon floor.

Part Three – Wiping.

Wiping happens. Simple as that. In all likelihood, wiping is more common in PUGs and with people you don’t know as well, but seasoned groups can wipe also, especially now with all the new content available in Northrend, and the fact that most people are still learning the redesigned capabilities of their class. I have noticed three major phases of wiping, each featuring different things you can do to make your wipe recovery as painless and efficient as possible.

Phase One: “We’re Wiping!” This phase could also be renamed “Damage Control,” because in essence that’s what a pro-active group needs to do to minimize the impact of the wipe and get everyone back on their feet as fast as possible. The first phase of wiping is to actually notice the wipe and either take action against it, or determine what needs to be done to make wipe recovery as fast as possible.

Fighting the Wipe: This can involve an off-spec tank jumping into the fray as the main tank goes down, or an off-healer switching up their DPS for healing. Use any consumables you have at this stage, pull out all the stops on your special abilities, throwing your caution, like your mana, to the winds. There is usually no excuse for not going down fighting: any extra mob you can kill during a wipe is one less mob you’ll have to deal with when your party is ready to take on the fight again.

Fast Resurrect: If dropping a few mobs on your way to oblivion is not a possibility, at least make sure you’ve positioned your corpse-to-be in a location which is easily seen by your party’s healer. Dying under slain mobs or in hard-to-reach corners make it all the harder for your character to be resurrected, and sometimes even endanger the healer, who may inadvertently gain aggro as they attempt to reach you. If you do wind up dying in a bad location, a corpse run may be your best option.

As for the resurrection itself, soulstones, goblin jumper cables and shaman self-res abilities are a huge help here, but to make things even better, the last party member standing during the wipe can attempt to lose the interest of the aggroed mob (usually through Invisibility or Stealth) and then resurrect the party. Regardless of how you do it, if there’s one person still alive in your group after a partial wipe, no one should release their spirit until the “all clear” is given. Certain resurrection abilities require the spirit to still be connected to the body to work.

Phase Two: “The Zen of Corpse Running” The last thing anyone should do is lose their temper when wiping. Don’t fall into the trap of blaming someone for the wipe, though that can be very easy to do, especially on a repeat wipe when repair bills, and sometimes emotions, are running high. As you’re running your character back from the spirit world, take some deep breaths and consider how you can approach the problem constructively.

If you experienced a full-party wipe and you are not the healer, you should still make a good-faith effort towards corpse retrieval by releasing and running back to the instance. This is especially true after multiple wipes, when dungeon respawns may make it difficult, if not impossible for solitary party members to make it back to the wipe point unscathed. Perhaps the biggest faux pas of wiping is going AFK while your party-mates run back to their corpses.

Phase Three: “So What Happened, Exactly?” Before you reengage the fateful foe that sent your group on a quick trip to the spirit healer, analyze the situation: what made you wipe?

Unforeseen Difficulties

• Were there unanticipated adds?
• Magical resistances?
• Did the boss suddenly reveal new abilities?

Technical Difficulties

• Was there a problem maintaining tank aggro?
• Was party healing unable to compensate for damage taken?
• Was your DPS insufficient to burn the mob down?
• Were there line of sight issues?

Take the time to answer questions like these before you restart the fight. Your party’s probably not going to get anywhere if you just resurrect and hurl yourself back at the mob that wiped you without taking the time to rethink your strategy.

Stick with us for the final episode of our dungeoneering special – Part Four – Loot!

Arcane Advice: A Mage’s Perspective on Dungeon Running, Part Two

In yesterday's episode of Arcane Advice, we kicked off a four-part series on the celebrated art of dungeon running by taking a look at the finer points of opening a mob fight, or pulling. Join us now as we enter...

Part Two – Combat

Ok, you’ve marked targets, assigned CC, determined an off-tank and off-healer and made your pull. Now, if things go well, you are going to lay waste to the mob(s) before you, claim their loot, and celebrate a well-earned victory. But sometimes it isn’t as easy as tanking and spanking your way to glory. In this edition of Arcane Advice, we take a closer look at some important things to consider when entering the world of dungeon combat.

What’s Your Threat? It’s easier than ever to monitor your aggro production now that patch 3.0.x comes with a built-in threat meter. There are even built-in text warnings when your threat gets too high. To set your threat meter, go into your user interface, select the Combat menu, and take a look at your options. You can choose to have your threat meter display when in a party group, a raid group, or only in dungeons.

Talk. Whether you’re using voice chat or typing on your keyboard, communicating while in combat is a very difficult but critical skill to master. Among the communications issues which may crop up during combat are the following:

• Fight strategy changes, identifying phases of boss fights, or determining if someone needs to jump in on a different role.
• Letting the group know when it’s safe to jump in after the pull without drawing aggro, or if the group should use certain spells or abilities to help make the tank's job easier.
• Keeping each other informed when a player needs help escaping adds, if they notice adds joining the fight, or when CC abilities break or run out of time.
• Figuring out what happens when there's a wipe coming on.

Know When to AoE. Nearly every class has access to one or more “area of effect” (AoE) spells, many of which are indispensable in dungeons, if used properly. But as you might expect, the proper use of AoE spells varies from instance to instance. Generally, if you’re using AoE abilities during a fight, you shouldn’t be using CC abilities, and understandably so. Most crowd control breaks on damage, and some crowd control, like Polymorph, actually forces the mob to wander aimlessly, which can accidentally bring your sheep into the path of an incoming AoE spell. However, some fights are virtually impossible without AoE abilities. Just make sure all members of your party know when to CC, when to AoE, and when, on rare occasions, to do both at the same time.

Everyone’s a Hybrid. Druids, Shaman, Paladins, and Priests are famous for their abilities to fulfill multiple roles in combat. For years now, the so-called hybrid classes have strengthened the groups they join by acting as jacks-of-all-trades, characters who can easily shift between tanking, DPS, or healing, and pick up the slack when things start to go foul in combat.

While these classes are more likely to be successful at jumping in to save the day at a critical juncture, the new talent trees have given every single class more nifty tricks to play with and new ways of approaching combat. What this means, however, is that from now on every class, not just the so-called hybrids, needs to approach combat with a flexible mindset. For example:

• Devote one hotbar to “off-spec” abilities. Sure, you may not use it much, but in the case of unforeseen enemy magical resistances or the sudden death of your tank or healer, having all of your rarely-used abilities available at a glance can save the day.
• Use your professions and possessions to their utmost. Many items have some application in battle. Obscure potions, sticks of dynamite, fighting pets, trinkets, stones, and elixirs can all turn the tide in your favor.
• Don’t let your armor class dictate your role. We’ll be talking more about wiping in the next episode, but for now, consider this: when the bits hit the fan, you’re better off if you approach your role as something malleable, than if you fit yourself into just one of the tight little boxes of DPS, healing, or tanking. As a mage, I have even used a rough-shod combination of my Water Elemental ability, my Ice Barrier, my Mana Shield, and copious amounts of Cold Snap and Ice Floes to tank a boss when all hell breaks loose. Sure, sometimes it doesn’t work, and we wipe anyway, but I’ll happily charge into close range with a boss, spells blazing if the tank is down and we’re trying to avoid a wipe.

Join us next time for a discussion of what to do when everything goes pear-shaped. Part Three – Wiping is coming up!

Arcane Advice: A Mage’s Perspective on Dungeon Running, Part One

DPS classes don’t always get asked their opinions on running dungeons. As a priest, I was commonly asked about such things as pull numbers, mind control, boss resistances, and the need for a secondary healer, but as a mage I’ve generally just rolled up to the instance, blasted my way through some enemies and gone home. In fact, I usually wind up asking the groups I’m in for feedback, such as when to AoE, how much time the tank needs to build aggro, whether I am sheeping before or after the pull, and which adds need to be DPSed down first.

Nevertheless, running any dungeon, unless you’re decked out in level 70 gear running Ragefire Chasm, is a team effort. With the recent talent tree changes, new options have opened up for all classes. And with ten new levels to explore in Northrend, many dungeon groups are featuring “off-spec” healers and tanks, or DPSers spec’d more for leveling than they are for raiding. It’s a new game for all of us, and many of us are using this new time to “re-learn” our classes. Now, more than ever, we all need to be informed, flexible and strategic about working with others in a dungeon environment. To that end, this guide attempts to provide “food for thought” for all dungeon-goers out there. Good luck!

Part One – The Pull

The basis of any successful pull is communication. Who is killing what? In what order? What happens if the boss suddenly polymorphs the healer? What if the boss can duplicate herself? These and many other questions can and should be asked before the pull happens, because the pull, its engineering and strategy, may be the single most important part of any dungeon run.

Marking. Marking is usually taken to be par for the course in guild groups and among people who know each other, but it isn’t always used in PUGs and it should be. While marking can be hard in a new dungeon where no one knows their way, and is often assumed to be “elementary” in groups where most members have run it before, it never hurts the party, can often prevent a wipe, and ensures that every party member, no matter who they are, knows what they should be doing at all times. Tips for marking:

• Mark Kill Order. This prevents “mis-targeting” for those party members who are inferring what they should be killing by targeting what the tank is currently fighting, and helps to prevent “down time” for DPSers who are wondering what their next target should be.
• Mark Crowd Control. Each class capable of CC should have their own, pre-agreed symbol during combat. All classes capable of continuing CC through subsequent casts should set their CC target as their focus and work pro-actively to ensure that their target stays out of commission until the tank has deemed it ready to be killed.
• Stick to Your Marking. We’ve all seen it before. The warlock DoTs the mage’s sheep, the mage casts frost nova and breaks the hunter’s freeze trap, the priest MCs the secondary DPS target and the warrior uses their AoE ability on the priest’s shackled undead. The bottom line: target the mob to which you’ve been assigned!

Order and Direction. Every pull is different. Some pulls require a break in line of sight. Some pulls should be started via a Polymorph or Mind Control spell. Sometimes the hunter pulls the mob back to the party. Sometimes the tank charges ahead and takes the fight to the mob.

With all of these different factors, party members need to be flexible when tackling the pull. But all pulls should have the following things in common: a pre-determined person executing the pull, and a designated spot where the mob is being tanked. Some questions your party will need to answer in determining the order and direction of your pull:

• Is CC happening before or after the pull? And on a related note, if your mage or priest is opening the pull with their CC, how are you going to get aggro off of them and back to where it should be?
• If the puller is leading the mob back to the group, where does the group need to stand so they won’t get hit by any secondary damage abilities? This is extremely important in boss fights, where a single AoE from a boss can down cloth-wearing healers and crowd-controllers.
• Is the fight going to involve movement on the part of any of the players involved? If the tank is moving, how can healers maintain line of sight? And if everyone needs to move, how can the party maintain DPS and healing efficiency while running around the room?

Know Your Crowd Control. Not only is marking targets an important part of crowd control, so is knowing which targets can be CC’d by which classes:

• Druids can Hibernate beasts and dragonkin.
• Hunters can Freeze Trap just about anything.
• Mages can Polymorph humanoids and beasts.
• Paladins can use Repentance on humanoids, demons, dragonkin, giants and undead.
• Priests can Mind Control humanoids, and can Shackle undead.
• Rogues can Sap humanoids.
• Warlocks can Banish elementals and demons.

For a more complete listing of who can CC what, visit wowwiki.com.

Contingency Plan. While this may seem like over-thinking the pull, figuring out what everyone is going to do when things go southward can save time after a wipe, or even avoid a wipe altogether. Contingency plans vary depending on class, on dungeon, even depending on profession. Some general tips on creating a contingency plan:

• Assign players responsible for CCing or for DPSing adds. In boss fights, incoming monsters can wipe the heartiest of parties unless someone is ready to get rid of them quickly.
• Who helps the healer? If the healer pulls aggro, who can step in and get mobs off the healer efficiently? If the healer goes down, who can act as back-up?
  
• Determine the off-tank. In the event of the tank going down, who’s going to jump in and attempt to keep the boss occupied?
• Use resurrect abilities proactively. This includes all class abilities (soulstones, self-resurrection, etc.) and also the Goblin Jumper Cables made by engineers.

Stay tuned for next edition of Arcane Advice, when we take a look at: Part Two – Combat.

Arcane Advice: Gaaaahh!

I'd like to focus this issue of Arcane Advice on taking a look at one of the most obnoxious features of the new patch, a development which has haunted me in every dungeon and battleground I've been in since 3.0.2's launch, and which has left me confused, frustrated and wanting to send a little bill to Blizzard asking for my 10 silver back.

Yes, fellow mages, I am talking about none other than the evil, nefarious, hell-twisted monstrosity of Fel Intelligence over-writing Arcane Brilliance.

This new issue reared its ugly head when I got on my level 69 mage, entered my first post-3.0.2 BG, buffed everyone with Arcane Brilliance and was just getting on my mount to go kick some butt, when some level 70 warlock sauntered into the BG, pulled out their felhunter, and replaced my happy little buff with one of their own.

This surprised me. Mages, perhaps more than any other class rely on intelligence. It therefore makes sense to me that in a group setting, we'd be providing the intelligence buffs. But I knew that Fel Intelligence was, like Paranoia before it, an aura ability, so I assumed that as I moved away from this warlock to target greener pastures his buff would fade from me and my own buff would replace it again.

I was completely wrong. His buff had not just replaced my own while I was near his felhunter, Fel Intelligence had completely erased my own Arcane Brilliance buff, leaving me without any intelligence buff of any kind when I went off on my own. Worse yet, by targeting other players in our BG, who I was sure I had buffed with Arcane Brilliance, I saw that they too were bereft of any intelligence buff, unless of course they happened to be fighting in the same area as the warlock.

When I took a little time to work out why this was happening, I discovered this: mages gain new ranks of Arcane Brilliance at levels 56, 70, and 80, while warlocks gain comparable ranks of Fel Intelligence at levels 52, 62, and 72. This means that for 8 levels before level 70, and 8 levels before level 80 Fel Intelligence eats Arcane Brilliance for lunch. And let's not forget that at 62 and 72 Fel Intelligence not only tops mage intelligence bonuses, it also gives all party members increased spirit. So this is really my biggest beef with Fel Intelligence, that for a total of 16 levels it is so much better than Arcane Brilliance it basically makes mage buffs obsolete.

Now, there's a ray of hope at level 80, when Arcane Brilliance gives +60 intelligence, while the new Fel Intelligence, learned at level 72, only grants +48 to intelligence. But until then, when we mages try to do anything in Northrend, we are in constant risk of having some gluttonous felhunter eating our buff the moment a warlock walks into the room.

So really, this column is a piece of advice, nay, a downright plea to Blizzard. Give us back Arcane Brilliance. Don't feed it to the warlocks.

Arcane Advice

Okay, I lied. One more post before I leave for the wilds of BlizzCon (or perhaps just open a portal there). This section poses mage-centric advice for non-mages for their consideration, consternation and, hopefully, benefit.

First, I'd like to cover something which I have experienced recently a great deal in BGs. I think I can summarize it best by calling it "Shield Color-Blindness," because it usually happens in WSG when I am sporting my lovely little Mana Shield and traipsing toward the enemy flag to pick it up, or blinking right behind a flag-carrying druid in travel form, who is taking damage from enemies and looking for some more backup.

Some team-mate will see me and give me a tell like this: "shield pls".

The first time this happened, I assumed it was a mis-tell. Then it happened again. And again. It's even happened while engaging in the randomness which is world PvP.

I recently read a back-issue of Arcane Brilliance which mentioned that it's not uncommon for non-clothie WoW players to view all cloth-wearers as pretty much the same animal. This article, coupled with my own experience in PvP, led me to this conclusion: non-mages are color-blind. They have no idea that Mana Shield is a self-only cast. It cannot be cast on anyone else, at any time, regardless of whether said target has a mana pool of their own or not.

Mana Shield can clearly be identified, unless your graphics card is on the fritz, by its happy blue aura. Power Word: Shield, on the other hand, has a nice, lovely golden aura. Having played both a priest and a mage, to me, they look nothing alike, even if they do have the same casting sound effect.

I'd love to say that this mage/priest confusion only happens to me while playing my undead mage, since Forsaken can roll both priests and mages, and may look similar in the levels before we're all decked out in our snazzy PvP gear. But usually, this request occurs when I am playing my happy, bouncy gnome mage, which I find truly weird.

The second point I'd like to mention is far less of an issue, though it is nevertheless amusing, and sometimes depressing, to me. This is the assumption that any mage, regardless of level, can open a portal, and, furthermore, that said mage can therefore open a portal to Shattrath.

When leveling my mages, I frequently received tells asking for portals. This happened as early as level nine.

Stop the train, people. Only mages who have reached the venerable age of level 40 can open portals anywhere, and even then, we can only take you to Stormwind, Ironforge, and the Exodar, or Orgrimmar, Undercity, and Silvermoon, respectively. We can't even get you to Thunder Bluff or Darnassus - we have to reach level 50 before we can visit either. Okay, okay, we can port to Theramore or Stonard when we reach 35, but I don't think I've ever gotten a request for me to open a port to either of those places.

Porting to Shattrath is a whole different story. We have to reach level 65 before we can get anyone to that lovely city. By then, most players have already found the means to get there themselves, though that doesn't mean a well-placed Shattrath Portal isn't welcome at the end of a long dungeon.

Don't get me wrong. I love opening portals. Portals and all of their magical goodness were one of the top reasons why I rolled a mage in the first place. They are one of the greatest time-savers (and, when you reach Outland, money-savers) in the game and I adore them. But it makes me feel bad when I have to turn people away, especially willing people with a ready tip for my time, just because they've asked my low-level mage for a portal I cannot open. Hey, if my level 9 mage were capable of porting anywhere, I'd happily lend my services to anyone. And on a busy day, I could have made 20 gold in about 5 minutes opening portals for people trying to get to Shattrath. Just the thought of all that unobtainable gold is enough to make a well-intentioned but low-level mage cry.

When I need a port and am on one of my non-mage toons, my best recourse isn't whispering random mages, but asking the whole General or Trade chat channels for a willing soul to take the time to port me. And I always state my tip first. And if I'm trying to get to Shattrath, that tip is in gold. This strategy has gotten good reception from willing mages of the right level who are more than happy to take me anywhere I choose. It also gives mages who are busy the option to ignore me without the "obligation" of responding to a whisper.

Anyway, this is just food for thought, and information which will hopefully allow mages and non-mages alike better communication about some commonly-misunderstood aspects of magecraft. Good luck, and remember: never eat beef with a Tauren.