The First Step
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So you got a character done some levelling and want to do an instance or raid??
What are they? |
Why do dungeons?
Dungeons can be very rewarding in the gear that can be picked up through killing what is known as trash mobs (enemy units before bosses), and then by taking down the bosses.
Dungeons will teach you how to interact and work together as a team which is critical to how effective your group is at clearing the instance/raid you do.
There are three critical areas that any group needs to fulfil before doing any dungeon and this is based on what kind of character you want to be.
- Tank
- Damage Dealer (DPS)
- Healer
The basics of combat utilises these three areas in this simple format:
‘Tank soaks the damage from the mobs, while the DPS kills the mobs and the healer restores the party’s health.’
So what kind of character are you?? Let’s cover some basics.
The Tank
| To play the role of the tank your character needs to be pretty tough. Generally only plate armour wearers are considered to be tanks however at the lower level instances mail wearers have been seen.
Some classes due to a specific dungeon tactic may see other classes act as a secondary tank for short periods. An example of this is a mage in Gruul’s Lair to tank against High King Maulgar where the mage must spellsteal the shield which will inadvertantly protect the mage against the magical attack. |
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| The primary criteria for a tank to consider are: | Health Damage Mitigation (Avoidance, Block, Armour) Threat Generation |
During my time in the game the successful tanks have been of the following classes:
Protection Warrior
Feral Druid
Protection Paladin
Frost, Unholy Death Knights (Blood DK’s can also tank)
These six combinations of class and spec give players the true abilities to be considered the main tank.
The Damage Dealer (DPS)
| To play the role of a damage dealer your character must be able to do a consistent reasonable amount of damage for longer periods of time as combat can be against a group of mobs, a wave of mobs or a boss with a large health reserve.
It is the responsibility of all DPS to ensure they attack the correct target as marked by the Tank. |
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All of the 10 classes can play the damage dealer role with the right spec and gear.
There are three types of Damage dealers (DPS):
Caster – spell damage
Melee – physical damage
Ranged – ranged physical damage
The primary role of damage dealers is to keep the dungeon run moving smoothly by killing oncoming mobs fast with as little downtime (mana/health top up) as possible. If the damage output is bad then you run the risk of respawn, or taking too much group damage which the healer cannot cover with their mana pool resulting in a wipe (all characters are dead). Some bosses can also ‘enrage’ giving their damage output significant bonuses, so damage dealers need to be aware of the ‘enrage timer’ and kill the boss before this happens.
| For casters the primary criteria are: | Spell hit Haste rating Spell power Critical strike Intellect |
For melee/ranged the primary criteria is: | Expertise rating Hit rating Armour penetration Haste rating Critical strike rating Attack power Strength Agility |
The above DPS criteria are in no set order they are factors you need to know about depending on your class and spec.
The Healer
| The primary role of the healer is to keep their party/raid group alive. Healers also provide some powerful defensive buffs which can aid any party/group in dungeon situations. The Healer needs to know the abilities of the party/group as well as if they were his/her abilities. A Healer may at some point need to make the decision who to heal in a low health situation. Primarily it’s the tank; however if you know your Tank well they have some powerful damage mitigation abilities which can buy that extra time to heal another party member first then returning back to the Tank. |
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A good tactic is to set your focus to the main Tank for quick switching.
The classes that can heal are:
Paladins
Priests
Druids
Shamans
As the healer you need to ensure your pool of mana and spell power is high enough to keep your party alive. Your focus is on the group and not the mobs as your tank will keep them off you.
| For healers the primary criteria are: | Spell Power Intellect Spirit Mana regeneration (MP5) Critical strike rating |
Decision Time
So we’ve covered the basics of the PVE classes and you should by now have a fair idea of what you want your character to be. In a nutshell:
If you want to take all the mobs on, taking damage from all directions and prevent your group from taking damage in true hero fashion then the ‘Tank’s life’ is for you
If you want to kill, kill, destroy all mobs then it’s the ‘DPS life’ for you
If you want to be the saviour of your party/raid by restoring their health allowing the attack to be unrelentless then the ‘Healers life’ is for you.
Tags: dps, dungeon, healer, instance, PVE, raid, tank, warcraft, wow
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