Instance Pointers

or, "What you need to know before you step through that blue glowy portal thing".

Class Abilities Explained

An Intro to Warrior Abilities and Aggro

First off, a brief intro to aggro, probably preaching to the choir, but just to be sure. Aggro is how much the mob "hates" each party member, and whoever has the most aggro with a mob will be attacked by the mob until another person has 10% more aggro than the current leader. Aggro is generated by damage done to a mob, by healing done to party members, etc. Many skills can reduce the amount of aggro you have, either passively (priest talent) or actively (rogue feint).

Warriors have many skills that generate more aggro than flat damage. One of the most common is sunder armor. This debuff stacks up to five times and generates a very large amount of aggro when it is applied (note: the rogue finishing move which reduces armor does NOT stack and will overwrite sunder armor (terrible!)).

To use sunder armor and other skills, the warrior needs rage (for example, 15 for sunder armor). Rage is generated when the warrior attacks a mob, or is attacked. Generally for average damage being taken, about 1 point of rage is generated when the warrior is hit. For a 1 handed weapon, about 4-7 points of rage are generated when the warrior successfully hits a mob.

Putting these two pieces of information together, it takes the warrior at least a couple swings on a mob to get off his first sunder armor. Until then, he has only generated a miniscule amount of aggro from the damage he has done. And now you should understand the importance of giving the warrior a little time to gain aggro at the beginning of the fight ^_^ (if not, please ask questions!)

Let us also consider a multimob pull. If the warrior is only focusing on 1 mob, any moderate amount of damage to other mobs will pull aggro easily. It also means that the healer will gain aggro from ALL other mobs unless the warrior uses aoe abilities and/or spreads his aggro generation between the mobs and/or the current target is dealt with quickly to prevent the healer from having to generate massive amounts of healing aggro.

heh i guess i like rambling. please comment if something doesn't make sense!

Taunt

This is an interesting warrior ability. It forces the mob to attack the warrior for 5 seconds (10 seconds? can't remember... probably 5), but after that time, if the warrior has not regained top aggro position, the mob will return to its previous target. It costs no rage, but can only be used once every 10 seconds. So if a mob turns on you, stop attacking it! Don't generate any more aggro if you can avoid it, or you are simply putting nails in your own coffin.

Crowd Control (Sap, Polymorph, Seduce)

Pretty basic stuff here, but everyone should know that the effects of Sap and Polymorph are dispelled when the unit is attacked. In terms of preferred cc, banish is the safest, since it cannot be broken by accidental aoe. Poly/Sleep/Shackle'd mobs are the next most desired, since these can be reapplied if the mobs breaks free. Within those, there is a slight disadvantage in having shackled mobs because the priest will not be healing when reappling shackle (sleep, as a druid skill, may have similar disadvantages). Sap and freezing trap are the most dangerous forms of cc, because, once broken, they cannot be reapplied; also, sap has a failure rate that some people estimate to be as high as 10%. Frozen traps can also be resisted, although it is possible for a hunter to feign death and place another trap mid battle.

If someone in the group is an Engineer, they can also use a Goblin Rocket Helmet every 30 minutes. It provides a 30 second stun, and like Poly, it can be used in mid combat. Used strategically, it can be used to CC one more mob, and let the group take on one more mob.

Specific Instance Pointers

• Scarlet Monastery

Scenarios

Basic Pull

Here is the basic pull strategy that we've been using for groups of 2-4 mobs in an instance. The strategy attempts to make mob groups manageable, keep aggro on the tank, and to focus attacks on individual mobs in order to dispose of them the fastest. Mobs should be attacked in the priority "healers, casters, melee".

1. The party should wait in a "safe" area, while a Rogue stealths up to the group of mobs
2. The Rogue will Sap one of the mobs (disabling him for 35 seconds). In keeping with the aformentioned kill priorities, he should sap a melee user if at all possible.
1. The Rogue should have a macro to declare that a target has been sapped, something along the lines of /cast Sap (Rank 2); /p <<< SAPPING %T >>>
2. If the Rogue draws more than a safe number of mobs at this point, he should Vanish, abandoning the pull before bringing the mobs back to the party.
3. The Rogue should bring the mobs into the safe zone, where the Tank should begin drawing aggro.
4. At this point, the Main Assist should select the target for the rest of the group to attack.
1. The MA should use a macro to declare that a target has been selected, something along the lines of /p <<< TARGET SELECTED: %T >>>
2. All other party members should then target the MA's target, using a macro such as /assist {MA's name} and begin wailing on the dude.
3. After the target has died, the MA should switch to new targets based on the priority mentioned above. An MA may also decide to switch targets if a healer has drawn too much aggro or if a party member is near death.
5. If all mobs are cleared while the Sapped mob is still under, the Tank should be the first one to attack the Sapped mob, so he immediately rises to the top of that mob's aggro list. Like in the initial pull, the tank should be allowed a brief period to generate some aggro before other party members engage.

Maps!

Maps at Gameamp - this site has maps for (i think) all of the instances in WoW. I like them because they are annotated with key bosses and event locations. They even have lewt, but especially with the reitemization of high level dungeons in the 1.10 patch, this may not be so accurate.

Atlas Addon - a WONDERFUL mod! This lets you have acces to annotated maps IN GAME! Highly recommended if you want to know where you're going.

See Also

• http://www.wowwiki.com/Instance_Grouping_Guide