Raid Icons.
Also known as magic tokens, cookies, lucky charms, 'those icon things' and so on.
Their purpose is to identify, without confusion, what needs to happen to which mob in a pull. The standards change from group to group and server to server, so it's always a good idea to decide at the beginning of the group who will be assigning the tokens (it has to be the group leader) and what each token means.
The UNM standard is as follows:
Skull - This is the target to be taken down first. All DPS hit this.
X - This used to mean 'don't touch', now it either means 'Kill second' or 'Offtank', to be decided at the pull.
Moon - Sheep/Banish/Stun. The first crowd control icon.
Orange circle/Square/pink diamond etc - More crowd control icons, if available. These can be assigned to the respective controller at the beginning.
This is, however, just the 'standard' and can be changed on the fly, of course. It's the assigner's duty to communicate icon assignments clearly, and the rest of the party's duty to check understanding.
That brings to an end the little delve into the basics of casual instance running. Stay tuned for our 102 classes, where we will cover things like loot rules, gearing progression, and when vanity pets are actually useful.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
Instance Running 101 Explored Part 9
Crowd control skills.
This is a skill that needs a little practice. The leader needs to identify the target with a raid icon (more on those in the next post), the cc'er needs to control the target, and the rest of the group need to not break the cc!
Example of 'crowd control':
Mages have a polymorph spell. This means that the target gets turned into a sheep, and wanders around randomly. Breaks on any damage. The target also heals as fast as if it were out of combat, so it's not a good idea to sheep an almost-dead target. The spell only works on beasts, humanoids and critters.
Druids have a cyclone spell. This only lasts for 8 seconds, but doesn't break on damage. The target can't be damaged at all while under the effect. Very few mobs are immune to it.
Warlocks have a banish spell. This only works on Elementals and Demons. (including a Druid in 'Tree of Life' form). Can't be broken by damage, and the target can't be damaged.
And so on. As shown, the various crowd control spells have varying durations, allowable targets, and side effects. The short-term ones (cyclone, rogue stuns, etc) are more often used as emergency buttons for a bad situation (stopping a mob on the way to the healer, for example), while the long-terms spells (polymorph, a rogue's 'Sap', banish, etc) are normally used at the beginning of a fight for dealing with a particular target.
The goal behind 'cc' is to make a particular mob in a pull become a non-entity for the duration of the fight. A classic example is the following:
There is a pull with three mobs: Two mobs that heal, and one melee mob that hits hard. The kill order is the two healers first, and then the melee mob... however, the healers will keep each other alive while the melee mob does a lot of damage to the tank.
The leader marks one healer to be killed first, and then the melee mob to be killed second. The third is marked with the agreed 'cc' mark. When everyone is ready, the tank pulls and then the cc'er (lets say a mage, for the sake of the example) 'sheeps' the marked healer. The tank Line-of-sights the other two around the corner and then rest of the party focuses on killing the healer, and then killing the melee mob. The mage alternates between blasting the current target, and keeping the second healer sheeped. Once the other two mobs are down, the party can focus on the sheeped mob and 'burn it down', ie kill it as fast as possible.
A successful pull, due to the powers of cc! ;)
This is a skill that needs a little practice. The leader needs to identify the target with a raid icon (more on those in the next post), the cc'er needs to control the target, and the rest of the group need to not break the cc!
Example of 'crowd control':
Mages have a polymorph spell. This means that the target gets turned into a sheep, and wanders around randomly. Breaks on any damage. The target also heals as fast as if it were out of combat, so it's not a good idea to sheep an almost-dead target. The spell only works on beasts, humanoids and critters.
Druids have a cyclone spell. This only lasts for 8 seconds, but doesn't break on damage. The target can't be damaged at all while under the effect. Very few mobs are immune to it.
Warlocks have a banish spell. This only works on Elementals and Demons. (including a Druid in 'Tree of Life' form). Can't be broken by damage, and the target can't be damaged.
And so on. As shown, the various crowd control spells have varying durations, allowable targets, and side effects. The short-term ones (cyclone, rogue stuns, etc) are more often used as emergency buttons for a bad situation (stopping a mob on the way to the healer, for example), while the long-terms spells (polymorph, a rogue's 'Sap', banish, etc) are normally used at the beginning of a fight for dealing with a particular target.
The goal behind 'cc' is to make a particular mob in a pull become a non-entity for the duration of the fight. A classic example is the following:
There is a pull with three mobs: Two mobs that heal, and one melee mob that hits hard. The kill order is the two healers first, and then the melee mob... however, the healers will keep each other alive while the melee mob does a lot of damage to the tank.
The leader marks one healer to be killed first, and then the melee mob to be killed second. The third is marked with the agreed 'cc' mark. When everyone is ready, the tank pulls and then the cc'er (lets say a mage, for the sake of the example) 'sheeps' the marked healer. The tank Line-of-sights the other two around the corner and then rest of the party focuses on killing the healer, and then killing the melee mob. The mage alternates between blasting the current target, and keeping the second healer sheeped. Once the other two mobs are down, the party can focus on the sheeped mob and 'burn it down', ie kill it as fast as possible.
A successful pull, due to the powers of cc! ;)
Friday, December 12, 2008
Instance Running 101 Explored Part 8
The healer keeps the tank alive. The tank keeps the healer alive. The dps look after themselves.
We've covered this one before, in the earlier posts on healing and threat and mitigation, but it's worth restating.
The logic is again simple. The tank has the most mitigation, therefore needing the least healing. The tank also has a maximum amount of threat that he can generate, which the rest of the party can easily exceed.
So, the healer has to keep the tank alive, as he's the one who's supposed to get beaten on.
The tank needs to keep the healer alive, as the healer is constrained by having to generate as much threat as it takes to keep the tank alive.
The DPS on the other hand, just have to do damage (and crowd controls etc, but most of those end up very easy with a bit of practice). Their sole constraint is generating less threat than the tank can generate. If they mess up and get aggro, then the healer keeping them alive risks running out of mana and wiping the whole attempt. It's better just to let him/her die and rely on the remaining DPS to be sufficient.
Till next time...
We've covered this one before, in the earlier posts on healing and threat and mitigation, but it's worth restating.
The logic is again simple. The tank has the most mitigation, therefore needing the least healing. The tank also has a maximum amount of threat that he can generate, which the rest of the party can easily exceed.
So, the healer has to keep the tank alive, as he's the one who's supposed to get beaten on.
The tank needs to keep the healer alive, as the healer is constrained by having to generate as much threat as it takes to keep the tank alive.
The DPS on the other hand, just have to do damage (and crowd controls etc, but most of those end up very easy with a bit of practice). Their sole constraint is generating less threat than the tank can generate. If they mess up and get aggro, then the healer keeping them alive risks running out of mana and wiping the whole attempt. It's better just to let him/her die and rely on the remaining DPS to be sufficient.
Till next time...
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Instance Running 101 Explored Part 7
Line-of-sight.
This is, on the face of it, a simple one. It's amazing that people get it wrong as much as they do.
Casters need to see you to cast at you. If you annoy them and then run around the corner so they can't see you, then they will run forward to the corner to try get a look at you.
This makes it easy for the tank to get them all in a big group with the melee mobs so he can cleave/swipe/consecrate them all and build threat, so the casters then don't start beating on the healer when a heal ticks.
Unfortunately, while it's a simple idea, it's also simple to break. It's not just what the tank needs to do, it's what the others need to do or not do.
1) The mobs are going to be around the corner. Perhaps everyone else should stand around the corner where they're going to be.
2) Until the tank has started bashing on things, Don't Touch Them. He's probably pulled with a Faerie Fire or single arrow shot or something, and will have little to no threat on most of them. Hitting one will definately switch it to you, messing up the whole pull.
3) Don't heal/buff/drop new totems/etc until the tank has proper threat generated. All of these things applied during the weak part of the pull can get you aggro you don't want.
4) Don't stand near the mobs as they run over. At low aggro levels, untaunted mobs seem to be able to switch to closer targets.
5) If you're the tank, warn people that you're LoSing. That way, they know what to expect. Make a complete warning... don't just say 'LoS', rather say 'I'm going to pull them around the corner here, don't touch till I've hit the caster a few times.'
I think just those quick rules will make LoS pulls a lot more reliable.
Until next time...
This is, on the face of it, a simple one. It's amazing that people get it wrong as much as they do.
Casters need to see you to cast at you. If you annoy them and then run around the corner so they can't see you, then they will run forward to the corner to try get a look at you.
This makes it easy for the tank to get them all in a big group with the melee mobs so he can cleave/swipe/consecrate them all and build threat, so the casters then don't start beating on the healer when a heal ticks.
Unfortunately, while it's a simple idea, it's also simple to break. It's not just what the tank needs to do, it's what the others need to do or not do.
1) The mobs are going to be around the corner. Perhaps everyone else should stand around the corner where they're going to be.
2) Until the tank has started bashing on things, Don't Touch Them. He's probably pulled with a Faerie Fire or single arrow shot or something, and will have little to no threat on most of them. Hitting one will definately switch it to you, messing up the whole pull.
3) Don't heal/buff/drop new totems/etc until the tank has proper threat generated. All of these things applied during the weak part of the pull can get you aggro you don't want.
4) Don't stand near the mobs as they run over. At low aggro levels, untaunted mobs seem to be able to switch to closer targets.
5) If you're the tank, warn people that you're LoSing. That way, they know what to expect. Make a complete warning... don't just say 'LoS', rather say 'I'm going to pull them around the corner here, don't touch till I've hit the caster a few times.'
I think just those quick rules will make LoS pulls a lot more reliable.
Until next time...
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
A Steamvault PUG.
Hunters are famous for being Huntards. Night Elf Hunters especially.
I grouped up for an "easy" Steamvaults run last night. It should have been easy. My Druid is, in theory, geared for Heroics. Everyone else in the PUG was, in theory, an old hand at this content.
So much for theory.
What happened in practice was that we wiped 2 or 3 times.
What happened in practice was the tank mismanaged the pulls, and didnt use raid icons to mark CC targets for the mage and hunter.
What happened in pratice was the Hunter *insisted* on coming right to the front while the Tank was pulling. On at least two occasions, initiating combat *before* the Tank pulled. And not with a misdirection either.
This made it terribly difficult to pull the mobs right back, and LOS the casters to keep them bunched (and in range of a swipe). So we ended up fighting mobs that can cast fear in the middle of crowded rooms, with untagged casters eventually aggroing on the healer. At least two wipes were caused by overwhelming adds resulting from a 'fear' into nearby mobs.
To cap it all off, the Mage kept randomly going AFK to deal with "His Mother".
The only people doing their job was the Resto Druid, Feral Druid (DPS).
Oh. I was the tank. Sorry guys for wiping out multiple times on trivial content.
Instance Running 101 Explored Part 6
Pulling means mobs come to you.
This is a good opportunity to discuss aggro mechanics.
Firstly, a list of terms:
Mob - a non-player-character enemy. A kobold, or hellboar, or instance boss and so on.
Aggro - When a player has aggro, it means he is the primary target of the Mob, ie is the target that the mob will be attacking.
Threat - Described in more detail below, but basically the numerical value on the threat table.
Each mob has a little list (Referred to as the aggro table, normally) assigned to them. The list is filled with potential targets... the moment someone damages the mob, or heals/buffs someone already on the table, they get added to the table. The person at the top of the list is the person that the mob attacks.
Your position on the table is dependent on the amount of threat you have with that mob. Each point of damage you do to a mob is equal to one point of threat. Each point of healing you do to someone on the table is equal to half a point of threat. Buffs (that are applied during combat) have their own threat value, and so on.
Now, the system is tweaked slightly by giving the main target a bit of a buffer. If the tank has aggro, and one of the DPS's threat value climbs just above that of the tank, there won't be an aggro switch. If the DPS is at melee rage to the mob, he will need 10% more threat than the tank to be switched to as the main target (so, if the tank has 100 threat, the DPS will need 110 threat to get aggro). If the DPS (or healer) is at range, he will need 30% more.
Abilities like the priests 'Fade' temporarily remove you from the table. The threat value is still there, and any actions (eg healing) done during the time are still added to your total, the mob just simply won't attack you. Leaving the faded state will put you back in the relative position on the table, including right at the top if nobody has managed to surpass your threat value in that time. Shadowmeld works the same way.
Aggro dumps like Cower and Feint reduce the total amoutn of threat. Misdirection means that the threat the hunter generates for three shots is assigned to the target's total (hopefully the tank) instead.
Adding to the complexity are mobs (usually bosses) that have some kind of aggro switch or dump ability. Sometimes they will stun the person at the top of the list and then switch to the next person down, or go into a new phase of combat that completely clears the aggro table and starts again.
A classic example is the fight at the end of Ramparts. Once one kills the dragon rider, the dragon joins the battle... while it's the same fight, the dragon enters with a completely clean aggro table, automatically pre-aggroed on the tank (in other words, even though no damage has happened, the mechanics of the fight means that the dragon is aware of the tank, and has the tank on the aggro table). If, at that point, a heal over time ticks on the tank, the healer jumps to the top of the table, since the tank will have very little aggro.
Another quirk, already mentioned but worth mentioning again, is the mechanic behind the 'Taunt' ability ('Growl', for druid tanks). This ability increases the Tank's threat value to equal that of the person at the top of the table, and switches the mob's main target to the tank. If the tank is already at the top, it has no effect.
Whew, a long post today. Till next time...
This is a good opportunity to discuss aggro mechanics.
Firstly, a list of terms:
Mob - a non-player-character enemy. A kobold, or hellboar, or instance boss and so on.
Aggro - When a player has aggro, it means he is the primary target of the Mob, ie is the target that the mob will be attacking.
Threat - Described in more detail below, but basically the numerical value on the threat table.
Each mob has a little list (Referred to as the aggro table, normally) assigned to them. The list is filled with potential targets... the moment someone damages the mob, or heals/buffs someone already on the table, they get added to the table. The person at the top of the list is the person that the mob attacks.
Your position on the table is dependent on the amount of threat you have with that mob. Each point of damage you do to a mob is equal to one point of threat. Each point of healing you do to someone on the table is equal to half a point of threat. Buffs (that are applied during combat) have their own threat value, and so on.
Now, the system is tweaked slightly by giving the main target a bit of a buffer. If the tank has aggro, and one of the DPS's threat value climbs just above that of the tank, there won't be an aggro switch. If the DPS is at melee rage to the mob, he will need 10% more threat than the tank to be switched to as the main target (so, if the tank has 100 threat, the DPS will need 110 threat to get aggro). If the DPS (or healer) is at range, he will need 30% more.
Abilities like the priests 'Fade' temporarily remove you from the table. The threat value is still there, and any actions (eg healing) done during the time are still added to your total, the mob just simply won't attack you. Leaving the faded state will put you back in the relative position on the table, including right at the top if nobody has managed to surpass your threat value in that time. Shadowmeld works the same way.
Aggro dumps like Cower and Feint reduce the total amoutn of threat. Misdirection means that the threat the hunter generates for three shots is assigned to the target's total (hopefully the tank) instead.
Adding to the complexity are mobs (usually bosses) that have some kind of aggro switch or dump ability. Sometimes they will stun the person at the top of the list and then switch to the next person down, or go into a new phase of combat that completely clears the aggro table and starts again.
A classic example is the fight at the end of Ramparts. Once one kills the dragon rider, the dragon joins the battle... while it's the same fight, the dragon enters with a completely clean aggro table, automatically pre-aggroed on the tank (in other words, even though no damage has happened, the mechanics of the fight means that the dragon is aware of the tank, and has the tank on the aggro table). If, at that point, a heal over time ticks on the tank, the healer jumps to the top of the table, since the tank will have very little aggro.
Another quirk, already mentioned but worth mentioning again, is the mechanic behind the 'Taunt' ability ('Growl', for druid tanks). This ability increases the Tank's threat value to equal that of the person at the top of the table, and switches the mob's main target to the tank. If the tank is already at the top, it has no effect.
Whew, a long post today. Till next time...
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Instance Running 101 Explored Part 5
The dps do not pull. The healer does not pull. The tank pulls.
This is a fairly simple part of aggro management. If someone other than the tank pulls, then that person will have aggro, and the tank will have to do 10% more aggro than that person to get the mob back. If there was a group in the pull, then the tank will need to focus on each mob in the group to get them all back.
If the person pulling is a clothie, by then he's dead.
There are exceptions. The hunter, as a prime example, has an ability for the threat of three shots to be directed to a different member of the group (presumably the tank). It's a good technique for range pulling.
There is also a method for very difficult pulls in raids. The hunter or the rogue pulls, and if the pull goes wrong he feigns death/vanishes to reset the pull (or, if the vanish/feign death fails, simply dies). The rest of the party remains untouched, and the pull is tried again. It's sometimes referred to as 'The perfect zone of ultimate safety'.
In summary: Unless specified otherwise, the tank pulls.
Until next time...
This is a fairly simple part of aggro management. If someone other than the tank pulls, then that person will have aggro, and the tank will have to do 10% more aggro than that person to get the mob back. If there was a group in the pull, then the tank will need to focus on each mob in the group to get them all back.
If the person pulling is a clothie, by then he's dead.
There are exceptions. The hunter, as a prime example, has an ability for the threat of three shots to be directed to a different member of the group (presumably the tank). It's a good technique for range pulling.
There is also a method for very difficult pulls in raids. The hunter or the rogue pulls, and if the pull goes wrong he feigns death/vanishes to reset the pull (or, if the vanish/feign death fails, simply dies). The rest of the party remains untouched, and the pull is tried again. It's sometimes referred to as 'The perfect zone of ultimate safety'.
In summary: Unless specified otherwise, the tank pulls.
Until next time...
Monday, December 8, 2008
Instance Running 101 Explored Part 4
Kill the casters first.
Why? Poor casters, they always get picked on, right?
There are actually a lot of reasons why the casters need obliteration.
1) They do a LOT of damage. This damage is not mitigated by armor, cannot be dodged or parried, and is generally painful.
2) Sometimes they are healers, extending the health of the other mobs. This is the inverse of why you don't let the party healer die :)
3) They're clothies normally, and go down fast, making it the best way to stop the mobs doing damage.
4) Nobody likes casters anyway.
Ok, the last one isn't true, but the rest are. Taking down the caster first is the quickest way to reducing the mob damage and sometimes the mob health of the whole pull. It's very rare that one should not kill the caster first
A notable exception is the run we did the other night, with the legionary that kept calling more mobs. He had to go first.
Why? Poor casters, they always get picked on, right?
There are actually a lot of reasons why the casters need obliteration.
1) They do a LOT of damage. This damage is not mitigated by armor, cannot be dodged or parried, and is generally painful.
2) Sometimes they are healers, extending the health of the other mobs. This is the inverse of why you don't let the party healer die :)
3) They're clothies normally, and go down fast, making it the best way to stop the mobs doing damage.
4) Nobody likes casters anyway.
Ok, the last one isn't true, but the rest are. Taking down the caster first is the quickest way to reducing the mob damage and sometimes the mob health of the whole pull. It's very rare that one should not kill the caster first
A notable exception is the run we did the other night, with the legionary that kept calling more mobs. He had to go first.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Points of contention with Part3
While the first part of the post is correct the last part where it goes on to crowd control and buffs. This is not really the case. They are not purly the domain of DPS. In fact most buffs come from the "multi-role" classes (Palidins, Druids, Priests and Shaman).
It is true that the balance as far as Crowd Control goes is more a DPS activity. An important thing to rember how ever is that there is a form of crowd control called "Off Tanking". It is offten forgoten and is the most versitle form of crowd control as it works on all types of mobs. IT does require that the healer needs to focus on more than one target. The flip side of which is that the mob being off tanked was likly to be beating on some one any way and possibly the healer so...
Instance Running 101 Explored Part 3
DPS.
The third part of the 'holy trinity', the DPS are mainly responsible for damage, and also for assistances such as 'crowd control'.
But first, damage. 'DPS' stands for 'Damage per second'. As a simplified example, if a mage blasted a mob for 5000 damage, and then didn't do any more damage for 5 seconds, he would have done 1000 DPS. Similarly, if he'd opened with 2500 damage and then 2.5 seconds later did another 2500 damage, he's also be maintaining 1000 DPS.
Each point of damage is a point of threat. Tanks typically don't do as much damage as the DPS classes, so they have to rely on other threat-generating abilities to stay on top of the aggro chart. This means that a good, well geared DPSer with a good rotation can very easily take aggro (and then probably die), no matter what the tank does.
This is where the true skill of DPS comes. Getting the best rotation for the most damage per second without passing the tank's threat generation. This involves trying to smooth out damage burst (doing 1000 damage every second is better than doing 5000 damage every 5 seconds), using threat dump abilities, and speccing the talents that reduce threat.
Once the DPSer is sure he's not going to out-threat the tank, then the fun begins... maxing out the magic DPS number. Huge arguments fill forums over the best spec, the best gear, the best stat priorities per class.
Crowd control is another element that the DPS is normally responsible for. Mages sheep, Locks seduce and banish, rogues stun, druids root, shamen have totem pets... there are also buffs, totems and auras that help the rest of the party, many of whom come from the DPS classes.
In summary, the DPS's job is to damage the assigned target to death as quickly as possible, while not taking the targets attention from the tank, and staying away from damage as much as possible.
The third part of the 'holy trinity', the DPS are mainly responsible for damage, and also for assistances such as 'crowd control'.
But first, damage. 'DPS' stands for 'Damage per second'. As a simplified example, if a mage blasted a mob for 5000 damage, and then didn't do any more damage for 5 seconds, he would have done 1000 DPS. Similarly, if he'd opened with 2500 damage and then 2.5 seconds later did another 2500 damage, he's also be maintaining 1000 DPS.
Each point of damage is a point of threat. Tanks typically don't do as much damage as the DPS classes, so they have to rely on other threat-generating abilities to stay on top of the aggro chart. This means that a good, well geared DPSer with a good rotation can very easily take aggro (and then probably die), no matter what the tank does.
This is where the true skill of DPS comes. Getting the best rotation for the most damage per second without passing the tank's threat generation. This involves trying to smooth out damage burst (doing 1000 damage every second is better than doing 5000 damage every 5 seconds), using threat dump abilities, and speccing the talents that reduce threat.
Once the DPSer is sure he's not going to out-threat the tank, then the fun begins... maxing out the magic DPS number. Huge arguments fill forums over the best spec, the best gear, the best stat priorities per class.
Crowd control is another element that the DPS is normally responsible for. Mages sheep, Locks seduce and banish, rogues stun, druids root, shamen have totem pets... there are also buffs, totems and auras that help the rest of the party, many of whom come from the DPS classes.
In summary, the DPS's job is to damage the assigned target to death as quickly as possible, while not taking the targets attention from the tank, and staying away from damage as much as possible.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Instance Running 101 Explored Part 2
The healer. That's me.
The healer basically casts a spell on a friendly target that gives hit points back to the target.
In extension, this means that the healer's mana bar is an extended health bar distributed amongst the rest of the group.
Extending from that, this means that any healing done on anyone other than the tank is directly reducing the tank's health bar for that encounter. This also means that killing the healer immediately and dractically reduces everyone else's health bar by a large amount.
Healers stack spell power and spirit depending on the type of healer (so that each healing spell does more healing), intellect (so that their mana bar is bigger) and mana regeneration (so that their mana... everyone's health... comes back faster). Good healer gear means extra life for everyone else.
The healer basically casts a spell on a friendly target that gives hit points back to the target.
In extension, this means that the healer's mana bar is an extended health bar distributed amongst the rest of the group.
Extending from that, this means that any healing done on anyone other than the tank is directly reducing the tank's health bar for that encounter. This also means that killing the healer immediately and dractically reduces everyone else's health bar by a large amount.
Healers stack spell power and spirit depending on the type of healer (so that each healing spell does more healing), intellect (so that their mana bar is bigger) and mana regeneration (so that their mana... everyone's health... comes back faster). Good healer gear means extra life for everyone else.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Instance Running 101 Explored Part 1
I thought it might be worthwhile to investigate exactly why those are some of the golden rules to running instances.
Part 1: The tank.
The reason the tank tanks is mitigation, primarily. This is, in essence, the ability to reduce damage taken. Armor is the first step here... a good tank has huge amounts, so that bosses who do direct 'physical' damage can't do as much. There's a straight mechanism here, more armor means more damage absorbed.
Other mitigation involves parry, block and dodge. Parry is a chance to block a strike, block is the chance to block a strike with a shield (doesn't apply to bear tanks, since they don't have a shield), and dodge is the chance to totally avoid a strike.
Magic damage throws a curveball here... it ignores armor, and it can't be blocked or parried. This is where the tank's health comes in to play... the more he has, the more damage he can absorb. This isn't the ideal approach for all tanking, as the healer will then need to heal the damage and could run out of mana. No healer mana = wipe.
Magic can be mitigated by resistances, which come sometimes as armor properties, sometimes as enchants, and sometimes as potions or other temporary effects.
Finally, there are magical mitigations that have no direct assoctiation... bear tanks are an example here, as they have a straight mitigation in bear form. Warriors have stances that offer more mitigation, and so on.
Finally, the rest of the party want the tank to be hit, as the more he's hit, the angrier he gets. Rage is the tank's mana, and the more he has, the more he can hit back, and the more likely it is the mobs will keep hitting him.
This is why the tank needs to be the one the mobs are beating on.
Part 1: The tank.
The reason the tank tanks is mitigation, primarily. This is, in essence, the ability to reduce damage taken. Armor is the first step here... a good tank has huge amounts, so that bosses who do direct 'physical' damage can't do as much. There's a straight mechanism here, more armor means more damage absorbed.
Other mitigation involves parry, block and dodge. Parry is a chance to block a strike, block is the chance to block a strike with a shield (doesn't apply to bear tanks, since they don't have a shield), and dodge is the chance to totally avoid a strike.
Magic damage throws a curveball here... it ignores armor, and it can't be blocked or parried. This is where the tank's health comes in to play... the more he has, the more damage he can absorb. This isn't the ideal approach for all tanking, as the healer will then need to heal the damage and could run out of mana. No healer mana = wipe.
Magic can be mitigated by resistances, which come sometimes as armor properties, sometimes as enchants, and sometimes as potions or other temporary effects.
Finally, there are magical mitigations that have no direct assoctiation... bear tanks are an example here, as they have a straight mitigation in bear form. Warriors have stances that offer more mitigation, and so on.
Finally, the rest of the party want the tank to be hit, as the more he's hit, the angrier he gets. Rage is the tank's mana, and the more he has, the more he can hit back, and the more likely it is the mobs will keep hitting him.
This is why the tank needs to be the one the mobs are beating on.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Instance Running 101
If this is your first time running instances for the purpose of gear progression:
1. You need 1 tank. A tank is specced for mitigation and health. His gear focuses on mitigation and health. And is gemmed and enchanted for mitigation. and health.
2. You need 1 healer. Healers are specced for healing. Wear gear that focuses on mana, mana regen, and spell power. And are enchanted for mana, mana regen, and spell power. But mostly spellpower.
3. The dps can spec and gear however they feel.
4. Kill the casters first.
5. The dps do not pull. The healer does not pull. The tank pulls.
6. Pulling means mobs come to you.
7. line-of-sight. learn it. It pulls and bunches casters.
8. the healer keeps the tank alive. the tank keeps the healer alive. the dps look after themselves.
9. If the dps have crowd controll skills; use them
10. raid icons. The group leader must set raid icons to mark the kill order. Skull goes down first. If the group leader isn't comfortable setting raid icons, pass on leadership to someone who is.
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