Cataclysm has marked the return to random dungeon groups for many people. Some of whom seem to to be unclear on some of the common courtesy’s of grouping with strangers. This Friday Five goes out to them…
- DON’T queue until you are ready. This is especially true for tanks and healers: you know you will get an instance almost immediately. So don’t queue, come on inside, then tell us you need a 5 minute AFK. We hate you. And will kick you out of there as soon as the timer allows us to for that.
- DON’T be afraid to ask questions. You know how right before a boss fight, the party leader will often say “so has everybody done this?” I know it can bruise one’s ePeen to be the only one raising their hand, but if it’s your first time in Vortex Pinnacle, speak up. Heck, even if it’s not, if you are running with a bunch of strangers, ask them how they want to handle the fight. Make sure you understand who is in charge of cc’ing the diamond. Double check if this is a go stand in something or a kite through or a run away from fight.
- DON’T run back to the entrance to turn in your quests. No, the group doesn’t want to wait 5 minutes for you to go turn in your quest, no matter how excited you are about that quest reward item. This is a pretty surefire way to get kicked out.
- DON’T ignore party chat, especially when it is directed towards you. If someone is asking you a question, you need to respond to it. “Paladin X, are you lost?” crickets. “Paladin X, why are you back at the entrance to the instance?” crickets. “Paladin X you aren’t keeping us all waiting here for 4 minutes now turning in your quests and not replying to us are you?” crickets. /vote to kick.
- DON’T be a primadonna. We don’t care that you blew your uber mega DPS cooldown on that last boss 200 feet over there and it won’t be up again for 5 minutes. Your meter humping is of little interest to the group. Really. I promise. It’s up to you to manage your CDs and buffs, not the group’s obligation to stand around waiting for your to feel everything is optimal for you for each fight.
BONUS: DON’T tell the group how every other group you’ve done this instance with has done it faster/more smoothly/without the boss casting meteor/whatever. The expansion has been out for a little over a week. Saying stuff like this marks you as a pretentious git. Get over yourself and learn how to have a good time!
So far I am enjoying the new dungeons. I especially liked being able to run around in boomkin form on a camel in a dungeon, as seen above. Now THAT’s what I call a fun time in a dungeon — boomkin DPSing from a camel’s back.
The quest thing is funny. Every time I’ve seen people do it, a quick “Turn them in at the end, all at once – you can just zone out and zone back into the instance” tends to stop people from that foolishness.
Posting meters in LFD is really not classy. I let people know that it’s not okay and that I will zone out if they do so. If stuff is dying, then it’s fine. Just do your job and forget the numbers for a bit, we don’t care how big your DPS is.
I am also not a fan of the meter posting. I’ve only seen it done for a good reason once — to call out someone who appeared to have been AFK for 10 min following along after the group. But that was WotLK content. It can not be said enough that no one cares about someone else’s meter humping!
The meter posting is especially annoying w/ the cross server pugs. I can’t tell you the number of times when someone posts a meter, and I notice that my numbers are nowhere near what my meter says.
Along with that, posting meters at this point are just tacky, because EVERYONE is still working on gearing up, so it is very likely that people will not be at their prime.
So Nexxi, I’ve been wanting to ask.
Are the Cata dungeons easier than the Wotlk ones or more like BC dungeons, when heroics were actually… heroic?
Barring one Throne of the Tides run, where a dps DK was really annoyed that people hadn’t watched videos to learn the instance, the groups have been pretty decent.
Sometimes people need to dust off their skills, but overall I think my groups have been in good spirits, even if we’ve been wiping 2-3 times on the same boss. If things go badly I make it a point to bring up that everyone’s still learning and it’s not a big deal.
I have been splitting my playtime between my Alliance druid and my Horde shadow priest so I have not yet done any heroics yet. Soon though. I *have* been practicing my cyclone and rooting in the regulars to get back into the habit though. Personally, I like having some CC and focus firing stuff down rather than just wearing out my favorite AOE key.
I think your last comment is key: we’re all still learning the instances. This is a Brann Spanking new expansion! that’s why the people who are already jaded and whining when things aren’t exactly the same as “all the other times I’ve been in here” make me want to smack them!
😉
I cannot stand when folks post meters in LFDs, that is shameful. The people going afk immediately upon entering ix a great point as well, that is particularly infuriating because you cannot kick them for several minutes.
Another one to consider are those players, who generally seem to be the tank, not certain why, who get to Boss X, either get the loot they wanted, or do not, then drop group with no telling of why. Quite maddening, to say the least.
“DON’T be afraid to ask questions.”
Unfortunately I have seen a lot of groups vote-kick DPS that ask how a fight is done. It’s rather cruel so my advice is to remain silent and hope for the best.
I hear you but I still disagree. You can’t control other folks being jerks this way, but you can also not support that behavior (i.e. don’t click yes on the vote to kick, tell them that’s ridiculous).
Staying quiet and hoping you can slide through is not going to cut it on heroics.
Ugh I had a tank that kept us waiting for over TEN MINUTES while he ran around the whole of BRD turning in his quests. We were sitting there, just before the stone giant boss (which another group member had requested we do for HIS quest) and then the tank says “brb I need to turn in a quest.” We all figured okay, fine, he was turning in the quests at the beginning which were roughly a 20 second jog away. No, he was turning in quests all over the darned instance because “I’ll have to clear it all again with another group if I don’t do it now.”
And since we had technically finished the dungeon, if we had kicked him we couldn’t get another tank. So we had to wait. UGH.