Probably my favorite thing about this game is instancing. Running a 5 man, or 10 man in particular. While I have a certain place in my heart for the 25 mans, I enjoy the atmosphere and experience of the 10 man raids more than I can ever enjoy a 25 man. Having played almost exclusivly a healer for the last 3 years (the last 2 spent being a holy priest) had caused me to develop what I consider to be a "10 commandments for DPS" so to speak.
You'll of course note, these are not the 10 that you learned in Sunday School. They are however, no less important.
1. Understand your role. One of the great things about this game is that every class plays completely differently. A rogue and hunter (while both DPS classes) bring completely different things to the group. Know what your spec is, and what the best way to DPS according to that spec is. (I.e. if you are an affliction warlock, use those DOTs!)
2. Learn to 'Presbutan.' You will hear me say this a lot. Presbutan is french for Press Button. It means learn what a global cooldown is and understand that as a DPS you want to be doing something with every global cooldown. The difference between people that just push the button, and people that Presbutan is a significant jump in dps.
3. Focus Fire. Figure out amongst yourselves who the MA (main assist) is going to be, and then actually do it. If you are hunter in your group, just tell your fellow dps to kill what you markso that everyone jumps on that mob. (Hunters, change your mark before the current mob dies, to speed things up.)
4. Learn the pulls. This goes with the above. Learn the order of the pulls in an instance, which is customarily skipped, which mobs need to die first in a group, which need to be killed last etc. This will make you not only a better instancer, but as a hunter it will make you a better main assist.
5. Protect your healer. Most dps have some form of CC or another. If a mob gets away from the tank and is b-lining for the healer, do something about it. If that means you serve as a temporary off tank, then do it. The healer is the most sacred member of the group, if they die, everyone dies. I always try to keep a trap down at the foot of the healer, so that if something gets away, it gets trapped before he has to even worry about it
6. Aggro. Don't pull it. Grab a meter mod and pay attention to it, dont get button-blind. As a hunter, there is no excuse for pulling aggro ever. Feign death and Misdirection give us so much threat reduction that you should never, ever be close to pulling.
7. Let the tank do his job. Tanks are the natural role of party leader. A tank should be setting the pace of the instance. A good tank does this automatically, a tank that is still learning may struggle in this area. But, at the end of the day, the tank's responsibility is to make sure everything is hitting him and not you, so give them a chance to run the instance the way they are most comfortable doing it. Misdirection is the best friend of an unsure tank.
8. Don't stand in the fire. This is rudimentary Warcraft stuff. "Don't stand in the fire" encounters have been in the game since Molten Core. If you haven't figured it out by now, learn it quick!
9. Be Social. Don't be the grinch. An MMO is a social game, talk to your party. Most healers and tanks develop "partnerships" in which they generally always run instances especially daily heroics, etc with the same people. After awhile they become comfortable with each other's play style and things work much smoother. You want to be in this "regular group" and you never know if the PUG you just joined might turn into that group.
10. Have Fun. This goes without saying obviously. It's a game, have a good time.
You'll of course note, these are not the 10 that you learned in Sunday School. They are however, no less important.
1. Understand your role. One of the great things about this game is that every class plays completely differently. A rogue and hunter (while both DPS classes) bring completely different things to the group. Know what your spec is, and what the best way to DPS according to that spec is. (I.e. if you are an affliction warlock, use those DOTs!)
2. Learn to 'Presbutan.' You will hear me say this a lot. Presbutan is french for Press Button. It means learn what a global cooldown is and understand that as a DPS you want to be doing something with every global cooldown. The difference between people that just push the button, and people that Presbutan is a significant jump in dps.
3. Focus Fire. Figure out amongst yourselves who the MA (main assist) is going to be, and then actually do it. If you are hunter in your group, just tell your fellow dps to kill what you markso that everyone jumps on that mob. (Hunters, change your mark before the current mob dies, to speed things up.)
4. Learn the pulls. This goes with the above. Learn the order of the pulls in an instance, which is customarily skipped, which mobs need to die first in a group, which need to be killed last etc. This will make you not only a better instancer, but as a hunter it will make you a better main assist.
5. Protect your healer. Most dps have some form of CC or another. If a mob gets away from the tank and is b-lining for the healer, do something about it. If that means you serve as a temporary off tank, then do it. The healer is the most sacred member of the group, if they die, everyone dies. I always try to keep a trap down at the foot of the healer, so that if something gets away, it gets trapped before he has to even worry about it
6. Aggro. Don't pull it. Grab a meter mod and pay attention to it, dont get button-blind. As a hunter, there is no excuse for pulling aggro ever. Feign death and Misdirection give us so much threat reduction that you should never, ever be close to pulling.
7. Let the tank do his job. Tanks are the natural role of party leader. A tank should be setting the pace of the instance. A good tank does this automatically, a tank that is still learning may struggle in this area. But, at the end of the day, the tank's responsibility is to make sure everything is hitting him and not you, so give them a chance to run the instance the way they are most comfortable doing it. Misdirection is the best friend of an unsure tank.
8. Don't stand in the fire. This is rudimentary Warcraft stuff. "Don't stand in the fire" encounters have been in the game since Molten Core. If you haven't figured it out by now, learn it quick!
9. Be Social. Don't be the grinch. An MMO is a social game, talk to your party. Most healers and tanks develop "partnerships" in which they generally always run instances especially daily heroics, etc with the same people. After awhile they become comfortable with each other's play style and things work much smoother. You want to be in this "regular group" and you never know if the PUG you just joined might turn into that group.
10. Have Fun. This goes without saying obviously. It's a game, have a good time.
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