Grouping101

I've just finished leveling my Warrior via tanking instances and I also tank at max level on a Druid, Death Knight, and a Pally, which has convinced me that neither level nor gear has much to do with how people act in a group. The new instance queue seems to have diminished most of what was left of social responsibility in groups, as people have fewer reasons to set aside their e-peens and make choices in the best interest of a group.

There are several concepts you should be aware of before grouping with other people. If you know how tanks work and make choices accordingly, you'll be a better group member and have a more speedy and successful run.

1 - Threat
Every mob keeps a list of those who have offended it in one way or another. You're on this list if you've hit it with any ability, buffed someone who hit it, pulled it from rest, been close enough in combat to be seen by the mob's abilities, etc...

Elite mobs in instances can hurt or kill you. [Enter Tank] - we employ Tanks to take a shitton of damage via gear and talents; they're easier to heal and have tools at their disposal to decrease incoming damage and otherwise enable them to survive attacks that would kill others. If you want to tank, do it in a proper spec and with proper gear. You can only mage-tank so many things at level, though most tanks will let you try, as we have a you spank it, you tank it policy.

Threat is not automatically given to the tank upon entering an instance - they must earn the attention of every group of bad guys as the instance group approaches them. Tanks don't have a 1-button massive threat generating attack that will keep the mobs interested in them for more than a second or two - they all have things they must do to ensure solid threat - especially when multiple mobs are present.

This seems to be the biggest misconception among DPS in instance groups. They assume the tank magically gets awarded massive amounts of threat and thus open up with their biggest burst spells and abilities and 95% of the DPS I've run across watch their damage meter instead of their threat meter because they're more concerned with how much damage they do than they are about the success of a group.

If a tank has to chase something down because a DPS pulls off them, they're no longer generating threat on the other mobs nor on that one, which effectively screws up the natural progression of a fight for everyone and makes the tank's job much more difficult, which in turn, makes the healer's job much more difficult.

Don't get me wrong - it's not always the DPS's fault - there are indeed crappy tanks and horrible heals out there - especially in the instance queue because lots of people are tanking or healing to get shorter queue times, not because they like to tank/heal or have some idea what they're doing or how threat works. There's enough blame for crappy groups to go around -- I prefer to not be responsible for a rough run. Don't you?

A common rule of thumb is it's okay to go full throttle after a Tank's third threat move - assuming no haste, that's 4.5 seconds into the fight. If you're going all out before then and aren't significantly undergeared, you're not doing your job.


2 - Aggro
Group members generate threat either to hurt or get aggro on mobs. Having aggro is having the attention of all surrounding mobs and is the tank's job - not anyone else's.

Keeping aggro is where things get a little hinky when DPS goes balls to the wall from the start of a fight. It's really trivial when DPS waits until you've successfully landed an attack of any sort on the mob or mobs they're attacking.

If you are not a tank and you have generated enough threat over the tank to get aggro on a mob or mobs, stop attacking and use your class abilities to drop your threat or keep yourself alive. You have them for a reason. If tanks were guaranteed aggro, nobody else would have feign, bubble, deterrence, invisibility, soul shatter, ice block, or any other self-saving abilities.

If you don't wait until the tank has established threat on the mob/mobs you want to damage, fully expect to get aggro. If you keep attacking the mob/mobs as they're moving toward you or range attack you, fully expect to keep aggro. Taunt will not keep the mob from attacking you for more than 3 seconds if you keep hitting it.

How Taunts work:
Taunt puts the tank's threat at the same level as the person who had aggro on the mob at the time of the Taunt and puts a debuff on the mob forcing it to look at the tank for 3 seconds. If you generate ANY threat on the mob and if it's not in melee range of the tank for those 3 seconds, it will turn night back around and eat your face and it will be your own fault thus your responsibility to fix it via your class abilities.

3 - Other Considerations
If you need a mana break, ask for one. Tanks should watch the healer's mana and adjust their pace accordingly. Some, however, don't show mana on their raid frames and forget to manually check. It's in the group's best interest that everyone has sufficient mana to do their jobs, so don't be afraid to ask.

If you feel the tank is moving through the instance too slowly, ask them to speed it up a bit. "GO GO GO!" is not asking. Pulling stuff for them and expecting them to pick it off you is not asking. They're not going slow to annoy you, but usually to ensure everyone is ready and some are too cautious.

Try not to go AFK in an instance, but if you do, tell the group and give them an eta for when you'll be back. Don't just say "one sec;" if you're gone more than a minute, they'll kick you and justifiably so. Say "bio - back in 2 minutes" etc... Don't expect to go afk and let the group clear the instance for you - they should kick you before a boss dies and you'll be back in the queue.

Make the group a table. It costs next to nothing and they'll love you for it.

Try not to criticize people you don't know. They don't know you either and have no reason to assume you know what you're talking about. I've seen so many lengthy conversations about classes and specs in pugs that are a pointless use of the group's time.

If you want to do a full clear or kill certain mobs for a quest, let the group know ahead of time. Don't pull the mobs you want to kill and expect the tank to take them off you or the healer to heal you.

Roll need only on loot that is an upgrade for your current gear and role. If you want to roll need on offspec loot, be prepared to trade it to the mainspec who also rolled need. I'll grant you that the instance queue makes it easy to just need on everything because there are no social ramifications of being a douche, but karma will come eat you (i hope) if you take advantage of this.

Using the LFD feature makes me feel like I've struck gold when I get a competent group. If more people understood these very basic concepts, random dungeon runs would be much quicker and smoother.