Raid / Group Tips

1 -Prepare to die.
Death happens. Deal with it. Make sure that you always keep a few gold on you for the mender. Otherwise, you might find yourself running naked through lavastorm trying to get drops for money. (Get your mind out of the gutter!) Know where your menders are and how much your gear will cost to fix.

2 -Don’t starve yourself.
For crying out loud, eat something! Food does more than restore out of combat health. It comes with handy stats for consumption. Mages get intelligence from fruits. Healers get wisdom from vegetables. Agility comes from fish and so on and so forth. I once read a post from a fellow healer (a druid no less) who stated that he didn’t bother with food. He just kept good drink on him and healed himself to restore his health. I made myself the promise that, if I ever found out who he was, I would bonk him on the head. Find a food that boosts the stat you want, and if you don’t know what stat you want boosted, buy a dessert. It increases your power pool.
EDIT: The above information was for pre-LU24 food. Drinks now give wis or int and sta. Food gives agi or str and sta. (I think… I’ll double check to make sure.)

3 -Buff, buff, buff.
Ok, so your buff won’t stack on top of another buff already on the main tank. Cast it on the healer if it increases power or wisdom; cast it on the main assist if it does anything else. Just don’t let it sit there unused. With single target buffs lasting until cancelled, buffs can only be placed on one person at a time. Pick a person and cast it. Every little buffs does help. Your one buff can make the difference between defeating a mob or wiping out completely, especially if it’s a close fight.

4 -Use the right channels.
You say something to your group, and they don’t respond. You say it again and, again, no response. Now, you’re getting angry. How dare they ignore you?! Before you get your panties in a wad, did you say it in /gsay? If you’re telling your group to run or move in nearby chat (commonly called /say), they may not know it. Many players use multiple chat windows, and a good majority of them turn off other channels while grouped so they don’t miss anything important in all the nearby, /ooc, and channel text chatter and spam. A good number of them, myself included, have also turned off those highly annoying chat bubbles that pop up over our heads. To talk in group, all you have to do is press g, or set your default chat to group at the bottom left of your chat window. Then, when you tell them to run or move, they will see it.

5 -No running unless you’re told to do so.
If you’re in a high aggro area and you accidentally pull a mob, stay put and let your group help you kill it. Running away will only cause you to pull more aggro. It also keeps the healer from being able to heal you. When all that aggro kills you, it’ll turn on your group and do the same. Only the main tank should give the command to run… unless he’s an idiot, in which case I recommend you run as far and fast as you can and never group with him again.

6 -Do as your group does.
You finally get into that tough dungeon, and wow, everything here can whip your tail in 3 seconds flat. So, you pull out your chameleon totems and targeted invis spells or your group invis. Now, you’re all set, or so you think. You’re not in the clear yet, pal. Many mobs can still see you. As a group member, it’s your responsibility to be aware of these mobs at all times. Follow your group in this situation. If they run to the side of the passage, you run there too. If they stop, you stop. Going ahead wrecklessly will result in your sudden and untimely demise, followed closely by your group’s own tragic end.

7 -Stay with your group.
Beneficial spells (or buffs) have a certain range at which they will no longer be effective. The same goes for many life-saving spells as well. Most notably among these spells are the rogue/fury’s group invis and the warden/sk/scout’s evac. If you run out of range of a group buff, such as invis, expect to die. If you run out of the range of an evac spell, expect to be left behind and then die.

8 -Let your tank do his job.
All tanks are not created equal. Brawlers and Crusaders know this; you should too. Barring the occasional idiot who doesn’t know what a taunt is or doesn’t feel that he should have to taunt frequently, when a tank tells you to do something or to stop doing something, listen and obey. Managing aggro is not a cake walk. Tanks have the toughest job in the game. They have to allow themselves to be used a punching bag so that others in the group can kill the mob. Sometimes this means taunting every few seconds to keep aggro in place. Hey, being a tank is not the funnest job in the world. If a tank tells you what to do, suck it up and do it. That’s life. Your tank has a job to do, and he can’t do it if you don’t cooperate.

9 -Think before you cast.
I know; I know. It’s incredibly annoying when someone else tells you how to play your class. You hear, “Don’t cast this,” and, “Don’t cast that.” It makes you want to /duel them and smear their face in the dirt. There’s a reason why you should be careful of what you cast… aggro management. Yes, we’ve all grouped with that awesome tank last week who let a warlock go all out with master spells and never take a single hit. Those tanks are rarer than a named mob during a quest. Managing aggro is as much your responsibility as it is the tank’s. A good player will adjust to these less than perfect meat shields. Strategize the spells you’ll cast in certain situations, especially groups. Think about them. Learn what they will and won’t do, and arrange them accordingly.

10 -Help your healers.
So, you’re in your happy little group. You’re following them around and staying together. Heck, you’re even playing the role of the perfect tin soldier by doing everything you’re told. Your group starts fighting, and along comes that dreaded add. No worries; you can take him while your group finishes off Stumpy the Grumpy. Suddenly you find yourself on the ground dead with a very unhappy group looking on. It’s the healer’s fault for not doing his job. Right? Wrong. Even if your group has two healers, don’t tank an add unless you’re the main tank. Doing so will split your healer’s resources between 2 or more players. It also wears down his power… FAST. We healers have the second hardest job in the game, keeping the group alive. Sometimes that means making the choice between who gets the heal and who doesn’t. We need as much help managing group health as tanks do with aggro. Our first and primary healing responsibility is to the main tank; everyone else comes second. Get used to it.