While browsing through our old buffed articles, we stumbled across this very successful WoW special from 2009. Exciting: The ten rules for group play that Björn formulated back then still hit the nail on the head today. Have fun reading them!
The first commandment: “This is your group, which has brought you out of loneliness. You shall have no other obligations besides it!”
When you join a group, you should mean it. Nothing is more annoying than when a fellow player quits just before the last boss of the instance and joins another group or can’t continue for other reasons. If something unforeseen happens, no one will hold it against you if you leave the group. Acceptable excuses, by the way, are cats on fire, police at the door, floods, or hurricanes. Fixed dates are something else. So if your raid starts in the near future, you want to play your arena games, your cat has an appointment at the vet (to renew the burn ointment), or you have to testify in court in an hour, it’s better not to join a group – or at least warn your teammates in advance.
The second commandment: “Honor your tanks and healers”.
In almost all battles, group play is crucial to success. In other words, the tank takes the hits, the healer keeps him alive, and the damage dealers kill enemies before the healer runs out of mana. So what do mages, rogues, hunters & co. do at the beginning of the fight? No damage! Give the tank a few seconds to secure the opponent’s aggro. Better wait a bit longer; it’s not bad if the mob falls five seconds later than planned. Pay attention to your healer, too! If a mob comes even close to the healer, alarm bells should ring. Of course, the tank should pull the mob away from the healer at best, but don’t count on it. No matter what class you play, it’s always better to get killed instead of the healer. A dead healer almost inevitably leads to a wipe. Also, the healer can keep you alive better than he can, because his healing spells are not interrupted.
The third commandment: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s booty”.
No one likes ninja loot hunters. And no one likes to see something thrown away by a player who doesn’t see much use in that item. If the rogue won’t roll for the bow that the hunter came to this instance for, then maybe the hunter won’t roll for the dagger that the rogue desperately wants. With a little common sense, it is usually easy to see which players will actually benefit from an item. And only those should declare a “need”. That’s just by the way: it’s not a “need” argument that you need the gold from selling items for an epic mount!
The fourth commandment: “Watch the mana break and keep it sacred”.
If the mage smashes the monsters’ skulls with his staff and the priest has to heal the tank with bandages, the chances of a successful fight are frighteningly low. If you go into battle without mana, you’ll get into a gunfight with a knife, too. So no one moves unless all classes involved have mana. For warriors: mana is that weird blue bar that some classes have below the health bar. The same goes for life energy, of course. And if you need to fill up your green or blue bar yourself, sit down and eat or drink. Don’t make your group wait unnecessarily.
The fifth commandment: “Thou shalt not break sheep”.
Of course, this is not just about sheep, but about “crowd control” in general. Whether it’s the rogue’s HEADNUT, the hunter’s trap, or the mage’s sheep – hands off! Every mob you take out of the fight is a great relief to the group. The only one who should take monsters out of the fight is the tank, and that is when all other enemies are defeated.
The sixth commandment: “Only the one who casts the first stone is destined”.
In each group, one player should be designated for the draw. Usually this is the tank or a fighter with DECEPTION. If you are not assigned to draw, then don’t do it. Often the outcome of a battle is decided at this stage. A pull out of boredom or haste can easily lead to chaos and high repair costs. Remember: a wipe costs more time and gold than preparing for a good pull.
The seventh commandment: “Thou shalt not steal aggro”.
Aggro management is the be-all and end-all of group play. As long as the enemies are hitting the tank and the healer only has to focus on that, hardly anything can go wrong. For the tank, this means: For everyone, build up some aggro on the enemies so they don’t gravitate towards the healer, because his healing spells create threat on every mob. As a damage dealer, on the other hand, you should only deal damage to the tank’s main target, and only enough there so that they don’t suddenly find you much more interesting than that stupid tin can over there. Add-ons like Omen are a great help in controlling aggro. But if you’re attracting aggro through an insane series of critical hits, for heaven’s sake don’t run away from the tank! A huge beast that looks really evil and hungry is chasing you, but running away won’t help either. Run towards the tank, stop dealing damage and wait.
The eighth commandment: “Those who buff and pay attention will be saved; but those who don’t buff will be damned.”
Buffs are the easiest way to make your party’s life easier. You should always keep track of the duration of your buffs and refresh them as needed during a lull in combat. Pay attention to special requests in the chat and distribute the buffs that are also useful. Talking to the tank, for example, is usually not a good idea. By the way: If the villain in the group seems to have slight mental deficiencies, unfortunately, buffing him with ARCANE INTELLIGENCE won’t help. A special kind of buffs are the totems of the shamans. Again, it makes sense to agree on which totems will be of most use to the group before the battle.
The ninth commandment: “He who buys well will reap boss kills”.
Always be well prepared. A hunter without arrows or a tank with broken armor doesn’t need a party. If you show up with repaired gear, enough ammo, food, water, healing and mana potions, and bandages, you’ve already laid the foundation for a successful adventure. It also doesn’t hurt to have potions or special foods that grant temporary buffs. And if you have enough of all these things to help less prepared teammates, the group will thank you.
The Tenth Commandment: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Always remember: behind the other characters in your group are people who are playing to have fun. Selfishness has no place in the group, act considerate and kind. No matter how well you play, no one wants to be in a group with someone who creates an unpleasant atmosphere. An online role-playing game also has a strong social aspect. The reputation you build will always be with you. So make sure that this one is good, too.
What is WoW Classic?
World of Warcraft Classic is a true recreation of the original WoW as you know it from 2006. All parts of the game – from combat mechanics and talent trees to character models and zones – have been recreated, contributing to the authentic experience.
Getting Started
All players with an active World of Warcraft subscription or game time on their accounts have access toWoW Classic at no additional cost.
- Open the Blizzard Battle.net Desktop App and select World of Warcraft from the menu.
- Select World of Warcraft Classic from the Version menu. If you have more than one World of Warcraft account, you’ll see a second Account drop-down list. In this column, select the active account you want to play with.
- Click the Install button. The progress bar will tell you when your game is ready to play.
- Click the Play button when the installation is complete.
You will need to select the realm you want to play on from several different realm types. Make sure you choose the same realm as your friends – in World of Warcraft Classic, you can only group with characters that are on the same realm as you!
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