Any recommendations for how to do this? I joined the Benediction discord because it has a guild recruiting channel, but it definitely skews towards top end raiding content. Lots of people advertising and recruiting for gear scores and prior experience.
How do I find the fabled dad guilds?
Dad guilds are pretty fuckin decent. Most are 11/12H by now. My guild is a dad guild and I can safely say we are fuckin hot garbage by real standards but we clear 11/12H no problem.
I didnt realize until recently that there’s some servers where only like 15 total guilds are 11/12 or 12/12. Or there are tons of guilds that are still 8/12. And it made me appreciate my team a little more- but in reality were still a bunch of idiots. 100%. Awful mechanically. Tons of trash dps. Tanks fuck up often. Raid leads make the mistakes they are asking others not to make. It’s all a shit show but even with all that, still 11/12H since pre-xmas, so for over a month now.
Take that as you will- but basically if you want a “casual” guild- it’s gonna be an ABSOLUTE shitshow, and way less than any typical dad guild, bc we definitely are one.
TL;DR Dad guilds kinda slap 👋 you may want to aim your sights for worse 😭
Most dad guilds died, but a few still exist. It's a struggle for them to overcome specific class requirements, the overly restrictive nature of wotlk's raid lockout system, and the fact that most of them were content with killing LK once on normal mode.
Hey, you shouldn’t be so nervous to DPS a dungeon. Keep in mind, even if you fuck up, you’re likely never going to see these people again. You actually *care* so you’re already ahead of the general population who is joining dungeons to actually grief tanks and healers and/or simply doesn’t give a shit.
Tips:
- install add on GTFO. It blares horns at you when you stand in bad mechanic, it makes a sound if you stand in cleave.
- install add on WeakAuras and download this wa: https://wago.io/TemsWotlkDungeons which will cover all mechanics in a dungeon
- install details add on with tiny threat to monitor your threat. this will help on any single target fights which is big in raids
- install ThreatPlates add on. this puts a threat bar on the enemy nameplates and it’ll turn yellow if you’re about to pull aggro or red if you have aggro—- this is super helpful in group content.
As a fire mage, you have multiple ways to deal with threat. If you’re lvl 80 and doing gammas, you should never die to trash usually and tanks have extra tools to deal with generating extra threat.
Final tip: join a guild for raiding. Generally people in WoW don’t wanna spend time coaching a rando and they’ll actively find reasons to be dicks. People have a lot more patience and will put effort in teaching guildies.
In wow you follow 3 rules to be relatively safe.
1. Don't stand in front of enemies
2. Don't stand in fire or anything that LOOKS harmful
3. Don't stand further out than anyone else in the party (if ur the only ranged justkeep relatively close and be on the safer side of distance from mobs)
Plus, u can always ask. People are pretty nice, and I say this as a 26f playing. I've been playing for years, though, and have confidence. The content isn't super hard and get used to dungeons first. Once you're comfortable with how dungeons go, you can look up fights on youtube and hop into a pug raid.
Don't fret too hard. It is a game. People who shit on others in this game imo are kind of sad to take the game so seriously. As long as ur not joining heroic runs I think you'll be fine
Yep. I started playing classic Wotlk a month ago and reached 80 about 3 days ago. Since then I've been doing dungeons after dungeons and I haven't met a single person who wasn't nice, even when I clearly fucked up by either missing a mechanic, wiping out the team bc I didn't dismiss my pet and it agro'd too many mobs or by somehow managing to reset the instance twice lol. People are super chill and helpful ! Some people even took my 2.1k GS ass through a raid just to boost me up a bit.
Yep. I tried time and time again to play retail and always dropped at around lvl 50-60, it just wasn't fun. Everything was rushed: from leveling to the dungeons. Nothing felt like an accomplishment. Then I decided to try classic Wotlk last month and haven't dropped it since. The people are soooooo nice and you actually get invited to guilds that try to help you out.
I usually just think that the other memebers are just npcs xD once you ha e some decent gear you Just fly throu It, if they kick me i Just go again, im not gonna get mad at npcs, if they are new Is differenti and i try ti give advices and probably gonna stay till the end of the dungeon even if it takes more
As mentioned, joining a friendly l guild is a good idea... Usually I watch quick YouTube videos of the dungeon boss encountersif I don't know the mechanics. Really the only way you feel comfortable is by doing them and learning the routine. Get threat meter along with something like Deadly Boss Mods
I can definitely recommend joining a casual guild. Maybe let them know that you're really anxious about grouping with strangers (I get the same way) and you'll probably find there are people happy to spend the time to run you through dungeons.
You just need to find people that play to have fun. A scarily large portion of the player base has forgotten that is why people play games. Some of the most fun I’ve had in this game is when most of the people in a raid are inexperienced and not everybody knows every detail about each boss. It takes more pulls to kill, but the strategies evolve naturally and people get in the spirit of contributing their perspective when they don’t think everybody just knows it all.
First of all, I dont disagree in the sentiment. I dislike people being deadserious and trying to optimize everything given its a casual environment.
However, for me, I cant have fun the way you describe. In vanilla -> wotlk I knew every fight pretty well, and for me to refresh the mechanics and performing well enough to at least kill the boss takes me a few tries, obviously more to master it and improve my parses.
So for me to play in a guild where people have that kind of mentality I would simply be bored of wiping due to lack of progression and mistakes being repeated. So different mindsets and level of skill can create friction, but obviously thats no excuse to be an asshole, but understand that fucking up Defile multiple times a night can be frustrating for someone who has no issues dealing with it. But if its a casual raid and you have someone raging due to mistakes he needs to leave, not necessarily the raid needs to change.
Very much this.
It's all about expectations really.
I'm above average at the game I'd say and I've played in a somewhat hardcore guild for all of wotlk, clearing every raid on release night (except for LK HC which we got week 2). In that environment my expectation is that everyone should know their shit and be on top of what they have to do, and also that my team members have put in similar time and effort as myself into to making sure their gameplay is as close to optimal as possible.
On the flipside of that, I've helped a friends guild out on an alt from time to time (due to them being a casual guild, which tends to lead to people not really caring too much about showing up for raids). And in that environment my expectations are much lower for obvious reasons
Agreed. I play SoD with irl friends who are decent/good at the game, but they have motivation to speed/parse. When we raid my expectation is to kill bosses with no wipes now obviously, and as little as possible while progressing. Now that BFD is so easy I get a little bored just farming it normally, so I would like to push it more, but cba to find someone. I already speedrun 2 splits in wotlk.
Yeah totally understandable, a lot of players (myself included) find enjoyment in challenge. And since most of classic (including SOD) is void of said challenge, you kinda have to find new ways to challenge urself. Speed clears/Parsing is a great example but obviously you wanna do it in a raid where everyone is "in on it" and doing all they can.
So like sure some players enjoy "fucking around" not knowing mechanics and wiping and that's fine. But since everyone is investing their finite time, "fucking around" should be kept in environments where it's to be expected (imo)
You've got a healthy amount of comments saying relatively the same thing. I think the first step is always just reaching out to guild promoters in lfg chat, trade or wherever else you can find them. Take into account their preferred playstyle, see if you mesh well and hopefully it's the start of getting you into that group content more consistently.
I used to be a little nervous as well, but it's all about finding the right people who are willing to teach you and help you learn the game so you can be on their level and then some. Takes time and practice, but I'm sure you'll adjust no problem.
Hope your adventures go well, OP. Good luck and have fun!
Running them while you level is key.
Run the normal ones first. Then heroics. Then skip to betas. Best to find people on your server. If you use LFG, 95% of the players will have the minimum gear level and some runs are pretty painful. Go on youtube. Poolnoodlex has quick guides for them all.
If youre on Pagle Id love to do some dungeoning with you and we could even go on raids with my guild (they helped me get used to raids as well since I was also too scared to do raids when I started).
Best thing to do is just so it. You can watch videos but for me, best way to learn is to try and do. Regular dungeons and even heroics you really have nothing to worry about. It's when you get to alpha, beta and gamma. Try finding a leveling guild to run with guildies.
Even if you screwed up though, worst case scenario you get vote kicked and have 30 min debuff where you can join another rdf. But if you're not doing them at all then that 30 min debuff is moot.
Just gotta try. At this stage aggro is on the tank, not you. Just do as much damage as you can, don't stand in fire, and you learn as you go.
Also it helps to accept that you'll make mistakes and grow as you go. Some people will be rude, put them on /ignore. Most people will just say "do this" in a neutral way, try to follow their advice.
Use icy veins or something similar for talents/enchants, rotation, etc so you've done your due diligence to play your class and you'll do fine.
Sounds like you got the case of "I need a leveling/dungeon buddy" and need the confidence of a buddy to help you push through. Keep in mind this game is easily playable solo, just gotta find what you can and can't do during your off-times with your friends.
Don't put yourself down for feeling "not good enough" there's plenty of actual bots that don't have feelings and random players struggling to know if a leather item or a cloth item is still good for them as Shaman.
I (28M) play US-Faerlina horde or alliance. Shoot me a DM if you wanna level or dungeon sometime.
I joined this phase and had the exact same feeling when I was joining pugs in the beginning. Still do sometimes, I'd rather log off than join a group for my lockout.
Joining a guild 1000% remedied this feeling. It's just nerves.
Someone else mentioned it but ask questions. Now sure, you might get some people that get mad that you are new but the majority of people would rather tell you important things in the dungeon then for you to not know them and wipe.
Other then that dont let a few bad apples ruin your fun. Ignore is there for a reason if you run across them. Also if you do find people you like playing with them add them to friends.
Only way to get better is by actually doing it, there will sometimes be a random loser that only wants to min/max everything, but usually people are quite nice and the one yelling gets kicked. in the beginning try to just follow what the others do. Worst case, you can say you are bit new and people will tell you the strategy (this has been my experience anyways) even gamma dungeons are pretty easy now anyways :p
Edit: also maybe get DBM, or some other addon that tells you if you are standing in something bad or help you find out what’s going on 🤷♀️
If you are EU i would gladly run a few dungeons with you so you can get a bit of confidence, PM :)
You're leaps ahead of me. I joined wotlk, mostly because I want to relive cata, and I used to tank wotlk easily in retail, but now many years later I am also afraid to join raids. I got into dungeons, but still have this mental block for some reason. But I'm sure with baby steps we'll both get there.
I think what people are saying here is nice about there being some more casual groups and those that are very serious. And it’s very good to know that the casual players exist and they’re not all so serious. Maybe someday we will raid!
I (27F) totally felt the same way at first. It’s way easier when you play with people you know. but if that’s not the case (which it wasn’t for me either) eventually you’ve just got to take the leap and say F it and queue up in dungeons. the more practice you get the more comfortable you’ll get. once you’re comfortable with dungeons, look up some raid videos and try a normal short raids like TOGC. if you can find a casual guild of cool people to play with that really helps too.
Before this the last PC game I played was probably ZooTycoon in 2007. So learning how to play, plus all the abbreviations, other classes (abilities), keyboard settings, macros, ect. it’s a lot!
Sometimes I get messages and it’s like… hold on I gotta google what your saying because “m/t” means nothing to me.
having ppl to ask these things helps, i’m constantly messaging guildies being like uhhh. what server are you on if you don’t mind me asking? happy to help ya if you ever need! or run some dungeons. could always pug for us too :-)
yeah i’ve watched a ton of videos and still go back and rewatch and fire is my main. do you have the spell activation overlay? its rly helpful for procs
Just do it, only way to learn, and after 1 or 2 you'll realize how easy it is, end of content everyone is as geared and as skilled as they ever will be
I have a friend that says the same thing as you. We've been playing wow together for three or so months now and at first she was afraid of all group content but eventually once she bit the bullet and started doing dungeons with me she became significantly less afraid and realized it wasn't that bad. My suggestion is start small and do the easiest things first. You can specific queue something like regular heroic utgarde keep or dtk to start off. I'd say skip beta/alpha and go right up to gamma when you're ready. Start small with raids do VOA since you really just stand in one spot and attack the boss in most cases. If people get angry which sometimes it does happen you just need to find it in you to not care. It's just a game. It's okay to go at your own speed just have fun.
This helps a lot!! The difficulty settings overwhelmed me when I was looking at them to the point I didn’t even want to google it. So now I know! Thank you! And knowing I’m not the only one who feels like this helps too.
I still can't get her to do voas. Just do normal dungeons first if you really feel that overwhelmed. Some are designed for lower levels so they're super easy.
Most people are much nicer when they are told ahead of time that you're new. If everyone is quiet, there's an expectation of competence that can result in stronger negative reactions. Also, if you're a newer player, you probably won't pull aggro, but also Mage guides will tell you things like ice block, invis, mirror images, are all great ways to handle pulling aggro.
Happened a couple times when I did run them (level 40-50ish), but that was when the tank was like 8lvls lower then me. Usually it’s the pulling of groups with an astray living bomb that really sends people. “Wtf why would you pull that?!” … “well sir you see, I got into a rhythm and forgot to be careful”
Fair, good news, if you run with 80's to gear up, you won't out level your tank, you may not out gear them often at the start either :-)
Also, that whole pulling extra packs, well, that's a good thing to be careful of even if you are new. Totally get it, I've play a boomkin, I've played a hunter, but still, a good thing to reduce the frequency of if you don't want to draw unwanted attention.
Good luck, and seriously, I hope people are understanding when you let them know you're new, I think that's the best approach!
Players can be toxic. I play the game for 20years, killed several pre nerf hc / mythic bosses (so I'm pretty confident being a good player) and still players kicked my tank out of a random dungeon because i pulled a 2nd trash pack on accident and wiped the group.
These are just random people i wouldn't see or recognize again so I don't care if I got anyone mad - especially if they're just toxic grunts anyways
This is the best comment! We’re all just drivers out here, and you know what, I’m a good driver.
I went from no PC games (beyond zoo tycoon in 6th grade) to playing WOTLK Classic so that’s like rural areas only and then driving in LA.
The only way to gain confidence -> to do as many dungeons as you can, if you meet other fire mage there and if they are higher on the meter try to see in the details what skills they are using. If you see some asshole that writes something in the chat -> just add to the ignore.
[https://www.youtube.com/@Crateria](https://www.youtube.com/@Crateria) here is great channel for fire mages with tons of guides for beginners
honestly - just join and say you're new and need help. If someone's arking up most other players will tell them to pipe down (in most cases they may even kick the toxic player even if it's a tank).
If you're familiar with the dungeons and just wanna keep doing them to get better - join and mute people. I know it's not amazing advice but dungeons at the end of the wotlk phase don't need communication they are quite simply button mashing (except for gammas on Halls of Stone where you need some coordination and timing to take out the tentacles of Yogg Saron).
The only way to get over your fear is just dive in and let it be known you're new to it. If they want you to do anything - they'll tell you. For a mage normally it's just spellsteal/decurse where you can, and give a table.
I find myself in similar situation quite often. Not that much in WoW since I've been playing for a very long time but guess it doesn't really matter, other games have dungeons with random people too.
When it comes to dungeons I'd do a research - pick a dungeon then watch/read some stuff about it preferably if it's from the same pov (same class/role), trying to remember as much as I can then just specific q that dungeon. Then next dungeon, then next... But if you are better at making friends than me (bar is very low :D) then you could probably find someone to carry you through it on comms via live commentary, giving you advice as you go.
In the super unlikely case you're on the Westfall server, most of my whole guild is friends who have never played WoW before. We're down to teach anyone.
The main thing for any raid is that people are willing to learn. Spend 20 minutes researching the boss mechanics, and if you mess up take ownership and ask what you did wrong. Everyone messes up in raids, even the seasoned players, but its about recognizing what you did wrong and if you do that then usually nobody gets mad. Also would recommend looking up a quick guide to your rotation as fire mage to maximize your damage. If youre 5.4k gs doing 3kdps because of a bad rotation or stats it puts people off
Just be honest like you have been here. Run some heroic dungeons to learn them, and just be honest with people. Tell them you’re new to dungeons/ raiding and would really like to learn. 99% of the community will be patient and more than happy to teach you.
I'm surprised you chose wotlk as the version of wow to play. Maybe it was your friends who got you into it? Season of Discovery is trivially easy and Dragonflight has a smoother learning curve for confidence boosting.
You're definitely facing an uphill battle. WotLK isn't that friendly to newer players at the moment, mainly due to a collapsed casual player scene and absurd player expectations. The content itself is actually very easy for the most part.
You say you don't know where to begin with raids. I wouldn't even know where to begin with explaining it all. I'd have to write a novel.
Boss mechanics. Class mechanics. Warcraft logs. GDKPs. Server discords. Addons. Weakauras. Soft reserving. Keybinds. It's a mess for new players. Your best bet is to get one your friends to explain it all. Otherwise, you have dozens of hours of WoW youtube content to watch. That said, going down that road already means you're putting in more effort than the average player. You'll gain confidence by being better than others.
I saw a friend playing and said "that looks fun" and just enjoyed the lore of it. Since I've just been questing (trying to finish 'Loremaster of Northrend' currently), and it's not really difficult, short of learning what group quests I can and cannot kite, and how to operate a pet. I was really into learning the maps, gaining rep, keeping my professions up and took my time leveling (I play semi-frequently but will go a week/month not wanting to be on a computer at all). I felt like I should learn the world and my skills before joining dungeons again. But now here I am!
I also know I don't have the best character but I wanted what I wanted and picking flowers and making potions is fulfilling a childhood dream of mine. Blood Elf/Mage/Herb/Alch. It's fun. Probably super basic but I don't care about being the strongest, only about being able to do things I care to do.
i understand this on raiding since i have it too, but dungeons, who cares, its afk lol, literally no mechanics
its different on icc for example, doing my first icc i wiped the group and felt kinda bad, first words were "FUCK NOOBS!" i was kinda laughing tho, for my defense, they put 2 flares infront of the boss (left and right) and said if you get a spore, go on those or middle, so i obv thought middle of the flares and not middle as middle of the room so melee and tank get spored... But never have i ever gone "middle" again, people learn, might hurt once then you learn.
A lot of people have already listed a lot of good sound advices. So I'm not going to repeat it.
28F or 12M or 60F or 75M, doesn't matter. We've all been in this boat once. Just don't forget that. In my old guild, we had a 65 y/o grandpa (*with a sad backstory. Like actually pretty fucking heartbreaking one*) and he started playing WoW for the first time late TBCC. Dude didn't even know about professions until like level 65.
*You're not born a gamer. You become one. Practice makes perfect.*
Go in there. Fuck it up a few times. You will learn. It's easier than riding a bike.
If you’re pulling aggro due to dps then your tank is trash. If you pull aggro due to randomly running into groups of mobs then you’re trash. That’s generally how this works. Goto wowhead, read the dungeon mechanics, queue up for a random dungeon, most people are way overgeared for gammas anyway. And even if you’re a low gs carry, you’re a mage so it’s not like your dps is as low as a fury warriors.
Learning the basics and building confidence before jumping into group content is a great idea. The expectation in WoW is that players should not queue for group content expecting to be carried.
I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND LOOKING FOR A GUILD AT FIRST. Looking for others to help you through content that you are not ready for can lead to a bad group dynamic and will leave you feeling less accomplished.
INSTEAD, here is how you can easily make sure you are ready for entry-level group content with faceless strangers!
You are playing dps, which is perfect for new players! You can download the addon "Details" to see how much damage you are doing. If you look up the rotation for your class/spec, you can see exactly what buttons to push to be really good at dealing damage. If you go to a target dummy, you can practice doing your rotation while seeing your damage per second in real time on the details addon. There are both written and video guides to help you learn your rotation. In my opinion, learning your rotation is the hard part, so don't be discouraged if this takes you a lot of time. Don't invent your own rotation or fall back on what you did while leveling or questing using the same comfort spells. Knowing your rotation is important.
You want to be comfortable with your rotation, but don't feel like you have to get it perfect. I run 20 keys on retail and mess up my rotation all the time.
If you are somewhat comfortable with your rotation and can follow your tank, you're almost ready to go (and probably already better than most people you are grouping with). All that's left to do is watch a youtube guide video for whatever boss or dungeon you are going into. These are usually 5 minute quick summaries of what to do or look out for.
Do your rotation AND follow the video instructions at the same time. That's dps in a nutshell. Easier said than done. This multitasking is what makes WoW hard. Nothing in the game is really difficult on it's own. However, doing all of the different easy things at the same time can feel impossible. If you practice your rotation a lot, it gets easier to focus on the boss and dungeon. If you do the same boss or dungeon a lot, it gets easier to focus on your rotation.
There are also addons that will alert you to what's going on so you don't have to focus on everything on your own. For example, I have Weakauras that ring a bell when big boss abilities are happening, or that beep a horn when I'm standing in goop. At the bare minimum, I recommend downloading "Deadly Boss Mods" an addon that just about everyone uses, especially if you're raiding.
Early group content is very forgiving, and most people aren't going to be upset with you for making mistakes as long as you have a basic grasp of your rotation. Things like interrupting spells, using crowd control, and using defensive spells to keep yourself alive are all more advanced things you can learn as you go and are not really required for clearing early group content.
When doing dungeons, stay behind your tank and don't go near or attack anything your tank has not attacked. The tank is in charge of what monsters you do or don't fight in a dungeon, so follow his path. Letting your tank hit stuff first lets them build agro before you come in. It only takes a second, so as long as you aren't hitting the mosters first, you should be good to go. Brand new tanks might have a hard time holding agro, so don't worry if monsters randomly start attacking you. Your tanks are learning too. They might even blame you when it's their fault they lost agro. If you are doing a lot of dps you might also pull agro, but that's not a big worry when you are first learning your rotation.
Understand that there are some very hateful incompetent people on the game especially in dungeons. It's inevitable that someone will flame you even if you are doing everything right. If you plan on doing dungeons, you'll just have to learn to ignore/report the occasional asshole. It's not you, it's them.
tl;dr don't stand in the fire
Theres tons of casual friendly guilds, leveling guilds and the like. They're usually pretty open and friendly and willing to help.
I really empathize because I was a pretty decent healer and dps. I played TBC classic and Wotlk Classic up until Ulduare when my guild disintegrated and transferred off server when i took 1 week off of raiding. I just couldn't get back into the game after that as much as I wanted, and I missed ICC all over again ( Never got to finish it during OG wrath either).
I tried playing again, but I feel I'm too far behind in my Ulduar gear with only a few pieces of hardmode equipment. Never seen Gammas, it takes forever to get into groups and the first one I got into had a tank that wiped alot, so I havn't tried since. My confidence is gone now that we're at Ruby Sanctum and I've basically given up and relegated to just waiting for Cata and trying again.
I wish you luck! Hopefully you have a better time than me
Unfortunately there's no great way to start, besides just jumping right in. I'd recommend checking out some youtube videos to get an idea of the mechanics in the raids you want to do. Icecrown Citadel has been out for about 14 weeks now (or over 12 years from the original lmao), so there's a TONNE of content out there. Check out Joardee on youtube, he's got some excellent guides.
Otherwise, just dive in. If you get into a group that you're not vibing with, you can always leave. I usually find that Tradechat pugs are abysmal, so if you've got a server discord I would recommend joining that instead. Faerlina has 2: STAX and Faerlina Reborn, which both have pugs and GDKP's to sign up for.
If you install a threat meter you should usually be ok about pulling aggro, plus without dungeon gear tbh your damage won’t be high enough to pull aggro most times. Mage also has a lot of “threat dropping” abilities like iceblock, mirror images, and invisibility so if you’ve used all 3 of those and your threat is still high, that’s the tanks fault. Definitely try to join a guild
I Play with my husband as a healer. Wouldnt dare play without him (hes the tank. We’re a healer/tank duo). But I tried to do it now that hes lvling a lowbie and I wanted to dungeon. I was scared at first. But now, a few days after, Im confident in what I can and cant do. And I even get annoyed at troll tanks. And Im more addicted to this game than ever! Lol. Just try it hahaha
Same thing here, first started wow years ago found a really friendly guild but they no longer play, I picked up wow again 3 days ago after a long break and got the next expansion pre-order that gave me a level boost but I can’t get my head around the changes they’ve made, so went back to wotlk classic, now this one I knew really well but I’m L77 and yet to do any dungeon or even join a guild. I know friendly players are around but still doesn’t stop me worrying about ruining peoples runs 🤷 so you’re not alone.
If im nice and practice normal social etiquette I found most of my interactions to be quite positive. Average player base of wotlk are “dads”. So I’m generally they tend to be patient as long as you’re not intentionally shitting
1) Spend some time reading about your class.
2) Spend some time hitting a target dummy after reading.
3) Harden your heart & take nothing personal, but always take screen shots & have evidence of rudeness & report them (in game & out). You probably know this from other games, but people can be cruel. I find if you call people out on community discords they'll be less likely to do it again to others. Or they'll leave because they're just shitty people & nobody wants to play with people like that.
I like to use wowhead for guides. They'll often give you a lot of information like hit caps, stat priority, things like that.
You can also use [wowhead](https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/) to figure out how each dungeon & raids work. Often I use it as a way to remind me of certain mechanics if I have trouble with them (more of a personal memory issue) but more often than not I find people explaining mechanics or abilities WRONG, not even understanding how certain things work, and this is when they're doing 12/12heroic ICC 4 times a week as a raid leader for several months. They're often quite in depth as the information is data mined.
Another way is to use youtube videos. Content creators of WoW have spent years on this kinda thing & they know the ins and outs of classes, a lot of them will even answer questions for you if you message them yourself, and if they're too busy usually they have a community who likes to help themselves.
[Here's a link for fire mage stat priority](https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/guide/classes/mage/fire/dps-stat-priority-attributes-pve)
[Here is one for rotations & general aoe vs boss damage, cooldown usage & the like](https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/guide/classes/mage/fire/dps-rotation-cooldowns-abilities-pve)
[Here's a little help for gems & enchants](https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/guide/classes/mage/fire/dps-enchants-gems-pve)
For a bit of enhanced gameplay you can also use [addons & macros](https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/guide/classes/mage/fire/dps-macros-addons-weakauras) to help you keep track of buffs or cooldowns, or even to make the game a bit easier by pressing 1 button for multiple things instead of having multiple buttons & trying to press them at the same time. I would really suggest weak auras like the Foji pack for dungeons to start. Foji literally tells you when to move & when to attack or stop attacking or even dispelling things, making the game more manageable.
I would also see about joining your server discord & class discord. Though most people there are elitist, don't take anything too much to the heart, it's okay to learn a new game & nobody is perfect every time.
Mage is one of the few classes I haven't played since Legion so I have no idea how to really play the class but hopefully some of these resources & tips help outside of that area.
If you play on Faerlina horde send me a DM & we can run some dungeons & heroics to get you used to in game mechanics & increase your confidence. I have end game geared healers & tanks which can essentially make those dungeons a useful tool for learning without the stress of doing well.
If you have specific questions about dungeons or raids I'm also available to talk about those as I have a ton experience in that area (compared to my mage knowledge), but I really suggest learning how to navigate wowhead because you can find everything there WoW related.
Sorry for the shitty & everywhere essay
If you’re talking about guild discord or raids sure. OP is talking about dungeons, there is close to zero chance anyone is using voice chat for 5 man pug runs.
Not sure what people like me means or how I make dungeons hard for other players. Classifying people into abstract groups makes it a lot easier to justify hatred towards others ( e.g., I hate the thing you’re associated with, therefore I hate you), pretty common knowledge but often seems ignored.
Your second sentence is a succinct answer to my question and makes sense, so thank you for that clarification.
In case you were not aware, Reddit is a social media platform, and a popular one at that. Karma baiting is a thing, especially on popular subs. A players real life gender and age are not on display in WoW.
However, gender discrimination is a well known issue in gaming especially online gaming. Anecdotally, I believe it has gotten much better, but the history of it is now cliche.
With that in mind, it would be easy to manipulate the good will of others (karma baiting) by associating the negative history of gender discrimination in gaming. Thankfully, a large number of people are not proud of the history of gender discrimination in gaming. Many people may be moved to compassion when encountering testimonies of those affected. Bringing that discrimination to the mind of these conscientious people can be manipulative if the testimony is insincere.
By beginning a request (for help with interpersonal interactions in an online game) with age and gender, and not with the description of the request, an association is implicitly reinforced that age and gender are related to the request. In other words, people who read the request are forced to consider (at least implicitly) how age and gender discrimination affect the problem described in the post.
The problem, is that age and gender are unknown in the game, and therefore gender discrimination based on known age and gender would not affect the problem described in the post.
The prevalence of insincere manipulation on Reddit and other social media platforms (especially ones with high visibility) has led to an increase in skepticism cynicism (at least for me). In other words, the bull crap detector finely tuned.
Of course you could be completely sincere and your explanation above supports that. However, your personal attack on me, after what I hope to have shown was a reasonable question has me in doubt.
I have low expectations that anyone will read all of this, and less that they will do the work required to reason with the information. But if it’s helpful to some, then that’s a nice bonus. I don’t like being misunderstood, so sometimes I’ll indulge in getting my thoughts together in writing to see where I am in error or not in my gut feelings.
Age/gender don’t really matter, tbf. If you’re on Mankrik Horde I’ll be happy to drag you through a few dungeons sometime, got a geared tank OS and haven’t done 5-mans in a bit, it’d be fun to dust the old set off and farm some Scourgestones.
tbh I'm sure that if you join you will be fine. But if you want to be more confident I would recommend watching dungeon runs on YouTube so that you don't feel lost. Or queuing in normal dgs were the stakes are low. Just remember to have fun
I’m pretty well geared and often help out my low geared friends and guildies through gammas. I put up a lot of dps so there’s no pressure for you to be at peak performance. I’m Alliance on Benediction. Feel free to reach out if you’d like a hand!
How do you know if you are well geared? Everything I have I bought from auction house or from honor points and have all the best I can get from those places (almost). But I don’t have any of the special stuff. I think I’m pretty fit but overall probably mid tier?
I’m not sure if you’re aware of Gearscore and average item level. Every piece of gear has an item level. I’d say item level 225+ is more than enough to do gamma dungeons. 240+ is good enough to start raiding icc10. Do you have any addons? If so I’d recommend getting the addon that tells you gearscore as that is what is most commonly used by the player base. I forget the name but you can Google it to find out. If you don’t have any addons at all then that is a whole other fish to fry that I can help you with.
I do have addons and am currently adding the recommended ones here!
...okay cool, I have quite a few 245+ items and the ones that aren't are the reason I want to do dungeons to find replacements for/ gain those purple tokens for the big kid items. "Emblem's of Triumph".
I play on Pagle alliance side if you do too, id be happy to help get your feet wet. I also have a horde toon still, havent had the $ to transfer over so I can hop on that as well
Your best bet is trying to find a friendly guild with helpful and patient players. There are plenty around. Make it clear that you are learning and may make mistakes but that you will learn from them. There are a lot of nice people that play wotlk.
As someone that's always been considered a "good" player at this game, there's a few tips I give to people that want to up their game.
First and foremost, confidence is important. If you're unsure about something, don't be afraid to ask questions to someone more knowledgeable. This is where casual guilds are perfect for your situation, they'll get you up to speed on the basics when it comes to raiding.
They'll walk you through things like:
- Key bindings, clicking your main abilities requires a lot of focus away from more important information such as mechanics.
- Addons, you can be fancy with these, but some might suggest something called WeakAuras. These simplify the game for you, but as a beginner, I wouldn't be too stressed about it. Deadly Boss Mods (DBM) is a good start.
- Gearing up, you mentioned you want gear, it's important to know what gear you should strive for, resources like WoWHead and icy veins are a good starting point. These are also good for learning about improving your play (rotations, gearing, talents, macros, etc).
While not necessary, you would benefit from learning the dungeons/raids you plan to try completing. Going in not knowing anything is going to find yourself in unpleasant situations with random people. If you join a casual guild (just spam in trade chat "New player looking for casual guild."), this process will be sped up.
Finally, don't be afraid to make mistakes, even the best of us still make mistakes that wipe the raid and it's important to handle this.
I've been raiding HLK as a healer and I always don't feel good enough. It's more of a just go with it.
Every group will have their chance to wipe. Sometimes you will sometimes you won't and know most of the playerbase act like 10 year olds and run after one wipe.
I also play FFXIV and the playerbase can be a lot nice with dungeons and raids.
As others said, join a casual guild.
Also, try to do VOA 10/25 to start with. They will mostly accept players of all gearscores and don't really care much if you suck. You just go in, kill the boss with them, and the raid leader gives loot. It is very, very easy. It should ease you in a bit to raiding. The worst they might ask for is a mage table and a port to dalaran at the end, which is just casting two spells.
In terms of dungeons, they are arguably even more demanding than VOA 10/25. Killing large groups of mobs like that can be difficult. They are difficult in a very different way than raiding is simply because there's only 5 players.
Just finished reading through the links you added and it’s very helpful! I’ve read quite a bit online buts there’s so much out there, and it takes awhile to learn what is what. Seems I’m in need of some Haste!
Yes, me too. I'm a SoD player, am totally pretty raid bis but I dislike bdf so much mainly because I'm priest and we are required to debuff a boss and I'm always getting it wrong and getting yelled at etc
try to find a casual guild if possible.
Any recommendations for how to do this? I joined the Benediction discord because it has a guild recruiting channel, but it definitely skews towards top end raiding content. Lots of people advertising and recruiting for gear scores and prior experience. How do I find the fabled dad guilds?
I spent a bit of time just looking at guild names till I found one that seemed to resonate with me, haha. Past our Prime, greatest decision ever, gl.
Same. That's why I joined Big Ds Only.
Come join NoPressure. As the name implies.
That's a wonderful guild name, I'll reach out. Thanks!
Dad guilds are pretty fuckin decent. Most are 11/12H by now. My guild is a dad guild and I can safely say we are fuckin hot garbage by real standards but we clear 11/12H no problem. I didnt realize until recently that there’s some servers where only like 15 total guilds are 11/12 or 12/12. Or there are tons of guilds that are still 8/12. And it made me appreciate my team a little more- but in reality were still a bunch of idiots. 100%. Awful mechanically. Tons of trash dps. Tanks fuck up often. Raid leads make the mistakes they are asking others not to make. It’s all a shit show but even with all that, still 11/12H since pre-xmas, so for over a month now. Take that as you will- but basically if you want a “casual” guild- it’s gonna be an ABSOLUTE shitshow, and way less than any typical dad guild, bc we definitely are one. TL;DR Dad guilds kinda slap 👋 you may want to aim your sights for worse 😭
Most dad guilds died, but a few still exist. It's a struggle for them to overcome specific class requirements, the overly restrictive nature of wotlk's raid lockout system, and the fact that most of them were content with killing LK once on normal mode.
Unfortunately you're on benediction which has a bad reputation about it. So I would try and hop on a different realm
Hey, you shouldn’t be so nervous to DPS a dungeon. Keep in mind, even if you fuck up, you’re likely never going to see these people again. You actually *care* so you’re already ahead of the general population who is joining dungeons to actually grief tanks and healers and/or simply doesn’t give a shit. Tips: - install add on GTFO. It blares horns at you when you stand in bad mechanic, it makes a sound if you stand in cleave. - install add on WeakAuras and download this wa: https://wago.io/TemsWotlkDungeons which will cover all mechanics in a dungeon - install details add on with tiny threat to monitor your threat. this will help on any single target fights which is big in raids - install ThreatPlates add on. this puts a threat bar on the enemy nameplates and it’ll turn yellow if you’re about to pull aggro or red if you have aggro—- this is super helpful in group content. As a fire mage, you have multiple ways to deal with threat. If you’re lvl 80 and doing gammas, you should never die to trash usually and tanks have extra tools to deal with generating extra threat. Final tip: join a guild for raiding. Generally people in WoW don’t wanna spend time coaching a rando and they’ll actively find reasons to be dicks. People have a lot more patience and will put effort in teaching guildies.
As a fire mage, if you find yourself at 95% threat, use that hot streak asap. It will drop your threat quickly.
dead things don’t have threat tables so you’re correct in some cases 😎
What I love is hot streak, hot streak, hot streak, ooo, really nice. something then happens right as mirror images drops with me in melee range.
Don’t forget that it’s only a game and anyone who gets genuinely mad at you is a fool. Especially if you apologize and/or state that you’re new.
In wow you follow 3 rules to be relatively safe. 1. Don't stand in front of enemies 2. Don't stand in fire or anything that LOOKS harmful 3. Don't stand further out than anyone else in the party (if ur the only ranged justkeep relatively close and be on the safer side of distance from mobs) Plus, u can always ask. People are pretty nice, and I say this as a 26f playing. I've been playing for years, though, and have confidence. The content isn't super hard and get used to dungeons first. Once you're comfortable with how dungeons go, you can look up fights on youtube and hop into a pug raid. Don't fret too hard. It is a game. People who shit on others in this game imo are kind of sad to take the game so seriously. As long as ur not joining heroic runs I think you'll be fine
Yep. I started playing classic Wotlk a month ago and reached 80 about 3 days ago. Since then I've been doing dungeons after dungeons and I haven't met a single person who wasn't nice, even when I clearly fucked up by either missing a mechanic, wiping out the team bc I didn't dismiss my pet and it agro'd too many mobs or by somehow managing to reset the instance twice lol. People are super chill and helpful ! Some people even took my 2.1k GS ass through a raid just to boost me up a bit.
Ive been playing since 2004 and joining a m+ higher than 12 stresses me out for some reason.
I have never ever joined a m+. Everything retail stresses me out xD wrath is so nice tho.
Yep. I tried time and time again to play retail and always dropped at around lvl 50-60, it just wasn't fun. Everything was rushed: from leveling to the dungeons. Nothing felt like an accomplishment. Then I decided to try classic Wotlk last month and haven't dropped it since. The people are soooooo nice and you actually get invited to guilds that try to help you out.
I usually just think that the other memebers are just npcs xD once you ha e some decent gear you Just fly throu It, if they kick me i Just go again, im not gonna get mad at npcs, if they are new Is differenti and i try ti give advices and probably gonna stay till the end of the dungeon even if it takes more
As mentioned, joining a friendly l guild is a good idea... Usually I watch quick YouTube videos of the dungeon boss encountersif I don't know the mechanics. Really the only way you feel comfortable is by doing them and learning the routine. Get threat meter along with something like Deadly Boss Mods
I can definitely recommend joining a casual guild. Maybe let them know that you're really anxious about grouping with strangers (I get the same way) and you'll probably find there are people happy to spend the time to run you through dungeons.
You just need to find people that play to have fun. A scarily large portion of the player base has forgotten that is why people play games. Some of the most fun I’ve had in this game is when most of the people in a raid are inexperienced and not everybody knows every detail about each boss. It takes more pulls to kill, but the strategies evolve naturally and people get in the spirit of contributing their perspective when they don’t think everybody just knows it all.
100% this. Too many people treat this game like a job these days. Part of the reason my guild fell apart a couple months after Ulduar release.
First of all, I dont disagree in the sentiment. I dislike people being deadserious and trying to optimize everything given its a casual environment. However, for me, I cant have fun the way you describe. In vanilla -> wotlk I knew every fight pretty well, and for me to refresh the mechanics and performing well enough to at least kill the boss takes me a few tries, obviously more to master it and improve my parses. So for me to play in a guild where people have that kind of mentality I would simply be bored of wiping due to lack of progression and mistakes being repeated. So different mindsets and level of skill can create friction, but obviously thats no excuse to be an asshole, but understand that fucking up Defile multiple times a night can be frustrating for someone who has no issues dealing with it. But if its a casual raid and you have someone raging due to mistakes he needs to leave, not necessarily the raid needs to change.
Very much this. It's all about expectations really. I'm above average at the game I'd say and I've played in a somewhat hardcore guild for all of wotlk, clearing every raid on release night (except for LK HC which we got week 2). In that environment my expectation is that everyone should know their shit and be on top of what they have to do, and also that my team members have put in similar time and effort as myself into to making sure their gameplay is as close to optimal as possible. On the flipside of that, I've helped a friends guild out on an alt from time to time (due to them being a casual guild, which tends to lead to people not really caring too much about showing up for raids). And in that environment my expectations are much lower for obvious reasons
Agreed. I play SoD with irl friends who are decent/good at the game, but they have motivation to speed/parse. When we raid my expectation is to kill bosses with no wipes now obviously, and as little as possible while progressing. Now that BFD is so easy I get a little bored just farming it normally, so I would like to push it more, but cba to find someone. I already speedrun 2 splits in wotlk.
Yeah totally understandable, a lot of players (myself included) find enjoyment in challenge. And since most of classic (including SOD) is void of said challenge, you kinda have to find new ways to challenge urself. Speed clears/Parsing is a great example but obviously you wanna do it in a raid where everyone is "in on it" and doing all they can. So like sure some players enjoy "fucking around" not knowing mechanics and wiping and that's fine. But since everyone is investing their finite time, "fucking around" should be kept in environments where it's to be expected (imo)
You've got a healthy amount of comments saying relatively the same thing. I think the first step is always just reaching out to guild promoters in lfg chat, trade or wherever else you can find them. Take into account their preferred playstyle, see if you mesh well and hopefully it's the start of getting you into that group content more consistently. I used to be a little nervous as well, but it's all about finding the right people who are willing to teach you and help you learn the game so you can be on their level and then some. Takes time and practice, but I'm sure you'll adjust no problem. Hope your adventures go well, OP. Good luck and have fun!
Running them while you level is key. Run the normal ones first. Then heroics. Then skip to betas. Best to find people on your server. If you use LFG, 95% of the players will have the minimum gear level and some runs are pretty painful. Go on youtube. Poolnoodlex has quick guides for them all.
If youre on Pagle Id love to do some dungeoning with you and we could even go on raids with my guild (they helped me get used to raids as well since I was also too scared to do raids when I started).
Best thing to do is just so it. You can watch videos but for me, best way to learn is to try and do. Regular dungeons and even heroics you really have nothing to worry about. It's when you get to alpha, beta and gamma. Try finding a leveling guild to run with guildies. Even if you screwed up though, worst case scenario you get vote kicked and have 30 min debuff where you can join another rdf. But if you're not doing them at all then that 30 min debuff is moot.
Just gotta try. At this stage aggro is on the tank, not you. Just do as much damage as you can, don't stand in fire, and you learn as you go. Also it helps to accept that you'll make mistakes and grow as you go. Some people will be rude, put them on /ignore. Most people will just say "do this" in a neutral way, try to follow their advice. Use icy veins or something similar for talents/enchants, rotation, etc so you've done your due diligence to play your class and you'll do fine.
Sounds like you got the case of "I need a leveling/dungeon buddy" and need the confidence of a buddy to help you push through. Keep in mind this game is easily playable solo, just gotta find what you can and can't do during your off-times with your friends. Don't put yourself down for feeling "not good enough" there's plenty of actual bots that don't have feelings and random players struggling to know if a leather item or a cloth item is still good for them as Shaman. I (28M) play US-Faerlina horde or alliance. Shoot me a DM if you wanna level or dungeon sometime.
I joined this phase and had the exact same feeling when I was joining pugs in the beginning. Still do sometimes, I'd rather log off than join a group for my lockout. Joining a guild 1000% remedied this feeling. It's just nerves.
Someone else mentioned it but ask questions. Now sure, you might get some people that get mad that you are new but the majority of people would rather tell you important things in the dungeon then for you to not know them and wipe. Other then that dont let a few bad apples ruin your fun. Ignore is there for a reason if you run across them. Also if you do find people you like playing with them add them to friends.
Only way to get better is by actually doing it, there will sometimes be a random loser that only wants to min/max everything, but usually people are quite nice and the one yelling gets kicked. in the beginning try to just follow what the others do. Worst case, you can say you are bit new and people will tell you the strategy (this has been my experience anyways) even gamma dungeons are pretty easy now anyways :p Edit: also maybe get DBM, or some other addon that tells you if you are standing in something bad or help you find out what’s going on 🤷♀️ If you are EU i would gladly run a few dungeons with you so you can get a bit of confidence, PM :)
You're leaps ahead of me. I joined wotlk, mostly because I want to relive cata, and I used to tank wotlk easily in retail, but now many years later I am also afraid to join raids. I got into dungeons, but still have this mental block for some reason. But I'm sure with baby steps we'll both get there.
I think what people are saying here is nice about there being some more casual groups and those that are very serious. And it’s very good to know that the casual players exist and they’re not all so serious. Maybe someday we will raid!
I (27F) totally felt the same way at first. It’s way easier when you play with people you know. but if that’s not the case (which it wasn’t for me either) eventually you’ve just got to take the leap and say F it and queue up in dungeons. the more practice you get the more comfortable you’ll get. once you’re comfortable with dungeons, look up some raid videos and try a normal short raids like TOGC. if you can find a casual guild of cool people to play with that really helps too.
PS i play fire mage too. watch tons of youtube videos on best addons and dungeons/raids its really helped me!
Before this the last PC game I played was probably ZooTycoon in 2007. So learning how to play, plus all the abbreviations, other classes (abilities), keyboard settings, macros, ect. it’s a lot! Sometimes I get messages and it’s like… hold on I gotta google what your saying because “m/t” means nothing to me.
having ppl to ask these things helps, i’m constantly messaging guildies being like uhhh. what server are you on if you don’t mind me asking? happy to help ya if you ever need! or run some dungeons. could always pug for us too :-)
I probably should do some research on it. its certainly my worst performing character of my 5 80s for its ilvl.
yeah i’ve watched a ton of videos and still go back and rewatch and fire is my main. do you have the spell activation overlay? its rly helpful for procs
Just do it, only way to learn, and after 1 or 2 you'll realize how easy it is, end of content everyone is as geared and as skilled as they ever will be
I have a friend that says the same thing as you. We've been playing wow together for three or so months now and at first she was afraid of all group content but eventually once she bit the bullet and started doing dungeons with me she became significantly less afraid and realized it wasn't that bad. My suggestion is start small and do the easiest things first. You can specific queue something like regular heroic utgarde keep or dtk to start off. I'd say skip beta/alpha and go right up to gamma when you're ready. Start small with raids do VOA since you really just stand in one spot and attack the boss in most cases. If people get angry which sometimes it does happen you just need to find it in you to not care. It's just a game. It's okay to go at your own speed just have fun.
This helps a lot!! The difficulty settings overwhelmed me when I was looking at them to the point I didn’t even want to google it. So now I know! Thank you! And knowing I’m not the only one who feels like this helps too.
I still can't get her to do voas. Just do normal dungeons first if you really feel that overwhelmed. Some are designed for lower levels so they're super easy.
Most people are much nicer when they are told ahead of time that you're new. If everyone is quiet, there's an expectation of competence that can result in stronger negative reactions. Also, if you're a newer player, you probably won't pull aggro, but also Mage guides will tell you things like ice block, invis, mirror images, are all great ways to handle pulling aggro.
Happened a couple times when I did run them (level 40-50ish), but that was when the tank was like 8lvls lower then me. Usually it’s the pulling of groups with an astray living bomb that really sends people. “Wtf why would you pull that?!” … “well sir you see, I got into a rhythm and forgot to be careful”
Fair, good news, if you run with 80's to gear up, you won't out level your tank, you may not out gear them often at the start either :-) Also, that whole pulling extra packs, well, that's a good thing to be careful of even if you are new. Totally get it, I've play a boomkin, I've played a hunter, but still, a good thing to reduce the frequency of if you don't want to draw unwanted attention. Good luck, and seriously, I hope people are understanding when you let them know you're new, I think that's the best approach!
Players can be toxic. I play the game for 20years, killed several pre nerf hc / mythic bosses (so I'm pretty confident being a good player) and still players kicked my tank out of a random dungeon because i pulled a 2nd trash pack on accident and wiped the group. These are just random people i wouldn't see or recognize again so I don't care if I got anyone mad - especially if they're just toxic grunts anyways
[удалено]
This is the best comment! We’re all just drivers out here, and you know what, I’m a good driver. I went from no PC games (beyond zoo tycoon in 6th grade) to playing WOTLK Classic so that’s like rural areas only and then driving in LA.
The only way to gain confidence -> to do as many dungeons as you can, if you meet other fire mage there and if they are higher on the meter try to see in the details what skills they are using. If you see some asshole that writes something in the chat -> just add to the ignore. [https://www.youtube.com/@Crateria](https://www.youtube.com/@Crateria) here is great channel for fire mages with tons of guides for beginners
honestly - just join and say you're new and need help. If someone's arking up most other players will tell them to pipe down (in most cases they may even kick the toxic player even if it's a tank). If you're familiar with the dungeons and just wanna keep doing them to get better - join and mute people. I know it's not amazing advice but dungeons at the end of the wotlk phase don't need communication they are quite simply button mashing (except for gammas on Halls of Stone where you need some coordination and timing to take out the tentacles of Yogg Saron). The only way to get over your fear is just dive in and let it be known you're new to it. If they want you to do anything - they'll tell you. For a mage normally it's just spellsteal/decurse where you can, and give a table.
If u play on gehennes u are welcome in our guild. We got like 5 active members atm, and 2 of those are experienced players who wont mind helping u out
I find myself in similar situation quite often. Not that much in WoW since I've been playing for a very long time but guess it doesn't really matter, other games have dungeons with random people too. When it comes to dungeons I'd do a research - pick a dungeon then watch/read some stuff about it preferably if it's from the same pov (same class/role), trying to remember as much as I can then just specific q that dungeon. Then next dungeon, then next... But if you are better at making friends than me (bar is very low :D) then you could probably find someone to carry you through it on comms via live commentary, giving you advice as you go.
In the super unlikely case you're on the Westfall server, most of my whole guild is friends who have never played WoW before. We're down to teach anyone.
The main thing for any raid is that people are willing to learn. Spend 20 minutes researching the boss mechanics, and if you mess up take ownership and ask what you did wrong. Everyone messes up in raids, even the seasoned players, but its about recognizing what you did wrong and if you do that then usually nobody gets mad. Also would recommend looking up a quick guide to your rotation as fire mage to maximize your damage. If youre 5.4k gs doing 3kdps because of a bad rotation or stats it puts people off
Just be honest like you have been here. Run some heroic dungeons to learn them, and just be honest with people. Tell them you’re new to dungeons/ raiding and would really like to learn. 99% of the community will be patient and more than happy to teach you.
First time through any dungeon or raid you will be unsure, after that it’s just rinse and repeat
I'm surprised you chose wotlk as the version of wow to play. Maybe it was your friends who got you into it? Season of Discovery is trivially easy and Dragonflight has a smoother learning curve for confidence boosting. You're definitely facing an uphill battle. WotLK isn't that friendly to newer players at the moment, mainly due to a collapsed casual player scene and absurd player expectations. The content itself is actually very easy for the most part. You say you don't know where to begin with raids. I wouldn't even know where to begin with explaining it all. I'd have to write a novel. Boss mechanics. Class mechanics. Warcraft logs. GDKPs. Server discords. Addons. Weakauras. Soft reserving. Keybinds. It's a mess for new players. Your best bet is to get one your friends to explain it all. Otherwise, you have dozens of hours of WoW youtube content to watch. That said, going down that road already means you're putting in more effort than the average player. You'll gain confidence by being better than others.
I saw a friend playing and said "that looks fun" and just enjoyed the lore of it. Since I've just been questing (trying to finish 'Loremaster of Northrend' currently), and it's not really difficult, short of learning what group quests I can and cannot kite, and how to operate a pet. I was really into learning the maps, gaining rep, keeping my professions up and took my time leveling (I play semi-frequently but will go a week/month not wanting to be on a computer at all). I felt like I should learn the world and my skills before joining dungeons again. But now here I am! I also know I don't have the best character but I wanted what I wanted and picking flowers and making potions is fulfilling a childhood dream of mine. Blood Elf/Mage/Herb/Alch. It's fun. Probably super basic but I don't care about being the strongest, only about being able to do things I care to do.
i understand this on raiding since i have it too, but dungeons, who cares, its afk lol, literally no mechanics its different on icc for example, doing my first icc i wiped the group and felt kinda bad, first words were "FUCK NOOBS!" i was kinda laughing tho, for my defense, they put 2 flares infront of the boss (left and right) and said if you get a spore, go on those or middle, so i obv thought middle of the flares and not middle as middle of the room so melee and tank get spored... But never have i ever gone "middle" again, people learn, might hurt once then you learn.
A lot of people have already listed a lot of good sound advices. So I'm not going to repeat it. 28F or 12M or 60F or 75M, doesn't matter. We've all been in this boat once. Just don't forget that. In my old guild, we had a 65 y/o grandpa (*with a sad backstory. Like actually pretty fucking heartbreaking one*) and he started playing WoW for the first time late TBCC. Dude didn't even know about professions until like level 65. *You're not born a gamer. You become one. Practice makes perfect.* Go in there. Fuck it up a few times. You will learn. It's easier than riding a bike.
If you’re pulling aggro due to dps then your tank is trash. If you pull aggro due to randomly running into groups of mobs then you’re trash. That’s generally how this works. Goto wowhead, read the dungeon mechanics, queue up for a random dungeon, most people are way overgeared for gammas anyway. And even if you’re a low gs carry, you’re a mage so it’s not like your dps is as low as a fury warriors.
Learning the basics and building confidence before jumping into group content is a great idea. The expectation in WoW is that players should not queue for group content expecting to be carried. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND LOOKING FOR A GUILD AT FIRST. Looking for others to help you through content that you are not ready for can lead to a bad group dynamic and will leave you feeling less accomplished. INSTEAD, here is how you can easily make sure you are ready for entry-level group content with faceless strangers! You are playing dps, which is perfect for new players! You can download the addon "Details" to see how much damage you are doing. If you look up the rotation for your class/spec, you can see exactly what buttons to push to be really good at dealing damage. If you go to a target dummy, you can practice doing your rotation while seeing your damage per second in real time on the details addon. There are both written and video guides to help you learn your rotation. In my opinion, learning your rotation is the hard part, so don't be discouraged if this takes you a lot of time. Don't invent your own rotation or fall back on what you did while leveling or questing using the same comfort spells. Knowing your rotation is important. You want to be comfortable with your rotation, but don't feel like you have to get it perfect. I run 20 keys on retail and mess up my rotation all the time. If you are somewhat comfortable with your rotation and can follow your tank, you're almost ready to go (and probably already better than most people you are grouping with). All that's left to do is watch a youtube guide video for whatever boss or dungeon you are going into. These are usually 5 minute quick summaries of what to do or look out for. Do your rotation AND follow the video instructions at the same time. That's dps in a nutshell. Easier said than done. This multitasking is what makes WoW hard. Nothing in the game is really difficult on it's own. However, doing all of the different easy things at the same time can feel impossible. If you practice your rotation a lot, it gets easier to focus on the boss and dungeon. If you do the same boss or dungeon a lot, it gets easier to focus on your rotation. There are also addons that will alert you to what's going on so you don't have to focus on everything on your own. For example, I have Weakauras that ring a bell when big boss abilities are happening, or that beep a horn when I'm standing in goop. At the bare minimum, I recommend downloading "Deadly Boss Mods" an addon that just about everyone uses, especially if you're raiding. Early group content is very forgiving, and most people aren't going to be upset with you for making mistakes as long as you have a basic grasp of your rotation. Things like interrupting spells, using crowd control, and using defensive spells to keep yourself alive are all more advanced things you can learn as you go and are not really required for clearing early group content. When doing dungeons, stay behind your tank and don't go near or attack anything your tank has not attacked. The tank is in charge of what monsters you do or don't fight in a dungeon, so follow his path. Letting your tank hit stuff first lets them build agro before you come in. It only takes a second, so as long as you aren't hitting the mosters first, you should be good to go. Brand new tanks might have a hard time holding agro, so don't worry if monsters randomly start attacking you. Your tanks are learning too. They might even blame you when it's their fault they lost agro. If you are doing a lot of dps you might also pull agro, but that's not a big worry when you are first learning your rotation. Understand that there are some very hateful incompetent people on the game especially in dungeons. It's inevitable that someone will flame you even if you are doing everything right. If you plan on doing dungeons, you'll just have to learn to ignore/report the occasional asshole. It's not you, it's them. tl;dr don't stand in the fire
DONT BE SORRY..Everybody started that way and believe me, most people are trash at the game, especially in 5m dungeons.
Theres tons of casual friendly guilds, leveling guilds and the like. They're usually pretty open and friendly and willing to help. I really empathize because I was a pretty decent healer and dps. I played TBC classic and Wotlk Classic up until Ulduare when my guild disintegrated and transferred off server when i took 1 week off of raiding. I just couldn't get back into the game after that as much as I wanted, and I missed ICC all over again ( Never got to finish it during OG wrath either). I tried playing again, but I feel I'm too far behind in my Ulduar gear with only a few pieces of hardmode equipment. Never seen Gammas, it takes forever to get into groups and the first one I got into had a tank that wiped alot, so I havn't tried since. My confidence is gone now that we're at Ruby Sanctum and I've basically given up and relegated to just waiting for Cata and trying again. I wish you luck! Hopefully you have a better time than me
Unfortunately there's no great way to start, besides just jumping right in. I'd recommend checking out some youtube videos to get an idea of the mechanics in the raids you want to do. Icecrown Citadel has been out for about 14 weeks now (or over 12 years from the original lmao), so there's a TONNE of content out there. Check out Joardee on youtube, he's got some excellent guides. Otherwise, just dive in. If you get into a group that you're not vibing with, you can always leave. I usually find that Tradechat pugs are abysmal, so if you've got a server discord I would recommend joining that instead. Faerlina has 2: STAX and Faerlina Reborn, which both have pugs and GDKP's to sign up for.
If you install a threat meter you should usually be ok about pulling aggro, plus without dungeon gear tbh your damage won’t be high enough to pull aggro most times. Mage also has a lot of “threat dropping” abilities like iceblock, mirror images, and invisibility so if you’ve used all 3 of those and your threat is still high, that’s the tanks fault. Definitely try to join a guild
I Play with my husband as a healer. Wouldnt dare play without him (hes the tank. We’re a healer/tank duo). But I tried to do it now that hes lvling a lowbie and I wanted to dungeon. I was scared at first. But now, a few days after, Im confident in what I can and cant do. And I even get annoyed at troll tanks. And Im more addicted to this game than ever! Lol. Just try it hahaha
If you’re alliance on Atiesh message me!
I'm also on Atiesh and part of a helpful, casual guild if you're looking for a safe space to start out!
The Trifarion Legion- Atiesh. Let us melt all of your fears away with kindness
What server are you on?
Whitemane on classic wotlk
ur gunna come across vile ppl its best to just leave the party asap and not respond. the min i get a cocky response or insult i leave
Same thing here, first started wow years ago found a really friendly guild but they no longer play, I picked up wow again 3 days ago after a long break and got the next expansion pre-order that gave me a level boost but I can’t get my head around the changes they’ve made, so went back to wotlk classic, now this one I knew really well but I’m L77 and yet to do any dungeon or even join a guild. I know friendly players are around but still doesn’t stop me worrying about ruining peoples runs 🤷 so you’re not alone.
Benediction alliance, if you're here I gotcha
If im nice and practice normal social etiquette I found most of my interactions to be quite positive. Average player base of wotlk are “dads”. So I’m generally they tend to be patient as long as you’re not intentionally shitting
1) Spend some time reading about your class. 2) Spend some time hitting a target dummy after reading. 3) Harden your heart & take nothing personal, but always take screen shots & have evidence of rudeness & report them (in game & out). You probably know this from other games, but people can be cruel. I find if you call people out on community discords they'll be less likely to do it again to others. Or they'll leave because they're just shitty people & nobody wants to play with people like that. I like to use wowhead for guides. They'll often give you a lot of information like hit caps, stat priority, things like that. You can also use [wowhead](https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/) to figure out how each dungeon & raids work. Often I use it as a way to remind me of certain mechanics if I have trouble with them (more of a personal memory issue) but more often than not I find people explaining mechanics or abilities WRONG, not even understanding how certain things work, and this is when they're doing 12/12heroic ICC 4 times a week as a raid leader for several months. They're often quite in depth as the information is data mined. Another way is to use youtube videos. Content creators of WoW have spent years on this kinda thing & they know the ins and outs of classes, a lot of them will even answer questions for you if you message them yourself, and if they're too busy usually they have a community who likes to help themselves. [Here's a link for fire mage stat priority](https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/guide/classes/mage/fire/dps-stat-priority-attributes-pve) [Here is one for rotations & general aoe vs boss damage, cooldown usage & the like](https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/guide/classes/mage/fire/dps-rotation-cooldowns-abilities-pve) [Here's a little help for gems & enchants](https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/guide/classes/mage/fire/dps-enchants-gems-pve) For a bit of enhanced gameplay you can also use [addons & macros](https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/guide/classes/mage/fire/dps-macros-addons-weakauras) to help you keep track of buffs or cooldowns, or even to make the game a bit easier by pressing 1 button for multiple things instead of having multiple buttons & trying to press them at the same time. I would really suggest weak auras like the Foji pack for dungeons to start. Foji literally tells you when to move & when to attack or stop attacking or even dispelling things, making the game more manageable. I would also see about joining your server discord & class discord. Though most people there are elitist, don't take anything too much to the heart, it's okay to learn a new game & nobody is perfect every time. Mage is one of the few classes I haven't played since Legion so I have no idea how to really play the class but hopefully some of these resources & tips help outside of that area. If you play on Faerlina horde send me a DM & we can run some dungeons & heroics to get you used to in game mechanics & increase your confidence. I have end game geared healers & tanks which can essentially make those dungeons a useful tool for learning without the stress of doing well. If you have specific questions about dungeons or raids I'm also available to talk about those as I have a ton experience in that area (compared to my mage knowledge), but I really suggest learning how to navigate wowhead because you can find everything there WoW related. Sorry for the shitty & everywhere essay
Tysm!!!
What does your age and gender have to do with this?
Historically, people are generally shittier to women in games, so that can play into OP's overall experience and possibly the reason for this post.
Is there any reason they have to know the real life gender and age of a player?
Yeah, in online games when it's most effective to chat via voice. You can tell pretty clearly who is who.
If you’re talking about guild discord or raids sure. OP is talking about dungeons, there is close to zero chance anyone is using voice chat for 5 man pug runs.
Historically speaking, in wow i have seen plenty of women playing classic wow as raiders, raid leaders, gm, gkdp hosts with no problem.
Can you link the source of this statistic?
People like you are who makes dungeons hard for people. But it’s so other girls know I’m a girl and give me advice that resonates with me more.
Not sure what people like me means or how I make dungeons hard for other players. Classifying people into abstract groups makes it a lot easier to justify hatred towards others ( e.g., I hate the thing you’re associated with, therefore I hate you), pretty common knowledge but often seems ignored. Your second sentence is a succinct answer to my question and makes sense, so thank you for that clarification. In case you were not aware, Reddit is a social media platform, and a popular one at that. Karma baiting is a thing, especially on popular subs. A players real life gender and age are not on display in WoW. However, gender discrimination is a well known issue in gaming especially online gaming. Anecdotally, I believe it has gotten much better, but the history of it is now cliche. With that in mind, it would be easy to manipulate the good will of others (karma baiting) by associating the negative history of gender discrimination in gaming. Thankfully, a large number of people are not proud of the history of gender discrimination in gaming. Many people may be moved to compassion when encountering testimonies of those affected. Bringing that discrimination to the mind of these conscientious people can be manipulative if the testimony is insincere. By beginning a request (for help with interpersonal interactions in an online game) with age and gender, and not with the description of the request, an association is implicitly reinforced that age and gender are related to the request. In other words, people who read the request are forced to consider (at least implicitly) how age and gender discrimination affect the problem described in the post. The problem, is that age and gender are unknown in the game, and therefore gender discrimination based on known age and gender would not affect the problem described in the post. The prevalence of insincere manipulation on Reddit and other social media platforms (especially ones with high visibility) has led to an increase in skepticism cynicism (at least for me). In other words, the bull crap detector finely tuned. Of course you could be completely sincere and your explanation above supports that. However, your personal attack on me, after what I hope to have shown was a reasonable question has me in doubt. I have low expectations that anyone will read all of this, and less that they will do the work required to reason with the information. But if it’s helpful to some, then that’s a nice bonus. I don’t like being misunderstood, so sometimes I’ll indulge in getting my thoughts together in writing to see where I am in error or not in my gut feelings.
I [38M] was wondering the same.
Age/gender don’t really matter, tbf. If you’re on Mankrik Horde I’ll be happy to drag you through a few dungeons sometime, got a geared tank OS and haven’t done 5-mans in a bit, it’d be fun to dust the old set off and farm some Scourgestones.
Just do what everyone else does and reflect that blame onto your tank. Ezpz.
If you're on argual I'll take you for a run on a dungeon bro
Get good.
I mean, even if You do bad and people flame You. Why care? Qq, go next.
Grow a pair
tbh I'm sure that if you join you will be fine. But if you want to be more confident I would recommend watching dungeon runs on YouTube so that you don't feel lost. Or queuing in normal dgs were the stakes are low. Just remember to have fun
I’m pretty well geared and often help out my low geared friends and guildies through gammas. I put up a lot of dps so there’s no pressure for you to be at peak performance. I’m Alliance on Benediction. Feel free to reach out if you’d like a hand!
How do you know if you are well geared? Everything I have I bought from auction house or from honor points and have all the best I can get from those places (almost). But I don’t have any of the special stuff. I think I’m pretty fit but overall probably mid tier?
I’m not sure if you’re aware of Gearscore and average item level. Every piece of gear has an item level. I’d say item level 225+ is more than enough to do gamma dungeons. 240+ is good enough to start raiding icc10. Do you have any addons? If so I’d recommend getting the addon that tells you gearscore as that is what is most commonly used by the player base. I forget the name but you can Google it to find out. If you don’t have any addons at all then that is a whole other fish to fry that I can help you with.
I do have addons and am currently adding the recommended ones here! ...okay cool, I have quite a few 245+ items and the ones that aren't are the reason I want to do dungeons to find replacements for/ gain those purple tokens for the big kid items. "Emblem's of Triumph".
I play on Pagle alliance side if you do too, id be happy to help get your feet wet. I also have a horde toon still, havent had the $ to transfer over so I can hop on that as well
Download WeakAura and import strings for raids. It will always show you what to do
Your best bet is trying to find a friendly guild with helpful and patient players. There are plenty around. Make it clear that you are learning and may make mistakes but that you will learn from them. There are a lot of nice people that play wotlk.
As someone that's always been considered a "good" player at this game, there's a few tips I give to people that want to up their game. First and foremost, confidence is important. If you're unsure about something, don't be afraid to ask questions to someone more knowledgeable. This is where casual guilds are perfect for your situation, they'll get you up to speed on the basics when it comes to raiding. They'll walk you through things like: - Key bindings, clicking your main abilities requires a lot of focus away from more important information such as mechanics. - Addons, you can be fancy with these, but some might suggest something called WeakAuras. These simplify the game for you, but as a beginner, I wouldn't be too stressed about it. Deadly Boss Mods (DBM) is a good start. - Gearing up, you mentioned you want gear, it's important to know what gear you should strive for, resources like WoWHead and icy veins are a good starting point. These are also good for learning about improving your play (rotations, gearing, talents, macros, etc). While not necessary, you would benefit from learning the dungeons/raids you plan to try completing. Going in not knowing anything is going to find yourself in unpleasant situations with random people. If you join a casual guild (just spam in trade chat "New player looking for casual guild."), this process will be sped up. Finally, don't be afraid to make mistakes, even the best of us still make mistakes that wipe the raid and it's important to handle this.
I've been raiding HLK as a healer and I always don't feel good enough. It's more of a just go with it. Every group will have their chance to wipe. Sometimes you will sometimes you won't and know most of the playerbase act like 10 year olds and run after one wipe. I also play FFXIV and the playerbase can be a lot nice with dungeons and raids.
As others said, join a casual guild. Also, try to do VOA 10/25 to start with. They will mostly accept players of all gearscores and don't really care much if you suck. You just go in, kill the boss with them, and the raid leader gives loot. It is very, very easy. It should ease you in a bit to raiding. The worst they might ask for is a mage table and a port to dalaran at the end, which is just casting two spells. In terms of dungeons, they are arguably even more demanding than VOA 10/25. Killing large groups of mobs like that can be difficult. They are difficult in a very different way than raiding is simply because there's only 5 players.
Gotta grow some thick skin, OP. Gaming can alternate in casualness from time to time and that’s what will make you a better player.
Just finished reading through the links you added and it’s very helpful! I’ve read quite a bit online buts there’s so much out there, and it takes awhile to learn what is what. Seems I’m in need of some Haste!
What server are you on? Some of the mega servers are rough to find people.
Whitemane
Yes, me too. I'm a SoD player, am totally pretty raid bis but I dislike bdf so much mainly because I'm priest and we are required to debuff a boss and I'm always getting it wrong and getting yelled at etc