Tricky boss fights..

[Lysi]

I want "the Patient" title for one of my toons, but I rarely do dungeons, let alone heroics. I took the plunge and queued for heroic the other night. It wasn't awful. I died a few times, and we wiped the first attempt on the last boss. At that point, I 'fessed up that I'd never done heroic before, and I'd never seen that dungeon before, either (I'm just dps so I don't know how much was my fault, but clearly I wasn't helping). One person said I should have said something sooner, I replied honestly that I figured I'd get kicked if I'd said that from the get go. They said it depends on the group. Turns out the dungeon was Grim Batol, and once I knew to stand in the black circle, everything was fine.

I only have to stumble through a dozen more heroics to have the title, I don't need the Pug on this particular toon (don't know if I'll ever get it on my collector, but that's a problem for another day). I'm playing a beast master hunter, item level 362. I don't really want to "get into dungeons"--my hand hurts if I do them all the time (or anything that requires a lot of character movement)--I just want the title. I do ok in non-heroics. I know the heroic boss fights have more tricks to them, so just the basics (like don't take aggro from the tank) aren't necessarily enough. Any way to be more prepared, but without practice? I'm thinking I'll just have to say at the beginning that I need some explanation for the fights, and see how people react.

Do any of you have any tips? Perhaps about a specific dungeon? (Not that I necessarily know what dungeon I'm in, I knew I did Grim Batol only because that's the acheivement I got at the end, lol.) Or pugging in general?

[Doobjanka]

I was going to do make a huge post with each boss in detail, but I fell asleep last night. The main thing to remember is avoid shadows on the ground and graphics in general. There are a few fights that seem complicated at first, but you just need to pay attention to debuffs. Corla in Blackrock Caverns comes to mind. There are three adds and three beams that people need to stand in. Watch your debuff and get out before it stacks to 90 and then get back in once the debuff falls off.

Go through the dungeon journal on trash to read up on any bosses that are in the dungeon. If you aren't sure of something you read, ask. Most people you group with will assume you know the fights already, but if asked for tips they should be willing to help you out rather than kick you.

Focus the tank and DPS the target he's tanking. Aggro should not be a problem. If there are specific fights you want to know more about, feel free to ask and I can go into better detail on some of the harder ones.

[Lysi]

Thanks so much, Doobjanka! No need to go into detail on bosses, this is a good starting off point, even just trying to get basic terms down. I get the impression I'm several times more clueless than even the worst players! I assume debuff means standing in bad? But I don't know what this means, "Watch your debuff and get out before it stacks to 90 and then get back in once the debuff falls off." Where do you see stacks? I'd never heard of the dungeon journal, either. But really it's all I can do to keep up with everyone running through the instance, not fall off a ledge or something, and make sure I don't pick up aggro from trash on the way. So I doubt I'd be able to open the journal, unless people were taking a break for some reason (which never happens!) Also, does it automatically go to the dungeon you're in? Because I never know where I am until the end, lol. I have been telling the group I'm not familiar with the dungeons now, and most groups have at least one helpful person.

I did a couple regular randoms this week, because I want the justice points (annoyed I don't get them from heroics) and in the hope of seeing some new dungeons so I'll be more familiar with them. Then I tried a couple random heroics. I have to rest my hand for a few days now, but it was good experience, just trying to get over the fear of doing dungeons. And by the time I get to 50 people grouped, I suppose will learn something about some of these instances, whether I want to or not, lol. But honestly my plan right now is to just keep jumping in, and sometimes I get lucky and finish. I'm 8/50 to "the Patient" so far.

So this is what I've done this week. Stonecore I've done a couple times on normal, haven't had it come up in heroic. Also did Halls of Origination in normal, one of the fights (the first one?) seemed to have some kind of wave coming at you all the time, I wondered if that would be difficult in heroic. And then the 3 heroics I tried, mixed results, lol! The first one was End Time, I thought that's one of the newer ones and I figured that wasn't a good sign. Sure enough, we wiped right away. The tank wasn't familiar with the instance, and the healer said I was standing in all kinds of death (well, she said "the hunter" but that was me, lol)--and I was, by the time GTFO went off, I'd be stunned already and couldn't get out. I couldn't see well, I should probably adjust my settings (I hate having the monitor too bright all the time and getting eye strain, wish they would make it easier). People were dropping group after the wipe, and I did, too. I looked it up later, we were fighting Echo of Tyrande. The next one, wow did I get lucky. It was Lost City of the Tol'vir, with only the last boss left! One person had been in a group that broke apart and requeued. Fight went really quick, really easy. I did one more heroic random, Zul'Gurub. We kept wiping on the first guy. I think the healer had never seen this fight before. People were willing to keep trying it, but my husband got home from bowling earlier than I expected, so I dropped group when I died again. I wasn't helping much even with my full attention, but once hubby was talking and the TV was on, it was hopeless, lol. But really I don't understand how you can avoid the green on that fight, it's everywhere!

[Domie]

I bugged up because you posted same time as me it seemed O_o , anyways, ill try again :P

As Doobjanka says, the dungeon guide is a good tool, it doesnt show you everything, but if you read it, you will most likely regonize what killed you if you happen to wipe, and have a basic idea of whats going on.
I hope my guildleader dont read this (:P), but i mostly use the dungeon guide rather than watching videos or online guides (and normaly doing trash on the evening of the raid :D), even when im doing heroic raiding, because as i said, even if you might not be sure whats happening right when it happens, you mostly understand why you died.

Also im pretty sure it opens up on said instance, when your inside of it :)

Also i Pro tip i normaly use, try to have an eye out for what others are doing, i can be a bit hard sometimes to both keep an eye on your damage and other people, but generaly, if you see the healer or a fellow dps sprinting to something, you might have to get to the same place. If a person can keep track of this, atleast they will (almost) never be the only person to blame for the wipe :P

Most of the time, if you cant see the ground right beneath you, their is a good chance that you need to move :)

Also their is no shame in wiping inside Grim Batol, even when doing it with friends and guild mates, ive had to yell and scream to get through to the end of the instance ^^

[Domie]

"Watch your debuff and get out before it stacks to 90 and then get back in once the debuff falls off."

When druids use mark of the wild, or paladin with blessing of might, or the likes, you get buffs, but debuffs is when the mobs are throwing something at you, and they will show up right under the row with your buffs (outside the bottom of the mini map with standart ui), on the fight he was talking about, you get one that keeps stacking up, and will Transform you, and Mind Control you, when you hit 100 stacks (the number shows on the debuff), and that will mostly wipe the group.

You can see the dungeon guide symbol on the bar where you also got shortcut to your character sheet, spell book, dungeon finder and so on, It got a book with a skull as a symbol. with standard key binds, its shortcut is "Shift-j", just make sure that when you open up a boss, that the setting is for Heroic and not normal, so you dont miss out on something :)

[Doobjanka]

Another way to do it would be RealID someone from this site willing to run the dungeons with you. If your toon is Horde I can tank for you and we could just random the other three. There are probably Alliance members willing to do the same!

[Lysi]

Doob, thanks for the offer! I read a comment that it doesn't count if you go in with a partial group, though. And I'm not signed up for RealID, not comfortable with the concept.

Domie, thanks for the tips! I'll re-read this thread before giving it another shot. I might try to read up on a few dungeons, too.

[Domie]

Doob, thanks for the offer! I read a comment that it doesn't count if you go in with a partial group, though. And I'm not signed up for RealID, not comfortable with the concept.

Domie, thanks for the tips! I'll re-read this thread before giving it another shot. I might try to read up on a few dungeons, too.

If i remember correctly, if you sign up with 1 other person, you will just get credit for the 3 randoms that will join, so if you have one good geared or skilled player with you, it can really pay out in the long run, since it will most likely go a lot smoother :)

I wouldnt mind helping either, but i think your from the US, and since i play on EU realms, i cant help out :/