Five Ways to Deal with Difficult Dungeons in World of Warcraft

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Dungeon difficulty is a tough thing to balance in World of Warcraft. Players from different skill levels all have to run the exact same dungeons and they have to be balanced to the point they are difficult enough to provide a challenge while not so difficult that players without much gear and/or experience can still complete them. It’s always been either a bit too difficult or a bit too easy, but with WoW: Cataclysm we’re seeing it more toward the bit too difficult part.

Knowing the dungeon before you head into it is the easiest way to do well.

A Brief History Lesson

During vanilla most 5-man instances were actually 10-man raids. Instances didn’t have a raid cap, but most quests (unless they were specifically raid quests) required a 5 man party. This was exploited by having a large group of players in an instance clear the content up to the quest NPC then breaking it down into a five man group. This was later fixed and dungeons were capped to 10 players and then down to 5. Dungeons required a large amount of cooperation, but were not all that difficult, just lengthy and tiring.

The Burning Crusade brought with it instances that required about the same amount of team work in addition to heroic 5-man instances that required players to use crowd control, work together to burn targets down, and complete coordination. DPS classes brought with them the ability to crowd control the enemies making Mages, Rogues, and Hunters super viable to have at least one in a party.

Throughout Wrath of the Lich King players found the dungeons to be a good bit on the easy side and toward the end of the expansion most dungeons were completed by walking from point a to point b using area of effect skills to slay everything between.

With Cataclysm we’re seeing instances return to the TBC levels of difficulty. The five man normal modes are wiping PUGs left and right while even the most geared players are finding it difficult to make it through dungeons like The Stonecore without wiping at least once or twice. A few old mechanics have resurfaced, such as sentries that run and call others to attack and the need to use crowd control.

Getting Through the Difficulty

Instances may seem difficult right now, but there is a lot of ways to get past that. The usual answer of having better gear is always an option, but you have to get gear before you can have gear and that requires running heroics. So while everyone is in quest blues and normal instance gear it can be rather difficult to just “faceroll” through instances. Use the following tips to make your dungeon runs go smoother.

• 1. Crowd control is vital in difficult dungeons: Every class has some form of crowd control (Polymorph, Sap, Frozen Trap, Banish, Repentance, etc.) that can be used to take an enemy out of the battle. Whenever an enemy is out of battle then its spells and DPS does not affect the group. Using it properly will greatly decrease the amount of damage the group takes and increase your chances of making it through a pull.
• 2. Crowd control is easily broken: Breaking crowd control can often lead to a death or in the worst case, a full wipe. Avoid using AoE abilities near things that are Polymorphed and whenever something breaks out of CC quickly control and reapply the CC as quickly as possible.
• 3. Following the encounter’s mechanics is the easiest way to defeat it: A lot of players like to try to take shortcuts and work quickly through an encounter. A great example is Karsh Steelbender where many players will apply too many stacks of Superheated Obsidian Armor and wipe the group. Another one is High Priestess Azil where the DPS will focus on taking down too many of the Devout Followers instead of allowing the Gravity Well to destroy them. 
• 4. Communication is vital: Figuring out who will CC what, when everyone is ready for the pull, and if someone needs something (Innervate, Rebirth, etc.) is key to winning a lot of the fights. It’s important to talk out important information whenever needed to keep the group working right.
• 5. Forming your own groups make dungeons a lot easier: The dungeon finder is a great resource for putting groups of people together but forming your own group with members from your own server can often remove a lot of stress from the dungeons. Especially with guildmates who you’ve played with before or when everyone is on voice chat (like Ventrilo).

Standard Dungeon Protocol

It’s been a long time since we’ve talked about how to do a “proper” pull in an instance. Ever since WotLK we’ve all been spoiled by AoEing down packs, but now AoEing them down isn’t the best idea. The best way to pull a trash pull is to Polymorph/Sap/Trap at least one enemy. Usually that one enemy is the one that’d wipe the group (it has a silence/does insane amounts of DPS/etc.). The rest you use whatever you have to keep them at bay and then focus on enemies in a specific order (usually starting with something marked with the skull and working your way down through the list).

It’s also important to watch out for enemies that may flee or sound the call to arms to nearby enemies. If you already have to take out a few enemies before a battle in order to get through it then an entire additional group of them isn’t going to help things.

Remember, dungeons are only as difficult as the group makes them. If you work together and use your spells properly you’ll find that you can work through an instance quickly and efficiently. If you don’t then you may run into problems, at least until everyone is one again geared out with insane gear (unless Blizzard keeps dungeons at this current level of difficulty through the patches).

Source: tentonhammer.com

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