Free WoW Guide: Group Play Basics

Hello there,

I want to post something about playing in groups. Grouping in WoW is needed for instances or special quests, in which one has to deal with multiple elite mobs.

Each group should contain the following players:

1. The Tank

The best class for tanking is a warrior, for his ability to take a lot of damage. Up to lvl 40, he is the only class to wear mail armor, beyond that he is the only one to wear plate. He also has special skills like Challenging Shout, which lets all mobs around him only attack him for 6secs, which is very handy for managing aggro, as stated below.
The tank's task is not to kill stuff, but to prevent others from being killed by taking most of the damage the mobs deal.
Advancing in level, the warrior is absolutely needed for tanking. In lower levels (up to 40, as I experienced) even a shaman or a druid in bear form may do the job.

2. The Healer

Each faction has 3 classes with the ability to heal through spells. The priest and the druid for everyone, the shaman for horde and the paladin for the alliamce.
The shaman's and the paladin's heals are rather poor, the druid's are far better. But the unquestioned king of healing is the priest. He has the most and the most mana-efficient healing spells, so he is the healer of choice for any group.
The healer's job is keeping the group at life, focussing on the main tank. He may not take any damage, because priests may only wear cloth armor and die very very soon. This is one of the reasons why the tank's life is so vitally important for he healer.
I have experienced groups who are efficiently healed by a druid or a shaman. Anyway, advancing in level, this becomes more and more impossible.

3. The Damage Dealers

There are some classes whose speciality is pure damage: The rogue and the mage are the classes dealing most damage per second (dps), but a warlock, a hunter or a druid can also be great damage dealers.
Their job is killing the mobs as soon as possible. The problem with them is, getting bigger and bigger in higher levels, that these classes may only wear leather or cloth armor, making them vulnerable for attacks. Therefore they need to do loads of damage with minimal aggro, while the tank keeps being attacked.

These are at least three needed members of a group. Not as vitally important, but still helpful are the following roles:

4. Support

The warlock and the shaman for example are both great supportive classes: The warlock's soulsone on a priest may help the group after a wipe-out as does the shaman's ability to resurrect himself; both classes have buffs to allow underwater-breathing (the shaman may also let party members walk on water); the warlock's imp's Blood Pact is a great buff for any party member, adding 17 stamina (170 life), but the shaman's totems also may give helpful buffs; and to end this list both may also deal much damage.
In short, a supportive role means adding buffs and preventing wipes, and also helping other classes with their tasks in a group, as in the following two roles:

5. Second Tank

This one mostly comes into play when the main tank is too busy with fighting mobs, but another add breaks through to the healer. No one in the group wants the healer to be attacked, so someone has to do something about it.
In this situation, a priest may use his ability Fade, reducing his aggro on all mobs for about 10 seconds. After that, he gets attacked just as before, so someone else should take the mob off him.
Now the shaman is a great class for this job, being able to create a great amount of aggro with his Earth Shock or Rockbiter Weapon while the priest is faded. Other classes may do the job just as good, but they should at least wear leather armor.

6. Second Healer

As there is a job to take aggro when the tank's does not suffice, there is one to heal if the healer's heals do not. The second healer should mostly be occupied with dealing damage, but should stop it as soon as someone need a heal when the main healer is too busy or out of mana.

I hope to have written something interesting to at least a few, and am open and happy for and about additions to the theme.