Has World of Warcraft Abandoned Raid Etiquette?

World of Warcraft is a game that many people enjoy playing. This is due to many different reasons. Some of these reasons may include making new friends, fairly easy to play solo (if you so desire), raiding with a group of friends or guild, and seeing the new content. For some people this more than just as social outlet. I am talking about the raiding population. Sure it is fine to chat and quest with friends, but for the raider it can be a bit more serious. This part of the social class in WoW take their raids very seriously and want to do what is right to down the next boss and receive better loot for their character.

In recent years, there has always been etiquette in the raiding aspect of the game. You have to know when you should attack and what target to attack. You had to ask yourself as well as the raid, what form of crowd control should be used that will be the most beneficial to the encounter. For four years it has been this way and with great success. However within the last year, there have been a few changes that may have thrown proper raid etiquette right out the door.

A recent patch allows players of level 80 to purchase BOA items (bind on account) and send them to their low level alternate characters. These items provide very helpful benefits that allow the character to level at a faster rate and are better than average gear. The use of these items are designed to help you level and to become a better player. I myself use such items on my alternate characters. However, though these items may make it seem as though I am over powered for the content where I am questing, does that mean I should ignore the proper etiquette?

One of the fastest ways to level your characters is by doing dungeons or instances. World of Warcraft recently implemented a cross server looking for group tool that can be used to find groups to run random or specific dungeons. This is a great tool that everyone should take advantage of. It allows people from different servers to group up and do dungeon runs. Though this is a great tool, there are many that take advantage of the situation. They are so over powered by their BOA gear that raid etiquette is totally ignored. This can be bad for the whole group.

When you are in a dungeon or raid, there are three types of classes. You have the tanks (the one that charges I and holds the mobs together all while taking a beating), then you have the DPS (these characters do as much damage as possible to the mobs), then you have the healers (these characters heal both the tanks and DPS as well as keep their selves healed).

The way it works is to let the tank make the first initial pull on a mob. Give the tank a couple of seconds to build threat so that he can keep the mobs attention on him. Next, once the tank has achieved this, the dps, can start to attack and bring down the mobs. Even done correctly, the tank will not lose aggro letting mobs run rampant and attack whoever has the most threat. The tank should always be the one to make the pull. This is what they are designed for. They have the armor and the abilities to do their job. There should be no reason why a person wearing cloth armor pulls the mobs. It is not their job to do. When the wrong person makes the pull, it is hard for the tank to grab the aggro allowing everyone to don the encounter and move on.

Positioning is another form of etiquette that people have slacked up on as well. Only the tank and melee dps should be right up in the mob or standing next to the boss. If you are what are considered ranged dps, then you should be back a little as well as the healers. Standing right up in the middle of the fight can certainly cause a wipe.

If you are one of the people using the looking for group tool, then you should always try to finish the dungeon run. It is one thing if you have to leave for some reason, but to cue up then leave in the middle of the run with no explanation is just plain rude. If you do not intend to finish a run then do not bother to cue up.

World of Warcraft has made several changes that are good, but players have forgotten the etiquette that should always be used. If people do not learn it or use it, it could be a major downfall and turn people from playing a game that is fun to play.