The Art of PUGing, Part II

In the previous article we discussed several important aspects and arguments in favour of PUGing. In the next three installments of this article, I will discuss the different sorts of strategies and benefits we can have from different classes, namely the. As a tank, knowing what different classes has to offer can greatly increase your credibility and move the group in the direction that suits you best.

Druids

Druids will most often be found as healers, since a Feral Druid will usually be tanking while a Moonkin is just generally rare. Nonetheless, Druids offer a great deal of utility. Gift of the Wild is a wonderful buff, that offers stat, armour and resistance bonuses as well while Thorns allows the tank to get generate aggro while marginally aiding dps. Always ask for these buffs when playing with a Druid, especially before boss fights.

Resto druids are the best Healing-over-time (HoT) healers but lack the burst healing of other classes, apart from spamming regrowth, especially if they are in Tree of Life form. This can prove slightly problematic if both you and the healer are undergeared.

Feral druids can provide good dps with aggro management skills such as Cower while providing a lovely debuff Faerie Fire. This reduces the armour of mobs allowing you do generate more aggro. Ask this to be put up if the Druid has talented for it. Feral druids can make excellent offtanks as well should the need arise. Hibernate, which puts Beasts and Dragonkin to sleep, effectively a CC of sorts.

Cyclone is a mana intensive but useful emergency lockdown spell which can prevent the death of a healer when a mob runs astray. Druids can also Cure/Abolish Poison, Remove Curses and have a wonderful Rebirth or affectionately, “Battle Res” which can be used in combat. A well timed Rebirth can turn a normally wiped encounter into victory, especially if the boss or mobs are tauntable. Rebirth can also be placed on another resser who can accept the res after the wipe to save time.

All in all, druids are an excellent utility class that are welcome to any 5 man group, although having more than one severely suffers from diminishing returns.

Hunters

Hunters are an interesting class, with many tricks up their sleeve, although playing with a hunter can be both a blessing and a curse. A well played hunter is a joy to behold while a poorly played one can be, for lack of a better word – disastrous.

Hunters don’t offer many buffs. They can put up Aspects, which have limited effectiveness, such as Aspect of the Wild which increases the Nature Resistance of the party. Such buffs work well against bosses such as Quagmirran. Aspect of the Pack, often known as the “Taxi Service”, which speeds up movement, can be useful in running back from a wipe, especially in the timed event in Shattered Halls. Markmanship hunters can apply Trueshot Aura, which increases the attack power of your party, useful for more threat generation.

Hunters, if well played are excellent dps classes, even while undergeared. Their pets can be decent offtanks for short periods of time, although do remember to tell them to turn of Growl on their pet. Hunters have aggro management abilities such as Feign Death and Disengage, while a plethora of useful skills to offer to any group. Marksman hunters can use Silencing Shot to pull casters to you, which are notoriously annoying to pull.

The two most important abilities that a Hunter can offer however, are Misdirection and Freezing Trap. Misdirection is an often underused skill that allows the threat next three attacks of the Hunter to be applied to a target – the tank in this case. This is a wonderful way to make difficult and long range pulls, or to increase aggro on a lesser tanked mob in a large multimob tanking scenario. It can even be used with Multishot to increase aggro on several targets. Skilful use of Misdirection is a mark of a good Hunter. Do not hesitate to ask for it everytime its on cooldown.

Freezing Trap on the other hand, is a double edged sword. It can be extremely useful, or it can merely cause more chaos. The reason is this: the mobs and you make a straight line, and in order for the trap to be successful, there has to be sufficient space away from you for the trap to be placed, effectively creating a sort of triangle. This requires you to split your attention lest the trap breaks and the mob starts running for your Hunter. Request that the trap be placed, and the Hunter stand with you between the trap and the trapped mob, ensuring that it runs through you to get to the Hunter. This makes things much easier, also allowing the Hunter time to setup another trap if necessary, if he has not done so already. Make sure not to break the trap with any damage, especially from Thunderclap.

Hunters can be an excellent utility class if played in tandem with you, and it also requires sensitivity on your part – tactically and spatially, to make the Hunter successful a successful addition to your group.

Mages

The best CC class available to you, the Mage is a squishy cloth wearer who can deal insane amounts of damage, but needs to be protected. By simple virtue of their Polymorph ability, more Mages never hurt in any party.

Mages offer several immediate benefits to your party, first of all, they can create cast Ritual of Refreshment, a.k.a “Mage Table” which provides [item]Conjured Manna Biscuit[/item]s. Wonderful for everyone, especially mana users. They can also apply the Arcane Brilliance buff, which increases the intellect of your entire party; useless for you, but something mana users will be glad to have. Mages can also provide Portals to various places in Azeroth and Outland, making them lovely to have after a completed instance, or if you need to run quickly to the bank or to get the daily quest if you’ve forgotten. Spellsteal is a very useful, often underrated spells, which can remove buffs on bosses, damaging spellshields on mobs and so on. It is practically useful in almost every instance, while not mandatory, can tip the balance of a battle in your favour.

While mages can potentially do dps, it can be a problem aggro pulling problem too. Make sure you enable castbars on your party members to see what’s going on. A fire mage which opens with Pyroblast is just no good. Encourage the mage in your party to setup focus by typing /focus on the target to be polymorphed, so he can keep track of his sheeped mob. This saves a lot of hassle and makes resheeping easy. If a patrol is moving near to a polymorphed mob, encourage your mage to resheep, lest a nasty chain pull is made. Frost Nova can be useful to buy time, or for you to gain aggro, while Arcane and Frost mages can Slow mobs with their spells, giving you more time to position yourself.

Ideally, position yourself obliquely so you can see your Mage, getting ready to Intervene should he pull aggro. A Mage is very fragile and will not last several seconds without your intervention. Encourage your mage to run to you should he get aggro, or better yet, blink in front of you, putting you between him and the mob. Ice Block is a good way to wipe aggro, and all Mages should use it when to use it.

Last but not least, as tanks, be sensitive to your mage’s mana, monitor his mana usage and call for mana breaks when needed should he not do so of his own accord. Protect your mage well and have a good time with the best CC class in the game.

That’s it for this installment, in the next, I will cover Paladins, Priests and Rogues.