Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
Inside an old alt's vault
The latest patch 5.2 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsMore dungeon finder tips
by Eliah Hecht 
Dec 14th 2009 at 9:00AM
Like many of you, I've been spending the last few days happily hitting up the new dungeon finder over and over again. The rewards are pretty amazing for the time involved, and the whole system is usually pretty painless. I've picked up a few tips and tricks along the way, on top of what was covered in Saturday's post by Mike Schramm, and here's what I have to share.
- If your dungeon pops and then gives you the dreaded "additional instances cannot be launched," you can try again by simply selecting "teleport to dungeon" from the DF menu on your minimap (the eye icon).
- If you have a full group (of guildies, say) and want to do a particular instance, you can use the DF to queue up for just that instance, and thereby gain the ability to teleport straight there. Sure beats flying.
- Damage meters are not yet working reliably cross-realm. This is because the channel that addons use to communicate with each other is not cross-realm, and meters only scan in a small local range aside from the channel. Mike mentioned this, but it's worth repeating.
- The following configurations will probably get a group instantly (or close enough): solo healer, solo tank, any group that includes both a tank and a healer. Any other configuration is likely to have a ten-minute wait or more. That's been my experience, anyway. Oh, and if you want any chance of DPSing, don't queue as "heal or DPS" or "tank or DPS," or you'll almost certainly end up healing/tanking.
- Roll greed on Frozen Orbs (or pass if you don't want them).
- Roll need for offspec and sort it out afterwards if someone needed it for main spec. Rolling greed for offspec is too likely to result in the item getting disenchanted.
- If you run into a really terrible player, you can put them on your ignore list, which will prevent you from getting matched up with them in the future.
- As I learned firsthand yesterday, random dungeons do not respect instance locks; it's fully possible to do a dungeon more than once in a given day if you're doing randoms. I'm told the system is more likely to give you a dungeon you haven't done today, though.
Have you learned anything interesting from what I think is one of the greatest features ever to come to WoW?
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 8)
Jamison Dec 14th 2009 9:31AM
Something I couldn't figure out yesterday.... I wanted to chain run 'normal' Forge of Souls for the tanking mace. However, I couldn't find anyway to reset the dungeon without first queuing up and running a different dungeon. Even when I was standing right outside the instance portal, the "Reset Dungeon" option was grayed out. So I guess I need to assume that you need to totally break group to reset a normal dungeon? Anyone else have insight on this?
snarkygoldfish Dec 14th 2009 9:37AM
The system definitely isn't perfect in terms of usability/stats.
I'm looking at you, Prot Warrior that was also allowed to need on Nighttime. :/
Shrike Dec 14th 2009 3:41PM
Because no one has an offspec.
(p.s. Need is also for offspecs, since the alternative is potentially someone D/E'ing it and preventing any possibility of discussion of relative need)
Gimmlette Dec 14th 2009 10:30AM
"If you run into a really terrible player, you can put them on your ignore list, which will prevent you from getting matched up with them in the future."
This doesn't work for people not on your server, correct? I had my first foray into the system yesterday with a guild member. Our first run was a lot of fun. The second run was not. The tank and healer were from the same guild not on my server. The tank charged through everything, not waiting for people to mana or heal up after boss fights. We were in AN and he charged down the final stairs to engage the boss when not everyone was behind him. As a result, 2 of us got webbed out of the final fight. Then he was upset that we were allowed a roll on loot when we "hadn't participated" in the fight. He was asked at least twice to slow down and wait while people mana'd or healed up and didn't. The healer was upset with the warrior dps on a couple of occasions for taking "too much" damage.
I'd never run with this pair again but I don't see how that can be avoided in the current system. If I were to add X's name to my ignore list, might I be ignoring someone on my server with the same name who might be a good player?
Likewise, the group my guild mate and I had to start contained people I'd run with again. I'd like to see a way to list people you enjoyed as well as people you wouldn't give a murloc fin to.
Burnie Dec 14th 2009 9:50AM
to ignore someone cross-realm, wait for them to write something in the party chat. Then right click on their name and choose ignore. In the ignore list you will see something like "player-realmname" instead of just "player".
Gimmlette Dec 14th 2009 9:52AM
Thank you. I didn't know that could be done. The trick now will be to remember this the next time I need it.
Brad Dec 14th 2009 1:17PM
I'm not sure if it's just a problem I've had, but this did not work for me. I right clicked and tried to ignore from that menu and it resulted in the error of something to the point of not being able to add more to the ignore list. I thought that was supposed to work. I also tried typing in manually /ignore Name-Server and that also resulted in the same error.
ozreece77 Dec 14th 2009 9:20PM
thanks Burnie.
Had a tank/healer pair skipping bosses in a random heroic, cause they wanted a quick run. They dont get 10min waits like the dps do. I want to maximise my time in the dungeon while gathering badges. I tried to ignore them so i wouldnt get them in a random again but kept getting player not found. Found your post on rclicking chat just in the nick of time as his remark had just about scrolled off my screen forever. Ty Ty.
Evlyxx Dec 15th 2009 10:02AM
This is the best system ever. Myself and friend have found a tank and healer duo never queue for instances.
Also a pleasing side effect is that people seem to care more about how they play and so far I have not met any annoying players.
Top marks Blizzard
Tyleet Dec 14th 2009 9:45AM
Can I be so bold and point one thing out? Many people dont seem to find the eye icon that teleports you to the dungeon.. It is attatched to your minimap in the right corner, all to often hidden under some addon icon. The more you know!
ducss750 Dec 14th 2009 10:06AM
Thank you! Thank you!
My first queue as a healer popped me in with no wait so I didn't even know about the icon
Second run never gave me the join dialog, neither did the next three. I politely explained that I was having problems joining and I would leave the group to allow another healer to join, and all 4 times the group was understanding.
I searched Blizz (and Wow.com) to find out what I was obviously missing but documentation is sorely lacking. Finally /w a guildie, who asked why I hadn't clicked on the "eye" icon. (Yeah, the one under my dbm icon) Nowhere could I find the simple instruction:after you queue, look for the "eye" icon on your minimap.
Queue as a healer- you'll be in in seconds!
STARF Dec 14th 2009 9:48AM
It would be nice to not have to do Occulus 3 times a day, unless they are trying to punish me for not doing it before. Nice article like the tip on needing for Offspec gonna start doing that. And for the record, we used to have good loot rules on Illidan, Need greens and frozen orbs, greed all else unless its a item you actually need, and Need BOE BLUES AND PURPLES. If everyone does that, it solves alot of NINJA problems. And please don't try to sell me the idea that you actually need any BOE green/blue/purple drops, because even when I was starting out doing heroics that was false.
ZMES_Matt Dec 14th 2009 9:48AM
"As I learned firsthand yesterday, random dungeons do not respect instance locks; it's fully possible to do a dungeon more than once in a given day if you're doing randoms. I'm told the system is more likely to give you a dungeon you haven't done today, though"
You know, I read that before too, but I've done 31 random pugs so far and I've probably done both DKT and Nexus 3-4 times in a day when I still had a dozen other dungeons I hadn't been saved to...maybe cause there's a whole lot of undergeared people? *shrug* I dunno
gari.rogers Dec 14th 2009 9:49AM
Level fishing when waiting in Queue. That's working great for me.
Khamelean Dec 14th 2009 9:56AM
I've been having an absolute blast with the new dungeon finder, so much so that i got my "the patient" title and my Perky Pug within 15 hours of server up. Also thanks to the frost emblem bug i got a nice new set of tier 10 shoulders on day one of patch 3.3 (i also got some very jealous guildies). Since then i've decked out 2 sets of tier 9, one tank and one dps, and am now working on pvp gear.
Can i just say good work Eliah on confusing the need/greed on frozen orbs issues further, in Mikes post he suggesting roll need, on the podcast the agreement was roll need. Forget ninja's, the reason you roll need is simple, that's the culture of some servers, they have been doing it since wrath came out and they ain't gonna change, it's simple, get with the times and roll need or no orbs for you.
One tip i've discovered is you can't teleport into a dungeon while on your factions airship in icecrown. You get a "You can't do that right now". Took me a while to figre out why i couldn't teleport in.
ZMES_Matt Dec 14th 2009 9:57AM
Just wondering, but are frozen orbs even still relevent in any way at all for it to matter?
Not trying to be mean, honestly, but you can get so much better gear with badges now, and badges are so extremely abundant that Frozen orbs just seem obsolete unless you're a JC'er.
The most expensive orbs on my server sell for 25g, and honestly I'd just rather let whatever JC'er have it for their cooldown than bother messing with the AH for such a small amount. Just my opinion. *shrug*
Itanius Dec 14th 2009 10:04AM
They're still a necessary evil when leveling some professions.
Matt Dec 14th 2009 10:48AM
They are also used to make the LWing leg armor kits and, I imagine, the Tailoring legging threads.
ZMES_Matt Dec 14th 2009 11:04AM
Ah, very good points from both responses.
I don't have any professions that have ever used them, but if they're still useful to someone I'd just as soon pass and let whoever take them.
I would think greed would be more appropriate of a roll then, as the leg armor kits/spellthreads still sell for some decent gold. While leveling a profession might warrant a need roll, unless you've okay'd it with everyone in group I just wouldn't do it, it's not worth the drama/potential forum slandering.
Snarkman Dec 14th 2009 10:05AM
I have to say that the random nature of the Random LFG is kind of untrue - at least in my experience.
I'm up to 92/100 for the PUG pet, so I've been using the LFG thing quite a lot.
And I've done HoS 8x, Azjol Nerub 6 or 7x, and Violet Hold 6x. There's been a few other ones here and there, but yesterday took the cake - I got VH 3 times in a row.
I have NEVER gotten the new ICC 5 man heroics at all - which is pretty disappointing.
My theory is it is choosing dungeons based on a gear-to-difficulty pairing of some sort. In almost all the groups I've had there have been some terribly geared players - i.e. dinged 80 5 minutes ago kind of terrible. While I have full Tier 9, etc. gear (gearscore of 5600 if that matters to anyone). I would say these 3 dungeons that seem to love me are some of the easiest heroics out there, which seems consistent with matching the dungeon based on the worst geared players in the group.
Anyway, it's all fine and well - most of these runs are over in 15-20 minutes.