World of Warcraft Dungeon Guide

World of Warcraft Dungeon Guide
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Dungeoneering Basics

Dungeons are a critical part of the game World of Warcraft. Having a World of Warcraft dungeon guide to the different roles involved in running a dungeon can help players understand why certain roles are needed and in what ways they can best be utilized to maximize the effectiveness of a group.

The Roles:

There are three major roles that must be fulfilled in any given raid according to all World of Warcraft dungeon guide articles. They are–

  • Tank- The pillar of the group; the tank is the character whose primary goal is to prevent others from being attacked by aggravating enemies with special techniques and taking a bulk of the damage so that other players that have lower defense and health will not be in danger of dying.
  • Healer- The supporter of the group, the healer’s primary job is to make sure that the tank does not fall into dangerously low levels of health and that the other members of the raid are well stocked on status-enhancing buffs and health.
  • Damger per Second (DPS)- The assets to the team whose job is to hammer out as much damage as possible to enemies. The DPS player has lower defense, but a much higher rate of offence and more abilities that are tailored to increase their offensive power and ability to damage enemies.

The Tank

The tank is restricted to three different classes, though only one of them is exclusively tank-based—

  • Warrior- Pure tank
  • Paladin- Tank-DPS hybrid (mild healing abilities)
  • Druid- Tank-Healer hybrid (mild DPS abilities)

The warrior is the only character of these three that has abilities that are solely tailored to generate aggression and take damage according to all World of Warcraft dungeon guide excerpts. Paladins can function as good tanks, but can also be used as mild healers or DPS players, depending on the choice of the player. The Druid can gain a shape-shifting ability that allows him to take the form of a tank-based animal, but it is not as powerful as the paladin or the warrior in terms of tanking. Hunters can also use pet bears and other strong animals as tanks, but this is not suggested, as pets are pale comparisons to a player-run character.

The Healer

Tauren Healer

The healer is restricted to four classes that have healing abilities.

  • Priest- Pure Healer
  • Shaman- Healer-DPS hybrid
  • Paladin- Mild healer
  • Druid- Mild healer

Like the tank, only one class is purely defined as a sole-healer class, which is the priest class. However, shamans make for good healers with fighting abilities as well, often making them more desirable for teams that focus on guns-blazing forward attacking. Paladins and Druids also have light healing abilities; however, unless they specialize in healing talent trees, they will not last long in a dungeoneering situation. Some World of Warcraft Dungeon guide excerpts will say that the shaman can also be used as a tank, but because of the shaman’s low health, this is extraordinary rare.

DPS

Blood Elf Hunter

The DPS (or Damage per Second role) is the most versatile and common role in World of Warcraft because nearly all characters can contribute some measure of damage to the party. DPS players include;

  • Hunter- Pure DPS
  • Rogue- Pure DPS
  • Mage- Pure DPS
  • Warlock-Pure DPS
  • Paladin- DPS-Tank hybrid
  • Shaman- DPS-Healer hybrid
  • Druid- DPS-Tanks hybrid

The warrior can also officially fulfill the role of DPS, but this is rare because most of their abilities focus on gathering aggression from large numbers of characters- which negates their effectiveness as a DPS. Hunters, Rogues, Mages, and Warlocks are the only characters that can only fulfill the DPS role because they have abilities that solely focus on dealing damage. This also makes them some of the best dungeon leaders because they never have to worry about high-stress healing or labor-intensive tanking.

This post is part of the series: World of Warcraft Basics

The basic information to one of the most popular games of all time.

  1. World of Warcraft: Roles in Dungeoneering
  2. World of Warcraft: Exploring Darnassus
  3. History of the Night Elves