The LFG Channel has an interesting history, having started as a player-created chat line to join and eventually taken over by Blizzard…

Now there’s an LFG Tool that you have to list yourself in, in order to subscribe to the “LFG line”. You could just “/join lfg” but you wouldn’t be subscribed to the same one as the tool - you need to have yourself listed as looking for a group or looking for another member for your group, in order to subscribe to the Global channel.

Often, I don’t really want to commit myself to doing anything in a group, but I want to hear what’s going on in general - what dungeon parties are being formed, what classes are required, who’s doing the call-outs, etc. Even more often, I’m not sure what toon of mine I want to hit a dungeon with - it often depends on what others on the realm are looking to do, especially in low population hours.

So, what do I do? I “lurk” in the LFG Channel, and I’ll show you how to as well.

What Is Lurking?

In short, to lurk is to prowl around, hoping to be undetected. Watching. Listening. But not actively participating in the activities at hand.

In this case, that means not listing yourself as available for a specific dungeon but still listing yourself in the LFG tool so you can keep up with what might be available for you to join if it interests you.

How To “Lurk” On The LFG Channel

Here’s how you do it - you list yourself as available in a ZONE instead of a Dungeon or Quest, and if you choose a zone that is ill-frequented, it’s quite unlikely anyone will ever do the proper search to find you there:

De-lurking To Join A Party

Sometimes I just subscribe to the LFG tool to hear what’s going on but know that I don’t have enough time to get into anything myself. Most times, however, I subscribe to the LFG tool and watch for something that one of my toons can do… and then when someone advertises on the LFG line for something I’m interested in, I whisper to them from whatever toon I’m on and offer to hop over to the other to join them. I’ve never been turned down, and find it’s a reliable way to burn off rest bonus on my pre-Outland toons.

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I’m only writing this entry so that I can will the Warcraft Server Gods to bring the realms up, so … hopefully it will be a short entry ;)

Heroics in World of Warcraft

Heroics dungeons were introduced with Burning Crusade as a way to keep the general populace entertained for longer before having to commit to a “raiding guild experience” that went beyond a PUG in the Looking For Group tool.

Heroics only exist in the Burning Crusade dungeons (but will also exist in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion) and are dungeons whose difficulty are significantly higher than the regular version of the same dungeons. That is, all the dungeons from Hellfire Ramparts clear up to Steamvaults, Arcatraz and the many others players can traverse through on their trek to 70… have a Heroic mode that can be run once a player is 70 and adequately geared.

The Purposes Of Heroic Dungeons

Heroic Dungeons serve many purposes on the game.

If you’re a casual player who has no aspiration to ever see the inside of a 10-man-raid during the same expansion it was released in, Heroics offer a challenging environment that requires the same level of commitment and scheduling as a regular 5-man PUG, and offers a continuation of gearing-up that doesn’t require commitment to other players on a continuing basis.

If you’re interested in getting into Raiding, Heroics is a training ground for the skills required to be a good raiding contributor to the 10 and 25-man raids. Plus, the gearing from Heroics Badge rewards and Heroics drops (including otherwise-expensive Gems) is on-par with what drops in the 10-man raid instances - thus, gearing up through Heroics makes a would-be raider even MORE viable on a raiding team.

The Heroics Inside Track

I’ve noticed in my own gearing-up and PUG Heroicking (and social wheel greasing) and reputation grinding that the better geared I have gotten, the more people whisper ME to get involved in things - even when I’m not in their guild, and, in fact, my guild is a “nobody” guild when it comes to Heroics and beyond.

I’ve now got Heroics-geared Tanks and Healers who ask ME to join their group to handle DPS and Crowd Control. Folks who rank decently on the WoWJutsu.com ranking site for our realm. And let me tell you… partial PUGs where you know the Tank and/or Healer are solid make Heroics SO MUCH MORE FUN!

Why Do People Skip Heroics?

I’ve noticed something very interesting now that I’ve moved into this “gearing/geared up for Heroics” phase of my World of Warcraft existence - while Heroics gear is on-par with Karazhan gear (I’m going to have to find some links to point to here, I’ll come back and edit this later), there are those would-be raiders who seem to want to “skip over” Heroics and jump right from “Quest-and-Dungeon-Blues 67+” into Karazhan in order to get their gear upgrades there.

I realize that PUG Heroics are a crapshoot in terms of being able to make it past the first boss with the continuing waves of barely-geared players dipping their toes into the Heroics water, but isn’t that why we build a Friends list?

Oh, and BTW, if you’re in a guild with a bunch of Friends, this question is much clearer to me. I guess I’m asking mainly about the people who apply as complete strangers to join a raiding guild without having an inside reference asking them to join.

Thoughts welcome!

Woot! Game’s up…

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