About Dungeons

On World of Warcraft, Dungeon instances are special areas of the game where your party can take on content without interference from any other players outside of the party. Dungeons also contain some of the most difficult content on the game and when done at the levels the Instance was designed for, require a team of 5 or more players to work together to fight their way through to the final bosses or quests.

Each Dungeon has its own set of quests, although some have pre-requisite quest chains from outside the dungeon that lead into dungeons.

Are Dungeons A Required Part Of The Game?

No. Players can treat World of Warcraft as a single player game and level from 1 to level cap without ever having set foot in a dungeon instance or having joined a party for anything.

Why Go Into Dungeons?

People enter Dungeons for a variety of reasons, including some of these:

• To experience different parts of the game
• To obtain gear upgrades not available through the Auction House or player market
• To train team-playing skills or socialize with others
• To learn from others who have different class or dungeon knowledge
• To win drops that can be sold in the Auction House for mount/repair/skills funds

How Is Preparing For Dungeons a "Wheel Greaser"?

Simply put, when you're running in a dungeon party in a PUG, you're expected to come PREPARED.

If you make a habit of entering into dungeons half-prepared, you'll slowly alienate the community of Prepared PUGgers and hurt your reputation for higher-level instancing where more advanced levels of preparation are expected.

In time, you'll end up with many opportunities to PUG with other under-prepared players (read: wipe with them), while the Prepared players gather together into cliques that rock through content.

A Basic level of "Prepared" looks like this:

• Equipment Fully Repaired
• Consumables stocked, including
• Arrows, Pet Food
• Water
• Bandages
• Reagents For Buffs/Ressurection

A more advanced level of "Prepared" includes the above but also adds the following:

• Emergency Potions - Healing, Mana
• Buff Foods
• Elixirs - Guardian and Battle
• Buff Scrolls

At another level of "Prepared" you'll find players who not only prepare for THEMSELVES, but bring enough that they can offer some to others. Don't abuse this privilege, as someone willing to share with a complete stranger is a valuable asset that is easy to lose through poor behavior.

Other Things To Do In Dungeon Parties To Grease The Wheels

Buff right away.
Re-buff before it expires.
Say when you're going AFK even for a minute.
Mana up right away after battle, before looting.
Protect the healer.

More On Social Wheel Greasing

Other entries on the Greasing the Social Wheels topic include:

• Greasing the Social Wheels: First Aid

Related posts:

1. Greasing the Social Wheels, An Introduction
2. Greasing the Social Wheels: First Aid Training
3. How To Join A PUG

For the purpose of this entry, I'd like to clarify context of what I'm talking about when I use the word PUG, because its simple explanation of "Pick Up Group" doesn't offer enough clarity in itself.

My Definition of a PUG

For context of this entry, a Pick Up Group is what I'm getting into when I enter myself into the LFG tool and enter into a dungeon group with three or four complete strangers who I've probably never partied with before.

In this case, I am not bringing any Friends or Guildmates along with me, and none of the players who end up in the dungeon party are on my Friends list (at the start) - we're all complete strangers coming together to accomplish a specific set of tasks in conquering dungeon content.

My PUGging Strategy - The Basics

I use Pick Up Groups to level my toons through Azeroth, spending each toon's rest bonus and then parking the toon to rest up in between while I work on the rest of my toons.

Occasionally I use my Azeroth toons and solo with them - to gather quests and do prerequisites for the next dungeon's list of quests... but that's about it. Once I have the quests in my book, I head back to an Inn and proceed to PUG my levels up through dungeon runs.

I also join in on Outland PUGs when the opportunity is right, and use these same strategies and tips to land those parties.

Here's what I do when I have time to hit a dungeon on one of my toons:

1. Log into one toon that can stay online for a bit - ie: 30 minutes at least, without hopping to another toon. Stay out of combat if at all possible, advancing skills like Fishing and doing Auction House work to entertain myself during this time.
2. List myself in the LFG tool, either specifiying what dungeons I want on this toon or by putting myself in a zone so I'm only 'lurking' in the LFG channel.
3. Pay attention to the LFG channel and if there's an opportunity to hit a different dungeon than I had originally planned, take it.

As a result, I don't end up controlling what toon or what dungeon I try to go into, but I regularly find myself having little troubles finding a group to join. It's when I want to advance a specific toon that Murphy's Law tends to take effect! In all of my playing I try to downgrade the amount of influence Murphy may have at any moment, and it is only thwarted by keeping an open mind.

Tips to Help These Strategies

If you're largely a solo player and have no Real Life friends in the game, the best way to get into dungeon groups reliably is to follow any of the following:

• Join a large levelling guild with many players around your range, and participate in guild chat and events
• Bring up a family of toons that are in different level ranges so you have more choice at any one time
• Play your main toon as a Healer or Tank in group situations
• Build a Friends list from previous PUGs so you have people you can call upon to fill spots

Note, there are times that there are no groups going for the dungeons I want, even on my healer toons, so keep that in mind as well. I find that weekends are great for Azeroth dungeons and mid-afternoon works well for Outland dungeons, but late night and evenings also work well - you'll need to experiment.

Some Alternatives and Extra Tips

1. Build A Solid Friends List.

   This is especially important if you wish to play only one toon and not bother with a family of characters.

   You may occasionally get lucky and fall into a group of someone else's friends and have a good run, but unless you take the time to build your own online relationships you'll always have problems finding dungeon parties because good players begin to 'clique' with you on the outside.

   REMEMBER: It's not wise to behave like other people are computerized NPCs who are available to do what you want, when you want it, without you having put in effort to build a friendship first. (it doesn't matter how busy your life is - impatient people wind up on Ignore lists, not Friends lists)

2. When In A Party, Stand Out

   A big key to finding a solid guild or group of friends to tackle game content with is being adequately prepared yourself, and being noticed by those who appreciate players who come prepared.

   Don't be fooled into thinking that good players don't notice when you put in a small amount of effort to be prepared for a PUG - they may cover for you by providing water or arrows or a summon after you need repairs two wipes in, but it won't earn you a good place on their Friends list.

   Check out these entries regarding the topic of Social Wheel Greasing - Introduction, First Aid, Preparation For Dungeons, and Sharing Your Skills.

3. Keep an open mind.

   Sure, it'd be nice to hit a specific dungeon but if nobody else is calling for someone to fill your role in a party, it might be better to do something on a different toon this time.

In Closing - Can One Ever Escape PUGs?

In closing, I'd like to add the following:

If you're hoping to one day be able to avoid the chaos of PUGs completely, only running with friends and guildmates and others you already know, keep the following in mind:

• Good guilds are looking for good TEAM players - personality and skill combined. They might even find YOU in PUGs!
• PUGs can help you find new friends, as well as give you a training ground for improving your player skills and general team skills.
• Sometimes, in order to learn new content it's best to run with strangers and bring back the information to friends
• Unless you've got Real Life friends to team with, the good players in your guild may perceive you as a "tag-along" instead of a real contributor.

So in short - no, I think for the most part, PUGs will never completely go away. While Guild Runs may take over some of the PUG needs, a player should always be prepared to take part in PUGs to acheive reputation, gearing, attunement and general skill building goals set out by the player or their guild environment.

Related posts:

1. Greasing the Social Wheels: Preparing For Dungeons
2. How To "Lurk" On The LFG Channel
3. How To “Lurk” On The LFG Channel

About First Aid

On World of Warcraft, First Aid is one of the three "secondary" professions that can be learned by all players of all classes, no matter their other professions. Fishing and Cooking are the other in this category which can be learned by all.

First Aid allows a player to turn cloth into bandages - progressively more powerful bandages as the player's First Aid level advances. Bandages can be used as one of the many ways to restore health more quickly than natural healing allows, but the special benefit of bandaging is that it can be used for in-combat healing as long as the bandager and bandagee are not being hit (a hit will stop the channelling of bandaged healing).

Why First Aid Is A "Wheel Greaser"

In a party situation, it's not always fair to depend solely on the healer to restore your health from battles. And, as a healer, sometimes it's nice to save your mana and still get a quick heal.

While you may be fortunate and end up with group after group where the healer has plenty of mana to heal the fight and is able to recover mana for the next battle without huge long delays for the group, it's what you do to "pull out the last stops" on or just after a really hard fight that helps define you as an A-Team player versus an Average Player.

And if you're a Warlock who likes to Life Tap to restore mana, you're losing an INSANE number of karma points with the A-Team members if you're not bandaging yourself up after Life Tapping between battles, at least until the healer says they'll gladly take over helping you out there.

How To Use First Aid As A Wheel Greaser

The main thing you're doing by using First Aid is saving the Healer (even if the Healer is you) mana and as a result, allowing the group to progress more quickly, reducing the number of "mana up" breaks the healer will need. Sometimes, however, you're backing out of a tough battle to bandage for a moment to save your life (so you can contribute more DPS to the fight afterwards) when the healer has been forced to focus solely on keeping the tank up.

Here are some simple habits you can execute between battles that will be noticed by the A-Team:

• Bandage yourself to full health after a battle has completed whenever possible
• Hunters, use bandages as extra healing on top of your Mend Pet ability
• Warlocks, use bandages to restore health after Life Tapping
• Anyone - bandage someone who needs it between battles

During battles, it's not often all that useful to use a bandage, because being hit cancels the streaming heal of the bandaging process and bandaging can only be done once every 60 seconds. However, if you are not being hit and are a DPS character that can back out of a battle for 10 seconds to apply a bandage, the extra time you give yourself to "live to DPS another day" could end up helping the team more than if you had stayed, fought, and died.

What's the quickest way to level up First Aid?

Now that you see one of the important reasons to level up First Aid, how do you get it to a reasonable level, quickly?

Personally, I like farming dungeons for my First Aid materials, but that's because I have a max-level toon. Two runs of Ragefire Chasm, Two of Dead Mines and then about 6 wings of Scarlet Monestary and I'm at 225 First Aid and ready to do the quest in Hammerfall to up the max to 300.

If you're starting a new toon, however, consider leveling up First Aid more naturally - take the Linen Cloth you find from humanoids from level 6 to the low teens and turn them into bandages, and as you advance your level, the cloth types will advance, too.

If you're around level 40, consider farming RFC (or the Alliance equiv) for your Linen Cloth, or taking out humanoids in that 6-12 level range in zones you used to play in. Wool Cloth can be found on the Razormanes in The Barrens but is also present in Dead Mines and Wailing Caverns in piles.

And of course, if the prices are good because there's a lot listed, buy some from the Auction House!

And yes, Wool Cloth is ALWAYS that expensive (more than Linen Cloth or Silk Cloth, at times more than Mageweave Cloth)... but that's another topic for another day!

Related posts:

1. Greasing the Social Wheels: Preparing For Dungeons
2. Greasing the Social Wheels, An Introduction
3. How To Join A PUG

There are now some 9 MILLION registered players according to Blizzard, and it's THE most popular online role playing game going.

With that many PEOPLE playing the game, it's important as a member of the WoW community on your realm to think about how you can do things to "win friends and influence people", as having friends in-game can be a huge benefit to you in ways you cannot comprehend nor predict when you first begin playing.

What is "Social Wheel Greasing"?

At some point in life we all learn that certain mechanical objects work better when they're well-oiled than when they haven't been oiled in a while. Not only that, but the guy who brings oil is appreciated by anyone who has experienced the pain of a poorly-oiled machine.

This applies to WoW as well: The player who has taken the time to prepare adequately for a group encounter is able to do their part in being part of that well-oiled machine, and isn't the one to cause the group to "seize up" and experience complications.

Why Worry About Greasing The Wheels?

It's completely possible to get your WoW toons from creation to max level without ever relying on another person (outside of those using the Auction House) to help you. If you're fine with being 100% solo, then don't worry about this stuff unless it directly helps you. Or, if you have Real Life friends playing, this may not apply.

However, most of us enjoy the opportunity to join our friends for questing groups, or join in on 5-person or larger parties that are going into progressively more difficult dungeons located throughout the game, and most of us are going to rely on building friendships with virtual strangers in order to join this experience.

So, in short, only worry about it if you're interested in doing more dungeon-based group content or if you've got a dream to "maybe, someday, perhaps, join a raiding guild" with any of your characters.

How Does Wheel Greasing Help?

Truth: Relationships online aren't like ones you develop with people you're in the same room with. Physical presence offers a lot of influence and is less easy to ignore than when "you" are just words written on my screen.

As a result, players who have an interest in joining this fun and dynamic portion of the Warcraft universe (dungeon parties, guild questing groups, anything non-solo) benefit from learning how to "stand out" from the Average Player, while also learning to recognize other players who strive to be Above Average.

Average Players tend to get left behind when the "A Team" wants to go out and do a group-based venture because the A-Team consists of players who "go the extra mile" to make sure they're in tip-top condition for contributing to the dungeon or raid team.

Are There Costs To Wheel Greasing?

Becoming a well-rounded Warcraft character does cost money, just like becoming a well-rounded Human Being does.

Some of the money comes in the form of skills learned, some in the form of materials purchased, and all require some of your time and purposeful attention.

Are There Downsides To Wheel Greasing?

Sure. Some players feel entitled to take advantage of any help offered them and the Wheel Greaser will be burned on occasion as a result - giving way more than they ever get back. It's up to the Wheel Greaser to also step back emotionally and learn effective strategies for recognizing "users" before you allow yourself to get resentful.

When Does Wheel Greasing Pay Off?

The techniques one would use for the wheel-greasing actually benefit yourself as a player, so the technical pay-off does come right away.

However, the social pay-off is slower to accumulate and requires patience of its pursuers. I have noticed that below level 20, very few people stand out in dungeon parties as those who have gone the extra mile, even if they have begun the process. During the 20-30 trek the A-Team players tend to congregate more often within parties, but many level at different paces. (if you're looking for a good levelling guild, join the guild of someone you've enjoyed running a dungeon or two with at this range as a great start)

By level 62, in low-level Outland dungeons, players who have not taken the time to round out their characters for Wheel Greasing begin to stand out like a sore thumb in the parties I take part in. By the level 70 pre-heriocs dungeons, Wheel Greasing techniques can help you make a great showing - even if you're a bit undergeared - when you luck into a party with an obvious A-Team.

So, What Do I Do To "Grease The Wheels"?

Stay tuned, I have more entries coming in, now that I have this introduction that I can point back to :)

Related posts:

1. Greasing the Social Wheels: Preparing For Dungeons
2. Greasing the Social Wheels: First Aid Training
3. How To Join A PUG