Is this the place for dumb newbie questions?Follow

The best way to take care of group quests (these still exist?) is to ask in general chat. Although honestly, they usually aren't worth the bother. I'd just skip them. Honestly, it's rather difficult to meet people in the game outside of your guild. Other than doing random dungeons or the odd PuG raid (that's pick up group, which is different from a guild run), I don't really hang out with anyone that isn't in in my guild.

To do stuff with your guild, maybe ask in the guild chat if anyone wants to run a dungeon at whatever level you are. Or see if people want to group with you for quests.

Jump in the deep end and join a group. Ask your guild for help and explain your lack of knowledge. You should be able to pick it up fairly quickly. It's not as intimidating as it seems. If you die or cause a problem it's not a big deal as long as you learn from it. If something happens or you're not sure on something always, always ask. You've got to start somewhere and it's better to learn by asking.

Thanks for the responses.

Here's another question

I bypassed an earlier dungeon (Zul'Farrak) because i kept getting snuffed. Thought I'd do some house keeping, so i went back. I'd have thought it'd be easier, since I'm running a L62 Hunter and the MOBs are all L48-50 Elites - and I'm still having major problems. PLUS, I don't seem to be getting any experience for the kills.

My question is - should I even bother, or in a case like this should I just write it off and abandon it?

If the creature you are trying to kill is grey to you (it's level number) then you will not get any xp from it. While I understand that going back and completing certain dungeons for the lulz or quests can be enjoyable certain classes fair better than others. I recommend sticking with doing quests until you get Misdirect, which allows you to transfer any threat you create to a target of your choice. You can get a glyph that will make it so it comes off cooldown as soon as it fades if you put it on your pet. After you get that spell and glyph, your pet should always have aggro and it will make soloing dungeons that much easier.

I have a question for you, do you have Burning Crusades?

Go back and do it again. Elites will still take you down fast if you can't control your pulls and keep your pet healed up, but those are the skills you'll need later. Practice trying not to pull too many mobs at once, that also means not letting your pet go charging though twelve other mobs along the way. Learn when to feign death and how to use traps.

You may also be having trouble because of a content change. Hey, guys! Wasn't ZF one of the recently updated instances? What is some current advice on tactics?

You may also want to get some advice on basic add-ons. There are some programs that you should not use because they will get you banned. There are a few other programs that can make your life easier and they will not get you banned. Since you're a retired PC geek, you know the drill -- be careful, scan files, don't click **** links and before anyone else says it ... get an authenticator to help protect your hours of work.

An authenticator is pretty much an extra security layer on your account to reduce the chance of it being hacked/stolen. When you're logging into your account in the game (even on the Blizzard homepage where you sign in to post on their message boards), you enter your account name, password and then an authenticator number, that is randomly generated on the device.

Think of a remote access type FOB that one would use to log into a job system (if you use one).

Currently, they're $6 (if I remember correctly) from the blizzard store, or if you have an iPhone, it's free. Just download the app and attach the authenticator to your account.

Just to note, an authenticator is just that... an extra security layer. Nothing is 100% when it comes to something being hacked. It can be very close to it, but not exact. (If there is something like this, then I don't know about it and I'm sorry I'm wrong).

Edited, May 2nd 2011 11:21am by xNocturnalSunx

wow, where to start...

1. You do not need to do all the instances - if you are a completionist - go for it. But killing mobs that are way below your level is really just a way to spend time or see the instances. You will get very little in terms of actual awards.

2. You are likely doing it wrong. At 62, you should be able to solo ZF as a hunter. Are you pulling to many? Are you using any CC? Describe why you are dying.

3. Addons are definately not hacks or cheats. Some addons do simple things (There's one that sells all the "Grey" items as soon as you talk to any NPC who can buy them.) and some are very complex. Most of them simply make what Blizzard has created more visually appealing. For example - There is one that creates a circle around the player - all damage is displayed in neatly tracked areas. It's much nicer than the random-screen-clogging effect you get from the Default UI. Others track things - For example - How many debuffs are on the mob and what are they ticking for? Others are specific to boss fights - The boss will have certain abilities and the tool will alert you when the boss uses them.

I started out a lot like you. I was afraid that Addons = Cheats + getting hacked. I was totally wrong. They are very helpful and make you a better player. There is no addon that cures bad play. There is no addon that makes the game so easy that you don't have to play. There is no "Game Genie" (I'm guessing about 1/2 the people here don't know what that even was.)

Dungeons are meant to be done at a certain level and give level appropriate exp and loot. They're also not meant to be soloed. Dungeons are designed to be done in groups of five players so it's not surprising that you're getting flattened trying to do them alone, even at slightly higher levels. You can use the dungeon finder tool to queue up for level appropriate dungeons.

Going back and soloing lower level dungeons much on later is usually completely pointless unless you're just doing it for fun or you're trying to get a specific item or achievement or something.

Easy for you to say. I had to get fancy links and I wrote twice as much as you.

If you got invited to a guild it's probably a leveling guild. Here's a good explanation of the different types, scroll down to "Guild Types."

If you are in a leveling guild then there's a good chance people will ask for help with a quest or whatever. Go help them. The guild will soon learn you are helpful and mature and you will start getting requests to join groups.

While you're leveling you can also look for others doing the same quest areas and if someone gets in trouble help them out. I found a great WoW friend that way, four years ago.

Notice the theme here? Being helpful. Just remember to pay it forward.

And stick around, you'll be answering other peoples questions before you know it and getting great info from Aethien and the others in the Hunter Forum.

Quoted because it might be part of the disconnect. Instanced dungeons, or "instances" (so-called because every group that enters e.g. Zul Farrak enters their own copy, so unlike the outside world they are separated from each other and are not racing or competing) are meant to be done by characters in the appropriate level range, in groups of five (or more, for certain instances that are, or were at some point, part of the endgame). The canonical group has a tank who maintains enemy attention and acts as a focus for damage, a healer who maintains the survival of all group members, and three damage dealers (known as DPS - damage per second - after the primary stat used to incompletely measure their performance) who do the dirty work with melee weapons, guns/bows, or thaumaturgic craft.

In the old days, the need to form groups for instances (along with ad-hoc grouping for difficult quests) was one of the main ways people built up contact networks of fun/reliable people from their own server, which in turn led to opportunities for guilds to add people or even to merge into larger guilds. The obvious downsides were that it depended on the right mix of people to be available, and on one of them taking the initiative - so it took a relatively long time.

So Blizzard added the LFD tool to address the problems. Now, you can just "queue" for an instance, and let Blizzard do the matchmaking. And it can draw from any server, not just your own, so there are always compatible matches - it's relatively quick, especially for the tanks/healers, who are more in demand. You can even go about your business while you are in the queue, teleport instantly to the dungeon when your group is ready, and reappear where you were when it's done. The downside to all this - one big one is that the people you meet generally are /not/ from your server, and there's no way to see them again even if you wanted to. So you can't build up contacts that way. Doing it the old way is still possible, but you'd be fighting the tide.

For questions specific to the hunter class, the forum here is pretty sleepy, but that's largely because the regulars consider most of the big questions to already be answered. When someone new needs more info, it will wake up.

This! Though I am in a couple of different guilds on different servers. As far as the place for newbie questions, we keep Maz around and he's the biggest noob I know.

Since he is only leveling now most of this won't apply for quite some time. ;)