Your First Dungeon

Dungeons are five-player instanced adventures: one tank, one healer, three damage dealers. They are where WoW becomes a team game, and the first one is less scary than it looks — everyone in your group was new once.

Getting in

Open the Group Finder (the eye-shaped icon on the micro menu) and queue for a dungeon as your current spec's role. The queue assembles a group and teleports everyone inside. While leveling, normal dungeons are tuned for exactly this — learning as you go.

Your only real job at first

• Follow the tank. The tank sets the pace and chooses which enemies to fight; let them pull first.
• Stay with the group. Most first-dungeon disasters start with someone wandering into an extra pack of enemies.
• Do not attack things the group has not engaged yet. Accidental pulls — 'face pulling' — are the classic new-player wipe.
• Move out of bad things on the ground. Colored circles and pools under your feet are almost always damage.

Loot and etiquette

Loot is personal — everyone gets their own rolls automatically, so there is nothing to fight over. If someone gives you advice, it usually is not an insult; a quick 'first time here, thanks' at the start buys enormous goodwill.

If things go wrong

Groups wipe. It happens to veterans weekly. Apologize if you caused it, run back if you can, and do not leave mid-dungeon unless you genuinely have to — replacements take time and leaving earns you a queue penalty.

Stuck on something here? Post a note on the Academy Learning Board — someone aboard has been exactly where you are.

Next step: learn what an interrupt is — it is the single most useful button you are probably not pressing yet.