What are the game's etiquette rules?
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Getting through a dungeon is a lot easier if everyone is following the same basic social rules:
- Clarify loot rules and targeting icons before you start the instance.
- Clarify each character's role before the first pull. This is particularly important if there are hybrid classes -- druids, paladins and shamans -- in the group. Hybrid characters can have vastly different abilities depending on their talents and gear. This is also true for classes that tend to have one primary role. For example, a shadow priest, whose talents are in DPS, may prefer to play in a DPS role rather than a healing role.
- Wait until a fight is over to loot. Many players find rolling on loot during a fight to be disruptive or distracting. Also, since some dungeon loot is bind on pickup (BoP) -- once you've picked it up, you can't give it to anyone else -- mistakes on rolls can keep people from getting items they need.
- Stay with your group. If you wander off alone, you may find unexpected mobs and lead them to your party.
- As you're traveling through the instance, let the tank go first. That way, if the party runs into enemies, the player most equipped to survive the attack will be in the lead.
- Give casters time to drink before pulling another group.
- Don't ninja other players' loot by disobeying the established loot rules or otherwise giving yourself an unfair advantage.
- Try not to leave the computer, also known as going AFK, during the instance. If you must, let your party know you have to step away.
There's also a lot of one-on-one communication between players as they buy and sell items, look for groups and look for guilds. All of this interaction has led to some etiquette guidelines that are pretty consistent from realm to realm:
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- Don't send other players group invitations, duel requests, guild invites or requests to sign a guild charter without asking first.
- Avoid using the /yell command to carry on conversations across a zone.
- Don't flood chat channels with your own advertisements or lines of random text. Most players view this as spamming.
Many players consider begging for money to be one of the biggest breaches of etiquette in the game. Next, we'll explore how to make enough money to buy what you want in WoW, without resorting to asking strangers for gold.