Beginner's Guide to Grouping

Etiquette Tips


When desiring to group with another person. It is considered polite to talk to them before sending a group invite.
Should your group happen upon a chest, supply crate, herb node, mining node ect. Ask before you loot. Most groups do /roll to find out who gets the item.
If you have a spell that will be benefical to the other players in your group, don't hesitate to use it! (AKA Buff your Group!)
When asking for anything from your group, mind your please and thank yous.
Should you need to go AFK, notify the group and add about how long you expect to be gone. Do not be AFK for longer than 5 minutes.
If you have to leave a group before a quest or dungeon is complete, try to find a replacement for yourself. Though not required, it is also polite and considerate to give a reason for your leaving.


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Ideal Groups
This section will describe what key elements or classes a group should have if it's expected to succeed. There are always exceptions to this rule because there are many different combinations that will work with the many different classes in the game.


| 5 Man | 10 Man | 20 Man | 25 Man | 40 Man |


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5 Man

There are 3 essential people that a 5 man party needs for an instance.

Tank - You need someone who can take damage and hold aggro. Warriors, Druids and Paladins work well in this role.
Healer - You need someone who can keep up with healing the entire party. Priests, Druids, Shamans and Paladins can fill this role. If a druid is your main healer, be sure to bring someone else who can ressurect more than once every 20 minutes.
DPS - The rest of your group needs to be filled with damage dealing classes. Any class can fill this role with the proper specs.


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10 Man
The larger the groups, the more diverse you can be depending on what classes you have. Be flexible but keep some basic 'must-haves' in mind.

Tank - In a 10 man group you need at least 1 tank, preferably 2. You need someone who can take damage and hold aggro. Warriors, Druids and Paladins work well as tanks.
Healer - Just like a tank, you need at least 2 healers. You need someone who can keep up with healing the entire party. Priests, Druids, Shamans and Paladins can fill this role. If a druid is your main healer, be sure to bring someone else who can ressurect more than once every 20 minutes.
Crowd Control - 10 Man dungeons tend to have larger groups to pull. You need to have some crowd control abilities. The type of CC needed will depend on the dungeon itself but the three most popular CC classes are mages, rogues, and hunters.
DPS - The rest of your group needs to be filled with damage dealing classes. Any class can fill this role with the proper specs.


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20 Man
In 20+ Instances you can be flexible but you also have to have certain classes and even sometimes certain talent specializations for boss encounters.

Tank - In 20 man dungeons you need to be more particular about how many of each class you have. Depending on the raid instance, you will need 2-4 tanks which can be warriors, paladins or druids. For raiding you need tanks who are spec'd specifically for tanking.
Healer - Depending on the dungeon you need 2-5 healers. Ideally, all healers will be spec'd for raid healing. Priests, druids, shamans and paladins work well. Try to get a mix of healer classes because of different healing abilities will give you flexibility for boss encounters.
Crowd Control - Most 20 man instances do require 1-3 mages for sheeping. Saps and Hunters traps will work but are not a reliable way to control raid instance mobs who can easily one-shot most members of the raid.
Decursing and Curing - There are bosses in 20 man dungeons that just love to curse and poison and do all manner of debuffs that can wipe a group if they're not taken care of immediately. You need sufficient coverage in your classes to take care of mass decursing. Mages and druids for curses. Priests and paladins for disease and magic. Paladins and druids for poisons. Some bosses you have to designate 1-2 people to just stand there and decurse everyone during the whole fight.
Saviors - You must have someone who can save the group from a wipe. In some dungeons it's hard to get back to where you were unless someone managed to survive to rez others. This can be a hunter or rogue with engineering jumper cables(not very reliable), a Paladin with DI(1 hour cooldown, have a couple backup plans) or a Warlock with Soulstone(30 min cooldown, use wisely).
DPS - The rest of your group needs to be filled with damage dealing classes. Any class can fill this role with the proper specs.


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25 Man
This # instance was added with the Burning Crusade Expansion. It is similar to 20 mans but the classes are more dependant on the raid instance itself.

Tank - In 25 man dungeons you need to be more particular about how many of each class you have, depending on the boss encounters. You will need 1-5 tanks, two of which will need to be spec'd for tanking. The others you can usually slide by with an off-spec tank. Warriors, druids and paladins will work well.
Healer - You will need 4-8 healers, depending on the instance. 4 of the healers need to be spec'd for healing. The rest, if not spec'd for healing, need to be partially heal spec or in very good healing gear. Priests, Druids, Paladins and Shamans will work well.
Crowd Control - Many 25 man dungeons do not require crowd control. Those that do require CC are easily covered by 1-2 mages.
Decursing and Curing - There are bosses in 25 man dungeons that just love to curse and poison and do all manner of debuffs that can wipe a group if they're not taken care of immediately. You need sufficient coverage in your classes to take care of mass decursing. Mages and druids for curses. Priests and paladins for disease and magic. Paladins and druids for poisons. Some bosses you have to designate 1-2 people to just stand there and decurse everyone during the whole fight.
Saviors - You must have someone who can save the group from a wipe. In some dungeons it's hard to get back to where you were unless someone managed to survive to rez others. This can be a hunter or rogue with engineering jumper cables(not very reliable), a Paladin with DI(1 hour cooldown, have a couple backup plans) or a Warlock with Soulstone(30 min cooldown, use wisely).
DPS - The rest of your group needs to be filled with damage dealing classes. Any class can fill this role with the proper specs.


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40 Man
In 40+ Instances you can be flexible but you also have to have certain classes and even sometimes certain talent specializations. Basically you can take a 20 man group and double it. Or take the rules for a 5 man group and repeat it 8 times. There are also specific requirements for classes depending on what 40 man dungeon you are doing.

Tank - In 40 man dungeons you need at least 4 but preferably 5 or 6 tanks. You need at least 2 tanks who are spec'd for raid tanking, the rest you can get by with off-spec tanks. Warriors, Druids and Paladins will work and in some cases, Shamans and Pet-Tanks (hunters or warlocks using a pet to off-tank a mob).
Healer - You need at least 5 healers for a 40 man dungeon. You need 2-3 dedicated heal-spec healers for the tanks and the rest of the healers can be an off-spec. Priests, Druids, Paladins and Shamans work fine.
Crowd Control - 40 Man dungeons have interesting pulls and depending on the dungeon you may need a rogue for sapping, a mage for sheeping, a hunter for trapping/kiting or a warlock for banishing.
Decursing and Curing - There are bosses in 40 man dungeons that just love to curse and poison and do all manner of debuffs that can wipe a group if they're not taken care of immediately. You need sufficient coverage in your classes to take care of mass decursing. Mages and druids for curses. Priests and paladins for disease and magic. Paladins and druids for poisons. Some bosses you have to designate 1-2 people to just stand there and decurse everyone during the whole fight.
Saviors - You must have someone who can save the group from a wipe. In some dungeons it's hard to get back to where you were unless someone managed to survive to rez others. This can be a hunter or rogue with engineering jumper cables(not very reliable), a Paladin with DI(1 hour cooldown, have a couple backup plans) or a Warlock with Soulstone(30 min cooldown, use wisely).
DPS - The rest of your group needs to be filled with damage dealing classes. Any class can fill this role with the proper specs.
http://wowvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Guides.Detail&id=268

When desiring to group with another person. It is considered polite to talk to them before sending a group invite.
Should your group happen upon a chest, supply crate, herb node, mining node ect. Ask before you loot. Most groups do /roll to find out who gets the item.
If you have a spell that will be benefical to the other players in your group, don't hesitate to use it! (AKA Buff your Group!)
When asking for anything from your group, mind your please and thank yous.
Should you need to go AFK, notify the group and add about how long you expect to be gone. Do not be AFK for longer than 5 minutes.
If you have to leave a group before a quest or dungeon is complete, try to find a replacement for yourself. Though not required, it is also polite and considerate to give a reason for your leaving.

Tank - In 40 man dungeons you need at least 4 but preferably 5 or 6 tanks. You need at least 2 tanks who are spec'd for raid tanking, the rest you can get by with off-spec tanks. Warriors, Druids and Paladins will work and in some cases, Shamans and Pet-Tanks (hunters or warlocks using a pet to off-tank a mob).
Healer - You need at least 5 healers for a 40 man dungeon. You need 2-3 dedicated heal-spec healers for the tanks and the rest of the healers can be an off-spec. Priests, Druids, Paladins and Shamans work fine.
Crowd Control - 40 Man dungeons have interesting pulls and depending on the dungeon you may need a rogue for sapping, a mage for sheeping, a hunter for trapping/kiting or a warlock for banishing.

Saviors - You must have someone who can save the group from a wipe. In some dungeons it's hard to get back to where you were unless someone managed to survive to rez others. This can be a hunter or rogue with engineering jumper cables(not very reliable), a Paladin with DI(1 hour cooldown, have a couple backup plans) or a Warlock with Soulstone(30 min cooldown, use wisely).
DPS - The rest of your group needs to be filled with damage dealing classes. Any class can fill this role with the proper specs.