Dungeon running tips for the beginner

Okay, so you've made into a level-appropriate dungeon with a five-man group and the action is about to start.  What now?

1.  Listen to your fellow party members.
Chances are somebody has run the dungeon before and can explain what is about to happen or what you should be doing.  Sometimes certain sections are difficult enough that you need a plan, in which case you should be working with your group to come up with one and following instructions once a plan has been decided.  Even if the plan isn't great, doing one medicore plan together is better than one person doing an awesome plan and four people doing crappy ones.

2.  If you don't know what you're doing, DON'T DO ANYTHING.
This applies to just about every aspect of running the dungeon.  Don't run ahead of the group (there might be traps!).  Don't pull mobs (maybe you could have skipped that group).  Definitely don't interact with any objects (no explanation necessary).  No dungeon is timed- you lose nothing by waiting and being cautious until you trigger an event.

3.  Focus fire.  You can use "ctrl+T" to designate a target for the party, and push "T" to target it.  Burn down a single enemy at a time, because a mob with 90% health and one with 1% health do the same damage.  It's best to completely take a mob out of the fight to reduce their damage rather than severely injure all of them.  Plus, it's one fewer guy to fight in case you wipe.

4.  Reviving should be your top priority almost all the time.  If you are not going to be killed very soon or are about to kill off an enemy, you should be focusing on reviving teammates.  Whatever damage you do it'll be less than the total damage output of you and another character, so revive them first.  That being said, don't revive people if it puts you in extreme danger.  If they fall down in a circle of fire, don't dive in there and try to save them until the fire fades.  Don't walk onto a spike trap in a foolish effort at heroism.  Also, generally only revive people who are in "survival mode", NOT dead.  Reviving dead people during combat is usually a waste of time when they could spawn at a waypoint and run back.

5.  If you get downed, try to make it as easy as possible to revive you.  If you have a movement skill while downed (mist form, teleport, etc.) use it to get right in front of a partymate.  If you know you're going to get downed soon (for example, from poison) try to get away from anything that might damage you to make revival easier.  Obviously try not to get downed on spike traps and such.

6.  Put yourself in a position to use buffs on everyone around you.  There are a lot of buffs that are applied in an area centerd on you, so if you move into the center of your party you will be able to give all of them the buff as well.

7.  Focus on defense, not offense.  If you have the decision between reducing/avoiding incoming damage or dealing more damage, REDUCE INCOMING DAMAGE.  For example, if the boss is chasing you around with his axe, it's a far better idea to drop everything and kite him than to worry about dealing damage to him while you run around.  The other 4 people in your party can hammer him while you focus on not getting downed.  If you get knocked down, your party is now short two people at the minimum- you, because you're in survival mode, and someone else to revive you.


Doing all this already?  Check out our advanced tips.