Basic Party Strategy

[kandrathe]

One of my biggest disappointments with WoW so far is the lack of people that are good in parties.  I've played on several of my friend's accounts until I got my own two weeks ago, so I've not progressed beyond level 20. 
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Many have answered to the specifics of what each class can bring to the team, but what I'm missing in many of my "pick-up" party experiences is any pre-instance discussion of how the party will operate, looting rules, etc. I think as a rule we "smart" players should take the 5-10 minutes pre-instance to go over the particulars of how this new team will work. It saves from frustration mid-instance and having some disgruntled party member drop out. Some veterans of many battles might find the "planning" phase boring, but I still think it would be good to cover the bases and get all the players in agreement beforehand.

Anyway, my point is that intelligent play under fire is one aspect of good party play, but the other is understanding your role in the team and endeavoring to accomplish that goal. Everyone wants to leave the instance richer in both loot and experience, so a good team insures that all members are feeling satisfied with the mission. Maybe there was a particular item that someone wanted, but did not get. I feel it is their responsibility to express themselves to either, a) request a schedule to do the instance again, b) negotiate to trade for the item, or c) suck it up.

Anyway, here are some of my pet peeves.

I hate being in the middle of some quest work and have a blind invite pop up on my screen. It tells me two things, some player(s) saw me working my quest (effectively perhaps) and decided I would be able to help them, and second they lack the communication skills to use chat to engage me in conversation. I often will join the random pickup group because I feel it is only fair to share an area so that all can accomplish their acquisition quests equally. But, often then I find that they are not insuring that the "Gather X" items are being distributed fairly, and/or change to looting rules to thier favor. Then I tell them, "Sorry, this isn't working for me. You guys need to learn to share." and drop out to accomplish the quest solo.

I'm more forgiving with how the team works as I figure they will learn by doing, or with some tactical discussion during play. I've been in teams where my initial thought is, "There is no way this team will succeed." Sometimes I am surprised how we do pull it off, and it is usually do to heroics on someones part.

In the end, practice makes perfect (if the participants are willing to learn).