MC Class Guides

Class-Specific Guides for MC

Link to main Molten Core page.

Druid - Alliance

(written by Tuftears)

Brief notes for druids: most often we will be pigeonholed for healing in the end-game raids. Yes, it's boring. You'll be mostly playing 'health bar whack-a-mole' - something starts going yellow, hit it with a regrowth until it's green again. Or you'll be spamming Decursive to get rid of curses on the raid. Gearing for this is int and +healing, and enough stamina so you won't fall over easily.

There are some exceptions. If we're short on warriors, you might find yourself being asked to play a bear tank. You should be prepared with a 'bear set of gear' which has high armor and good strength. (with good damage comes good aggro) You should also understand the basics of tanking with a bear.

Bear-tanking: this is actually pretty easy. Whack them with your auto-attack and maul. If you have feral charge (a great 11-point feral talent) then use that to close with the enemy quickly and immobilize/counterspell them. Save growl for when you've lost aggro and you need to get it back, or you think you're going to lose aggro very soon. The 10-second timer is irksome but not horrible. Save challenging roar for the real emergencies. 10 minutes is too long for anything less.

However, practice makes perfect!

Back to healing: druids don't have great mana pools or regen compared to priests. You should work on your healing gear so you'll be okay, not weak on mana. Good sets include the Wildheart set and many +healing/int/sta leather items from Dire Maul. The Soothsayer Headdress from Celebras in Maraudon is also a very good leather headpiece.

Conserve mana by not spamming regrowth if you've already hit someone with regrowth in the last few seconds. Regrowth's heal-over-time lasts about 20 seconds, rejuvenation lasts 10 seconds. In between, use lesser ranks of Healing Touch.

You can draw aggro by healing. Wait to heal until you're sure the tanks have aggro. Don't start immediately healing with a 'heal over time' (HoT) spell. In the worst case, this means that as soon as the tank's taken even a few points of damage and your heal runs, the mobs that were initially aggro'd will beelien for you instead. If you wait a little while, the tanks will have pulled and tanked their separate mobs and you won't have any problems.

Druids don't have a 'fade' ability to reduce aggro temporarily like priests. We can shift to cat and cower, but it's probably easier and more survivable, if you have aggro from something, to shift to bear-form instead and wait for a tank to regain aggro. You can use frenzied regeneration and enrage to get back some life this way too.

(written by Tal)

Further Druid Notes:

Healing - As Tufty pointed out, this is our bread-and-butter role. And don't let anyone fool you, we're good at it. Yes it's boring, yes it's repetitive, but in those moments of action it's a lot of fun. It's also immensely rewarding once you realise just how much we, and all healers, tip the scales .

Tips for the fuzzy healers: - Innervate: 31pts I admit, but it's a free greater mana potion that you can cast on anyone. Best used on either a nearby Priest or on Yourself. - Rejuvenation: Stock and trade, when combined with a Priests's renew (and Regrowth if things really hit the fan) this can render a tank in virtual God-Mode for about 12 seconds. Use this to buy yourself time to cast something bigger. - Regrowth: Flash-Heal for Fuzzies, far less mana-friendly but does have a HoT component and can get a 50%+ crit chance when specced right. Has the downside of generating a lot of aggro if you overheal. - Healing Touch: Used correctly (ie. anticipate the damage) this is the fastest big heal there is, and it's actually pretty darn easy on the mana. - Rebirth: Wipe prevention/recovery. Usually on the prevention side, though when timed right a rezzer can use this as a soulstone. - First Aid: Get it, love it, 300 makes things very easy on the mana (especially in phase 2 Onyxia)

Aggro Management: Easiest way to do this (and make life less boring) is to make use of multiple ranks of the same spell. Why use Rank 10 HT when Rank 5 will do? If something comes after you, it's pretty much all she wrote so for us the use of the lower rank spells allows us to lay down some impressive healing with almost no aggro (read overheal). If, inevitably, something does come after you: Bear, Bash, Buzz-Off. And then proceed to pick up right where you left off. You're no good to anyone staying there unless all the other tanks are down, in which case you're probably on the receiving end of somone else's mana - so cut sick with everything you can to stay alive.

Gear Suggestions: For healing gear: personally I swear by a 7/8 Wildheart Set plus Robes of the Exalted with the Argent Crusader as this provides quite a respectable Mana pool and a very tidy +heal (even better when combined with the Royal Seal of Eldre'Thalas). Although occasionally I've been known to use the Devout Skirt when more mana regen was called for. And with a bit of finesse this is how I lay down the healing I do (those of you who have received it know what I mean )

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Hunter - Horde

Hunters actually have a purpose in MC besides being (inferior) DPS in most other instances, our job is to pull mobs to the MT, and to peel mobs off the MT to off-tanks so the MT doesn’t get swarmed.

Things to do before and in the raid:

- Join the hunter channel (basinhunter on Tich, aim2please on SR), this is the channel the hunters, MT and Off-tanks communicate.

- If you get assigned to an Off-tank, communicate in regard to where to peel to, and let him know you're his designated peeler.

- The main puller and secondary puller should run up and be ready for the next pull as fast as possible after a kill, if one of the hunters is dead assign a third Hunter to sub, and take the task of the current dead hunter(s).

- On peels, the only target getting Hunters Marked, is the one that’s going down first. Most often peeled by the secondary puller.

- Get “Wardrobe-mod”, (unless you use a better mod, in which case link it), even experienced pullers will die frequently, and you will notice that the repair bill will be steep if you pull in your primary gear, in addition to the possibility of rendering yourself useless in the raid due to broken gun/bow. Most classes find “Wardrobe” to be cumbersome, due to the fact that you have to be out of combat to be able to use it, as hunters we have the possibility to FD, and get out of combat, so you will be able to change gear mid battle. Note! Most of the hunters on Tich don't do this anymore, mainly due to the fact that we've gotten better gear, and don't die that much anymore :) I really recommend doing this, if your guild is starting out in MC though. Note2 Personally I swap to my Rag, (fire res gear), on fun packs.

Pulls:

Solo pulls: Lava Annihilators, 'Surgers, Fire lords and Core Hounds.

Usually the Core hound can be pulled by the MT, but if needed the hunter may be asked to pull it. Freezing trap will work on Annihilators/Surgers, which makes it possible to buy some time getting back to the MT.

Some of these pulls may require a peel, (Distracting Shot), from a second hunter, depending on how far away the mob is, this is especially important on the way to Lucifron/Magmadar, where there are 3 Annihilators/Surgers, a Firelord and a Core Hound that needs to be pulled from the bridge area. (Note! The last pull here, is a Surger which should be pulled on his way to the right, if you try to pull him on his way to the left, you will get imps).

Giants:

These come in pairs, either Giant/Giant(G/G), Giant/Destroyer(G/D) or Destroyer/Destroyer (D/D), these guys have an AoE stomp, so expect to die a lot . Our way of doing most of these pulls is that the secondary puller, marks his target and when the main puller has pulled, peels him off to the off-tank. The main puller runs to the MT, usually a bit aways from the raid. As we do it, the destroyer always goes to the MT if G/D. If dual, G/G or D/D, the puller gets the closest one, and the furthest away one gets marked and peeled to the off-tank. If the Destroyer is the furthest away one on G/D’s, I, personally, prefer to let the secondary puller pull, and have the main puller peel to the MT, (according to Vlo this is not necessary though ;)).

Note! In Garr’s part of the instance there will be two D/D pairs with a random spawn mob in front of each pair, these pulls can be very hard. It's recommended to pull the giant pair closest to the entrance near the cave wall, (behind the pillar), as the single mob in front of them will not add.

Other multipulls:

Through the tunnel from Garr to Baron Geddon and Shazzrah, you will have to pull some packs consisting of Flameguard, Flamewalker and two ‘Reavers, (gets banished), to clear the way for "clean" boss pulls. Lately we’ve been doing pet pulls on these “tunnel pulls”, as it’s very hard to get a successful peel off in there, and have the time to run back. Having Dash/Dive is helpful. (Baron Geddon and Shazzrah is pulled the same way).

These packs will also be on the way to Sulforon and Golemagg. Usually we pull either the Flamewalker or the Flameguard, (whichever is easiest to pull), and peel the other one. It's important that the hunters, MT and off-tank communicate on who gets what.

Boss encounters:

Lucifron/Gehennas:

Requires 3 hunters, one to pull closest guard, one to peel the second guard and one to peel Lucy/Gehennas himself. Note! The peeling of the boss should be done as fast as possible after the initial pull!

Magmadar:

This encounter requires Tranquility shot, a special attack you learn by a book that drops off Lucifron. Mag will every 15 seconds or so, go into a frenzied state, where he will cause more dmg to the MT, this state must be shut down as fast as possible with Tranq. (Timer is 20 seconds). The way Basin on Tich do it, is that we pair up hunters, where the players in each pair fire at the same time when he gets into frenzy, the hit rate is like 90% with an average decked character, so it’s very unlikely that both will miss. If the tank has him facing the end of the cave the sides are a good way to stand. Hunters with improved range will have no problem firing from outside his fear range.

Requirements:

- Magmadar mod. (Gives you a warning when he gets into frenzy, and when his fear will be released).

- Macroes for /Basinhunter; “<charactername> Hit” and ”<charactername> missed”.

- Isolate your "combat spell hits" in combat log for this encounter, as it's important that you can easily see if you hit/missed to send the hit/miss macro to /basinhunter channel.

Garr:

Pending on the amount of Warlocks for banish, Hunters get assigned to off-tanks, where each team gets assigned to a location in the cave by the raid leader, and peels the assigned “guard” to the off tank, freezing traps will buy some time here too.

Baron Geddon/Shazzrah:

DPS duty, besides pet pulling. (Note! The hunter pet-pulling, should stay in the middle of the room with the MT, and stay there until he’s sure the MT has aggro).

Sulforon/Golemagg/Majordomo:

Peel assigned guards to off-tanks. On Majordomo we have 2 hunters Distracting Shot'ing Domo to the MT.

Ragnaros

DPS.

Sjur

Note! some additional info in regard to gear on:[1]

Hunter - Alliance

There is a great page here on using your pet in MC, including a breakdown of how to use it against specific mobs.

(written by Mirajj, the main puller on the Avarice raids on Stormrage)

The primary role of the Hunter is single target, smooth, aggro-free, high, ranged DPS output. We are (or should be) nearly heal-free damage. We are pullers or splitters. We bring the mob to the tanks toes. Then we stay there, hoping that the tank gets it off us before we die. If not...well, we died well in service to the raid.

There are several ways to pull, and as you are likely 60 by the time you are raiding, you've got your favorite already. All I will add is to use a low ranking instant cast (my pulling macro is currently set to fire a single Arcane Shot, Rank 1) so the tank has no trouble getting aggro from the puller. Don't use a DoT, as those can be tricky to beat for aggro.

When I am pulling and need a hand or a split, I will randomly pick a hunter from the rank and file. It could be you. IMHO, if you are in the raid, you can be called on to perform raid duties. I will quickly explain (in our class channel) what I want you to do. Generally, it'll be something like "I need you to split the Giant off my Destroyer pull, and pull him to the MA." Step up quickly, acquire your target, stand on/near your tank, and tell me when you are ready. Remember that while the raid is waiting for you...I'd rather be sure that you are sure of what you are doing than botch the pull. If you aren't clear on what needs to be done, please ask for clarification.

Pulling in MC can be both as easy as it looks, or harder than you can imagine. Lots of little tricks to learn, as several of you will be learning when raids resume.

Pets have a place in MC now, and I'm not going to tell you how to use your pet. You ought to know by now. Just, please, be careful with them.

Spec...As far as I'm concerned, all three Hunter talent trees are viable. We hunters are a widespread bunch through the trees though, and have passed several "I'm just standing here waiting" times discussing builds and specs. Bring yours to the 'table'.

The last point of discussion is gear. What is the well dressed endgame Hunter wearing these days? It comes down to, IMHO, 3 choices. Well, really 2 choices and a special case. The special case is the Black Dragonscale Armor 'set'. High fire resist plus Ranged attack power bonuses make it a shoo-in for the second half of MC. Not required, but nice, to be sure.

The two choices boil down to the full BeastStalker set, or the DM "Crit Set". From my tests, and what I can tell from TheoryCraft, there is very little to distinguish one from the other, aside from your damage preference. I'd say pick one or the other (The DM set would be easier to get, imho) and go for it. It's something else we'll talk about in channel, during the downtimes.

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Mage - Alliance

(by Alrin, Lurkers)

Mana conservation is very nice to keep in mind. We have a high cost, super nice spell called Arcane Missiles. While this is excellent dps, it is nowhere near mana efficient. Compare this to frostbolts and you have a much more manageable mana spent/second situation than you would have if you were to spam AM for the entirety of a giant/destroyer fight and go oom when the raid switches to the 2nd target. Even though I use frostbolt quite often (though I am firespecced) I do switch to AM at times when I get a clearcast proc or if I want to increase the burn for a short while I will not put myself in a situation where I have to drink after every single pull. Its up to every mage to find this balance themselves though.

A mage should also hopefully recognize the importance of stamina equipment. While mana is our dps-blood, a dead mage with 1000 extra mana is no use to the raid. It is very possible and achievable to reach 4k+ hp fully buffed with "standard" blue equipment if you have been running pre-mc instances. Please, harass your local paladins for Kings. It's just THAT good. However, while int is our dps-blood, increasing sta and int will not do much to increase your overall damage. That's where +damage gear comes in. The reader should exercise good judgement here and not go completely overboard with damage either, but try and find a good balance.

The trick is to do great damage while still metering or keeping control of your damage output and making sure you don't inadvertedly draw aggro. It can be tricky if you score a series of crits but then you should be able to step down for a few seconds before you resume dps-ing. Other than that, mage is pretty easy. Just pay attention to where the mobs are and you can stay alive very very very long. Oh and use fire ward liberally when in MC against gehennas, magmadar etc. Its not much damage absorbtion but its a bit and every bit counts.

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Paladin - Alliance

(written by hiryuu1115)

Paladins - the unfortunate class in my opinion. If you disagree what I say in this post, please post reasonings instead of just saying I don't know what I'm talking about.

Role - unfortunately, in a raid, a paladin's role is to buff the raid every 4.5 minutes and use heals and Cleanse. A lot. A paladin's DPS pales in comparison to a rogue or a DPS role warrior. So do what you can do that the rogues and warriors can't, and maybe you can save the raid with a timely Divine Intervention/Blessing of Salvation. Rarely, the paladin will be asked to offtank something. One more role that will be discussed later is the Out of Combat Rezzer.

Heals - you will mostly be using Flash of Light to chip in little heals here and there. Holy Light tends to be too slow for most healing occasions, and Laying of Hands is only available every hour (40 min. talented). Holy Light is nice to do if you have time to drop a nice heal on a rogue or something.

Cleanse - This will get a lot of use. There are a lot of important debuffs that need to be cleared in raids, so keep on your toes and be ready to cleanse. Decursive is one of those love/hate mods. I find that I lag too much in raids to contribute much, so I use it. If you are fortunate enough to have great FPS in massive groups, more power to you and I would encourage you to do it manually in case Blizzard does prevent Decursive from working in a future patch.

Blessings - the major reason why paladins get taken for raids. Usually, the 40 man raid will be divided by even and odd groups for paladins to divide labor. A 10/15/20 man raid will usually be covered by all paladins. The class leader will usually inquire what blessings people have and delegate blessings to paladins.

Every 4 minutes or so, you will be expected to refresh your blessings. The raid will not wait for you, so do it on the move or in the middle of combat if necessary. For the purposes of a ready check, paladin blessings count. So finish your blessings before hitting ready or hit not ready and let the raid know what's going on.

Re: Buff mods - if you need them, use them. It is far more impressive to show that you are paying attention and keeping your blessings up on your own. Whispercast personally drives me nuts, as it gives other people control of the casting when the blessing they need is from someone else.

Might - Warriors and Rogues.

Wisdom - Priests, Druid, Mage, Warlock, Hunter - Hunters because BoMight doesn't seem to help their ranged DPS :|

Kings - Everyone. Not essential to get but very nice to have. You may want to respec for it or respec out depending on the long term raid composition.

Salvation - Everyone but the tank and the lead mage when they are using AOE. Probably the most important blessing available, the Improved version is highly recommended as 15 minutes seems like an eternity at times.

Light - Everyone if possible, tanks otherwise. Very nice to have because of the nice boost to paladin healing.

Sanctuary - This one is less important in raiding because of the DPS of Mobs this high. Occasionally nice to have for mages in AoE situations. Let the class leader know and see if it will be needed.

Sacrifice - Very useful situationally. Tanks and mages when they will be taking a lot of damage. Remember to heal yourself as 55 damage on each hit can kill a paladin very quickly in raids.

Freedom - Very useful situationally. Not so much in Molten Core, but quite useful for High Priestess Mar'li in Zul'Gurub. Save it for the tank so they can continue rushing around and holding aggro.

Protection - Very useful situatationally, but be very careful to avoid using it on tanks and lead mages as it clears aggro. Key usage is when the healer gets aggro. Talent is nice to have as it makes it available close to every fight unless Anadrol is pulling

Auras - a specific buff for your party. Very nice to have, but remember to keep flipping around to ensure the best aura is active for the situation.

Devotion - a fine choice for most situations. The extra armor is rarely bad.

Retribution - for some AoE situations. An extra 20 damage here and there never hurt.

Concentration - Coupled with Spiritual Focus, heals are essentially uninterruptable. In a raid, the paladin should not be in risk, but nice to have active if you need to offtank something and heal.

Shadow, Frost, Fire Protection - when your group is low on resistances, these auras can be lifesavers. Know or ask about damage in advance so you can keep the proper aura up.

Sanctity Aura - if you ever need this aura up, congratulations on finding a unique situation. The other 6 are almost always more useful.

Seals - The most useful ones are Seal of Light, Seal of Wisdom, Seal of Justice, and Seal of Command. Light and Wisdom are amazing to have judged on a mob, but only one of each needs to be on the mob. Ask the class leader if you should be running in to use Judgment. Justice is for those times that something needs to stay put, but often ranged DPS, Crippling Poison, Curse of Recklessness, Curse of Exhaustion, Hamstring, Concussion Shot, Leg Clip, or Frost Nova will have taken care of things. Seal of Command is likely the best DPS output a paladin will have when using a two hander, Seal of the Crusader is probably better for a one hander.

Hammer of Justice and Hammer of Wrath - Often, mobs will be immune to Hammer of Justice, but you will learn in time. Save it for a mob going after a caster or to stop a runner. Hammer of Wrath is nice if you have a nice cushion of mana and you want to contribute. Just remember that the damage is nice, not essential and your primary role is healing and buffing.

Divine Intervention - This ability can save a wipe. Sometimes it doesn't work. If you're going down, it's worth a shot. Divine Shield or BoProtection yourself first so you can calm down and find the person furthest from the action who can rez. Once you land DI, let people know so they can die asap and give your sacrifice meaning. Don't forget the long cooldown and reagent cost.

Offtanking - not often. If you do, be proud that you got tapped for the role and make sure you do your best job possible. Sword/Board, Judge Fury, Seal of Fury, and keep it on you.

Out of Combat Rezzer - some boss fights need an out of combat rezzer. If you are asked to do so, stand as far away from the fight as possible and run in when necessary. If you get tagged in combat, run away first and wait. Sometimes you can drop back out of combat and go back to OOC rez again.

Gear - Start collecting a set of healing gear, focusing on stamina/intellect/+healing or effect on spells/spirit. Your minimum life should be 4000, when buffed. You want more than that if possible. Mana pool should be roughly the same, but will probably be higher. Paladin spells are generally cheap with the exception of Holy Light and BoWisdom helps a lot. This does not mean you should skimp.

Many of these items will be cloth/leather/mail, so what. A few more armor will not matter when something is smashing you for 1500 damage on a normal attack, and you should not be in melee range in a raid anyways. Getting this gear should not be at the expense of people who cannot wear anything but the lower levels of armor (Clothies).

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(short extra notes, by GrayFox)

Hiry's summary of the paladin role is spot on; "buff the raid every 4.5 minutes and use heals and Cleanse". That's basically it.

CTRaidAssist now has functionality built-in to it (as of a few versions ago) to cure debuffs, exactly like Decursive does. You map a key in the "Key Bindings" screen of the WoW client and you are hot to trot. You can even go into further detail and tweak priorities around under "Debuff Curing" in CTRA options, to change around who gets what debuff cured off of them first.

Note that the only type of debuff (aside from debuffs that don't have a type) that Cleanse can't clear is curse. For that, you need either a mage or a druid.

It should also be noted that, unlike your own Divine Shield, Blessing of Protection will only block incoming physical damage on the blessee; magical damage will still go through to them.

Other than that, Hiry pretty much nailed it. :)

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Priest - Alliance

(written by Treesh, Lurkers)

[T]he priest job is easy. Heal the main tank, keep an eye on any additional tanks that are in your group. We don't have strict healer rotations, but if you see a healer holler that they're out of mana, keep a closer eye on their group and the main tank. If you're a dwarven priest, fear ward the main tank in Onyxia and for Mags. If there's mind control around, dispell it. If not all groups have a priest, we'll ask for volunteers as to who wants to fort buff the groups without priests. There's usually a reminder before bosses that deal out heavy shadow damage to put up shadow ward.

There are no real tricks for healers to do. It's pretty much common sense. Don't play like a monkey. Don't burn through all your mana in the first 30 seconds of a fight and expect to get an innervate from the druids. In places with AoE fear, stay out of fear range. Don't get aggro, don't get hurt.

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Rogue - Alliance

(written by hiryuu1115)

Rogues get the lousy job in raiding. We have probably the best single-target damage output in the game, but are at the most risk while doing so. Unlike the rest of the DPS classes (with the exception of the DPS warrior), we will be in melee range and will probably get squished by an errant footstep. Alternately, the overanxious rogue will draw attention by doing too much damage and get flattened. Tip - don't do that

Feint - this ability is essential in raiding. A sucessful hit with Feint will reduce your threat to that mob, making it less likely to attack you. While Alliance rogues may get 30% less threat due to Blessing of Salvation, it is still important to use Feint liberally. Depending on the mob, the tank, and your damage output, you may not need to feint all that much. Other mobs may require you to feint every time you can and to back off in addition to that so the tank can establish aggro. This is something you learn through practice.

Vanish - also known as "poof." If you have been feinting liberally and you still get hit, Vanish is probably your best choice in a raid. If it works (sometimes a big IF), you leave combat and wipe aggro. This is good, since it lets you start in again. Just remember the 5 minute timer and reagent cost.

Utility skills - these don't get much use in raiding, see Mirajj's section on hitting one button. Sap is usually safe, but usually doesn't quite cut it; especially when you need to be in melee range. As someone who has used Improved Sap to pull UBRS, I can say that it was one of the most stressful runs ever. Distract can be useful to stop patrols, but will not be used all that often.

Poison - Instant Poison is pretty much all you use. Once in a while, Mind Numbing and Crippling. I usually keep 2 stacks of Instant, 2 stacks of Crippling, 1 stack of Mind Numbing, 2 stacks of Flash Powder and 1 stack of Blinding Powder. There have been reports of Mind Numbing being helpful in encounters like Onyxia.

Talent Spec - again, almost all talent specs will work. Some will work better than others. Personally, I would recommend 31/8/12 for a dagger rogue where Imp. Ambush gives you a solid opener, and Improved Backstab and Seal Fate allow quick generation of combo points for finishers. Alternately, sword/mace/fist rogues may want a 31+ combat build to maximize their Sinister Strike damage (remaining points often end up in Assassination). These builds focus on damage output, which is really all a rogue brings to the table in a raid.

Gear - Shadowcraft is decent as a whole, the standout pieces are probably the helm, belt, and boots. Depending on your build and preference, other blue items may be more preferable. For example, a Seal Fate Rogue might prefer items with straight +crit%, while a SS rogue might prefer items with +Attack Power to get a more consistantly powerful attack. Shadowpanther.net is a good place to start your wish list.

(written by Quark, Lurkers)

Rogues:

Rogues are top or near-top DPS every raid, but it comes at a price. Our job is more dangerous than most other jobs in raiding.

The first thing you need to know as a Rogue is that you are expendable. Don't expect any heals - only be thankful for them. If you're fighting with low life, back off and bandage. You should bring at least two stacks of bandages to a raid, because somedays you just might use over 25.

Health: The key here is breaking 4k fully buffed hitpoints. This allows you to take a few things before the healers notice you, or before you start using bandages and health pots. Lava Surger's Surge move does exactly 1k damage - you can take 4 of these then. Lucifron's magic debuff does 2000 damage - you can take 2 of these if you don't resist. The more often you can take a hit without dying, the less often you'll be stuck needing to bandage with the 'Recently Bandaged' debuff.

Positioning: Many mobs have AoEs, and most of them are Point Blank. Learn the difference between how these work, and how your positioning is key in reducing damage. If it's a circular PBAoE, well, you're stuck. Such is the life of the Rogue - you're going to take damage. If it's a conical PBAoE, always be behind the target. If your combat log says you've been hit with a Cleave, you're out of position. Even if you use swords or maces, act like you use daggers and need to be behind the targets at all time.

The one noticeable exception to this is Gehennas' guards. They have an attack that is both circular ('Hand of Ragnaros' stun) and conical ('Cleave' damage) - learn to only be taking one.

Tactics: Do pure DPS as long as you are using you Feint skill to counteract the aggro. You should get a feel for how often Feints are necessary - push the limits on trash mobs to make sure you know when you need to cutoff. If you get aggro in a really dangerous position, Vanish. Most important - make sure you have a Blessing of Salvation before you start doing damage. If you don't, hold off on your damage until you do. As for our skillset, there's not much more than using your pure DPS skills while raiding. Rupture and Garrote are wasteful - Slice and Dice and Eviscerate are your finishing moves of choice. Particularly when DoTs on Onyxia are called for, don't bite. Other classes can DoT at little cost - when Rogues use Rupture, they're sacrificing the better Eviscerate.

Mind Numbing Poison is quite useful against many of the bosses. Instant Poison is a good increase to DPS, but many of the elementals are immune to it.

Gear: Basically, whatever raises your damage as long as you're not going too far and killing your 4k hp goal. For many fights, Fire Resist is key. Rogues need Fire Resist almost as much as the main tank needs it, so don't be afraid to be wearing crappy greens in a fight if it means giving you Fire Resist. Shadow Resist is helpful in some fights, but never really necessary. The best thing to do is get yourself a Felhide Cap and a Nightbrace Tunic - they both have good overall stats, fire resist, and shadow resist. Wear these (and other resist gear) when resist is important.

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Warlock - Alliance

(written by q4m)

Being a warlock in Molten Core -

Though most of the warlocks in Avarice capable of doing MC (that I know of) are already on these runs, maybe this will be helpful for a new warlock

Gear - Most of us are wearing +shadow damage and +stamina, end game gear (such as Dreadmist, robe of void, felcloth). The balance between +stam and +dmg differs depending on the warlock. I have seen that a fully damage geared warlock can be near the top in damage dealers. Tahapenes is consistently at or near the top. On the other hand, a +stam geared warlock can get quite a bit of life. Last time I checked, my warlock can get 6.7k life fully buffed. I think the main thing here is, get end game gear. Also, start thinking about a +fire resist set.

Shards - Bring them. Bring a lot of them. I usually bring 30-40 to a MC run. I also end quite a lot of the pulls with drain soul.

Healthstones - I generally make sure I and all the tanks have one. Other than that, I generally do not pass them out simply because I can't carry enough shards. If I could carry a couple hundred shards, the story would be different. I try to pass stones to the tanks before they ask.

Soulstone - The warlocks will have a channel. It will be decided amongst the warlocks who will be "stoned". If it's your stone that's up, keep track of it. Always know how long until you need to re-stone. Have a new one ready to go before you need it. Generally you will be stoning a paladin. I use a mod called shard tracker (or maybe is shard status). It plays a wav file when soulstone cooldown is complete and puts a countdown on my display. I highly recommend it.

Combat - You will get to use a couple of buttons during a fight. We've been trying to coordinate one warlock doing curse of elements (on non-fire immunes) and one warlock on curse of shadow. Try and keep those curses up, especially shadow. Then you just spam shadow bolt. Drain soul at the end if you need shards (as I'm sure you all know). In an onyxia raid, you will get to use some DoTs as well during phase 2 if you are in range.

Pets - Use the Imp. The tanks will love you for the extra 42 stamina. Sometimes a tank will call for an "imp totem". "I need an imp totem here", for example. This means you are to bring your imp to the tank and put it on stay. Your imp should always be phase shifted and not attacking. The only time you will not be using your imp is during a Garr fight.

Garr fights - You have two jobs during a garr fight. 1. Stay alive and 2. Keep your target banished. You will be using big blue on this fight and will likely have a hunter pet helping you out. You'll be assigned one of Garr's adds. When the go signal is given, send blue in (his taunt on). CoS and banish. Now you have a few seconds to heal your pet. Get that pet healed up while you're add is banished because he's going to take hard hits while you're rebanishing. Ideally, your add should not be near Garr. If it is, say so in /ra so appropriate action can be taken. If blue dies, get another out ASAP, you cannot take many hits (3...MAYBE) from one of the adds. I have been 3 shotted by these guys and I had ~6.2k life. Do not change targets. You will not be doing any damage. Chain banish...that's all you do. Eventually, the tanks will come to your add and grab it from you to be killed.

Lava pack fights - You will be a banish bot again. Get CoS on your mob and chain banish. Do not change targets to help with the damage until the raid is ready to kill yours. Keep that add banished at all times. Your target will be one of the stone elementals. Keep an eye on your life during these pulls, all this stuff hits quite hard.

Misc hints - Bring a lot of bandages. If you don't have heavy runecloth, get it. Keep banish hotkeyed if you don't already. Remember your imp totem. Always know who is stoned and approximately for how much longer (can't emphasize that enough). Listen to the raid leader and do what they say...always.

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Warrior - Alliance

(written by Darian, Carpe Aurum)

In Molten Core, there are essentially a total of four possible roles you can play.

1) Main Tank. As a newbie, you'll almost certainly not be asked to fill this role, as the main tank is generally going to be either the best-geared or the most experienced (or both). If you are called on, however, your job is painfully simple: get aggro, hold aggro, avoid being feared, survive. Regardless of your spec, you should be in defensive stance and carrying a shield unless you're so ridiculously geared that healers have no trouble keeping you on your feet while 2H or dual-wielding. Sunder Armor and Revenge are your best friends, and you'll be mashing them every chance you get. Your job is not to pump DPS. Your job is to keep the mob's attention. Period. Sometimes you will be the puller; most times you won't. It's important for the main tank to understand and accept this, and to know when it's time to let someone else do the job.

2) Main Assist. Again, this role won't fall to you as a newbie, but you may be called on. Your choice of weapon, stance, and spec isn't that relevant (unless you're also serving as secondary tank); your job is simply to pick the target and call DPS. You generally want to call DPS on the target once 5 sunders have been landed by whoever's actually tanking the mob, except on boss mobs when the rules are completely different depending on the boss. Sometimes, there won't be an MA at all -- Onyxia, Magmadar, Geddon, Shazzrah, Golemagg are all good examples. Sometimes, the MA will just be the secondary tank (double giant pulls). Sometimes, we actually require TWO main assists for a fight (double firelord pulls). Adaptability is vital.

3) Secondary tanks. This encompasses a couple of different situations. One is the "kill one and move on to the next" battle plan, used on double giant pulls, Lucifron, Garr, Sulfuron, and Majordomo. For this role, it's important that you be able to take punishment, but we'll set a kill order for the mobs in question, cascading down from the best-geared tank. If you're not really well-geared up, there's still room for you at the lower end of the chain on the mobs which will die first. The second situation is the "keep 'em busy" role. This applies to both the core hound packs in MC, and being in a whelp group on an Onyxia run; you just want to hold aggro while AoE burns relatively benign mobs down.

4) None of the above. One of the most difficult roles for a tank in raiding situations is to not have an assigned role at all, or to have a very limited role where you're the fifth offtank on the core hound packs or your target is the first kill target on a Garr attempt. A lot of tanks have asked me in these situations what they should be doing. Basically... you're just DPS. Stay out of the fight until the DPS call, then come unload.

The skills you use are going to be directly related to your role. Sunder, Revenge, Taunt if you're tanking (and Challenging Shout if you're the assigned warrior in an Onyxian whelp group -- you won't have a lot of use for it in MC). Your usual suite of DPS abilities if you're not tanking. Straightforward.

Gear... armor isn't important if you're not tanking. If you are, it is. One mistake you desperately need to avoid, however, is to build a single set of gear that leans heavily on one specific attribute. Some tanks were completely blown apart by putting together +def builds only to see Blizzard nerf +def, for example. In addition, gear which is heavily loaded toward one attribute is, by necessity, deficient in all others. The best bet is to have your main gear be balanced. In your pocket, a set of FR gear is vital as well.

Being a tank on an Avarice raid -- so long as you're on board with the game plan and not being a divisive ass who doesn't want to follow instructions -- is in my opinion one of the funnest "jobs" in the game. It's all about teamwork (and that's the thing the Avarice tank corps takes the most pride in, being a TEAM that supports one another), being prepared to leap headlong into the breach when the guy in front of you falls in battle, and executing detailed plans of action under the command of the raid leader and/or main tank.

(written by Gnollguy, Lurkers)

Having been one of the few warriors that has played all the roles that Darian mentioned more than once in both MC and Onyxia I figure I can give a few tips. I'll start on the other end of his list. This is for MC/Ony as well.

Gear: I've taken the other route and use wardrobe to specialize my outfits for various encounters. Fire lords do pure fire damage so I pump that on them. I have high arcane outfits for Shazz, I have a mix of fire resist and def for ancient core hounds. I have a higher DPS set up. I have a DPS with a chance that I'll have to offtank set-up. You don't have to do this and keep in mind if you do you need to be quick with the changes since you can't change in combat. The other thing to keep in mind though is that stamina can almost never do you wrong. Sure optimal may be more def or more FR but when in doubt stamina with decent armor can't hurt you.

Main Tank : Darian covered it. You will have rage flowing in at a huge rate. So you can actually throw out shield slams and heroic strikes as well. These are high aggro skills and with as much rage as you have you don't need to worry about the most aggro/rage (which is actually revenge followed by shield bash). The job is all about aggro.

Main Assist : What Darian said again. When you learn the tanks better you will learn how soon you can call DPS but then again calling at 3 sunders vs 5 saves the raid all of about 10 seconds so the 5 sunder rule is generally pretty safe. As mentioned in places like Onyxia there will be someone who is calling DPS but the raid isn't really assisting them. As mentioned the MA won't always be a warrior either but we like to use them simply because of the CTRA tank windows it makes it easier. We do expect all warriors to understand when and how to call DPS in Molten Core though so pay attention or ask the other warriors when they are doing it.

Secondary Tanks : One skill that you should use if you aren't being beat on is thunderclap. 10% slower attacks on the mob is a good thing.

Some more specifics. We use 2 tanks per Molten Giants to keep them in place if they punt the other tank. The secondary tanks job is to stay just behind the primary tanks aggro on that mob. If you are backing up the main tank generally this means you sit in battle stance, make sure a thunder clap is on the mob and whack it. If the mob punts the MT flop into defensive stance to lower the damage of the one or two hits you'll take if you want. If the MT dies be ready to play tank. Since this is the second target to die you'll have plenty of time to build secondary aggro there is no need to try and take aggro from the other tank the healers aren't looking at your health as closely. If you are backing up the tank on the first target to die you are doing basically the same thing. After they land 5 sunders and DPS is called you may want to throw a sunder or higher aggro hit of your own in there now and then since the raid damage is coming and your job is to make sure that thing hits you when it punts the other tank.

If we have the tanks we'll also assign you as a back up in fights like Lucifron and Gehennas on the guards. In the Luci fight especially with the mind control you have to be on your toes. When we are short on warriors and using paladins or bear druids as back-ups you might even get the job of roaving tank in Luci which means you back up everyone, and trust me with Mind Controls you will very likely end up tanking every mob in that fight for a time, though you are less likely to see Luci. I've been in the position where I tanked Luci and both guards for a period of time in that fight thanks to mind controls. It's fun trying to get enough aggro to keep the mob off the raid but keep it low enough so that the other tank can get it back when they get back to you.

You'll end up tanking Lave Packs and Garr adds as well.

None of the above : This can actually be a lot of fun, though now that we've gotten better you are less likely to have to jump in and main tank or pick up a patrol that got to close. But your job is to do DPS. Thunderclap will still help out here, again 10% slower attack means less damage to the MT and more chances to see holy fire or starfire from the healers and those are pretty spells you want to see them. But you get to pretend to be a rogue. Check Quarks post about the rogues, this is you but you have plate mail and the chance that if someone dies you might the one holding aggro and getting all the heals. You will be a little higher on the heal list than a rogue but not much bring bandages with you as well.

Skills : One other thing a whelp group tank should do is dem shout and piercing howl if you have it. This is true anytime you are supporting AoE though. Thunderclaps are nice too but a little trickier to get out. But this is true for anytime you are a tank supporting AoE. You want to have as little damage as possible hitting that mage or warlock. So do try to tank as many of the whelps as you can. It will take them some time to kill you even with a large pack on you and little healing coming your way.

Shield wall and Last Stand both have uses as main or secondary tank. Don't be afraid to use them. If you aren't directly tanking shield walling when you take aggro of if you have to step up when the MT goes down can often give the healers enough time to find you and send heals your way.