Scared to do instances

[Teigan]

So, I'm running into a problem with my hunter, and once I have Loremaster, a nether ray and a Kalu'ak fishing pole, I'm probably going to have to do something about it! Very simply, I'm scared to go into instances. Which means I can't get better gear. Which means, once I'm done with my little achievements, what am I going to do with Teigan?
You are probably wondering what my problem is. Well, lvling up, my computer really, really sucked. So bad I couldnt' move more than a few steps at time in Stormwind! There was no way I could have a group depending on me in a dungeon. I also didn't know anyone at my level and the few times I grouped with someone, it was a bad experience. So, I basically soloed to 80. Then I realized that I wanted to do some of these dungeon things people were always talking about...and what the heck was a "heroic"? So, I found a guild. Why they accepted me I'll never know. Here's a link to my armory and this is an improvement *hides in shame* You can laugh if you want to. http://www.wowarmory.com/character-shee ... &cn=Teigan
They run lots of heroics and raid some and are really nice people. But I can't help but think if they are starting to wonder why they are in "insert heroic instance here" and I'm in the Wetlands killing murlocs?
I've read what I"m supposed to do in a general sense in instances, but I'm really a lvl 1 noob disguised as an 80. What do I do? Try to use that dungeon finder thing and run with people I don't know as practice? But, they'll probably yell at me... Or embarrass myself in front of my guild? Kinda a rock and a hard spot.

[Dewclaw]

I was shy at first too, you just gotta jump in and get your feet wet as it were. A few things you'll find helpful is to make sure growl is off, set focus on the tank so you can target the tank's target easily, and if you're into addons, deadly boss mods is a really nice mod to have in dungeons. Other than that, it's just basics, don't stand in fires, poisons, etc. It might also be helpful to browse some dungeon encounters on wowwikki so you get a feel for the boss fights. Are you gonna run into some mean people? Probably, but just ignore them. You'll meet nice people too. Practice makes perfect, and it gets easier. Have some faith in yourself, and good luck!

PS: You don't *have* to do dungeons. If you're happy with your toon as she is, then by all means keep at it. It's a game, it's meant to be fun.

[Torachi]

Believe it or not, you're not the only one terrified to run instances. >.> I am, too. My brother and I pretty much solo'd our way to 80, with the exception of him being unafraid to do instances. He managed to recently get me into a few runs with him, and I got a couple good pieces of gear, but the rest of my armor is bought from the AH... and you don't want to know how much gold I have wasted because of my fears of instancing and getting a nasty group.

Honestly, don't do what I've done, and let your fears get the better of you. Talk to your guild. Tell them that you'd like to try to start raiding with them, but that you are new to it, and that your computer might be a total fail at times. Trust me, if I could raid with a computer looking like this: http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs50/f/2009/ ... igress.jpg ...I think you might be able to, also. Now mind you, if I went to Dalaran with that thing... pfft. I'd be sitting there for a good 10-20 minutes just waiting for everything to load fully and for me to be able to inch my way around. -.-

It never hurts to give it a shot. I don't think your guild will have an issue with helping you out.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

My first computer with WoW was a total pos, but I still used to do instances and sometimes even raid with no problems. The important thing is to give it a shot. See, here is the thing: Some people are going to tell you that you suck, no matter how bad you do. I've been called a fail DPS, even though I was pulling over 4,500dps as beast master in five mans, and had the highest damage by a good ten percent. I've been called a fail healer because I, as a paladin, had to make a conscious decision to let a DPS die in order to save the tank, and thus the group. Even when you know they are just being pissants, it'll probably upset you and make you angry. But it really is worth it in the end.

To be honest, in my five years this is about the best geared my characters have ever been, and it's nice.

[Karathyriel]

When I started playing WoW with my Tauren Warrior, I didn't even know

• what an instance is
• that every class had a role in the group
• what a tank is
• that you get better in loot there

So it just happened that I was invited for the Wailing Caverns and, as I had no clue what I was doing, I pulled more aggro from my group then I did from mobs. As those people chose to say bad words instead of telling me what I needed to know, and every other group rather kicked me then help me when I told them I've never been in an instance before, I was rather quickly finished with the whole instance business.
Even better, my hunter (2nd character ever) never ever set foot in any instance until level 80.
No guild, no group, no mates, I leveled both of them solo and thought about people who raided as demi-gods of game play.

What should I tell you? With level 80, I found a guild that took there time and helped me. I learned tanking in Karazhan and my guild mates endured wipe after wipe without complaining. The hunters first ever instance was some daily heroic.
Then, when I saw that an instance is just fun and a little bit of team play, I was interested in it. I asked one from the most successful guild who there best hunter was, put hi in my friends list and asked him if he could help me learning to play my hunter, which he did. He told me about stats, about skills, about glyphs and about rotation.

I'm not the best hunter there is and i probably never will be but when I saw a tank write in the group channel that I was "at least one hunter that's fun to play with", I knew I was doing my job and followed orders, when special tactics were needed.

Instances and raiding are fun! Talk to your guild mates about it and I'm pretty sure, each and every one of them can come up with an alt that needs equipping and is willing to join you in those numerous quests and instances, help you understand what happens and maybe make you be a worthy member of their raid. You only have to be willing to learn and to listen.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

And your gear isn't that bad. I'd suggest doing dailies for the Knights of the Ebon blade for the two handed sword they sell, that thing will do wonders for you, and for quite a while, too.

[Foru21dr]

I also have the same situation. When I first started playing, I had a friend who had been on for a couple of years introduce me to the game. I was invited into the guild she was in. This group did not really care to do instances, so I basically leveled up doing the quests. I was too chicken to do pugs at the time for fear that my being a noob with get me into trouble with the group I was in, and I felt to guilty to leave the guild I was in for fear of hurting my friends feelings. One person in the guild group took me into the battlegrounds because he thought I would like to play it, and I did find it to be a lot of fun. I was able to get decent gear doing pvp.
I’ve been playing now for a couple of years, and had several alt characters. When dungeon finder came out, I decided that I wanted to do instance runs and I wanted to do it on a new alt character so that I can do the low dungeuns (have not been in any) and maybe I can learn enough going through them that I will not cause to much grief when I get to the higher levels where there is some strategy needed. I also found that if I was in a new dungeon, I would tell the group that this is a run I do not know. Most times the people are helpful when I told them. I have been learning as we go, and have only had a few times where I was doing something wrong and was yelled at for it. Even then, I would say sorry and what should I do in this case. Most of the time, that seems to calm them down, and some then give instruction on what I should do. Other times it doesn’t, and if it gets too uncomfortable, I say that I don’t seem to be good for this group and that I’m going to leave so they can get someone else to come in. I then leave. It is a nice feature of the dungeon finder. You can get yourself out of a group and back to where you were originally playing without being stuck in a run and having to take death to get out. If I am leaving a group, I always let them know. Truthfully, I have only had to do it once. I forgot to set my pet to passive and I caused a wipe with my pet pulling to large of a group when it ran off and drew more mobs to us. Tank would not take an appology not stop harrassing me so I left. Easy enough to do.

I also like Kara’s suggestion of looking for a guild that is willing to help you. You may have to be willing to dedicate the time and be available to do the runs when they set them up. But all in all, have fun with the game. I know I have been enjoying these runs with my alt character.

[Artume]

Do I ever know the feeling. It's called performance anxiety.

I was once lucky enough to belong to a very tight guild where we were all RL friends and did anything necessary to accommodate one another. We would discuss how to spec in order to best support the group, and if it was felt that if a different class was needed, someone would volunteer to roll one up and we'd all help to level it. We took things slowly and learned encounters the hard way, through trial and error. It was a very forgiving environment and we really looked after one another.

The people in that guild all eventually drifted away (right out of the game) and I became really unsure of my own ability to carry on. I joined another guild. My main is a feral druid and at the time was only ever wanted for tanking. You can't really be reticent in a role like that, so I repsec'ed to DPS to have an excuse to dodge instances. Eventually I stopped doing instances altogether.

One day one of my old guild mates resumed his subscription and took me by the scruff of the neck into pugs. I was a nervous wreck, but played out my skin because of it, and got to be rather proficient again even if I do say to myself. So, long story short, I would suggest you try to find an instancing buddy: someone you can whisper to in moments of confusion or self-doubt. Better still, if you can find a newish social guild, resign yourself to retreading old ground with them, and get in on the first wave of instancing, you'll find that level of comfort you need. They might be super casual and a bit shambolic (we were ) but they are all at the stage where they must learn to play as a unit, and will also make mistakes.

I'm instance-dodging again myself, but this time it's because I'm a bit burned out. But I'm also eyeballing the recruitment spam in the chat channel and looking for the next new guild that might need an old-timer who isn't in a hurry.

[Teigan]

Thanks guys. I guess I"m not the only one after all. Thank you for the encouragement and commiseration and advice. I will read up on specific encounters and maybe I'll feel like joining in when my guild does open invites for heroics. I don't think I'll look for a new guild, though. These guys seem nice enough so far. I think if I speak up and ask, someone will help me. That's gonna be awkward, but...if I want to pursue this I have to learn somehow. Your arguments for a start up guild are pretty good though. LF other noobs.

And it is just a game, after all. No one is gonna dump pig's blood on my head! (Carrie reference..."They're all gonna laugh at you!" er...yeah)

My motto in real life is that ignorance has never stopped me before. An epic fail is still, after all, epic.

[BooBoo]

I have a suggestion for you. I have a lvl 70 rogue who has never stepped foot in a dungeon. Why? Because I also felt that at lvl 70, I should know what I was doing. Then I started my hunter alt. I realized that at such a low lvl, it would be a safe place to learn the ropes. Of course I'm a noob! I'm lvl 20! lol nobody has to know you have a lvl 80 toon somewhere else. So make an alt and throw him/her in the dungeons. There's no pressure, and once you see how fun it is, then you can bring out your main. I hope this helps. I really know how you feel.

[Karrosh]

No joke, same here.

Soloed my way to 80 because, for the most part, I didn't know there was really any other way. I knew that instances existed, and I knew they had better loot, but I also knew it would require interacting with players I didn't know and was potentially an embarrassing/frustrating experience. As I play this game in order to get away from stress and the frustrations of my daily life, I felt that the grind soling quests was an adequate trade-off if it meant avoiding name-calling or just generally not fun experiences during my wind down time.

Eventually, after reaching 80 without setting foot in a dungeon (save for the one time a friend of mine ran me through Wailing Caverns) I realized that although I'd maxed out my level, I was poor and running around in almost entirely random greens from various Northrend quests. I decided to put some effort in and start grinding dailies to earn some rep gear, and some cash to hit the AH.

For some reason though, I still have a very strong aversion to having to do anything that requires another player. I skipped so much stuff just because it was something I couldn't solo. I only had a couple real life friends in the game for a little while, they sucked me in after a few years off, but they were all max level while I was running around getting to 20. They ended up leaving the game, and because I pop on for short bursts and don't talk much I never made any in game friends. Made it hard to get into any of the deeper stuff in game.

It's a weird situation. I spent some years playing, in essence, as antisocially as possible. The first instance I ran with people who were all close to my level was Ragefire Chasm with one of Ryno's alts and a couple other guildies. Since then I have entered 0, and am approaching level 40. Woops.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

I did some instances leveling, back in the day. Healed a bit as my paladin ((I was healing in strength and stamina gear, but we never had a problem)) and did a few little instances as my hunter. Once my paladin hit sixty though, I used to instance constantly. This was back in Vanilla, which means I had the good old "LFG" channel to work with. And multiple times nightly, I'd put together groups for UBRS, Stratholme, and Scholomance, all in an attempt to at least finish my tier 0 set.

This took me six months.

During this time, I ran with all sorts of people. Nice people, mean people. Good people and bad. You meet so many different kinds of people. Course back then it was all same server, but the point remains that you'll meet many different people if you instance. It's worth it, in the end, if you can make yourself not be so angry at the stupid ones.