I have been a longtime solo player. Given life’s busyness, I have never had much opportunity to do big raids (just LFR) or even spend the time gearing up for mythics. However, lately I have had more time due to some changes and I’ve been interested in getting into mythics and mythic+ dungeons.
I’ve read the Wowhead guide on mythic. I will likely play my BM Hunter given that it’s the character I feel most comfortable with and comes with some good utility (traps, interrupt, pet taunt), as well as hunter’s mark and the like.
What should I know going into Mythic that the guides won’t tell you? Are there plugins that are “needed” (I know, no one NEEDS them, but alerts can be huge for success)? Are there any unwritten rules that are good to know?
My plan currently is to just get up to Mythic +3 and see how it is. I also do not have a guild and am not planning on joining one, so I don’t know if that will impact so heavily, I shouldn’t really consider running Mythics.
The only way to learn and get better is just by doing it. If you’ve never done it before, you’re probably going to suck at it at first just like we all did. If you die to something, make a note of what it was and what you could have done differently to avoid it next time. 9/10 times if you died it’s your fault, and that’s something that a lot of new and bad players refuse to accept. If you’re not pulling the dps you think you should be for your item level, look up a talent/rotation guide and make sure you’re specced and hitting your buttons in the optimal order. Practice on training dummies and make sure you’re using keybinds instead of mouse clicking.
As far as addons, you don’t truly NEED any until much higher levels. Some will make things easier, but it requires a general understanding of what all of the other classes do, what your class capabilities are, and what you’re going to encounter in the dungeon before you’d get any use out of them. That being said, bigwigs/littlewigs are timers for boss and trash casts that once you know what to expect from the encounter can be very helpful with sound cues and I would recommend getting those first.
You don’t need a guild to pug M+ at all. However, you could join a community either in game or discord and try to make connections or build your friends list through there by adding good players you pugged with. Playing M+ with a coordinated group, or at the very least a group of people you know the level at which they can perform, is always better than joining 4 randoms.
There are very few instances where you’ll use pet taunt and you will want it to be off during M+ runs so all of the aggro stays on the main tank.
Make sure you are stocked up on healing potions and you know how to use your defensives and damage mitigating abilities. Staying alive is the most important part of PvE content; you can’t do damage when you’re dead. As I said above, 9/10 times if you die it’s your fault. Don’t fall into the trap of blaming the healer or other players for your mistakes that seems to plague a lot of low key runners.
Yeah - that’s actually one reason I did leave the raiding I did originally. I was a healer at the time and it just wasn’t fun get whispers about how “you suck, give up on this game” kind of stuff. I don’t want to put anyone else in that position, so the reminder is much appreciated. I stay focused on my job and try to be the best I can at it. (And, honestly, I don’t know how tanks do it. That role just confuses me! I’m glad there are people who are good at it!)
Raiding and M+ are a bit different in the healing sense.
Raiding can put out a lot of what’s called rot damage. Unavoidable damage that can be mitigated but the entire raid is going to take it, and the healers need to muscle through it. M+ has some of this, but you’ll see far more deaths to spike damage and one shot mechanics that if the player in question gets hit by, it’s because they’re standing in something they shouldn’t be or didn’t pop a defensive.
This is also where bigwigs/littlewigs can come in handy because (and someone can correct me if I’m wrong here, maybe it’s a weakaura that does it) if you’re being targeted by something like a Bone Spike or Rock Throw, it will alert you to that incoming cast and you can pop a mitigation ability to lessen the damage instead of taking the full force of it. The best DPS are the ones that stay alive and require the least healing attention.