Dungeon Professionals: Wipes
by JR Cook - 9 years ago show comments
It does not matter how long you have been playing MMOs or how good you are, we have all wiped in dungeons and will continue to do so from time to time. Even the best statics can be brought low by a sudden mistake or uncontrollable factor. You also know how frustrating they can be; what should have been an easy run through a simple dungeon turns into an hour-long blame game. However, a wipe does not have to mean the end of a dungeon; most can be salvaged, it just requires that you understand the root cause of the wipe.
Death by Mechanics
This is the most common cause of a group wipe, even more so when the dungeon in question is new content. Many bosses have varying mechanics, some obvious and others not, that can quickly lead to a group’s demise. Even well-known bosses can easily take advantage of a new player, and if that player happens to be the tank or healer then it does not take long for the rest of the group to follow suit. Hopefully any new players have already announced their presence and someone has taken the time to explain things, as not doing this is a sure-fire way to find your group back at the graveyard. Experienced players can also cause a wipe due to mechanics; maybe they are bored and just lose focus, or they might even incorrectly think that the group can just bypass certain aspects of the fight; this happens most often near the end of an expansion’s life-span, when most players are geared well-past what is necessary.
It is not difficult to spot a player that is not following the mechanics; they are the one standing in fire or not adapting to adds. Thankfully, this type of wipe is the most easy to fix as a simple explanation can change the outcome of the next attempt. If time permits during the encounter itself, you might even be able to avoid a wipe entirely if you notice someone not following the mechanics and can type fast enough to tell them what to do. The challenge truly does not come into play until this wipe has happened several times. Either the player is not noticing your advice or simply choosing not listen, but this is when it’s time to start considering the vote-kick or simply abandoning if it’s multiple people in the group causing the wipes.
Death by Internet
One of the most enjoyable things about MMOs is the Massively Multiplayer part of it, being able to play with hundreds thousands of players around the world simultaneously. The downside to that, however, is that your enjoyment of the game is based in large part to the whims of your internet provider and the hardware they supply you with. Whether it be your ethernet cord getting pulled out, a router getting overloaded, or any other selection of the wide number of possibilities that can interrupt a connection, a sudden disconnect can quickly spell doom for a dungeon group.
A player that has disconnected for whatever reason is usually easy to spot; they will be the one running into a wall or spinning in circles. During the chaos of a boss fight, however, it is easy to mistake a disconnected player for one that does not know the mechanics. The first thing to look for is whether or not they acknowledge your advice or adapt to what is happening to them at all; a player who stands in fire but then runs out when they get yelled at or when they notice their health plummeting might not know the mechanics, but the player that simply stands there until they die might be disconnected. Unfortunately there is not a lot that a group can do to fix a disconnected player; the fix is entirely on the user’s end. I recommend giving a suddenly-disconnected player roughly 5-minutes after the disconnect becomes apparent before you start considering kicking them, as there is a good chance that they’re frantically trying to fix whatever issue is plaguing them. Any longer and they are likely gone for good.
