HeHoR, I Don't Like You

Halls of Reflection is a cool instance. I like it on Normal mode. It's interesting, to me, the small gauntlet at the beginning. Fighting ourselves in the second room. The sensation that, while Arthas is stalking us down and Jaina's melting walls while we fight off packs of Scourge, I'm actually not playing an MMO but rather experiencing a scenario within a third person Warcraft strategy game in isometric view. That just strikes me as downright cool. I've never experienced that in a game, ever (well, clearly I refer to those games which are not iso view strat games).

Halls of Reflection on Heroic I dislike intensely. This is entirely due to the PUGs I've run it with - and I know it's due entirely to these strangers because changing just 1 stranger within that group can make the instance a challenge rather than a painful exercise in futility. Often it's a matter of the Tank quite simply failing to be able to aggro and control multiple mobs despite the DPS focusing fire on the same target - this I consider to be the tank's fault. Often again it's a matter of the DPS splitting damage and trying oh-so-hard to tank different mobs themselves -- hey, here's a thought, you're not a Tank so don't do it. Your healer is cooling on the ice cold stone-and-saronite floor now, thank you for assisting Arthas, there. Most of the time I just let them keel over because, well, I have to choose who lives and dies and my first choice is, "Not the tank." After which would be myself, after which would be the properly behaving DPS, followed by the DPS that I'm really hoping will die so they're not eating my cooldowns (since mana's less of an issue, it's the cooldowns that kill my groups in HHoR).

Tanks:

• Do not tank in the center of the room. Go ahead and run out to get some initial aggro but COME BACK to our safe little cubby hole! I don't care if it's the hall you first enter the room from, or behind one of the two bosses in that room, just slink back in there after you've made yourself known to them! Please use your ranged abilities to piss off even the ranged adds. You'll get your heals faster if you do.

DPS:

• You are not the Tank. Your pet is not the Tank. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CONTROL ADDS THROUGH TANKING MEANS. Your pet will die, you will die, then I will die and the real Tank will die. If adds are eating the face of someone who's not the tank and you're not splitting focus, it's probably the tank's fault. I know it might be tempting to try to save the day, but this is significantly less helpful than you seem to think it is.
  
• Don't split your damage - focus on a single target. Go ahead and let the group know what order you plan to kill things in. I've heard Priest -> Mage -> everything else, and I've heard Priest -> Mage -> Hunter -> everything else. I'm partial to taking out the hunters specifically because they just looove to ice block me (I would assume other healers as well) and my Every Man for Himself has a cooldown that the Hunters don't care about. Splitting damage means two things: You're basically going to tank something you shouldn't be tanking (see above), and everything will go down much, much slower. Except us. We'll all die much more quickly.

I haven't had any issues in the second room, so moving on...

The "Arthas is a creepy stalker-ex" part hasn't posed much of a problem for my groups, assuming we made it past the first room. I've heard horror stories, but really, my groups have been pretty good at this step.

That said, I've witnessed one hiccup, that being: Tanking the Scourge too far from Jaina. Which is another way of saying Tanking the Scourge too close to Arthas. Arthas walks at a steady single pace, and our job is to take out the Scourge. When we've taken out the Scourge, Jaina takes that as her cue to pull down an ice wall. Each wave of Scourge is successively harder - more mobs, more hard mobs by the very end.

There's no reason I'm aware of to keep the Scourge away from Jaina. The fact that the tank should have a sharp implement swinging within millimeters of their eye is one way to make sure they're on players, but the DPS is probably going to be hitting them with some stray AE damage, and let's not forget that they really dislike noticing that there's someone hiding at the back that's healing people. I've never actually seen them hit Jaina, though they've certainly had some interest in nomming on my face.

There IS reason to keep the Scourge away from Athas - that being, if the Scourge is near Arthas, then the Tank is near Arthas, and Arthas has a delightful little ambiance about him. One that slows your movement speed, and does (I've heard) 8k damage per tick. Sure, the Tank can probably eat a bit of that damage. Your DPS melee can't, however. And eat it they will, because your healer will be shrieking epithets at the back of your head which, due to Arthas scintillating conversation, you likely won't be able to make out over the sounds of your limbs slowly shattering in the cold.

So, sure, fight the Scourge where you will ... until Arthas gets close. Then pull back. You've probably got the Scourge under control at that point, and if you don't, then your DPS is probably slow enough for no apparent reason that you're all doomed anyway. At least if you die near Jaina you can look at her hot new bedroom eyes before you get thrown off the ledge.

I don't like Heroic Halls of Reflection. It requires a certain level of player experience. I don't refer simply to "experience within Halls of Reflection," but also experience in making use of Line of Sight for pulling, experience in focusing fire, experience in tanking multiple mobs (yes, even ranged mobs - tanks have SOME sort of taunt abilities with some sort of range beyond actual melee). I'm not saying that I think everyone sucks - they clearly don't. Most players excel, whether through skill or just plain old experience. But PUGs are random enough that HHoR is my nightmare, now. That tank with ICC tanking gear? Yeah, he won the rolls, but having 100k hp and avoidance like nobody's business isn't actually keeping the mobs off the rest of the group. That 10k DPS guy? Fabulous DPS - cept when he's eating concrete because he got aggro and held it close to his heart like a miser with gold.

So yeah. HeHoR - I don't like you.

I could stop pugging it, and then I could just snark at those people it's safe to snark at, but the people I know conspire against such possibilities. Darn all of them! The Tank who'll only stay logged on for Raids, the DPS/Healer who's addicted to outlevelling her husband's alt, and the DPS who refuses to log in during normal hours, but will log in right about when normal people are going to bed! You know who you are!