I was not doing much of group activities in game for the past 3-4 expansions and restarting those now caused a lot of frustration. You’re expected to know everything (and not only “mechanics” but all the possible ticks & tricks other classes can do). So I decided it’s worth sharing what I learned and hope others will join.
Go go go
Top level dungeons have a timer that you should beat in order to get a better score and “push” the key. That means that the group should rush though the dungeon, following an optimized route and avoid unnecessary packs. Though this is only valid for mythic+ dungeons you’ll see people trying to do the same in the leveling dungeons. You have two options here: leave if you find this pace disturbing or just bear with it and avoid breaking croud control or engaging extra foes with your abilities.
Croud control places you in a fight
We used to be able to shackle or polymorph a monster and just pass through it. Well, not anymore - it’ll come after you and bring everything it will find on you way. Unless character can come out of fight (vanish for rogues or feign death for hunters) it’s a bad idea to leave a controlled monster behind.
Group invisibility
Rogues can make the whole group invisible and sneak behind a pack of monsters. Try staying close to the rogue doing it and avoid walking directly though enemies. If you are a rogue make sure everyone is covered.
Healers are expected to damage but only in mythic+
Because of mythic+ dungeons timer you as a healer will be expected to contribute as much damage as possible. So you’ll see a discipline priest being a popular choice. Yet it’s a really really bad choice for any other type of dungeon - without the azerite essences & perks it’d be really hard to maintain damage high enough to keep group alive. Go with a more reactive healer spec just to be safe.
RIO score
You’ll probably see this requirement in the looking for group descriptions. In most cases if you don’t know what it is you better avoid groups mentioning this at all costs It’s a score from a third party site that is a sum of a score for each best mythic+ dungeon run you made in current season. So if you want to have a high score and join the elite you are expected to complete all the mythic+ dungeons on a high level key. Now you might think this system is a bit of a wall for players and feels strange to rely on a third party service. Don’t start discussions - they fought hard for it and they’ll eat you alive
Curve
You’ll probably see someone saying things like “link curve”. It references to the achievement “Ahead of the curve” given for completing the current content patch raid before the next content patch release on heroic or higher level of difficulty.
Did I forget something? Please add in the comments! Cheers.