With the heavy population of many servers, and the frustration of trying to gather crocolisk eyes from largely eyeless crocolisks growing ever higher, many players are turning to dungeons to gain XP with just four other people. There are four dungeons available from 85-90, which continue to be available at 90, where players also gain access to heroic versions of those four dungeons, and several more heroic-only dungeons.

So, GAMEBREAKER are providing you with five top tips to avoid being that player who wipes the group in the Mists leveling and early heroic dungeons: Stormstout Brewery, Temple of the Jade Serpent, Mogu’shan Palace and Shado-Pan Monastery. While players are mostly running these on raid-geared, high item level characters, some mechanics can be ignored. However, these dungeons definitely present a challenge for anyone in lower level gear.

1. Don’t stand in bad. This most obvious of tips really ought to be printed on the cover of every copy sold of World of Warcraft. And it really returns with attitude in Mists of Pandaria. Throughout the leveling dungeons, and indeed the new continent, there is a massive amount of ground-based AoE effects, also known as “bad”. Any time you see something on the floor which isn’t obviously a spell cast by one of your party, it’s probably killing you. Don’t stand in it. The same applies to occasions when your health is stacking down in big chunks, or you’re seeing big healing numbers flash up on your screen. Move. This equally applies for avoidable damage, such as cone effects, stomps, and whirling circles of shadow bolts. At least seven bosses have these sorts of abilities.

2. Watch your debuffs. There are  a ton of debuffs in the Mists of Pandaria dungeons, from the hilarious “beer is shooting out of my ears” variety, to the “it’s killing me and everyone around me with shadow magic” variety. On your initial runs through these dungeons, you may not notice these debuffs, but if you have the chance to check your debuff pane, and see what’s going on, it will make your group’s life easier.

3. Doors close really fast. This has been an issue throughout the beta with many of the dungeons, but particularly with Shado-Pan Monastery, one of the two which are available from 87 to 89. It is really really easy to get shut out of boss fights in these dungeons, so make sure you stick with your group, and if your group is spread out, about to run through a door, yell at them to stop.

4. Interrupt as much as possible. While this is reading like “doing dungeons 101″, it seems that many players have grown used to not needing to engage heavily in content towards the end of Cataclysm. There are a lot of abilities in these dungeons, Shado-Pan Monastery particularly, which do a crazy amount of damage if not interrupted.

5. Use the special mechanics. In the Ook-Ook fight in Stormstout Brewery, you can mount the rolling battles by clicking them. In the Hoptallus fight, and in the trash leading up to it, you need to use the hammers dropped by the boppers to blast the “virmen” into eternity. In the last trash section in the Shado-Pan Monastery you need to channel a spell through the floating pandas, or the trash won’t die. Pay attention to these special mechanics, and use them. Particularly with Hoptallus and the Shado-Pan trash, you won’t survive without them.

Bonus tip: On my healing characters, I have a macro that tells my target to get out of bad. It’s simple to write, and mine reads “Hey %t (that’s macro for target), You’re in bad! Please move!” If you’re a healer that targets people to heal them, this is a real help! Good luck.