Hate it or love it (can’t find anything to link that one too…), the Dungeon Finder is a crucial tool to many players. Queue times, random groups construction and arrogant tanks are incredibly annoying, but the Wrath of the Lich King-added feature has been a major boon to World of Warcraft. A crucial element that has helped the MMOG maintain its grotesquely huge playerbase.

My major concern when I decided to level my healer as my main was in my own ability. Sure, I’ve healed with her through Wrath’s lifespan, but most people were overgeared then. Cataclysm brought major changes to healing and that’s saying nothing about the higher degree of difficulty. My first steps in to heroic dungeons were challenging, to say the least. I, stupidly or inconveniently, didn’t wait for guild runs. Struggling through messy runs with tanks geared as poorly as my instantly-OOM priest was the norm. It’s at this time I started to use the Dungeon Finder to gauge my own ability.

With no one in the group to compare myself to I had to find my own method. If I was kicked from a group that was wiping due to me, then that was a strike against me. If a dungeon had already started and I couldn’t help finish it, then it was another knock. Alternatively, if I managed to complete an in-progress dungeon, then that likely meant I was better than the previous healer. Brownie points for Solidsagart. As was a death-free run.

Thanks to gear, practice, knowledge and repetition, I now receive far more brownie points than strikes. Groups with my spacegoat at the helm are finishing cleanly and I’ve got a firm grasp on holy-spec healing (no more instant OOM). By my little formula, I’m doing quite well. Now to get ready for raiding…

Do other tanks or healers have their own mark of achievement? Or is finishing the run good enough?