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WoW Rookie: Soulstone and you

As a priest, pally or possibly a lower level shaman, you are often bestowed with the responsibility of a soulstone, giving you the ability to self-rez. And as we all learned from Uncle Ben in Spiderman, with great power comes great responsibility. If you have never had the chance to be on the receiving end of a soulstone, it is easy to make a rookie mistake. While it is by no means complex, there are certain do's and don'ts that aren't always obvious. With that in mind, here are some things to remember if you are given a soulstone...

  • If you are new to the soulstone business, odds are your warlock is too. If you have never played a warlock, you might assume that when a soulstone expires some kind of elaborate fireworks display appears in the warlock's UI, informing them that the group is screwed if they wipe if he doesn't conjure another stone. Without a proper mod, this is not the case. Odds are your new level 21 warlock friend doesn't have the fancy mod. So pay attention to your soulstone, and when you see it expire, or a minute or two before it expires, let your warlock know in party chat or in a /whisper. Your lock will usually appreciate it.

  • Your group is wiping, the tank is dead and things don't look good. You have just been killed. There looks like there might be a small chance for you and the still-alive rogue to down the last two mobs. Should you hit your soulstone? Probably not. The idea behind a soulstone is a quick wipe recovery. Sure, you could use it to save the day. And you just might. But you also might fail, and cause a corpse run, or worse, the end of the instance in the case of respawns. Just stay dead. It is usually the best strategy. As you progress, you will get a better feel on when to rez in battle, but then you aren't a rookie anymore, are you?

  • If you see that there is a very good chance your group is about to wipe, you should start looking for a good place to die. This is pretty easy. You just need to die so when you rez you won't aggro any mobs. Whatever you do, don't die near where you pulled the mobs from, as the mobs will reset to their original spot, leaving you dead under enemies, which renders the stone useless.

  • Speaking of resetting mobs, make sure that all mobs have reset before you resurrect. Sometimes it is hard to tell, and it is always a good idea to type "is it safe to rez?" into party chat. A hunter may have kited a mob down a hallway or there could be a monster hidden from your view that you could possibly aggro.

Proper use of a soulstone is fairly simple, however, if I had a dollar for every time a warlock accidentally soulstones himself or a pally uses the stone to fight two mobs solo causing a corpse run, I'd have many, many dollars.

So use your soulstone wisely. You are the last line of defense from the dreaded corpse run! And please, if any of you guys have some additional soulstone tips...please share!