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The original was posted on /r/wow by /u/MrNoobyy on 2026-05-19 09:24:16+00:00.

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Hi, I'm an avid key pusher. I play an assassination rogue and push title level keys (currently working on 21 resil). Sometimes I drop my keys down to help out some friends, and then have to level them up again afterwards. In doing so I play with a variety of level of players in the mid to high key range, and see a varying amount of skill. This post isn't aimed at dungeon specific mechanics or roles, but rather at the mindset of how to improve and push harder to reach your goals, or find a level of play you didn't think you were capable of. The intended audience here is people in the 15+ key range, so bare that in mind.

Know your dungeon

This sounds obvious, but having familiarity with the dungeon you're in is a huge step. I'm not talking about the mechanics of a boss or a trash mob, but rather things some people might not think about. Where does a patrol route, how far does it go? How much damage is that one cast actually going to do to you if it goes off? What are the pain point pulls? The more you run a dungeon, the more familiar you're going to become with it. Try to learn something from every run, even if the key isn't timed and your group disbands.

Cooldown usage

You might be surprised to hear that the amount of damage between you in 15s and someone else in 20s isn't as high as you might think. It's quite likely the player in 20s is better than you at their rotation, but there's more to it than just how much more damage they're actually doing. As the key levels get higher, routes will become more consistent, and where you're actually using your cooldowns is important. Cooldowns can vary from short to two minutes or more, and learning where to use them is key. Some cooldowns are short enough that you shouldn't be holding them, some are long enough what at times you may wish to hold onto them until the next pack, even if it might lose you a cast of that cooldown in the long run.

Numbers isn't everything

We all love going full big dick and topping the meters and all, but there's more to a dungeon than just the amount of damage you're putting out. Is there a particular stand out mob that causes issues? What about that one cast that always kills someone? To give a common example, I was doing a lot of windrunner spires to help a friend get a trinket, and one theme I noticed was that on the first dragonhawk pull, tanks would often run right past it and pull the next pack too. It's a good chain pull and there's nothing wrong with it, but if the dragonhawk is left behind you, it's going to end up casting a fire spit, and if nobody stops it someone is likely to die. You might lose a little bit of damage staying behind waiting to hit that fire spit with your paralysis or whatever you might have, but it's also going to stop someone dying. That's more important than your damage.

Using your defensives

You know, that one button that makes you completely immune to damage, or gives you that beefy damage reduction, or heals you to full. Whatever it is, we all have a defensive cooldown, or multiple that help us deal with incoming damage. It's really tempting to save it 'just in case', and sometimes there are places you want to be holding onto your defensive too. Try to identify points in the dungeon where you definitely do want to have your defensives up (or a particular one) and try to make use of it between those times. Even if you'd survive without the defensive, it's better than not using it at all if you otherwise have no need of it. Are you going to want to use it on a pull two minutes away, and it has a two minute cooldown? Send it. For every global the healer doesn't have to spend healing you, that's a global that can use healing someone else, or a global they could be using to do damage. The less damage you take, the more damage the group does.

Interrupts are king

More often than not, deaths in your keys are caused by a cast going off that shouldn't. Some of those pulls can get pretty big, and it can be difficult to find that one caster in a giant pack, or god forbid you tab target past it and have to find it again. Try using a kick macro, here's one that should be useful for most people.

#showtooltip kick

/cast [@focus,exists,nodead,harm] kick

/stopmacro [@focus,exists,nodead,harm]

/focus target

/cleartarget

/targetenemy

/cast kick

/target focus

/clearfocus

If you have a focus already set, it will kick that target if it's an enemy, and isn't dead. If you don't have a focus, or your focus is an ally, it will focus your current target, clear your target, tab target (which by default will go to the closest casting enemy if there is one), kick it, and return to your focus target and clear your focus. What this means is that you don't need to try and target anything at all, the macro will do all the heavy lifting for you - the macro will kick whatever is casting and return to your target seamlessly.

Beyond that though, sometimes it's not possible to stop every single cast. Sometimes it's important to know what you should kick as a priority, especially in pugs. Learn what causes the most problems, and remember that an interrupt isn't the only way to stop a cast. Stuns, disorientates and knockbacks could all make a difference, and they can 'interrupt' otherwise non interruptable casts too, like the fire spit mentioned earlier in windrunner.

Using your entire toolkit

Chances are, there's something in your toolkit that you're not using. Sometimes not everything a class can do is useful in a given situation, but you might be overlooking something. Most DKs probably know their AMZ mitigates magic damage, but might there be something you're missing, something you didn't think about? For example in magister's terrace, the shadowrift voidcallers do a pulsing aoe that does damage to everyone, but also heals themself based on the damage dealt. If you saved your AMZ for this, not only would you prevent a lot of damage going out, but you'd also prevent the voidcaller healing as much, effectively increasing the damage of your group. Think critically of how some of your abilities might be more useful, and where you might get more niche use out of them.

Consider pain points of each dungeon

Most dungeons have particular pain points, and it's important to identify them. Failing a key doesn't have to be worthless, you can still learn from what went wrong. What is commonly causing a specific key to go wrong? Is there something you could do to alleviate it? If not, is there something someone else could do? It might pay to remind people or suggest something regarding it before the key starts. The double dragonhawk pack before the first boss of windrunner spire can be devastating when the dragonhawks fire spit combined with the spore dispersal of bloated lasher. Even just one or two hits of the fire spit with the dot could easily ruin your day, so if it's commonly a problem, perhaps save your healing potion or a defensive for that particular pack.

Always try to improve

Nobody is perfect. You can always learn something new, or do something better. Take something away from your mistakes, and try to understand what you could do to improve upon it. Ask other players for advice. Not a healer? Ask your healer what their pain points are, to see what you could do to make their lives easier. Remember keys are a group effort, not an individual one.