Not familiar with what I mean by "Greasing the Social Wheels"? Check out my introductory entry on the topic first.
About Dungeons
On World of Warcraft, Dungeon instances are special areas of the game where your party can take on content without interference from any other players outside of the party. Dungeons also contain some of the most difficult content on the game and when done at the levels the Instance was designed for, require a team of 5 or more players to work together to fight their way through to the final bosses or quests.
Each Dungeon has its own set of quests, although some have pre-requisite quest chains from outside the dungeon that lead into dungeons.
Are Dungeons A Required Part Of The Game?
No. Players can treat World of Warcraft as a single player game and level from 1 to level cap without ever having set foot in a dungeon instance or having joined a party for anything.
Why Go Into Dungeons?
People enter Dungeons for a variety of reasons, including some of these:
To experience different parts of the game
To obtain gear upgrades not available through the Auction House or player market
To train team-playing skills or socialize with others
To learn from others who have different class or dungeon knowledge
To win drops that can be sold in the Auction House for mount/repair/skills funds
How Is Preparing For Dungeons a "Wheel Greaser"?
Simply put, when you're running in a dungeon party in a PUG, you're expected to come PREPARED.
If you make a habit of entering into dungeons half-prepared, you'll slowly alienate the community of Prepared PUGgers and hurt your reputation for higher-level instancing where more advanced levels of preparation are expected.
In time, you'll end up with many opportunities to PUG with other under-prepared players (read: wipe with them), while the Prepared players gather together into cliques that rock through content.
A Basic level of "Prepared" looks like this:
Equipment Fully Repaired
Consumables stocked, including
Arrows, Pet Food
Water
Bandages
Reagents For Buffs/Ressurection
A more advanced level of "Prepared" includes the above but also adds the following:
Emergency Potions - Healing, Mana
Buff Foods
Elixirs - Guardian and Battle
Buff Scrolls
At another level of "Prepared" you'll find players who not only prepare for THEMSELVES, but bring enough that they can offer some to others. Don't abuse this privilege, as someone willing to share with a complete stranger is a valuable asset that is easy to lose through poor behavior.
Other Things To Do In Dungeon Parties To Grease The Wheels
Buff right away.
Re-buff before it expires.
Say when you're going AFK even for a minute.
Mana up right away after battle, before looting.
Protect the healer.
More On Social Wheel Greasing
Other entries on the Greasing the Social Wheels topic include:
Greasing the Social Wheels: First Aid