LFM ZG PST
by Jennie Lees 
Jul 10th 2006 at 9:00AM
Sometimes, bored players suggest crazy things. Yesterday's madness was a random pick-up-group expedition to Zul'Gurub; twenty bored players venturing into (mostly) uncharted territory for kicks and giggles. I joined simply to see what on earth this group would be capable of, in one of those "well, why not?" moments.
After getting assembled (and taking as long as possible to do so) the group formed up, managed to actually kill trash without wiping and even faced Venoxis, coming out triumphant. My faith in the group would have been running high, were it not for little things.
Little things like a priest repeatedly combat looting (should a priest even be touching an enemy?), several members apparently ignoring raid chat entirely, the raid leader (and others) lacking CTRA and continually asking who the main tank was, and none of the other healers having decursive -- little things like this all stand in sharp contrast to the usual group I raid with.
Add to that the raid-warning spam, the leader being unable to perform ready checks and the "everyone need on drops" rule that sprang into place, and you get what sounds like the PuG from hell. Fortunately those few members who had been to ZG before helped organise the rest, but it was all in vain -- two messy wipes at Mandokir meant half the group left in outrage, and the other half in disappointment.
It was an interesting ride, and shed some light on what raiding is like to those who haven't ventured into the endgame much. However, the key problem this group suffered from was lack of attention and communication -- a leader who doesn't know the instance at all, and members who didn't listen to those who did. I don't think I'll be repeating the experiment, but I saw several members of the PuG advertising for an AQ20 group later on -- excuse me while I hide on an alt for the time being.
Filed under: Instances
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brad Jul 10th 2006 10:41AM
Wow... what a surprise. Seriously, 9 times out of 10 a PUG will never be as good as an organized guild raid. So how is this news?
Brian Jul 10th 2006 10:59AM
My first excursion into AQ20 was with a pickup group.
We wiped on the first trash pull without downing a single mob. Half the group was trying to stage a coup on the group leader at that point.
We tried again, managed to down half the first trash pull before wiping. That was the end of the AQ20 run. I knew I should have avoided it, but curiosity got the better of me.
James Jul 10th 2006 2:18PM
Ya.. everybody already knows this. Was basically a dumb "story". An organized group is better than a PuG. In a 5 man instance, 10 man, and OF COURSE a 20 man instance.
MindTrigger Jul 10th 2006 5:08PM
Just so some of you asshats know, I'm new to the game and I found the article somewhat educational. Just because some of you have spent 8+ hours a day in the game for the past year (which is sad in itself), doesn't mean others don't need/enjoy articles like this.
/rolls eyes
Marshall Jul 10th 2006 6:44PM
I did a PuG ZG on Spirestone about a month ago... I joined because I didn't have anything better to do and I thought it would be amusing. Surprisingly, it went really well! Everyone followed directions to the T, the guys running the raid (3-4 ppl from the Morlocks guild) knew the bosses well and coordinated the group well. We did develop a 'need everything' loot rule, because one of our pickups was a farmer who didn't speak english.
We ended up taking down the first 3 bosses and Mandokir in a fairly normal amount of time with only a few wipes . On the whole, it was a way better experience than I would have expected.
mk Jul 10th 2006 7:02PM
Now I haven't done any of the level 60 raid material yet as my first 60 was freshly minted this past week. I have done enough of the 5-man instances in PUGs to safely say that those types of PUGs are very useful in learning how to play your class in a group, particularly in the face of people that do not know how to play *their* characters in a group. It teaches, as the Forsaken are fond of saying, patience and discipline.
Also, a PUG that's running through an instance and not going for anything in particular is a great way to get to know an instance and what it's capable of before getting together with an organized group. If you're lucky, you'll get a group like Marshall (#5) had. If not, it'll run something like the original poster--be sure to have enough gold for repairs just in case!
With PUGs, it's about the learning experience. If you're not interested in the learning experience, then you'll simply need to find a guild that will tell you what to do and when to do it, and raid with them.
branch Jul 11th 2006 11:51PM
hahah... what server do you play on? I think I was on that raid...