Breakfast Topic: You Knew the Group Was Doomed When....
by Elizabeth Harper 
Sep 5th 2006 at 8:00AM
You've just joined a pick up group and zoned into your favorite instance. The group's warrior rushes in wielding an ice barbed spear, and when asked why they aren't using a shield, replies "I'm not that kind of warrior!" At that point, you just have a feeling that things are going to go downhill from there. As time has passed, I've sort of developed a mental list of warning signs, and a warrior who doesn't own a shield is only one of many, many things on my list. However, what are your own warning signs that a group is about to go bad? Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Instances
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Duwanis Sep 5th 2006 8:15AM
The one thing that gets me wanting to fake a disconnect is when a cloth-wearer starts pulling. It always means that they're in a hurry and that they're not going to be paying any attention to what they're supposed to be doing.
That and, of course, when you've got that one guy in a PUG that doesn't want to follow the main tank. /sigh
PodMonkeys Sep 5th 2006 9:04AM
I was doing Stockades, and as we're about to enter the area with Bazil Thredd, the gnome we were with (who was not doing his part, and doing stupid things the whole time) procedes to run in and out of every adjacent room, pulling all the mobs into the center room with us.
Fortunately we lived. Why we didn't drop him I have no idea.
Hawk Sep 5th 2006 8:45AM
When you try to assemble a group plan, quite often really basic stuff, like who's pulling, healing, route guiding for some of the more complicated instances and they just scream at you: "lol, jst run fru it, yeh?"
Oh, and when you tell a PUG that your after a specific item, then the newest add who you haven't told says "Yeah, well I might need it because it might be better or equal to my [Staff of Fucking Ultra Rape +1000]." And if they're a healer, they just refuse to heal you in the hope you drop so they can get the drop...
Or the Rogue that insists on stealthing everything! Even if it means attracting whole god-damn groups!
Or when your outside a boss/the boss and you've got one more monsters, and you're the one taking it but everyone just pretends they can't see you and runs onto the boss as if it'll give them the items instead of you...
Or you have a group with no tanks and they say: "dw, we hve 3 healers, well be fine"
Yeah, I haven't had bad PUGS, all the god-damn time...
Loubear Sep 5th 2006 9:09AM
My mistake when I went to the vc was that we went without a tank. These two 19 twinked rogues convinced us with the "2 fiery cruel barbs! stam armor! aggro hold!" crap, and even worse, when we got in, they left... Even worse is the impatient rambo who has to start going into the instance and killing random things before the group even assembles? Then theres a "rez plz!", a loud flame, and a disconnect.
Steve Sep 5th 2006 9:10AM
You Knew the Group Was Doomed When....
The paladin says "God, i'm drunk"
hjungle Sep 5th 2006 9:23AM
"I'm a DPS Paladin..."
No seals, no judgements, and certainly no heals. Yeah, that was a fun trip through scholomance.
The biggest warning signs for me, though, are usually dueling leaders ("this way," "no, that way") or worse the token "funny guy." You know the type...He/She feels like they must comment on every single action the party takes and thinks they are hilarious.
Andy Sep 5th 2006 4:26PM
When the main tank is weilding a 2h weapon then insists on staying in beserker stance cause he can generate rage better. And then complains when the healer can keep up.
Mike Angwin Sep 5th 2006 9:28AM
You know you are in trouble when the warrior has no shield, the rogue has no improved sap, the priest declares he's shadow and the mage says he doesn;t AOE because it draws too much aggro.
hammy Sep 5th 2006 9:40AM
I knew this particular "routine" Scholomance PUG trip was doomed when the first rush the warrior performed was with a shield (ok, cool) and a DAGGER! When asked why in God's name he was using a dagger, he replied "why not?" I asked if he had a sword, and he said he didn't have a main hand sword, only an offhand Dal Rend (this warrior had been 60 for quite some time).
I'm a 60 rogue with 6/8 Shadowcraft, and all blues and one purple...I ended up being the main tank if you can believe that.
Meriones Sep 6th 2006 2:33AM
Here are some good signs a group is doomed:
When someone pulls during resurrections.
When the priest agrees to go to Scholo but only if you kill Jandice. Then after you kill her he has no reason to stay, and he starts mind controlling mobs instead of healing.
Reba Darg Sep 9th 2006 12:02AM
You know you're doomed when one 27 player pulls from one room, your 34 tank pulls from another, we all die, and the 27 player ignores everyone. We disbanded immediately.
Ghostle Sep 5th 2006 11:13AM
@ Duwanis
One of the best pug groups I have been part of consisted of a priest pulling. We ended up finishing a baron run in 50 minutes only because we had a 56 with us and we had to res him once and had to kill a few extra mobs.
The priest in the group pulled while the warrior and myself (the rogue) finish killing off the mob. The druid healed (th epriest did as well) and the mage did what he could. The pulls came at about 60% health of the mob we had going. One of the best pug runs I've been a part on and the clothie pulled.
Hugh "Nomad" Hancock Sep 6th 2006 1:49PM
Rudeness. That's the number one sign for me that a group's going to be in trouble.
If you're looking to join a group and the person you're talking to is short with you, acts like they're doing you a favour, or talks in very minimal text speak, that's usually a sign for me to go elsewhere. Lack of use of "please" and "thank you", oddly enough, I've found to be the single most reliable indicator that I don't want to be in this group.
Likewise, if I'm putting a group together and someone starts up complaining about the group makeup in party chat("3 Hunters? FFS! Drop one now!"), or otherwise being rude and pushy (pushy is a particularly bad sign) I'll normally kick them out straight away, to avoid problems later. If, on the other hand, they raise their concerns with me privately and politely, that's a very good sign indeed.
I've found the most bizarre class-combinations can work provided you're all competent and friendly.
Rokk Sep 5th 2006 10:12AM
The best group when in there are all kinds of warrior.
Powerkeeper Sep 5th 2006 10:16AM
You know its a bad PUG when your mage can't control his agro. I was on a fairly routine ST run with my 54 pally (consecrate ftw!) and 3 other mid-50 people when we picked up a 60 mage. Our main tank was 55 if I remember right. We start the instance and this guy starts going all out. He kept pulling the agro off our tank every single time. His reason? "The harder we hit them, the faster we get done. The tank just isn't keeping agro." Needless to say, I was ticked. My job switch from off tank/healer to bodyguard for this jerk. Spent the entire run alternating healing/rezzing him. Worst of all though has to be that he had no idea what to do in this instance, and even after we would warn him, he would still screw up. He actually attacked the ghosts near the end cause he was AOE'ing the live ones. GRRR. Still makes me mad thinking about it.
SteveK Sep 5th 2006 10:26PM
...when the Druid says "don't worry, I used to do this all the time in Everquest", and runs into a whole group.
Hawk Sep 5th 2006 10:28AM
@ Number 4/Loubear
That actually sound slike my two friends, one of them wasn't called Missvanish was they? I don't actually play with them because they're poor at WoW to be entirely honest. And they don't read Wowinsider :D
pot Sep 5th 2006 10:51AM
Just happend 2 nights ago. I am more or less new to end-game raids (having only run about 5 or 6 ever). The other night I was sick of the PVP grind so I decided to take my 59 mage out for a night on the town, and saw a group was forming for live strat.
A few minutes later we had a group of 2 rogues, a warrior, a priest, and myself.
I knew the raid was doomed when the warrior was made leader and then questioned "why was I made leader?"
someone replied "...uh, because you're the warrior."
and the warrior replied, and i'm quoting here, "i'm more of a 'you point and i attack' type of warrior".
needless to say, the raid lasted about an hour and then, after 2 wipes, we all just sort of went our separate ways.
Michael Sep 5th 2006 11:30PM
I got asked to go do UBRS by a group that was mostly from one guild. I knew things were going wrong when the mage who was leading the group required setting up every single fight and then insisted on sheeping at every single pull. The net result was that I had to leave right after we did the arena fight...2 hours later. I've done that run in 18 minutes with guildies.
Hammer Sep 5th 2006 10:51AM
...when some guy called Leeroy joined...