Revenge of the pugs
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Jan 20th 2007 at 2:00PM
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New five-man instances can only mean one thing -- the return of the classic source of amusement and frustration, the pickup group. It's especially interesting when raiders, who are used to perfect coordination and military-like precision, end up running an instance with, say, a priest who they hate from a rival raiding guild, a warrior who forgot his shield in the bank, and a warlock who clearly bought their Tier 3 character on eBay and is having difficulty figuring out that Searing Pain is not the greatest spell to spam. Such people often overestimate the coordination of their teammates -- like my mage friend who got us all a free trip to the graveyard while attempting to master something he called the "Flamestrike Pull" in the Blood Furnace.
Since I've mostly been running with said mage friend, who is in a different guild than me, our instance runs have been semi-pugs -- someone from his guild, someone from my guild, someone we found by spamming general chat all stuffed together. It took the raiders among us some time to get used to the five-mans again. Wait, we can sap and sheep things? A pet can off-tank? We can pull without a hunter? Ooh, a chest -- wait, do we have a rogue to open it? Plus, the bosses usually only drop one item, and someone who's been through Naxx is probably not psychologically prepared to die to a lot of orcs AGAIN.
Nevertheless, most of my pugs have been good. I've met old acquaintances on new characters and made mental notes of people I'd like to group with again. We had a group today that was so good we went straight through Slave Pens and the Underbog, and were preparing to go through the Underbog again when we realized that we were all sick of fighting spore bats and agreed to meet up later. It's also dang satisfying to see gear drop that people can really use, without a giant fight over class priority and DKP, and watching as everyone slowly replaces their epics with blues. Well, except the tank in Dreadnaught. Those shoulders are way too cool to replace.
What's your pug experience been like so far? Do you hate doing instances without strategies and Vent, or are you welcoming the new content?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Instances, The Burning Crusade
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Heyasuki Jan 20th 2007 2:56PM
I've had 2 pugs with a few guildies and the odd person I don't know so most of them have been pretty good. I cannot really complain; we've had a few bad make ups but made it work. Just remember 3 druids in a 5 man = bad idea :P even if there all different tree's.
Zenko Jan 20th 2007 2:58PM
I've had 3 PUGs and so far only one has gone really bad, due to people going afk constantly, disconnects, and a bad healer for the final boss in Ramparts. Nothing good dropped for me either D:
Ben Podgorski Jan 20th 2007 3:27PM
I barely made it to 58 before BC came out, so I was never experienced in raids. My guild is also a leveling guild, so there usually aren't enough people of the same level on to do 5-mans. But i've run ramparts and furnace a lot and only once did it go poorly. My PUGs have gone alot better in the outlands than they have in Azeroth.
Anyone out there on Malorne-H side, shoot me a tell!
-Poddozzann
pixelator Jan 20th 2007 3:34PM
Sounds like some folks need to remember the old 'it's only a game' line.
I like to cut people slack - like those perfecting certain tricks or yes, even those who bought their characters. People make mistakes, have bad days, etc. What's worse, the ignoramus or someone who sits there chiding every slip-up? As long as it's a matter of being a noob or making honest mistakes and not someone being a punk, I say live and let live.
I mean, it's WoW, and when you die, you come back. No huge deal. Even if you spend time cruising into a long instance only to have to f'ed up, you have to put it in perspective. Nobody is guaranteeing you a successful run, and people aren't bots (hopefully).
MacAllah Jan 20th 2007 3:38PM
My guild had just gotten to the raiding stage when TBC was released (we had UBRS down pat and ran ZG once). There were about 8 of us who had ran Strat and Scholo so many times it was like second nature.
The along comes Nazan at the end of HR. NONE of us had nearly enough (or any) FR gear and so we kept wiping, over and over.
Our brilliant solution was to PUG out the last spot using /1. We found a feral druid with 8,400 health and 11,000 armor. Perfect.
We killed Omar and he dropped the beautiful +dmg/healing caster staff and the (FERAL) druid insta-needed. We really should have been smarter and MLed the damn thing, but we were use to only guild runs.
Now, I'm extremely bitter because I am the guild priest and was expecting that if it dropped it would go to me. I had an extremely lengthly discussion with this druid about why or why not the staff should have gone to him.
His reasoning was that "Druid's have caster form" and I responded with a "Yes, that's true, but the last boss here drops the +attack staff. Are you really going to switch staffs when you switch forms? And just because you can USE something doesn't mean you NEED it."
I mean, really, had that +attack in Bear/Cat/whatever dropped, I could have USED it, but never in a million years would have rolled a need on it. C'mon...
deepfried Jan 20th 2007 5:14PM
I am in a small guild of 10 60's that always run together.havn't done a pug yet but i think it's funny in outlands because we have no tank at all,we run with 2 mages 2 locks and a preist.We have done the ramparts and the furnace to the end,felguard for the win!I have had some horrid PUG quest parties though.
Deesto Jan 20th 2007 5:26PM
I have had good pugs... I loved the dw Shaman, feral drood, balance drood, hunter, and lock pug. Seriously the best pug I've ever been on. Feral druids have my recognition as tanks now :).
shandar Jan 20th 2007 9:55PM
Haven't made it to the outlands yet, my hunter is currently lvl 57. Have heard alot of grumbling in guild chat that all the 60's have left for the outlands so people have nobody to help with instances. Its true I guild has limited # of 50+ people so forming a grop exclusively from guild mates hasn't been very practical. But I've found that every other guild has the same issue so I've been able to run ST and BRD on multiple occassions with PUG's that have been different and provided new experience and strategies. It has actually been much more rewarding than running them with the same players with everyone cookie cutter in to the same rolls everytime.
umamasyean Jan 22nd 2007 10:02AM
I never had too many horror stories with PUGS. And I have found that some super-40-raiders don't seem to have the flexibility needed in 5-man. Because in Raiding, you are usually limited to what you are required to do and it's a different setting. All those non-raiding players out there have done PUGs a lot and 5-man instances alot so they are more "adaptable" to sticky situations and varied encounters. Personally, for 5-man, I prefer a PUG over guild raiders because from my own experience, raiders are not good at 5-man (gear only helps to a certain extent) and PUGers are "quicker on their feet" than raiders who I guess are more used to "regimented" military style roles.
If someone is new and doesn't perform or has never done it, all you have to do is help them understand what they need to do nicely and they will usually improve. There's a difference between "wtf you @#$%ing noob..." and "hey please dont do that because...try this instead".
Tetelestia Jan 21st 2007 2:01AM
I played in a pug that went through ramparts and furnace, it went well. Nobody was bad, but it was really frustrating that our priest was too good.
I am an affliction warlock and the second I would Life Tap once for mana, he would flash heal me. It was wasting his mana I felt, but he never ran out during a fight. A good complaint.
My biggest complaint though are rogues failing at sap and me having to pick up their slack with the succubus. Just several that I've pug'd with.
WidardOfOdd Jan 21st 2007 7:39PM
Frankly, I'm looking forward to 5-man instances because the more people you have to include in an instance the greater percentage of drawing twinks. Also, I know about five or six people IRL who play WoW who I know would be good people to party with, so that will make gaming with them enjoyable.
Orizon Jan 22nd 2007 9:34AM
I've been mostly doing guild runs in instances and it went great except for one where we had two warlocks. It was simply to hard to manage aggro with those two. I did get pug'd into another guilds group on the launch day doing two Ramparts and one Blood Furnace without any trouble.
At #5, althought I greatly agree the blue staff would have seen more use with the priest since you don't need to switch gear for different roles, the staff is still a great healing staff for any druids who needs to heal on occasions. I got it on my first day since it completely owned my Epic dagger + of hand combo. I was healing during that run so I guess it made it more 'okay' but still, it's a fair roll, especially in a PUG group.
multikast Jan 22nd 2007 9:59AM
I've pugged the ramparts once so far, and that was my only run through it. none of us had done it before, and our healer was shadow spec. there were a few deaths here and there trying to figure out that the beastmaster and that other guy were immune to sheep/fear/etc.
also, the last boss with his mount we never killed because our shadow healer was consistantly oom and our 2, yes TWO! tanks were not in defensive and didn't realize they need to pull the mount off the healer while we were almost done killing the actual guy. all in all a pretty bad experience.
at least the respawn is on a long timer...
Feeple Jan 22nd 2007 10:51AM
PUGs are demons incarnate. The Fel worshippers that plauge the Northern Bloodmyst Isles and the like are aple imitators compared to (and these have all happened to me on Cenarion Circle:)
-Paladins who never trained healing spells.
-Warlocks who refuse to Life Tap.
-Level 14 chars being powered through Deadmines who insist on being in the thick of the action.
-Druid who refuse to come out of cat form, even if the rest of the party are Mages/Rogues/Warlocks. The expliantion was that between Conjured food/water, Health Rocks, and First Aid, we'd be fine.
Seriously, what the Hell, CCers?
Willic Jan 22nd 2007 11:23AM
Have had a couple of PUGs since the expansion - though none in the Outlands (only level 42). Was in SV and had one group that worked great, one that got pwnd a few times but we got the quest done (I love the Pally who "Didn't even notice his health" before dying a couple of times) and one that didn't work at all - ended up disbanding before anything got accomplished.
So its been the typical PUG experience...
Ekimus Jan 22nd 2007 2:39PM
Generally my experience with PUGs has been good in BC. Once I find a good group we tend to run Ramparts and Furnace a few times, since they are quick for a well-organized group.
There is only one consistent problem that I have, and that's being a feral druid. People spam General (Use the LFG tool!) looking for a tank, I respond, they expect me to heal. Now, I don't mind healing, but I've been given grief for rolling on good feral/rogue leather pieces. I make a point to say that I'm feral, so don't be surprised when I roll on the gear I need. Do I need that cool +healing and mp5 item, YES! But, I also need that cool feral/rogue piece.
Genius Jones Jan 22nd 2007 1:18PM
Oh my God I forgot how bad some of these players are? It's like they've been PvPing since level 50 and forgot how to play in a group. My favorite quote from a Hunter in Blood Furnace, during my 'eight-in-a-row' farming session for the socketed Leather Chest in there:
Me: Bro, open up with less damage. Each time we pull, you hit early and too hard and the tank and I have to run back to you. It's like being a rubber band and I'm tired of it.
Him: It's not my fault my character kicks @#&!
Me: Use skill and I'll be impressed. For now, ease up.