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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsForum Post of the Day: Invitation requirements
by Amanda Dean 
Jun 5th 2008 at 11:58PM
We all know that PuGging instances can be a pain, especially finding a tank. Gelin, a tank onThe Forgotten Coast, says that she checks the armory before she invites. If you don't match her standards for armor, weapons, and spell stats, she will not invite you to a group. As a tank She feels empowered since tanks are rare, and dps is much easier to find.
If the original post had been more eloquent, people may have viewed it as insightful, it makes sense to be properly geared before asking for a group. As it stands, the responses have been primarily negative, along the lines that this is a bad attitude to have in the game. This thread is legendary because of Eyonix's response:
You have left over talent points.
You should not be so judgmental.
I wonder what it's like to be knocked off your high horse by the most aloof of the CM's. It must hurt, a wee bit. I've learned to generally check someone's gear out at the beginning of an instance, due to a poor experience with a hunter with empty armor slots. What do you look for in your PuG?
Edit: Original post text after the break.
If you are wearing any green items I don't invite.
If your weapon(s) arnt epic, I won't invite.
If you have less then 1000 spell damage, I won't invite.
If you have less then 1300+ healing, I won't invite.
If you misspell anything or use numbers 4 words when messaging me, I won't invite.
Why? Because you are a dime a dozen, thanks to pretty much everyone having arena and battleground epics (except tanks) its pretty much reasonable for me to expect this.
Filed under: Blizzard, Instances, Classes, Forums, Forum Post of the Day
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
Silence Jun 6th 2008 2:52AM
I run a lot of heroics, because I like them. I do use armory as a tool, but mostly as a starting point for weeding out people who clearly don't know what they are doing (like the tank in that thread - a pally in gear that says she doesn't understand paladin tanking at all) or as a spec checker, since I hate having to ask someone their spec and then say, "Sorry, we can't use you, because we were looking for a different role." I also keep in mind they might have logged out in alternative gear. My healer has +1300 heal in her dps gear as opposed to +2100 heal in her healing gear.
I think another another thing people are forgetting are the volume of alts at this point in the timeline (a year and a half after the level cap was raised). I have a melee dps geared at the Hyjal/BT level, a healer geared at the SSC/TK level, and a newly 70 caster dps in quest and dungeon drop blues with one or two purples. I'm not going to be taking the caster to Heroic Arc anytime soon, but she's a lot better prepared for the easier heroics than she looks, simply because I've done every heroic fight many times already and know what to do.
Group-wise, you need a balance if everyone is not on level for the instance. If the healer is overgeared, the tank can be a bit undergeared, or if the dps is overgeared, the healer can be a bit undergeared, etc. As much as everyone loves fast runs in heroics and kara, I prefer going in groups with a few people who can use the upgrades. I like getting shards and voids as much as the next person, but it's kinda sad to run something and watch all the gear get sharded, when if you took 50 minutes to do heroic SP instead of 40 minutes you could help someone get some gear.
Corvidae Jun 6th 2008 3:38AM
10/10, gave me a good LOL.
Super Guest Man 9000 Jun 6th 2008 3:20AM
What? MGS4 spoiler? Meh, don't care. Never played the games. And troll else where.
Antistes Jun 6th 2008 3:44AM
Such a awesome reply. Legendary i dare say :D
I've experienced ppl doing the armory thing on me (for normal dungeons!) and i must say it's quite annoying since many times i can handle the instance perfectly well (and i know so out of first hand experience with many pugs on that character). I believe those judgemental attitudes are a large part of why many casual players have a harder time getting access to content like Kara or Heroics. They may may be hard - but let's face it. They're not THAT hard.
katsuyakaiba Jun 6th 2008 3:47AM
OH YOU SUCK! OOOHHHH.....! *Rolls over and cries in pain*
Epimer Jun 6th 2008 4:28AM
I've been finding that, as bad as the PuG experience can be at the level cap, finding competent PuGs for instances while levelling has been even worse. I don't know if it's because you're inherently limited to a smaller sub-set of players who are level-appropriate or what, but I can't think of one PuG I've had while levelling my tank alt that didn't have at least one idiot.
The armory can be a useful resource, but it's no use while levelling on the grounds that it's not unreasonable for people to be showing up in quest greens, because that's the most obvious source of (non-twink) loot at those levels. Aside from that, dungeon blues are meaningless because of the ease of getting a 70 to boost you through whatever instance a couple of times to get you kitted out.
I've had balance druids chain pulling (when everyone else needs a mana break), priests getting bored of healing and busting out the dps at the worst times, a shadow priest who wanted to TANK...and so on. Fingers crossed for the situation improving at 70...
William Jun 6th 2008 9:43AM
I agree. Pugging Instances while leveling is the worst. You never know when suddenly the mage and shadow priest are suddenly gonna start "yelling" at each other and swearing and the group will suddenly fall apart. Yes, that kinda thing happens all too often. I find it's better to just find four ppl around your level who seem to be leveling at the same speed as you and stick with them... easier said than done, I know, but Pugging is just like that. Good news, it does get a little better at 70, since by then most people have gained some experience with their characters.
Nekrogasm Jun 6th 2008 4:33AM
It's fun to get the occasional jackhole that thinks using armory is a leg up to what is going on. Tons of bad people with really good gear. Shame the OP of that thread hasn't played that long to figure that one out or others in general. I PUG quite a bit on alts and I don't mind. I don't find myself using armory to gauge if they suck or not. Everyone deserves their fair shake and some days people are off their game and play horrible. Some people are just really bad at video games and don't know it yet. Just don't invite them again.
machieldejager Jun 6th 2008 5:38AM
I'm a tank myself, but I rarely use the armory to check if people are good enough for said heroic. I pay a lot of attention though, at how people ask me if I want to join.
If people just throw an invite at me, or ask me "tank??" then usually it's a no go. That said, I don't do heroics for the gear or the badges, I go there to have some fun. Meaning that I can be very selective of who I go with.
Enli Jun 6th 2008 5:44AM
Well, I'm a tank, although I'm not a douche like the forum poster, and I've stopped pugging heroics altogether.
I don't really care if you have 800 or 900 spell damage. Or if you have 1200 or 1300 healing. But heroics do take out a lot of the margin for error. A total DPS aggro-monkey can stumble through normal instances with a good group around him, but they'll fail at heroics. The last thing I want to do in an heroic is hand-holding some noob who doesn't know what he's doing. Or someone who thinks they're ready for heroics in AH greens just because they got their grubby paws on a key.
When deciding to group with someone I try not to look at the gear too much, but more at the person. For heroics, it's gotten so bad that I'll only do it if I already know the entire group. For normal instances, I'm a lot more flexible.
Yes, I'm missing out on a lot of badges and other loot, but I play to have fun, and an heroic with a healer who thinks they can cut it in AH greens is *not* my idea of fun.
And I hold myself to the same standard. Half my gear was Kara-level epics before I even started doing heroics. I make sure my stuff is reasonably enchanted and gemmed. I bring my best game, and good consumables.
And I don't pretend to be Superman.
superfrank Jun 6th 2008 5:52AM
TBH you don't even need particularly good gear for heroics, you just need to play your class properly. For example we took a 67 mage to heroic slave pens once. He even managed to sheep stuff.
Hugh "Nomad" Hancock Jun 6th 2008 6:20AM
I'm a tank. And I use the armory.
(Maybe we should form a support group?)
With the best will in the world, a massively undergeared healer or DPS is going to be a liability in a hard Heroic, almost regardless of skill. Skill can make up for a lot, but most people are in the middle of the bell-curve, and I've found that, in general, it's easier to have an enjoyable PUG experience with people who are appropriately geared for the content (at least all blues with maybe one or two greens for Heroic).
Esk Jun 6th 2008 7:00AM
I usually PuG with a friend, and together we form healer + tank (both with good gear). This is pretty much an ideal situation, as any dps will be more than happy to join the group.
The dps selection is based on 3 categories:
1. Armory inspect - there are so many dps out there, I don't see why I shouldn't look for the best
2. Guild - there are several guilds known as server top, which means skill. A player from those guilds, even if not so well geared (alt), might do better dps than random X in full epixx
3. Class - croud control is always welcome. In a group that has 2 shamans as dps for example.. the last guy will have to be a CC, even if doesn't match the criteria from 1 and 2 :)
Orestes Jun 6th 2008 7:18AM
Armory's not worth more than a cursory glance to see if the participants meet the minimums in my book. Too easy for absolute morons to get geared to shockingly high levels in this game for it to be a remotely reliable indicator of skill.
Mostly it's briefly conversing with the people about their spec and gear choices that's going to tell me the important parts.
Rulah Jun 6th 2008 7:22AM
Funny, I just had two awful pug experiences yesterday I can share. Keep in mind I literally just hit 70 on my reroll hunter Tuesday night, ran my first heroic Wednesday night (
Rulah Jun 6th 2008 7:26AM
Grrr, WoWInsider ate my first comment ever. ;(
klink-o Jun 6th 2008 7:26AM
Haha, he editted his post to try and save face. He's never gonna live down that epic burn, though.
Anyone know how many points he had ahh... left in his other pants?
Ladli Jun 6th 2008 8:19AM
And now I can't access the original thread at all - maybe he tried to delete? I only say the OP and a reply through some bluetracker thing linked on a post...
Don Jun 6th 2008 7:29AM
I think that post says a lot about the person behind the character. He or She is prejudice, if i were to say to someone "I'm not going to talk to you because your not wearing the right brand of clothing". Would that offend you?
The poster also take this game way to seriously, part of playing is having a challenge. That may mean taking an under geared person through an instance to help them improve the character. And by doing so you may make a friend that may help you down the road with another instance or raid because you helped them become better geared for the future.
That person can continue on down the road they have chosen, eventually they will begin lose friends(because they don't meet their standards anymore) and will be stuck in the real world and azeroth standing alone.
id Jun 6th 2008 7:34AM
I use armoury all the time, be it healing, tanking or dps. The point is not to just blindly weed out all who don't have enough epics, but to see how adequate their gear is as total. Having raised 3 chars to Kara via pugging only, I often can see how adequate the person is by the overall combination of their gear. It's hard to explain, but there are certain combinations of items and specs and stats, that can tell you if it's a sensible player's alt, who just powerlevelled to 70, but can play well, or if it's a loonie who doesn't know what he's doing. It's not 100% proof, but helps a lot to form successful pugs. Also, it helps to filter out players who just don't have enough stats. You can't enter heroic BM with average group and pally healer who has 1200 healing bonus and 8k mana pool.