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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: What kind of PuG are you?
by Matthew Rossi 
Dec 11th 2009 at 8:00AM
For contrast, the Drak'Tharon Keep run that I did immediately after was a lot more fun. The healer told a continuous stream of awful jokes and kept informing us that she'd never been there before. The enhancement shaman was directionally challenged. I pulled King Dred with all of his adds just to see if I could hold them (I did, but it was pretty hairy even in full TotGC gear) and the druid kept asking me questions about tanking, as he or she wanted to start doing it. ("Uhm... hit swipe a lot? I don't know much about druids.") The second run wasn't as fast or ruthlessly overgeared, but it was a lot more fun.
So what kind of PuG's are you seeing? What has your experience been so far?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics, Instances, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 8)
moredeadwayt Dec 11th 2009 1:17PM
@jjwalton: I basically agree with all of your points.
On Wednesday, I got a group for H FoS and we decided to just plug on through to PoS and eventually HoR. I had done FoS on both normal and Heroic already and knew the encounters, so I was able to guide the two new people through fairly easily, but I hadn't done PoS yet and was clueless. I told them I'd just start clearing to the objective (I was the tank) unless somebody had a better idea. Not a word was spoken. Our healer DCed during the trash clear and we pulled in another who knew the instance and was happy to lead, and we made it through the rest relatively easily.
Once we finished PoS, our healer and one other had to leave (Healer was saved to HoR, and one DPS just up and left). We pulled in two from the Finder tool and one of them immediately charged in and wiped us, claiming he'd only ever joined HoR in progress past the first room and just didn't realize what he was doing. Fair enough. We regrouped, the new healer explained the first encounter, and we started it up. While I had managed FoS and PoS without much difficulty, HoR's first encounter was beating me up pretty badly in 200/213/232s. We eventually wiped, and the healer was friendly and honest about my deficiency (especially combined with my inexperience with the encounter, which was a perfectly reasonable point). On the flip side, the idiot who had introduced himself by wiping the group by triggering the event decided to desert with a parting shot: "No wonder you guys had deserters."
So yeah, you're going to get some anony-douches and some classy players, but that's the way a random system works. Kudos to those who are patient and reasonable. You guys carry the groups more than the geared folks do.
jealouspirate Dec 11th 2009 8:12AM
It's funny, the first night of 3.3 I pugged the new 5-mans and the whole group chatted away the entire time about how cool they we. I'll probably never come across those people again, but we had a blast together.
In contrast, I went to pug the same three heroics yesterday and it wasn't nearly as fun. In the Forge of Souls we actually wiped on the 1st boss because the dps refused to kill the orb that heals him. I was healing, and eventually went oom because the boss just kept healing himself. After the wipe, the mage still refused to accept that killing the orb was necessary. "Just burn him down!" was all he was saying, and then he left the group. After that, we all got to talking and it got much better.
I think the oddest pug I had was with this mage in H OK who would jump off and ledge and slow-fall into a group of mobs, yelling "Slow Fall Pull!"
jealouspirate Dec 11th 2009 8:42AM
P.S.
I actually got one of the Oculus Achievements I needed yesterday by using the LFG tool. Amazing! The world has been turned upside down.
Baalrog Dec 11th 2009 8:12AM
I've had pretty good luck as a warrior tank/dps. Think the best story I've heard is about a group where the party leader went afk at the instance start so he could soak up some free badges. Being the party leader, they couldn't vote to kick him...should come as no surprise that the leader decided to join the group as soon as the rogue started putting Tricks of the Trade on him.
dynamitecandyman Dec 11th 2009 8:14AM
Most of the pugs ive done have been good experiences. Had a couple where the tanks were sketchy and werent sure what to do as it was their first time in HoL, HoS, etc. Had some zerg fests, had some wipe fests. When i start gearing my tank again (gearing my mage AtM) im going to chain pull and only stop if the healers need mana. Mo badges mo betta :)
Xenn Dec 11th 2009 8:13AM
Had all sort of groups form the ubergeared to the mostly in blues. All of them where fun, and though efficiency seemed the blanket covering all, the chance to see different players at lose is fun.
Last night I had a group where the tank (mostly ilvl213 gear) run around and pulled the whole room of red drakes and their humanoids company in UK HC. While we survived and was terrific fun, never seen such behaviour before, which shocked me initially, as I'm more use to the 1 or 2 group pulls. But the most amazing thing was the healer - same guild as the tank, mostly in blues and didn't even flinch. I'm better geared as a healer than he was, and I would have soiled my pants at seeing the massive pull.
It definitely gives your the chance to party with some truly skilled players you will never would have met - saying that, the other way around its also possible... my guildies have had some horrific runs - ninja, lack of skill, but as far as I'm concerned i love the system.
Cassen Dec 11th 2009 8:14AM
I'm loving the new random dungeon system. Every single group has been fast and professional, but we've still had fun with it. The only one that worried me was the first time I got Oculus, three of the people in the group said they'd never been there before. But there was a hunter from another server and me, we explained everything and it went fine, we even downed the last boss the first try.
Marita Dec 11th 2009 11:40AM
It also helped there, I think, the nerf blizz implemented for that instance in this patch.
In fact, it's a very long list of things they changed.
I think its a blessing for us, because that place was hell before -_-
broncofan27 Dec 11th 2009 8:17AM
My PUGs have been good but very quiet. Not much is being said in the group. One thing that I did get disappointed in was last night it was taking nearly 20 minutes to get a random dungeon. I didn't figure I would ever see wait times that long.
Andy O. Dec 11th 2009 12:52PM
Hint, if you're not a "pure" class, respec as a tank or healer and you'll be in groups all night.
BubblePriest Dec 11th 2009 8:14AM
I'm almost always talking in guild chat or in whispers to friends while pugging, so I rarely talk in party except when necessary to relay information. I guess I don't contribute much to the enjoyment of the run (except for the keeping you alive part), but I'm polite (I think).
As far as ability level, the pugs I've seen have mostly been well-geared and competent, but there have been a few stinkers. (Did you know heal aggro is always the healer's fault? I was a noob and thought the tank was supposed to keep things off the healer.) I suspect as the raiders get their Frost emblems, the efficiency of the pugs will decrease. However, you'll have fewer raiders who are treating pugs as a chore and more casual players who enjoy the heroics, so in theory they'll be more fun. (Total generalization there I know.)
Mad Godji Dec 11th 2009 8:15AM
More of the silent and deadly type.
If there is no need to say anything, it's that the pug is doing well. When I really feel the need to speak, it's that something's been going wrong.
Barinthos Dec 11th 2009 11:21AM
I'd rather pug with people or your mindset than one I had the displeasure of going with yesterday.
A hunter (figures) was asking for genders, real names and completely sexually harassing anyone that he thought was female in real life. Thank God it was AK, so it was done in little time and I didn't have to deal with "that guy" for more than 20 minutes.
If you make liberal use of the new LFG system...please, for the love of everything pure and holy in this world (of warcraft), don't be "that guy". Everyone hates you.
jopazi Dec 11th 2009 8:17AM
My overall experience has been good so far....but last night I was "that guy"! I've run all these dungeons over and over and know all the fights.....except Occulus...I did the achievement run, but have avoided it like the plague....I did all the wrong things like a brand new ding 80 noob...forgot how to mount my drake...released when I died...then in my haste to soothe the growing discontent in my group grabbed the wrong drake for the fight with Keri...and we wiped. The tank had it and left....and that was that. Never thought I would be that guy...but if you were with me last night....lets do Nexus : )
Jessca Dec 11th 2009 8:42AM
Hahahah I'm totally going to be That Guy (or in my case That Girl) when I finally do Occulus. I've avoided Occulus altogether (even on regular) and now I dread having to do it in a random PuG. Its difficulty has loomed to mythic proportions in my mind. I was lucky last night, seemed to draw every dungeon BUT Occulus, but if and when I finally do have to run it I'm not going to know ANYTHING. Hopefully the big strong knowledgeable experts I get paired with will be gentle with me and explain everything.
But other than my Occulus worries I've been having SO much fun with the random dungeon thingie. I never used to do heroics much at all, and I NEVER PuG'd anything, but this makes it super easy. No waiting, or spamming chat for an elusive tank or healer, no travelling to summoning stones or waiting for AFK'ers. I seemed to get paired with people who were geared much better than me (I even had one warrior tank with 52k hp) and all the runs were quick and efficient.
Slartibart Dec 11th 2009 8:16AM
I've had amazing results with this new system.
Not sure if it's because of the groups being loosely tied by iLvl, but I've been in only very competent groups.
If I queue as a tank, I almost always get a group immediately, dps, at most it's taken 5 minutes.
All in all, this system is amazing, nevermind the rewards; even if they hadn't changed the badges that were given out, I'd still use the system, as it's been extremely fun so far.
The personalities change obviously, but I almost always try to crack a joke or two, and I always make an effort to compliment people on their roles, especially when they're doing great jobs.
Awesome feature Blizz!
videvekartuspaan Dec 11th 2009 8:18AM
ive had pugs like this, yesterday i pugged AN and we managed to kill anub before the deserter buff wore off. Turn out it goes away if you kill the last boss. Same with the occulus now that the dragons scale. Its kinda sad to see bosses you used to struggle on (Varos Cloudstrider was the first boss i ever figured out the strat to on my own, my group got pummeled for about an hour) just go down in seconds.
Johndoz Dec 11th 2009 8:19AM
What kind of Pokemon are you?
How do you do the things you do?
Share with me your secrets deep inside
What kind of Pokemon are you?
Are you loyal through and through?
Do you have a heart that's true?
What kind of Pokemon are you?
Take your NORMAL type like Jigglypuff
Against the GHOSTLY Gengar the battle's real tough
Yeah, thunderbolt's a great ELECTRIC attack
'Til you get GROUND down by a Marowak
Don't you BUG me with a Caterpie
For a FLYING type the win's easy
Good Luck with Muk and POISON gas
Make one wrong move and it'll kick your GRASS
What kind of Pokemon are you?
How do you do the things you do?
Share with me your secrets deep inside
What kind of Pokemon are you?
Are you loyal through and through?
Do you have a heart that true?
What kind of Pokemon are you?
Reach higher with FIRE-go Flareon!
Think twice about ICE to be number one
WATER's in order if you wanna to be slick
Mewtwo's the best bet when you get PSYCHIC
Hitmonlee's the key for your FIGHTING mood
And you can ROCK 'n roll with a Geodude
Dratini comes first when you choose DRAGON
But evolution's the solution if you're gonna win!
Chorus
Keep on training so you're stronger and faster
Just can't stop 'til your power I master
My plan is this ..gotta' catch them all
Get 'em in my Pokeball
What kind of Pokemon are you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wMvkW1NOfI
Title just reminded me of this.
Dreamstorm Dec 11th 2009 8:21AM
Epic Fail.
Crimson Dec 11th 2009 8:21AM
I usually prefer to communicate with the pugs rather then just mindlessly zerging through the instance. It makes the pug far more enjoyable. I often ask the people what server they are from and how are the things on their server. Sometimes discuss the newset changes in classes and additions to the game. And sometimes I share my experience with others by keeping the conversation. For example I went to Oculus for the first time yesterday and it was actually fun. Of course there are always down sides to pugs and you will have to deal with "that guy" from time to time... You know the one... Who over aggroes, dies and complains for no heals, who needs on every piece of loot that drops in the dungeon, who rage quits when he looses a roll on an item to another player, who just can't seem to notice the mob that has 5 sunders on it, the list can go on but you get my point. Basicly when that happens you are either looking at a 30-1:30 minute pain fest or a 15 minute deserter debuff.