Breakfast Topic: Your random dungeon experiences
by Matt Low 
Dec 14th 2009 at 8:00AM
It was a dark and stormy night. It all started with a one drink. Isn't that how it always goes? One tough raid is followed up with some drinks to calm the nerves. One drink leads to another and you start thinking about doing crazy things.
Crazy things like jumping into pugs using the new random dungeon finder tool.
I hadn't done it yet myself and I know the people I've spoken with said they've had nothing but good things to say about it. But I'm a skeptic. What's the worst thing that could possibly happen? Maybe I'll get stuck with a party that has never done Oculus before with a tank that's no where near defense capped. But what are the odds of that happening, right?
I'm not much of a talker when it comes to dungeon running. My job is there to heal and ensure a stable run. I enjoy the silence and the peace. One of the things I like to do is inspect people just to check them out, you know? I like to see what kind of gear players are packing. It's not indicative of their skill, but it kind of represents the time investment they've spent on their character (usually, anyway).
The tank? He was sporting a nice shield and tanking weapon at the ToGC 10 level. The mage and warlock seemed to be acceptable enough with assorted emblem gear and a mix of ToC 10. But the hunter? My heart just about stopped.
He was using a Shattered Bow.
Yes, that is a gray quality bow. I almost ran away screaming. But nah, that's totally un-Matt-like. I bit my tongue and healed through Forge of Souls. It could've been worse. It could have been Oculus (even though it's been nerfed).
How about you guys? My horror story was pretty mild, but do you have any at all?Any that were worse?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 15)
cloneboy Dec 14th 2009 8:04AM
My worst problems in PuGs come from people just leaving the dungeon thinking it was another dungeon. But sometimes there just complete D-bags about it and start events such as the ToC joust even though the group isn't ready yet.
Knob Dec 14th 2009 8:56AM
It's hilarious seeing the bad players just quit the group if they see the Oculus loading screen. They'd rather take the 15 minute debuff rather than complete the dungeon in 10-15 minutes. Oh well, weeds out the bad players from ruining my gaming experience which is a good thing.
Sinnh Dec 14th 2009 9:21AM
@ Knob: after wiping three times in a pug oculus, i can see why people would rather take the 15 min debuff and go get a sandwich. i will be doing that myself whenever oculus pops up. i used to like oculus but there's a barrier now for some reason, with the random group thing. i think it's because before, if you spammed trade LFG for oculus (or the h daily, which happened to be oculus), people would jump in the group knowing what they were getting into (and often knowing whether they could or could not do the dungeon). now, you get people that have never been in there before, that weren't expecting oculus.
anywho, as to bad experiences, the worst so far is rude people. very, very, very rude people. i've learned humor doesn't work with them, neither does sarcasm, neither does politeness. from now on, i'm just going to say the general greeting and then nothing. i will also be more liberal with my "vote to kick" next time people are being jerks.
vocenoctum Dec 14th 2009 9:42AM
I leave when it's Oc. I've also left when it was H-ToC (on my undergeared healer) and when it wanted my bear to tank Pit and I wasn't geared enough for it. (Boomkin is geared, bear is not.)
I leave when it's oc because I hate the dungeon. It's a mess of flying around and using abilities that I don't care for. In addition, I wait out the 15 minute debuff by hopping to an alt and running another dungeon :-p
I have noticed Oc comes up an awful lot though. WHen it's not that, it's been AN or OK almot 90% of the time.
smmc Dec 14th 2009 10:52AM
My experience running occulus with the random pugs has been less than stellar so far. Few either know how to do the end boss, use the drakes right, or can agree how to do the end boss, because there's various methods spread across the realms.
I've reached the point where I leave the party when I see the Occulus loading screen, because I don't want to waste the time in the dungeon along with the repair bills from the last boss. Thanks but no thanks.
Dear Cyclone battlegroup. Please get your S**t together.
Knob Dec 14th 2009 11:29AM
To be honest, I find it surprising that you have problems with Oculus after 3.3. The place is so nerfed beyond all reason that I firmly believe that if you'd ended up with the same group in any other dungeon it wouldn't have been a pleasant experience as well. I was on the same boat in that I was wondering how Oculus would turn out but every single Oculus pug I have had has been quick and painless.
raspybunk Dec 14th 2009 12:23PM
I'm very grateful for this new feature. Been refer a friend leveling a pal new to the game. We pretty much skipped the dungeons so I could show him around Azeroth.
Now I finally got to show him some good raiding mechanics, what to do and what not to do. What a group with a fail tank looked like. What he can do, since he wants to tank, to properly set the pace, etc. All sorts of good and fun stuff.
The level 50-60 dungeons got him interested in some lore action.
So far the fun meets have been a priest that walked into oter random areas and pulled things they wanted to kill and skin then complained when they died every time, and 3 lvl 58 dks in one group all insisting they could tank, one insisting they could also heal themselves, dying repeatedly to random trash as we properly pulled elsewhere.
cendrekai Dec 14th 2009 12:26PM
I am also surprised of people having trouble with Occ. I ran it for the first time ever on my undergeared alt in a PuG. One of the other players was kind enough to tell me what to do and we did it just fine. The second time I did it, we got 2 achievements on the last boss.
Jennifer Dec 14th 2009 4:01PM
I got hit with a LFG finger Occulus run yesterday. Everyone that zoned in started b*tching and moaning about "blizz hates us... why oh why occulus"
While my teammates may have been crybabies, they stuck with it and we ran through there so quickly and smoothly... not a single death... and one-shot everything in there. We didn't even bother to waste time fussing over who does which drake color -- we all just kinda winged it and went with whatever color we had picked up to fly us between the platforms.
At the end of the instance everyone was pleasantly surprised. Don't be afraid to try new things -- that's the idea of a random dungeon pug. If you don't like a truly RANDOM dungeon, you shouldn't be wasting spaces in the queue.
artifex Dec 15th 2009 5:30AM
I have had an easier time in cross-server Oculus pug runs. Maybe it's because people who stick through the loading screen know they can do it? (Whereas most people doing it when it was just on my server were just finishing a meta or doing quests?)
artifex Dec 15th 2009 5:33AM
Oops, never mind; just saw the link saying Oc had been nerfed. So that was probably some of it at least.
Sandy Dec 14th 2009 8:09AM
Running a regular UK the other day, through the randomizer. My husband is a tank, I'm playing a mage, so I get plenty of chances to sit back and criticize. The healer (a priest) was just doing Flash Heals the whole way through, nothing else. And they were weak. I kept saying to my husband how bad this healer was, how he needed to do better heals, and even said on phase 2 of Ingvar "We really need big heals here". We manage to scrape through, even though on attempt 2, the tank and healer die right at the end, the remaining dps manage to kill him. Then the priest says the immortal line:
"LOL guyz I was healing as shadow lol"
Guess who promptly went on my ignore list!
kv83 Dec 14th 2009 8:43AM
Isn't Flash Heal supposed to be the new "main" heal of priests? :O
crandlee Dec 14th 2009 9:13AM
This actually happened to me in Nexus one day. Except the healer was also like - this is my brother's character and I've never played it. To his credit, though, we did finish. It just took like an hour.
BrBybee Dec 15th 2009 3:03AM
Flash heal is my main heal as a holy priest. I have healed ALL raids this way and I am my guilds top healer. You fail if you think Flash healing is wrong.
zappo Dec 14th 2009 9:55AM
Not as shadow no. You can heal fine as shadow through regular instances (some BC higher level ones get hairy though). However without any talents to boost your healing or reduce mana consumption, you have to stick with the tried and true Gheal.
Narshe Dec 14th 2009 11:24AM
If the priest is holy the main heal is Flash heal. All other spells are instant cast, so if your just paying attention to their "casting" you would miss all of the other spells. If the priest is Disc then its easier to spot the bubbles and Penance (and again, flash heals).
I know that wasnt the case, but better for yourself next time to know which spells use cast times so you dont start judging them because they spam one heal. Its not hard to inspect their talents, either.
Xova Dec 15th 2009 10:38AM
Although a shadow priest could heal through some of the easier heroics just fine, they should have also made copious use of their PW:S, Prayer of Mending, Renew, Holy Nova, and Greater Heal, among others. Only spamming Flash Heal was a nub move on their part.
And yes, Flash Heal is the "main" heal for many priests simply because of its fast cast time and decent heal amount (especialy when it crits.) But it should not be the ONLY thing a priest is using. We have lots of healing tools at our disposal. People need to learn to use them.
nimyane Dec 14th 2009 2:42PM
I've been able to squeeze out much better heals as shadow. My dps gear is very very good and my healer gear is from Naxx10 and I never crit in it.
rzzr Dec 14th 2009 8:08AM
My PuG's have pretty much been a silent killing machine so far. Very little talk or even a ready check.