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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast 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: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 15)
Eridian Dec 14th 2009 8:24AM
I've had mostly excellent experiences so far, some really spectacular groups where we've stuck together for 5 or 6 heroics or the new instances. Some slight drama about people 'needing' frozen orbs, it seems to be the done thing on one or two of the realms on our bettlegroup, but other wise generally good.
The only problem I've really experienced is people dropping out when they see which instance comes up (inexplicably this happens on Halls of Reflection most often, who wouldn't want to run that?) and impatient/belligerent players who expect everyone to be hitting 5k dps or chain pulling trash because they're in some enormous hurry. Inevitably these are the same people who drop out after a wipe: tools.
lee3821 Dec 14th 2009 12:05PM
Doing halls of reflection(h) as a 3.9k GearScore healer is really hard unless your tank and dps are excellent. I've done it, but I'd say i'm better than the average pug.
vocenoctum Dec 14th 2009 12:18PM
I think my problem isn't so much cross-realm stuff. It's never been the FIRST guy to roll Need on an orb. It's almost always the last guy. WHo then drops group without "thanks!" or anything.
ALso, a couple folks from MY realm have Needed and it's not our custom here, for sure.
Holyshrimp Dec 14th 2009 8:14AM
I've had a great time with the new Dungeon Finder, until last night. I was put into a random Occ run and just couldn't finish it because people would "DC" or drop group /sigh.
Other then that, groups have almost gone smoother then guild runs...faster, to the point and no drama!
Norte Dec 14th 2009 10:58AM
I had that once. Since then, I've said at the start "don't worry, it's been made massively easier" and haven't had anyone leave.
Could be a coincidence of course!
Prissa Dec 14th 2009 8:14AM
My worst experience was on my tank. I've not raided on her or anything, but she's def and exp capped and certainly capable of handling heroics. A number of times, some awesomely geared people strut in and constantly start pulling pulling groups for me, pulling threat from me, practically ignoring that I was there. I guess they just assumed that coz I wasn't rocking anything past 219 gear that I was incompetent. It was very infuriating at the time, when all I wanted was to do my job.
On the flip side, there have been some wonderful groups also, with people who understand that you might be new, or not done that dungeon before, or use CC if needed, or hunters that actually feign death if they pull *gasp* :P
Aedilhild Dec 14th 2009 9:30AM
I ran into cocksure healer and DPS who pulled because they simply wanted to, and wouldn't stop when asked. They were left to fill my spot or four-man the instance; good riddance.
But that has been my only unpleasant experience — and the only exception to polite, competent, or at least sincerely trying LFG groups.
visitingl337n00b Dec 14th 2009 9:34AM
My advice is just not to feel bad about it. When you have overgeared dps they tend to have enough health that pulling a mob isn't the end of the world, and with an overgeared healer dps can basically tank most of the zone. Tanks are still very important. On a large pull, a tank who holds all but one mob (the one some overgeared dps is going full-bore on) is doing an important job to make the run smooth and efficient. Tanks are also great for many bosses. But if you are "undergeared" (and regardless of what people think now, people did heroics in all blues and greens, so 219 epics is hardly undergeared) and the rest of your group is in 245+, then just don't worry about the hunter pulling aggro. Obviously they aren't worried about it, or they would hit one of their many buttons that solves that problem.
They most likely aren't behaving that way because they checked you gear and have disdain for you, they are behaving that way because it's just how they do heroics. I tank these all the time, and warriors start pulls by hitting charge/bladestorm. You can't hold AoE aggro against that even in equal level gear, and they are likely aware of the risks of their behaviour, but can't stop doing it because it's fun.
crandlee Dec 14th 2009 9:47AM
This is actually one of my biggest problems with heroics for badges. Everyone is starting to get way overgeared for them and they are getting snotty when people just out of leveling try to run them. I tried to run heroics a few weeks ago on my DK tank (def capped through crafting, gems, etc). People kept kicking me cause I wasn't raid geared and when they didn't they pulled stuff off me constantly. Then someone told me I needed to get tank gear by off-speccing dps in heroics and getting enough badges. This was before last week with the new "randoms as badge pinatas" so I was really not interested in grinding dps till I was allowed to tank. I would never be able to practice tanking since it was what I wanted to do
I understand that people want to burn through these things for the badges, so I blame the system more than the people. No one wants to help ungeared tanks get through heroics - even though that is what the 5-man heroics are supposed to be for: gearing for the higher level content. I hope they think through this process a little better for Cataclysm.
Wolftech Dec 14th 2009 11:20AM
I am not a big fan of the finder for this reason. My 3800GS Pally tank has been kicked the 2 times I have tried it because each time, the DPS was all 5k plus geared. One of them was in the middle of buffing before anything has been pulled.
I am not a bad tank. I like tanking. I have tanked all the heroics and even Naxx 10/25 and Ulduar 10 some(Used to tank Kara and ZA back in the day, too). I just play my mage more.
socasack2000 Dec 14th 2009 12:22PM
When I am tanking, if people pull over me or from behind me, I just assume they are going to tank that mob and I leave it alone. If they die, oh well. They either stop doing it or drop group. If they don't die, it's all good too - I don;t have to worry about that mob.
But the worst thing is the NEEDing on frozen orbs. I simply tell everyone to NEED them now. People think that x-realm means there is no consequences to their actions - but it will come back to them.
Waryor Dec 15th 2009 1:25PM
As a decently geared tank, I'll save their butts if they pull a mob instead of letting me do it. I'll politely ask them to let me pull since I'm the tank, and if they do it again, I let them tank it for as long as they want, and when they drop, I'll pick it right up. They normally either stop pulling or drop group.
oddshrub Dec 14th 2009 8:15AM
I think the new dungeon tool adds more to world of warcraft than the entire next expansion will. It might not be such a big deal for hardcore players, but for a casual like me it means I can find a group for ANY dungeon in ANY level range within minutes. Before I could sometimes sit in random BGs for up to an hour while I was waiting to get into a specific heroic.
As for my experiences, they're no different than your average pug. Sometimes you'll be in a group where everyone knows what they're doing and you'll blast through the dungeon and sometimes you wont.
One of the fears of cross realm grouping was ninjas, and I've met some. It's usually the healer or the tank, whom apparently feel they're essential and thus can get away with being assholes. In every case my group has used the Vote Kick option and had them replaced easily.
So all in all it's nothing but good.
notos Dec 14th 2009 8:16AM
H-HoR, Paladin Tank 30K Hp (not bad), but he was terribad at tanking i was pulling agrro like mad wiped a few times with the gauntlet but where able to kill marvin and the other guy. but in the "run from jason" event wiped several times in the last wall and the tank didn't even run to his corpse
someone votekicked him got a 35K hp Paladin tank and finished the instance just fine
Was healing H-PoS ... Why im missing 1000 mana? look at my gear and i have equipped some grey quality pants...
ari Dec 14th 2009 8:17AM
i ran a random heroic with the best healer ever... i was doing H HoL and the healer had 973 out of the 1070 or so achievements giving him 10710 or so achievement points, he was using val'anyr hammer of the ancient kings, he healed for like 17000 to 23000 (not critting) the val'anyr bubbles were pretty much always there, we got every achievement in HoL, AND THE HEALER WAS NICE!!!! it was the most fun i ever had in a heroic 5 man i have had in a long time. everyone wiped on a mispull...EVERYONE EXCEPT THE HEALER!!!, he was still alive and kicking when we got back to him and was quick to get back into healing us mode. he was epicly epic
corecanyon Dec 14th 2009 9:21AM
Dude, that's freakin' fantastic. I love to hear stories of epic'ness like that.
Andrew R. Dec 14th 2009 8:17AM
I've only had one bad experience with the dungeon finder tool. I was running Forge of Souls and the tank was rather cocky. Everything had to be done a certain way even if his way was wrong. We got lucky and he left after we wiped on Forgemaster twice. Brought a DK tank in and he was cocky but it was a smooth run after that.
Tidycat Dec 14th 2009 8:23AM
Forgemaster in Forge of Souls? Pit of Saron....but that guy can be a doucher on Heroics sometime, nobody knew what the hell the rock was for and I was being yelled at for standing behind it and not DPSing enough.....yeah we wiped
Kira Dec 14th 2009 8:31AM
yeah, my group figured it out after we brute forced him on the first try
Sorronia Dec 14th 2009 8:18AM
So far for the most part I love it, but I have had a couple of bad experiences thus far. A couple of days ago I was tanking HoS for my second random dungeon group ever and I dc'd right before one of the bosses. (Before the pull) I was only dc'd for about a minute. When I logged back on I had been kicked from the group and I had about 5 seconds until I was teleported out of the dungeon. I was pretty bummed.
In another instance where I was dpsing a couple of people disagreed with my thoughts on whether or not to need/greed on book of glyph mastery. (It's common practice on every server I've ever played on to greed it). Because I didn't agree with the majority of the group I was kicked and I'm sure they just brought in another dps.
I guess the only thing I really don't like is that with this type of system it becomes very easy to treat people like numbers. It's so easy to throw someone out and grab a new person people won't want to try to wait if someone dc's or work things out any more.