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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 4 of 15)
Kaillas Dec 14th 2009 8:28AM
But again, being just a "number" go try again. You get kicked, obviously if it is 4 people from random servers/groups there is something you could have done better.
Sorronia Dec 14th 2009 8:35AM
@ Kaillas
What was I thinking? Dc'ing in a dungeon! Silly me I'll try not to do that next time. ;)
Endario Dec 14th 2009 8:19AM
I lol'smite DPS'd in a random Heroic Violet Hold yesterday... I lol'd.
The sad thing: I out-dps'd the pally dps :(
Rezlak Dec 14th 2009 8:24AM
I just logged on for the first time yesterday evening after the release of 3.3 and was a little lost.... after half an hour i had done all 3 new heroics thanks to the PuG system, which responded each time after 1 minute of activating LFG, and whenever I got teleported in, we allways breezed through the places with all dps doing 5k+ including myself, tanks of 40k hp, and healers with 22k+ mana pools... I managed all 3 heroics in about 40 minutes..... This system is a godsent.
Yeawen Dec 14th 2009 11:38AM
That's lucky. I had two PUGs yesterday (one for HOR and one for OK), where my modestly geared mage (~2500 dps) was by far the dps leader. In HOR, we couldn't do enough dps to finish the Arthas event, and in OK, the tank quit before the second boss because he couldn't hold aggro on anything, even vis-a-vis a newly lvl 80 DK with 18k health unbuffed.
Aerie Dec 14th 2009 8:19AM
Orbs are greed on Reckoning? Sign me up. I'm on Bloodlust-EU and on my *realm* the damned things were always Greed. Now I've actually started having to roll need because the other realmers do, and I figure I deserve as fair a chance as any.
My horror stories mostly stem from inter-realm actions. Being on Argent Dawn RP, you get the usual jerks who like to mock the fact that I'm on a roleplaying realm. Big deal, I'm the tank, so shut up and put up. The *worst* has to be that one of the realms on our battlegroup, Crushridge, is the "unofficial" Italian server. For some inane reason this seems to mean that despite them all knowing English (I have asked, apparently they almost universally all speak it), they will speak only Italian in party chat, alienating me and the potentially two other guys. I guess this wouldn't happen on US servers except perhaps if there is some sort of unofficial Mexican server, but you can well imagine how annoying it can get.
Joe Sites Dec 14th 2009 8:27AM
I've gotten similar comments (I'm from Kirin Tor RP server) but those comments end very quickly when they see my healing.
notos Dec 14th 2009 8:28AM
There are Latin American Oficial Servers: Quel'thalas, Ragnaros and Drakari from the vindication battle group... most people there also can speak english
James Riggs Dec 14th 2009 9:23AM
I've gotten picked on about bring on RP as well. Mostly by people with names like "Pudpuller". I simply point out I went to the RP servers to have one more weapon to use when reporting idiotic names like "Pudpuller" to the GMs.
Then I proceed to pull.
Tidycat Dec 14th 2009 8:23AM
Its been great, more ninjas than ever before (when a warrior need rolls on the crypt fiend bow over a hunter with a blue bow thats a little ridiculous) but whatever its expected. But I think its one of the best things WoW has done to the game and made me stop playing Dragons Age to come back to it for a little while.
Grotesmurv Dec 14th 2009 8:20AM
I seem to come across a lot of cross realm ninja's. On the last boss they would wait till everyone greeded, then need on everything and quit the party. Very annoying.
Mopo Dec 14th 2009 5:19PM
I think half of the "ninjas" really do not know they are ninjas. I had a few cases while I was tanking that the dps plate wearer needed on an obvious tank. I won anyways, but he seemed to be honest when he said he thought it would be okay with needing on off specs...
The other ninja (sadly same group in normal toc) needed on on a tanking trinket on last boss. She was a Shaman... I just shook my head and left. LFG is still one of the best additions to WoW in a long time though.
I can't wait till I have invested enough time in LFG and go back to what I really play for, PVP. Sadly, I can get better PVP gear by getting emblems than doing BGs... My one big gripe with Blizzard.
Gamer am I Dec 14th 2009 8:21AM
My one consistent bad experience has been impatient DPS who think they can pull enemies and assume I'll be able to pick them up (I'm a tank). Sometimes I wait just a bit and let them take a bit of damage before picking up the enemies; never enough to kill them, though (although I have been tempted to do that); just enough to teach them a lesson. Still, I have considered letting them die and then saying, "Oh, sorry; you pulled, so I thought you wanted to tank. My mistake."
My first random run, though, was as a healer, with a tank who was in full DPS gear minus a shield because he "didn't have a tank set." I asked him why he volunteered to be the tank and he replied "I don't know." I had to drop full HoTs and spam nourish, in VIOLET HOLD! Thank God that has been an isolated incident. I should have just voted to kick him.
Overall, though, my experiences have been very positive, and the dungeon finder, as well as the new quest tracking feature, has really revived my interest in the game.
Joe Dec 14th 2009 8:59AM
I go by the simple rule of ' you spank it , you tank it'
Dps will stop pulling after they are dead on the ground and see a bear dancing on their corpse ^^
FoxOfWar Dec 14th 2009 8:59AM
This. Actually, when I know the healer(guildie or friend) and more often than not, I'm in Skype with said dps who pulls before I am there - I just tell not to heal that puller.
Yea, it's a heroic. Yea, it's easy. Does that give you the privilege to pull whether or not I'm ready to tank them? Nope. Can I just not taunt off you and let you rot in there? Yes.
Usually I just let them die. Actually, happens often enough after 3.3 that I bound /sit to a key first time in two years because of that. After all, if you pull... I assume you want to tank them. The age-old rule of "you yank 'em, you tank 'em."
I only taunt off healer these days.
Phelps Dec 14th 2009 1:27PM
Cross realm ninjas are rampant. Lightning's Blade on Vindication, in particular, seems to be the worst for ninjas in our battlegroup.
My behavior as a healer (Disc Priest for a gentry-level guild) is changing, too. I never had a problem letting people die for stupidity before; now it's the rule. If I rez you, and you are too lazy to sit down and eat, then you can run the next few pulls with 5% health, and I have no problem with that. As I had to say, "I'll heal damage, I won't heal lazy." If you didn't bring reagents to buff, I'm starting the kick vote as soon as the timer runs out.
If you pull aggro because you dpsed too early, I'm not healing you. If you pull aggro because you are on the wrong target, I'm not healing you. Bandage. If you stand in a fire, I'll heal the first tick. If you keep standing in it and expect me to heal through it, then you can find out that I won't when you die.
Oh, and please, pretty please, kick me out of the group. I'll be in another after about 90 seconds, rather than having to wait because I dumped you.
And to be clear -- I'll heal people who are undergeared. Hell, it's hard to BE undergeared for heroics now without doing insane things like equipping grays. I'll answer any legitimate question you ask, no matter how basic. I have no problem with newbies, but I won't put up with nubs. It's too easy for me to get another group as a healer.
I'm a prima donna and I feel no shame about it.
Slog Dec 15th 2009 10:29AM
Is it just mean, or do you healers just have shitty additudes?
So my dps is 5k and the tank is steady pumping out less then 1k, so obviously I pull, so now I dont get heals?
Reminds me of this asshat in a random pug who refused to heal me simply because I was rolling "greed" on green and blue items (so close to that motorcycle I can feel it) and was winning items. His thought was greed outweighs disenchant, and proceeded to lecture me on server economies when he wasn't even from my realm. So, because I made a choice to vendor my wins as opposed to auctioning shards, I was left to fend for myself. All gravy tho, I manages quite well on bandages and runic heal injectors, and I turned a blind eye when his overheals grabbed aggro twice both resulting in his death. My repair bill for that run: 76s.
Don't do your role in a group, and neither will I.
lcrandall_98 Dec 14th 2009 8:21AM
I've been jumping into randoms both feet first since last Tuesday. I've actually been enjoying the pugs I've been on, but sadly, I'm finding the behavior of those from my own server to be worse than the 'strangers' I've run into in pugs.
Robert Dec 14th 2009 10:15AM
I've actually had the opposite experience, with people in the cross-realm pugs acting far more polite, being far more friendly, and far less superior with very few exceptions. The one exception that stands out in my mind was a jerk tank who could critique everything that everyone was doing, could receive no criticism, and who walked off a cliff in Forge of Souls while berating the healer for not healing through Mirrored Soul.
BigBadGooz Dec 14th 2009 8:24AM
Halls of reflection healing on my shammy the dps consists of a Mage boomkin and a warlock....ff the Mage add then footman.... Problem is they all just aoe and die to the mage add aoe while I pump 8k hps then get blamed for being a bad healer. You can't fix stupid. Other than that tanking on my dk has been great finished off buying all the dps badge gear yesterday and tWeeking my tank gear