Breakfast Topic: Do you actually enjoy PUGs?
by Josh Rose 
Jan 30th 2011 at 8:00AM
We have all heard a friend or a guild member share a PUG horror story. Most of us even have one or two of our own. Prior to Wrath of the Lich King, WoW was not very PUG-friendly. There was no random dungeon tool, trash was not the AoE-fest it was in Wrath, raids didn't have normal and heroic modes, there wasn't a lot of 10-player content -- the list goes on and on. However, unless you have had a truly sheltered existence in WoW, you have joined a PUG. Surprisingly enough, sometimes PUGs can even be fun and rewarding.
I have my fair share of PUG horror stories, but I have had a couple of great moments in PUGs. In BC, I joined a PUG Mag's Lair and ended up meeting members of a new raiding guild I got invited to after I saved the raid from wiping. I met numerous friends while tanking dungeons, both in the leveling process and heroics. I even started using the random dungeon tool again since 4.03 so I could get exalted with Gilneas prior to the Cata launch. With some of the AoE tanking nerfs and the tanking changes, I was actually enjoying tanking heroics wearing complete DPS gear. I even did a couple of successful PUG achievement runs to try and finish off a few remaining things, so I could focus entirely on new content. Most importantly, I was having fun while pugging.
Do you have good PUG stories? Do you actually like or even prefer to PUG? Or do you avoid PUGs like the plague?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 9)
Rainkeltoia Jan 30th 2011 8:09AM
Most times these days pugs end up a horror show, but during Wrath, before the dungeon finder tool, I had an awesome pug experience. I was asked by someone I had met in a pug to heal him and a couple fresh 80 guildies and help those guys gear up. I had nothing else going on so I agreed. Starting a H VH and running all over Northrend with these guys, I ended up talking for hours with one in particular, the fresh 80 hunter. Now, nearly 2 years later, he and I are married, still play together and raid together. He's moved on to a bear tank and we still pug occasionally when the guildies aren't around, and we have met some awesome, funny individuals and groups, and had our share of omfgwtf groups, but nothing compares to accepting a random invite to do some heroics and meeting the love of your life.
Lipstick Jan 30th 2011 8:29AM
congratulations! =)
This story totally made my day!
Chokaa Jan 30th 2011 9:02AM
Wow!! Talk about an amazing way to sart the day. An awesome case of the warm fuzzies! Thank you for sharing that, and imo you should share it next time blizzard has one of their 'what has warcraft done for you' moments.
Razorlution Jan 30th 2011 9:34AM
Sure beats E-Harmony
Itanius Jan 30th 2011 9:37AM
The chances of meeting a perfectly matching personality on the internet is pretty slim as it is. Meeting one in a PUG? Wow, you got very, very lucky! Congrats to both of you.
Rainkeltoia Jan 30th 2011 9:42AM
Thanks guys :) Definitely will have to share it with Blizz they'll probably do one of those here this coming month I would think!
sprout_daddy Jan 30th 2011 9:51AM
Thank you for a great start to the morning. I checked this topic to see what I assumed would be the same horror stories I have had, and was really surprised to see it begin this way. Congratulations to you both!
Tim Jan 30th 2011 11:29AM
I almost have to call this first post BS.....or more tactfully too good to be true.
Iirdan Jan 30th 2011 12:00PM
This story adds a new dimension to "Pick-Up Group".
Rainkeltoia Jan 30th 2011 1:05PM
@Tim -- no its not BS. Sorry you're so negative to think that something like this cannot be reality and that all the people who play are complete jerks and bsers. Just not the case. Its all about attitude. I am very happily married and was totally lucky to meet the most amazing man via a pug. Its not really any different than going to the club and meeting someone from out of town. We raid on US-Elune, with the guild Socially Awkward, alliance side.
All in all be nice to your pugs, you never know what kind of friendship may spark from it.
Twill Jan 30th 2011 1:39PM
@Itanius
I'm trying to think of a pre-made group where you find your love.
Not thinking of anything... :D
Lets just call this an epic story, and pray to god that more tanks and healers queue. My warlock and hunter need groups! I'm too used to instant queues on my hybrid classes.
And because I'm feeling especially bubbly from the OP, more emoticons!
^.^ :D o.0 =] *-* >.> :O
Arann Jan 30th 2011 5:44PM
Stella,
Thank you for your insightful post! You hit the nail on the head, IMO. For those of you who can't be bothered to read long posts, I'd urge you to reconsider for this one!
+1!
Meatwadz Jan 31st 2011 1:12PM
Stella,
You have put my exact feelings into words. Thank you for this and I really do hope that it hits home with the people who have the authority to make the right call.
In TBC when I first started it went like this ..
LFG builds friendships
Friendships build guilds
Guilds build the community
And the community is why I logged on every day.
I used to feel a part of SOMETHING. Now, I just feel like I'm playing a video game with a bunch of strangers who are out for them selves, f*** everyone else. It used to be so much more than this.
StClair Jan 31st 2011 1:25PM
Stella:
Amazing post, and absolutely true. I wish I could give it more thumbs up.
messiahxi Jan 31st 2011 3:00PM
Stella,
That was a really long way of saying "Things were better when it sucked." Was it cool to bond with the people in pugs? Sure. Was it cool to spend an hour spamming LFG, assembling the group, and traveling to the dungeon, only to have the tank drop? No. Was it cool to never finish those dungeons quests at an appropriate level? No. Was it cool trying to pug your daily heroic, only to sit in Dalaran spamming trade for 45 minutes? No.
I'll take the LFD tool all day, everyday.
Furlover Jan 30th 2011 8:11AM
They are a neccessary evil for me personally - need to grind those darn VP's and now that content isn't new anymore (inorite), they only way is random pugs through the finder. The biggest problem I have with pugs usually are the awfulol tanks that you get sometimes. Tankadins for some reason moreso than others (no - you're *not* cool to go running off chain pulling with your 140k hp in Deadmines while the healer is drinking). Again - just my personal experience.
Odin Jan 30th 2011 12:35PM
Just last night I had a friend tell me some awful noob tanking stories. One was a holy pally with a 2h who tried to tank Stocks in his group, another was a ret pally (but thankfully he actually had a shield). The one that takes the cake for me was a fury warrior trying to dual wield tank his way through the dungeon. >.<
Sean Jan 30th 2011 5:30PM
"Necessary evil" is the perfect description of PUGs. It's not always possible to run with guildies, so you have to PUG. It's like roulette, with 90% of the numbers being failgroups, and the last 10% some combination of "barely made it" groups and "actually smart" groups.
Kurri Jan 30th 2011 8:13AM
I really enjoy PUGing. I think they get a bad rap too much. My guild hates on PUGs all the time which gets a bit annoying as I'm on at a time when most my guild is not so PUGs are my only option. The start of Cata was a bit shaky but once most people learned the fights, my PUG experiences have been great. There's something really fun about 5 random strangers getting together and kicking ass!
Kittens Jan 30th 2011 10:33AM
^^ This!
I too have many guildies and friends that flat out refuse to PUG because they 'hate' them and think it's nothing but a painful experience of people failing and being jackasses over and over. While in reality.. most of the PUGs I run have nice skilled people and run much much smoother than the guild/friend runs I do!
I have even begun to dread the run with friends versus the PUG runs.. they are not bad players at all, but sometimes they just have a few things that make a run so much longer. And the thing with fried runs is.. you stick with them. So this run might just take up your entire evening when it goes bad. In a PUG, when people keep screwing up, they usually leave or get kicked. Or I can leave myself and find a new one. This makes it all much faster if you happen to land in a group that is struggling a lot. I very rarely kick or leave myself, but still the option is there. I see my friends in Deadmines for three hours, and then am glad I finished it in 1/3 of the time with a nice skilled group of random uber strangers :)
Another thing PUGs have going for them, is that you meet all kinds of people that play in different ways. Especially on my healer, I've learned a LOT from this; I learned cope with healing the super speeding tank, the dps that tries to die every pull, learned to see which groups can go fast or need to be slow, see different ways of pulling packs of mobs or killing bosses... it is nice to see things from so many different perspectives as opposed to your guild/friend group which might do things the same way they always do.
And the most important thing about PUGs: your mindset. Stay happy, it's just a game, learn to laugh about things that go wrong! Often when players have a difficult time, it pays to just help them and be nice instead of raging and votekick. I've had many groups where people learned new things, and it's awesome to see! When you have people making not so nice comments, counter with sarcasm. If you have the asshat of all asshats in your group... learn to toy with them :P Believe me, it's much more fun to keep misdirecting to them or something than just kicking the guy ^_*
All in all: I love PUGs! They're really not so bad as everyone thinks, far from it :)