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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast 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 2 of 9)
musicchan Jan 30th 2011 11:05AM
This is how I feel too. Pugs aren't always going to be the easiest of times and there's even days when running with a bad pug makes me want to bang my head against a wall, but I try to keep a positive attitude and I'm willing to push through a lot just so a group can run successfully. I think going into a group with a positive attitude is the most important thing; if you think a group is going to fail, it probably will. If you're willing to give it a shot, it will go better overall.
Tim {the other Tim} Jan 30th 2011 11:59AM
I so agree with everything you all have said! My guildies are afraid of PUGS and most distressingly, are afraid of heroics...so I have to PUG all the time. What have I learned from this? PUGs almost always go better than the guild run. Which is weird and sad.
carebear Jan 30th 2011 1:15PM
that's funny because I'm the exact opposite. I hate guilds. usually when I get in a group with all guildies I TK them. being a healer I don't have to wait that long
also I've been in some really bad guild runs before that you would otherwise assume was a full pug
Twill Jan 30th 2011 1:41PM
People remember bad experiences over god ones. Thats the real issue here.
Baba Jan 30th 2011 2:12PM
I've just had a heroic Throne of the Tides pug where we died a total of 5 times, from tanks not waiting for CC, pulling too much, generally failing etc.
This is all before the first boss.
Then we die to the boss.
Then the group ENTIRELY disbands (this has also happening in BRC before the *final* boss!), which means that I'm kicked to the bottom of the queue again. I hate cata pugs and the DF is only good for grinding ez-mode heroics, not for hard heroics which can have gear ninjas and vote-kick bullying.
loop_not_defined Jan 30th 2011 5:22PM
In all honesty, I've been enjoying PUGing. All it takes is communication, and 9 times out of 10 people listen and work together, leading to little or no wiping.
Reading forums and comments, it just seems like people would much rather get angry at others than take a few minutes out of their time to explain how things work....and then they complain about how horrible PUGing is afterwards. It's almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
KPB Jan 31st 2011 11:05AM
I've been doing a fair number of PUGs with the dungeon finder because my play time outside of raids has been inconsistent and is often at times there aren't many other people on in my guild. Most of them have gone pretty well and haven't been a source of major headache or problems. Some are better than other but I have only quit on or kicked people in a couple cases.
Now obviously some roles have more influence on the overall result of the dungeon than others but I suspect that if people are constantly getting horrible groups they need to look at what part of the cause of bad groups falls on them. After all, the only person that is in every group you get is you.
Mr. Tastix Jan 30th 2011 8:15AM
That depends; Do you like stabbing yourself in the eyes?
Noyou Jan 30th 2011 8:24AM
LOL. No. Pugging is a lot like playing the lottery. Only you are never going to win any money. You might win a decent run. You might meet a few nice folks. I find pugging is a lot better if you are only pugging 1-2 spots. But even then it only takes 1 to make it the worst 1-2 hours of your day (week-month-etc.) It's also like being in a guild. PUG's are entirely up to the people you share them with.
Narshe Jan 30th 2011 9:36AM
Pug mentality changed too much for me since Wotlk and especially with the LFD tool. Back in Vanilla and TBC, pugging meant you ran with people from your server, so if you met someone who did well you would add them to your friends list or jot their name on a piece of paper (my friends list USED to be full, nowadays its only filled with a few RealID friends) Likewise, if someone either was a terrible player or would ninja loot they would go on your "crap list" so you would ignore them when they asked to join in Trade chat or wherever. They even had mods for this.
Nowadays, theres no responsibility for your actions when the 4 other group members your with are from servers you've never even heard of. Ninja looting is common, as there isnt any backlash other than the possible /kick but then 15 mins later that players is back in another pug doing the same thing,
I think if they could make it to where your actions had consequences again people would treat each other better and try and show more respect. As of right now, Pugging is the same as posting on WoW forums, you can say and do what you want but 99% of the time no one cares, because chances are you wont see each other again.
Arbolamante Jan 30th 2011 10:07AM
I've been playing a resto druid since vanilla. I thought stabbing yourself in the eye was what this game was all about!
transrelativity Jan 30th 2011 10:12AM
I agree with Narshe. The nature of PuG groups has changed dramatically since the 'old days.' I liked PuGing in both BC and Wrath, but for very different reasons. In BC heroics were tougher than they became in Wrath, requiring coordination, CC skills, and careful group makeup to be successful. Putting a PuG together took more work, but it often led to finding new, awesome people on your server and getting to know them or their guild.
In Wrath--especially mid- to late Wrath when the Dungeon Finder came around--heroics were easy. There was no need to pick and choose who you were going to bring to a dungeon, so heroics became, for me at least, a fun little grab bag. Sure, there were some bad eggs, but because the runs were so quick and the ignore button so easy they were soon forgotten.
In Cataclysm, however, a bad Dungeon Finder pick for your Heroic group can really screw things up. If you don't yet outgear the content (as I do not) there's a significant difficulty difference between, say, Lost City of the Tol'Vir and Grim Batol, and you can't trust random Dungeon Finder PuGs to be able to handle anything that's thrown at you.
I'm a healer, and in Cata, I tend to skip dungeoning unless we can scrape up at least a 3/5 guild group. Healing a full group of unknown PuGs is just too stressful, and I'd rather spend my game time in other ways.
pixelrevision Jan 30th 2011 11:27AM
I really really agree with this. My opinion is that blizzard should throw a little encouragement towards people talking people on their own servers more if they are going to make the content more challenging. Even them just making a big announcement and adding in the old options like the daily heroic and global lfg channel would be huge steps in this direction. I notice in their design philosophy they omitted raids from the battlegroups. I'm pretty sure they did this at the time because they felt like raids required too much coordination for that to be successful.
david.darner Sep 1st 2011 10:01PM
Does anyone remember having to pug Dead Strat and having people pull the whole first area because of one gargoyle? Wiping in that place taught me that BC dungeons weren't harder--they were just different. The heroic aspect definitely required adjustment, but vanilla UBRS usually ended at Rend or the trash afterward because of the lack of gear you could get beforehand and the 4 of 10 people not understanding the instance. Sure, the BC heroics required raiding gear to do most of the time (Shattered Halls... horrible) and it makes a big difference to run UBRS in Tier 1 and 2. Alternatively, I think tanks and dps had a lot more utility to get BC heroics done (aside from the CC exclusivity carried over from vanilla) and healers didn't have to be priests anymore.
That's why I keep playing in Cataclysm: the classes are becoming more about player awareness than what gear/class you have in the group (I'm a big fan of the Beauty nerf in BWC).
dicegirl Jan 30th 2011 8:17AM
I have to admit I have a love hate relationship with PUGing. I know I have had my fair share of fail groups and I know it took me a bit to get the hang of healing when I first started (as a level 76 shammy because the healer left and it took forever to get another one. I saw that as a great way to get into groups faster). But to be perfectly honest, my guild is very small. The two most active members are myself and my husband with the recent addition of my best friend hitting 85 about a week ago. We have a few other friends that have some toons in our guild but they never play on those toons or with us, thus leaving us with no choice but to group up and PUG two other people.
The whole experience with Cata has left me wondering if there are other players like us who don't have the chance to do a full guild group than don't really want to leave their current very small guild. My ray of hope is just waiting for 3 man groups to get some (not a lot) guild rep and guild exp.
Dahk Jan 30th 2011 8:18AM
I used LFD to complete over 600 randoms in Wrath on my priest. What is that about 2 day average over the time it was available...? The PUG experience was so bad in Cata I canceled my account. Its not the difficulty its the time commitment. I just don't want to spend 2+ hours in a random with puggers.
DarkWalker Jan 30th 2011 1:41PM
For the most part, this is my experience too.
LFD Heroic PUGs are what kept me from cancelling my account during WotLK. I loved doing them.
Cataclysm Heroic PUGs, on the other hand, were 9 times in 10 a very frustrating experience, and even with a stellar group they would take longer to complete than a WotLK PUG where I was basically carrying the rest of the party.
Cancelled my account also, and went to DCUO. There, even if PUGs are still not very smooth, at least there is plenty of challenging solo content to keep me occupied during queues or to let steam out after a bad PUG experience.
PistolPeet Jan 31st 2011 9:58AM
Or adjust your expectations. PuG normal dungeons instead of HCs. OK, some of them take longer than others (HoO, GB) but they a great, fun, way to spend 30-60mins and not nearly as stressful as heroics. HCs in Wrath were easy when the LFD tool came out because everyone was averaging 30-50 iLevel higher than the dungeon itself dropped. When everyone is decked out in ilevel 400+ then cata HCs will be just as easy as those WotLK ones.
Now that more people know the fights normal pugs are a blast.
Tig Trager Jan 30th 2011 8:19AM
pugs are mostly trash, no really... As a casual gamer, heroics in cata rae basically like small raids, taking far too much time to get anywhere, and pugs just seem to make things worse... I seriously think that Blizzard has really gone out of its way to appeal to the wow community that is either unemployed, still living at home with their parents, or just have far too much time on their hands in general... content is boring, its really a case of yesterdays muck cooked again with no real "wow" factor... sorry to say but its all been done before... Coupled with the fact that most pugs fail, well i really wonder if im not completely wasting my time on an absolute time sink of a game with little appeal... Blizz should really be working on their next game, WoW is just so passe now
Jason Jan 30th 2011 8:24AM
That was part of the reason blizzard made them actual heroics in Cat. They are meant for more hardcore gamers and not the easy-mode they were in WOTLK. If you didn't have to work at it they wouldn't very well be heroic would they