Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
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 9 of 9)
chaosdefined Jan 31st 2011 7:50AM
During the initial days of WOTLK when I had not long hit 80 with one of my characters and was currently in a guild that had the worst way of organising raids to Naxx - First ones to whisper the raid leader got the spaces, and the tank spots were always taken by the raid leader and other officer.
This was before the LFG Tool had came into play, I joined a pug running Old Kingdom HC.
We weren't the best of groups, had a couple of bad pulls and and near full wipes. But we laughed about it, and joked around. It wasn't the cleanest dungeon clear but it was the most fun I'd had in one since the days of TBC when I used to be an Ally (before faction change too btw). So after the dungeon was done, having noted that three of the other players in the group were from the same Guild, and were the ones who bantered around during the run, I asked how I could apply to their Guild. Luckily the healer was actually the GM, and since we'd had a fun run, he skipped the application process and invited me there and then. I'm still with that guild as an officer now and have some great ingame friends with that Guild.
Sadly, now PUGs are a cursed word. LK allowed players to become lazy and spoilt. Being able to sit on Facebook while running a dungeon and have no real issue with clearing it has bred far too many 'bad' players. They don't want to work for their loot, they don't want to pay attention to how their class works, they just want to get it done as fast as possible, ignoring instructions and shouting GOGOGOGO then throwing a tantrum and leaving the party when they cause a wipe.
Now, I almost only ever run an HC if it's with mostly if not entirely guild members.
Xenn Jan 31st 2011 9:37AM
I Pug, I pug a lot in fact, due to my timings not 'guild friendly', and while I like to pug, in Cata can be polarised into real good and real bad.
The aggravations I had from WotLK: The "gogogo"clan, chain pulls even though my healer alt was a fresh 80 on greens and had troubles to make people understand I wasn't overgeared, to ruddeness of skipping bosses when 4/5 party members wish to do all, or insults to members who didn't know tactics because was their 1st run. All those pet hates seem amplified in Cata - boss skips, "gogogo"ers still around, chain pulls (+death and a "wtf" chat), "hi, 1st time here... oh you pulling already...", and the latest "CC is for wimps" while as a healer I heal my socks of to keep all alive, proving that with my hps they will need 3 of "gogogo" dpsers to take me down (ok, ok how narcissistic of me).
All said, cause difficulty, when things go well it feels far more of an achievement, like the 1st raid boss you ever did with your guild (and the 1st raid boss for everyone in raid too)
shaman1 Jan 31st 2011 10:11PM
My favorite PUG's are done with a buddy tank who routinely drives the pushers and armor rating checkers routinely insane. He mostly does it himself but sometimes uses me as his comic foil. Often though, he is there to drive the "hardcores" insane.
Some of his antics included:
-Putting on a suit of cloth/mail/grey items before zoning in and playing oblivious to those who go batshit as he preps to jump on the first mob.
-Asking me or someone else how to tank....saying he picked up a character 'cheap on this there Ebay thingamawhot'...then going into some typing vibe about being some retired grandparent.
-Doing a long goofy emote slash rp like some sort of crazy anime thing after each pull. "I have killed this evil for the sake of my master, the Lord Dunbar, High Elvish yada yada yada"
-Constantly doing mistells of various medical conditions or responses to sexual hijinks
"Yea, the boil was right in the crease and was so infected I walked like I had a pole up my butt." Whoops mistell.
The funny thing is that a lot of people put up with it simply because he is a good tank but once in a while he will get some idiot who tries to call him out on it or ragequits which is the whole point of his insanity. He likes to remind them its a game.
StClair Jan 31st 2011 1:10PM
I usually enjoy my time with PUGs. When things are going smoothly and we're facerolling, it's hard not to. The true character of a PUG, however, is seen when things bog down - wipes, quits, etc. I tend to be the one who tries to stick it out to the end (that pally mentality), so sometimes I'm the one left at the door after everyone else punches out, muttering "well, that was pointless." But that's just how it goes.
I've got great guildies, but they aren't around all the time and don't always want to do what I do. So sometimes it's PUGs or nothin'.
MoneyMoneyMoney Jan 31st 2011 8:26PM
perhaps i forgot to mention this in my initial post, but im also one of the people that while i can appreciate the challenge of heroics as they are now, i dislike being stuck in queue for half an hour... now i know that this is largely due to pugging them using the LFD tool so in this respect the wait is something i am just willing to accept... But still even when i get into a heroic, the 45min plus time on average to get the thing done, all things going well, is a great hassle... coupled with the fact that heroics are so damn boring (hell even raiding is boring, IE yesterdays muck cooked again) i just cant justify doing eeither portion of content... now i used to think that shadowbolt spam as a demo lock back in wrath was boring (lets face it theres more to the rotation then just that, but you get what im saying yeah?) but heroics in cata are just one big yawn fest and really not enjoyable at all... oh the monotony... So after some time of delibaration and much thought ive decided to wing it into the battlegrounds in the hope that they are spontaneous and captivating enough to prevent me from /snoring myself right out of the game.. So i guess in the end some people could end up just flaming me off for saying what ive said, and thats fine, im not here to please those who would disagree with what im saying, but at the same time i dont seem to be the only player who feels this way
Shelly Feb 1st 2011 3:55AM
I don't have the time in large chunks to do cata heroics factoring in the wait time for dps as well as the actual time to do (and/or learn) the instance. Oddly thoug, the wait time for a regular cata dungeon seems to be drastically shorter and the chances of instant death are slimmer.
Part of my problem is that I was just sitting in queue for a heroic for half an hour plus, I started to fall asleep during that time and then I get thown into the naga occupied dungeon on heroic after totally missing it on regular (and not even being able to queue for it now at 85) and being expected to know everything and not die on it. In my favor, I got the ladies dance the first time, that first wipe wasn't my fault, but when I die to the void the second time because of a restricted camera angle (yeah, my bad) I get absolutely flamed by the other dpsers... yeah, that makes me want to come back...
On the whole though, anything not heroic cataclysm I am all for.
tatali0n Feb 1st 2011 4:46AM
Overall, the LFD tool has completely revitalised WOW for me. I do miss the community that running dungeons with your own server used to create, but in those days I'd spend half the night looking for a group with no guarantee I'd find one, and less of a guarantee it would be any good. These days I'll run half a dozen instances in the same space of time.
I do find that when I tank, about 8 in 10 are great runs and the remainder are fixable once we get rid of whatever or whoever is causing the problem. When I dps it drops to about 4 in 10 because you're so totally reliant upon finding an adequate tank and healer, and many are not. But it's a small price to pay. And I love tanking, so it's no problem really. If I tank and rope a friend in to heal (or either of my two sons for that matter) then the run is a guaranteed good one.
The ignore list is my friend. If the dps is rude, unduely impatient or pulls indescriminately when I'm tanking, or if I'm dps and the healer or tank are fail [and by that I don't mean new or inexperienced, but rude, ignorant or intentionally incompetant and perpetually wiping] then it's just a short space of my time before that run ends and I can guarantee I'll never have to run with them again.
I wish the friends list was Battlegroup wide, and I wish you could actually construct groups across the Battlegroup yourself with people you've friended on other servers in past runs. I meet far more decent, friendly people in PUGS that I'd love to run with again than I do muppets that need the attentions of my ignore list. It's a real shame not to have any chance of running into them again, but Real-ID is just a little too familiar for me to want strangers on it; it isn't really anything more than an inter-server, inter-game chat client.
So yeah, I'd go so far as to say I not only enjoy PUGs, but love them and consider them a key attraction of the game.
Dinoma Feb 2nd 2011 11:17AM
I actually think one problem is the Random LFG tool itself.
If someone is actually being pro-active for content (and as happens with first time raiding) then they might look online and learn a few tips for an encounter - however, with the random effect instead of learning tips for say 3 bossfights and then testing it out you would have to learn every bossfight for every dungeon since you don't know where you are going.
So I think most people now decide to just learn on the job and this way leads to wipes.
(obviously the many other listed problems here relenting once you are in the instance. From my experience the normal LFG has been pretty good, the heroic LFG terrible)