Breakfast Topic: Spill your 5-man PUG stories here
by Allison Robert 
Jan 26th 2012 at 8:00AM
I'll start. I usually tank heroics but decided to heal recently (that was my first mistake), and I landed a group of guildies from another realm in a Well of Eternity PUG. Now, the average Cataclysm heroic isn't all that tough to heal these days as long as you're sensibly geared, but it didn't take me long to realize that this group was blowing through an unusually large percentage of my mana pool. They stood in front of the Dreadlord Defenders' Carrion Swarm, couldn't find an interrupt button with two hands and a guide dog, and seemed to DPS at an unusually slow rate even with the crit buff given by Illidan's Shadow Walk.
It was around the time I noticed most of the group sitting in Peroth'arn's Fel Flames that it occurred to me that either this was the most legitimately incompetent group I've ever had the misfortune of encountering, or they were doing it on purpose. But because they never quite managed to get themselves or myself killed, I let it slide. I left at the end with 50 gold and a Forest Emerald from my Satchel, wishing for a Dungeon Finder system sufficiently advanced to recognize that some groups are definitely worth, say, a pony.
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 9)
Revnah Jan 26th 2012 8:06AM
I was in Well of Eternity the other day with my Balance Druid alt, and some warrior whispered me asking why I was in "healing gear". I told him I wasn't, and he pointed out the spirit on most of my gear. I lol-ed and explained that spirit = hit for my and several other caster classes, at which he said "If you say so lol" and proceded to comment on my "healing gear" in party chat.
It was only when I linked him the Balance of Power talent that he said "oh" and shut up.
...
almoderate Jan 26th 2012 9:21AM
I've had that same thing happen on both my balance druid and my shadow priest. In a few cases, they will still gripe that it's "healer gear" even after I've linked the talents. (And no, I don't roll on OS gear with clear healing procs/abilities UNLESS the healer doesn't need it and I truly want the piece for my OS.)
On that same note, I was in one PuG the other day with three people from the same guild-- a prot warrior, a prot pally, and a holy priest. The warrior was tanking and made multiple errors, including tanking a boss out of the area until he despawned. While you might be asking why a prot pally was dpsing as prot, he wasn't. He was the healer and the priest was dpsing. Seriously.
threesixteen Jan 26th 2012 10:52AM
maybe i'm the only, but i think these stories are cute and remind me of how it was when i started in vanilla.
as a holy priest you do have some offensive abilities tho obviously this isn't the role, but you could forgive a player from not fully realizing this; especially if they are more of a quester-with-friends kind of player and not exposed to the rigours of the raid community.
i think there's a world of difference between grouping with a quirky group that is figuring it out on the fly, as opposed to a hardline jerk who has a holier-than-thou attitude etc. i'd way rather play and have fun (especially if, as the writer of the article says, they managed to make it through with his OP heals)... i remember tons of times when i was first trying instances and raids etc that there would be fantastic players who helped and gently chided me for my rookie mistakes.
tl;dr. take it easy. it's just a game. enjoy it. reach out to others. have fun.
Revnah Jan 26th 2012 11:07AM
I never said I didn't take it easy, did I? The player in question harrassed me non-stop, b*tched about it to the group, and all the way to after Azshara told people (not me) to "do more dps" and "go faster" and posted dps meters, in spite of the fact that everyone was pulling their weight, mobs died and we didn't.
I found it funny how he finally stopped saying anything after I linked the talent. He never admitted he was wrong, just went quiet, haha.
This topic is about sharing PuG stories, and I did. Maybe it's you who needs to take it easy ;-)
Mir Jan 26th 2012 6:54PM
I had a similiar problem. Well no actually it was the opposite...sort of. Let me explain.
I was taking immense amounts of grief for not using the right healing rotation (healing rotation? really? /sigh) even though the tank never needed to pop a single cooldown and we didn't have a single death the whole run until someone decided to stand in the Felfire Mannoroth casts. Rather annoying getting in trouble when nothing is actually going wrong.
The part that makes this story worth reading? I was using an atonement spec. I was top dps by over 30% (even with Illidan's buffs no one else broke 15K). Let me repeat that. I was getting crap for not healing right, when I was far and away the top dps while healing at the same time.
Luke Jan 27th 2012 1:59PM
@Mir
Yep, I've been on the receiving end of that more than once. It has unanimously been carried out by DPS who are both terrible and feel as though their DPS is a measure of their worth. So when you successfully heal AND do more DPS it only further embarrasses them.
I had a couple of DPS from the same guild purposefully trying to die so they could use it as a reason to kick me. Fortunate for me and not for them the Tank was mine, and we knew what they were up to.
People are stupid sometimes...
roscman Jan 26th 2012 8:08AM
Ugh. I remember early in this expansion, back when heroic blues were a big deal. I was in a heroic on my healer (It's always when you're healing, isn't it?) when I ran into a really cocky tank. The group outright refused to use Crowd Control, ensuring the tank took truckloads of damage every pull, causing me to blow through my mana every time. Naturally, he would pull the next group just as I was sitting down to drink.
About five pulls in, they called me a bad healer and vote-kicked me from the group.
I stopped healing PUGs up until 4.3. Thank goodness druids can also tank.
threesixteen Jan 26th 2012 10:56AM
there really is nothing worse than being judged by the inept for "mistakes" that result from their own failings.
where's the justice? haha.
many times this has happened to me; and to many others i'm sure. sometimes you just have a bad pull as tank; maybe hamfist a rotation or mistaunt or whatever. maybe you never really understood how dark intent worked, or how rogues could sap...
what is comforting is that there is alcohol.
Nyold Jan 26th 2012 12:14PM
Well if you're the healer, most of the time you're the last person to die since you know, you can heal yourself and choose not to heal others. So if you're feeling especially snarky, you can WAIT until they all died, then type "told ya not to pull when I'm drinking" and run out / leave group / hearth
bballrees Jan 26th 2012 8:12AM
idk if this is a PUG story, but i was grinding arch in frost spec, saw another mage doing the same thing, then proceeded to listen to him calling me a fail DK because my ghoul wasnt out and i was in unholy pres.
Noyou Jan 26th 2012 8:33AM
"saw another mage doing the same thing"
I am confused. You were playing a frost DK or a frost mage?
Alexa Jan 26th 2012 8:38AM
@noyou
I think they were both grinding archaeology. At least, that's how I read it.
Chetti Jan 26th 2012 10:08AM
The response to that would be.. the ghoul is at another digsite, he's gotta earn his keep! :)
freebeatfly Jan 26th 2012 11:01AM
Maybe the mage though another mage was a DK. Smurt.
Ashlar Jan 26th 2012 8:23AM
It's less any one dungeon, than virtually every single Dungeon I tried to tank with my pally in Cataclysm 4.0. It was pure misery. It seemed to follow three paths:
1) By playing very carefully (CCing, explaining all the fights) we could clear a dungeon without wiping, in about 60 minutes - 10 percent of the time
2) Despite playing very carefully as above, something always seemed to go wrong - for example, there were new people in the pug who didn't have the eighteen mechanics on each boss memorized, they would die and then we would wipe. By accepting 4-5 wipes we would clear the dungeon in about 2 hours - 25 percent of the time.
3) The group was failure to launch - anything from bad players to undergeared, to no crowd control. We would wipe futility, maybe kill one boss and disband. Time taken about an hour - 65 percent of the time.
After about four weeks, I asked myself what the hell I was doing with my evenings, dropped the pally, actually quit WoW for a while. I finally got back into it on my shadow priest, but it ended any desire I ever had to tank for a pug.
Harder heroics, as it turned out, were not more fun, despite what I had been told all through Lich King. I'm actually kind of sad - I loved tanking on the Pally all through Lich King - but I still can't stomach the thought anymore.
Adnarish Jan 26th 2012 8:35AM
Very recognizable! After a gruesome 3,5-hour Stonecore run back in December 2010, I stopped tanking in PuGs for the longest time, and only did so with people from my guild. I don't remember exactly when I got back into it, but I suspect it must have been shortly after the Troll instances were reintroduced.
Revnah Jan 26th 2012 8:38AM
So true. It's the reason why my prot warrior girl has been shelved since the beginning of Cataclysm, or rather, several weeks into Cataclysm.
Not impressed Jan 26th 2012 8:40AM
You should come back and tank the Hour of Twilight dungeons; they are a lot shorter and the boss mechanics are, let's say, fewer -easier to remember then, but still can wipe a fail group. Odds are, you'd probably enjoy 4.3 dungeons and LFR a lot more than 4.0.
Sarabande Jan 26th 2012 9:39AM
I agree with Not Impressed. And it's not just that the dungeons are easier - I think it's made people relax more. I've seen more light conversations and have actually have FUN groups (rather than ones that are merely tolerable and efficient). Yes there are still bad groups. Yes we do still get "that guy" of various sorts, but overall, I've found the newest heroics to be more fun. And it's not just me - I think the number of more relaxed groups in this patch are rather telling.
ravyncat Jan 26th 2012 9:42AM
This was my experience at the start of the expansion too. My guild could not clear any of the dungeons. -_-
I still have never done most of them. I do not plan to either because they were not fun at all.
The new 5mans are much better though.
They are a LOT more fun. The Raid Finder is also a lot of fun. You should give it another chance.