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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast 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 9 of 9)
Gordal Jan 26th 2012 4:23PM
Oh, and a further note: That disastrous Vorpil fight we had? I can't remember what add-on I was using to report enemy HP (I think it was part of the CosmosUI suite), but he had healed himself for so much health that my report on him suffered an integer underflow and claimed that he had some minus several million HP.
Minus several million HP people. That's how much health we took off Vorpil. In the TBC era.
Elbarto Jan 26th 2012 4:21PM
So I was tanking a ZA or ZG a while back and this dude was complaining about dps, you know the type the guy who comes in with his shiny heroic raid gear thinking his better than everyone. Anyways after the first boss he says he's not happy about dps and is gonna kick lowest dps. Two seconds later I was kicked from the group. As I said I was tanking...
Todd Jan 26th 2012 4:21PM
It is funny that you mentioned the group being a mana drain on heals. I was running my lvl 40'ish Holy through an instance, and I swear it seemed like the tank must have been naked or something, because the second he got hit by anything his health dropped like a stone. I spent most of my time spamming flash heals just to keep him alive. As soon as a group was done I'd shout MANA! and he'd ignore me every time, and run off and aggro more baddies.
At one point he just started to aggro random baddies that were off the beaten path, and I asked him to please stop. He started to berate me. "Hey, it's extra experience. You don't see anyone else complaining do you?" Of course not jerk-face, because no one else has to heal your sorry tush. And I wouldn't be complaining either except that you're a mana suck, and won't even let me stop to mana up.
On the other hand, since I'm complaining about PUG's, (and sadly, many of them are very similar to that) I *have* met some wonderful players. In fact, one group ended up running about 5 instances in a row, and before we left, we all exchanged "real-ids" just in case we get the chance to hook up again. I love when that happens.
Before I go - folks - PLEASE - be nice to your healer. We absolutely live to heal you and make sure you are having a great time, and live through the most dangerous encounters. It kills us when we fail at that, even if you pulled half the darn room at once. So please don't treat us like dirt, and remember to let us mana up before/after a boss.
Bynde Jan 26th 2012 4:28PM
The last time I PUGged was in Wrath. And I am so frickin happy I can't stand it. The uglyness of human nature sorta ruins it.
Cathubodva Jan 26th 2012 5:23PM
She was a new 85, I didnt' realize you could do that, I'll pass that information on to her! thank you!
Gennifurfur Jan 26th 2012 5:43PM
I was in a hurry when I replied to your comment, and forgot part of it.
I also wanted to say that they way I would have handled it if I was in that situation would have been to simply inform your warlock friend how things have changed, rather than berate them and/or kick them. A little kindness goes a long way in these pugs.
Cathubodva Jan 26th 2012 6:27PM
It went tits up fast >_< it was a bad group all around. Talking to them wasn't an option. Luckily I've had very few groups that were that bad.
Shadda Jan 26th 2012 7:35PM
I was healing ZA in my paladin and quickly realized that the druid tank couldn't hold aggro at all. The trash mobs in the first section of ZA spawn additional adds if they aren't killed fast enough, and since the dps were trying to keep themselves alive, the adds just kept spawning. I blew guardian, and righteous fury in the attempt to keep everyone up, but things weren't going well. At this point, the tank decided he should switch tactics.
He popped treeform. :D
We attempted to explain to the fellow that "resto" wasn't a tanking spec, but we quickly began to suspect that we were being trolled and dropped group one by one.
hlarge4 Jan 27th 2012 9:43AM
OMG!!!!!!!!!! I was in that fucking group!!!!! It was a DPS that pulled the mob, the asshole!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Adam Jan 27th 2012 11:31AM
Omg, not kidding, but I think I was in that run that is the header image.
:)
Luke Jan 27th 2012 2:02PM
Trust me, near the start of Cataclysm EVERYONE was in that group. Even though we had all been told for months, "it's going to be harder in Cataclysm, you can't AOE tank like you could in Wrath...".
Possum Jan 28th 2012 6:36AM
I've been leveling up a couple of tanks through 1-60 level dungeons. I generally don't have too much trouble. I suppose it will get more stressful the closer I get to end game content but for now anybody who gives me shit can get put on ignore while I continue on my merry way. If they create chaos (like letting the healer get eaten by mobs they idiotically pulled) I'll initiate a vote kick. If they're not creating too much chaos or letting the healer get aggro sometimes I'm happy to just let them tank whatever they pulled. Hell, it's their repair bill.
If they die well that's it's just hilarious, ragequitting because of it, even more so.
I suppose my most WTF story lately was of the healer who after we completed the DF part of the dungeon (detention block) pulled a bunch of mobs on us and dropped group, wiping us. Pretty much completely out of the blue. I'm guessing that young man had some issues. But much more often at least 3/4 of the other people in my group are capable and polite.