Several of you have seen my comments on your blogs about my hesitancy to try pick-up groups (PUGs). But this weekend, I finally bit the bullet, and for the first time viewed the Looking for Group/Looking for More (LFG/LFM) screen, and monitored the LFG channel.
On Saturday, I was doing some quests up in Netherstorm with Talonis when I got a message asking me about The Arcatraz. I asked if they wanted DPS (Talonis) or healer (Osprey). They were just doing a frag run, but had plenty of DPS, so I logged in on Osprey and headed for Netherstorm. I was happy enough just to get my frag; we didn’t even do the first boss. The run went fine, no one died, but I’m glad we weren’t doing the whole instance. The tank wasn’t marking (although for the most part, the trash isn’t that difficult for a decent group, which ours was), but he was a pretty effective tank. And the group overall (at least 3 were from the same guild, and I think they were all related) was appreciative of having a Holy Priest along for the run.
Given the general success of that run, I once again advertised my services in LFG on Sunday. Before long, I had a request to heal Steam Vault. Cool…that would get me the 2nd (and final, for me) key fragment. We had 3 DPS and a healer…but tanks were few and far between on Sunday. EVERYONE wanted a tank: Arc, SV, SH, SL…so after a quarter-hour of futility, I decided I had other things I could do. So I logged Osprey out and Talonis in. Within 5 minutes, I was invited to join another Arcatraz group. W00t (word of the year, you know)–a chance to get Talonis’ 3rd key fragment!
So within a couple minutes (after a stop at the bank to grab a handful of Super Heal Pots, I was accepting a summon to Netherstorm. The group consisted of resto druid (party leader), another BM hunter, a rogue, and a pally (not certain of his spec). The first three were all in the same guild; the pally seemed to be known to them. Overall the run went extremely well. The other hunter was spot-on with Misdirects and traps (I really need to use my Snake Trap more!). We had one wipe–sorry to say I’m not sure exactly where, but it was before the first boss. The Druid was an excellent healer, the rogue topped the damage meter (until we combine pet damage with hunter damage), the pally generally held and regained aggro well.
All comms were via text chat (I’m guessing three of them were on voice, but maybe not). There wasn’t a lot, but there didn’t need to be: I felt quite comfortable in this group, we all knew our roles, and it certainly helped that at least three of the other four had been through the instance before. And I was happy with my individual performance: Was only asked to trap once, and I handled that easily (despite a lousy load of ice :p), plus one MD on the final boss (almost missed the whisper from the other hunter). And I had 29.8% of total damage, for second place overall.
As I said, the run went well. Off the first boss, I was able to get Outland Striders, a clear upgrade (even without an enchant) from my Talhide-Lined Boots of the Bandit with +7 Agility. So now, the only greens I’m wearing are rings, trinkets, and shoulders. Slowly but surely…
All in all, my first experiences with PUGging were quite favorable. This could become a trend.
At least, until I get the PUG from Hell…
Grats, Kestrel, or as we say in our guild “Gartz”
PUGs are like a box of chocolates. If you’re lucky you’ll get one that resembles a Snickers bar.
I too was turned off to PUGs early on because lower level instances are filled with egomaniacal alts trying to impatiently power level themselves with no regard for their team-mates. But in the end-game some of the most pleasant, humorous, and enjoyable encounters I have had in this game came from landing in a PUG with all the right ingredients. They are rare diamonds hidden in the lumpy mounds of coal, but they are out there.
Keep the faith and keep on bloggin’!
P.S.
Never, EVER, under ANY circumstances PUG a Heroic Daily Quest
>:(
Heh…I’ll take your word for that last.
Welcome to my personal hell…Check out my blog from today about a raid pug on Molten Core..LOL
I agree though, that some Pugs are very good, while others are not worth the large repair bill that follows it.
Good luck on your future PuG’s!!
I’m often hesitant to join a PUG too. But honestly, some of the best players I know in game have come from PUGs. As soon as I prove to them that they can trust me to do my job, then we’re all good. But let’s not put to fine a point on it. Some PUGs blow. And like Freejack I wouldn’t set foot inside a heroic with people I didn’t know (or that were vouched for by someone I did know)
I PuG all the time. Most of my guildies like to get their badges from Kara, so I’m often on my own. And I’m a Shadow Priest, so I fill one slot since my CC is situational…although I’ve saved my group from many a wipe by backup healing.
Nine times out of ten it’s fine. But I’m the kind of guy that can do a 5hour SL and not care; just as long as we finish it.
I pugged a few times this weekend. First one was good. Second time was better. Third time was worse then getting a root canal with no novacaine. Luckily I had a previous engagement, since the third lasted a lot longer than it was supposed to, that called to me. Ugh.
I have a lot of success pugging regular five mans on any character. The trouble is trying to do the daily heroics on my mage who badly needs badges. Here, since the change from getting the key at Honored instead of Revered, you’re very likely to run into someone savagely undergeared who drags the group down and leaves you unable to finish it. Can’t tell you how many groups I’ve seen where the tank is either fury or arms specced with a few prot pieces (and like 10k hp buffed) or the healer is decked out in the finest quest greens and is ready to rock with his +600 to healing.
After successful heroic runs, I do add the decent members to my friends list, only to either never see them again or find that they respecced. *sniff* I once did 3 heroics in a day with this pally tank…then next weekend I asked if he wanted to do anything he told me he respecced Ret. Sigh.
I’m still such a chicken sh*t when it comes to pUGs. I had one experience that stopped me from playing for almost a month (ok, maybe it was only 2 weeks.) Gonns dive back in tho but damn, wish I could just run with friends.
Well, heck…transfer to Kul Tiras
Perhaps this is a Horde v Alliance thing. On Perenolde, it seems there are more Night Elves than all the Horde combined. If you are going to PuG, and you *are* going to PuG, you better stick with your group and do your best, because if you don’t, you’ll be waiting another hour or perhaps another day to get another Heroic done. We got our tank, (very good tank, btw) for the Heroic SL last night by giving him dibs on the nether. Since I got nice new purple pants and 5 badges, that’s fine with me.
Being fairly new to the game I haven’t had to worry to much about this, but I have had others whisper while I’m on a quest if I wanted to group to finish that quest. I have said yes a couple times and they have always worked out fine, but it’s still hard for me, I haven’t figured out if I don’t trust them or if it’s I don’t trust my self to help them (I would hate to get someone else killed)
Some players like and enjoy PuGs, some players dislike PuGs like the plague sometimes due to just one Radom PuG they may have done. I personally don’t have a problem with PuGs unless someone is clearly being a jerk which at that point would just be a problem with the specific player and not the group as a whole.
I’m a Tank and I love to PuG ( regular) instance 5 man runs. What I do not PuG is Heroics especially since the changes in patch 2.3 which I’m not in favor of.
I’m guildless and just about 99% of the time has always been by choice. I’m a pretty damn good player of my class and a very good tank. I have no fear in PuGing a regular 5 man instance. Some of the best players you find in pugs for some reason or the other. Not everyone are in PuGs because one may think they suck. Many good players do sometime PuG to fill in the gap in their premade group. Some of the most intresting times I’ve had in pugs. However I draw the line on PuGs with random players I don’t know. My friends list is very long and its as long as it is because of all the PuGs I’ve done and met good players of their class. Many of those players are in guilds and many are in the top ten guilds on my server side. I see those players all the time. When they need a tank outside their guild when one is not available I often get the call to come help them out. I owe all that to Pugging. Every good guild invite I get I owe it to Pugging because someone in their guild liked me as a tank in a PuG. That’s all from pugging. The thing is to I enjoy being guildless as well.