Friday, September 2, 2011

Tales from the Random Pug - 8th story

In what probably was purely my imagination, I thought it felt like pugs in the old heroics were much better after 4.1. People weren't good, but they were friendly and I had fun even when we wiped on easy things.  In one pug to HoO we probably wiped some 6-7 times, 5 times to the same boss but there was no name-calling, no quitting, no nerdraging. We just brushed it off, discussed our tactic and tried new things. My own pet theory was that this was due to that all the no-patience-leet-raiders had gone to the brand new troll instances, and left the old heroics for newly dinged people like my alts. I can understand that you have more patience if you realize that the wipe was partially due to your own short-comings, but I must say I really preferred those undergeared runs over what has come now in 4.2.

Because of 4.2 people we're doing heroics like crazy again. The new troll instances weren't new anymore, and most people had gotten all the gear they wanted from there for their mains and five alts. In fact, most people probably got sick of doing their vp grinding solely in the troll instances (me among them) and decided to do old heroics to keep things interesting. Only they've done those instances umptifive times as well and just want a smooth run to get it over with. Wanting a smooth run usually means you have no patience for mistakes, which means there is a lot of name calling and whining when things don't go exactly as expected. Eventhough I realize that I too sometimes can be the cause of a general gloomy attitude in a pug, because even I have bad days, sometimes I just end up in groups where every person is an asshat before I've barely opened my mouth.


This pug wasn't an old heroic, but close to. It was a normal Stonecore I did on my 84 resto druid. It just perfectly shows how some people can act sometimes, which makes me think "Why? What did you gain by this?".


It starts out innocent enough. I constantly have to remind paladins that I can do BoK and it usually takes a couple of minutes before they get it. But then I find out the tank is a comedian.


Yes, I am laughing my ass off here...


Only way to react to a troll is being one yourself. There is no way to reason with someone who thinks they're hilarious when they're morons. So I let this one go. I hardly need BoM enough to make a fuss about it with a 5-year old. Then it turns out the warlock is a special snowflake too. Two in one group, whodda guessed it?


The tank, who liked to overpull, pulled two stone giants and three of those with wavy arms. The lock dies. I use rebirth, but no reaction. After the combat I use revive, and still no reaction. I wait for a minute, but the tank doesn't so I start chasing after him. Then this funny dialogue ensues once I'm nearly at the second boss;


The tank had already pulled the boss before I got there from after ressing, and I was locked out. I also told the lock that I wouldn't run back to res someone who didn't care to stick around to accept the first two he got.


Yeah so I don't even know what a "tetam" is but I am sure it's horrible. I'm not sure who the hunter was talking to either, I suppose the lock since he took ages to get back to us. It can't have been me because I was back there ressing people and getting mana back from after the huge overpull. But maybe a mana-less hunter wouldn't understand that.

So a warning to you all - pugs have turned horribad again. Or maybe I'm just in a bad streak. What can you do in these situations? Just /shrug, get on with it and hope it's over quickly I suppose.

9 comments:

  1. Last time I did a pug random hc sort of put me off from doing it ever again. I was tanking on my alt in Zul'Aman with three dpsers all managing to do 4-6k on a boss, standing in everything, a healer who went completely oom on every pack (the low dps can't have helped) and a wipe every 5 minutes.

    The dpsers in the group got replaced 3 times until the run was over, eventually we got two guys in doing 20k each and then it was smooth sailing.

    After 3 hrs of doing that I fear for my life to pug troll heroics when I don't dps myself...

    And yeah ofc we still had the shouting, complaints, poo-flinging, etc. But that's present in every pug there is? Right?

    Cheers,
    Gav

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  2. I /ignore them and finish the run if possible. If not possible, oh well!

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  3. I had a somewhat bad PUG when going into...Stonecore, I think it was. I'd never done it, but I looked the dungeons up before going into one so I wouldn't be a total tard.

    Our first try, the mage backed up into mobs when we were on the first boss. We wiped.

    Our second try, nobody DPSed the chains of woe quick enough, and we wiped.

    Our third try, the mage backed up and pulled a boss when we were killing adds.

    Our fourth try, on the boss with the beams you have to stand in...yeah they said that we didn't have to stand in front of them, just DPS the boss down. That didn't work. And the mage yelled at us, so we kicked them.

    The dungeon was a breeze to get through after that, lol.

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  4. PuGs definitely have been taking a turn for the worse lately. On average I guess they're okay.. average pugs.. average time it takes.

    But the bad ones, are really bad.

    When I play my Paladin alt I always check if there's a Druid in the group and do my blessing accordingly. I sometimes forget though, but I quickly realise when I see my BoK being overwritten.

    Maybe the tank didn't pay attention and thought you were a Paladin :P With the lack of attention people have been showing lately it wouldn't surprise me.

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  5. I have had mixed experiences lately with PUGs. I agree that when you're in a bad one, it is really, really bad...or just retarded.

    Last night I was in one. I was the healer. The tank greeted everyone with something like:

    "Hello all! Are you ready to RP? Let's do some hardcore RP. 'Ello sir would you like some magic potions or garments or donuts? Mi lady and such..."

    One of the dps left immediately. I took a moment to inspect the tank's gear. It was pvp gear ungemmed, unreforged. I thought I would stick around and see how it went, but the stupid tank kept roleplaying and saying ridiculous things and running in circles to eventually I just left.

    Then I had a group that was just awesome. Great bear tank, great dps, everyone was nice, funny, used cc, discussed tactics. We kept commenting along the way about what an awesome group we were and how we wished we were all on the same server.

    So there are still some good PUGers out there...and many bad ones.

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  6. PuGs are taking a turn for the worse. Sadly Blizzard in some ways promotes this attitude by making the JP/VP system how it is.

    People want to chew through the instance like a bat out of hell just to get thier points and then move on to the next instance.

    If everyone else is not doing this or is unable to go at the pace they think it should be at then you are obviously a fail newbie or some other such scathing remark.

    So basically if you are actually running an alt, or for those newer players who are actually on what may be there main toon, they are getting the big rude slap in teh face by other players.

    Not only does it promote rudeness, but, and this is my main peeve, it becomes a freakin slop fest.

    I HATE a sloppy run. I woud rather take extra time and be smooth and clean in the run than I would to finish it up 10 minutes faster.

    What also gets me is that its not always over geared folks causign these issues. Its the ass who has a main raider who is geared out and he/she is running their alt now. This jackass is beleives he knows everything and how to do it best.

    Dont be that guy!

    If the tank is decent and doing what needs be done correctly and some ass munch DPS is pulling because they want to go faster...I take teh tanks side eveytime and I let that bastard die. Oh ya, I am guilty of it baby, and I bask in the glory of my non-healing healiness!

    Dreavon

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  7. @Gav & Pradzha
    I would never have the patience to stick that out for so long. I sometimes ignore people if they play well enough and are "just" annoying in chat (which happens quite often) but most of the time I just can't be bothered with such people.

    @K.R Holbrook
    It's quite commendable that you actually took some time to learn something about the instance before going in, I think the amount of people who do that have to be 1% of the gaming population. I don't always do that myself, admittedly, but I at least ask for directions if I don't know them, and most people don't even do that. And after a horrible wipe that could've been easily averted they say "oh btw, I have no idea how to do this". /facepalm.

    @Saga
    I'm sure that's some of the reason for some of the paladins I've met, but I'm not so sure about this guy - he seemed to just be out to be annoying :P

    @Orionfin
    I had a group just the other day that was so good that I did another three runs with that group and we even did all the achis in the instances we got to (even Headed South!). I was really sad to leave them after that, but it was 2 am or something and I had already done more instances than I should've. So there is still hope for sure. It's russian roulette!

    @Anon
    You and me both. Rather a smooth run with some cc and such than a chaotic "speed run" that usually ends up taking more time anyway due to unecessary wipes.

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  8. Truly a horrid speed run with multiple whipes often takes more time. Not to mention it can turn off new players willing to tank or heal, which is really a shame for the big picture of the game.

    To bad they could not make the LFD work on a smaller base. Server only woudl be great as far as re-establishing the unspoken 'Dont be a butthead because word will get out onthe server about you' rule. Of course qeue times would become higher.

    Perhaps change it to only a 2 or 3 server settup vs an entire battle group. You would get to see more of the same people that way and becoem familiar with names. This would not completely solve the issue, but familiarity often tempers the spastic nature of people.

    I liked it when you had to get a run togther on your own server. Guilds often didnt like thier members acting like idiots as it gave teh guild a bad name, and non guilded folks didnt get invited if they were a heel repeatedly.

    Since we can no longer self poplice persay, people no longer feel the need to be responsible, mature and respect thier fellow players.

    Seriously, I find it really hard ot beleive that 90% of what happens in a PuG as far as general attitude and personality would happen in RL form teh same ppl. They would be a freakin pariah in RL if they acted like that to everyone.

    Okay, time for me to get off teh soap box.

    Solaril

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  9. I really think they need to come up with a different way to get VP. People who are running heroics for the gear, possibly for the first time, shouldn't get grouped with people who are VP farming. Their interests (and often abilities) don't align well. Both sides of the situation end up frustrated and unsatisfied. I know Blizzard wants to have a mix of skills and gear levels, but that will happen on its own without forcing raid-geared people who've done the instance a bazillion times to group with fresh 85s who need 346 gear, and who want to learn their class/spec (or just experience new content at their own pace). The troll dungeons help some, but you still get conflicts between the faster faster VPers and the 'gasp, mana!' new 85s.

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