That was great guys, but next time lets...

It seems that every time there is a wipe, there's always a few people who feel prompted to make themselves known to the group.

Guy#1:  "ZOMG GUYS YOU SUCK SO MUCH, JUST KILL THE BOSS. FUCK!" Guy#1 is fairly useless, but definitely high on the annoying meter. He will usually be the first one to bail out. Sometimes Guy#1 feels it is his job to inform trade chat, the barrens, and his mother, that the group he was just in failed.

Guy#2: "Guys, that was a great attempt, but I think next time we should try not dying. It's that dying that's really kicking our butts. I think if we make an effort to not die that we would be able to take this boss down with no problem." Guy#2 is harmless, equally as useless as Guy#1, and not as annoying. Guy#2 likes to state the obvious, so much so that sometimes I think there's a [CPT OBVIOUS] achievement or feat of strength. (I have yet to find any proof of said achievement)

Guy#3:   /ninjalog

Guy#4: "Strategy, strategy, strategy, blah blah, strategy. Profit!" Guy#4 is usually right and some groups will subconsciously promote Guy#4 to raid leader and expect him to carry them through the rest of the instance. Other groups will completely disregard any advice he has to give and, on failing to find fire to stand in, will start up a cooking fire and stand in that.

Guy#5: "Guys, in my one group, we did blah, blah, and bugged it out and it worked great back in (four or more patches back) Lets do that for guaranteed win!" Guy#5 is useless and annoying. But groups like to listen to this guy. I believe it's the key phrase "bugged it out" that makes groups want to listen to this guy. In the end, his advise is usually useless and several of Guy#3 will make themselves known when the group fails. Again.

This was a quick list, and certainly isn't complete. Please feel free to add more to the list in the comments section!

Blizzcon2010 nerds

When in a Pug is going to Blizzcon2010! I'm sure some of you already knew that. But for those of you who didnt know, now you do!

Blizzcon.... Blizzcon. Every hardcore wow-ers (daiblo-ers and starcraft-ers, also!) wet dream. At least, that's what I thought. After all, countless masses wait breathlessly for Blizzcon announcements and then rush the forums after each one. Tickets are sold out in seconds, and then resold (sucessfully) by scalpers for more than double the face value.

And yet, when I asked ingame who was going to Blizzcon, I was confronted with a few "wut?". Even more baffling, I was called a nerd.

/gasp

Online. In a video game. By another person who was playing the same game. I suppose that's a topic for another thread.

/equip murloc hat

Yes, I am a blizzcon nerd. I'll see all you awesome people in a little less than a week. And all you haters can just kiss it!

Competition for Gear

I consistently see groups searching desperately for a component to their raid- a tank, a healer, sometimes even a dps. And yet, when they receive pm's from geared and experienced players, the raid leader turns them down and continues to spam trade chat. When this first happened to me, I was baffled. A nearly full raid that is sitting around, ready but not able to begin because the raid leader is refusing to bring along one or more people who are biting at the bit to go.

It seems a waste to me. Common sense states that the longer a group is actively not full and not raiding, the more likely it is that people will leave. But then again, common sense never was that common.

I finally uncovered the reason behind a raid leader holding up a group of people. One would think, maybe we need a super specific class for a certain buff or ability- a shammy's bloodlust, a mage's spellsteal, something along those lines. Something that would benefit the group as a whole and increase the likelihood of a successful group. Something like that is certainly an acceptable reason to turn down offers that don't fit the needs of the group.

Unfortunately, more and more often, encounters with the phenomenon of turning down ready and willing pugers has nothing to do with benefiting the group- the reason is *much* more selfish.

Raid leaders are refusing to invite people who will compete against them or their butt buddies for gear.

......

I'll say that again.

Raid leaders are refusing to invite people who will compete against them or their butt buddies for gear. Granted, it is nice to have evolved beyond raid leaders simply inventing an excuse to place everything shiny in their inventory and suddenly, inexplicably, developing an issue maintaining a connection.  However, keeping a group waiting and waiting. and waiting. and waiting so that one person can have everything they want essentially reserved? It's not only wasting time of 9 or 24 other people, but it's also exceptionally greedy and entitled.

While it is beyond annoying being turned down for groups because I was deemed a threat to loot, I have been on the other end of the spectrum as well. I have been in a group that was held up for an incredibly long time while the raid leader looked for another tank. After a while of observing the raid leader spam for another tank and observing a paladin tank spamming for a group for the dungeon I'm in, I asked the raid leader why he wasn't grabbing the guy in  trade. He told me that he wasn't sure if I would be "ok" with it. I'll have you know that I squared him away, we grabbed the other pally tank and blasted through the run, with me and the other pally rolling on gear and neither of us getting hurt feelings when we were out-rolled.

Regardless.

This practice that has come about is, in my opinion, no more than a combination of reserving items and ninjalogging. The raid leader has essentially reserved "their" items, but without telling anybody else in the recruiting pool or group that it is reserved. But because there is nobody else in the group to ninja it from, they're saved the inconvenience of having to log out of the game after their first piece of free loot that they get without having to roll against anyone else. A group with a raid leader who does this is simply put- carrying them, whether they can hold their own or not.A raid formed with the purpose of gearing up a single person is a group that is carrying said person. And, wether they say it or not, nobody actually likes to carry anyone else. Especially in a pug.

So. Raid leaders. Form your pug. Get the people you need and don't be such a sissy. If you just *have* to have a specific piece of shiny purple gear, don't block out the competition just reserve the item. You'll form the group faster and won't have to turn down so many people. Besides, a little competition is good for you. It makes actually winning the gear more wowgasmic.

Purchasing achievements- a do or a don't?

As a constant pugger, I find acomplishing certain ahievements to be near impossible, if not downright completely impossible.
Usually the fault is not my own. I won't entirely pass blame- I have occasionally stood in fire a smidgen too long in an attempt to get off one more heal. But normally achievements are just out of reach due to one or more individuals in the pugs that I've joined.
Pugs are constantly unable to muster up the coordination required to accomplish many of the achievements available. At times, they're too uncoordinated to even kill simple bosses.

And so, with many simple achievements and their rewards unatainable for puggers like myself, I read through "achievement X for sale for X amount of gold" advertisements with a little longing.
Trust me, I wouldn't want to simpy afk out during fights and have my achievments handed to me. But at times, after constanty running with fail pugs, I would love to join a group that has mastered all fights, allowing me to participate and to feel as though I accomplished something during the run.
However some people do purchase achievements with the primary purpose of setting autofollow and leaving the computer, expecting to come back and have ther character suddenly be elite. Those people then hit the general population with outstanding gear but still lacking the ability to play the game.
People like that set a low precident for those of us who simply want to experience fights at the level of high end raiding guilds.

Contributing

In the ideal PUG, tanks will hold agro, healers will keep the entire group topped off, and dps will maximize their damage while not pulling agro. In the ideal PUG, all three classes will do those jobs without error while still following whatever strategy is required for each boss.

Unfortunately, as we all know, PUGs rarely ever run idealy. Instead, tanks will pull while not in tank spec or gear, healers will zone out on their Whack-A-Mole marathons and die while standing in fire, and dps will unfailingly refuse to allow the tanks to build sufficient agro before smashing their OMGWTFBBQDPS!1 macros.

While those errors are easily correctable, the parties at fault rarely accept responsibility. While failing to accept responsibility isn't so bad in and of itself, it makes them believe that whatever happened isn't their fault and so they also don't correct their actions appropiately, thus recreating the situation. In essence, they attempt to shut a door with their hand in the doorjamb and rather than moving their hand, they state there is some fault in the construction of the door and continue to attempt to shut it- All the time keeping their hand in the doorjamb.

This stubborn refusal to man up and adapt an improved playstyle constantly baffles me. It seems to me- you're more productive when you're steadily DPS-ing, rather than dead and staring at the floor while everyone else picks up the slack caused by your death. Likewise with healing and tanking. It's simply unacceptable to be so ignorant and cocky to believe that your doing two seconds of 10k dps is so "1337" that the group will forgive you for not contributing for the remainder of the 1-12 minute fight.

So PUGers- how about just doing your job and stop trying to /peenflex. Cause guess what? Nobody cares how big it is if you die every pull.

I'm too sexy for your vent

Too sexy for your vent, too sexy by far!



That seems to be the mindset of at least half the members of any pug. In a guild run, that nonsense just isn't acceptable- you'll quit your whining, join vent during the raid, and be happy about it. But pugs are different- they generally lack a solid hierachy, and certainly lack any disciplinary actions for members who refuse to conform.

Most of the non-comformists won't even bother giving an excuse. Occasionally, there is a legit reason for not joining vent- sometimes their computer is such a hot mess that it would burst into flame if it had to run wow and vent at the same time.

However, usually it's someone who is overly self richeous and entitled and simply can't be bothered to join vent because it's far too much work. They'll state "it's old content- we don't need vent," then wipe, and promptly start bitching that everyone else is a noob. Some mistakenly believe that their guild vent is more important than the vent of the group that they're with. Others still are watching TV and would hate for their show to be interrupted by somebody screeching for MORE DOTS.

/wrist

/wrist for wasting a week and a half farming heroic TOC for the heart trinket that drops from regular.