The past few months at Uni have really made me appreciate a good pug.
I can rarely raid when my guilds do, which sucks. The main thing I miss when pugging is, for want of a better word, banter. I can sit on Mumble (which is a fantastic alternative to Ventrilo, equiped with Microsoft Sally all for about £7 less...) and moan about the puggers. The Toms, Dicks and Harrys to anyone on it but it's not the same.
However, I've really started to enjoy pugging. I tend to have a good nose for them - or they have for me if you want to think about it that way. I'm nicely geared on all my 80's apart from my DK who I still think could hold her own in the first wing of ICC10. I can stick my music on really loud and get into the boss fights.
I've been extremely luck to have found a few "all guild" pugs and been called back to help if they were short of another dps/healer. This has happened about 3 times and I've been asked if I wanted to help another 5 times. It's been great fun as I get to see how other guilds handle boss fights and stuff.
On the other hand, you can get some really shit pugs. We all know this and that's the reason people truely dont like them. Personality classes, carrying people so far into a raid that you actually get back-ache IRL. You know the drill. I've had pugs where the person with the highest gear score thought he was amazing but only did 3.2k dps on Festergut. My idea with gear score is that it's bascially hand cream for e-peen stroking and this guy was applying it generously due to the fact to boost his magical GS he'd been using 3 peices of tank look with iLvl 264 instead of dps gear. What a prick.
These bad experiences have actually encouraged me to form my own groups, which is actually very enjoyable. I dont really like bossing people around, I'm mainly there to steer them in the right direction and re-cap tactics. I explain how it's going to be done and it just does, I like to think of myself as a decent raid leader and not one of those "OMFG NOT DOING 9K /KICK"
I just hope that I keep getting decent pugs. Going to ICC and not doing Festergut and Rotface (especially with the introduction of the 20% buff) now-a-days leaves me feel a little cheated.
Know what? I've got used to pugging as well. As Tam describes them as "one night stands" well.. that's exactly why I like them. You can go away knowing that you don't have to group with "that nob" ever again and it's awesome. Personally, I've discovered that whilst guild raiding is great and all, I'm not cut out for it any more.
ReplyDeleteI like to raid when I feel like joining a raid, not when 24 other people think I should join a raid for however long they think I should stay and going to pee when they say I can. I struggle to thoroughly enjoy it. And that's why I like pugs, an hour or two in, and out again, wayhey! Not to mention you can play whichever character you feel like this way.
I'll join your pugs if I get to 80 and geared soonish (I don't plan on rushing it mind). Could be fun :p
That'd be great Jaedia! Always good to have people I know can do the job in a pug :)
ReplyDeleteI dont mind having set days but I really dont like having to go "Sorry, I cant be social tonight" while at Uni.