Guide to sucksess PuG's

Ultimax123 · Luke Warm Joined: 26 Jun 2008 Posts: 186

For many avid WoWer's Pick up Groups (PuG) are the primary way to experience group content, but often they can be wrought with frustration and wind up as failures. A good instance group should be smooth and with few deaths and should last approximately 90 to 120 minutes. If you can't clear any non-raid zone in that amount of time, then you need to look at the group and wonder what is wrong.

Not all of the issues associated with pick up groups derive from skill. Many times people go into instances with a bad class mix. For example, you make Black Morass ten times more difficult if you do not have a mage or warlock to AoE the packs of welplings that spawn while you kill the Portal Guardian.

Despite the term PuG you can't just go into a zone with the first 5 people you meet and expect it to be successful. I know it gets a little harder to find a group when you get too specific, but if you want a group to be successful, you need the basics:

1) A tank.

Make sure they have the right spec and some gear to back it up. Asking some one who does not usually group as a tank to tank is a bad idea as they are usually under geared for their role and/or rusty on how to use the skill set they will need to hold aggro. For example, a resto druid can go their whole gaming experience without tanking anything, so asking them to run an instance as a bear will leave you lacking in the tanking department

2) A healer.

As a general rule, you never want a resto druid or a resto shaman as your only healer in a group. They're great healers, don't get me wrong, but they don't have the HPS to keep up with a heroic (If you do, no need to argue the point here, I am just making a general statement) or fights where multiple people are tanking a lot of damage. If you want 1 healer in your group then go with a Priest or a Paladin.

If you do have a resto druid or a resto shaman in your group as the main healer, make sure you bring a "half healer" to the group to join you. A moonkin, a feral druid, a enhancement shaman, a retnoob, a shadow priest - all of those are good half healers and can help heal for some of the harder bosses. They also double as DPS for easy trash pulls.

3) Crowd Control

Every group needs at least one person who can CC at least one mob out of every pull of the instance you are doing. Fighting 2 at a time vs 3 at a time makes a bigger difference then you'd think.

Mage is best for most instances, hunters can be CC but they need to a bit more skilled then your average PuGger. A rogue with improved sap can also work if you can't find a mage. And if you are fighting demons or undead, which we rarely do, you can bring a Warlock or a shadow priest (respectively) as you CC method.

4) DPS

Take any 2 dps you'd like. Remember, if you have a resto druid or a resto shaman as your main healer that one of these spots should be a half healer, like discussed above.

So, how do you find players to join your group?

It is a little luck, but with patience you can get one together.

First decide what role you fill and then actively search out others to join it. Open up your social window (the o (oh) key) and do a /who <insert class> <insert appropriate level range> to find all the people of that class online atm. (Example: /who Priest 53-57)Sort by zone and start asking people who are sitting in the major cities if they'd like to group with you.

Sample message:

"Hi, I'm forming up an SH run to start as soon as I finish filling the group. Would you like to join?"

Start looking for members of the key roles. It's easier to recruit for your group once you have them.

"Hi, I'm forming up an SH run to start ASAP. I already have a tank and a healer, and just need your DPS. Are you available to join us?"

Then if the group goes well, put the players you liked on your friends list and look for them first next time you want to group.

Also,

If you want to be invited back into groups, here are a few simple tips:

1) As soon as you accept the invitation, be ready to go to the instance. Start heading there if you can to help summon stragglers. Its a PITA to have to wait for some one to do 1000000000000 things before they are ready for a group. If you need 5 minutes or 20 minutes you should say so before taking the group invite.

2) Pay attention in your group. If you wanted to watch tv, you should have declined the group, logged off, and watched your TV program.

3) Follow the loot rules. Group leaders should make a macro with exactly how they want loot to be distributed and click it once at the beginning of new groups.

If you follow this guide, you will greatly reduce the number of bad experiences you have in PuG's and may even find yourself a new "inner circle" for grouping all the time.

There will be the occasional horror story, but there is no need to doom your group before you even get started by recruiting a bad mix of classes for the content you wa

You're sinceerly Ultimax123

Guide to sucksess PuG's

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