Immediately following each successful capture or defense of the Wintergrasp fortress, a number of 10 and 25 man VOA groups start to form. I've been a involved in quite a few of these, and they have the highest failure rate of any PUG, anywhere.
The following are some general guidelines I've come up with on how to increase the chances of a successful PUG.
- Before each boss, explain the fight. Don't ask if anyone needs it explained, just do it. In any large PUG there are bound to be a few people who don't know the fights, but who are unwilling to admit to it lest they appear to be a noob. (I've never had that problem, but I'm less shy that way.)
- Remind people that this is a PUG, and to expect a few wipes, and to be patient. Ask people to commit to a minimum of four attempts. If at that point the group is clearly not getting it, is not improving on each attempt, doesn't have high enough DPS, or generally appears doomed to failure, then go. But don't be such an impatient and arrogant fool to expect that your PUG is going to be the magical one that manages to down the boss on the very first try.
- Keep it moving! One of the largest attrition factors I've found is the delay between attempts. Get everybody right back in, get rebuffed, and go. Maybe take a minute to discuss what went wrong, and to change assignments if necessary, but make it quick. Don't debate endlessly. Take too long and it will appear that you simply have no idea what you're doing. People will get bored and start to leave.
2 comments:
One of the things I think I've decided is that PUGs just...aren't very fun. What I like to do is invite one or two friends who I know are good players...preferably a tank or healer to depend on. Other than that, I think you're right on the mark.
You're especially right about attempting a few times before calling it or moving on. And if you are leading the raid, you should really wait to boot people (if you must...) after one or two encounters with a boss that aren't total failures. That dpser may actually hit for 1,000 more damage per second under better circumstances. And that healer may be able to heal if they aren't...dead because of a bad pull. And etc.
Lol, it's funny you mention that. I was in an Emalon raid recently with my Warlock alt where the group leader kicked me after the first unsuccessful attempt. In that attempt we lasted no more than about 10 seconds because either the tank or healer (or both)failed miserably on the initial pull, and the tank died, and the rest followed right behind.
When I asked why he kicked me, he said I didn't have good enough gear and that I needed to go farm more heroics. I was like, dude, at least give me ONE shot to see what my actualy DPS is like before you make that call.
I normally don't call people out by name on my blog, but I think the fact that his name is "Ego" is somewhat telling. I had actually been in another PUG with him where he was pretty much a pompous ass as well.
I think it was Tamarind who lamented being referred to as "Healer" rather than by his name (or even just Tam). I had the same experience in that I was simply "Warlock" in that encounter... as in, "Hey Warlock, you should use this ability and avoid doing such and such."
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