World of Pugcraft « Rawrcast

Pugging. A dirty word to some WoW players, and a way of life for many others. One truth is self evident for every pug; Your mileage may vary. Many players prefer not to pug at all, the reason being that groups work best with players whose skill level is comparable and whose play style is familiar. But what happens when you have to pug?

Circumstances abound where pugging becomes necessary. Maybe you couldn’t attend your guild’s raid that week or maybe you belong to a casual guild that doesn’t raid at all. Whatever the reason, many players find themselves pugging content with a group of unknown players. With that in mind, I’ve come up with a quick list of things you can do to make the experience as painless as possible.

Step 1: Know what you’re getting yourself into. Raids can run several hours and there are no assurances that you’ll have anything to show for your time (except for a sizable repair bill). Do yourself a favor and armory a random cross section of players in the raid. Compare gear to the difficulty of the instance (you should have a general idea of the gear level required for the raid instance). If it looks like a bad fit, drop group and save yourself a headache. If it looks like the players are on par, move on to steps 2 and 3.
Step 2: Adjust your expectations. Everyone has been with THAT guy whose expectations of the pug’s performance are far removed from the reality of the situation. You’ve heard him howling over vent with such classic lines as, “You guys are teh FAIL!” and “It’s unreal how much you guys suck!” Don’t be that guy. Your expectations of other players in a pug should be the following: they have an extremely limited understanding of the fight mechanics, an extremely limited understanding of their class mechanics and they’re probably alt tabbed for most of the encounter. Low expectations are useful in two ways; if the raid is successful then you’ll be pleasantly surprised and if the raid fails, well, you knew it wasn’t going to be a pleasure cruise going into it.
Step 3: Mind your play. Oftentimes, pugs fails because players feel that there is less pressure to perform when playing with strangers. Rotations that once were tight and organized become sloppy and lazy. Lava waves hit players who would otherwise dodge them. Tanks are early, heals are late and DPS is weak. The best way to tackle this problem is to lead by example. Keep your DPS up, your situational awareness keen, and your ass alive.

And finally, remember that puggers are people too. No one wakes up in the morning and says, I’m going to be HORRIBLE at WoW today and make players scream out with frustration. Try to be patient with your fellow puggers, they’re just trying to get loot/badges/achievements just like everyone else. If you take a deep breath and follow the steps above, you should come out just fine.