I dont see whats wrong with pugs.

Ive played through both campaigns and quested in the UW and FOW with nothing but random people I meet in the area. I dont see what thinks is so bad about questing with random people.

I just go into a area with whatever im playing and wait. "group looking for two more. self invite" "joins* *gets through mission*

I mean every now and then you get a ass but if you just whisper the group and tell everyone just to ignore and continue the mission everything seems to go well.

I just never had a issue with PUG groups. Maybe some of you have had terrible experiances but I havnt yet.

Dont diss pugs. You can meet some great people.

And you meet some amazing people... ever come across what you thought was a monk, only to find out it's a monk for self-heals only who's playing illusion?

But in reality, I use pugs for most of what I do, which occasionally is a bet in how fast we can fail the mission/quest

I have a very close guild where we are all friends. Unfortunately, our guild consists of about 4 people.. hehe. So needless to say, I often PUG, as our Alliance is not too talkative and open with each other.

You are correct. You will get an ass every now and then, or just a noob, but more often than not, the group as a whole works. I don't really understand the logic behind those who diss pugs and avoid them like plagues.. I mean, if it's not your preference, fine... but hey, I'm often one of those pugs, and I'm neither an ass nor a noob.

Diffirent servers got diffirent players. Very likely discrussion here is mostly from USA server viewpoint.

Im on the euro servers and done every mission with PUG's. You get the odd knob but apart from that, ive never had any trouble

I love PUG's. ^^

A month ago i was trying to ascend.
PUG list of torture.
Pug 1: Ranger's (2) left after caping
Pug 2: Monk left after 1 min
pug 3: Two brother kept screaming at each other the whole time. Half way threw mission they went off and died. Even if you rez them they run off and die again and laugh about it.
Pug 4. Two members leave after capping
pug 5. All die cause monk was smiter and didn't tell us.
Pug 6. 2 of 6 member are afk for 5 min, then leave the game.
pug 7. More member yelling at each other so others leave the game.
A few more pugs very simular close to the ones above.

This is all in about 3 hours.

I took a break and tried again as leader. I went threw the last two missions with no deaths of any members. I had to be very boss and promise not to heal anyone that doesn't follow orders. (Orders like don't run off, stay tight, warrior leads and calls targets.) Everyone was just so happy to be threw the missions.

My new rules are the following for pug's.
1. No PUG's on weekends
2. lead all pug's after i learn the mission
3. Missions and quests that need people, I wait and group with guildy's.

I don't recall being in any pug parties that left me pulling my hair out and swearing left, right and centre. A few times, there's been a jerk in the party but not too much of a jerk to cause too much grief or any exchange of insults. Most pug missions I've done were completed first time, those that failed well the same party stayed and went through it again.

Granted that I don't pug it very often, so I think I've been pretty lucky with pugs so far.

I'm on European servers btw.

They are great dogs. They shed quite a bit, but are very affectionate.

I agree with the OP.

American Server.

I also agree with the OP, Im located on the American Server as well.

I've had bad / very bad pugs before, but the majority that I get are decent to awesome.

I've done PuG's from the start. I'm in a very small guild, so doing guild only groups was never an option for me. With a few exceptions, the PuGs I've been in have been great. And as mentioned about, I've met some awesome people.

PUGs are fine for some things, but when you're used to communicating over Vent with Guildies you've played with before, going with a PUG kinda blows...

But meeting new players is always a plus.

After doing pretty much everything guild-less and solo in Prophecies & Factions, I fancied a change, and am a recent newcomer to PUGs (American server).

After reading some of the horror stories on here (mostly from this thread), I went in expecting the absolute worst, and have been pleasantly surprised. In fact I would go so far as to say that most of the PUGs I've joined have been more enjoyable than henching it.

YMMV.

What's wrong with PUGs? Lack of reliability.

I like the social aspect of PUGGin... but I generally insist on leading my own PUGs. As you invite people, you can get a sense by talking with them on whether or not they fail at English and thus life. I'm sorry, but if you can't type back to me and hold a dialogue, I'm not going to trust you will killing the enemies while I heal you on my monk.

XD What's real fun is taking even 1-3 guildies with you. In groups like that, you can almost carry the PUGs through. I feel so charitable when doing such things. ^_^

I have completed the whole Prophecies game and got the title Procter of Tyria or whatever with ONLY pugs. Yeah there are those that quit out etc...or are just a55e5 . But I honestly think its the best way to go. If no one is taking "control" do it yourself and learn how to lead etc...Usually that is why Pugs fall apart or what have you cause NO ONE is willing to take charge. Just my opinion...but I would rather PUG than play with peeps I know cuz if "they" make a mistake i get pissed or what have you where as with a pug i can just say oh well :P

Sounds like PUGs are some sort of last minute / random group selection... What exactly does PUG stand for? (New to game.)

I love PuGs. My good experiences outweigh the bad ones by far. Very far.

For the record, I play on Europe, and often I play from after 10pm until way past midnight. In my experience, the time bracket makes a lot of difference when it comes to pugging. When I play early evenings, I wouldn't even dream of gathering a PuG, based upon what's going on in the general chat.

PUG = Pick Up Group

Personal experience with PUG's has been mixed - I've had enough bad experiences that I generally prefer henchies.