pugs or hench. what do u prefer?

I agree, Yandawar. I don't like letting people down with whom I am grouped if I suddenly have to go offline. It's just that way with a 5 year old.

Also, and pardon me, but generally speaking the henchies KNOW when to use their equipped spells. I've played all of Nightfall with henchies.

Depends very much on the situation and my mood. Sometimes there are no human players around anyway so I will have to rely on my faithful heroes. Some missions require splitting up and then a PUG isn't too bad, provided they know what they're doing. Realm of Torment missions are doable with hero/hench but it's time consuming and not very enjoyable imo. Same with somehing like Grand Court of Sebelkeh, it's amost impossible to manage aggro in a round chamber with foes coming from 3 sides. Babysitting 7 NPC's is very annoying in that case.
I really don't care much as long as ppl keep it civil and more or less get the job done I'm happy enough. Guildies can be busy (I have a small guild) so I can't always avoid PUGing.

As ive said quite alot in my thread...

"Who/what is to blame for PUG numbers dropping? "

....PUGs are great aslong as you know the people in them and/or their polite and mature and curdious and speak to you with respect.

But from my experience most arent like that. Most are dominating and rude and expect you to jump through hoops for them, or they suffer from leavers or leachers or some form of disruption.

I prefere Heroes for that reason. No back-chat and no rudeness.

But If I can get a friendly, intelligent PUG I will. But that rarely happens.

I only PuG with people I know, either IRL or through the game. I've had one too many bad random PuG to still like it. (even though some say I have a bit of a talent for picking rather good groups).

So I prefer friends over henchies, but henchies over random PuGs.

Well, like Freekedoutfish, I've also voiced my opinion pretty loud in the other thread, but here's the condensed version.

I prefer PUGs over henchies/heroes anyday, but generally I've ended up playing most of the game with henchies.

Why?

- Warp into town and only 4 people are there. Grab henchies and move on.
- Impossible to find PUGs for anything except the primary quests and missions. A few rare exceptions for the harder side quests (Cap son, Villiany of Garath, Althea's Ashes)
- If I've never ever ever done the mission/quest before I'll take henchies to get the feel of it rather than bog down a PUG with my ignorance of where to go, what to pick up, which enemies to avoid, watching cutscenes, etc.
- If I know I only have a few minutes on the computer or will be AFK frequently I'll take henchies.

How do you define a PuG?
If we are 2 players, the rest filled with heroes, is it still a PuG? (I do that always with my wife so...)

By the way, your question is somewhat unaccurate.
*Do you prefer Good PuGs over henching/heroing?
- Of course I do!!!

*Do you prefer Pugs over henching/heroing?
Well considering that 95% of PuG will have at least a moron and sucky builds and fail the mission 50% of the time, and miss masters 95% of the time, I definetively prefer Henching.

Hero/ henchies.

I think this topic has been covered ad nauseum here.

For me it depends on what character I am playing. If I am on one of my casters (especially monk of ritualist) I prefer to PUG as it then frees me up to focus on my support role instead of target calling. When I am on my warrior or ranger, I hate to PUG.

Missions I choose other people and Quest I choose Henchmen.

no brainer: hench. Always have, always will. I like to play in guild groups, though.

Friends and Guildies >>> Heroes and Henches >>>> PUGs

Honestly, it'd never occur to me to try to progress in the game by PUGing. I'll go back and help people out sometime, or go for an old bonus I didn't pick up and then help a PUG through the game, but it's pretty rare. If I'm actually trying to get somewhere PUGing isn't even an option IMO.

As stated above, there's a few multipage threads on this. But for the record, here's my order of preference.

1. Solo without heroes or henchmen. I love the challenge.
2. PuG made solely of players (i.e. no heroes or henchmen). Because PuG's are less efficient than NPC's, that does two things for me - increases the challenge (i.e. making up for their shortcomings through my play) and the thrill of human interaction (especially after soloing so much).
3. Guild/friends group. I personally don't like imposing on my friends to achieve MY goals, unless they're totally bored.
4. PuG with one or two heroes/henchmen. Still get most of the thrill of #2 above, as the NPC's are monks 99% of the time.
5. Solo with the MINIMUM number of NPC's possible. This is really when I've tried #1 way too many times, and cave in to take an NPC or two. This is definitely a test environment, however, where I gradually add one more NPC to the mix with each series of unsuccessful attempts.

By using that methodology, I can truly say that I have not become bored with any chapter of Guild Wars, and am not experiencing any degree of burnout.

For the harder missions I normally put together a guild group, for quests and everything else I bring heroes and hench. I've beaten Nightfall 3 times and I have only PUG'd once in that time.

I know preferring herose and henchmen to PUGs due to their poor quality is extremely ironic but whatever.

Guild/Friend Team > Hench/Heroes > PUG

For the first half of any one of the chapters I prefer hero and hench teams. They don't screw up nearly as much. For the last half pugs are much easier to deal with. By that point in the game most people know what's up and act like they have some sense and genrally the PUG's are good. An example of this. I henched my way through the first half of Nightfall. By the time I hit the Mouth of Torment mission Heros and henchies weren't cutting it. The PUG's I found were great, we only missed Masters on Varesh by 10 seconds, 10 lousy seconds. LoL

I'll go with PUGs (if there any) - Because it is more fun and social.

As long as no-one thinks they're Rambo I'm happy to go with a PuG

My exact answer. It's okay for pugging every once and a while, but if I actually need to progress somewhere I first see if any guildies also need it or just want to come then I start adding heroes/henchies.

There are, however times where you have to use real human and if my guildies aren't about I just grit my teeth and hope for the best.

In this order:

1. Group with friends/guildies
2. Heroes and henchmen
3. PUG