Grouping.. Why or Why not?

Im interested in actually getting a feel of why people play as they do instead of biased assumptions.

Not a debate over what is "best", intended, etc or a blast at others playstyle, but instead personal reasons.

For Me

I play this game for fun. Throw whatever label you wish on me, but for myself I don't do random groups because it isn't fun, to me.

I doubt that most random pugs would find it "fun" when I do things like take ten minute posing and taking screenshots of things like the floating stone bridge in Riven Earth mid vanquish and waiting for all the minions to die to do so. I really like playing tourist and it drives most groups insane. I think I do a lot of things that would cause the average GW player to bang their head on the desk.

Since my first MMO in 2002 or so I have never found grouping to be fun nor have I really understood that. Just my take on it though.

I like to do a good job, and in groups I find myself no longer playing to my needs, but instead playing to serve the needs and goals of other people, and that becomes very stressful and pressuring to me. I play to escape stress and pressure.

In my case it is not at all about judging other people, disliking them, or being antisocial. It is just a choice to play in a manner that is most comfortable and enjoyable to me. I love GW because of that choice.

Agreed. I rarely join a group for anything, unless it's absolutely necessary. With the 7-hero update, my choices in play are increased.

I pug because if i want a good single player game i rather play Mass effect or something.

I group mostly for fun, when I'm doing FoW or vanquishing, it's hero time, my heroes put up with phonecalls and snack/drink/tv breaks etc. It would have to be some pretty desperate people who would put up with that

Sometimes I even start watching tv in a lengthy one and forget I'm mid vanq. etc. never heard one word of complaint from my heroes (although they probably hate me in their own way ).

Random groups...no, would rather not join them. Not much fun, people always thinking they know it all...just...bah.

That's why I team up with guildies whenever possible, never any problems, we know each others playstyles and whatnot and actually have the patience to wait for each other.

And for the rest...heroes!

I don't do random groups simply because of the "bad taste it left in my mouth" from pre-hero times. Back during prophecies, if you weren't a monk, there would be a good chance you would be excluded from a group. You would sit there for literally hours "LFG" in outpost, and nothing would happen unless you got lucky, or you went with friends. It really turned me off from that type of gameplay. If i have no choice,and i absolutley need to get something done quick and real people is needed, then i would join if that was my only option. Other than that, i just use heroes and the occasional partner.

I stopped playing this game because I got sick and tired of the pvxwiki build players who force you to use a pvxwiki certified build or else you get kicked from the team.

I have been playing this game without any pvx build with great succes for years so I see no reason to change.
But most of my old guild and alliance who I used to team up with quit as well, and none of them where forcing build templates to anyone, if ppl asked for help we gave em advice, not forcing a build down their throat.

And with the 7 heroes the game (at least for me) got boring, I fly through HM mobs like they are made of wet newspaper.

The end of GW for me at least, GW2 I pass on as well.

So grouping killed the gameplay for me, at least with pugs, and not grouping with 7 heroes is boring.

I used to group with allies and friends, before they all went offline. Also used to pug for elite areas. I stopped random grouping for missions after the second mission in Prophecies. I can only tolerate so much failure because the monk is afk or the warrior is a nub who can't pull etc..

i quite like teaming up with randoms, the shared experience etc, plus some proffessions are way better on a human than hero. rit and assassin for example. the games more fun. heros are better/only fair choice if you cant commit a certain amount of time for the mission/whatever

Me and Monk of Dwaina monk pug-groups reguraly in PvE (vanquish) for the chips and giggles.

If you find a resonable group (sometimes its hard to find), then you can have a wonderfull experience.

The heroes is for me like a wtf-kind-of-build-is this team-setup (i am trying to use every possible elite of any proffesion), to create original builds, the ones i like are worthy to save ^^.

on the builds thing, a number of rangers ive grouped with for example have barrage and a preporation (usealy rapid fire). so they have 2 skills which dont work together at all. and its in the skill description ffs. Its not a complex or picky thing like say order of the vampire.

These days i generally do not group up with random people(maybe once in a while, if i'm bored, i'll feel sorry for someone and help them out). I've had a few too many bad experiences with people being aggro magnets, or just going afk halfway through something and not coming back. Yet i have found alot of friends through pugs in years gone by. Mostly nowadays the only grouping i do is with my alliance either when someones asking for help with something, or when me or another officer organizes one of our regular events.
I can understand why people lost interest in pugging, my personal bugbear with them has always been the PvX build or not allowed to join aspect. Yes certain skills are advantageous in areas(sometimes a must when doing certain things), but there are so many skill combos out there that mostly anything will work with common sense (i.e. wars running firestorm and meteor shower = not great).

Theres always guys asking everyone to ping builds, I was kicked by a noob from Todays ZM for running ST on my Rit and he insisted I Remove Unfeeling Aura because its ''no use'' in the build, and we had 2 Rits already, heroed up, done in less that 20 mins. After that I went to do the same ZM on my Ranger, my heroes suck on it so I tryed to pug. 7/8 ppl, we need a monk, we had a imba, sum1 said get hero healer. I pinged my N/Rit Running Typical Modded Sabway build, the Cpt.Obvious SoS of the team mentioned Nec healers dont have Resto Runes on and completely suck and insisted he brought his monk hero with 60+ energy and no actual energy managment, and said he never runs outta energy . Ofc we almost wiped 3 times.. and that is why i don't like grouping.

I PuG FoWSC because it's fun to encounter different people and I don't really care if the team fails, i'm there because I like it, not to grind money. I don't PuG anything else because generally when I play other PvE my objective is to achieve something not just wandering around dying.

I luv PuGing!....one of the best parts of this game imo. I have a great guild which I met most of the ppl from......wait for it.....PuGing. So I am always happy to PuG for the chance to meet more good ppl. I value the chance of meeting good ppl higher than the chance at failing. Ofc I reckon if I was more of an introvert I wouldn't have this mindset.

I used to PUG often, obviously because henchmen were rubbish, but I would still battle with them if the need arose. With 7 heroes, I can customise me people exactly to the area I'm about to tackle, but obviously it needs some mico management with flagging etc - but some would say PUGS are even worse at agro control than heroes!

Grouping with others was great years ago, achieving something together, and you can't beat human intelligence for knowing where to stand and when to run out of meteor showers etc. Plus you could target different people at once - obviously not always good if you require quick damage to one target, but good to shut down multiple targets at once, with backfire, interupts and such skills.

Now I only ever venture out with 7 heroes and PUG with my guild only. Getting the Black Widow Spider from UW, being one recent example achieved with my Guild. I'd never do PUGS again because quite frankly I don't want the grief and have achieved everything I want to do in the game. I have no need to group up again. If I want to do something, I'll do it in my own time, when and where I want to, and 7 heroes allows me to do this - instead of arriving at empty outposts etc.

Having taken long breaks from the game at some stages, (not many) and not having any dedicated friends ever in the game (not because I'm a bad person, but because I simply have not met anybody in large groups and stayed in contact) I'm quite the little loner on GW, so 7 heroes suits me. I'd love to venture out with people, but the opportunities have not really presented themselves to me in abundance. I'm not sure who's fault that is or the reasons behind it.

Other people slow me down. I kill stuff really fast and don't do the radar drawing mumbo jumbo.

I'm just like most other people in that I'm sure I'm smarter than them.

I still help noodles though. And people who ask me for help

My heroes don't run shit bars.

PUGs exist so my Monk can get some practice when I'm bored.

I'd also don't pug because people draw penis on radar.

I group with friends. Other then that, heros.

They don't afk, have to piss, have to eat, etc...

Pugs for me ended the day heros came out.