Grouping.. Why or Why not?

gotta love terribad builds for the lols
i ran one yesterday D:, forgot botm for my necro while being a MM, and area we went to? kessex peak D:

group carried me for sure

Personally I don't group anymore. I love grouping but don't have time for a guild, and there are simply too many try hards *cough Cuilan cough* who think pve is actually hard and don't care about fun factor. That said I was like this before 7 heros. Been having fun turning GW into a single player game over the last year as I wait for GW2.

That doesn't happen very often, plus it seldom has that big an effect. Most of the time you can even have 1 or 2 people DC and still finish the task, so what difference does it make if you think it's a dumb build. (Most party-nazis seem to think that any build that's not on PvX is dumb.)
You can't actually draw that conclusion from what I said, but on the other hand, now much real communication do you have while playing (if you're not using Ventrilo)?
The thing is - 99% of the game does not require builds that synergize, etc., just good (not expert) players with reasonable (not uber) builds.

And yet, I do expect decent gameplay, and it does happen.

Yes, it is too much to ask of a PUG. If you want all that pre-planning and synergizing, do it with Guildmates and/or friends.
Generally speaking most players have at least a "workable" build that they are familiar with and know how to use. Getting them to make changes is usually counter-productive if they are not familiar with the changes.
I guess that for me, the idea is that, as I've stated, 99% of the game doesn't require that much planning.
Of course, your PUG is not going to be totally random - you're going to want a balanced set of classes and to have 2 healers - but going all nazi about it and insisting that one healer, for example, must be an HB Monk, is too much.

This is not directed at you or your comments... you just happened to remind me of another reason I like going it solo.

For me, "planning" is part of the enjoyment I get out of the game. I like looking things up on the Wiki, reading about the foes I'm facing, and making builds that are custom for the area I'm going into. Sure, I've got standard hero team builds that will take me through pretty much any Vanquish with no trouble... but much of my enjoyment comes from the research and planning for each specific area.

I struggled like crazy with Glint's Challenge... I know other people apparently are able to AFK it. I can't... but I DO have a hero team build that allows me to do it without anyone dying, consistently. It's one I designed, though I used meta builds as a baseline and then tweaked them the way I wanted, played with them until I had something that was functional for my style of play.

I put in several hours on that... I enjoy doing it, and then I enjoy taking what I've built and seeing if it works. I can't really do that with people, because I WILL spend several hours dinking with builds and such for an area. Do I "have" to? No... but I sure LIKE to.

You could simply make your own group or find a different one when most players aren't like that. Unless you're trolling (which you are) what leads you to think that I see PvE as hard or that I'm some build dictator in-game?

Sometimes I don't feel like playing more than one bar. Sometimes you need the precision of an all human team, who are able to move tactically without me flagging them. Sometimes you need builds that only humans can play, like Imbagon.

There are always reasons to group up with real players I find, although I admit I only really group in the higher end PvE areas. Most of the time heroes have a greater advantage in that I can custom craft perfectly synergistic bars. I'll still group up if I see someone advertising for a group.

Agreed with both of these tbh. The planning and build making part is fun (why I'm still playing) but you cant really do that with a pug, it would be counter productive especially if they don't know the builds. Hell even in guild groups it can be counter productive. I remember when I was still in TAM I met some Gvg warrior who wanted to do some PvE stuff. He came as a Shock Axe and insisted he run it. We decided to just run a Gvg team setup instead of our PvE setup for the area, which just proves players mean more than builds.


Also @Gizzy you should try doing atm what I'm doing and make a balanced HM team build that works for everything :3

I only play with other people for pvp/elite areas, otherwise mostly 7h. and i never pug, because pugs are really, really dumb.