Warning signs when forming a farming PUG

This is meant mostly as a tongue-in-cheek analysis of the things that will cause me to seroiusly think about leaving or boot a player from a farming PUG in SF/UW/desert/etc. It's not an angry rant by any means. It's just that after countless horrible farming PUG runs I've come up with a series of red-light indicators that help insure a bit more success.

(Alas, since it's spring break time here in the U.S. even these aren't failsafe, but they will help avoiding idiots.)

1. Any player that has a name with a reference to how much pot he/she smokes. Keywords here: Toke/Tokage/Blazin/Ganja/Spliff/Tokin/Smokin/Dooby/Doobage etc. You get the picture. Don't ask me why, but warriors seem to favor this type of reference. My personal experience is that these individuals are self centered and will cause the group to wipe by either being greedy or careless.

2. Any player that uses "leet" speak in their name. Worst offenders: Names with "teh" "pwn" "lol" "rofl". If you put a z at the end then multiply by 2x the horibble behavior you're likely to encounter. If there's a "zer" at the end of these words then multiply by 4x. If multiple leet words appear... well don't say I didn't warn you. Same experience as for #1.

3. Any player that has "Godly" in their name. That's just too much self esteem for me. Likely this guy will either rant/whine the whole time if somebody makes a mistake. He'll scream for heals or bitch if he's the monk when someone gets out of range. Just not worth the aggravation. He's probably capable, but there are better team players out there.

4a. Any monk that slow loads right after we zone into the map (especially on a small team). Sure, sure... it could be that they're on a modem, but I don't want a monk on a modem healing me. That's split second stuff and if you're lagging through your modem then you're gonna wipe the team. Some members can get away with being on modem, but monks can't.
4b. Okay, they've never been there before. Not a big deal, but I usually ask up front. That way I (and the rest of the team) can adjust tactics and suggest skills for the new person. If they are too insecure or smug to let us know then they shouldn't be on the team.

5. People that ask if we can detour and do some other thing. No! We grouped to farm a specific area, not go running for some BS thing. Get henchies for your detour.

6. Someone in the group tries to sell you the green items he/she has using the team chat channel. If I want sales spam I'll go to Drok's/Ascalon. Besides, I probably already have the item you're trying to sell me.

7. A player that announces he/she is taking a skill that either unnecessary or utterly useless/wrong for the farming situation. Said player is advised by the rest of the group that the skill is bad and still refuses to change it. Ego... a bad sign.

I still can't spot the guy who will suddenly go AFK. That seems to affect all player types equally.

The real solution... join a farming guild and go with people you trust. Or make friends with people you've found to be good and farm with them.

I'd love to hear other people's lists.

Cheers!

anyone who types 'gogogogogo'...normally makes me quit the team instantly.


I am on a very short fuse these days

That's a good one...

Another related one is a the guy who can't be bothered to type "ready" or even "1" when the leader asks if people are ready. Or the team member/leader that runs out before asking if everyone is ready.

i concur



"gogogogogogo" and "heal wtf!!" crawls up my spine


like i dont $%$# know to heal you... if you werent runnning out of range i might have gotten that heal in..

1. If one of the player is about 15 level below the henchies.
2. If the monk tries to open trade with you, and says "wo mai wu chi, 5k ok?"
3. "Anyone done this before?"

4. "If anyone gets a (insert green item here), can i have it?

People with minions below level 18, SS's without shivers, people who use firestorm, warriors that try to join your group when you asked for a different profession.

Have you monked on a modem?

sometimes i dont bring shivers with my necro. if you know how to use sv its not really needed. but i farm with the same group most of the time.

Well the "gogogogogogogo" got mentioned but that one is a sign for me. Also people with the weird names. I like grouping with people with interesting fantacy names like example... Saria Stormbringer or Issac Horath.. ok maybe those are horrible names but it means someone took thought in their character. Someone with a name like Teh Hotnezz or Simply Stunning, Mr Stud... or what not.

I have been in groups with some weird names and had success...

Just don't see what is wrong with 'gogogogogo', if everyone is ready to go. If people played Battlefield 1942, 'gogogogogo' is the audio responding to one of the commands.

"is everyone ready? lets dance in" will be pretty funny.

^^

Was in an FA group today w/ a monk on a modem. Warrior got way low on health and monk missed the heal. Barrel dropped and we wiped shortly afterwards.

To answer your question: no, my monk as with all my characters is run through a DSL connection.

Hey! I'm a decent-good Echo SS for FoW, but my char name is Fear Teh Yakslapper. I haven't done it all that much, so I'm not a pro or whatever... but I know what I'm doing, and I'm nice/polite and I'll have fun so long as I don't have an elementalist *****ing at me for a BR every 3 seconds. >.>

Well my rules aren't hard and fast, but I'd be suspicious of "teh" in your name at first. If you hit any of my other rules then I'd probably leave/boot. I just go with the numbers. I'm there to farm and I want to do it as fast and efficiently as possible.

Yea, I can completely understand being wary of people with names like mine... depending on how they act/ask to join/talk to the group. As soon as I join, I always say "hey" to everyone and start asking what builds the other necros are running. I just try to be friendly (overall) and get along with everyone, but it doesn't always work out that way (damn elementalists not using energy management...)

I'm leery of warriors with the name 'Lord _____.' They always seem to be run by prepubescent larvae, and are usually just a tad bit incompetent for my exacting standards.

People who don't have common skills give me pause, though I pretty much always keep them in the group (if they're nice, and they generally have been). Actually, the people that say -hey, I don't have that, lemme run to ember real quick- are a-ok in my book. It's you crazy bastards who say you're going to a trainer, but do the skill quest instead!

But my number one enemy is the silent one. Silence may be golden, but it doesn't help anyone farm greens.

I concur to most everything above, especially the "gogogo" sign and the Godly in the name indication. I also watch to how quickly they respond to utterly simple questions.
Another indicator for me would be terrible spelling/grammar (stuff worse than minor mispells, quick type mistakes like "taht", using "their" instead of "they're", I do this sometimes )
Another would have to be the: ALL CAPS PWNZOR CREW LF MONK AND THEN WE GO!! All caps = instant boot if i'm leader or instant threat to leave if the group leader doesn't kick.
Anyone with Legolas in their name often raises a brow for me, but it doesn't instantly mean they're bad.
People with X's seperating parts of their names are often scammers or noob warriors, "X Master Axer X" or something like that. This is along the same lines as people who totally mispell some name they're referencing to because someone had already taken the name: "Gandolff The Graey" or crap like that.
And of course, noticing this during the Factions preview event, I am now adding to my boot list any assassin with a name referencing to Naruto, or anyone whose name combines the names of two anime characters/themes: Hitokiri Goku, Sasuke Battousai, nonesense like that that makes you wanna puke on the keys.
EDIT: I also concur with the utterly silent ones. Silence is evil.

Now I'm going to disagree on your 3rd point. Example being when I was going through the game for the first time, I'd enter a mission not knowing what to expect. Asking a simple "anyone done this mission before?" does not imply I'm going to be the downfall of the group. I have asked the question before and stated that this was my first time for that mission. I have yet to have been kicked from a group. But there is always a first. Now that I have beat the game. I do the missions with other characters and only ask "anyone know the bonus?"

<------

I am a very good tank, thankyouverymuch. And what's this aggro bubble everyone keeps talking about?

My 2 cents: the "gogogo" REALLY REALLY gets under my skin for some reason ... either you can spare the 2 minutes before a mission/PvP/whatever else to plan strategy, or you can go play in traffic. PPPPPP = Proper Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance, take it to heart.

Quiters...

ok man, what the hell are you talking about..? so i guess if someone doesnt have the exact same sense of humor as you THEY HAVE TO SUCK ASS AT GW? how many times have you gotten beat up in high school? someone with "pwn" or "dooby" in their name doesnt mean they cant play. My characters name is Stomp Zor... i guess i am a greedy bastard who just loves to yell at everyone.
This whole dang thread people are saying how they dont party with people because of their name or the way they talk... WHO CARES IF SOMEONE HAS AN X IN THEIR NAME. try not sterotyping people who arent exactly like you, and maybe you'll find a fun group...

at least he doesn't wait for the entire team to zone before leaving the group.

Chill out, it was meant to poke fun, not insult anyone personally.

Overall, agreed with your points. However, there are always exceptions. I will usually not boot someone if they just break one or a couple of your rules, but if it is coupled with poor grammer/spelling/punctuation, I usually draw the line. Bad grammer is not so bad because people might not have english as their first language, and typos do happen. But using "u" and "r" and all the other abbreviations possible in one sentence gets tough. I have seen people typing things like "r u goin 2 teh merch idk if im." To be honest, I don't want to decipher messages like that, and typing with such poor grammer is usually a sign of immaturaty or laziness. Neither I want in my group.

And calm down onyo. These rules are just basic guidelines, not things that are set in stone. I don't party with people that do these things because GENERALLY I have found that they are bad party memebers. Now I won't worry over some minor things, but when sentences become so hard to read that I have to stare at it for more than 10 seconds, that is where I draw the line. I don't want excessive "leet" speak in a group.

IM so tired of these whiney pissing and moaning threads, whine, whine, whine!!! I can't stand this, and I cant play if someone says this....
Heres a solution for you all go farming/questing with the henches, or better yet go play another game, because the minute you start judging people on the name of their character is the day you are taking this WAY TOO SERIOUSLY.
Im sorry if you feel this is harsh but I have ZERO sympathy(tongue in cheek my ass), for Sorrows/Grenths farmers, you FOTM loving fools have ruined DWC for anyone trying to get a group to actually do a quest there, farmers at DWC for the loss. I wish ANet would remove the stupid greens and put an end to the problem for good. All it is is a glorified green farming spot, thats it. Average players dont stand a chance of ever getting one of the glorious greens, cause there aint none left, theyve been farmed out of existence by all the 5 man teams.
As a parting thought Ill leqave you with my personal findings, I find, people with pretentious 'fantasy' names usually turn out to be knobs, if you dont/wont play ther game the way they feel it is to be played they leave. Hypocrits are abundant in this community.

Players who are impatient, tends to be a bad sign. Constantly spamming 'Let's go' or some variant of that, is a big red flag.

Typically you'll see warriors* spam that, and if you still decide to take them and see the warrior Sprint and then Frenzy across the map to 'kill stuff', don't say I didn't warn you.

*Not saying it's a Warrior thing, it's just I've seen impatience most from them.

I also have found the stoner names to be true.

Often times the names that state their character class kindof suck too. However I reserve judgement until I actually play, there is no need to just quit. I have succeeded in ToPK in very unlikely groups. The lastest was a BP group that had a warrior acting as a BP ranger. It went alright, not as terrible as I was expecting. Just give everyone that doesn't prove idiocy before leaving a chance. You might be pleasantly suprised, or mad at yourself for "wasting" time. If it is the former, you may have just made some new friends.

And of course, anyone like the guy that posted this message. All of em get the boot from my groups. Have a nice day sir

Also ppl who post completely off-topic. ppl like this that give off the impression that they're drunk/stoned, whether it be from rage or alcohol, aren't the most stable, level-thinking players in the game.

Yeah, ppl that die and say "OMGZ stupid monk can't heal REZ ME REZ ME"

or people that say "WOW, i've never been this far before" on a farm

When a player asks "What's that?", they are refering to a important skill that needs to be used or brought.

When I join a group and they ask what skills I'm bringing, then proceed to try to tell me what build I should be using.

Been playing since the betas, thanks, I don't need a manual for my 1.27 million xp ranger (and that's without constant UW/FoW runs, no repetitive Tomb farms, sure I farm, but nearly all that xp is from solo farming all across the map).

I usually reply "Thanks for the tip, but I run my build my way - don't like it? Find someone else."

sigh. Spinal Shivers is not the be all and end all for SS necros.

Signs while LFG:

"God ----, you -----s, why can't we find a decent ------- monk in this place?"

"Starting group for ________, invite self." (a.k.a. "we're not picky")

"Don't take the Mesmer, they're useless."

"We need another Warrior." (in groups with 2 or more already)

Necros who don't discuss who's going to need jurisdiction over the corpses.

Alas, these always happen after you've zoned and are starting on the mission or objective:

"Anyone know the way?"

"How many skills are there to cap here?" <--- a good sign of someone with an 8 cap skillbar.

"Haha, you can't rez me, I've got 55hp!"

"I bet I can suicide in under 15 seconds." (Actually had one who dared us to try to heal him)

And my favorite, from tonight:

*ping! "I have Blood is Power on me!"

player: "OMG, get it off!"

And of course this one happened to me every single time I'm capping at Granite Citadel:

Me:Okay before we head out, everyone check and make sure you don't have the Defend Droknar's Forge quest.
*waits*
Me:Okay we all rdy?
*zones*
Me:Hmm...no pop-up ambush...
*kills the first patrol*
*holds Ctrl*
Me(Ctrl Click):I'm attacking Titan's Heart!
Me:/sigh Alright who didn't drop the quest?
*various responses of denial*
*rezones...*
Me:Okay guys, I need you all to double check. If you have a quest called Defend Droknar's Forge, you need to "Abandon" it.
*waits*
Me:Okay we all rdy?
*zones*
Me:Hmm...no pop-up ambush...

Now THOSE are two good things to watch for and kick whoever says them. Of course, make sure they're not joking or being sarcastic, but still, quite bad signs if they're actually being serious.

I didnt realize how much name influenced other team members opinion of you. I found after I got temp banned and force a name change getting to groups was alot easier...

actually the guys with the jacked up names are usually the best players.. it's the one's with the fantasy names that are usually really bad in my experience.. I don't pug very much though- never have but someone mentioned warriors with names that start with Lord ____ <-- almost everytime that's going to be a dumbass

I don't agree with #2, but i'll probably be kicked from a few pugs now. :|

The "Lord" observation is excellent.

I had one impatient team member who took us out of Augury Rock before I was through setting skills. I quit immediately, explaining why.

If somebody won't discuss their skill set, I boot them. I'm getting stricter about that rule. If I can't communicate with a team member, forgeddaboutit.

Anybody rude enough to, e.g., say "Boot the X" is booted themselves. I've booted a monk for doing that.

Normally when forming a group I either advertise for non-idiots, or PM people who are advertising. I'm not into building the optimally efficient team (e.g., 4 man queen farming is fine), so that works more often than not.

Hey! I'm a "silent one." I'm a pretty good warrior, but unfortunately opening my mouth often gets me kicked from teams when elitists are crowding the area...

Anyway, remember to say this when you have a nooblet screaming at you for heals when they run ahead:

"Poor planning on your part does not nessessarily constitute a crisis on my part."

Thank you dear god, someone recognized that a team with two corpse using necros is trouble incarnate. I have a Me/N, I use corpses for wells, WHENEVER there's another N primary or secondary I always ask what they do and if they use corpses, what they use them for, if they say wells I ask their well strength, if theirs are better then mine I go dmg/battery for my necro skills.

" ping I have Blood is Power on me!"
"OMG, Get it OFF!"

*Dies laughing*

"LOL IF ANYONE GETS GREENZ THEY GOTTA GIVE TO ME CAUSE I SAID K? OR I QUIT"

BIG warning sign right there. Had that the other night in Sorrow's Furnace. You're in for nothing but pain.

that is not true I have goldly in my name. i never say anything unless I am asked.