great times with PUGs

I've had nothing but good luck with pick up groups. So far, the most unfortunate experience I've had was trying to run a bonus with 5 others, 1 of them was my charge, I escorted her since she was carrying the valuable bonus item. We ran around for (no joke) an hour looking for the solution and just as we found it she said "oh no! my pc is rebooting!!! go go go" And we ran and she was like, right at the end when she dropped. It was obviously unintentional so it was easily forgiven. This aside the most negative experience I've had was simply unresponsive people.

I'm always clear about what I'm doing "LFG: Mission AND bonus, teamwork, good fun and possibly beer" or something of this sort. I also promise moa birds quite frequently.

I always start out my mission/quest by telling the group that if anything drops for them that they want, just let me know. Although there are certain things I collect. I tend to be chatty, commenting on things I see around me or the enemies. I never wait for solutions to be suggested (except when in a fully new area) but rather suggest an attack plan right away with the implication that it's open to modifications/substitutes.

My groups always tend to go rather well and most of the people I party with turn out pretty cool. Three cheers for successful PUGs.

I have to say, a bad taste was left in my mouth in regards to PUGs. I had one experience that was far from perfect and swore off of them entirely.

Then, this weekend I decided to do a quest with henchies to kill half an hour or so. I happened to notice someone asking for one more member for a group to go after the mission/bonus and against my better judgement I decided to offer myself up.

I'll never regret making that decision. By pure luck, we all worked together extremely well. We complemented each others' skills, threw silly quips back and forth, and watched each others' back throughout the entire mission. When were having issues with the bonus we'd stand over one person while this person went and looked up what we were doing wrong.

After that, things had gone so well that we just couldn't stop. We ended playing together for another couple of hours and progressing the plot even further. We even halted mid-mission for a short while to grab a bite to eat. It was amazing!

The only thing I regret was having to take my leave of them when I did, and stupidly neglecting to add any of them to my friend list. For all of you out there, if you're guildwarsguru folks, I loved grouping with you and would do it again in a heartbeat!

****End-game spoilers****

My last PUG was probably the greatest ever...

We beat Hells Precipice 2 men down. Right at the beginning, one moron left and then 5 minutes in someone dropped. So we are stuck with 6 people on a mission I have already tried 7 or 8 times with little success. We got through most of it with surprising ease for a 6 person group, until we got to the portals. All was well until the entire roving patrol came up and started bashing on the group. Then we started to run for the beginning...

Two people died at the portal-area, 1 died on the way back to the beginning area, and another died while valiently distracting these two Risen Ashes who would not stop following.

And then, another person died to a fist that was following. Leaving me the lone survivor. The biggest miracle is that nobody left. I used rebirth on the closest ally, and we defeated the fist. But then two ashes were still blocking the way back (at a choke point) and guarding a dead ally. So, while he lured the ashes away, I managed to rebirth him and the rest of the team (laying, face in the dirt, throughout the mission), and go back to the final deceased ally. The team vanquished the ashes, and we proceeded to get to undead rurik (he sucks in death as much as he did during life ). He was easily beaten; he didn't even have the standard heal sig.

And finally, we got to the Lich. I was the only one that died; died twice . All I have to say is that the lich was easy as hell...sure, you had to kill him a couple times, but he deals little to no damage, and doesn't quite have adequate healing...

Complete proof that PUGs cannot only be good, but excellent as well.

****End spoilers****


Edit: And luckily, did add them to the friends list

I love pugs. Some are so great with the wierdest setups that you just have to laugh to yourself. Others look great and turn out to be some of the worst groups you can imagine. What I love the best is a group that stays together for 3-4 runs and has a great time doing it. When gw was first released we had a group like this that went 10-12 runs in a row. We also had a dev taking notes so we had to stop and wait for him alot. This was a 5-7 hour run that we had a absolute blast doing together and was one of my best expierences in this game.

Either way, pugs allow you to meet good people that turn out to be awsome in future pvp. It also allows you to weed out the trash for later pvp. So my opinion is pugs are great in this game. So much better then the average friends group since you nerver know what to expect.

running UW/fissure with PUGs gets mixed results - sometime someone decides to aggro something in the fissure before i even get in, and sometimes we work great and clear almost the entire map. It's pretty variable. Some groups with 3 monks have sucked really badly, and some with 1 have rocked pretty hardcore.

The group with 3 air elementalists was probably the most fun i've had - they blasted everything in their way quick enough that i (as a protection monk) didn't have much to do

That's fantastic. A perfect example to others. TOP MARKS!!

I skipped your post but I'm interested. Could you give an abridged version without spoilers? (and thank you very much for saying "spoilers" I've found out so much I didn't want to know because of people not showing this consideration)

Basically, my team beat the last mission 2 men down and at one point all of us were dead but myself, and we still managed to pull it off.

I have had mixed experiences with PUG. Most have been ok, and have completed the mission without much comment. Today I was grouped with a 2-boxer, a guy playing a 20war/cookie and a necro. Of course he didnt mention this until afterwards, so I assumed the necro was just a lazy player

He didnt move from the start, I told him and the group that I would prefer to go to back to town, and pick someone else up, than let him leech through. Then the necro said 'I am coming'

Ok so we do most of the mission (Nolani), towards the end the necro quits moving again, I complain a little but as we are near the end I dont mind so much.

Afterwards I spoke to the necro asking why he was so lazy, NOW the guy tells me he is two-boxing. I was pretty annoyed at this, because if he had simply told me at the start, I wouldnt of cared the necro staying at the start, I hate leeches. but as his warrior would of made up for the necros non-participation quite easily, I wouldn't of cared in the least.

/end boring anecdote