A question regarding PUG's

Being rather new to the game and definately new to this forum, I had a question for experienced players.
In all of the parts of the game that i have ventured though thus far, I have noticed a lack of more informative all chats when people are looking for PUG's. Most people would rather just invite without PMing or just badger you into either leaving the area or changing districts.
I would be curious to know what most of you think about these all chat, PUG statements.


"Tank w/rez LFG with exp. target caller"

"Healing Mo/? LFG with diverse profs"

I apologize if this post appears rather dull and or "noobish" but i was just curious to know what most of you think and to hear other suggestions about being more selective and helpful with PUG's.

Thanks for you responses in advance,

IGN Zex Fireforge/Qendann Solonar/Glyrir Naloid

I apologise, I do not understand this post. Will you please clarify it?

I'm just curious as to why more people aren't being more informative in there requests for PUG's. Also, it could be very informative for new players to give suggestions on what to say when trying to find good PUG's. Has there ever been a case where you have seen someone chat.....

"Tank LFG with experienced target caller"

Would this chat make you more willing to add this person to your group? What other things have you seen or witnessed that made you want to invite this person into your group, etc. etc.
My hopes for this thread were to see peoples opinions and helpful suggestions for new players to get into and lead better PUG's. I apologize if the initial post was hard to understand.

Zex Fireforge

I think it's this scenario:

Scenario 1: w/mo lfg

Scenario 2: lfg

Explanation: In both of these scenarios, I learn very little about the character. Sure, with the first, the guy probably has a weapon, but I don't know if he's a smite warrior, a self-healing warrior, or a prot warrior who can sometimes share the love with other people. Given the choice between any of those, I'd take a prot warrior.

As for the second scenario, that guy's just useless. I know nothing about him.

Solution #1: w/mo self-heal lfg

Solution #2: mo/nec prot curser lfg

Personally, I think the more information the better.

If I've done the mission before and have adjusted my skills accordingly I usually try to make that apparent. Something like:

"W/Mo LFG - Warrior skills do not require flesh (still effective vs Enchanted Weapons & Elementals)"
"W/Mo LFG - Casts Life Bond on King (King's damage reduced by 50%)"

Sometimes I just run down my skill bar:

"W/Mo LFG - Battle Rage Elite, 4 adrenaline attacks, 2 damage reduction, resurrection"

I tend to be allergic to PuGs, but if I have to get a couple of pickup players in a guild group, I look for people who are actually able to describe their build instead of spamming "LFG for mission" or "need a monk". However, it's a zillion times easier to recruit a rambo player who'll get the group killed than an decent player, so most of the time I pick henchmen instead.

"Tank w/rez LFG with exp. target caller" -> That sounds like someone who at least knows what focus fire is, and who is aware that death can happen. If I need a tank, I'll pick you.

"Healing Mo/? LFG with diverse profs" -> Are you a smitter, a healer or a protector, or all of this? Henchmen are probably weaker, but at I know what they can do. I won't pick you.

Generally I like to see advertisements such as "already completed this mission and won't rush" or "willing to do the bonus", or "looking for an experienced group", or "pyromancer/smitter for double dmg on XXX", or even "emergency healer to keep YYY alive". Of course, all l337 speakers and characters with kiddy names are mostly ignored.

Well as informative as it may that ends up not helping much in the end, a lot of people dont have the patience to wait for the "perfect" PUG is completed and it just says what build and stats you might have, it says nothing about the player.

I dont think some would say "Mo/Me looking for group, will bail out the moment 3 of you get killed" (and yes, THAT happens a lot ... in fact I was doing River for a Elite and because the 2nd battle did not end well and so one of the warriors just jump ship, we still beat the Mission AND got the Bonus with just 5) and I rather know that what someone skills are.

PUGs are unorganized, for organization you need a guild.

In all honesty, the more info a player puts doesn't increase their chances of getting into a group.
We've all seen people who "think" they are god almighty and any player with that opinion of themselves is NOT someone I want in my group - (a) they are likely to agro more than necessary or too soon after a fight, thereby rendering our AOE's and Healers helpless (b) Will have FAR to big a head and think they KNOW everything, which makes the entire experience......unenjoyable.
It's all a crap shoot anyway, that player who only says Wa/Ran LFG....might be a diamond in the rough whereas the person who say Wa/Ran-Infused-Experienced-friendly-animal lover......might turn out to be an obnoxious griefer.
I realize in games like this that there are 100's of thousands of players, but I do my best to make a name for myself so that people trust when in my group that I am there for all's best interest. This is mostly in PvE areas but I hope to spill that over into PvP/GvG.
I make Fissure runs all too frequently and those who've allowed me to lead usually make comments like "This is the farthest I've ever been down here" or "Wow didn't know how big this place was" or " Kick ass thank you for getting me to the armourer".

.....sorry for the self-promotion......just giving an example of what you may find behind my "E/Mo Super Duper Fire Nuker - LFG" chat

I always try to detail my build in a line or two and once in hash out strategy. Problem is that many players have no idea what a build can do, so explaining that I'm a "Blood/Curse Necro with a 6 pip blood well and melee debuffing" doesn't always get many invites. It's a shame, as support characters can make life a lot easier.

I too avoid many PuGs, partly for their unwillingness to adapt at all - so many players know how their character plays but forget to adapt that style to the group. I tend to party with my guild when possible, or with henchmen, but I'll assemble a group sometimes if I figure it is needed.

I say "Monk with 12 beer and 4 hours to drink lfg." Thats what i usualy do. Nothing like a drunk monk to party up with.

I played at Tombs the other day and about 4 stayed with the group for about 2 hours. We had a great core group and I got 12 fame from it. We were looking for specific people and interviewed a lot.

I think the extra 10-30 minutes of interviewing helps a lot toward actually winning. When we did GvG yesterday, we were at the hall for about 30 minutes making sure everyone had complimentary skills. It showed and we won. And about half were <20 lvl characters that made PvP only ones. Not the best at working their newfound skills and weapons, but we actually did well together.

I myself use henchmen. I like to be rather independent, also to become more familiar with my build and the game. As a pure ranger, i noticed that i had a rather difficult time just getting through The Wilds mission with just henchmen, but that's another story.
Thanks for the posts. I just wanted to put this question out there not only to help myself but also to help other new players as to how they can be "smarter" in chatting for PUG's. I understand that it's a giant crapshoot, but any and all suggestions help.

I don't really like having to have to pen an entire resume just to get into a group. Most of the time it doesn't help anyway since hardly anyone wants a Ranger in their party.

Then when I am playing monk I get groups automatically, but I rarely accept them if they have too many warriors.

The reason most people don't give information about themselves is becasue you can only type so much. Typing in, "Need people for travelling to whatever" doen't leave much place for much more to say.

Nobody here even mentioned Level.

Yes....the more information the better.

Hehe...reminds of my time in D'alession Seaboard with my alt this weekend.

I get in looking for a group to do the mission, and here's what I typed.....

"Experienced, mature Mes/Elem 15 who understand the concepts of pulling, patience, and target calling LFG for Mission + bonus. "


I was invited by 3 different groups within seconds and I started getting congratulatory whispers from a half-dozen other players. The cool thing was that I ended up getting 4 new friends on my friends list (who I still adventure with), and the group who invited me did both the mission and the bonus with no problems whatsoever.

Seriously, people are paranoid about PUG's, and with good reason. The more info you can say about your character the better chances you have of someone seeing your tell and saying "That's what our group needs"

Because of the instanced-based nature of the missions, people don't want to spend 30 minutes preparing for the next city mission, because each mission takes roughly 35-60 minutes to complete. So if you only type something like "R/E lfg", then you're likely to cost the group another 5 minutes while the group leader tries to figure out what your level, class, build/specialty, and what your objectives are (bonus, mission, cap). I always felt like this would be common sense but clearly as we've all seen, it's anything but common. Anyway, I'm at the point now where I don't even bother asking anymore. If I see something like "W/M lfg" with no info attached, I just ignore him/her.


BTW - This should go unsaid but for those of you not too familiar with the interface and you think that it's a pain to keep spamming long lines of text, All you have to do is type it once. Open your chat bar, use the (Up)arrow key to cycle to your last message, then hit enter to send it again.

Thats because level isn't that meaningful. Take Lornars Pass. There were two people in my guild, both level 13, they made it through the pass when level 20's can't. All level does is give you a few more hp and a little more attributes. It doesn't mean all that much.

It means enough to know that I don't want to have to carry a lvl 10 mesmer through Aurora Glade.

It means enough to know that if you're level 20, you'll prolly get an invite a lot quicker.

It means enough to know that with level comes not only health and attributes, but also DPS, possibility of elite skills(or at least some more decent skills), and also usually is accompanied by more energy.

with all my years as a gamer there has been one rule that applies to all games..

Communication = Win

Yup. We were discussing weapon selections and such in our DoD forum, and people were all stating their favorite weapon and why (.30 cal MG, Garand rifle...) - my brother said that his favorite weapon is his microphone: He can eliminate a sniper or get a grenade into a bunker, get reinforcements to a position or simply alert others to enemy movements. It's a really good point, and it is true in pretty much all games.

Knowledge is power. Communication distributes knowledge.

Think I'll point at this for a good guide to a PuG. I'll be using it tonight, that's certain.

My personal standard when trying to get invited in to groups is as follows:

Primary/Secondary(level) - Quick 2-6 Word Build Description - LF intelligent G

Examples I use regulary for my chars:

E/Mo(20) - Primary Healer OR Nuker - LF intelligent G
W/Mo(19) - Self-sustaining Smite Tank - LF intelligent G
R/Me(16) - Interupter - LF intelligent G

Those comments are very quick and concise. I've never had a problem getting into a group and I look for PUG requests similar in format when recruiting a group. It really goes along way in helping to create a balanced group.

The "LF intelligent G" is something I've started putting on the end of every pick-up request. It's stands out more than the standard "LFG" and implies a certain level of competency (except when you accidently mis-spell/typo 'intelligent' ...lol).

And there's my $.02

In addition to this I'd also like to add that crtl-c / crtl-v are your friends. It drives me insane when I get a "Where are you" whisper from someone trying to add me to their party.

Select, Copy, and Paste my name from the whisper box and SHAZAAM...there I am. I tend not to join party leaders who don't already know this.

lol, that's freakin awesome. I'd love having a Drunken Monkey on my team.

So i guess that's $.04 now =]

With my E/Mo I usually say stuff like "El/Mo only skilled in healing and 1 self defense skill looking for a nice party"

With my Mo/N I usually get invited when I enter a town, but I don't listen to those. I just say "Monk with Hex removal looking for a nice party". Key thing is nice party.

With my W/N I say stuff like "Warrior/Necro skilled in tanking and taking hits looking for a group"

My Me/R says stuff like "Mesmer who knows how to interrupt looking for a nice party".

--

The general consensus I have made is the following: If you write out your whole sentence rather than spamming "Ele LFG!!!" you will get much nicer parties. If I am the one bringing a group together I don't even invite guys that don't care to write out what they want in town. If they don't have the time there, they sure won't have the time for tactics or even a strategic advance into a backwards corridor (a.k.a. running when the group gets wiped out) in a mission.