A PUG Virgin No Longer....

I had prided myself on having six ascended characters with two that had finished the game using Henchie-only parties. I've done missions with Guildies, but never ones that my characters had not already completed with Henchies. Using Henchies was a conscience decision and its just chance that I've never completed a mission with a Guildie party that I hadn't already completed with Thom and friends.

But all of that changed last night...

A Guildie asked if I would help Monk a THK run with her at the request of a Guild friendly to ours. I said yes, and off we went. Unknown to both of us, there was only one member from that friendly Guild in the party. He had formed a PUG out of necessity and not thinking it a big deal, did not tell my Guildie and me. (yes, that’s proper grammar)

OMG....confusion was the word of the day.

We actually made it to the last boss, but by then, we'd had one W/Mo drop, one party member not skip the cut scene which of course killed all the minions, discovered that two members of the party were not infused and found one Ranger doing nothing but scrounging for drops. When it became painfully obvious that all was lost, I started to have a little fun by bonding the pet pig. At the end it was just me and the remaining W/Mo. Bonded as he was, I could have kept him alive forever, but there was no way we could have won.

In the end we all had a good laugh on Vent, but my lesson was learned.

Now I know why I stayed away from PUGs over the last seven months. I had a great time with my Guildie during the run, and that counts for everything, but no more PUGs for me.....well, maybe a SF run or something.

Hehe... THK is a good place for some humor thats for sure.

If I had known it was going to be a PUG run, I prolly would not have gone. I WAS sorta proud of finishinig the game twice using only Henchies. Once I found out, I kinda ranted in Vent..."You guys just ruined my perfect record...ya bastards" It got plenty of laughs, but I was still kinda miffed. Oh well.

PuGs don't always suck. All the PuGs I lead do just fine. There are a couple obvious things to do to make sure your PuG experience goes well, like asking people what skills they're using and insta-kicking anyone that goes 'gogogogogogogo'

Henchies are great fun. They're reliable, stolid little accomplices. But they're not... quite the same.

There is nothing in GW as fun as that one special PUG. I don't know about you, but that's the way I've felt about it.

What's the one aspect you don't have control over? Your party members. The sheer entertainment value they can provide more than compenstates for having to repeat a mission on occasion.

PUG are just here for your and my amusement. I was the healer of a pug, when the leader asked me if I had a tight ----y. I have filter on max, so I didn't even reply. He didn't even notice that everybody was at full health, while he died constantly. He kept on screaming "laggggggg"
PUGs are fun. You have to look at them from a distance. Don't worry what they do, and don't be afraid that the mission might fail. Sometimes you make friends, because they are not all chaotic and silly. I found a new Guild by joining pugs.

Don't give up on PUGs; you can still form some good ones, with good people. I will admit, though, it's getting harder to find people that actually want to accomplish more than just getting run...

It's like what everyone's mama used to say to them "If you dont have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all"

Oh, and yea PuG from time to time can be funny, or ...horrible, but I always remember the good times

Pugs are fine...if you know how to make one, that is. thats why i always make my own party, and we always do fine.

<---LOL JUN 2005, I PWN JOO

Date has nothing to do with it...

I don't see whats so bad about PuGs, i've ran with PuGs through the entire game with my ranger and I never seen what these "Henchies Rule" people complain about, it seems like people tend to get into one bad PuG and decide that PuGs are crap forever, I've never seen a whammo run off and lure to us, i've never seen a "Bad" monk, I think PuGs are treated worse and thought worse then what they actually are.

Until running is dealt with in-game, and until there is a system of level/xp/infusion requirements implemented into Guild Wars, this will always be an issue to alot of people.

PUGS sometimes can be aggrivating, but i just zone back, and make a new one. A while back i was helping my friend with Hell's Precipace, and i was solo monking with some assistance since the necro had BR. We were doing good, but the 2 w/mos aggroed another group onto us while they were haggling over a green dye..There are some nubs out there, another thing that comes to mind, is a heal monk who had sprint, healing signet, bane signet, healing breeze, and heal party...the sad thing was that he thought he was healing more than me..

It is hard for me to find guildies, at least little more than a couple who want to do a FoW run with me. So I end up in PuGs a lot more than I like too. The PuGs you find at ToA are different than the ones you find at other missions.

I must say some of the best teams I have ever been with have been PuGs going on a Fissure Run. I don't do chest runs or smaller groups, always going for the full 8/8, and yea, there is the occasional jerk or first timer, and you have to watch out for 55 monks who don't answer questions, but I have had more fun with perfect strangers than I have ever had with henchies.

PUGS = FTL
Henchies = FTW ^_^

GG

they just need to implement a menu that would let you filter invites.

[(checkbox)] infused
[(checkbox)] ascended
[(checkbox)] minimum of level [(input)]
[(checkbox)] maximum of level [(input)]
[(checkbox)] Primary [Class(pulldown)]
[(checkbox)] Secondary [Class(pulldown)]
etc...

eudas

How the hell can you play with henchies? I mean, they blatantly suck, I may be a total noob and thus my experience is limited to henchies up to yak's bend lvl. But unless they drasticly improve after that I see no way that a human could possibly be worse than a henchie. They're often very low lvl, always frikkin die unless you babysit em like hell and you need to take way more henchies than you need real ppl. + you can't interact with henchies in a multiplayer game kinda way

I guess time will tell, but since I play almost exclusively with a m8 and sometimes a random dude/dudette if we can't complete it ourselves I haven't really had time to encounter too many asswipes.

I feel sorry for the OP. It took him/her six characters before they had the courage to join a group of strangers to complete a task that is designed to be completed with a group, and yes the henches are a group and serve their purpose, but christ talk about boring !
This is an adventure game, where is your sense of it? And then to come on a board and post your findings like," Im right, pugs suck, know I know why I never ever joined them ". Whatever, enjoy the game by yourself, dont come and post about it, and expect to get awarded a prize.
Its a negative impacting thing, that can only hurt the game, not help it.
I use the henches all the time, when I can't conform to a group time schedule, but I join pugs all the time for the adventure. As others have stated, some of the best players I have ever had the pleasure to play with have been in pugs.
I have made some nice friends and just acquaintances(spelling?) that I would have never met had I not joined a pug.
So play the game with henches if you have too, I feel sorry for you, and feel you are missing out on the best parts of the game, in content(UW,FoW,SF quests), and experience. Enjoy.
ps:we wont even get into the fact that you are missing out on 80-90% of the gold you could have(really a different topic, thread discussion).

Hey, 6 characters, all ascended, most finished the game. Every mission with PuGs. None in guild groups, none with henches. I rarely find PuGs that flat out destroy a mission, and more often than not if it's an individual the group goes back together, boots the annoyance, goes again and succeeds. PuGs do fine... if you're failing in PuGs... maybe it's not the rest of the group that's to blame?

From reading a lot of fgarvin's older posts over the months (to get the background to make this really funny), I'm happy to hear about his fun with a PuG, and disappointing end to the mission. It provides a nice closure to an ongoing story without being overly critical of PuGs in general. I love PuGs for the simple reason that I get to meet new people, and there are always those times and people you pick up that make for good stories, simply because they are so catastrophically bad. Nice one to get one for you first experience, and in Thunderhead Keep no less.

We should expand this to everyone who enjoys playing single-player role-playing games! What a waste of time those are! No adventure at all, and talk about boring, too. If only they had the courage to play games by someone else's rules.

Classic.


Courage...bah. I was tricked. Damn group leader. You wanna talk courage...Willa vs Henchies.

Oh geez, I had that unpleasantry (pun FULLY indended ) the other day late at night, with no guildies and no PUGs doing missions ...

I literally left them attacking (me as well) and went and made a pot of coffee, went to the 'loo, took a smoke break, and came back to Willa still holding strong with about 1/2 life ... and me with a Mo/N and no interrupts

I think I did something else on the computer for another 20 mins until we finally ran him out of energy or he got bored toying with us.

well, i dont see whats so bad aboutit. i finished the entire game with pugs (pick up groups), and have only died 5 times.

LMFAO you can't be serious?

You actually went to the toilet, had a smoke, still 1/2 life and did something else for *20* minutes? Sure you not exaggerating? I know Willa is a b**** to kill but...sheesh.

I don't care what kind of group of it is as long as everyone is smart enough to know what to do. That plus I love groups that endup being quite comical. Of course you get the usual nitwit that forgets to do something like put up Winter... Yes I had that happen several times last night in my Hell's Precipice Mission. I was using my Pyromancer so er well yea. The Ranger was not entirely smart. Only type of groups I hate are the ones that are so quite and serious or very argumentive that you just want to leave.

How can you not love pugs? They're awesome.




Seriously though, there's nothing wrong with PUGs. It's the random idiots that find their way into them that ruin the experience for everyone else. If we could somehow expunge them from the game...

Sure, no prob! Primary class mesmer, skill diversion -> SET

I don't like pugs so much, but occasionally there's a cool player in it that makes the trip more fun than henching THK however, is just hilarious half the time.

I usually do THK with a PuG of 6/8 guildies or friends and at most 2 other unknown characters (not sure if that still count as a PuG). The worse was 2/8with 6 others unknown after a 20mins briefing on the mission.....teamwork and understanding the mission is more important than anything else.

Yea seriously , theres not a thing wrong with hencies, its the random morons who ruin the game for some people so bad they go play with hencies

THK especially running theme groups, all necros, all monks, all eles Even better are the pugs who want to join and then immediately tell you you are doing it wrong because it can't possibly be done with ONLY one profession. Or those who quit after dying once because it can't possibly be done with DP
Pugs exist for our amusement, and I think we should all take advantage of it.

Me: Is there a problem?
PUG: You can't do this mission without 3 warriors.
Me: Oh we have smite monks and I even have sword skills equipped.
PUG: But we need at least 2 warriors.
Me: Oh don't worry, Kora and I have heal sig and mending.
*laughter on guild ts channel*
PUG: Are you making fun of me, I was being serious.
Me: Seriously amusing.

So true....
Try making a PUG, rather than joining one. Show you can lead a PUG, rather than complain about it. I've had more good PUGs than bad, but even in the bad ones, when the "problems" have dropped out, we still get a lot done; whether it's completing quests and farming in fow, or helping someone cap a skill. besides, you get to control (somewhat) the makeup of the PUG that way. That way, when someone starts saying, "we need 3 monks to do forgemaster"....well, you know what to do then (lol)....

I once did Hell's Precipice with a guildmate who was an SS necro.

The rest of the team consisted of one leaver monk, one leaver whammo, another whammo who used Fiery Dragon Sword, a Conjure Phantasm spamming ranger, a completely disoriented W/E who spent 80% of the time going into wrong direction and dying in arbitrary locations, and a hammer warrior with 80% DP at least, screaming "REZ" before he even died a second later.

I played a boon healer monk, and against all odds, we beat the mission. Therefore, all you need is a decent monk and an SS necro, and some meat shield, the rest doesn't matter.

Yeah, actually leading the PuGs yourself is key. If you're not leader, bad things happen (unless you know the leader and trust him to be good). If you're a good player, it should be cake to bring together a solid PuG and make short work of a mission.

This is a multiplayer online game, I don't know why you'd want to always stick to henchies when there are good players hanging around.

I love being able to choose whether to hench or PUG depending on whether I care more about success, or about having an interesting experience.

THK is about the hardest mission to PUG though, because it requires everyone to agree to one strategy and stick to it. Getting 8 random people with egos all on the same page doesn't always work.

I like playing with both hench and pugs. Only difference being with a half decent organised pug you can clear things out alot quicker than you can with hench, in my experience anyway. Human players that know how to play their character will usually bring a better set of skills suited for an area than your average hench (human ele leaving Fire Storm out is usually a good start when you have a decent tank hehe).

One of my favourite things to do to kill a nasty monk boss is to get players to surround it and then hit it with all the high damage AoE they can giving it no place to run, this is damn hard to do with hench. However on two occasions I have managed to trap a boss monk in a corner using Devona and Little Thom so it's not impossible.

But on the whole, hench are very good, in the way that you can actually do all the missions and quests with them with a little care, this is great for the people that do not always wish to play with other humans.

One more thing: Mhenlo... now I have nothing against the guy... really I don't! But there are times when he seems to be in his own little world. For me this usually happens soon after a fight has ended and I still have a degen on me. I sit there looking at my health getting slowly nearer to 0 thinking 'he will heal me in a bit', 'okay any time now!', 'MHENLO PLEASE' *dies* then he races over to res you like this is all just one big joke to him lol.

Yeah, the main reason I bought GW over some other online game is that I'd read that you could use henchmen. If that hadn't been an option, I wouldn't have been interested. I like that the game offers the choice--that way it appeals to all types of players. Those that like to group all the time, those that like to group on occasion, and those that like to game with henchmen.

With my mesmer, I grouped quite a bit during the later missions. Occasionally it was fun, but more often than not, it was a pain in the backside. There are good players out there, but you really can't tell who they are, and since it was my first time through, I wasn't in a position to lead. With my warrior, I've henched it all the way to the desert (and successfully henched Thirsty last night), except for taking pity on a group at Frontier Gate that wanted a tank for Frontier Gate Fugitives. Big mistake. The party consisted of my warrior, a monk, a mesmer, and one other player I've forgotten (he didn't stay long).

First attempt: the mesmer ran ahead and talked to the footman without telling anyone--we were still a ways back fighting devourers. On his way back to us with the footman, the footman died. Back into town--reset.

Second attempt: This time, mezzie stays with us and talks to the footman (the mezzie was the party leader--what a joke). Halfway back to Frontier Gate, mezzie goes afk unannounced. Footman won't follow anyone else. Fourth party member I can't remembers says f-it and drops. Can't say I blame him. I come up with the idea of leading a devourer to mezzie and allowing it to kill him. It works, and the footman now follows us back. So now it's just me, a monk, and a dead, absent mezzie. Me and the monk decide to carry on (I danced on mezzie's body when we passed it) and managed to complete the mission, though the monk was useless--did almost no healing. At the end, he thanked me for doing all the work--at least he had the grace to admit it. Useless mezzie also got to complete the mission, but I didn't care at that point. Monk said goodbye, and I backtracked alone to the Temple of Serenity, which I hadn't reached yet. Mezzie dropped a few minutes before I reached it. With henchies, Frontier Gate Fugitives is a joke, so I wasted oodles of time grouping, kicked myself, and decided to stick to my original plan of always henching.

I'm also actively playing a ranger, elementalist, and monk. So far, they've exclusively henched. They may group later, but I haven't yet seen the need to. Most missions are much easier with a good PUG. The problem is getting into a good PUG, and I've wasted far too much time in bad PUGs to want to roll the dice unless I have to.

ETA: Oh yeah, the one other time I grouped with my warrior was to pick up the bonus for Gates of Kryta (I'd already completed the mission and was about level 16). There were two other useless warriors in the group who died almost instantly when the first group of smoke phantoms appeared. Two other party members go down, so it's just me and a n/mo who had changed her skills to monk. So it's me taking on three smoke phantoms, basically. I managed it, barely. I have no idea what the heck the n/mo was thinking, but all she kept casting on me were weak protection spells. The other party members were yelling "Heal her, Heal her!" and she kept saying, "I am," but she wasn't. Anyway, afterwards, when everyone was rezzed and we'd completed the bonus (the other two groups of smoke phantoms went better), one of the warriros said, "It's a good job I have this cool sword." I wanted to say, "Yeah, it's really helpful when you're dead," but bit my tongue. So yeah, those are the only two times my warrior has grouped. Can't blame her for henching it.

I will do Bonus quests with PUG's because they WANT to do the bonus and not just get the mission done.

but yea, Pug's are usually a complete waste of time..

do the mission with henchies first, if its a REAL problem then look at getting pug... but take your time about picking your team, and ask people what skills they are using.

When completing the mission isnt that important, yea, you can have a great laff with pugs xD

PUG's can surprise you every now and then though. You can occasionally get a team with experienced players and good group dynamic, and not only annihilate stuff, but learn a thing or two. It's also a lot of fun to joke around with new people sometimes. I actually like the "roll-of-the-dice" aspect of PUG-ging.

I'm with you Popi (fgarvin). I've done all the missions with 3 chars and all henchies before joining you in our guild. This being my first online game and not wanting to be the idiot everyone complained about, my plan was to stick with the hencies until I figured out what was goin on. After reading posts in these and other forums and see all the garbage in the local chat in a town, I figured it was best to avoid the PUGs (I don't even do the Res sig quest or the char hunting quest in pre-sear).

This I agree with. What's wrong with the playing the game with just the hencies, thats what their there for?

I did my first PUG a month or so ago with my new monk, I was just looking to get the Final Blow quest done so I could do Ring of Fire with guildies at some point in the future. I'm not a big fan of using the henchies on Perdition Rock because they like to hang out in the meteor showers too much . Well after getting Final Blow done fairly easily, the group wanted to continue and do the missions so I accepted thinking we'll be ok as long as we don't go the back way. Sure enough the Ele in the group wanted to cap a skill and the boss shows up in the back so we have to go through the lava spitters. There were only a couple of deaths and all in all it wasn't that bad. I still think I'll stick to mainly guildie parties or hencies but the occassional PUG makes you appreciate the guildies even more.

I have also had that epic battle with Willa that lasted over 30 minutes. That is what got me to create a mesmer. One of the last times our guild went there it took about 30 seconds to take her down with interrupts and the right damage.