A Brief Guide to Pickup Groups
If you’ve ever perused the warcraft forums, it’s entirely likely that you’ve come across a number of posts complaining about the effectiveness of pickup groups for dungeons (Or PuGs, for short, we’ll be using this term for the rest of the article). What defines a pug is that it’s a random conglomeration of players who have never had previous contact before come together to complete an instance run. Given the random nature of a pug, there is a very wide variety in how much success these groups have. Some will go off without a hitch, while others will end up making you feel like you are chewing glass after the sixth wipe. How to get through relatively unscathed? Here are some tips:
1. Have a strong core: It’s just the nature of the game that certain roles are more important than others. The fact of the matter is that being a tank or healer is a bit more stressful than say, being a mage (and this is coming from a mage) who’s sole role is to burn down monsters with a little crowd control mixed in. Always keep this in mind when creating a pickup group. Make sure your tank/healer is properly geared for the difficulty of the dungeon you are entering. A tank in greens cannot tank heroic shattered halls without a fantastic healer.
2. Be a leader, but not a jerk: If you are the creator of the pug, it’s generally your role to keep the group going and mark appropriate targets for crowd control/killing. Always utilize the marking feature and let group members know what they should be doing in advance (Mage, you have to Sheep star, for example). This helps keep things running smoothly. If something does go wrong, don’t fly off the handle. Bringing anger and attitude to a pug only diminishes your chances for success. If you are convinced your group is simply not going to make it through the instance, just accept it, apologize, and graciously leave.
3. Come Prepared: You don’t have very much control over what other players bring to the table, but you can do everything you can to make sure you are prepped for an instance run. This is especially true if you know your gear is lacking for an instance. Load up on elixirs, wizard/mana oil or sharpening stones as appropriate, and stat food. The better you do at your particular role in a group, the better your chances of success are.
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