Curse

FengShuiDove · May 29, 2008, 09:18 AM // 09:18

Alright, I'm a bit shocked that no threads like this turned on up search, for PUG stories, PUG tales, or even PUG itself. Nothing relevant at all. That having been said, this isn't *intended* to be a big thread that people post interesting PUG stories in, it's intended to be my tale of enjoyment of one particular PUG that I joined up in the other day. If, however, you want to post other interesting stories, that'd be great fun too

.

Now, on to the story...

================================================== =====

Let me precursor this entire tale by telling you that I've finished Factions a number of times in normal and hard mode. The mission I'm doing in the story that follows I have finished with my girlfriend and our 6 heroes in under 18 minutes in HM, 8 minutes under Master's time.

Getting Started: I'm playing through Factions on my Ritualist fully and trying to get the real "new player" experience -- PUGs, henchmen only (though I had to use my own heroes a few times), and as best as possible, no guildies. So I get to Raisu Palace (after having to politely cuss out someone in Harvest Temple who had never been that far and wanted to "explore" while I completed the mission -- party wiped with him and finished in 6:30 with just AI

) and I see it in Party Search:

"GLF 1 healer to go (7/8)"

I pause and realize that this is exactly the gameplay I'm looking for. I switch my headpiece to resto and load up a generic WoR resto build, request to join on party search and self-invite. Immediately the party leader asks in local, "can ritualists heal?"

Oh the responses. One player goes "hell no! ritualists suck at healing!" Another says, "there ok at self healing but nothing else." The first player goes on to say "even i could heal better than a rit." I laughed at the irony of him being a Necromancer and not knowing the healing abilities of either class. Still, I waited silently to see if I got in the group, and sure enough, they let me in.

To reward their confidence, I pinged my bar, which awarded me a myriad of "nice skills Pneuma," to which I responded with a simple thanks. The leader of the party was a D/N whose build I never saw. There were two Assassins (a class I have no problem with being in the party as that's my primary class), and the rest were heroes (a Monk, an Ele, a Necro, and something else) . Without asking for builds, we entered the mission. I convinced them to take Danika and Cynn, but we never got to their cutscenes. On the ele boss the Assassins WAY overaggroed and, though my healing kept the party up for a while, we made absolutely no progress with killing and wiped.

Take Two: So we reshuffle the hero builds. This time I tell them to let me pull and make our fights easier and I ask for builds before we go in. Now, the team looks like this:

D/N - build unknown
A/R - [Golden Lotus Strike][Lotus Strike][Death Blossom][Moebius Strike][Death's Charge][Comfort Animal][Charm Animal][Resurrection Signet]
Hero 1 - Mo/R [Aura of Faith][Comfort Animal][Charm Animal][Resurrect] and 4x unknown (but hardly relevant, clearly)
Hero 2 - E/R [Inferno][Meteor][Fire Storm][Immolate][Liquid Flame][Comfort Animal][Charm Animal][Resurrection Signet]
Hero 3 - N/R [Insidious Parasite][Blood Renewal][Weaken Knees][Shadow Strike][Vampiric Gaze][Comfort Animal][Charm Animal][Resurrection Signet]
A/N - build unknown
Rt/Mo - [Weapon of Remedy][Soothing Memories][Mend Body and Soul][Spirit Light][Vengeful Weapon][Life][Protective Was Kaolai][Flesh of my Flesh]
Hero 4 - my own Ogden, with a standard WoH hero healer build.

As you'll notice, I squeezed one of my own heroes in. This was only because someone dropped their monk after which I immediately volunteered to bring the hero healer. Ogden and I knew we were in for the long haul. Also, you'll notice that EVERY one of that Sin's bars has pets. One had a level 5, one a level 8, one a level 13, and his own was 20 (leet). These pets were endless trouble, but moving on.

To make an already long story a little shorter, the group succeeded in completing the mission. We had a few sketchy areas, again around the Ele boss (who I pulled and we fought BY HIMSELF) and he still killed some -- thank the Sin's 400 HP for that and all the stupid pets triggering Sliver over and over and over -- but we had a comparatively smooth run. It took over 26:00 and was NOT pretty in many spots. The Dervish, to his credit, required hardly any special attention. The Assassins were a bit of difficulty to keep up but handled alright. Most importantly, everyone was really positive and remained attentive to my orders and seemed to have a fun time.

================================================== =====

The Gist of the Story: Basically, this was the most fun playing Guild Wars I've had in a long time. Sure the group did rather poorly in the scope of things and sure, there were some ridiculous builds on both the people and the heroes (the elite-less pet Ele hero cracked me up something fierce), but it was a challenge as a healer and as a more experienced player in general. Could I have done it 10 minutes faster with just AI? Probably. Could I have pulled in guildies to run Ursanway through the dang thing while I ate Doritos? Sure. But for the first time in a long time I got to go back to the basics and play the game like when it was an enveloping adventure and a whole new world. After this, I'm going to try to take my Rit through Nightfall doing the same thing, and I hope I have more stories.

Hope you enjoyed it. If you read it, have a cookie.

Bekkr · May 29, 2008, 09:25 AM // 09:25

I'm never reading another post of yours again. Ever. It was a good read actually, right up until the attempted Rickroll. That sucked.

FengShuiDove · May 29, 2008, 09:30 AM // 09:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bekkr

I'm never reading another post of yours again. Ever. It was a good read actually, right up until the attempted Rickroll. That sucked.

Aww, now I have to remove it. Never done it before, thought I'd try to sneak it in.

Glad you liked it though... and in the future now that the thread is started I can just necro it with (shorter) interesting stories.

bel unbreakable · May 29, 2008, 09:51 AM // 09:51

you got enough to keep us going till gw2 comes out i hope

ManDaz · May 29, 2008, 11:06 AM // 11:06

I liked the story. readed like a book =]. Caus the game starts to booring me .... title grinding. This post brings me to make new character and play like good old times.

Thx Feng... !!!

P.S. If need ally in NF, whisp me ingame.

PEACE !!!

TheRaven · May 29, 2008, 12:03 PM // 12:03

I always enjoy reading pug stories. I had a good experience this weekend in Slaver's Exile. I only needed Duncan NM to complete my dungeon book (and progress towards Master of the North title track), however I had just about given up on ever getting it. I tried a few times to h/h it, but couldn't and finding a pug for NM is difficult.

Anyways, I was passing thru Umbral and saw a group spamming "GLF more folks. Duncan NM. 6/8". Hmmm, they don't seem too picky. I'll give it a try. So my Warrior invited and was accepted. They had 2 monks and a swap Necro already. Looks good. They asked what I was running and I replied Ursan. (It seemed the safest choice). Good deal. The others were mainly Ursan with a FS Ranger thrown in.

We fill up and head out. Smooth run to the dungeon....but alas...Duncan is locked. Grrrrrr. No one would own up to not having the quest, however our FS ranger was constantly cussing out his slow as molasses computer. He eventually left. We rezoned and of course the ranger was the one preventing us from entering.

We return to town to pick up another ranger. We get one immediately and he pings the perfect FS ranger build. Off we go. (Again)

We reach the dungeon and this time warp into Duncan's area smoothly. It was a good fast run and we reached the boss area quickly. It became apparent that most of the group had never done the dungeon before at all, but regardless they were decent players that knew the basics of good pulling and aggro management. If you have a good leader, that's all you need. And the ranger we picked up in town at the last second seemed to be an expert on the dungeon.

We decided the best course of action was to completely sweep the area and clear out all pop-ups and dwarves before approaching Duncan. We do this and then trigger all the spirits. Our swap necro admits that he's never done this before and doesn't know what to do. The ranger explains it to him and he sets to work clearing spirits.

Our Necro dies a lot but he is also clearing out spirits slowly but surely. He's also got rotten teeth from all the candy canes he's eating. Most of the spirits are clear and I volunteer to go die beside Duncan. Our necro tries to cast SV and Signet of Sorrows on Duncan but it's hopeless. He dies almost as soon as he gets in range.

Someone said that the only way to do this is for the monks to cast PS on the Necro. Guess what. Nobody brought PS. Uh oh. So much for the Necro. Time for Plan B.

Plan B. We have 5 Ursans. Let's just gang up on him and pound him to death. We have the Necro swap out the remaining spirits that we ignored the first time around and go to work. We switched to Ursan and ran up to him. We died of course but we also did considerable damage. The 2 monks lived and they rebirthed all of us safely. We go again and die again. After about 5 or 6 rounds of this, he was dead and we were rejoicing that we finally finished!!!

This was a great PUG!!! It wasn't perfect. We had many problems along the way, but nobody ragequt. Nobody got all Elitist on us and called us noobs. We all worked together as a team to win.

AriBalifor · May 29, 2008, 12:28 PM // 12:28

I love these stories. Many of the people in my old alliance, and one friend in particular, suffered from severe pug snobbery, so I was always the perky little cheerleader girl, all "Let's just pug it! Awww, c'mon guys, it'll be FUN!". They'd comply with moans and groans, but I wasn't proved wrong very often.

More PUG stories, plzkthx.

Ctb · May 29, 2008, 12:34 PM // 12:34

You should have devolved into a Bel Air.

RhanoctJocosa · May 29, 2008, 01:08 PM // 13:08

OP has inspired me

Chushingura · May 29, 2008, 01:32 PM // 13:32

Yes, more PUG tales. I need a good laugh now and then. That, or a nice smile when you hear tales of NON-quitters in a pug.

Alia Stormkiller · May 29, 2008, 06:25 PM // 18:25

My PUG tale may not be as great as the OP but her it is.

Back when Nightfall came out and everyone was going nuts trying to get past the Domain of Torment, I decided to get in a PUG to get this over with. I had already tried a few times with heros/henchies and had no problem getting up to Shiro, but that is where the trouble was.

It didnt take long to find a group as most everyone was looking and I joined one that appeared would be a great group. 2 or 3 players where talking how they had already beaten this mission so it will be no trouble for us. That should have been my first clue, but I like to give people the benefit of doubt and I didnt say anything.

The leader was an Assassin and the rest of the group was 2 Warriors, 2 Healers, 1 Ele (fire) 1 Ranger and myself a SS Necro. The Sin a warrior and a monk where the ones claiming to have beaten this mission. When we started instead of waiting for everyone to zone in the Sin & 1 warrior took off for the 1st group. By the time all had zoned in the Sin was dead and the Monks had their hands full keeping all alive. Some how we survived this and after a lot of arguing we continued on. By this time I already had that sinking feeling.

The next 2 groups went pretty good and I started to feel better. Now came the groups with the beetles. Now I had learned after trying with henchies/heroes on how to handle this and you would think that 3 people who have beaten this mission would have learned also. Right, again I was given them to much credit. They went head first into those groups. The Sin was down within 5 seconds, one warrior within 10. The Monks couldnt keep up, soon the 1 monk who claims to have beaten the mission took off.

Now dont get me wrong, I understand running and it is needed at times, but most people tend to run back the way they have cleared not forward. This very smart person took off across the land bridge causing more aggro. Needless to say that was the end to that mission.

Back in town if you call it that, the leader started to argue with people in the group, the 1 Monk left and when the arguement started the Ranger left. The leader was saying this was the Ele fault for some reason and he told the Sin what he could do and he left. At that point I also left.

I was contacted by the Ranger and joined with him, the Ele and the other Monk, we added 4 others and proceeded to beat the mission and the bonus in about 10-15 minutes with ZERO deaths. After we were done some of us zipped back to the begining and saw those 3 still trying to get a group together.

Well thats my story, hope you enjoyed.

mazza558 · May 29, 2008, 07:02 PM // 19:02

I, too, love PuGing. When you run SABway, you get the mish/quest done very quickly with no trouble. But where's the excitement of seeing what "unique" builds people come up with on their own, with no one to tell them what's right and what isn't in GW. For example, a necro I was PuGing with had a single Flesh Golem and buffed it with weapon spells. It almost worked!

Lagg · May 29, 2008, 07:34 PM // 19:34

I met all my friends pugging.

Heroes killed that aspect of the game.

ArenaNet has realised this in time for Guild Wars 2.

FlamingMetroid · May 29, 2008, 08:19 PM // 20:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ctb

You should have devolved into a Bel Air.

QFET

I hate PUGs, they're made of fail, no matter which way you look at it. Heroes4life

C2K · May 29, 2008, 08:26 PM // 20:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lagg

I met all my friends pugging.

Heroes killed that aspect of the game.

ArenaNet has realised this in time for Guild Wars 2.

Well hopefully Heroes and henchies return because they made the game better for me. 90% of the PuGs you will get will always be bad, and I'm not only talking about poor builds and bad play. Consider the obnoxiousness, the annoyance, and the e-peen arguments that could manifest in PuG.

Say NO to PuGs.

RiKio · May 29, 2008, 09:17 PM // 21:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by C2K

Well hopefully Heroes and henchies return because they made the game better for me. 90% of the PuGs you will get will always be bad, and I'm not only talking about poor builds and bad play. Consider the obnoxiousness, the annoyance, and the e-peen arguments that could manifest in PuG.

Say NO to PuGs.

I agree, though I might seem elitist....but nah.

About the OP, good story. Reminds the mines, in Nightfall, when I was forced to play with PuGs due missions with heroes required.

That make me stop pugging

Alia Stormkiller · May 29, 2008, 09:20 PM // 21:20

Dont get me wrong with my story, I have had some very good PUGs and I have made friends there. PUGs rather good or bad tend to always be interesting.

Age · May 29, 2008, 09:36 PM // 21:36

What made PuGs really bad was the introduction of alliance battles and the bad builds they use in them.This is the reason you don't see resses on most pugs today as they expect the monk to do it.PuGs were fine untill abing came about.

Chrono Re delle Ere · May 29, 2008, 10:38 PM // 22:38

Now.....I read it, can I have mah cookie?

Well by the way, you know I was planning to do something actually....create a new char and don't let him use storage, neither take advantage of guildies helps.

That would bring me back to the "newb" period (even though I am surely way more skilled than 3 years ago

) and bring me into the cold but still funny PuG grasp.

Ahhh...good old times. What appeals me more from a MMO is the beginning of its life, since no one is good at the game and it's way more funny

Cant' wait for the first year of GW2

Productivity · May 29, 2008, 11:45 PM // 23:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by FengShuiDove

The first player goes on to say "even i could heal better than a rit." I laughed at the irony of him being a Necromancer and not knowing the healing abilities of either class.

I would prefer a N/Rt healer than a Rt primary...