PuG Kara
Last night, I logged in, put myself in LFG for Kara, and almost immediately got an invite. I wasn't sure how far they were going, or who they were, but I was the last member they needed, so we were off.
In summary, here's what we did:
There was sometimes some confusion in tanking, as I was main tank, but the druid raid leader/off tank was marking and pulling. So, I was never sure if I was on Skull or X on trash, and that led to some deaths and near-deaths (Hooray for Intervene!)
After Curator, we had one of our DPS quit due to time constraints, but there were an abundance of people in LFG, so it wasn't a problem. We picked up a rogue who seemed distinctly conservative and against gay marriage. I don't know why this came up, but whatever.
Really, the only reasons we wiped were bad luck and people not knowing the fights. Nightbane, we had some DPS die due to either the tail or charred earth, I'm not sure which. I was very proud of myself - I didn't get feared once, even though we only had one priest for fear ward. I managed to successfully stance-dance my way to a fear-free Nightbane for the first time.
On Shade, somebody moved during Flame Wreath. Plain and simple. Before the fight, somebody was checking out my DPS gear, and determined that I had a generous guild due to the fact that I had [item]Quickening Blade of the Prince[/item] and [item]Fury[/item] equipped, along with some other epics. I lol'd and said "I guess so", while some other members of the raid just said how common my gear actually was. I think I ended up with a solid 600 DPS on the second try. It might have been higher, but I blew my Recklessness cooldown on the first try.
On Prince, we really just had terrible luck in Infernal placement. We got him down to 4% the first try, and 1% the two subsequent tries. Two infernals dropped right next to where I was tanking him, overlapping their damage. The last time, if our healers had been able to keep me up for maybe a second or two more, I may have been able to Execute us to victory, but it was not to be. (And I realize that healing through two Infernals and the last phase of Prince isn't easy... props to them for keeping me up as long as they did).
Anyway, after three wipes, it was 9:40pm or so, and I hadn't gotten to spend any time with my girlfriend. Also, people were getting really frustrated at our bad luck, so about half the raid left. There were no ill feelings, as far as I could tell, because we did a great job, especially for a PuG. I don't think we could have handled Netherspite, just due to the fact that we didn't have a vent server or anything, and coordinating that fight is difficult.
So, a question or two for the general public:
Lastly, this run put me 10 badges over what I needed to get my [item]Girdle of the Fearless[/item]. I now have 22 expertise! And more of a defense buffer (I was at 492 defense before this belt).
In summary, here's what we did:
- Attumen - down in 1
- Moroes - down in 1
- Maiden - down in 1
- Big Bad Wolf - down in 1
- Nightbane - down in 2
- Curator - down in 1
- Shade of Aran - down in 2
- Illhoof - down in 1
- Chess - down in 1
- Prince - wiped three times, then called it
- Netherspite - no attempt
There was sometimes some confusion in tanking, as I was main tank, but the druid raid leader/off tank was marking and pulling. So, I was never sure if I was on Skull or X on trash, and that led to some deaths and near-deaths (Hooray for Intervene!)
After Curator, we had one of our DPS quit due to time constraints, but there were an abundance of people in LFG, so it wasn't a problem. We picked up a rogue who seemed distinctly conservative and against gay marriage. I don't know why this came up, but whatever.
Really, the only reasons we wiped were bad luck and people not knowing the fights. Nightbane, we had some DPS die due to either the tail or charred earth, I'm not sure which. I was very proud of myself - I didn't get feared once, even though we only had one priest for fear ward. I managed to successfully stance-dance my way to a fear-free Nightbane for the first time.
On Shade, somebody moved during Flame Wreath. Plain and simple. Before the fight, somebody was checking out my DPS gear, and determined that I had a generous guild due to the fact that I had [item]Quickening Blade of the Prince[/item] and [item]Fury[/item] equipped, along with some other epics. I lol'd and said "I guess so", while some other members of the raid just said how common my gear actually was. I think I ended up with a solid 600 DPS on the second try. It might have been higher, but I blew my Recklessness cooldown on the first try.
On Prince, we really just had terrible luck in Infernal placement. We got him down to 4% the first try, and 1% the two subsequent tries. Two infernals dropped right next to where I was tanking him, overlapping their damage. The last time, if our healers had been able to keep me up for maybe a second or two more, I may have been able to Execute us to victory, but it was not to be. (And I realize that healing through two Infernals and the last phase of Prince isn't easy... props to them for keeping me up as long as they did).
Anyway, after three wipes, it was 9:40pm or so, and I hadn't gotten to spend any time with my girlfriend. Also, people were getting really frustrated at our bad luck, so about half the raid left. There were no ill feelings, as far as I could tell, because we did a great job, especially for a PuG. I don't think we could have handled Netherspite, just due to the fact that we didn't have a vent server or anything, and coordinating that fight is difficult.
So, a question or two for the general public:
- Have you had any great PuG experiences? I tend to have an unusually high number of good PuGs as far as I can tell, and I'm wondering if it's just good luck.
- Is there a way to deal with overlapping Infernals on Prince? Should I just be telling the group that I'm moving him elsewhere?
Lastly, this run put me 10 badges over what I needed to get my [item]Girdle of the Fearless[/item]. I now have 22 expertise! And more of a defense buffer (I was at 492 defense before this belt).
Total Comments 8
Comments
 |  Tip for prince, the raid can stand on the marble stones just in front of the door and no infernal fire will touch them. THis means the tank should be along the right wall, about 10' past the > shaped cut in the wall. Getting the positioning right takes a bit but if the healers are on the smooth stone, and out of range of the shadow nova, and the tank is still in rage of heals you are golden. The only potential problem is that melee needs to run out and if an infernal lands between tank & raid - they have to run in a different direction. If an infernal drops ON the tank then for 3 min melee has to sit on their thumbs and watch, obviously the tank requires a few extra heals. |
Posted 06-18-2008 at 09:43 AM by loquatious  |
| | I PUG all 10 mans and 25 mans, my guild consist of me and 3 real-life friends. We're like 11/13 and 12/13 Kara the last 3 weeks pugging Kara picking up whomever. In Kara, I just try to be explicit about who's tanking what, who's CCing what, etc. You can never put out too many reminders about pulls where yo uthink craziness might ensue. That said, I still chain-pull like crazy and that seems to keep ppl more interested. You'll sometimes get into a situation where you suspect or wonder if everyone knows the fight, but if you say "Who doesnt' know this fight?" some ppl are loathe to speak up due to embarassment or whatever. So on teh way to such a boss, I'll usually say "Send me a tell if you've never done this boss." If people send me a tell, I'll go over the plan in more detail for the entire raid without focusing on them too much. If no one sends me such a tell, I'll just briefly outline the plan so everyone is on the same page. We've had bad luck on Prince as well, you need someone comptent spotting the infernals that can direct the tank to a good location. Some h ealers will say "If one lands near you, just stay and I'l heal you through it" and then it only requires a move if another stacks there. But someone needs to announce moves and the group has to be smart about it. I can get my dodge ridiculously high so that takes the pressure off the healers in phases 2 and 3. We're 2/6 ZA the same way. It's harder to find competent geared people to pug ZA and we've struggled to find a prot pally until recently which should make Jan'Alai a little easier. Last nite we pugged ZA, downed Eagle without incidence, but our guild pally had to leave for RL emergency. Then the shaman healer we had picked up DCed, we suspect she thought DPS was way too low (which it was but we hadnt' died). Finally we went to Bear with an 1800 heal priest, a 1800 heal paladin, and a 1200 heal druid. The druid was literally all we could find. And we still one-shot Bear. Then we called it cuz no one we'd have gotten much further with that healing. Pugs have a bad reputation, but they can be fine. Try to find ones where at least some or most of the people in it know each other. Build your friends list so you have ppl you can PUG in that you know. If you can get to 6 or 7 people that you know and are comfortable with, pugging Kara becauses much much simpler. Daniel |
| Posted 06-18-2008 at 10:19 AM by dlongest |
| | I love pugs, 25, 5 or 10 man. Often you get the opportunity to help someone who is trying hard, but has little or no knowledge. Good ones are fun for the satisfaction of meeting good players and the bads ones are usually so entertaining, it is worth the repair bill. |
| Posted 06-18-2008 at 08:33 PM by Blackfriday |
| | Now i do kara in a PUG on my tanker and a mage and all the last 5-10 times i do kara ive come out with low low low repairbill and full house off BoJ my previouse viewe on PUGs isnt awailable, just be sure u know what ur doing in the instance and u will clear it also be sure that the grp knows whats happening... So im luving it ATM... |
Posted 06-18-2008 at 11:16 PM by Goodmann  |
| | I firmly believe that pugging just makes you a better player all around. You have to be on your game because you can't count on anyone to cover your mistakes. You might learn a new way of doing something that works. Or you might learn something that fails horribly... but at least you'll know what not to do when someone suggests the same bad idea later on down the line. It's good for the soul too - you've got to be more flexible just to get a long with a group of people you don't know. Of course, there's plenty to be said for consistency as well  I've had my share of good and bad pugs, both. We tend to remember the bad ones more often because we just don't remember the people that we've grouped with afterward, so it's easy to dump the blame on them. Conversely, we might have a tendency to look at our guild runs in a softer light, despite the fact that the people we regularly run with are worse players... we just know what to expect already. |
| Posted 06-18-2008 at 11:46 PM by Archfiend |
| |  I don't pug. Probably because I don't need to, my guild is the largest on the server last time I checked. But then again because my guild is so large we do have practically what are in-guild pugs for kara/za hrm... come to think of it we actually do MH/BT without signups too, so those are kinda like in-guild pugs as well. we definitely do things differently than most. There's a sunwell trash pug on my server, as well as a Naxx pug, and there's always alt gruul/mag pugs going on too. I haven't done many of them due to time constraints, but I agree with what was said that often after a few runs you can get a core group of people together in your "pug" and that lends some consistency--but then is that really a true pug? hrm... |
| Posted 09-24-2008 at 12:40 AM by Halandir |
| | I PuG but I'm picky. I prefer to join last (to avoid surprises with new invites) and armory everyone in the group if possible. Obviously the guild they're in, or knowing any one person in the group, is valuable information. I don't advertise as a tank because that would mean constantly rejecting offers and making people angry, but just lurk in the LFG channel. There are also a few other channels used by cliques of players of various above-average skill levels. The reason I'm picky for my heroics is not so much to avert failure (we can get by) but to have a fast and smooth run. Our server is not very hardcore - the leading team is on Muru I think. Nowadays it's fairly easy to PuG a reasonably fast Kara, about 3 hours, if you do it on Wednesday or Friday (the EU servers reset Wednesday AM). ZA PuGs tend to do 2-3 bosses on average but I was in one that managed Malacrass. It took a couple of substitutions and only a few of us were left standing, but the boss went down, which I think is not bad for a true PuG. Occasionally there's a quality PuG that's really raid guilds inviting their friends. These kill Gruul or Maggy smoothly enough but it's still a lot of work for the raid leader. |
| Posted 09-24-2008 at 04:04 PM by Machus |
| | Kara is 22 free badges a week  Prince isn't too hard, its just if your blasted down to no health you have to run to that little nook and wait it out. Otherwise tank and spank and as a tank just watch your heals and yell for help if they get low. You go, they go! |
| Posted 11-07-2008 at 08:29 AM by blahism |
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