You are a unique and beautiful snowflake ... just like everyone else

Have I mentioned that I PUG quite a bit? Maybe? I might have brought it up once or twice.

As my Server dropdown list in Ventrillo gets longer and longer, I realize that I am learning something about people: everyone is different.

Yeah, duh.

It may seem like I QQ quite a bit about bad PUGs. I don't mean to QQ — I really just enjoy sharing the horror stories of my bad experiences. Raiding is mostly the same. There are good raid and bad raids. But because there are 5x as many people, you can get a much better sense of the guild.

I want to share some of my insights. Compare and contrast, if you will. Lest I am misinterpreted, let me make one thing perfectly clear before I continue:

I have respect for each of the guilds I mention by name. I wouldn't name them, otherwise. There are plenty of guilds that I do not respect, and they aren't named here.

Got that? Good.

I'll take Origin first. Origin is a very cool bunch of folks. Even though I am not in their guild, most of them treat me like I am. There's a reason I have so many WWS reports with Origin: whenever I need something for a quest, Origin generally steps up and helps out. Even if it's a Heroic Shadow Labs at 3am, Origin is there. That's just cool.

If I had to use one word to describe raiding with Origin, it would be calm. There's a bit of joking around on Vent, but mostly everyone seems willing to STFU and listen to the RL. There are a few people that seem to not like the peace and break it at inopportune times when they should be taking in chat and not Vent, but not many. Everyone is generally respectful to everyone else. I cannot express how much I appreciate this kind of serenity on a raid Vent.

If pressured to say one bad thing about Origin, it would be that they might be too quiet. Because of the low-drama approach to raiding, it seems that some people will occasionally not get it when it is time to listen to a strategy. We'll wipe a few times because people are doing things they were explicitly told not to. Eventually, everyone gets it and comes together, but I doubt Origin will have too many one-shots. In the end, though, that's okay — Origin is also the guild most okay with wiping and trying again. Wipes don't phase Origin in the least. I'd raid with Origin any day.

Raiding with We Raid Naked is the exact opposite of raiding with Origin. It's very high-drama, high-excitement, and noisy. It seems like everyone talks on Vent. Talks, tells lewd jokes, curses other players, etc. Patience is in no way a part of We Raid Naked raiding. If you aren't there 100% or aren't paying attention, you get kicked and replaced within minutes. They are a steamroller, and raids are the road.

But none of that is necessarily a bad thing. We Raid Naked will one-shot many bosses. They have to, as they don't take wipes nearly so well. The RL is strong, and loud, and there can be no doubt when you need to listen. Organization is accomplished with an iron fist, but it is also air-tight and unbreakable.

I've only gone on one raid with Totem Totem Totem, but they seem to be somewhere in the middle of the other two. The Vent chatter is raunchier than Origin, but nowhere near as much as We Raid Naked. Organization and leadership isn't as cutthroat as We Raid Naked, but is still much more heavy-handed than Origin. These guys are more about throwing themselves into the mix and hoping one or two people are still standing at the end. The organization is mostly front-loaded, with the vast majority done before combat and somewhat-controlled mass chaos during combat. They are a "just do it" group.

I've only done a couple of 10-man runs with Gank This, but from what I can see they are no-frills, balls-to-the-wall, get-the-damned-thing-done type people. It is assumed that you know what you are doing and know all of the strategies, so Vent is used mostly for casual chatter. They are cool to raid with, but the speed completely wipes me out for the night. I have to assume that raiding with T6 or late-T5 guilds would be like this.

I guess that's why I don't get all of the turf wars that go on between guilds. Each guild has their own personality, so why don't people get and respect that? Do you want hardcore? N00b-friendly? A Vent to tell raunchy jokes? High or low drama?

I guess that's one more nice thing about being the PUG master that I am: I can choose to run with a guild that suits my mood for the day.

For every Good PUG, there is a bad one

Got into an Heroic Slave Pens PUG over the weekend. Still lovin' it.

We had a bit of a surprise, though. The MT and Healer group-quit and left after the first boss. No warning, just looted and ran. It wasn't even a ninja-loot: they only took Badges.



WTF? Really?

Kazard of Tempest and Dojin of The Fearless.

Now, a bad PUG is one thing, but this wasn't a bad PUG. We were making pretty good progress, despite the fact that the MT was Fury-specced and in full PvP gear. No one was arguing. As near as I can tell, there was no reason for the two guys to do it. And yet ... they just chose to be jerks.

But wait, it gets worse.

As I was pretty irked, I Armoried both of them and looked around to see if I could find an officer of each guild to let them know that their guildmates were trashing their rep. I spoke with Rabidewok of Tempest, and he was nice but it was pretty much obviously a dead end. I then spoke with someone with The Fearless and was told, flatly, to not even bother: no one cared. I hadn't even said what the problem was, just that I was looking for an officer to talk about a problem with one of their guildmates. I was nice. I was respectful. And in both cases I was blown off.

There's also a half of an epilogue.

Last night in /Trade I saw Dojin spamming for a Tailor. I cannot convey to you how strong the urge was to reply in the affirmative, as I'm sure he has no memory of who I am, then take his mats and tell him to please go fetch my missing Badges. Oh wait, they're Soulbound. Good luck with that.

But I didn't. I'm not that guy. There are times when I want to be, but I'm just not. (And I would have had a hard time defending my behavior to a GM.)

Either way, I don't think I'll be accepting anyone from The Fearless into any of my PUGs any time soon. It's a small revenge, but it's about all I can really do.

Magtheridon!

I managed to get into a Magtheridon PUG this weekend.



Seeing as how I wondered if I'd ever get into any 25-man content, I was pretty stoked. I did my best to read up and and not make a total n00b out of myself, and think I did a pretty good job. I helped take down the channelers in the correct order. I moved when the AoE hit. I kept up my DOTs. I even kept an eye on the cubes to do backup-clicking as people started to drop.

And I have to say a big Thank You to Ranii for the wicked heals. Every time I looked up, I was at full health and was Ranii's target. Thanks!

We wiped twice before the MT went all emo had computer problems and DCed, leaving his girlfriend on Vent to tell everyone that we were abandoning. Oh well. It was still cool to be there.



And, for the record, I was at roughly 850 +shadow, unbuffed, when I went. I felt just about appropriately geared for my first time. There were a few people that were geared significantly better, but there were also plenty of people that weren't. Unfortunately, I was the only SPriest, so I didn't have another to check out.