I know lots of people are going to read this and call me an elitist or a snob and I am cool with that even though I wouldn’t call myself an elitist. I try at least every other day to read all the DDo related blogs. Can’t really say you have a thumb on things if you don’t at least read what others are putting out. But today I hit Keavaa’s blog and there is a ranty post about other people playing their characters as they want…
I remember this place. Back before F2P, before I became a guild/channel/shortman player back when I wanted to trust that everyone was as good or better at DDo then I am (most days as good as me is really not that hard people).
But something happened and I remember the moment happened after the 4-5 day in a row of pugging out and failing running the Hound raid. Before this cold streak the DG could pug out like 8 slots and win every time. Hell I even formed the groups back then. There were many Dinner at Harry shrouds or Free Waffles raids up lead by Tobril or myself. Hell even the wife got on mic and lead pugs from time to time.
But something about those 3 or 4 fails left a taste in my mouth that I can only describe as fowl and I half swore off pugs right then. It took the Brits wanting to learn the Hound raid for my Clr with 18 completions to get to 20.
Think a large part of my issue was I expected others to either have or do what I thought they should. If they are a divine class I expected them to be able to heal and use scrolls to extend their SP pool or they needed to pony up for pots.
Back then extend was good and casting Haste and Rage was worth wild. Now extend is worthless and I only cast those spells on request and often I only have one or the other as often my spell slots are tight.
However, one of my most prep spells is knock, well if I am not on a skilled splashed alt anyway. But again I can’t assume that anyone has anything any more. I have TRed so many times I have had lives where I didn’t scribe any scroll that was not found in a chest unless I happened to get scribing kits as loot and only then because I didn’t want to waist them. Even now Samius has lots of missing spells in from his list because I might TR him again some time.
Guess, my point is everyone tends to suck sometimes. I wrote about me not having any gear while leveling up my Arty. That meant no heal scrolls or even a Death Ward clickly (which is fairly standard gear). And I have lost out on chests because the rogue in the quest didn’t carry tools. And Tobril and I often find each other at odds as I don’t keep him hasted at all times, hence part of the reason he went Juggernaut, guess what he is not super happy with the Jugg in part because he is spending time buffing everyone all the time, ask for an armor of speed for the 14th time in a quest and see what happens. 🙂
The only sure fire way to know that the group you are in is really prepared is to solo/guild and make damn sure you are on the ball. Me and mine have learned to build more and more self-reliant builds so more and more slots in pugs are warm bodies for pulling on chests.
Yep I might be a little elitist, but I am also a realist.
<3s
Samius Gurobo 
I’ve yet to read Keava’s blog. But I know all about sucky pugs, and I’ve been grinding it out for close to 2 years. I finally found a channel of good ppl to run ee runs with, trying to pug ee has more than often had me very frustrated, the same with some raids. I don’t join HoX or VoD pugs, since they tend to be a total pain in the a. Ppl get lost in sub and die. Every single time.
So I have become more and more elitist when it comes to some of my runs. I write “know it” this and that mandatory (like ele absorb in fot) or even my latest byoh ee gh.
Lately my lfm quests have been very much like, I’m running this quest, feel free to tag along if u want. I’ll help if ppl ask, but I’ll seldom to never wait for ppl before stepping into a quest, so if the peron doesn’t know the way, they’ll need to follow someone else, or try to make it there using wiki.
But still, there are some very good ppl that pug as well. U just can’t expect to get them every time. Or that u won’t some time get someone who really doesn’t have a clue at how to play their toon. Like the pure pm wizard who doesn’t self heal and tries to do front line melee.
<——— or the pure pm wizard who forgot to take quicken on this life.
I see this as a conflict of interests, the definition of "Team" implies that everyone in the group should be heading to the same direction, that's why forming groups with similar minds works better than the "you-never-know-watcha-gonna-get" nature from PUGs… This groups can be testy sometimes, they can also be very fun and rewarding some other times.
PUGs are the 'Double Rainbow' of the Social aspect of MMOs.
We have several failed attempts on Hound. Things like clerics that do not heal the puppies and melees taking zzyzzy agro from the tank and leading her all over the place.
I feel like we could overcome this with better instruction but that much talking is fatiguing and even annoying to those who already know.
maybe we have to bite the bullet and train everyone from scratch every time 😦
Nope, i wil just go in and shortman things and/or use piker accounts/channel people for pulls.