Coldbear's Guide to Building Good Server-only PUG's
We've all had horrible random PUGs, feel free to post your horror-stories below. Fear not - a little effort at Social Networking can fix that.
If you're reading this then more likely than not you are far enough along in your WoW-career that you've had plenty of bad experiences with Pickup Groups doing instances and whatnot. You may already be all set and happy in your big raiding-guild, but if you ever want to level up some alts or hit up a new server this Guide will give you a few ideas on how to make building a good PUG smoother and above all, faster. Without the horror and pain that is the random-pug LFD interface.
There's plenty of ways to build a decent PUG. It takes a little more work to build a good PUG in a short amount of time during a time of day or week that not a whole lot of people are online and ingame. A properly built PuG will not wipe very often, assuming people play reasonably well and group relations don't deteriorate into blame-games and /ignore-fests. It will also go much faster through the instances so you can get back to quest-grinding/PvP or doing another run, increasing your overall gaming efficiency.
1. DECIDE your role in the group.
2. ANNOUNCE & ADVERTISE
3. INSTANCE RECOMMENDED LEVELS.
4. /WHO [WHATEVER].
5. GROUP MAKE-UP.
6. IF YOU REALLY CAN'T FIND A GROUP.
7. WHY THE HELL EVEN BOTHER?
8. SUMMA SUMMARUM.
Good, balanced, powerful and 'safe' PuG = reasonably fast, very efficient, probable-success instance run.
Haphazard group-building = slow run with wipes probable, leading to people getting pissy, which inevitably leads to drama.
I enjoy drama as much as the next guy, but all the same I'd rather take a quick, efficient run so I can go to bed earlier and get some sleep before I have to go to work in the morning.
1. DECIDE YOUR ROLE
Not much of an issue for Mages, Hunters, Warlocks and Rogues and Holy/Disc Priests, though Hunter and Lock pets have been known to out-perform a really bad tank in lowbie instances.
Skip this section if you play a single-role class that's so specialized that you really can't do much else, or if you simply HATE playing anything other than one way of a multi-faceted class. Or if, like my rl buddy on Laughing Skull, you enjoy mage-bombing places with 4 mages and a priest...
People will generally expect you to be able to utilize all the different strong points of your class, so it pays to learn how to do everything in instance-runs as early as possible.
By the time you're hitting up websites like this you've probably seen more than enough Warrior-tanks who refuse to break out a 1h + Shield, or simply concentrate on one mob at a time in order "to kill faster", or healers who do nothing other than mindlessly spam heals without regard to aggro or partymembers' skill or mobtypes. Then we always have the Rogues who refuse to use Feint, or the Mages that can't stop AoEing random elite pulls, or the healers that run out of mana by insisting on using their offensive repertoire the way they usually do while soloing.
A truly skilled player on the other hand, will be able to recognize the above problems, and since most players refuse to change their ways or get SEVERELY annoyed, pissy or outright hostile when you try to offer a few tidbits of advice, will be able to adjust according to other people's mistakes. Simply put, your skill can make up for others' failures. Semper Gumby - adjusting your own play to make things go faster for the group is the hallmark of excellence in WoW PVE. The counterpoint to this is that if you continually bend over backward to accomodate others' issues, then they won't learn. A good tank can split-second taunt one mob that was over-dps'd, and then Feral Charge/Intervene/Death Grip the other that got loose because someone ****ed up - but if you keep doing that then they'll never learn and you'll have to continue to perform at a level that's tiring and maybe not fun for you. But if you build up long-term relationships with people you might get to the point where your Hunter guild buddy just laughs and MD's some more mobs to you because they know how good you are and they want to see you pull all the tricks in the book.
2. ANNOUNCE & ADVERTISE
In /Guild and /Trade and /General (in your faction's most used city, usually Orgrimmar or Ironforge) :
XX [Your Class/Spec/Role] LFG [instance]
Where XX = your level.
Why start this way? - Because someone may already have a group that's heading out and just needs one more spot filled by something that your class can do, even though you may not be dying to fill that role in a group composed of what they have going. I generally capitalize the fully written-out name of the instance I'm running to make it more noticeable and put it in a macro for easy access. If you spam this too often in a short period of time you'll piss people off and be treated accordingly. Piss off too many people and it may come back to haunt you later on. Play nice and you'll find it easier to get groups the further you level. Some people have /Trade turned off but will see your /General advertising.
In addition, a lot of people may have alts that need specific instances. If they're on their mains just hanging out or popping into the AH, then you have no chance of finding them using the /who command or in the LFD interface, since people are only allowed to queue on the character that they are currently on. You have to announce in a chat channel in order to have a chance to reach this usually fairly skilled demographic (not that people with multiple 85s don't occassionally show up with their heads stuck up their....).
Usually announcing in this way will get you a few responses, but sometimes only one or two, or none, if you're LFG HARDINSTANCEWITHCRAPGEAR. Having a lot of shareable quests can also make a difference once you start talking with people, since WoW-players are notoriously lazy.
Have whoever joins you advertise in their guild-chat. You never know - occasionally someone will bring along a higher-level or better-equipped person to help. This means it won't be as exciting, and you won't get as much xp, but the quickness with which it'll get you to the end-boss' loot table more than makes up for it in the eyes of most players. And after you've leveled three chars or so through the same old instance runs it does become somewhat of a drudgery.
Some servers also have specific server/faction-wide LFG channels, though these tend to become polluted with random trash-talk/chitchat after a while, same with IRC channels and whatnot, though the people on IRC or server-wide vent also tend to be the same people week after week, which means you can develop long-term relationships.
If you're the kind of person who knows in advance exactly when they'll be at their computer and wanting to do X, then by all means use your server forum and build a reputation for successful PuGs or raids or Gold DKP runs. Then you won't need this guide and people will whisper you as soon as you come online - "Hey want to come do X".
You can also try "XX good solid ____ LF Healer/Tank for _____" or similar.
If you have yet to do every instance in the game up to your level I suggest you take the time, preferably as you level up, since there's some cool events here and there, and you'll learn a few things playing with imperfect group setups and bad healers/bad tanks or aggro-magnet dps machines along the way. You getting better at taking care of a situation where another player's dropped the ball - means that you'll be more experienced at dealing with unexpected things happening to your supersmooth endgame guild group in Heroics down the road.
When putting together a group it's of major importance not just what classes you fill with, but the level of the people that come along. Bring along a high-level guildy friend and you can get away with a lot more things that may have wiped a more level-appropriate group, and things will go faster as well of course, but now your xp-gain will go down a little.
More realistically, say that you have all the regular spots (the old trinity: Healer, Tank, AoE/CC) filled already and someone wants to come along that's slightly low for the instance. If you have a group member that's slightly high this may be workable, but if the group average is already in the low range, than be careful of just who you fill with. Taking the first guy to answer your announcment may be honest and impartial, but that can come at a cost to the speed and ease with which you blow through to the drops and the bosses or the quests that you want completed.
This fact can lead to some problems, and possibly drama. If the only people to respond to your announcment are kinda low for the instance, then you'd either have to be darn sure that they are very skilled/knowledgeable players, or you'll have to make up the level-deficit in some other ways. Keep in mind that helping out the alt of top raider personality Johnnysmooth of guild <Elite Raiders Only> can get you a reputation as a person who knows their stuff and might be worth something at endgame. The LFD interface might get you a reputation, but it will be with people all over the battlegroup, which won't help you if you want into guild <Hard Modes or Bust>.
Having a few people together in Vent or Teamspeak can also add some surety and efficiency to a group, and it's always nice to have several people from the same guild in the group, since they can be assumed to know each other's habits better, and if someone screws up or dc's, they'd be the people to turn to in order to figure out what's going on. Otoh, having the group leader in the same guild as half the group can be a bad bad thing for the rest of the group, since Master Loot getting turned on right before a boss-kill will always be a threat. Multiple people from the same guild tend to be lesser of a chance at being ass-hats than in the random dungeon-finder, since if you're a tool on your own server you're basically ****ting in your own back yard. Not that there's much consequence to being a douche in today's WoW, but at least you'll be seeing the same people again and again on the server, especially if it's a lower population underdog faction.
Basically, higher-lvl people in relation to the mobs and bosses in the instance, more player experience, better player skill, and a group makeup that doesn't include any single-point failures (i.e. there's always a backup plan), will allow you to scrimp on one or two things, like bringing a relative lowbie along, or having a tank without a ranged weapon or shield, or a mana-inefficient healer, or people who only know how to 1. complain, and 2. play their class the way they always do when they solo.
4. /WHO [WHATEVER].
The single most useful tool in putting together exactly the kind of group that you want is the /WHO feature. Once you've narrowed down what kind of class and level you're looking for, send them a nice, polite /tell (don't just talk in ONLY acronyms) asking if they're interested in filling a spot in your group. Pay attention to their current location - the might be busy questing or just going from zone to zone or in BGs or bored in town. Beware of people who immediately ask "Who's in the group?" or only care about their chances for loot or "If X drops it's mine" - these are the people who won't be all that interested in long-term relationships and only want what they want and want it RIGHT NOW.
/WHO PRIEST - the main healing class in the game is mighty sick of getting tells all the time from people they don't know asking them to main-heal an instance. Some of them will not respond at all, and some will not respond to people just saying 'ST?' even though you may think that'd be the easiest way to communicate that you're looking for them to fill a healing spot in a Sunken Temple group. 'Interested in a Sunken Temple run - all bosses?' might work better, but adding '- have 54 Protection Warrior' will ensure you get as good of a chance of a response as possible. Adding ' - got good Tanking Druid' may not work as well, though some priests don't mind depending on the rest of the group.
/WHO ROGUE 35-45 ...gives you the rogues currently on in the game that might be interested in stealthing to your group that just finally made it to the end boss in Uldaman after 5 wipes due to the guy that you just kicked.
TANKS: It used to be that most everyone that played WoW would immediately think 'Warrior' for this slot. All Warriors wear Plate with varying levels of Stamina, and the gear and talents that separate a leveling Tank from a leveling DD Warrior is only a talent tree (which might be on their secondary talent switch) and a 1h Weapon + Shield. These days it even common to see an Arms of Fury Warrior slap on a shield and tank a dungeon. DKs are sort of in the same boat, but only 1/3 of Paladins and approximately 1/4 Druids will generally be looking to tank, though since Feral has the perception of being OP in early Cata, that ratio is changing.
Most of the time I've had a hard enough time finding a decent-level warrior (or had to ask every Druid/Paladin if they're skilled and geared for MTing), that I've had to take them as they come, unless I happen to have worked with them previously and get lucky enough to level about as fast as they do. If you think you may have a few tank-slot options to choose from, though, or if you just plain have the time, ask a few questions:
Do you have a 1h + Shield? (Warriors/Paladins only...)
Do you have a Ranged weapon? (Warrior tank went into Mara without... we didn't find out til halfway to the first boss...)
Are you good with getting and holding aggro even when the rest of the group wants to speed things up?
(My rl buddy with Vent knew what he was doing, the warrior didn't, so we ended up having a Cat Form tank in a Stockades group... went fast but kinda unsafe, too.)
So, how do you go about deciding what or who to concentrate on while 'doing the /who thing'? Simple:
A) Decide what you need, or if you just need someone who can quickly join you.
B) /WHO whatever class you'd prefer, and add a XX-YY level-range restriction so you don't max out the /who window at 49 hits.
C) Type out a polite tell that adds a 'hook' - something that'll quickly let your prospective group member know that your group is serious, be it that you have someone that's kinda high for the instance, or you have a good healer/tank team. The first tell should be sent to someone who's probably so high lvl that he's not gonna want to join you. You never know, some people like to be nice when they're bored, but better leave off cold-calling lvl 85s until you get to WOTLK content at least. On RP servers you might be expected to not use acronyms, but on PVP/PVE servers it's anything goes - though full sentences might give you a higher reply percentage.
D) Before you send the tell, highlight the text using Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Arrowkey. Hit Ctrl + C to copy the text. Send the tell.
E) Right click the next name in your list, starting from the highest-lvl people in the range that you've determined you have a decent chance at getting to join your group. Don't forget to check his/her location while you're at it. Hit /whisper.
F) Ctrl + V to paste your text, then send it.
G) Repeat ad nauseaum for whatever class you were looking for, until you get to the level that you'd rather not go below for filling this role in the group.
H) Do the /WHO thing again for whatever class that'd you'd like to fill the same role, though you'd prefer the class you just finished with. Now just concentrate on the higher level-range. Remember, frequently a decent filler class/level of unknown skill that happens to be available is better than the 'perfect' filler class/level of unknown skill that's not responding.
There's a mod called "WHO FAVORITES" that will make the above process a lot simpler by simply saving a list of the /who searches you do most often. You can find this mod at:
Download and install it to save yourself the hassle of having to type out your most often used /who searches every time you build a group or want to find out if there's an AV game on or whatever. It's basically just a mod of the old AH Favorites mod.
The reason for sending out all these tells is simple: You are at least 4 times more likely to get a response from someone that you just send a whisper to, as opposed to just announcing in the LFG channel or /trade that you need help. People rarely pay attention to what's said in /General or /Trade (or the wrong people do, a.k.a. trade trolls), but when the PM comes up they're almost guaranteed to at least read your message.
A quick way to find out what level, guild and location a player is that you've just gotten a tell from is to Shift-click their name. Use this on people that respond to you advertising for group members.
If someone you're talking to asks you the makeup of your group, the quickest way I've found to tell them is to type the level and a few letters for the class, ie. "got 41dru 42pri 40lock". You may also want to include this in LFG advertisements, but that tends to be slow and you have to change it as your group fills.
A problem that often occurs in filling a group is that none of the appropriate-level players of a given class that are on want to go, they're already sick and tired of that instance or have all they need from it, and the xp just isn't worth the trouble to them. Pure-healers like most Priests in particular are apt to start doing any given instance at a slightly lower lvl, since they're mostly far away from any mobs that they won't proximity-pull due to their lower lvl. As a last resort when filling a particular spot, open up the level-range your looking at, and send tells to people who might not ordinarily be interested in this instance, or who might be slightly too low for it.
An advantage to using this game mechanic is also that you can perform these kinds of specific searches while on a flight path toward the instance, or even while doing the /follow thing behind another group-member while on your way there (I got so addicted to that command that I made a macro button for it - helps immensely on corpse-runs).
With certain instances, like WC for Alliance, it can at times be almost impossible to find enough people to fill a group. Try to do some social networking and let people know that you'll be on at the same time tomorrow on your alt or main to do this or that.
5. GROUP MAKE-UP.
The Trinity of the Tank/Healer/AoE-CC still rules most instances, though you can certainly get away with some wild things if you have the skills, communications, levels or gear to do it. Crazy groups make it through lowbie instances all the time, but that doesn't mean that they're going as fast or as safely as they could be going. Groups with multiple Hunters, Rogues, Locks, Warriors are not uncommon. I've done ZF with 4 Druids and a shammy, and my second time ever main-healing an instance we had two shammys tanking, their experience making up for my n00bness at the time.
Now that Blizz has finally started to get a grip on the class balance issues it's come to light that several classes can start to fill different roles in a group, which has put a crack in the armor of the Trinity. I watched a Prot Warrior tell an inexperienced Druid "You go Bear, I'll dps". Might not have been the smartest move, but since the instance was already within easy reach of the group's level and balance it made little difference and went quicker since the Warrior was better Dps. Believe it or not it can actually be FUN to try some crazy stuff in an instance, and FUN is what this game was supposed to be all about, right? It's also a lot easier to do this when everyone's on the same server and knows they'll see you or your main soon enough again.
CC, a.k.a. 'mez' is now almost everywhere, and most every class can CC something. Just keep in mind that it takes skill and/or macros and focus-target setups to do so. If you teach someone how to do it you can make a friend for life - with the downside that some people just don't know when to shut up and No, you're not interested in tanking their Heroic in your raiding gear on your main.
The last, but by no means insignificant, thing about group make-up is the distribution of Cloth, Leather, Mail and Plate-wearing classes in the group. If you have tons of people to choose from (prime gaming time on Fri, Sat and Sun), then give a little thought to whether you want to be the only guy that can legitimately roll on whatever armor type you wear atm. Weapon-type drops may be an issue as well, but less so in my experience, unless you're out for a VERY specific drop. If you're going to an instance that's not highly regarded in the eyes of the l33t kiddies that populate most PvP servers, then on said servers you may have to take what you can get as far as classes goes for some instances, unless you get lucky sometimes.
And for crying out loud, try to get an idea of whether or not anyone is really constrained time-wise before you get committed to an instance with repops behind you. Anyone who seems VERY annoyed at any little delay people have in getting to the action is a probable source of trouble, and makes it worth your while to send him/her a /whisper asking how much time they have available for the instance run.
Example PuG going into Uldaman:
38 Resto Druid who's main-healed before but it's his first character.
35 Mage that no-one's worked with before, and no-one is sure if he actually speaks English.
40 You the Hunter, leveling your third char to endgame.
35 Warrior, says he's got 'Mad skillz' but no-one's seen him with a shield or ranged weapon.
...35 Rogue messages you saying she's on her third Ulda run and wants in.
The Rogue may or may not be good, may have had real good groups in Ulda before where she didn't really have to work too hard, and the tanking and healing in this group, both single-point failures, is already questionable, so if there's a reasonable chance of getting a better offtank or some better dps, a secondary healer, a 40+ anything - or a Priest that can let the Druid go offtank (Bear), go main tank (Bear with skills and equipment), or go dps - is probably a better bet than that 35 Rogue. It's not the Rogue's skills that's the issue, it's what's already in the group that's dictating what you need to fill with, especially assuming you want to do the end boss Archaedas.
When in doubt, talk to the rest of your group members and figure out what they're willing to accept as far as filler goes. While you're discussing this someone's guildy might decide to help out with a higher-lvl coming out. In the above example, I'd bet money that the group-members consensus would be to get someone higher-lvl, or else get a Priest, or a Pally or Shammy to round out.
6. IF YOU REALLY CAN'T FIND A GROUP.
A)
/who [instance] - look for anyone you have had prior dealings with on that list, and send them tells asking if they have a spot open. They probably won't, but will often remember you, but again, usually too late for it to be useful to you.
B)
Get to the instance, and announce in the LFG channel. I've done this maybe 7 or 8 times when I was really hard up for a spot and was conveniently close to the instance. Out of those 7 or 8 times I got a swift spot in a good PUG... ...once.
C)
Chill. Work on something else. Go hit up the BGs for a while, or go on a ganking-spree, or go make a sandwich. Look up your server on www.warcraftrealms.com and figure out what your peak hours/days are on your server, then try to get a group started when there's likely to be more people available.
7. WHY THE HELL EVEN BOTHER?
I've sworn a few times never to group unless I had at least 2-3 guildies going. Then I found myself playing without a guild, just trying to level as fast as possible without being bothered by a bunch of whiney little 'LF HELP' - type people who refuse to help themselves. So I changed my mind and made it work instead of complaining about it.
Always being the guy who builds the PUG can be a pain in the arse (...no more sitting back and relaxing as someone else does the organizing, and no more leisurely FP rides toward instance-zones, since you'll be /whisper-ing away like there's no tomorrow), but it also gives you a major say in who gets to go, which usually determines what you'll be doing. It's also basically a test of your skill and knowledge of the game and the people on your server, since group makeup and player skill is such a major factor in success and speed of a run. Social networking is a skill, anyone can learn it.
Do it enough times and you'll start to get a reputation for it, making the all-important task of getting a good healer much much easier. After a while you may even get to the point that you look at the list of players available during prime gaming hours, and then focus strictly on the ones that you feel like working with based on past experience.
Get a good Reputation with the players on your faction-side of the server and it'll be just a formality to join whatever guild you feel like joining for endgame purposes. Not terribly important for the vast majority of players who just care about gear and some random or rl friends, but a nice bonus if like me, you were looking to just tank every instance on your way up asap and then hit up a reasonably good endgame-ish guild.
It's also a nice boost to your ego.
8. SUMMA SUMMARUM:
Blizzard's changes in the class-balance game has made it a lot easier to put together a decent-looking group with a good chance of success, but the Dungeon Finder system still sucks if you don't like random internet people, and for the time being announcing in /guildchat, advertising in the major cities, and doing the /who thing will remain the best way to put together a group of 5 people on your server who are all willing and able to commit to spending a few hours on a dungeon-crawl. Once the group is all set you can always pug the last spot or if someone leaves.
You know you're good when you tell your group of 3 to start heading to the instance, since you know you can fill the healer and the tank spot quickly and efficiently while on an FP or while /follow-ing someone mounted up that's heading the same way.
You'll know you're REALLY good when you start getting more tells than you can easily answer from people who want to group with you.
Pär the Swede
San Diego, CA.
ex-Gnomeketchup of US-Laughing Skull
ex-Sverige of US-Laughing Skull
ex-Rootbear of US-Maelstrom
The author has leveled five ferals (4/5 as PuG tanks) to endgame, on both factions of three servers, and is Feral 4 Life, sucka. He was deeply disturbed at the advent of the Dungeon Finder interface and what it did to once close-knit server communities. Rather than subject himself to the chat and behaviour of random people in random dungeons, he prefers to run with people from his own server to develop long-term mutually beneficial connections.
Ooops. I just realized that I was only supposed to write one guide for the contest. Oh well. Feel free to publish both - they're both my original work.
In the unlikely event that I do win one of the prizes, I'm not interested in the first two prizes, really. But whatever - *shrug*. All I would really use would be the 3rd, 4th or 5th - the others I'd probably try to sell or give away. Either case I had fun writing them.
3rd Place - Ethereal Portal An item replacing your Heartstone by an awesome Ethereal portal!
4th Place - Companion Pet Pack #1 - World of Warcraft Pet: Lil Ragnaros + World of Warcraft® Pet: Moonkin Hatchling
5th Place - Companion Pet Pack #2 - World of Warcraft® Pet: Pandaren Monk + World of Warcraft® Pet: Lil’ XT
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