Jasimine
01-07-2010, 12:41 AM
Okay so we have a thread floating around for sharing your PuG nightmares with everyone... how about those Pug's that are actually wonderfully amazing and suprisingly refreshing? I'll start it off.
The characters
Sorentia (this is me) Level 14 Paladin
Jennytwo Level 13 Fighter - TWF kensai
Airlwynn Level 14 Paladin - TWF (I think KotC) with some healing specs
Trullbow Level 13 (Fighter/Something Archer)
Myles Level 13 Ranger (I think you were pure My)
Zofo Level 14 Cleric/1 Sorc
So Jenny and I had just finished doing reclemation on elite for the favor with a pug... it was a nightmare. The cleric was level 11 and healing for a whopping 37 a pop, the sorc thought he was a melee fighter (seriously, he ran into melee and fought never casting damage spells) and was a halfling, not a WF combat sorc build like I've seen before but a Sorc/bard 12/1. Needless to say there were needless deaths, people over aggroing, and just general confusion. Yea we got the quest done but jeesh it was just painful with some of the folks.
I share that so you know the starting point for the good group.
So Jen and I chat for a little after everyone bails and I ask her if she is up for the insanity of another Pug. She says sure and I open up the social panel to put up the LFM. I see Airlwynn is on. I had teamed with her the night before in Invaders and was impressed with both her capabilities as a fellow paladin but also her mature demenour when our Pug in Invaders got disintigrated to death at the second group of beholders. We kept rolling 1's left and right for saves. It just was NOT our night. And through it all Air just laughed and joked and kept at it. I love people like that that do not go all hay wire when something bad happens in game.
So I invite Air to join us and post the LFM. Quickly we fill up to five slots and are waiting on a healer. I get a tell from someone that says "I guess I'll heal for you, I'll send a tell when I'm back." I never did find out if Zofo was this person or not but if he was, thank you. And so with our merry band of melee power and one cleric we head out to Relic of a Sovereign Past on elite.
Now mind you I know Relic is far from a hard quest. However I had been in here one level earlier with a pug doing it on hard and it turned into a nightmare. I've learned that with Pug's even the easiest quest can be hard. So right away I really didn't expect it to be completely painless. I figured something would happen and those of us who were competent would pull the others through the quest.
I start off while waiting for Zofo to get to us by exclaiming, "Time to show those sorc's we don't need them. Melee DPS CHARGE!" to which Trull promptly points out he's a ranged build. No biggy I say and secretly think, "Oh gods we are going to be chasing mobs all night long"
We head in and suddenly I realize that I have not picked up 2 friends and 3 strangers that I couldn't trust, but I have some how managed to get a group of competent, intellegent, and most importantly FRIENDLY players together in a Pug all at the same time. We simply decimated the quest as if we had been playing together from level 1. In fact I think the only death we had was poor Zofo who's blade barrier made the king dwarfs black gaurds a little to mad when they came charging out their door only to walk into it. Still even with our healer down and the King and 6 black guards we managed to take them all out with out further casualty. And Zofo after we killed the dwarfs and Air rezzed him with her pally rez stayed in good spirits about it all.
In the end we finished it up, divied up the adamantine ore evenly (My didn't want his so 3 apiece) and exited out with everyone raring to go for another one. Myself it was time for bed. I am only stopping to write this before heading there.
A few things I want to say about these fine folks.
Jennytwo - A very competent two handed fighter Kensai. She doesn't wait for you to heal her, she had her own pots and would use them to help ease the burdon. Not many fighters I've seen will do this. So many say it's not their job to heal themself since they don't have UMD or wand usage.
Air - This woman is awsome. Always cheerful, and always ready to help out on healing if needed since she's specced for the pally rez anyways and has some of the devotion enhancements because of it. She won't replace a healer but she does try to help keep folks topped off and buffed up to ease the healers burdon.
Trullbow - This guy is a master of his chosen art. Yea, he'll kite, if we are dealing with a bunch of other stuff and he has multiple mobs chasing him or is low on HP. But the second we close in for the kill on what he's kiting he stops moving. And if he's in a narrow area were kiting means running down a hall he pulls a sword and shield and toughs it out with the rest of us. He is awsome and a huge boon to any party. I don't care what folks say about ranged DPS this guy does his job and does it to perfection despite what he might think (he said just being ranged didn't mean he knew what he was doing. HAH so wrong).
Myles - I have two pet peeves with rangers. One - They refuse to even carry a bow let alone use one when the situation dictates it would be the smart thing. Two - They seem to think barkskin is self only... yea I can carry pots, and I do, but a rangers is that much better than a pot. Myles on the other hand carries three different bows (along with 14 melee weapons and a thrower) and I think is a barkskin junkie. The man was amazing in group and never slowed down on the slaughter.
Zofo - Oh My Goddess.... Zofo I could hug you and squeeze you and love you all to pieces, in the words of a certin cartoon character. Zofo is the epitime of a well played cleric. No, he's not a battle cleric, but he's not just another nanny bot either. Blade Barriers set up in stratigic locations, using his spells to their most effectiveness with out over healing us to the point of draining his mana dry. He's got it down to a science thus far. Oh and when he would be kiting mobs through his blade barrier and we came over from mopping up the ones that didn't want to chase him through the spinning blades he'd drop into a real tight orbit that kept them going through the blades but allowed us melee to just spin in place and attack with out having to give chase ourself.
Yea I know, the quest was not a real difficult one. Yea I know, we were not under level for it. But ****, for a nearly random assortment of folks you could not even pray for a better outcome and combination of intellegence and skill than this. To all five of you thank you for the honor and pleasure of teaming with you.
Oh and this was the Sarlona server.
The characters
Sorentia (this is me) Level 14 Paladin
Jennytwo Level 13 Fighter - TWF kensai
Airlwynn Level 14 Paladin - TWF (I think KotC) with some healing specs
Trullbow Level 13 (Fighter/Something Archer)
Myles Level 13 Ranger (I think you were pure My)
Zofo Level 14 Cleric/1 Sorc
So Jenny and I had just finished doing reclemation on elite for the favor with a pug... it was a nightmare. The cleric was level 11 and healing for a whopping 37 a pop, the sorc thought he was a melee fighter (seriously, he ran into melee and fought never casting damage spells) and was a halfling, not a WF combat sorc build like I've seen before but a Sorc/bard 12/1. Needless to say there were needless deaths, people over aggroing, and just general confusion. Yea we got the quest done but jeesh it was just painful with some of the folks.
I share that so you know the starting point for the good group.
So Jen and I chat for a little after everyone bails and I ask her if she is up for the insanity of another Pug. She says sure and I open up the social panel to put up the LFM. I see Airlwynn is on. I had teamed with her the night before in Invaders and was impressed with both her capabilities as a fellow paladin but also her mature demenour when our Pug in Invaders got disintigrated to death at the second group of beholders. We kept rolling 1's left and right for saves. It just was NOT our night. And through it all Air just laughed and joked and kept at it. I love people like that that do not go all hay wire when something bad happens in game.
So I invite Air to join us and post the LFM. Quickly we fill up to five slots and are waiting on a healer. I get a tell from someone that says "I guess I'll heal for you, I'll send a tell when I'm back." I never did find out if Zofo was this person or not but if he was, thank you. And so with our merry band of melee power and one cleric we head out to Relic of a Sovereign Past on elite.
Now mind you I know Relic is far from a hard quest. However I had been in here one level earlier with a pug doing it on hard and it turned into a nightmare. I've learned that with Pug's even the easiest quest can be hard. So right away I really didn't expect it to be completely painless. I figured something would happen and those of us who were competent would pull the others through the quest.
I start off while waiting for Zofo to get to us by exclaiming, "Time to show those sorc's we don't need them. Melee DPS CHARGE!" to which Trull promptly points out he's a ranged build. No biggy I say and secretly think, "Oh gods we are going to be chasing mobs all night long"
We head in and suddenly I realize that I have not picked up 2 friends and 3 strangers that I couldn't trust, but I have some how managed to get a group of competent, intellegent, and most importantly FRIENDLY players together in a Pug all at the same time. We simply decimated the quest as if we had been playing together from level 1. In fact I think the only death we had was poor Zofo who's blade barrier made the king dwarfs black gaurds a little to mad when they came charging out their door only to walk into it. Still even with our healer down and the King and 6 black guards we managed to take them all out with out further casualty. And Zofo after we killed the dwarfs and Air rezzed him with her pally rez stayed in good spirits about it all.
In the end we finished it up, divied up the adamantine ore evenly (My didn't want his so 3 apiece) and exited out with everyone raring to go for another one. Myself it was time for bed. I am only stopping to write this before heading there.
A few things I want to say about these fine folks.
Jennytwo - A very competent two handed fighter Kensai. She doesn't wait for you to heal her, she had her own pots and would use them to help ease the burdon. Not many fighters I've seen will do this. So many say it's not their job to heal themself since they don't have UMD or wand usage.
Air - This woman is awsome. Always cheerful, and always ready to help out on healing if needed since she's specced for the pally rez anyways and has some of the devotion enhancements because of it. She won't replace a healer but she does try to help keep folks topped off and buffed up to ease the healers burdon.
Trullbow - This guy is a master of his chosen art. Yea, he'll kite, if we are dealing with a bunch of other stuff and he has multiple mobs chasing him or is low on HP. But the second we close in for the kill on what he's kiting he stops moving. And if he's in a narrow area were kiting means running down a hall he pulls a sword and shield and toughs it out with the rest of us. He is awsome and a huge boon to any party. I don't care what folks say about ranged DPS this guy does his job and does it to perfection despite what he might think (he said just being ranged didn't mean he knew what he was doing. HAH so wrong).
Myles - I have two pet peeves with rangers. One - They refuse to even carry a bow let alone use one when the situation dictates it would be the smart thing. Two - They seem to think barkskin is self only... yea I can carry pots, and I do, but a rangers is that much better than a pot. Myles on the other hand carries three different bows (along with 14 melee weapons and a thrower) and I think is a barkskin junkie. The man was amazing in group and never slowed down on the slaughter.
Zofo - Oh My Goddess.... Zofo I could hug you and squeeze you and love you all to pieces, in the words of a certin cartoon character. Zofo is the epitime of a well played cleric. No, he's not a battle cleric, but he's not just another nanny bot either. Blade Barriers set up in stratigic locations, using his spells to their most effectiveness with out over healing us to the point of draining his mana dry. He's got it down to a science thus far. Oh and when he would be kiting mobs through his blade barrier and we came over from mopping up the ones that didn't want to chase him through the spinning blades he'd drop into a real tight orbit that kept them going through the blades but allowed us melee to just spin in place and attack with out having to give chase ourself.
Yea I know, the quest was not a real difficult one. Yea I know, we were not under level for it. But ****, for a nearly random assortment of folks you could not even pray for a better outcome and combination of intellegence and skill than this. To all five of you thank you for the honor and pleasure of teaming with you.
Oh and this was the Sarlona server.