public service announcement: von5/6

[chester99]

...is impossible to pug.

Don't try. You won't succeed. Words cease having meaning. "Jump around here" means the same thing as "onions, poatoes and corn" -- and you can't even eat jumping. A thought vortex where logic and reason swirl around in a complicated mist of nonsense and "I fell": Who has the voice? I do. I've got the ring too. I know what to do with them. That's not the problem. The problem is, you're either not hearing me or not capable of understanding the difference between "right" and "left" and "wisdom" and "strength". Oh, and I have a ranged weapon. I know, I'm not a ranger. Turns out, quite a few other classes are allowed access to those. If you would ever get off your mic key, I could probably explain that, but no, I'm very much interested in what your mom has to say in the background while you express your complete lack of information in more words that I really thought possible for that project.

Runs like that make me cry a little for the future of the world.

And you know who you are. And you probably won't read this anyway.

[phalaeo]

Ouch.

Sounds like you had a bad run. :(

[DrenglisEU]

...is impossible to pug.

Runs like that make me cry a little for the future of the world.

And you know who you are. And you probably won't read this anyway.

Feel you mate..... and I'm not one of those people you writte about! I usually state it clearly when being in the Q for the first time that I don't know it and please tell me what to do and what NOT to do, stressing the later one.

[FluffyCalico]

von 5/6 are pugged on argo all the time. 6 even gets pugged on epic.

[JDCrowell]

I've learned that if you have 5-6 players from your static group to start with and then filled the rest with from the lfm, you usually do just fine.

It's when you randomly say to yourself "hmm I'd like to run VoN...I'll create an lfm and see if I can fill it" is where you get into trouble. Not only do you get some questionable players, it also takes a decade to fill.

[Rasczak]

Do the important bits in Von5 with 6 ppl you know, then LFM :p

Any other way and you'll spend 30mins trying to figure out who has the voice....you'll have the ranger telling you the wis rune is locked and the barbarian will see ppl looting a chest and forget about the Str lever....because Von 5 chests on norm are so uber.....

The most fun is the person getting shot up not knowing where the ladder switch is and die in the room that locks....4 ppl dying when they pull the steam levers and someone recalling for ship buffs after we've completed........

We pug it successfully on Thelanis but you get the few who are clueless and don't believe they are

[Buggss]

Ditto on a couple of points; guild as much as possible and fill spare spots after someone you're confident in has the ring/voice and got critical parts of the raid done.

There've been times however that an extra pug spot filler has caused more trouble than if you'd had 2 empty spots.

Epic is definately not a place to not be sure of your people for sure.

[westudi]

I actually just ran this for the first time the other day, and I joined a pug. It went pretty smoothly. I had read the raid walkthrough online, and let them know it was my first time. We had a handful of people that really knew what they were doing, and the rest seemed to have a vague idea at least. I felt pretty lost at times, but it all worked out in the end, hehe.

[voodoogroves]

I only PUG these; some are bad, most are not.

I do have one local friend / guildie who does run them time to time with me - but we each jump in the same PUG. It helps that we kinda mostly "know it" (though I still don't always go the right way the first time).

The bad ones are the ones you jump into and everyone has started clearing ... then you ask "who has the voice/ring/etc." and get "dunno mate, what's that? where do we get it? do we need it?" ... or dead air.

Even those can succeed. My recent VON6 failures have been because of the following:
- People incapable of coordinating tower take-down.
- Ranger shooting the dragon before we went in and buffed causing us to get fried while we were standing there.
- Anxious player who after the towers went ran across the barrier and then ran back ... and it closed leaving us all locked out.

All things that communication and listening can fix.

If you're new, please listen.

[lopter]

oh lord..

I (run)pug this evill quest even on epic...

von5 is easy to do always in a pug.. just make sure you get voice/ring and 1 person knows the puzzle.

epic dragon pug leading is so freaking awful Ive stopped for awhile.. used to be Id try 2x a week. now I say **** No.. Imma go pug DQ because stand here and swing is so easy to understand.

now Im not only blaming pugs.. I was stubborn and wanted to figure out stuff myself and that cost me runs..

however I now can solo first... I know hypnotism works on the adds on 2nd and the bard can just sing on 3rd (if you have 2 compentent casters and a bard that is)

if anyone wants to drop some knowledge on how to beat the dragon fight without 3 clerics sucking down mana pots all night long please share.. I know dps is king.. I know deaths = really really bad in there.. but is protect good? or what? thanks if help.

oh yea if anyone needs a competent caster for a dragon completion.. look herder up.. Ill get first done for you :)