Lord of Blades Puggable?

[Kielbasa]

So I've been in some LoB groups over the last few weeks and pretty much its been a nightmare to try and pug on Cannith. There are a lot of people new to the raid since u14, myself included. I've been close to completing with a pug a few times but so far no luck. Anyone had some successful pugs of this lately? Advice would be appreciated. I've read all of the guides and watched video of how it should be done but things just tend to go a little sideways every time I've tried. Heck I've even had people get banished from ToD the last few times I've pugged it on Cannith seems like the pug scene needs some help.

[sandypaws]

I've had reasonable luck with PUG LoBs.

Granted, I'm generally crashing someone else's run instead of hosting my own, since I'm still not -quite- sure what exactly to do. What difficulty are you trying it on?

[akash]

I have always PUGed it successfully. Though after the u14 never tried it, so few LFMs for the raids these days.

[DarkForte]

Have been in some 5 or 6 lobs since u14 on sarlona, all PuGs, some on norm, some enorm and some ehard, all successes. It's definitely easier to pug now.

[Kmnh]

It's puggable if the leader knows what he is doing and makes sure all the important roles are fulfilled. Bringing random 12 people in there with no leadership is a bad idea.

[janave]

About 80% success so far. Fails often happen in high level guilds where ppl are treating the raid to be an auto complete. I have recently been in one where 3ppl straight decided to pike, 1 using a bot, just to stand in for loot!. So yeah random ppl and too cocky ones are to be avoided.

As ppl mentioned its the leadership mostly, knowing the raid enough, and getting people to get the job done is a big step towards ceirtanty. Calling out on mic is still a big +, and generally avoiding nonresponsive players.
As a leader, ask those "pesky" questions from the tank, pillar preppers (very impportant role).

Getting a semi-static-ish group is a good way imo, ie: you have a great group one evening, you schedule your next run around the same time, you get most the same people usually in same lfm. If you have encountered an exceptional leader add him friend, and ask him nicely to save you a spot next time he runs it.

Have great backup options, one can DC, get crashed, get major lags, important phone call, hot girlfriend, pizza is here, pets are needy, combinations of these and more. So have important roled filled with people who are very responsive, and or have experience. 2Tanks, 2-3Very good pillarshooters, 3 Healers -- 2 rotating on tank, one is on party. 2 Dog Kiters, main, backup. On EN we managed to kill dogs really fast, so we did not bother with kiting the last time.

[dougnugget]

Pugged it a couple of times after U14 - including once on Epic Hard.

All successful, and all with killing the dogs instead of kiting them.

Pre U14, success rate in PUGs was about 50%, on non-epic Normal. The main failure points used to be:

1) Failing to deal with (kite or kill) the dogs resulting in dog vomit spam and mass deaths
2) Right near the end of the quest, party not able to handle extra warforged or quori spawns - especially if they had depleted their resources fighting LoB

If you are going to PUG it, it's a lot easier now, but people need to be responsible for as much of their own buffs as possible, especially resists. You can mass buff at the beginning, but if anyone dies, they need to be able to do as much as possible to sort themselves out instead of relying on the party casters to help them out. That means as a minimum bringing your own resists, haste, heroism/greater heroism, and the best cures you can use. I think a lot of PUGs fail because people don't prepare for this.

[MRMechMan]

Epic hard is now easier than heroic normal was, and is. It is very puggable, in its current state 2-3 good players can drag just about any group through it.

A few things though:

1. It is a VERY tankcentric raid. Good tank means a smooth and easy run. Bad tank=nightmare.
2. Knowledge of the quest mechanics, specifically the LOB attacks are important. If you are not the tank or dog kiter and you are taking damage, it is probably avoidable damage. If a person dies multiple times for no real reason, let them stay dead.
3. The spawns at the end are bugged and are CR38+ on all epic difficulties. You want a good kiter, probably WF and definitely with an ioun stone and other spell absorb items.
4.Pillar DPS is important because of point #3. Rangers really shine here, and make sure your arcanes bring prismatic scrolls.
5. Marking the LOB is bugged-don't even try it as he regens to 100% or near 100% hp, and that is a very long time to kite CR38 trash and the LOB.

So make sure at least 1 good:

Tank
Healer
Pillar dps

Then the rest don't really matter, just extra support (dps to make it go faster/extra heals/more pillar dps/extra kiter for endtrash, etc)

[Kielbasa]

Pugged it a couple of times after U14 - including once on Epic Hard.

All successful, and all with killing the dogs instead of kiting them.

Finally found a group this weekend that had a clue and a good tank. We did great with only one healer and killing the dogs rather than kiting them made all of the difference.

Previously I'd been in groups with awful tanks and people poorly kiting the dogs. My monk may just be able to make a pair of alchemical wraps after all. Was kind of worried the first few times I ran it because the groups really just must have been awful or extremely new. Plus I have a much better idea of what's going on as well I'm sure that's contributed to success as well.

Thanks for all of the input/advice everyone.