Agreed Fror, I just don’t run in to incompetent players very often when I use the LFG to be really picky. It weeds out bad players at an almost 100% rate in my experience. There are tons of us out there that PUG, and very few people who have no idea what’s going on are going to seek out groups like “10k AP ping ascended berserker gear” or something so punishing.
Now that someone mentioned it … yeah. A lot of us in DnT use either inconspicuous anyone welcome or joke lfgs to get our groups. We are also more likely to join joke lfgs out of morbid curiosity too. Well I personally avoid the ping gear type of groups anyway, I’ve never been impressed by them. Plus in non descript groups it means I can take my condi warrior or my no-conjure-except-LH ele without some loser crying that I’m not letting him afk the dungeon with fiery casual sword.
I once picked an lfg asking “What to do with fire field?” and met a really hip speedrun guild. I failed their quiz but apparently passed their expectation while they’re far beyond mine.
P.S. the correct answer to the quiz is “to p— on it”!
“Raids are like fortune cookies. You eat the cookie and then read the paper scraps.”
Empower only lasts half as long, but honestly I can’t think of a better use of a staff guardian’s time than spamming that on recharge. Certainly not attacking.
dedicated puggers are a tough breed i think … no voice coms … random players … always a guess to what the other players will do … must be adaptable to any scenerio … must swallow all pride for the sake of getting the run done … must maintain composure through 600ap players asking if you have done this before
I just wanna say, everything comes out from demand.
And as this issue has been there so long, it clearly pointed that,
If people set an AP or armor check require, doesn’t mean that they are doing it because they are stupid. It means, it actually works pretty well for avoiding bad group.
… must maintain composure through 600ap players asking if you have done this before
yesterday, a 700 ap BEARBOW, dishing out orders at COF P1, while everyone was 3k+ ¬¬
man, that was difficult to swallow, at least they let me do gate.
Sorry for off-topic.
I love those guys, I just let them go. I don’t know why but it’s just fun to watch on.
They are pretty predictable tbh. They usually open with longbow knockback or stealth then barrage, then when the monsters proceed to hit them, they start backpedaling and repeat the above process. Also throw in some random skills like Call Wurm.
“Ping gear and be meta” are usually people who don’t understand the game. They are just running zerk because they’ve heard it’s good, and just copy and paste a meta build and don’t read the skills properly.
You clearly have a limited perspective on this matter, so let me show you the other side of the coin. You are in a guild who wants to do some dungeons or fractals but you’re only 3 or 4/5. Now, you can either opt to duo/trio the dungeons and sell, which is mostly not viable (unless ac/cm/arah), or you can try to fill those 1 or 2 missing spots.
Asking people to link berserker’s gear with the meta upgrades filters a huge amount of players we wouldn’t want playing with us. The amount of bad players running completely meta builds is tremendously smaller, and even if they are bad, at least they contribute more to our dps indirectly (through team buffs like Vulnerability, Empower Allies or Spotter).
I can guarantee you that people who don’t bother getting the optimal equipment will usually not bother getting those traits and weapon sets, often not even banners.
Some nights when I’m too lazy to make a group and I just wanna chill I’ll jump in some random pug without a word and just watch all the awful stuff people do.
Some nights when I’m too lazy to make a group and I just wanna chill I’ll jump in some random pug without a word and just watch all the awful stuff people do.
Evil in it’s purest form!
Yet me and a guildy usually join some random pug ourselves when we’re left alone late at night, once it was AC3 or something and first thing we get at spider queen “I think they fixed stacking” we burst to tears laughing at the sheer ignorance being displayed in that statement. Proceed to melt SQ in 2 seconds, next line of party chat “Oh my god, dat DPS…”.
Amazing how the mere presence of 2 competent players can leave some people speechless, feels good to be appreciated by random folk from time to time :P
I typically pug most dungeon paths at Oceanic Times (NA servers) around 7-10pm Sydney/Australia times. And I don’t end up with that level of abysmal pugs, so I do feel for how much of a struggle it must be with that level of incompetent pugs.
Having said that, ping me anytime and you can come with some of my pugs. Most paths end up being completed at reasonable (non speed clear) speeds. Eg about 50 minutes for all 3 AC. 40 for CM. 30 for TA. 25 for both SE, CoF 50 CoE.
It really does help that I run a mightstack ele for pretty much every path, and unless the pug prestacks I stack might on the boss so usually hanging around 20 stacks for all fights, and a decent amount of vuln.
I really doubt that there are worse pugs on NA than EU. Majority of the people that join your groups on EU don’t even speak the same language as you let alone know what the hell they’re doing. Also as far as pugging is concerned it’s pretty hard to notice other people for trash dungeons like AC/SE with the exception of a few bosses due to how easy they are since ferocity scaling. I don’t do CoE because I find it so painfully monotonous that it’s not worth seeing who I’d get.
I sometimes pug Arah when I’m in the mood to see how many times someone lures trash mobs to the team to wipe everybody. Things have changed, however.
I now often refuse to do Ancient Ooze in groups and sometimes go on a mountain goat adventure and watch from above as some moron pulls elite elementalists + hunters + mages + illusionists + oozes over to the rest of them and gets everyone else killed because they don’t know how to fight it without the coral safespot. It really depends on how terrible the people are in the party, but it’s too annoying to do this boss in a group only for someone to kitten it up by luring trash mobs to you and forcing you to reset it. Same deal with crystallines tbh… provided the pugs actually survive past the mobs up until the champs, they often “contribute” by running around randomly and ensuring that nothing’s being cleaved. Tar is just terribly annoying mostly because people are too clueless to spam their immobilize abilities off cooldown and they keep stacking near the entrance for some reason despite it being probably the slowest and most error-prone way to kill him.
Also dear god some people are just ridiculous at crusher+hunter… mostly people who advertise “experienced” in their LFG yet they drag the crusher as far away from the hunter as possible so you can’t cleave him down.
Yeah pugging Arah sucks. So drastically slower than soloing.
I sometimes pug Arah when I’m in the mood to see how many times someone lures trash mobs to the team to wipe everybody. Things have changed, however.
This happens to me when we start fighting bosses without the full party because some couldn’t do the skip. And then later they will succeed but they’ve brought the deadeyes with them for Belka. I usually just tell late comers/skippers to just wait until it’s finished if it’s possible to bring trash accidentally.
On the other hand, I really need to learn this mountain goat adventure.
I sometimes pug Arah when I’m in the mood to see how many times someone lures trash mobs to the team to wipe everybody. Things have changed, however.
This happens to me when we start fighting bosses without the full party because some couldn’t do the skip. And then later they will succeed but they’ve brought the deadeyes with them for Belka. I usually just tell late comers/skippers to just wait until it’s finished if it’s possible to bring trash accidentally.
On the other hand, I really need to learn this mountain goat adventure.
Christ I hate that, with the deadeyes.
Are you on EU? I can show you it if you want. You need to be on a class with leaps though… preferably not ele because it’s really annoying with LH as opposed to savage leap.
Are you on EU? I can show you it if you want. You need to be on a class with leaps though… preferably not ele because it’s really annoying with LH as opposed to savage leap.
Unfortunately NA. Thanks for the offer though.
Do people mind jumping in PUGs? I used the old one but only with friends and guildies to save time doing P3 and P4.
I mind when people skip bosses with them, yes… as do plenty of others. What I’m talking about serves no purpose other than to kitten around and explore. :P
I wrote a long reply with some funny causes mentioned in it about how my EU Arah runs were mostly smooth and fine but forum decided to log me off right as I tried to reply.
I wrote a long reply with some funny causes mentioned in it about how my EU Arah runs were mostly smooth and fine but forum decided to log me off right as I tried to reply.
Let me quote the Lilithist Bible.
“Miku 60:18
Thou shalt not praise thy EU PuGs.”
I can guarantee you that people who don’t bother getting the optimal equipment will usually not bother getting those traits and weapon sets, often not even banners.
I was simply saying I don’t believe people with ‘optimal’ gear = good players. And I feel I have just as bad runs with zerker warriors as I have had with players with ‘less optimal’ gear. Which is why I don’t bother asking for zerker PUGs because I don’t feel I’m actually getting anything out of it most of the time.
I can guarantee you that people who don’t bother getting the optimal equipment will usually not bother getting those traits and weapon sets, often not even banners.
I was simply saying I don’t believe people with ‘optimal’ gear = good players.
Probability of being a better player goes up. It really, really does.
I’d rather run with a well-geared player trying to learn how to play the meta well than people in Clerics that swear they’re keeping the group alive with their heals, and won’t hear otherwise.
I’ve found that my EU fractal pugs are Far Far FAR worse than my NA fractal pugs.
Pugs in general… well. I may be getting lucky but I’ve been having good times as of late.
I know I’m bad but still … In that level 9 ran we did, I actually had one piece of armour left that was damaged and not broken. :/ I’m sure there are people who also die like 30 times.
Cloud of Sparrows
Fluffiest Blood Legion Charr “At least I die knowing my sisters are free”
I’ve found that my EU fractal pugs are Far Far FAR worse than my NA fractal pugs.
Pugs in general… well. I may be getting lucky but I’ve been having good times as of late.
I know I’m bad but still … In that level 9 ran we did, I actually had one piece of armour left that was damaged and not broken. :/ I’m sure there are people who also die like 30 times.
I don’t consider my forum groups pugs. I consider them friendly hilarious encounters ^^
[ARES] And all who stood by and did nothing, who are they to criticize the sacrifices of others? Our blood has bought their lives.
I can guarantee you that people who don’t bother getting the optimal equipment will usually not bother getting those traits and weapon sets, often not even banners.
I was simply saying I don’t believe people with ‘optimal’ gear = good players.
Probability of being a better player goes up. It really, really does.
Just not all zerkers are actively out to learn, that’s all. ^^
Plus I often find the “zerk and meta only” group leaders are unnecessarily rude a lot of the time (not always).
Because I don’t join groups, I make them, I don’t actually know what it is like to join one of those groups.
Except for once. It was a fractal. 1 warrior. Ping gear. I entered the party and he hadn’t entered so I entered and rolled swamp. He had no words. Not a single thing to say. I altered the lfg with some little words like “please” and a smiley, and quickly got a full group. We were chatty and laughing, and then the “leader” interjected with “ping. Now.” Everyone did. Then we started talking about the meta and how sometimes we like to stray from it (like, use scepter on guard or ele or sometimes the engi just really needed to take a flamethrower for his own sanity) and the “leader” called us "f"ing noobs and left. We got a 5th. Was the most fun and smooth 38 I had had in a long time. But it’s probably because I commandeered the group. Because, if I can say this without sounding overly pleased with myself, I make a good party leader, and I may be a delightful kitty, but I ain’t no stinkin’ kitten.
Pugs are so… random.
[ARES] And all who stood by and did nothing, who are they to criticize the sacrifices of others? Our blood has bought their lives.
Yeah, this! ^
I have found pugs that have become my friends who I run with often. Others are simply rude and aggressive. Some are newbies, and are willing to learn and listen. Some are newbies, who will ignore everything you suggest.
I just feel like with pugs you really are just taking a lucky dip. And the ones I do not wish to ever encounter again, I will block (like the INCREDIBLY rude pugs I just did fractals with).
I too very rarely join groups now, and just make my own. I feel like you set the mood for your own party, and I prefer it to be fun and open where people shouldn’t feel they’re being yelled at for being inexperienced or misinformed. Only when they refuse to take my advice do I get irritated.
Side note: I got my first fractal skin today, wew! ^^
I can guarantee you that people who don’t bother getting the optimal equipment will usually not bother getting those traits and weapon sets, often not even banners.
I was simply saying I don’t believe people with ‘optimal’ gear = good players. And I feel I have just as bad runs with zerker warriors as I have had with players with ‘less optimal’ gear. Which is why I don’t bother asking for zerker PUGs because I don’t feel I’m actually getting anything out of it most of the time.
so true. can’t count how often I have to res full berserk warriors or thieves right next to the boss who hits like a truck in close range… most times it would be smarter to just finish the boss without them because helping them is a waste of time.
Have to agree with Fror and some of the others. Building your own group to your specifications helps. only if you take into consideration the builds you are willing to run with though. As a warrior i run with 3 different sets of armor and every single weapon a warrior can weild in my bags at all times because they all have their place or fight where they perform better than other sets or other weapons. Same goes for traits. i am constantly retraiting depending on which fight i am going into.
Do you have to run with all these items or retrait often? No. However, you aren’t fully utilizing your class to its fullest potential and you aren’t putting forth any effort in learning your class more intricately if you are not changing things up.
SoS – Ele – Burn Me, Freeze Me, Blind Me, Pound Me — Wait…What?
Warrior – The New Burninator! Strongbad would be so proud!
Guardian – Burn for you, heal for me, block for me and uh…sorry Im all out of gifts.
Have to agree with Fror and some of the others. Building your own group to your specifications helps. only if you take into consideration the builds you are willing to run with though. As a warrior i run with 3 different sets of armor and every single weapon a warrior can weild in my bags at all times because they all have their place or fight where they perform better than other sets or other weapons. Same goes for traits. i am constantly retraiting depending on which fight i am going into.
Do you have to run with all these items or retrait often? No. However, you aren’t fully utilizing your class to its fullest potential and you aren’t putting forth any effort in learning your class more intricately if you are not changing things up.
This is an interesting statement. As a warrior, you truthfully need only one (maybe 2) set(s) of armor in any dungeon or fractal (knights for training wheels). With your very high health pool, dodges, invulnerable traits, defiant stance, shield/sword block, you’re almost immortal. As for using “every weapon” in the warrior’s kitten nal; hammer is completely useless in PvE. Rifle is almost completely unnecessary as well.
Learning your class more intricately (especially with warrior) is about using your skills to effectively keep the damage up on the boss while minimizing the damage to yourself. This can be done w/ Berserker’s gear and 65003, 66002 quite well. If your party needs support, you’ve got banners, empower allies and phalanx strength if they don’t know what stacking might is about.
Hammer makes most of pve a supreme cakewalk. Only non-controllable mobs like champs is it useless against. That is off-topic though and currently being covered in the Warrior discussion section.
We are talking about pugging. When it comes to pugging knowing what options you have at your disposal to better adapt to group composition is vital for progress. I have seen people go into fights with your mentality and builds you have listed and get smashed and then blame the group or rage quit. I love my Zerker and Dire set but I can assure you that I have personally carried a lot of zerker groups with my Knights set in just about every dungeon in the game.
If it weren’t so common that I am the last person standing soloing bosses while bringing the group back up from a near wipe in Fotm 50 then maybe I would be inclined to agree with you.
SoS – Ele – Burn Me, Freeze Me, Blind Me, Pound Me — Wait…What?
Warrior – The New Burninator! Strongbad would be so proud!
Guardian – Burn for you, heal for me, block for me and uh…sorry Im all out of gifts.
People ruins your ele firefields?
No problem you know you can press H go into equip section, equip a staff.
Then go into trait section and activate pyromancer’s puissance.
Problem solved.
People dies evrytime in that difficult part and you are Always the last one standing?
Equip some defense, utilities and skills and support/ress them.
If you are good you can even guess wich equip to use before every fight.
You are a good player?
If yes you have every weapon, and can change your trait.
I suggest people to bring their WWW set in dungeon and switch to it if needed.
90% of times people will have a soldier/celestial/knight set for WWW so it doesn t even costs anything.
If people keep saying only zerker is the way. You can just answer them “unless you keep dying, losing way more time than the few gained with dps”.
GW2 balance:
A PvE player is supposed to avoid a 1-2 second 1 shotting aoe.
A WWW player is considered uncapable of avoiding a 5,75 second aoe for half his health.
The problem is, however, that you sometimes will learn less if you use those defensive equipment options. (Note: Equipment, not utilites and in some cases traits, that’s a different story.)
If something merely hits moderately hard and doesn’t carry that distinctive “what the hell just happened to me?” flavor, most people will be less likely to look out for that specific attack and its tells next time or while on the ground watching the rest of the group as they avoid the same fate.
Yes, it will most likely take longer in that particular run if you/anyone gets downed/defeated a lot. But the next 3782 runs will be faster for it.
Had a prime example last night. A friend asked if would accompany him on his SE story trip. I picked my ranger because she had not done that particular story mode before, so it was a win/win, play with a friend and unlock explo on the ranger.
However, I am not that familiar with some of the boss abilities/tells in SE story and I’m far from being able to fully control my ranger using mainhand sword to my satisfaction. So I ate dirt more often than I would like.
Still learned a lot more than if I had used her bunkery WvW set or switched to a bow. I probably would have gone down less often, but I prefer to learn. Even if it’s the hard way.
If you happen to stumble across any typos,
you may keep them to rear new and interesting variants in your basement.
Put it this way: bad players can wear good gear and still be bad. But good players can’t wear bad gear still be good. If I cared I would gearcheck, but when I do pug I usually put “p3 be interesting” as my ad.
Put it this way: bad players can wear good gear and still be bad. But good players can’t wear bad gear still be good.
Good players are still better even in poor gear and often even on an unfamiliar class. They just nail the dodges and stay alive easily. It’s only speed runs that need players in good gear.
I’m not bothering to take people who aren’t bothered to take the right gear, no matter how ‘good’ they say/think they are. I just don’t have the time for those attitudes when I’m pugging.
” as my ad.