I’ve noticed that players follow a pugmander more closely when they have respect for the person. So my question to you all, what can someone do as a new pugmander or as a pugmander in a new community, to gain the respect of the players and get good teamwork from the zerg?
Thank you.
Anet likely didn’t want to remove the armor stats entirely because…well,
we’ve all seen what happens in games where there’s no disadvantage to taking your pants off.
Players follow commanders that are successful. You need to pick your battles, especially when outnumbered. If you keep getting wiped, you will bleed players. If you treat pugs like redshirts, they will bail on you.
Don’t run them into deathtraps.
Make sure you know what you’re gonna do is gonna be succesfull,dont keep trying things that keep failing over and over.
Dont be a kittenbag.
If something goes wrong,blame yourself not the people ( unless it’s Really their fault..not stacking,not listening etc ) In Which case,explain what went wrong and explain how they could improve it next time.
Before you move out,explain what you expect from the people following you.
Show them you know your stuff.
Make use of the terrain when fighting zergs.
Dont go head on in another zerg,use tactics. ( Ports,veils,flanking,fake moves,act like you’re running away..Let a mesmer throw a veil and turn around )
Make sure people have fun,dont be overly serious,it’s still just a game.
If you use TS…dont scream…dont talk like you’re an auctioneer ( It’s just annoying for others,and it’s not needed )..be calm and collective.
Dont complain about other commanders,offer help instead.
Keep asking for reports. ( zerg locations )
Keep asking for people to defend camps.
Keep asking for people to refresh sieges and to scout towers
Best one…NEVER RAGE,whatever happens.
There’s a little bit more to it besides just winning.
- Plan on a regular time that you will pugmand and stay CONSISTENT with it. This follow through is the most important thing of any organizational endeavor. It may require a little research into the ideal time for both you and your server.
- Start in EB because that’s where most pugs go.
- In the first week you start, go all out. Do semi-marathon commanding sessions to get your name out there. Start a little earlier than you normally plan to in order to gather a group together. Pugs follow zergs that have followers. If you have a group of followers already, people at your planned rally time have more incentive to follow.
- In order to develop a group of followers, make it easy for people to follow you. Always rally at a waypoint and give people 30s to rally.
- Never complain about lack of followers. It’s depressing and drives people away.
Chaba Tangnu
Founding member of [NERF] Fort Engineer and driver for [TLC] The Legion of Charrs
RIP [SIC] Strident Iconoclast
Caedmon and Chaba’s advice were very informative thank you.
Anet likely didn’t want to remove the armor stats entirely because…well,
we’ve all seen what happens in games where there’s no disadvantage to taking your pants off.
Don’t run them into deathtraps.
Make sure you know what you’re gonna do is gonna be succesfull,dont keep trying things that keep failing over and over.
Dont be a kittenbag.
If something goes wrong,blame yourself not the people ( unless it’s Really their fault..not stacking,not listening etc ) In Which case,explain what went wrong and explain how they could improve it next time.
Before you move out,explain what you expect from the people following you.
Show them you know your stuff.
Make use of the terrain when fighting zergs.
Dont go head on in another zerg,use tactics. ( Ports,veils,flanking,fake moves,act like you’re running away..Let a mesmer throw a veil and turn around )
Make sure people have fun,dont be overly serious,it’s still just a game.
If you use TS…dont scream…dont talk like you’re an auctioneer ( It’s just annoying for others,and it’s not needed )..be calm and collective.
Dont complain about other commanders,offer help instead.
Keep asking for reports. ( zerg locations )
Keep asking for people to defend camps.
Keep asking for people to refresh sieges and to scout towers
Best one…NEVER RAGE,whatever happens.
This is pretty much the bible. The top three are:
“Don’t run them into deathtraps.”
“Dont be a kittenbag.”
“Before you move out,explain what you expect from the people following you.”
I see commanders all the time lead a pug group of 20 people into a dedicated T1 60 man guild blob then rage at their team that they don’t have enough PVT when they get steamrolled. People don’t mind losing, that’s part of WvW, they do mind just being led to slaughter then raged at.
One of the best pugmanders on my server is one calm, cool, collected cat. He explains the strat as we are moving towards an objective and tells why it was successful when we succeed, “see how we sliced their zerg into 2 smaller groups by running up that hill” kind of stuff. Always links waypoints for fast travel, never rages even under the most extreme duress.
If we are outnumbered that week he focuses on defending tactics and promotes practicing different strats – always a positive experience running with this guy. People love him to death.
Others have provided good responses, but I feel the most important thing is to maintain good morale.
What this means is that even if you wipe or fail an objective, don’t lash out at others, even if they were at fault. Even if you have two people on tag, don’t get discouraged and leave. Just keep on taking smaller objectives until you get more people again. This is where most wannabe pugmanders fail. Once they wipe and lose their zerg, they tag down and go elsewhere. You’ll never lead sixty people if you’re unwilling to lead three.
Nothing can turn those following off quicker than a tag that keeps dying.
We had one the other day who went down in front of a tower to two guards and two enemy scouts.We got the com up.Took the gate down,and the com died to ac and treb as we went in.
No one went near that com again,and that was the end of that.
Don’t get target locked early on. If you get wiped continually, people will stop following you and it is hard to rebuild reputation if you do this early on.
Safely PvDoor early on. Later when players trust you a bit more, do some open field fights. If you lose go right back to PvDoor for a bit.
No protracted sieging. Players get bored so you want to keep the action brisk. Once you are established you can take harder objectives that require trebs and the like. Early on just move on once a structure is actively defended and will take a while to crack.
Oh and for F sake learn how and where to place siege. Watching a commander drop rams on Klovan when the keep mortar is firing or attacking an AC ridden tower without dropping counter ACs is just painful to watch.
Sarcasm For Hire [SFH]
“Youre lips are movin and youre complaining about something thats wingeing.”
Don’t run them into deathtraps.
Make sure you know what you’re gonna do is gonna be succesfull,dont keep trying things that keep failing over and over.
Dont be a kittenbag.
If something goes wrong,blame yourself not the people ( unless it’s Really their fault..not stacking,not listening etc ) In Which case,explain what went wrong and explain how they could improve it next time.
Before you move out,explain what you expect from the people following you.
Show them you know your stuff.
Make use of the terrain when fighting zergs.
Dont go head on in another zerg,use tactics. ( Ports,veils,flanking,fake moves,act like you’re running away..Let a mesmer throw a veil and turn around )
Make sure people have fun,dont be overly serious,it’s still just a game.
If you use TS…dont scream…dont talk like you’re an auctioneer ( It’s just annoying for others,and it’s not needed )..be calm and collective.
Dont complain about other commanders,offer help instead.
Keep asking for reports. ( zerg locations )
Keep asking for people to defend camps.
Keep asking for people to refresh sieges and to scout towers
Best one…NEVER RAGE,whatever happens.
Nice post, pretty much all this.
If you’re just starting out, start out small and take smaller easier objectives regularly, keep your players engaged and rewarded, you can be reckless at the end of your run, maybe make an attempt on a tough structure to take.
If your pugs are messing up, then be reasonable on this, just because you made it through a choke that had 6 acs on it and you survived by popping all your survival skills doesn’t mean everyone else can. Make suggestions on improvements and move on, yelling and screaming does nothing for them and more than likely they will drop you to do something else. Always remember you may have pve players in your pugs and they may not be use to the wvw environment as yet.
To earn respect you have to give respect.
Lastly, have patience, lots and lots of it. XD
Another derailing post. ^^ North Keep: One of the village residents will now flee if their home is destroyed.
“Game over man, Game Over!” – RIP Bill
The most important factor is how long you are willing to stay tagged up. It takes a good 15-30 minutes sometimes before people trust you are going to stay tagged and not rage quit if things don’t go your way. The more successful PuGmanders only tag when they have time and don’t tag when they only have a few minutes.
If you don’t have a tested and trusted group on you, start out with easier stuff if possible. Take some camps or paper towers; give them a taste of success before asking the difficult and higher risk tasks.
Be vocal on what you need, what your plans are, and how you plan to move in engagements.
Be encouraging, take blame for your mistakes (even if you think the PuGs could have done better), and persevere. Bring feasts/pots as well as providing your own siege are also good starts.
Others have provided good responses, but I feel the most important thing is to maintain good morale.
What this means is that even if you wipe or fail an objective, don’t lash out at others, even if they were at fault. Even if you have two people on tag, don’t get discouraged and leave. Just keep on taking smaller objectives until you get more people again. This is where most wannabe pugmanders fail. Once they wipe and lose their zerg, they tag down and go elsewhere. You’ll never lead sixty people if you’re unwilling to lead three.
There’s a little bit more to it besides just winning.
- Plan on a regular time that you will pugmand and stay CONSISTENT with it. This follow through is the most important thing of any organizational endeavor. It may require a little research into the ideal time for both you and your server.
- Start in EB because that’s where most pugs go.
- In the first week you start, go all out. Do semi-marathon commanding sessions to get your name out there. Start a little earlier than you normally plan to in order to gather a group together. Pugs follow zergs that have followers. If you have a group of followers already, people at your planned rally time have more incentive to follow.
- In order to develop a group of followers, make it easy for people to follow you. Always rally at a waypoint and give people 30s to rally.
- Never complain about lack of followers. It’s depressing and drives people away.
Chaba, i would give you a moosie hat if i could. props.
Don’t run them into deathtraps.
Make sure you know what you’re gonna do is gonna be succesfull,dont keep trying things that keep failing over and over.
Dont be a kittenbag.
If something goes wrong,blame yourself not the people ( unless it’s Really their fault..not stacking,not listening etc ) In Which case,explain what went wrong and explain how they could improve it next time.
Before you move out,explain what you expect from the people following you.
Show them you know your stuff.
Make use of the terrain when fighting zergs.
Dont go head on in another zerg,use tactics. ( Ports,veils,flanking,fake moves,act like you’re running away..Let a mesmer throw a veil and turn around )
Make sure people have fun,dont be overly serious,it’s still just a game.
If you use TS…dont scream…dont talk like you’re an auctioneer ( It’s just annoying for others,and it’s not needed )..be calm and collective.
Dont complain about other commanders,offer help instead.
Keep asking for reports. ( zerg locations )
Keep asking for people to defend camps.
Keep asking for people to refresh sieges and to scout towers
Best one…NEVER RAGE,whatever happens.
a comander like this would get a themesong to go with their hat
Do not rage, Never Rage on players. There are engagements that will always go bad, you can’t win 100% of the time. I immediate lose respect of a commander when that happens.
Also, if you play warrior/guardian on full sentinel. Your teammates are not going to out sustain you. Don’t ever lose perspective.
I could also do without the “unless I see at least 15 people on my tag in 2 minutes, I’m gonna tag off” line that seems to have become rather common. Work with what you have and more will come; complain about requiring so and so many on your tag before you can be bothered to move makes me wait for a less egotistical princess to tag up.
Gutter Rat [cry] | Gandara | Roaming nuisance
~ There is no balance team. ~
If you are not confident about what you’re doing don’t expect others to believe in you and stack on you when pushing on a bigger group. If you are like “uuhhh yhhhh well… let’s go .left” people will run away in all directions instead of come with you and push on enemy group.
If you don’t know what to do at least try acting as if you did.
