I’m a casual player, and I PUG dungeons pretty much exclusively. I don’t have the time to commit to a PvE guild, my friends and I have conflicting schedules that mean there’s rarely more than 2 of us on at the same time, and when we are all together we all want to do different things. I’m not an uncommon type, either. My concern in this new update is what will become of PUGs, which are generally disorganized and so deaths are incredibly common. On some rare days you might stumble upon a goldmine and get a team that meshes well together, the run is smooth as butter, and I love those times… but such days are few and far between. This update is great for people who get to play with their friends or in highly tuned PvE guilds, and I’m happy that they’ll have more fun (I guess? If you enjoy staring at your corpse for 15 minutes while your friend solos the boss then more power to you), but it’s an inevitable deathblow to any kind of casual PUG. And more than that, it sets up a GIANT barrier to entry for people new to the game or new to dungeons.
For people new to running a particular dungeon, or all dungeons, I can only see negatives for them. A common response in this thread is to tell people to L2P – that this system is going to force people to finally use some SKILL. Gosh, who knew it was so easy? I agree that it’s a good idea to learn from more experienced players and become better at playing the game. Why wouldn’t you want to do that? Certainly most people WANT to get better at playing the game… but how are newbies going to do this when the experienced players are going to be more reluctant than ever about letting “dead weight” into their groups? People are already saying in this thread that they’re going to be super selective with PUGs or more likely just not use them at all. If you’re a new player without a guild or friends, it sounds like you’re out of luck.
What do you think is going to happen to the already widespread problem of party kicks for people who aren’t up to par? The practice is going to fly through the roof, naturally. Getting rid of inefficient members isn’t inherently bad, but once again new players in PUGs are not only going to be receiving the short end of the stick, they’re going to be beaten with it. Even if they do manage to find a group who’ll take them, if they don’t learn fast enough they’ll probably find themselves booted. I’m sure that really helps them “l2p” and OF COURSE teaches them so much about running that dungeon. As does staring at their dead body, filing their nails and waiting for everyone else to wipe or kill the boss. You can’t even move the camera to watch what the other people are doing, so I’m sure that’s going to be both educational AND highly entertaining.
If Anet doesn’t nerf the ever loving kitten out of dungeons when they make this change, every LFG is going to become “80s exotics only NO FIRST TIMERS” and the like. PUGs made of newbies will drag for hours and probably end in abandonment. (That sounds like so much fun and I am super excited for that part. I am sure abandoned runs is exactly what people hope for when they PUG.) But serious nerfing is sure to upset the elite players, and they’re a valuable part of the playerbase too, so it doesn’t seem like a good idea. I’m not seeing anything in this that makes dungeons approachable for new players, though. Or perhaps new players simply aren’t worth caring about?
