Comments on: Why you should not PuG ever!

By: ShamanSnake

ShamanSnake — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:46:29 +0000

Crazy. I’ve pugged about probably 50 times in WotLK and never saw an improper ‘need’ roll on any purples. I can’t remember any blue’s getting ninja’d either. Guess I’m lucky. My realm is pretty piss-poor for alliance players too. I think it’s ranked 3rd from last for alliance population out of 200+ realms, and rated dead last for horde-to-alliance activity (5:1 ratio). The Mal’ganis realm with those silly somethingawful.com goon squad guys has a lesser horde-to-alliance ratio (barely) last time I checked. Stupid Horde anyway. Why must they attempt to gank everyone they see? Oh ya, because Demon Soul attracts the jerkiest hordies out there. I can imagine the thought process now: “What’s this? The highest horde-to-alliance ratio realm? I only play horde because it’s easier than alliance so I think I’ll join the easiest realm for horde whores. Then I will have every advantage possible because I need it because I suck at the game, muahahaha”.

By: Morane

Morane — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:12:44 +0000

I pugged virtually every instance from RFC to UK (so far), and from DM to ZF. I've come across just about every stereotypical pugger but I very rarely came across loot ninjas. The one that sticks in my mind was running Gnomer. We had two pallies (one was me), a rogue, a hunter and a resto-druid. One of the bosses, forget which one, dropped a nice ring with +INT on it. The druid really wanted it but clicked greed by mistake. Those of us who also needed it agreed to greed also. Once the two pallies and the hunter made their choices, the rogue selected need. WTF!? I mean, why? the thing was completely useless to him and it wasn't even worth a gold at the vendor. The rogue made it quite clear in party chat that he had done it deliberately and then quit the group. Morane’s last blog post..New Guild

By: khaelie

khaelie — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 09:55:50 +0000

i have been pretty lucky in that the loot i have lost to other rollers in the past was usually to someone who also really needed it and just rolled higher.
I do remember – about two years ago when i first ran Deadmines with my Nelf Hunter, i must have needed on every piece of leather gear that dropped. Bad me! The rogue was really mad when i got the defias armor off the last boss. When i got back to town and went to “change clothes” i realised that i didn’t really need all those items – i must have looted 8 pairs of pants!
Luckily for anyone who runs with my hunter or my shammy (or any of my others…) that was really all it took for me to figure out how to be polite in the game and not be a loot whore. I now politely greed all greens, and roll accordingly on blues and purples. It would be nice if everyone out there acted the same… but then you may not have as many entertaining stories!

By: MikeyG(resto)

MikeyG(resto) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 23:33:28 +0000

i do pugs alot, mainly because i end up getting ripped by guild or group runs who “forget” to tell you their requirments for needing on an item before it drops. I honestly hate master looter as someone can determine that a fellow guildy of theirs or a friend is more needing of an item then i am. for real, we all put in the same amount of work on a normal run and i should have just as good of a chance at getting an item as everyone else. It’s simple, if you dont want it pass, if you want it for greedy reasons greed, if you need an item then need and let the /roll gods handle the rest. im not saying it’s perfect, but hey at least it’s fair, and pugs generally do it better imo.

By: Phhreak

Phhreak — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:45:04 +0000

I feel your pain!! I’ve had pretty good luck in PuGs as far as loot goes lately.. except for the other day we were in H VH, a BOE Leather attack power item dropped and the Druid Tree Healer rolled NEED on it. He claimed up and down it was an accident – I said no problem, it’s BOE, we can all re-roll on it. He quickly changed his story and said he wasn’t going to give it back as he needed it for his off spec. The nerve! I can’t help but LOL, though.

Oh, I love the blog. I just started an elemental shaman blog if you guys would give a visit. http://www.shamanscore.blogspot.com/

By: wtfspaghetti

wtfspaghetti — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 08:12:28 +0000

Those horrible stoires are why I enjoy “pugging” during the off time on my server. You seem to run into ALOT less of those horrible pugs. I will say this though…

If you are running an instance soloely to get an item, then I would suggest creating your own group. Everytime you invite someone, inform them you will be Master Looting a certain boss, or even the whole instance to protect yourself agaisnt ninjas. If they have a problem with that then they can leave.

What I can’t stand is when people ninja in pug raids. I joined a 25 man OS and a 25 Arch run last week and BOTH times the leader ninja’d!

I made some posts on our realm forums and had a conversation in Trade Chat – put nothing was ever done about. Ninjas make me /sadpanda

By: Geofram

Geofram — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 05:12:48 +0000

As a resto shaman who does a majority of his runs with at least one pug, I can feel your pain on the issue, but to be honest, I have to say that I think you’ve just gotten unlucky. Pugs come in all shapes and sizes, and yeah, there are some really sad ones (like my tank for an H nexus run who wasn’t def capped ), but I’ve found some to add to my friends list, and even gotten a few guildies out of pugging. All that to say that not all pugs are jerks when it comes to loot, and don’t let the bad apples spoil it all for ya.

By: BillyWallace

BillyWallace — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:29:06 +0000

I couln’t agree more…on both posts. You certainly earn your stripes tanking for pugs and you certainly see some crazy loot aqcuisitions. We had a hunter in our group the other night “needing” spell power mail items – much to the dismay of the shammy who had to compete.
The funniest part is when you get flamed for trying to be helpful. He may not have wanted to hear what I had to say, but a hunter doing 300dps is sooooo very sad.
I also pugged a rogue the other night….you know the one. He’s on crack and can’t hold still. How the hell do they type and jump simultaneously? That one boggles me because they never stop typing and never stop jumping. Anyhow, he wouldn’t stop requesting that loot be put on ffa. He ended up getting dropped and ignored.

By: Spectrum

Spectrum — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:57:47 +0000

I have to tell people something about loot: Never get your heart set on a specific item, because if you do that enough times, you are almost guaranteed a situation where it doesn’t seem to exist on the loot table when you’re in the group. Diversify and don’t take things personally.

That said, there are issues, and I think random is the only way to do PUGs because all other systems rely on history and you may be tempted to master loot because you don’t trust other people, but you should also ask what reason they have to trust you. Don’t give in, just roll with it.

I’ll also share story:

I once had trouble back just before 3.0 when I went through Heroic Mechanar and The Sun Eater dropped, which is a good tanking sword. At the time paladins benefited more from having a spell power sword, but in the 3.0 patch things changed such that a tanking sword was best. I rolled on it and anticipated my shiny new sword.

Then the mage asked if he could roll. What? A mage rolling on The Sun Eater? “It’s not any good for paladin tanks anyway.” He apparently wanted it for looks and spent about 2-3 minutes trying to convince me I didn’t want it. I kept telling him I knew how the mechanics worked and this would be a significant TPS and avoidance upgrade in a week when the new patch hit. Eventually he passed (thankfully) and proceeded to call me ignorant and then put me on ignore.

I’m sure I’ve had some weird times when people rolled on gear they shouldn’t, but I don’t tend to get too worked up over and and don’t remember it. I like to think of running instances as a “chance at loot”, even after it’s dropped.

By: coby

coby — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:42:27 +0000

I don’t need to do heroics (god bless).It is a big challenge to run whit a pug but if i’m boring i just write to trade chat “lfg hc(healer) tons of whispers and inv.
I was lucky in the past. My brother was a prot warrior, I’m healer and find 3 dps was too easy i get whatever i want and my ‘bro too.
But with the mace was a big story… my warrior, me, 2 ret(ard) paladin and a rouge come whit us… we killed all the boss without any problem but the last boss was a comedy:)
i said to my brother to change the loot to master he didn’t do that.. Ofc the mace dropped and i macro 2 line: I need the mace!!!! do not need to that!!!… the rouge did it… seriously… he won. As he get the item i asked him write a ticket.. he didn’t do that and logged out… i waited 1 day, 2 day… but he had never come online anymore… :D