PUG: Patience, Understanding, Graciousness

More like Pure, Unadulterated Grief amirite? (Long post warning!)

"OMG STAY OUT OF THE FIRE SCRUBZOR!!!"

I'm slowly working on the heroic modes for the Cataclysm dungeon guide; I'm not comfortable writing up any strategies until I've experienced them for myself. 

The LFD system has been taunting me over the last few weeks. It could get me the information to finish the guide in record time, yet sadly the quality of most (not all) players I tend to meet whilst pugging contribute to an experience that I would imagine is not unlike defecating into one's own hand: simply unpleasant, with much cleaning up to do before one can return to one's regularly scheduled program, but I digress.

What I have found so far in my few successful expeditions is that there's always a trick to the situation. Cata heroics aren't about spamming like Wrath's were. Bears can't spam swipe, healers can't spam heals, dps can't lick the Recount portion of their UI during an encounter whilst spamming the keyboard with their face. This change in pace leads many players to believe that heroics are much more difficult than they should be and, in a sense, they're correct.

I could rant on for weeks about exactly how players attitudes impact the perceived difficulty and blah-blah-blah. Instead, I'm going to boil it down into a cheesy fondue that will boost your success rate immensely:

• Patience:
  You simply can't zoom through heroics like you could in Wrath. Anyone who tries (and they often do) inevitably gets the group killed very quickly. Take some time to examine your surrounds and analyse the situation. The sooner you grasp the key aspects of the instance you're in the smoother your future runs will go.
  
  I ran into an example of this earlier today in a heroic Deadmines run: Our party leader told us to crowd-control numerous non-elite mobs due to a single elite (Defias Envoker) who seemingly couldn't be controlled. After the first pull (and the two minute recovery session that followed the beating) we noticed the Envoker had a magic effect that stopped us from using crowd-control on it. A spellsteal/polymorph combo later and we were tearing through the packs like we were back in Utgarde Keep.
  
  
• Understanding:
  This is the big one. A lack of understanding is what infuriates me the most is any pug. It's dead simple too:
  
  There is no "I" in "TEAM".
  
  I know it's a somewhat overused euphemism, but it's exactly this that people fail to understand and ends up causing so much grief. To succeed in any heroic, your group must work together. They have been intentionally designed this way.
  
  This could mean that you'll have to use spells or abilities that you never even heard of back in Wrath (like Pummel or Mind Soothe) or it could mean that you have to sacrifice yourself on occasion or even, God forbid, that if you make a mistake and things go wrong that you don't blame anyone else and admit your fault and learn from it.
  
  With any luck, your group will understand that these new encounters are tough on everyone and won't start throwing insults (like you were probably about to).
  
  
• Graciousness:
  This comes right back to understanding, only it works in the other direction. If something bad or even if something good happens, don't start singling people out.
  
  If someone causes a wipe, simply have the grace to stay positive and encouraging.
  When you beat a difficult encounter, know that it was a team effort and not just the tank/healer/guy at the top of the dps meters carrying everyone.
  
  Most players already understand the base concept. When one person fails, the team fails. The problem is when they try to save face by blaming others, which only serves to bring the team down more.
  
  

If, for some strange reason, you're still reading through this lecture then hopefully you understand what the above three points have in common: Morale.

Once people stop having fun, their morale runs out. When they've lost their morale they won't just ragequit the instance you're in, they might never come back for another shot.

You might be thinking "Hey, that's great! One less scrub for me to deal with!", but have you ever wondered why you have to wait forty minutes for a tank when you come across so many dps warriors, paladins, etc.?

-Ahzae, Lord of the Trifling Gnome