What's Your Worst PuG Experience?

I bet that same TL jerk complains in a dropping population on his server. Being a "Richard" towards new players doesn't help with population growth for sure.

//Jack

Maybe it's just because all of my toons are on Virtue, at least until I decide to which server I want to transfer them this week, but about 90% of my PUG experiences have been the worst. Roleplayers are the worst players ever.

Hey all. Poppin' by to dust the cobwebs off this thread with another PuG experience of mine. Not a bad one per se but hilarious all the same.

I won't go into detail, but mine stemmed from a timed +5 defeat all malta team that invited me. (As a tank.) I've since learned my lesson: if a team leader asks you to join because "they need a tank," that's usually code for "We've all been dying a lot, we need something that can survive! You'll fix it!" The difficulty was bad, but doable. Except when the team members split off aggroing new enemies alone, starting fights then retreating past resting team members, and taking alphas as a squishy characters.

Tough missions don't need tougher AT's, they need better coordination. Getting a new AT won't help you if you're dying due to uncooperative team members and bad choices.

Being invited to join a PuG, joining, meeting up with them...

... and promptly being kicked for having the gall to play a grav/kin controller who did not have Speed Boost, Inertial Reduction, or Increased Density.

Then having said group tell others not to team with me for that exact reason.

Despite her being a lvl 50 character who was MORE than capable of holding up her end of things, and had several others who could attest to that fact.

*shrugs*

Their loss.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

I just had - not the WORST PuG experience of my life, but one that I was blatantly unprepared for. A batch of fresh going-Rogue newbies, somehow had gotten into Ouroboros and invited my tank. I couldn't keep aggro for drool. Two blasters firing in two directions, the traditional "open with AOE immobilize" controller death trick, a warshade and ... me. At least one of 'em had skipped the tutorial altogether. Many did not have Stamina. The fire/rad controller did not seem to have the toggles. I wouldn't be surprised if some of 'em were running no enhancements at all.

I brought in a force field defender, gave 'em the Force Fields lesson, picked someone to follow and eventually they learned to keep close to me.

I don't know if I really taught them anything. Hopefully I wasn't a jerk - it's easy to say things on the forums like "Hey, we were all young once." It's harder in realtime.

Today an Arachnos Soldier without Maneuvers from his secondary told my brute that she needed Taunt.

I don't know if this counts as a bad experience because I take loosing just as good as I take winning. I'll let you make up your own mind. I did title this tale as "Players want it ALL easy."

I log in daily, and at any given time. Today I expected the usual run around, do whatever I feel the mood for, and try to get my main as close to 30 as possible. It didn't take long before I got a tell asking if I was looking for a team, to which I replied "you betcha!" The player then asked me to invite, so I took the initiative and after teaming with him sent a few messages to other players and got a team of 6 ready to beat-the-crap-out-of-anything.

I decide to take the opportunity to start with the one mission that's been kicking my behind for the last two days. This mission is no joke, I even turned down the difficulty settings to zero and I still get a whooping. What kills me about this mission is that the NPC using me as its personal punch bag is ME! You know the mission, the doppelganger mission?

So I feel confident enough that with the current team I can go to the Arachnos Base and tell the other Me that two off me is one to many. After two days of combating the other Me and be witness to how he uses my own powers against me, I want to see blood… I want to rip him in two and keep the head for souvenir.

We go in, we rule, killing all the guards, minions, whatever comes our way we break through like the heroes we are. Then all goes quiet. One of the team members hadn't made it in yet and couldn't figure out how to find us, so we try to guide him and give him directions, we wait a bit for him, but the other Me has no patience and ambushed us. We get smacked, kicked, shoot at, sliced and BOOM!

All dead in 30 seconds.

Of course we all have wakens, but we can't use them because we are surrounded, so we decide to regroup and go to hospital. Immediately someone drops team. Three of us rush back, two are still outside. The one that is lost and can't find the base, and another player who wants someone to TP him back, but nobody has TP so he drops team. One of the two inside the base with me steps out, and the one inside decides to scout ahead. I'm trying to tell the lost player how to reach the base.

Then WHAM!

The scouting player flashes by me and runs outside, the other Me, the evil and better Me, jumps me with a number of it's goons and I get passed around like a hot potato and a straight ticket to the hospital. By the time I awaken at the hospital the two players drop and the lost player is waiting for me outside the hospital steps.

Surprisingly I still have hope, I'm determined to pass this mission, and I'm also thankful that the one guy is sticking with me. We still have a chance, right?

I lead the lost player through the longbow base, through villain territory, and into the base. Immediately we are ambushed at the entrance, all hell breaks lose, but we managed to kill all the agro and did considerable damage to the other Me. For the first time I see him running for his life, his life bar almost out, but he starts to heal ...I don't want to give him the chance to heal again and chase after him, my teammate right behind me. We zigzag through the corridors, smashing into walls, getting stuck on corners, but we keep close to target, still blowing fire up his *** and we almost got him dead... HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!

The evil Me leads us right into another ambushed. We are dead! When I awaken I have no team. Players want it ALL easy.

Imadinu: Are you interested in a better build or tips & tricks for better play? We may be able to help you...

My worst had to have been ... a few months back. Synapse TF.

I'm on my main, a BS/Elec Scrapper, then in his early-40s, but of course exemped down for the TF. It was during Double XP Weekend, so I was trying to push to get him to at LEAST Level 45 so I could start Hami raiding.

So I went scouting for some TFs and ended up in this one. I mean, it's fairly simple in concept -lots of missions, lots of mobs, lots of XP.

The leader is a Shield Tank, there's one other Scrapper and ... everyone else is Dual Pistol Blasters. For the most part, MOST of the team pulls their weight. Having so many DPs wasn't even a problem; start stacking their status effects, and we're right as rain.

There was something off, though, as I noticed the mobs were going every which way. It started to feel like I could hold aggro better than the TANK, and it's not like I have Confront or anything. So I check his powers... no Taunt, despite the fact he's up around Level 35 or so. I watch for the next mob, and indeed, he charges in, and the mob just scatters in all directions.

See, at this point I should have said something, or opted out. But I was only in the game for four months at that point, and a bit nervous about putting my foot down - even as the further I go into the TF, I'm well aware our Tank leader has no bloody idea what he's doing, either in the TF, or the AT he's playing.

Two hours from THAT point (yes, it took that long, as I am stubborn about finishing my TFs), after our glorious leader nearly wet himself when Babbage showed up, we finally get to the Clockwork King. The Tank, unfortunately, rushes in first, and... the King and his immediate surrounding minions run. In different directions.

We have to chase him through two mobs and up a flight of stairs before he finally drops.

But we still have to beat the enemies that were around him when we first charged in. Which meant... hunting THOSE down.

It was like an Easter Egg hunt.

But with Clockwork.

And it is on that day that I learned the folly of keeping quiet.

I don't know a thing about Peacebringers. However, here are a couple of generic "unfair advantage" moves:

1) Inspirations. This is the #1 complaint on the NPC boards. If you take 3-4 small purples at once [basically aiming for 45% or so Defense- more probably won't help] you have 60 seconds of tank mode. A medium purple is exactly the same as four small ones- you can leave a bid and have a bunch waiting at wentworth's.

2) Temp powers can cover a lot of holes. "Base empowerments", like this one for knockback, can help with a few things. They've got a one hour duration. Stealth, more Recharge, Perception, and anti-KB are four of the good ones; there may be more. Wentworth's sells a bunch of temp power recipes- I've gotten good use out of the Plasmatic Taser, Kinetic Dampener, Med Kit, and Ethereal Shift (maybe others that slip my mind.)

3) Pulling, if needed, is an OK thing to do. Don't worry if you pull and get three or four guys. Not a problem. Beats bringing two or three full spawns.

4) "lack of funds": I don't know if you have lack of funds for SO's, or lack of funds for Miracle +Recharge, or what. Some of my suggestions are non-cheap. Worst case you can buy unloved level 40-50 set IO's for 100 and sell them for 4000-5000 to a vendor, make about a million an hour, but there are lots of ways to make better money faster than that. You should definitely be fully SO'd out if nothing else.

My worst PuG experience?

Yesterday.

I'm a 6-year vet of the game, quickly approaching the 75-month point. Perhaps I've been lucky, but one of the reasons I stick around Co* is the generally high standard of players. Not a great deal of elitism in players of this game. But yesterday, for the first time, I experienced unsolicited hostility from a player based solely on my AT.

I was playing my main, who is also my badger (917 and counting), a level 50 Peacebringer, completely purpled out with high-end IOs. I had converted her to red-side a few days ago. A Barracuda SF gets started in the global TF channel which I join.

While the team is assembling, the usual chatter is going on in team chat. Along with myself, three blasters are also on the team, and one of the villain members makes an offhand joke that the fallen heroes should be "pretty good" on the TF. To which I replied I'm not a good PB, but a "great" PB. At which point another villain player pipes up and suggests a "great PB" is a contradiction in terms. I shrug it off -- I get some folks don't like Kheldians -- and assumed the comment was made in light-hearted jest.

However, as the SF is progressing, little comments here and there make it clear that this person is openly hostile to my inclusion on the team. For example, at one point he comments negatively about "radial knockback". Now, bear in mind, with myself, and the three blasters, little was left standing after the initial alpha strike.

And, finally, at the end during the final AV battle, at one point I draw excessive aggro, and my health bar goes down into the red. My SOP for any such event is to hit my panic button, which de-shapeshifts me, and automatically activates Quantum Flight, a phase shift power. While phased, I proceeded to pop off my self heals, and re-apply the PB verson of Dull pain. All in, I was phased for, at most, 5 seconds before I re-entered the fray.

Well, during this brief period, this fellow I gather had tried to heal me. Suddenly, invectives are flying in team chat, and he asks me if I "troll much". I assume he had meant to say "leech much". I'd kept silent the entire TF up until this point, but couldn't take it anymore, so I replied, "Like an annoying dog..." in response to his non-stop negative comments. To which he says, "Fine,I'll just let you die next time." Heh.

I mean, wow. Such hostility. Never experienced such pointed, unwarranted, and personalized hostility in this game. Ever.

But, happily, the SF was completed in just over an hour, and my badger gained another badge for her collection. The fellow in question was then added to my ignore list

If you listen to broadcast, that's a self-inflicted wound right there.

I submit that there are no bad PUG experiences and offer up http://chriffer.com/badteam-bingo.htm as proof.