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I'm bored so I started writing something I've been meaning to write for a while:
How To Lead Pugs
I. Introduction
II. Conception
III. Timing
IV. Advertising
V. Know Your Pug
VI. Watch Out For These Guys
VII. Also Watch Out For These Guys
VIII. Forming The Raid
IX. Evaluating Pugs
X. Keeping It Moving
XI. Leadership And You
XII. The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
XIII. Putting Pugs To Work
XIV. The Power Is Yours!
I. Introduction
I shall start with the fundamental principle of all successful pugging. Those who seek to lead a pug, shall meet with success directly proportionate to their ability to internalize and commit to it:
A pug must be organized with a fixed goal in mind, and the entire implementation of the pug must be directed towards that end.
II. Conception
Therefore, even before forming the pug, the pug leader must identify for himself what exactly it is he seeks to accomplish. What is the aim of the pug? What content must be cleared, and what does he seek for himself in doing so?
To lead a successful pug, one must fill the raid with individuals who have a reason to come. In formulating the loot policy, the requirements to join, the scope of the content that is to be cleared - all this must be consistent with the personal objectives of the pug leader. The rules of a pug raid are best thought of as a sort of contract between the leader and his pugs, and like all contracts, it is negotiable until finalized. An outrageously selfish loot policy, or excessively narrow objectives, will drive away desirable recruits just as equally outrageous statements such as "LFM TK, free rolls on phoenix", or "LFM ICC25 full clear". It is human nature to believe that most people are fools - and to egoistically believe oneself to not be a fool. In reality, stupidity and common sense are present in varying proportions in all people, and the pug most likely to be successful will appeal to those more generously endowed with the latter, recruiting like-minded individuals with shared objectives and expectations.
If attempting an instance with multiple bosses, consider: how far will you go? Who would want to do the number of bosses you intend to do? A pug leader who seeks to reserve a particular piece of loot for himself from an instance will find more success in filling his raid and obtaining what he wants by conceiving motivations for other players to come. For example, it is wise to fill such raids with less geared players, who will understand that the raid leader is there for a particular piece of loot, and therefore can feel confident that he will not seek to compete with them for the drops that they want and he no longer needs, while appreciating that this is a raid favorable to their level, as opposed to raids with broader objectives in which they will not be welcome or able to function. Conversely, misrepresenting one's intentions will only appeal to stupid players, and filling a raid with stupid players is typically self-defeating.
And so, before forming the raid, know:
-What sort of player is the pug appealing to, and what would be his motivation in coming?
-What policies will attract players whose own capabilities and objectives are consistent with the objectives of the pug?
III. Timing
Timing is an easily overlooked factor in successfully forming pugs.
It is most unwise to form pugs:
-Less than 30 minutes before a Wintergrasp battle, especially an offensive one
-While other pugs that recruit from the same pool, or pugging the same or parallel content, are forming
-During off-peak hours
-During normal business hours
-During days and times most guilds are raiding
-When players are likely to be occupied in certain activities
Examples of the latter include:
-Immediately after the server comes up on Tuesday, an OS25 or BT pug will meet with little success as most players will be busy doing the raid weekly or VoA
-Immediately after dailies or fivemans reset, most players will be busy doing their heroic daily or running their preferred heroic again
-During the beginning of world events, most players will be busy doing the new world event and have no interest in pugging other content
A pug that seeks to clear more challenging content, or content that appeals to a narrower segment of the playerbase, should be announced further in advance. A ToC or Onyxia or oldworld pug can be stomped out of the ground; a ICC25 pug that intends to clear multiple wings, or a ToGC25 pug, ought to be scheduled ahead of time.
It is also important to consider that forming a pug, especially an impromptu or unscheduled pug seeking to clear trivial content, will recruit from the same pool as every other such pug. Later in the week more players will be saved and recruitment options will narrow. Recruiting too early in the week, however, is unwise, because only bad players will try to get saved as quickly as possible early in the week, or will be looking to pug unrewarding content on Tuesday, or when most guilds raid. Generally speaking, the best times to pug are Fridays and Saturdays between 5PM and 9PM. Pugging late Sunday is not recommended because the most mature and reliable pugs also have jobs and are not available late Sunday evenings.
IV. Advertising
In WoW as in life there is a single fundamental to successful advertising: Credibility.
Credibility is most often undermined by the following:
-Bad spelling/capitalization
-CAPS LOCK
-Spamming
-Leetspeek/nerd-type language
-Trash talk
-Unrealistic objectives
-Unrealistic loot policy
-Objectives that are irrationally selfish
-Expression of biases, peeves, impatience, hostility or anger
-A "loser" attitude
-Gearscore
-"No noobs", "Be pro", etc
-"Guild run" or other strong indicators of favoritism
It is important to remember, when it comes to advertising for pugs, less is often more. A good trade channel advert should have the following qualities:
-Succinct
-Grammar and syntax appropriate for trade channel: ending a blurb that is not a complete sentence with a period, or using too many words is pretentious
-State the objective of the pug (what will be the final boss)
-State the loot policy
-Passively encourage players to come by being appealing to their self-interest
Examples:
/2 LOOKING 4 MOR TOC25 DEATHSVERDICT IS LOCKED PST UR GEARSCORE NO NOOBS PLZ
Now, most non-retarded players can see clearly this is a retarded advert, by a retard, appealing only to other retards. But it is important to internalize why it is retarded.
First, it looks hasty, which demonstrates the pug leader is not mentally committed to the pug; he's probably going to do a bad job of forming and leading it. He might even drop his own raid. Second, it doesn't make sense to set a gear requirement for trivial content if the premium gear is on reserve. Undergeared players are not allowed to come; geared players have no reason to come.
Now, let's look at another negative example:
/2 Looking For More Trial of the Crusader-25. Free rolls on everything but Death's Verdict. Send tell with spec. Also Gearscore.
Again, most players can see clearly this is also a bad advert. While not quite as retarded as the first example, it's retarded all the same, and it is important to understand why it is retarded.
Only a stupid person needs to go out of his way to act smart; real merits are recognized in their own right. Excessively meticulous grammar and syntax is pretentious and inappropriate for WoW. It's like showing up to a football game in a tuxedo or business suit or eating toast with fork and knife. And like such behavior, this advert is fundamentally incorrect: the last sentence is, in fact, a fragment, and therefore to capitalize it and end it with a period is wrong.
Now, he could have said:
/2 LFM ToC-25. Free rolls on all loot; DV on reserve. PST.
Simple, to the point. Undergeared players have a reason to come. Conversely, they know the RL will not ninja their loot because they know what his own motivations are for hosting it; if he were offering free rolls on all loot, that would clearly be an offer too good to be true.
V. Know Your Pug
A pug can come in many shapes and sizes. It may or may not have a penis and/or breasts. It may be a child, teen, young adult, or mature adult. It may get its cash from mommy and/or daddy, from its employer, from a college loan, from the Social Security Administration, from an employer, or it may have none at all. It may have an IQ of 80 or 200 or anywhere in between. It may be extraordinarily puerile or pusillanimous; it may be psychotically aggressive or delusional; it may be pathologically selfish or dishonest; it may be a saint; it may be a basically normal person, or it may be anything in between.
It is a myth that pugs are individuals. In reality very few people in real life or in-game are individuals. The overwhelming majority of people and pugs are not individuals, but conform to various archetypes.
The most vital quality for an encounter to be puggable is for it to require a minimum of coordination and learning. The most puggable encounters are balanced around raw numbers and the sum of the performance of individual pugs. Therefore, the most desirable quality in a pug, is reliability, obedience, and absence of retardation.
An obedient and reliable pug who is a mediocre player with mediocre gear is a far superior pug to a skilled but uncontrollable player, or an overgeared but retarded player.
This is not to say there are not useful idiots who can be of use as pugs. Hence, the central principle of pugging: the implementation of the pug must fit its aims. If the content is trivial and zergable, e.g., oldworld raids, VoA, or the like, bringing significant numbers of retarded players is fine, so long as they can be controlled and used towards the desired objective.
Another myth that must be debunked: that making assumptions is foolish. Quite the contrary; the skilled pug leader must learn to make assumptions, and make them fast and on a minimum of input. He must learn to size people up, judge their character and level of intelligence and experience, feel out their goals. In real life we call this "street smarts".
Methods of swiftly passing judgement on a pug:
-Does it use leetspeak or nerdspeak?
-Does it communicate in highly stereotyped ways?
-Does it use pretentious syntax?
-Does it use excessive emoticons?
-Does it ask favors, especially unreasonable ones?
-Does it ask questions that indicate impatience, or an absence of fundamental understanding?
-Does it have an exaggerated estimate of its own skill?
-Is it obsequious?
Obsequious pugs are invariably the most dangerous kind of all. These players are your best friends until you say no; then they turn vicious. Distance yourself from obsequious pugs and do not invite them even if they commit no transgression because in time they will turn on you.
Your ideal pug is not a WoW nerd. Your ideal pug is, in real life, a basically ordinary person, grounded in reality, with self-respect, self-purpose, common sense and basic intelligence. There are very few of these kinds of players in WoW, but they are the best pugs, because they are reliable, controllable, and can be reasoned with. They can clearly see the needs and points of view of others, and do not get angry when they do not get what they want in the game, nor play the game for ego. Because they have lives they play for fun, which makes them an asset to ensuring a positive raid environment, and thus higher morale and more facile leadership.
It is necessary to internalize this as pugs by definition do not run the content with their guild; therefore in implementing a pug raid, the raid leader must consider what motivation the pug has for coming.
Casual players with lives are good material. So are PvPers, provided they are controllable. Other good pug archetypes are hardcore players who play for fun, even if the content does not offer them high iLvL epix; eager, moon-eyed newbs; and alts of experienced players.
Again: in implementing the policies of the pug raid, it is vital to consider foremost the character and motivations of the prospective pugs.
VI. Watch Out For These Guys
These are some common archetypes a pug leader must spot and remove from his pug ASAP:
A. The Fat Ugly Woman
B. The Loser
C. The Valley Kid Trio
D. The Gearscore Champion
E. The Kid Who Needs A M.A.W.
F. The Degenerate
G. Mr. PvP
H. The Elitist
I. The Sociopath
Let's look at each of these archetypes in greater detail.
A. The Fat Ugly Woman
The Fat Ugly Woman is just that: a fat, ugly woman who plays WoW because she has a typically female need for affection and favor from the opposite gender, but being fat and ugly, is unable to satisfy this need in real life. Often, this fat, ugly woman saw her life ruined and her waistline swiftly buffed by getting knocked up at an inopportune juncture in life, which is why she is "happily married", as she shall often volunteer; hence she doesn't "need you".
Sometimes the fat, ugly woman is not, in fact, a fat, ugly woman, but an at least modestly attractive woman who lacks the charm and/or courage to satisfy her urge to beguile men in real life.
The fat, ugly woman will turn vicious when her self-perceived "special-ness" is somehow offended, through denying her special treatment, what she wants, or her own credibility. She is EXTREMELY high maintenance and a drama-mongering raid destroyer. Often, she will destroy raids not by undermining the raid leader, but by so annoying and disheartening the good pugs that the raid fails.
Characteristic behaviors include:
-Unreasonable expectation of special treatment, favors, or waiving of rules and requirements
-Self-obsession
-Over-use of ventrilo transmit
-Usurpation of authority
-Forced laughter at inappropriate times, especially when clearly upset or offended
-Excessive use of emoticons, especially when clearly upset or offended
-Attempts to score points by arguing about others' lack of courtesy or character
-Extreme argumentative verbosity
-Inappropriately familiar address, often sarcastic
-Passive-aggressive behavior
-Meticulous grammar and specious syntax
B. The Loser
The Loser is stereotypically a young white man who lives in his parents' basement and lives for WoW. While this is certainly often the case, the reality of the Loser is often quite different.
A surprising proportion of Losers have jobs and significant others. Many are even well-paid professionals with families. The common element of all Losers is the absence of self-determination.
A Loser may have a lack of self-determination due to being the stereotypical "dead-ender" supported by his parents or the state. Conversely, he may find his materially satisfying life a sort of prison. His well-paying job and family affords him no deeper satisfaction. He has no real power or control over his overall direction in life, or he may have unrequited emotional needs. His office is like a prison to him; his wife and family leaves him no outlet for his aggression and wanderlust. Very often, he may have the desire to express himself, but lack the intellectual and creative faculties to do so.
Whatever his way of life, the Loser plays to satisfy his unrequited emotional needs. Since the behaviors he uses to do so are incompatible with civil society, he practices them in WoW.
The Loser has no perspective on the game; in pugs he will make a point of being as selfish and assertive as possible, acting out his frustrated inability to express his sense of self in real life. He will make a point of contributing as little as possible, while being highly disruptive, demoralizing and annoying other pugs.
Characteristic behaviors include:
-Asserting intellectual superiority based on mastery of the purely technical elements of the game
-Inappropriate shows of assertiveness
-Meter padding
-Power tripping
-Kleptomania
-Compulsive lying
-Fixation on loot
-Intense obsession with in-game status
-Elitism
-Griefing
-Laziness
C. The Valley Kid Trio
The Valley Kid Trio is more than one player; often three, sometimes less, sometimes more. They are all boys who live in the same suburban neighborhood and play WoW after school. Their small social circle coupled with indulgent but aloof parents leaves them with no check on their entitlement. Each of the Trio knows he's "good", because the other two told him so, and that "wow is ez mode". In their eyes, they can do no wrong.
Inviting any of the Trio to a pug immediately prompts a demand that assist be passed to invite the other two. If any of the three should not get what they want, or be called out for a misdeed, the other two will argue to no end about how it's all the raid leader's fault. And of course, owing less to any mental deficiency than to profound lack of character, all three of the Trio are terrible players.
Characteristic behaviors include:
-Impatience
-Near-illterate grammar/syntax
-Stated desire for self-indulgence ("because I really want it")
-Use of leetspeak
-Unreasonable requests for favors, followed by demands for an explanation upon refusal
-Demanding raid assist
-Use of the word "friend"
-Trash talk
-Pottymouthing
-Patronizing language
-Claiming to be middle-aged
-Presenting selfishness as generosity
-Habitual lying
-Escalatory behavior
-Refusal to use ventrilo
-Threats
-Physically aggressive language
D. The Gearscore Champion
This player really believes GS=skill. His gear is all very nearly the same item level, and none of it is sub-232. He has no raid experience, and performs about as effectively as an NPC in Mount Hyjal. Which is perfectly fine if you're zerging down VoA. Just don't bring him to any raid with fire. Generally speaking, his DPS is approximately equal to his autoattack or autoshot...give or take...whatever his gear level may be, even if his gemming and spec is correct.
Characteristic behaviors include:
-Curiously even iLvLs across all slots
-No pre-WotLK experience
-Almost no raid experience outside ICC
-Keyboard turning, or curiously stilted/staggered movement
-Shuffling, or rapid changes in direction in the world environment
-Conflicted or inconsistent gemming, even if mostly correct
-Apathy and reticence
-Fixation on gear
-Obsequiousness
-TRH
E. The Kid Who Needs A M.A.W.
The Kid Who Needs A M.A.W. comes from privilege. He may not be from a wealthy family per se, but he comes from an indulgent and permissive one and his parents have encouraged in him the belief that to play the game of life correctly he must approach it with the attitude it owes him something. Often, he, like his parents, comes to this belief precisely because they have nothing special to offer the world, and so they paradoxically buy into the cult of the individual.
The Kid Who Needs A M.A.W. arrogantly believes he is entitled to not having to wait as raids form, that the raid needs his help in some way, and that he should help lead it with all his infinite ignorance. Sometimes the kid is not actually malicious or hostile - he may even try to be helpful - but is simply misguided unto delusion. And hence what he really needs is a Mandatory Ass Whuppin to cut him down to size and teach him some humility. Will he get it? Who knows. I personally wonder what will come of these boys as they make their way through life.
The Kid Who Needs A M.A.W. is differentiated from the Valley Kid Trio in that he is completely egocentric and often gets along with absolutely no one in real life. His self-delusion is so total it needs no social support save his immediate family if even. Also unlike the Valley Kid Trio, his world view is fundamentally self-centered, rather than piratically inimical.
The Kid Who Needs A M.A.W., besides being unbelievably high maintenance, is a threat to the raid as he undermines its credibility. Desirable pug members can't believe that a good pug raid could possibly have such a dumbass kid in it, and so he undermines morale and performance, and his stupidity will encourage others to get distracted by his antics or leave.
Characteristic behaviors include:
-Idiotic questions that betray a lack of fundamental understanding
-Overzealousness
-Overcommunication
-Impatience
-Entitlement; apparent double standards regarding himself and others
-Fixations that others should "know" him, or "give a chance"
-Accusations that those who do not give him what he wants are "dicks"
-Spamming channels, often the same one in which the pug leader is currently advertising, sometimes with misguided good will borne of egoism
F. The Degenerate
The Degenerate is the most singularly pathetic creature in WoW. The modern-day incarnation of the timeless degenerate urban proletariat, this is the anthrope who has been rarefied to the lowest social grade like plasma in a centrifuge. Two thousand years ago, his ancestors were being handed out wheat from the Roman Emperor; a thousand years ago they were digging King Arthur's moat; five hundred years ago they were potshotting buffalo for fun; two hundred years ago they were stage extras in Oliver Twist.
Unintelligent, uneducated, undisciplined, cowardly and indolent, he is a member of the lowest social class of mean whites. He is marginally employed or on welfare. At best he is an enlisted man in the armed forces or works for Wal-Mart. The Degenerate has no face and The Man doesn't even notice when he goes squish under the soles of his loafers.
The Degenerate's lack of redeeming value predictably yields the same results in-game as it does in real life. He never has enough gold. He clings proudly to his few welfare epics like he clings to his worthless bling. He conducts his affairs aimlessly, without thought, purpose or direction. He has no drive for self-improvement. He does not realize how pathetic he seems in game just as he does not realize how pathetic his filthy trailer appears in real life.
In game, these anthropes are often quite social and form guilds with others like them, that are currently working their way through Naxx, and they are in fact quite happy doing so. Most servers have quite a few guilds populated entirely by Degenerates.
The Degenerate is an ineffectual addition to a pug raid. He can fill an empty spot in a zerg, but 25 of these guys in full 245 would wipe to Najentus and not even realize it.
Characteristic behaviors include:
-Under-communicativeness
-Extreme slowness of movement and speech
-Defeatism
-Excessive need for management and direction
-Gets lost easily
-Dartboard, even to the point of being bizarre, gemming
-Inability to follow instructions
-Illiteracy
-RP macros
-Ugly character appearance
-Lack of apparent symmetry in all things
-Tendency to blame external factors for failure
-Identity as the underdog
-Obliviousness to collective failure
-Self-content, especially in the practice of extremely behind-the-curve content
G. Mr. PvP
Mr. PvP is a diverse character indeed. He may or may not be a PvPer, although he certainly identifies as one. He may be a sometime gladiator, GM/HWL, or simply a wannabe bully who still thinks world PvP is serious business. He may even not PvP at all. Or he may, and be quite skilled.
Whatever the case may be, he loathes PvE, but is compelled to do it anyway, because he wants the gear to PvP with. However good or bad a player he may be, he plays the PvE game about as well as anyone who is compelled to play a game they hate playing.
Typically he comes to pugs with narrow shopping list, He believes PvE is below his level; the curious irony that he performs so badly at that which he claims to be easy is lost on him.
In pug raids, Mr. PvP is highly unreliable. He will take long and frequent AFKs. He has no interest in improving his performance or learning encounters; he chooses to believe all PvE is tank and spank. He has a huge ego and expects others to be cognizant of his e-persona. He will be flaky until he gets what he wants (or it is precluded) then alt-F4.
Characteristic behaviors include:
-Constant talk about PvP
-Retorting any criticism with talk about how easy PvE is
-Defaming others as "virtual dargon slayers"
-Excessive use of PvP gear
-Socketing PvE gear for PvP
-PvP spec
-Flakiness
-Underperformance
H. The Elitist
The Elitist may or may not be a superior or even competent player. His single defining quality is that he believes for some reason he is above the level of all other pugs. He believes he belongs to the high society of the game world and that it would be an assault on his dignity to play the game with the lowborns.
If taken to content he believes is beneath him, but he is compelled to run owing to boredom or need for some odd drop, he will perform better than the average pug, but not so well as he is able; to perform at his best in a pug raid would be pearls before swine.
The Elitist typically arrives at his self-image not by being amazing, but by association with other like-minded players. He has an intense need to wear the tag of a well-progressed guild on the server. He is frequently an obnoxious social member of an elite guild who does not raid with the guild, but claims association with their accomplishments.
He is in many ways the MMO equivalent of the vicious, angry, impoverished late medieval noble whose only possession is a rusted heirloom sword and whose lack of personal nobility is intrinsically linked with his oversized claims of sanguine nobility.
In pug raids, the Elitist will underperform and annoy and demoralize other players. He is the most likely player to deliberately cause wipes, engage in griefing, or refuse to follow even sensible instructions from the raid leader because he believes that to do so would be an assault on his dignity.
Characteristic behaviors include:
-Circumlocutory language aimed at avoiding any appearance of subjection or obedience
-Griefing or suiciding
-Persistent and deliberate disobedience and insubordination
-AFKing
-Long periods of deliberate inactivity during encounters
-Refusal to perform support roles
-Non-assertiveness
-Refusal to get on vent, or to ever use his mic
I. The Sociopath
The Sociopath is hostis humani generis, and even an enemy of God himself. He is vicious and brazen. His outlook on the game is fundamentally piratical. He does not even seek social approval in the game world; he will never be found AFKing at the Dalaran flight point on the Ashes he stole; it is enough to him that he has it.
Sociopaths have no need for socialization or social approval. They routinely join guilds full of people they hate so they can get loot. Sometimes, they may even have quite a few impassioned friends in the guild, as they are often adept social chameleons despite the shallowness of their behavior. Because most WoW players, like most people, are quite foolish, his company is often quite oblivious to his true nature until he abruptly ninja transfers and name changes when the loot train stops or a guild with something to offer is recruiting.
In pug raids, the Sociopath is a liar, a cheat, a deadbeat. He comes for loot. He may not be a griefer per se but will do absolutely anything to achieve his selfish aims. He will make absurd frauds to roll on BoEs to sell, even for BoPs to vendor for ten gold each. He will leave as soon as his purpose in coming is satisfied.
Characteristic behaviors:
-Aloofness
-Non-communicative
-Lack of interest in the game itself
-Unctuousness
-Loot whoring
-Total disinterest in world events and "fun stuff"
-Begging
-Excuses
-Clock-punching, dispassionate reliability
VII. Also Watch Out For These Guys
A good pug leader must be critical by nature, vigilant against any sort of problem, ready to nip it in the bud. And so this guide covers negative archetypes before positive ones. But a skilled leader must also know to recognize various positive archetypes that can be found in the pug pool and are potentially a boon to his raid.
A. The Prodigy
B. The Workaholic
C. The Super-Casual
D. The PvP Guy
E. The Disgruntled Raider
A. The Prodigy
The Prodigy is a curiously intelligent and mature teenager. He plays the game as well as anyone. Like a wolf-dog behaves sometimes like a wolf and sometimes like a dog and sometimes somewhere in between, the Prodigy will sometimes behave like a kid and sometimes like an adult and sometimes somewhere in between.
They often find themselves pugging due to their inability to fit into raid guilds: they are either morally above or chronologically below their level, sometimes both. Often this mirrors their real life as they find themselves at odds with their peers. Prodigies are often very lonely and have an intense need for approval and affection.
Prodigies can potentially have reliability issues when their fundamental youth causes a failure of self-control or perspective, or when they are called for dinner or church, but they are good kids and can be guided and controlled, and make a positive contribution to a pug.
Most prodigies are the kids whom you'd never guess are kids in the first place.
B. The Workaholic
The Workaholic has a job. A really good job. Or two. With a three hour commute each way. And two cellphones. And a wife. And a mistress. Or maybe something a bit more modest. He is some sort of professional; never marginally employed or some sort of temp. His outlook on life is fundamentally professional.
In any event, the Workaholic can't commit to a raid guild due to his busy schedule. Just as significant, he probably wouldn't fit in anyway, since many Workholics approach the game the same way they do life: as a big guy, with total self-confidence and a brisk, businesslike nature.
The Workaholic never takes the game personally, as he is solidly grounded in reality. He is therefore often a highly competent player as he is not inhibited from self-criticism. He plays the game for fun, and therefore enjoys impromptu pugs.
C. The Super-Casual
The Super-Casual is a ridiculous nerd who enjoys WoW and knows way too much about it. He logs on and off when he feels like it. He is often something of a Renaissance man, which is why he knows so much about WoW and yet can't be bothered showing up for guild raids.
The Super-Casual can be found doing world events, world PvP, or trolling trade. He often enjoys RP or collecting vanity pets. His play time may be as little as two hours a month or as much as eight hours a day. The only given in his play time is his high enjoyment of each hour.
D. The PvP Guy
The PvP Guy hates PvE and raid guilds, but needs to PvE for PvP gear. Unlike Mr. PvP, he's basically honest and reliable, and this typically can be discerned from both his personal conduct and how he PvPs; he never cheats or exploits. The PvP Guy is frequently an oldschooler.
The PvP Guy is often a unique asset to a raid when encounters call for fundamentally PvP skills such as interrupting casts, kiting, or survival. This is the guy you throw at Vezax or assign to decurses on Noth or kiting on Festergut.
E. The Disgruntled Raider
The Disgruntled Raider is often, er, "between guilds". Maybe he got gkicked because he told the GM's bitch she sucks at WoW. Maybe he got fed up with his shitty guild. Maybe he is having some sort of existential crisis in WoW and is convinced all guilds, all raiders, everything sucks, so he's going to pug.
The Disgruntled Raider acutely wishes to raid, but has no better options than pugging. Unlike the Elitist, he "plays to play". The Disgruntled Raider, however, is typically a highly transitory pug member, and will eventually find a new guild or take a break from the game when he realizes how much pugging sucks.
VIII. Forming The Raid
Patience is key. Of course, it is much easier for the pug leader to impose patience on himself than on others. Patience is best encouraged by showing the pugs the "light at the end of the tunnel". Do not let them ever have reason to believe you are losing hope or that your efforts to fill the raid are waning. It is as unwise to spam as it is to stop hitting the macro regularly. Do not underestimate the importance of spamming your blurb in trade once, only once, at most consistent intervals, to demonstrate to the raid you are continuing to try without getting frustrated or impatient, or going AFK.
Ideally the pug leader should try to keep the blurb in the chatbox of everyone in trade at least half the time. Remember that some players have small chatboxes or use very large fault, and the default font is typically much less efficient than most modded chat windows that players are accustomed to; therefore the blurb will be pushed off the edge of the chat window of most prospective pugs more easily than experienced players with good UIs. Trade chat often ebbs and flows and the pug leader should try to make sure his spam is last out before the periodic cessations in trade spam, so it will be at the bottom of the readers' windows.
It is imperative to see the raid from the perspective of the pugs. Do not stack a single class; attempting to fill the raid ASAP for fear of a disband is often self-defeating as recruiting too many of one class risks losing them all more easily than stopping with a modest number.
If short on healers, it is not wise to order all healing classes to heal. This appears selfish and noob. An excellent way to encourage them to do so, however, is to offer them the privilege of rolling on both healing and DPS gear should they agree to do so. If other pugs object to this double-dipping, point out that the offspec healer is taking the initiative to do what is necessary to get things rolling for their benefit, what others are not doing, and therefore deserves to be rewarded.
Never answer tells asking how many players in raid. Such players are impatient and dangerous to a raid's viability as they may leave early and set an example for others to do so.
Never invite a pug's friends to a raid. Friends of pugs are typically very bad players, because good players play the game in their own right, rather than because their friend happens to, and therefore take the initiative to do things for themselves - such as sending a tell asking for an invite - rather than be ineffectually guided through the game by the friend who is asking for an invite for him. Being told that someone is "really good" or "my friend" or - worst of all - a relative or significant other - is a red flag. NEVER invite relatives or significant others of pugs.
Never take more than 10% or so of a raid's population from a single guild, as they will support each other and undermine the raid. If one leaves, they all will, and this can break a raid.
Challenging content should never be pugged impromptu. It is most wise to post adverts in trade with scheduling info and requests to send mails for pre-invites beginning from at least the middle of the prior reset. When doing pre-invites through Blizzard Calendar, always demand an RSVP.
IX. Evaluating Pugs
Gearscore is a bad mod, by a bad player, for other bad players to use. This is the reality, it is the only reality, and anyone who has any divergent opinion is both wrong and a bad player.
...So, how to evaluate pugs without Gearscore?
It's important to grasp two realities about puggable content and gear:
1. Almost no player utilizes the full potential of his gear.
2. Puggable content has a very low gear and performance requirement.
The only real gear requirement for most content is that which applies to the main tank. And even an undergeared MT is fine so long as he is not at risk of dying instantly, or between heals from mediocre pug healers. It is, in principle, entirely possible to complete the Onyxia or Toravon or Saurfang encounters with everyone in blues except the main tank.
Conversely, there is absolutely no benefit to an overgeared main tank, except allowing him to survive damage intake that should not be imposed in the first place, which implies that the raid will fail in some way that makes that extra margin for error necessary. Therefore, only pugs that know they are bad will demand an overgeared MT.
Since overgearing is not necessary or even desirable, and the gear requirement for most puggable content is low, it stands to reason that pugs should be evaluated on the basis of other criteria than gear.
Most puggable content is not difficult; therefore, skilled players are not needed. Most pugs fail due to stupidity and drama, not a skill or gear deficit. Therefore, it is most wise to first judge a pug based on its apparent level of maturity and intelligence, and this is best gauged by how it communicates. If the pug quacks like a duck, it is most likely a duck, or a dolt, or a basically normal individual, as the case may be. If it types in leetspeak, or sentence fragments, or with excessive emoticons, or pretentious language, that is a clear indicator that this pug is an undesirable.
In examining gear, consider several points:
-Does the pug use gear that takes skill to get?
-Does the pug use gear that has the same cost to acquire as superior gear?
-Does the pug use good BoEs?
-Does the pug use bad BoEs?
-Does the pug use poor quality gear with obvious, easily available upgrades?
-Does the pug use well-itemized gear with a very low item level?
-Does the pug have an obsolete tier set with contemporary gems and enchants?
An example of the lattermost is a paladin in average iLvL 213 gear. Upon inspecting it, you see it is wearing a mix of T7.5 and T8.5. Therefore, this is clearly an alt, or a skilled player who took a hiatus from the game. Conversely, if the paladin were in full ToC-5/ICC-5 gear, it's probably a bad.
A player who uses a Greatness card, or other highly desirable low level trinkets such as Eye of the Broodmother, Illustration of the Dragon Soul, or the like, should always be invited, because clearly playing the game well is more important to him than epics, and not only will he perform well, but he will make more effort as he plays for his own enjoyment in doing so.
Pugs who gem randomly, or for conflicting stats, or - worst of all - gem conflicting stats but pass up socket bonuses granting stats they gem for - should never be invited. A player who gems in a consistent but wrong way is preferable to a player who gems in a totally random way: it is easier to fix a misunderstanding about game mechanics than total ignorance of the very concept of mix-maxxing. An example would be a shaman who gems straight strength in every socket compared to a shaman who gems AP, crit, haste, MP5, spell penetration, and agility, without any clear pattern.
Also examine closely a pug's tier choices.
-Does the pug use 3pc or 5pc of his tier set?
-Does the pug use 2pc/2pc, including pieces from the last tier of content, indicating an effort to min-max at the expense of prestige or item level?
-Does the pug pass up obviously worthwhile tier set bonuses?
Further points to consider:
-Is the pug using an incorrect high level relic?
-Is the pug using inappropriately itemized gear - i.e., block as a DK, ArP as a ret paladin, mana regen gear as a DPS, hit gear as a healer?
-Does it appear the pug is itemizing for Gearscore?
-Does the pug have inappropriate buffs, e.g., Devotion Aura as a ret paladin, Water Shield as an enh shammy, Commanding Shout as a DPS warrior, Frost Presence as a DPS DK, or inappropriate flasks/elixirs?
-Is the pug using the correct meta?
-Is the pug placing his prismatic gem in his belt buckle?
-Is the pug wearing a reputation tabard?
-Is the pug itemizing in a grossly uncosmetic way?
The latter point is deceptively relevant because players who have characters that are uncosmetic are often not engaged in the game and therefore do not perform well. They may also have limited mental activity. (See: The Degenerate)
Examples include
-casters who wear robes and undistinguished tabards, especially the faction PvP tabards
-casters who wear tunics without tabards
-melee classes that do not have a consistent visual appearance across dissimilar pieces of gear, but do not use a shirt or tabard to impose aesthetic cohesion
-players who wear plain guild tabards
-players who show helms with ugly models, especially blue-quality or "welfare epic" stock models
-players who show an ugly cloak, especially if of a race with a nice ass
-players who wear their starting shirt
This may seem very obsessive, but it is important for a pug leader to be able to "get inside the heads" of his pugs, understand why they do what they do. A player who is unengaged, who doesn't care about his character, is likely indifferent or unintelligent, and will not make any effort in raids either.
Finally, asking for the achievement is idiotic unless the encounter has both a fundamental learning curve and a severe individual performance requirement, which precludes content from being puggable in the first place. Far better than asking for specific achievements is looking for achievements in general that corroborate with skill and experience. Again, no achievement proves skill, but many correlate with it. Typically this should never be the achievements linked with the usually semi-trivial sub-progression content being pugged.
Examples include:
-Glory of the Hero
-Raid meta-achievements
-PvP meta-achievements
-High-end arena achievements
-Hand of A'dal / Champion of the Naaru
-Ulduar/ToGC-10/25
It is important to note that although many of these are not difficult, they correlate with a probability of experience and mental investment in the game that in turn often correlate with skill.
X. Keeping It Moving
A pug is like a bicycle. It moves forward or it falls over. Also like a bicycle, the driver should always err on the side of gripping the handlebar more rather than less tightly.
Maintaining the momentum of a pug is crucial. Players play to play, not to sit around and wait. Vacillation is fatal. If it's not possible to engage a boss, fight another one, or pull some trash, or at least start some small talk or call for a break.
XI. Leadership And You
Myth: A raid lead style characterized by emotional outbursts, childish name-calling, playing the blame game, and making the raiders "afraid" is viable.
The reality is, such antics aren't good leadership; they are the product of the absence of good leadership. They are rife amongst raid leaders in WoW because WoW RLs are drawn from the playerbase; they are ordinary individuals who do not possess leadership skills but are nonetheless forced into positions of (marginal) authority.
A good raid leader must have all the same qualities of any good leader. These qualities include:
-Decisiveness
-Honesty
-Reliability
-Responsibility
-Open-Mindedness
-Mercuriality
-Assertiveness
-Initiative
-Charisma
-Humor
To lead is to unite diverse personalities and skill sets towards a common end. To lead well is to bring out the best in others, while overcoming their faults.
This is how good pug leaders lead good pugs and bad pug leaders lead bad pugs. They convince others to join up and work with people they do not know to down content for everyone; they turn love of the game into performance and redirect selfish impulses into productive energy.
A good pug leader must be a true student of Machiavelli. He must be a benevolent despot, and understand the fundamental unity of his ability to maintain his authority and his willingness to do what is best for the raid.
Example: A raid leader will most easily hold onto his raid, his authority, if he accepts contrary opinions and freely admits his own errors. The raid leader who cannot do this will no longer be a leader; he will be disregarded and become irrelevant.
Conversely, a good raid leader, like a good general, distinguishes between the open-ended discussion about how to deal with a dilemma and the implementation of the decision he arrives at. A good raid leader is open to dissenting points of view and encourages others to voice them. When a raid leader asks his raid for advice, or tells them frankly what he does or does not know, he makes the pugs stakeholders, active participants in the raid. A raid with no small talk, no one but the raid leader communicating, bodes ill for its success. And likewise, a raid leader must be iron-fisted in putting down disobedience and insubordination to his orders. A flawed strat, followed in a consistent way, is always better than 25 raiders doing three different things.
A raid leader must balance criticism with praise. The balance between carrot and stick is vital; each reinforces the value of the other. Most crucially, to fail at this balance destroys the credibility of the raid leader, and credibility is the most vital asset of any leader.
Micromanagement is a good thing. Especially when leading pugs, always err on the side of giving specific instructions. Tell specific people to do specific things.
Never speak in a pedantic manner that assumes that the person already has the information corollary to what is being said. Negative example: "ok this is sapphiron if u get cleaved its because u didn't know where 2 stand." Communication should be informative. When addressing the raid, the raid leader's goal should be to draw an image or impart a motive in the brainds of the pugs. To fail at this is called "talking from the inside out". When wording information, the raid leader should clear his mind and phrase it in such a way it is useful to those who do not know it. This is the single most common failure of raid lead communication: to give furtive or cryptic instructions that make sense only if the audience has sufficient understanding that they are unnecessary in the first place.
The best listener is a good speaker. Pugs who have mics will always be better listeners and more easily follow directions than those who do not, because they are engaged in the activity of the raid. For this reason, even pugs who should almost never be speaking must have mics, and pugs should be encouraged to use their mics, not only to share tactical information, but also to make the pug a communal endeavor.
Fundamental to charisma is self-obsession. All charismatic individuals are in love with themselves. This is so for a very good reason: humans are designed to sort themselves into leaders and followers, and assertive, self-starting behavior arouses a reciprocal response in others. This is why the celebrities that are so popular are so disgustingly self-indulgent.
Charisma is best earned by a raid leader through a mercurial, self-starting leadership style. Give orders. Get things going. Cut a fresh path through the brush and lead people through it single-file, don't lead a mob down the wide highway. Avoid stereotyped behavior such as calling for ready checks or using hackneyed expressions like the plague. This is the reason the greatest raid leaders in WoW use expressions like "it's not rocket surgery" and "everyone, jump up and down if you're ready, I don't do ready checks." They understand the vital role of idiosyncrasy in good leadership.
In everything a raid leader does, he must not only put the success of the raid first, but keep the final goal before his eyes at all times. Everything he does must be a means towards that end. Favoritism, meandering raids, minutiae, dumb arguments about strategy that are non-decisive between a kill and a wipe - all that is bad. Fast clears, clear instructions, keeping stragglers with the group, all that is vital.
A positive raid environment is vital to success. Good players who play well don't want to raid like a forced march, or play with a power-tripping tyrant. Maximize the fun factor. Encourage small talk. Be self-deprecating. Be fair. Address individuals in the raid. Put down players who insult other players or usurp authority.
Above all else, a skilled raid leader must be A Big Man. He must have a penis so large he doesn't talk about it because no one would believe how big it is. He must shrug off hateful remarks. He must be willing to let someone else MT, or top the meters; he must accept that there are many, many, many players better than he is, and it's quite likely some are in his pug. Nothing earns the respect of pugs more than putting the success of the pug above one's own winning or losing an argument or having one's way. If this means changing the strat or admitting failure or ignorance or apologizing and doing a mea culpa so be it. The mea culpa is perhaps the most difficult to practice and greatest deed of the truly skilled leader.
The greatest enemy of the raid and its leader are those who openly and actively seek to undo the raid, i.e., griefing. This takes the form of insubordination, deliberate underperformance or suicide. If tolerated by the raid leader this sort of thing always heralds the doom of a pug; it shows the pugs that those who seek to undo the raid are stronger than those who seek to make it succeed. It must not be tolerated.
Vision is fundamental to leadership. In the case of a pug, the vision is to kill a boss in a timely manner and get epix. The vision must be plausible and shared by the pugs. There must be a clear path between the starting point (the instance portal) and the final goal (rolling on loot). Therefore, setting unrealistic objectives, or offering prevaricating answers as to "how far the raid will go" is self-defeating. Do not promise pugs the moon. To do so is always self-defeating. Establish clear goals.
Likewise, embrace the limitations of yourself, the raid, and human factors such as time, energy and patience. Continue so long as there is a reasonable chance of success - then take the initiative to call the raid before it turns ugly.
Call breaks at reasonable intervals, for fixed lengths of time. Not allowing breaks will compel pugs to make their own, which is dangerous to the raid. Do not take too many breaks, and do not take them immediately before a difficult boss. Try to divide the raid across the break period as evenly as possible in terms of difficulty, patience, and reward.
Finally, a leader must make his pugs want to do well, and want to not do badly. He must make their desire to perform well be stronger than their desire to appear to perform well. Best of all is to make a pug where players seek to perform well to earn repute in the community. This is also why LFD/LFR is so pernicious and sucks.
XII. The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
A good pug is a pug comprised of skilled players attempting an instance at near-progression level. Realistically, this is seldom the case. Examples would be doing Naxx in blues, Ulduar in mostly T7, ToC in T7/T8, or serious attempts on LK-10 or a clear of most of the wings of ICC-25.
A bad pug is a pug that outgears the content but fails at it or squeaks by.
An ugly pug is a pug that grossly outgears the content, and does it for reasons other than the drops (trinkets, achievements, prestige items, rare drops, boredom) and skilllessly zergs it down.
All three types of pugs are legitimate in their own right. A good pug, for example, will take good players with mediocre gear over bad pugs with great gear because the intent is to perform well. A bad pug will take whoever sends a tell and accomplish its extremely limited goals. And an ugly pug will take players who outgear the content, zerg it down, and refuse to take players who do not outgear it - for example, level 70s have no place joining an ugly pug for BT/SWP, nor players in 232 joining an ugly pug for Algalon or ToGC-25.
It is vital to identify the style, impetus and target audience of a pug raid. The pugs to recruit for an Onyxia-25, the level of play to be expected, the pace and "cleanness" of the raid, are very different than for a pug seriously attempting BQ-25 or Sindragosa-25, or that were attempting Yogg prior to ToC.
XIII. Putting Pugs To Work
It is to be expected that every pug leader have a stake in the success of his pugs, and that his initiative in organizing it be motivated by a specific want he has. By corollary, a pug with no apparent such drive, "LFM ICC25 FREE ROLLS ALL LOOT NOTHING LOCKED" is as ill-fated as "LFM TK MOUNT LOCKED"
The key, then, is to bring the pugs on board through fair and consistent policies. These policies should reflect the type of pugs sought.
GDKP, for example, attracts those who want gold, or have it. Free rolls attract those who have nothing to bring to the table but their undergeared characters. Free rolls are not at all unreasonable for loot pinata bosses, or bosses with a broad loot table of highly specific gear pieces, such as ToGC-25 or VoA or obsolete WotLK content. Locking something has the benefit of implying the other loot is not ninjaed and the leader does not need the other loot, and likely outgears and has fully experienced the content.
It is vital to remember that all pugs and pug leaders are fundamentally selfish. An honest and productive pug does not seek to disguise or misrepresent this selfishness, but moderate it into a productive drive that is satisfied in an equitable way. Conversely, expecting pugs to come for nothing is as unreasonable as expecting them to be led by a saint who wants to "help people out". The ideal pug is mature and understands the concept of give and take, as opposed to an immature individual who veils his own selfishness by condemning the wants and expectations of others.
Ensure that a loot policy is in place that gives a reason to come for each person to fill each of the 25 raid spots.
XIV. The Power Is Yours!
In closing, "You do not need a license to pug."
Pugging has some ironic appeal: the excitement of making normally trivial content a challenge, of playing the hero carrying less skilled players through content, being big and magnanimous, or, best of all, the excitement of playing with randoms, widening one's horizons and seeing the playerbase.
Those who think themselves shrewd or responsible - hopefully with good reason - would do well to realize that if they do not take up the mantle of leadership, less worthy souls will. Of course this is a sort of Catch-22: only stupid, bad, and/or delusional or megalomanical players would ever actually want to lead pugs. Certainly, this is true of most leadership in real life.
Yet the experience of pugging can be quite rewarding, as well as profitable, and moreover, it may come to grow on you.
*this will be edited and improved as it occurs to me to do so*
Aestu of Bleeding Hollow... Nihilism is a copout.
Last edited by Aestu on Wed Jun 23, 2010 9:53 pm, edited 10 times in total.
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