my guild had an LOL moment a few seconds later when said shaman goes “are you even defence capped?”… um… well.. yes… I made sure to put my talent points in that, ty. The shaman finished off with a “you’re the worst tank ever, blah blah blah go read a tank forum” and put me on ignore. and good riddance! I’ll be happy to never run an instance with him again :)

I have seen it all, Warriors using bows instead of getting up close and personal, Hunters meleeing and not using ranged. Tanks who turn out to be Restoration in tanking gear tanking Heroics and Shadow Priests brought in to heal but DPS all the same anyway. I have learned to deal with it, and keep in contact with the cool people. I have to make a mention of a DK named Jyssasa who was PuGing a 10 man Naxx run and needed that last healer.

The run went ok, got bosses down, but the best thing about it is that he talked. He got to know people, he got to know me. He invited me to every single raid, heroic he was doing, and was just a pleasure to run things with. It saddened me when he moved to another server, cause I was proud to call him a friend, I knew him.

PuGs can be amazing if you are lucky. It can be like “Oh hey, nice run guys. Cya! /leaveparty” or it can be like “Nice run guys, you up for another? You guys are awesome, mind if I keep in contact with you?” which I love.

I keep PuGing, and I keep doing guild stuff, but PuGing things can be really great for you in the long run. People like Jyssana don’t come around very often, and it is a great thing when they do, it makes the game and my life more fun.

Long story short the entire run was a fiasco. I was trigger happy and pulled before the tank, botched up my traps and didn’t know how to use my freezing arrow. The PUG tank was very upset and he had every right to be. I was behaving like Little Miss Huntard; it didn’t help that before the fight I mentioned that his current guild, to which I used to belong to and still have fond feelings for, used to be known for the skill of their hunters. I was embarrassed and knew that I cannot give any excuses now. I just had to accept that I need to prove myself… that I was, if not the best, at least competent in my class. At the very least, I determined not to act any more like a huntard and give a retort.

Despite my poor performance during the early parts of the raid, he didn’t kick me and still patiently explained all the fights. After we killed the last boss (and despite still having not redeemed myself), the tank was still polite and cordial, though still clearly upset. But, there is a happy ending to this story—he actually gave me one more shot to redeem myself in Heroic Utgarde Keep IMMEDIATELY afterwards… where I did. We both now regularly PUG together and, I hope, finally shown him that what happened was just a fluke.

Anybody else would have gone “KK, thx bye” and kicked me of the group, got another DPS (and there were plenty on General chat going LFG for UK), put me on ignore, put me on some blacklist… never given me another chance to show that I can learn, that I have what it takes, that I can be competent. But not this Holy Paladin… despite being really upset, this guy believed in redemption. How many times have I written off a poorly performing player after the first try? And I hated PUGs; but thanks to this paladin, I don’t fear them as much anymore.

A few nights ago, and I had actually given up, I join another raid out of boredom and perhaps a glimmer of hope for my war bear (also because they were requesting only 78 and up, which queued the hope). We met up in Ratchet as per usual and as we gathered and waited it dawned on me something was different. It was taking a while for everyone to get there and yet people waited, nobody left, no bitching. The warlock brought enough shards to summon stragglers. The raid leader was giving orders and not ONLY were people following them, but nobody argued either. We took off for Thunder Bluff and when the call to regroup went up, people actually regrouped. The DKs even stopped spamming PoF when asked. Truly a miracle was happening. Sure enough we rushed to Cairne and BOOM, down he went. The next 3 leaders soon followed and I got my bear and a little faith in humanity. Amazing what a little patience and maturity accomplishes.

I got invited to a truly pug group, no one from the same guild. I explained that I’d not been there before and they explained what I’d need to do (without the benifit of Vent). We one shot the instance, and quickly. So quickly that we did it again because no one wanted to leave the group and go about our normal PuG experiences.

Not only was this the best PuG group I had ever been in, but it also got me invited into a raiding guild that was already heavy with hunters since the tank turned out to be the main of the person I was talking to the day before about applying to the guild.

Either Blizz is mixing things up a bit in the dungeons or some instability is happening. However, I have to say Culling of Strath and Violet Hold on heroic are my faves for boomkin AoE fun. I’m itching to get the zombiefest achievement with typhoon soon :) We call it the street sweeper.

Grats on running heroics! The epic tanking staff from the final boss in H Violet Hold (Staff of Trickery) has dropped three times now :( It sits in my bank unused for fear of the upcoming nerf.

Closest I’ve had to your first one was a PoM Pyro mage in a H-VH run who was trying to tell me that his spec was excellent for raids. I was running H-VH for no reason other than to pick up the spell hit trinket from the last boss, and after 22 runs without getting it, I was only joining groups if they would all pass the trinket to me if it dropped. This mage refused to claiming he needed it just as much (he was guildless, all 70 gear, PoM Pyro specced). I said whatever, dropped the group, and went along my merry way. Long story short, I now have a better trinket, he’s in my guild, and I’m the mage lead. He’s a lot cooler guy than I thought, but I have the authority to yell at him whenever I get bored, =P

This is something I’ve said a lot, but if you are looking for a higher ratio of mature players go to an RP server.