PUGS Are For Masochists...

Today's feature comes off the FIST guild forums. It was written by Hamm, our guild's rugged adventurer in the PUG wilderness, and shamelessly re-posted here by Svenn.

(safety tips- -read before use)

There are [a few] good reasons to run with non-guildies-- learning new fight techniques for example, and it remains the best way to recruit. Still, you should definitely keep your expectations low, the success rate for PUGs is frankly rather low. Here are some ideas bought with much of Hamm's repair gold-- please share your experiences as well:

1) "Mostly guild" pugs are better -- sometimes you luck into a run consisting of mostly members of a guild pugging for the last couple spots. These PUGs tend to be much better organized and impervious to massive group leaves.

2) Do your own gear check -- while gear is not the only thing, being severely under-equipped makes a raid very difficult if not impossible. Download Gearscore from http://www.curse.com./ When you mouseover a toon, this addon gives you a rating in the tooltip on his/her current gear. This is not wow-hero nor be.imba score-- a toon in full epic with a mix of naxx10 drops will rate about 4000.

3) Bring a boat load of patience and cooperation -- as always, too many cooks spoils the pot, and the person running the pug can vary in experience. What breaks up a pug faster than anything else is the finger pointing syndrome. Resist this temptation and do your best; this will dramatically increase your contribution to the run, earn you respect, and increase the fun for everyone. Also, PUGs can take much longer to set up even after the raid is full, so allow for it and don't join unless you got the time.