This story begins on a Friday morning when my guild line was quiet and my Orc Rogue had 50% rest bonus to burn off as she advanced towards 43.

As a standard first-measure, I put myself into the LFG tool - but since I wasn’t officially ready to hit any dungeons yet, I put myself in the tool in a way that most players searching wouldn’t find me: In a Zone, instead of in a dungeon. I did this so I wouldn’t likely get whispered, but I’d still be “in the tool” and thus subscribed to the LFG chat channel, which is where half of the LFG action takes place. I do this on all of my toons and watch the LFG line for people looking for members to take on something one of my other toons could join in on.

Preparing For The Run

No quests picked up, this is an exp-and-loot run.
Repaired all equipment to 100% durability.
Consumables brought include:

• Battle Healing: 10 Superior Healing Potion
• Between Battles Healing: 20 Heavy Runecloth Bandages
• Buff Foods: 20 Grilled Squid, 20 Poached Sunscale Salmon
• Guardian Elixir: 5 Mighty Troll's Blood Potion
• Battle Elixir: NONE
• Party Favors: 40 Moonberry Juice for healer emergencies

Listing In The Tool

I’m level 42, an awkward level as far as dungeons are concerned. I list myself in Razorfen Downs, Maraudon, and resign myself to being okay with Scarlet Monestary’s Cathedral as well.

As is standard, I put a note into the LFG tool comment area: “whisper first, pls - combat rogue”. I like it when people filling out a group whisper me first before they invite, because then I know what the invite extended to me is coming for.

Invite Extended

It wasn’t long before I got an invite. No whisper ahead of time, so I did a quick /who and found the player was a 38 Paladin, in range for an instance, and not a gold spammer as sometimes happens.

I whispered before accepting the invite, “what instance are you looking at doing?”, and the response came back: “RFD”.

I accept the invitation.

Starting Party Layout

It’s not a full party, but thanks to WoW armory I see we have one 38 Warlock and one 38 Retribution Paladin in the party, plus me.

Then, a 36 Holy Priest joins, and the party leader says how he’s got a 5th who can join us in 5 minutes.

Making Way To The Stone

As soon as the party formed and the dungeon was confirmed, I headed from Orgrimmar to Camp T in The Barrens to begin my trek towards the stone. I make it a point to not join the LFG tool until I’m ready to head towards the instance because a number of times I’ve been caught off guard by parties that needed someone and were ready to summon RIGHT NOW. Better safe than sorry, better relaxed than stressed.

The Holy Priest inquires about whether we should head towards the stone and the party leader says yes, that’s a good idea, might as well start to convene.

Arrival And Sitting At The Stone

I get there and I’m alone, which is fine because I was pretty near to the instance when I got into the group in the first place. So, I sit and wait for the Holy Priest to arrive.

I get myself a drink and return to the computer.

Party Leader - Duelling?

Hmm, why’s the party at such minimal health, with a fireball DOT on him?

Now he’s dead.

Now he’s re-popped, at full health.

There’s that fireball DOT on him again.

I hover over him and get something non-descript like “Farm” and I think of the pig farm just outside of Orgrimmar heading south towards Razor Hill.

Later, I see Defiler’s Den when I hover over him, and then finally the ever-clear, Arathi Basin.

He’s in the battlegrounds while he’s “leading” an instance party?

Voicing Displeasure

I inquire on the party line about the guild leader PvPing while the group was encouraged to go to the summoning stone (ie: “hey, I don’t want to interrupt my game playing to do something trivial like make my way to the instance as the party leader, and I can use you guys to make it easier for me, right?”) and of course, since he’s in Arathi Basin as well, he can’t see the party line outside the dungeon and doesn’t know what I’m saying.

The Holy Priest whispers me to agree with my displeasure and after a few moments of discussion there, we decide to drop group and try to find another group, together.

Dropping Group, Jumping Back On The LFG Line

Right after I drop group, I get myself back on the LFG line and advertise: “42 Rogue LFG RFD”, and the Holy Priest whispers me and asks to join up with me for this new group I’m seeking. I invite him and turn back to the LFM tool to see what other partial groups have formed and are looking for members.

PvPing Pally Whispers

Shortly after I send my LFG out to the LFG line, the PvPing Pally whispers me, asking what happened, as I was going in to the instance with his group. The discussion was brief, as my priority was to find myself and the healer a new party and not explain the fine details of why we bailed:

New Party Secured

As soon as I was done with the PvPing Pally convo, I looked at the LFG tool and saw that there was a party of three - two pallies and a rogue - looking for two more in order to go into RFD. I whispered the leader of the party and he asked us to drop group so we could join his.

Turns out there was a Prot Pally, a Ret Pally and a Combat Rogue in their group, so the addition of our Holy Priest and the extra DPS to fill out the party was all we needed to head in.

We headed in right away, and had an awesome run. Unfortunately, nothing good dropped, but we got all the way through the instance and even completed the Escort without a single death!!

Tags: arathi basin, bad pugs, combat rogue, dungeon playing guide, heavy runecloth bandage, LFG tool, looking for group, maraudon, mighty troll's blood potion, Orgrimmar, poached sunscale salmon, razorfen downs, rogue, rogue consumables, rude pug habits, rude puggers, scarlet monestary cathedral, superior healing potion, the barrens, why i left your pug

Pick-up groups, aka “PUGs”, are akin to a “pick-up” sports game in a field full of kids, where the event that eventually occurs wasn’t planned in advance, but still the game goes on: Teams are formed from those currently around and the teams can play, within certain rule-sets, doing things that can’t be accomplished alone.

In World of Warcraft, most PUGs are put together for the purpose of going through a 5-man dungeon instance, and because Pick-Up Groups generally consist of players who don’t know each other, sometimes the antics in the group can be a little annoying.

After experiencing the chaos of PUG groups at low levels, some players find a guild and notice that guild runs tend to be a lot more consistent and a lot less annoying than PUGs, and the temptation to rely on the guild group as the only source of dungeon party access is very strong. After all, why deal with strangers when there’s all these people right here, in my guild, who I could go in with?

But, I am noticing in my own playing, there are benefits to PUGs, and at some levels or during some occasions, PUGs are actually more consistent and reliable than guild groups. Especially if your guild is casual, non-raiding and players solo a lot, thus lacking dungeon knowledge and teamwork experience despite their wonderful guild presence.

So, while I ponder a more pithy entry about the Art of PUGging, I’d love some input from YOU!

Do you PUG?

Do you encourage your guildmates to PUG?

Do the influential people in your guild PUG and/or encourage you to PUG?

What solid skills of yours do you attribute to your experiences in PUGs?

Tags: building a successful levelling guild, do you pug, dungeon guide, dungeon playing guide, guild success, guildmaster guide, how to find a pug, levelling guilds, LFG tool, LFM Tool, looking for group, pick up groups, PUG, pugging, pugging strategy, successful pugs, tips and tricks, warcraft pug, world of warcraft, WoW Guilds