In changing over to Horde, I noticed that my friends list was not empty. Makes sense, but it was still kind of worrisome. One of the fastest ways to meet folks is to start running PUGs, so I hopped in LFG and joined the first group that was looking for a tank.
Woah.
I've had some bad PUG runs in my day, but I'm batting 1.000 on picking fail PUGs on horde side.
Alright, lets be fair. The first run was a HOL heroic. It was me, a Holy Paladin, and 3x DKs. Only one of the DKs had any kind of gear over 213, which isn't really a big deal for heroics. Personally I'm getting kind of tired of people who are looking for 3k DPS for a bloody heroic run...
Anyway we get to the 3rd boss (lightning guy) and DK#2 asks for a minute to explain the fight to DK#3. I don't mind, they're both pulling 1200-1400 DPS (more than enough for heroics) and DK#1 starts getting antsy and starts pretending to hearth. He finally leaves, and a minute or two later we pull. The fight took longer than necessary (DK#3 died very early), but we got him down and moved on. DK#3 died a few more times to the WW dwarfs, but finally the four of us were standing in front of Loken. DK#2 explains the fight to DK#3 - and off we go (using the stay in strat).
I think DK#2 and #3 lasted through two blasts (I used my Divine Sacrifice and bubble on that one at the healer's request). By the third blast Loken was only at 54% and I was the only man standing. I had a full health bar (I think the healadin hit me with LoH as he died) and so I started the long process of soloing Loken. I tossed up SoL and JoL, healed myself for the HoT, and just worked him down. I wound up potting, using LoH, RD, and even Ardent Defender popped. In the end though I managed to avoid wiping though a liberal and strategic use of CDs.
Heroic Occulus went about the same the next day. Over the course of the run folks would drop and I'd slowly add guildies until it was 3 of us and we managed to dop whatever his name is.
Two more runs (A Gun'Drak and a Nexus) added themselves to this list over the last two days. Thank the stars for Lay on Hands and Ardent Defender OPness.
On a plus note - we did PUG a rogue who did a pretty decent job seeing as he'd never seen most of the fights before. We did TOC regular and Ulduar (IC, Hodir, Thorim, Vezack HM) and we 1 shot everything. He didn't live through all of them - but he did a decent job. So, like everything else - not all PUGs are bad. Even the 5 mans had a few redeeming players. And dammit if they are nice - even though they aren't the best players in the world.
I hate HoL heroic - I can't seem to get through Loken, but there's no excuse for dying in the Lightning Guy fight. It's so basic - run awaaaaaay from the big bolts of lightning. In fact, it's one of my favourite fights because it's runny-aroundy (technical term that) in a fun way.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you've had some really bad PUG luck - but I suppose thems the breaks (sigh). At least as a tank you get to pick and choose a bit - M'Pocket Tank and I have been a bit ruthless lately in controlling our PUGs. I don't mean we're like "you're only doing 1.3k dps, you are the weakest link, goodbye" - it's just if people are rude, objectionable, insisting on needing things they don't need, we can cheerfully kick and replace them. Big advantage of not being DPS I guess :)