To Pug or Not to Pug

A question we all face from time to time, and the reason for the question are as varied as the groups we get. Wanting to get a quest done,hoping for a drop,farming emblems(badges) etc... So last night I get a whisper from a warlock that I had pugged Old Kingdom with he was wondering if I would tank for a heroic Nexus run. So as I start to type my standard no reply that most non-guild whispers get “Sorry I don't have time”; I remembered that I have ran with this person before in a solid group so lets see how he builds them. I get my invite notice that I was 3^rd person in the group and continued with my dailies. Having a few minutes of flight over to Coldarra I tabbed out to check Wow Head and got a most pleasant surprise, the best protection paladin pre-raid helmet drops here off Grand Magus Telestra that and the prospect of 5 emblems of heroism seemed like a solid choice. While we cleared all 4 of the bosses in about 1 and a half hours little over average time I didn't get them helm but I did get me badges.

Now I have a set policy that I don't like to pug. Not that I won't just that all things being equal I'd rather not. The reasons are pretty basic I dislike the abuse that sometimes happens in pugs when something goes bad. Now as the tank most often I assume blame for wipes most often be they guild runs, runs with friends or even pugs, simply because my job is to annoy the mobs and keep them in a general area to allow the dps a chance to burn them down; and to have enough mitigation, avoidance and hp to live threw the encounter. The group I was in last night didn't have any of the bad components of a pug, yeah we had some frustration over wipes but that happens no matter who your grouped with.

One of the nicer aspects about this pug was that before we even started pulling trash we set loot rules, kill orders, and asked that if something took you away from the computer please say so in party chat so we were aware. Seeing as we didn't have a enchanter to DE anything loot rules were very simple, greed greens all the time; and greed boss drops for vendor unless you wanted the item then need. We had no aspects of loot whoredom everyone agreed and kept to the policy. We had one or two times that someone needed to step away from the keyboard and they informed the group so no damage done there either.

Was this the normal pug of this new expansion I don't know. What I do know is that it was a nicely balanced group or decent people and players. We joined for a common goal and saw that goal accomplished. Will this make me feel all warm and fuzzy when I see in trade or general chat looking for tank for “X” probably not, but it did open up a small group of people who I'll most likely group with again.