Project PUG Tank rides again
Three pure pugging experiences documented for Project PUG Tank. This project aims to find out how long it’ll take for me to lose my temper, lose my sanity, or lose my will to live because of running instances with strangers. The tank is a blood elf warrior, level 84.
Instance: Stonecore
Gear upgrades: 0
Blood pressure spikes: 1
Good players: 1
Space cases: 1
Jackasses: 0
Healer: druid
The space case was a hunter. The DK was death-grip happy, but he only borked up one pull that way so I was willing to cope. The hunter couldn’t trap. Or misdirect. Or refrain from using multishot when some of the mobs were CCed. You know, the usual. The single worst player I’ve ever seen in a pug was a shaman, but the worst average level of play comes from the DKs and the hunters.
As usual, the good player was a rogue. You don’t see a lot of them, but when you do they’re doing things like interrupting bad things and shivving away enrages. And sapping what you ask them to sap.
Instance: Vortex Pinnacle
Gear upgrades: 0
Blood pressure spikes: 0
Good players: 0
Space cases: 2
Jackasses: 0
Healer: discipline priest
The space cases were a feral druid and a DK. The DK stood around unmoving often throughout the first half of the instance, and nearly got himself killed by a Lurking Tempest. He popped out Army at several inopportune moments. He also used it for the last boss, which was reasonable, but then utterly failed to move inside the grounding pyramid. So did the kitty. Splat. The rest of the group three-handed the boss down slowly.
Moonlight Pug Tank
I was a little bored after that, and I happened to notice that there was a call to arms for tanks in heroics. So I queued up Thissell the DK to tank one. I entered BRC to find a group recovering from a Corla wipe. No tank, of course, and they kicked the warlock with the reason “wip us 4 time” [sic]. So I was a little nervous about our chances. We one-shot everything, however. The rogue wasn’t very good and the entire group was fond of pulling for me instead of waiting, which annoyed the living hell out of me. But I coped, because that’s the motto of Project PUG Tank.
The final boss was fun. The mage hadn’t kited before but was game. The ele shaman made his life as difficult as possible by putting down Searing Totem. The boss died anyway.
Instance: BRC heroic
Gear upgrades: 0
Blood pressure spikes: 0
Good players: 0
Space cases: 0
Jackasses: 0
Healer: discipline priest
Satchel: 93g + 3 healing potions
The satchel was not exactly inspirational. It’s the first time I have ever received one, because I usually get my fill of tanking with guild groups on the Alliance side.
