PUGing less

[Snarky]

I was regularly ranting about various PUG ugly times I had for about a year.  Favorite topics included people starting Posi 1/2 and Synapse at +4, leaders assuming I could read minds, and people going to the steps of City Hall immediately in the Posi 1 end mission.  Among others.  Special mention to folks who kicked me because of various reasons, usually for playing a Brute.  Like a Brute.  

 

About a half a year ago I joined an SG.  It had Discord, which I knew very little about.  and was unsure of.  My, how the SG has changed my gaming experience.  

 

I have played CoH as much as I can back on live and since I found it again.  (maybe half a year after HC came online) That part has not changed.  

 

My team experience has gotten way better.  Our SG does a weekly Master Magisterium run, along with 2-4 other Master Incarnate Trials.  It has 1-2 events every day/night (mostly night weekdays) that offer a varied traipse through CoH content.  On Discord I have SG mates from around the world, exposing me to cultures, accents, and wild conversations that are absolutely delightful.  

 

The SG I found is Cosmic Council on Excelsior.  With a regular crew in Trials and Discord of 50+ with a roster of about a thousand.  Of the 50+ who are regulars I see 20+ forming up for every Incarnate Trial run, 10-16 on every weekday event.  (different peeps of the 50+, but you get the idea)

 

Having this regular crew to run content with has allowed me to branch out my playstyle. Instead of always being on a Brute for when the PUG gets ugly i have branched out into Blasting!  I even have a Controller in the mid 30s!  (Blasting instead of Bruting was a change almost necessitated by weekly Really hard way Magisterium badge runs....unmitigatable damage patches are F-ing Brutal)  I still enjoy my Brutes, and am soloing all content in the game on one.

 

Looking forward to running the new Aeon Trial on Live with these guys.  (we have run it on Beta.  I have only done easy mode.  These folks have done the hardest mode there and a few have soloed it)  

 

As the Devs have made changes to the rewards so that my complaints about not getting extra rewards for Synapse at +4 will be null I shudder to think of PUG life.  I was on a DiB on a PUG this weekend that was a mini nightmare.  We completed it, with badges, but I was pulling Incarnate Team inspirations from my email to help prop up the team lol.  Thankfully I have found a calm place away from that mad playstyle.

 

Yes to greater rewards for greater challenges!  Thank you Devs.  Yes to running hard content that requires teamwork!  PUGs....  well.  Let's just say YES to the decision to join a good SG.  Thanks Cosmic Council!

 

[Triumphant]

Clearly you have found your SG home:  Gratz, Snarky!  😄👍

[Shred Monkey]

Cosmic Council is a good group.  They're pretty welcoming of anyone, so if you're looking for a home, I recommend you seek them out.

 

1 hour ago, Snarky said:

DiB on a PUG this weekend that was a mini nightmare.

 

I think DiB is the one taskforce/trial that actually still regularly fails in this game.  It puts you in a fight where team make-up and strategy actually matter.  With good strategy and coordination, or something as simple as having everyone fill up on purple inspirations when they hospital, it's an easy TF.  But without that, a team can certainly fail.

 

Personally I like PuGs.   In fact, I prefer a PuG 54x8 ITF over a speed run ITF run by pro speed runners.  I still jump on speed runs sometimes just for the quick merits, but that's not really the game I am looking to play when sit down and log in.

Edited November 8, 2021 by Shred Monkey

[The_Warpact]

Back on live I pugged until I found my friends in my VG, now honestly unless I do some zone event I don't pug.

You cannot compare the two at all, the comraderie and getting to make long standing friends is the highlight of my teaming experience. 

[Bill Z Bubba]

Yup. Same story here. I knew many of my current SG mates from Pinnacle back before the snap, but back then I soloed 95% of the time. With HC, the BSOD SG somehow got me to move to Excel from Torch and I've been running with them weekly, if not nightly, ever since. I blame aging to be honest. Or maybe the covid lockdown. Or both and many other reasons. While I can still go on a solo spree of death and destruction, as I did when getting BZB Scrap to 666 vet lvls, I have found that it's more fun to crack open a beer, hit the vape and log onto Discord for a TF or three with the SG.

[ZemX]

The Yin and Yang of PuGs for me is that I put up with the bad ones in order to get what I really want out of them: Something different every time.

 

I rarely run Incarnate level content.  Super boring to me.  Mid-level TFs and mission teams, preferably at as high a difficulty level as the team can handle.  These end up NOT being teams where whole spawns vaporize in a couple seconds.  These are teams where it actually matters that team members are doing something reasonably approaching tactics.   It's not super difficult, but it's not face-rolling either.

[Aurora_Girl]

1 hour ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

Yup. Same story here. I knew many of my current SG mates from Pinnacle back before the snap, but back then I soloed 95% of the time. With HC, the BSOD SG somehow got me to move to Excel from Torch and I've been running with them weekly, if not nightly, ever since. I blame aging to be honest. Or maybe the covid lockdown. Or both and many other reasons. While I can still go on a solo spree of death and destruction, as I did when getting BZB Scrap to 666 vet lvls, I have found that it's more fun to crack open a beer, hit the vape and log onto Discord for a TF or three with the SG.

 

"Somehow."

 

Oh come now, you know it was the allure of listening to me have a complete fucking conniption fit over the definition of "weapons."

 

Fucking nerds. 

[Ukase]

24 minutes ago, Aurora_Girl said:

Fucking nerds. 

Isn't that a contradiction in terms? I didn't think nerds got any action. 

[A Cat]

I've only ever been in pugs and have only had one bad experience. In that one, it was on a Synapse or something, and there was a team split. I was playing a dark/dark defender and noticed someone dying in the other path. So I pop over there to fire off HT to revive him. Then the guy starts blaming me for dragging mobs over to him and getting him killed despite me having zero mobs following me, not being in the same room as him when he died, etc. When I pointed out the impossibility of his accusations he just clammed up and offered no apology. I just one starred him as an ungrateful butt hurt loser and went on with my life. 

[Chrono-Bot]

I'm still finding my feet/have my own baby sg but we only meet on saturdays like a coven of tired witches, so I am a big ol' pugger. I really like the variety of personalities I run into. And I'm on Everlasting so if I feel shy, I can just pretend to be like, an Oranbegan in a heroine's body who hasn't found a good way to get out of being mistaken for her and escaping the situation.

[Without_Pause]

I led a SG on live. I prefer doing a solo SG. I did a 9 or so month break from the game, and I would prefer to do that as needed and not have to worry about being part of an SG during that time. Plus, I have like 30+ characters with rerolling ones all the time. I do need to seek out some channels as that's likely the best way for me to do things. I am getting more and more down to soloing and teaming just for TFs.

 

Non TF PuGs is well, a wide range of experiences to say the least. Case in point, a team was doing red side missions. I grab a character. Enter the mission and see they must have gone to the end of it skipping various mobs. We clear a couple mobs and mission ends. We exit. I hang out for a few minutes with zero communication happening. One person literally walks around my character, which is well, awkward. I ask about a new mission. Nothing. Both players eventually make their way to Pocket D and go back blue side. I don't think I got a bar of experience for my time. Flip side, ran another FF at +4 with the lead having 2x XP. I think I got 6 levels out of it and zero deaths on my end. 

[Ironblade]

8 hours ago, Snarky said:

The SG I found is Cosmic Council on Excelsior.

 

7 hours ago, Shred Monkey said:

Cosmic Council is a good group.

I've heard the same.  My girlfriend is in the group (and I think teams with Snarky on a regular basis).

 

I have a tank on Excelsior with a few vet levels and I'd play with them except that the time my girlfriend plays on Excelsior is when I normally play other games with my brother and his family.

 

 

5 hours ago, Ukase said:

Isn't that a contradiction in terms? I didn't think nerds got any action. 

They just need to find another nerd of the right gender.  😛

[Hedgefund]

I don't do much puggery, it has to be less than 1% of game time where I've joined a team without knowing beforehand at least who the leader was, even if the leader may not know me.  I have found though, in those experiences, that pure pugs offer a better chance at a sense of contribution.  Like, the team didn't wipe due to my actions as an example.

 

On the other hand it's the only time I've been berated by a teammate and I ain't got time for that.

[A Cat]

5 hours ago, Ukase said:

Isn't that a contradiction in terms? I didn't think nerds got any action. 

Nerds and geek culture in general is pretty acceptable in the mainstream now. In other words, REEEEEEEEEE GET OUT NORMIES

[MunkiLord]

But PUGs offer randomness and keep you on your toes compared to teaming with the same people and getting to know them. It's the Scrapperlock of teaming. I have one friend that I would team with on a regular basis, but other than that I haven't been part of a SG since I played on Victory around the time IH was changed from a toggle to a click.

[starro]

what makes COH better?  COH with friends.  Even if it's a small group that does not know your real name and only familiar with you by your global handle  - it just adds to the COH experience.  I have very few good experiences like that in other games.  PUGS in general are a 50/50 shoot depending on the complexity of the tasks at hand.

 

[Shred Monkey]

11 hours ago, ZemX said:

The Yin and Yang of PuGs for me is that I put up with the bad ones in order to get what I really want out of them: Something different every time.

 

I rarely run Incarnate level content.  Super boring to me.  Mid-level TFs and mission teams, preferably at as high a difficulty level as the team can handle.  These end up NOT being teams where whole spawns vaporize in a couple seconds.  These are teams where it actually matters that team members are doing something reasonably approaching tactics.   It's not super difficult, but it's not face-rolling either.

 

I have a few toons level locked.. 1 at 40 and 1 at 12.  Their sole purpose is to play non-level 50+ content.  I do enjoy the level 54x8 stuff, too.. though it's best with smaller teams.

Edited November 9, 2021 by Shred Monkey

[biostem]

Wait... so playing with a group of people you regularly communicate with results in a better outcome!?  Who woulda thunk it.  Out of curiosity, does anyone actually talk to the other people they join a PUG with, (other than just a quick "hello"), before running off to the next task?

[Snarky]

4 hours ago, Krimson said:

Every day, I log in and look at the empty channel where my Live crew gathered back in 2019. Once in a while, a name may pop up, but as to whether even greetings will happen... 

 

So PUGing is my option. Sure, sometimes the teams aren't great but the team is also what I bring to it. SGs are nice. I am in two. One on Excelsior, and one on Everlasting. Every member is me, and I like it that way. Besides, I get little reminders here and there that it might be best not to get to know anyone too well. You never know when they might disappear, or become someone different from the person you thought you met. 

I can relate to this.   I am, in my shriveled heart, a grumpy old vampire.  I know that the world is filled with despair.  That even the undead are merely putting off the inevitable one night at a time.  Yet I do what I can tonight.  What I can find enjoyment in, tonight.  Where I can feel what it might be like to be alive…if just for tonight. 

[A Cat]

34 minutes ago, biostem said:

Wait... so playing with a group of people you regularly communicate with results in a better outcome!?  Who woulda thunk it.  Out of curiosity, does anyone actually talk to the other people they join a PUG with, (other than just a quick "hello"), before running off to the next task?

I usually do. Depends on the mood of the team though. BSing just happens, but I have also been on strangely silent teams as well. Not everyone feels like talking even if they do feel like playing as a team. 

[biostem]

1 minute ago, A Cat said:

I usually do. Depends on the mood of the team though. BSing just happens, but I have also been on strangely silent teams as well. Not everyone feels like talking even if they do feel like playing as a team. 

I get you, but that wasn't the premise of my post - it was that communicating with your team results in a better outcome/experience.

[Clave Dark 5]

Ah, if only I could find a regular SG that would put up with me...  *kicks dirt*  Actually it's my nightshift schedule, that puts me sometimes playing in the morning, or maybe poking in after day-walkers' dinner times, and then also maybe in the wee hours after the witches have gone to bed.  And sometimes I don't play at all for half the week, etc.  No SG could fit that schedule.

 

What I'm trying to say here is that overall I still don't mind PUGing, it's generally still fine gaming 90% of the time for me.  😃  But it is nice you found your groove there, Snarky.

[Snarky]

4 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

Ah, if only I could find a regular SG that would put up with me...  *kicks dirt*  Actually it's my nightshift schedule, that puts me sometimes playing in the morning, or maybe poking in after day-walkers' dinner times, and then also maybe in the wee hours after the witches have gone to bed.  And sometimes I don't play at all for half the week, etc.  No SG could fit that schedule.

 

What I'm trying to say here is that overall I still don't mind PUGing, it's generally still fine gaming 90% of the time for me.  😃  But it is nice you found your groove there, Snarky.

Cosmic Council has players around the world.  Literally.  Who lament our US centric hours.  Granted it is not busy at really odd hours with maybe one or two kicking around.  Of course, once you start gaming regularly you might find partners for weird hour activities.

Edited November 9, 2021 by Snarky

[ZacKing]

I don't know what shards you all are playing on, but I PUG quite a lot and I can count on one hand the number of times there's been a bad experience.  Overwhelming majority of time it's a lot of fun with great players.  

[ZemX]

Majority of the time, PuGs are not challenging themselves.  I would say most teams I see advertised are either speed TFs (most often WSTs) run at +0 or they are L54 teams (radios or iTrials) where you can expect enough horsepower to face-roll and it'd be rare for things to really go bad.

 

Outside of specific challenges like L44 ITFs, AE801, or the upcoming Hard Mode... the only thing that sometimes results in failed PuGs for me is Posi 1.  Low enough level that it can easily go bad even on +2 with those CoT debuffs and that relentless serial ambush at the city hall doors if sprung before anyone is ready for it.

 

Night Ward is a good one too.   Easy to take a full team in there, set it a little too high, and get obliterated by stacked debuffs.   I remember a PuG where we were repeatedly being wiped by the Living Spells at +4/x8.

 

We're also having a bit of fun in the Tanker forum with the First Ward mission to the Shepherd compound to collect Anna.  Her Prophets have the dreaded unresistible Tar Patch and everyone else packs toHit and defense debuffs in quantity.  Go in there with a full team (or solo) at level 29 and +4/x8 if you dare.  Or any Talons of Vengeance mission on +4/x8.  Can be nasty in numbers like that.