I don't usually name people, but...

Italic of Thaurissan-US, you are an exceptional tank.

A warrior with only 25k hit points (buffed with Kings/GotW/Com Shout no less), PuG heroic AN where all 3 DPS were doing ~3-5k, and no-one could pull aggro off him.

I was even Survival spec and not BM for a change (I don't tend to have too many problems with aggro in BM since a lot of my threat is shared with my pet).

/salute

Bring the player, not the class

With the raiding week all but over this time yesterday, I decided I'd try and get into an ICC25 PuG. Nothing to lose if it failed (apart from a repair bill) since it was going to reset soon anyway, everything to gain if I managed to get any actual boss kills.

I looked at Trade Chat; someone I'd PuGged with before was LF1 melee DPS for ICC25 for the new wing.

Normally, I'd ignore this. When people specify "melee", they generally do mean "melee" and not "physical" DPS (although I've come across people before who don't make that distinction).

However, I thought I'd take a chance - I'd PuGged with the guy before and I'm certain he'd remember me (particularly since he had commented positively on my DPS).

He invited me.

Nothing surprising, right? Just another PuG story; move on Phyllixia!

Not quite... because there were FOUR other hunters in the raid already.

I've lost count of how many PuG raids I've tried to join that refuse to take me because they're "full on hunters", no matter how well-geared or high-Achieved I am, so it's nice to know the PuG networking system (it's not what you know, it's WHO you know) is alive and well.

(If you're wondering.... we didn't down anything. The healers somehow couldn't deal with healing everyone up after Stinky's Decimate and the Yankees in the raid were falling asleep, so the raid collapsed)

PuGs Behaving Oddly

It's 1am and you decide you still have time for a quick random PuG heroic before bed - after all, you're well geared and even if the rest of the PuG sucks it should only take half an hour, tops.

The dungeon pops up, you click Enter.... and the mage doesn't speak English, the tank is having a fight with his girlfriend, the healer is walking backwards and the rogue is saying nothing in party except, "Quack!".

Before complaining to your guild about your extreme bad luck in grouping with randoms.... you might want to check this first: Who's line is it anyway? - PuG version!

Epic idea and props to those that actually go through with it. I'd do one myself if I wasn't so careful about my hunter's reputation (it's not exactly easy to get PuGs as a hunter, so I'm always happy if someone invites me to a raid because they know I'll do a good job from grouping with me before).

Maybe I'll have a go on one of my alts.... seems like a fun way to liven up a dungeon, since PuGging 5mans is so much more mechanical and boring these days!

Post-Holiday Post

Well, I'm back.

...Yeah, you probably didn't notice I was gone in the first place since you were busy with your own holiday break, but oh well!

Random notes now that I'm back:

• No BB gun for me... I missed the Winter Veil period entirely. I guess I'll have to either wait another year to get BB King or hope Blizzard makes it a Feat of Strength.
• The weeks of missed Frost Emblems hurt, but I'm still ahead of my guildies in terms of gear (although that may change when people start getting their T10 bonuses).
• PuGging Gearscore is a different story, but I can't PuG ICC anyway since I'm saving the IDs for guild and gear isn't a problem for anywhere else.
• The new WoW Armory rocks - I've already added an Achievement/loot feed on the side of this blog and customized my character's default pose.