The other day i jumped into Guild Wars with the intent of doing a mission (it was Jokanur Diggings if anyone was wondering) but upon loading i saw the elusive ‘LFG Mission’ being spammed into the chat, so, i joined a PuG.
in-case you don’t know, a PuG (Pick up Group) is the common name for those random people you meet and group with, the ones who you don't know, the ones who almost all the time turn out to be on the edge of sanity and often could be more accurately described by the bellow image.
now we are at the point where i am going to give newer Guild Wars players some simple tips to make them better PuGer’s (is that a real word?)
When you get into a new group, find out who the leader is, ask the question ‘who’s going to choose/call targets?’ this makes life easier.
you should make sure that everyone knows everyone else's ‘build’ this is done by ‘pinging your build’ you do this in an outpost by holding ‘CTRL’ and double clicking your skill bar.
the reason that this is important is not to judge people on their builds but to see what people have equipped, for instance it may be of use to know that an Elementalist-Monk has a resurrect equipped, or that a Monk is a smite monk not a healer or protector.
Don't judge those builds people show you, just because you don't understand how skills relate to each other does not mean they don't, often a complicated build that requires deep understanding of skills can look like a random mash of skills to the uninformed.
However all this said, if some one has no resurrection skill equipped then that can be a problem, maybe worth pointing out as most people do not equip a ‘res’ for solo play. they may have forgotten to switch it in.
Looking at a ‘Pinged’ a build is also a great way to learn how to construct your own build, you can get a sense of how they are constructed and how different professions work (great for your heroes')
You can call targets by selecting a target and holding the ‘CTRL’ key while double clicking, or holding ‘CTRL’ while pushing the space bar. The target can then be selected by the whole group (push ‘T’ to select it) making battling faster and more usefully take out healers fist.
The next thing to remember is to keep an eye on that compass, anyone who is not on voice communication with you (99.99999% of all PuG’s in GW will not join you in voice chat) will franticly draw directions on the compass to get your attention quickly.
Examples of this are lines over a portion of the map (do not cross) or an arrow (this way) or even pinging the map (double click on the compass to make it show something as a red expanding circle, known as pinging) there are lots of other reasons to use the compass as well, such ass seeing approaching enemy.
Drawing on the compass is a great way to get attention to a specific thing and to get everyone travelling the same path, because its no noticeable and fast it is more effective than typing.
The most important thing i can say about PuGing is that you do not leave (or Rage Quit), there is nothing more frustrating than gathering a group of people for a mission or quest and then two of them leave half way thorough for no reason. its irritating as hell.
The other thing is that you should listen to other players, just because you think your a good player does not mean that the people your with aren't better. in some cases the people you have PuGed with maybe fantastic players who know the game better than anyone you have ever played with before. imagine how irritated this person would be if you ignored their called targets.
I hope this was was informative and remember, play nice and get the job done.
