Drasca's guide to PuG's
PuG: Pick-up game, or group.
Generally, a team that may comprise of members who come together with no prior association or scheduling to surmount a specific objective, whether it is a mission, a quest, or something else.
What is this guide for? If you're tired of bad pug's when left to completely random chance and don't like henchmen all the time, try my method. Over several occasions, I've had entire teams that have stayed with me through hours worth of repeated missions because they want to be in a good group.
Preperation
Knowledge
It is up to you to research and be familiar with the mission, its quirks, and what level of difficulty it demands of its players. You should know what types of skills are needed, and the classes that can do them. If you're not familiar with what your allies can do, ask. No one person knows all skills. How strictly you micromanage your players skills is up to you. Personally, I keep management to the minimum I perceive necessary. I might ask a ranger to pack 2 specific interrupts, a res sig and troll ungent, giving him freedom to choose four other skills.
With this knowledge and experience of the mission at hand, you'll be in the best position to coordinate team effort.
Group leader
It is also important for you to be group leader. To guarantee this, your party must have equal to or greater than the people you're inviting. If others accept your invitation, they'll be under your group. If you accept the invitation of another group of equal size, their group leader will be remain leader and you'll be demoted to simply party member. Don't do let that happen. Add another henchman to your group and then accept, or don't accept that invite. If you want someone specific out of there, you may attempt whispering them and asking for them specifically.
Party Gathering
Advertising a specific Objective
You must be clear on what you wish to accomplish. Are you trying to achieve a bonus? Go for Masters? Cap off a certain boss? Be clear about what you wish to do! Then, advertise and repeat "We're here to xxx___xxx" as necessary to local and team channels.
A simple LFM for __objective here__ in local channel may be enough at the beginning. Your knowledge of how to accomplish that objective comes into play here. Do you need rangers? Interrupters? Firepower? Advertise for them.
With fairly difficult missions, I like to use: Looking for players capable of following instruction--with few other specifics involved. This sort of advertisement shows you want to communicate and coordinate with your teammembers without excess detail, and that usually impresses the good players.
Selection Process
--Class and skill balance
Sure, you could pickup just anyone, but that won't do. 7 Warriors and one ranger will not readily fight in hell's precipice or vizunah. You must be fairly firm about what you need. You can be flexible, an extra warrior here, an assasin there, or four ritualists or four monks, but you need a solid group dynamic and capable enough to surmount your mission.
Talk to the players coming in, make sure they have skills you desire. With some classes, ask the people to coordinate redundants kills between themselves. I find good players can self govern what skills they bring, so long as you give them a specific objective: Interrupts, defense, etc.
Make sure everyone has a res sig or various kinds of ressurrection. Players can forget or not wish to bring one. The rest of the skill sets control is up to you and the objectives desired of the mission.
--Quality people
To that end, you want quality people. Good advertising can bring out the best of folk to come to you, and your class/skill selection process will ensure a balance to tackle the mission ahead but that's no guarantee what kind of person you're getting.
Talk with the people that are coming into your team. 10 seconds, and a few lines of chat can mean all the difference between seeing a good cooperative player, or a ... I believe you can all think of the expletives for those bad pug stories. Engage the people that you're teaming up with in light conversation, and you'll be rewarded with information on their character. You'll want to surround yourself with friendly people able to listen to instruction, and have an attitude that is helpful towards mission accomplishment.
Kicking: Protecting your interests or taking out the trash
Not everyone's a nice person. You'll have to be firm on keeping the undesireables out. Assuming you've done the preceding steps, talking with the players, and attempted to coordinate their skill sets with you and themselves.
If you find someone to be disruptive or uncooperative. Warn them. If they continue, kick. With certain people, you may wish to consider skipping the warning. No one's so important that they can't be replaced. For healers, most of the time henchmen are more than adequate when a human healer is unavailable. They take some adjustment, but you'll be able to accomplish your goals.
Do not accept major disruption in your group. This may include, but not limited to, spam, scrolling, ill treatment of others, foul language, disrespect of others. It is up to you what preference and quality of people that come in and get kicked out. Exercise your right to protect your group's interests by keeping undesirables out. The quality player and frequency you kick is entirely up to you, but make sure you have a team of people you wish to play alongside, don't bring anyone that will jeopardize your interests.
It may take some time to arrange such a group. You may substitute henchies when you feel it is necessary. It helps to advertise in advance amongst your guildmates
In game
It is your duty as party leader and coordinater to be the most prepared and competent person out there at the task of making sure the group acts within shared expectations towards success. These are some of the tools you may use to ensure that.
Minimap pings and target calling
For important missions, be clear to everyone no one else uses target calls or draws on the minimap. That is reserved for important information. Only you or your designated lieutenants should be drawing or pinging on the minimap.
With the minimap, be sure to to explain all the important moves and directions you'll be taking. Explain in advance how to handle important specific encounters, such as when to retreat, what enemies are coming, and what to do when enemies teleport.
If there are patrols, explain where they are and how to handle them.
Lines and pings
Most people are familiar with the following:
Stop: Line back and forth perpindicular to the motion of the vector (headed direction) of the group. This means stop, head no further.
Rapid ping behind the group: This can mean retreat, or attention to a monster. Usually retreat.
If the team is not listening, repeatedly SHOUT in caps and repeated pings and lines what is necessary to do. With decent preperation, this should not be necessary, but it still may happen. Don't get sloppy, watch out for tactical changes and make sure the team addresses them as a group.
There are methods, and specific details to every mission and group, but this guide should serve you well as a basic means to getting a successful PuG.
In summary, prepare yourself with objective knowledge, select a good team while kicking out the chaff, and ensure everyone else is knowledgeable and acting toward the same overall strategic action. Assuming you can reign in all that, I salute you as a good field commander, and it would be more difficult to lose after so much preperation.
PuG: Pick-up game, or group.
Generally, a team that may comprise of members who come together with no prior association or scheduling to surmount a specific objective, whether it is a mission, a quest, or something else.
What is this guide for? If you're tired of bad pug's when left to completely random chance and don't like henchmen all the time, try my method. Over several occasions, I've had entire teams that have stayed with me through hours worth of repeated missions because they want to be in a good group.
Preperation
Knowledge
It is up to you to research and be familiar with the mission, its quirks, and what level of difficulty it demands of its players. You should know what types of skills are needed, and the classes that can do them. If you're not familiar with what your allies can do, ask. No one person knows all skills. How strictly you micromanage your players skills is up to you. Personally, I keep management to the minimum I perceive necessary. I might ask a ranger to pack 2 specific interrupts, a res sig and troll ungent, giving him freedom to choose four other skills.
With this knowledge and experience of the mission at hand, you'll be in the best position to coordinate team effort.
Group leader
It is also important for you to be group leader. To guarantee this, your party must have equal to or greater than the people you're inviting. If others accept your invitation, they'll be under your group. If you accept the invitation of another group of equal size, their group leader will be remain leader and you'll be demoted to simply party member. Don't do let that happen. Add another henchman to your group and then accept, or don't accept that invite. If you want someone specific out of there, you may attempt whispering them and asking for them specifically.
Party Gathering
Advertising a specific Objective
You must be clear on what you wish to accomplish. Are you trying to achieve a bonus? Go for Masters? Cap off a certain boss? Be clear about what you wish to do! Then, advertise and repeat "We're here to xxx___xxx" as necessary to local and team channels.
A simple LFM for __objective here__ in local channel may be enough at the beginning. Your knowledge of how to accomplish that objective comes into play here. Do you need rangers? Interrupters? Firepower? Advertise for them.
With fairly difficult missions, I like to use: Looking for players capable of following instruction--with few other specifics involved. This sort of advertisement shows you want to communicate and coordinate with your teammembers without excess detail, and that usually impresses the good players.
Selection Process
--Class and skill balance
Sure, you could pickup just anyone, but that won't do. 7 Warriors and one ranger will not readily fight in hell's precipice or vizunah. You must be fairly firm about what you need. You can be flexible, an extra warrior here, an assasin there, or four ritualists or four monks, but you need a solid group dynamic and capable enough to surmount your mission.
Talk to the players coming in, make sure they have skills you desire. With some classes, ask the people to coordinate redundants kills between themselves. I find good players can self govern what skills they bring, so long as you give them a specific objective: Interrupts, defense, etc.
Make sure everyone has a res sig or various kinds of ressurrection. Players can forget or not wish to bring one. The rest of the skill sets control is up to you and the objectives desired of the mission.
--Quality people
To that end, you want quality people. Good advertising can bring out the best of folk to come to you, and your class/skill selection process will ensure a balance to tackle the mission ahead but that's no guarantee what kind of person you're getting.
Talk with the people that are coming into your team. 10 seconds, and a few lines of chat can mean all the difference between seeing a good cooperative player, or a ... I believe you can all think of the expletives for those bad pug stories. Engage the people that you're teaming up with in light conversation, and you'll be rewarded with information on their character. You'll want to surround yourself with friendly people able to listen to instruction, and have an attitude that is helpful towards mission accomplishment.
Kicking: Protecting your interests or taking out the trash
Not everyone's a nice person. You'll have to be firm on keeping the undesireables out. Assuming you've done the preceding steps, talking with the players, and attempted to coordinate their skill sets with you and themselves.
If you find someone to be disruptive or uncooperative. Warn them. If they continue, kick. With certain people, you may wish to consider skipping the warning. No one's so important that they can't be replaced. For healers, most of the time henchmen are more than adequate when a human healer is unavailable. They take some adjustment, but you'll be able to accomplish your goals.
Do not accept major disruption in your group. This may include, but not limited to, spam, scrolling, ill treatment of others, foul language, disrespect of others. It is up to you what preference and quality of people that come in and get kicked out. Exercise your right to protect your group's interests by keeping undesirables out. The quality player and frequency you kick is entirely up to you, but make sure you have a team of people you wish to play alongside, don't bring anyone that will jeopardize your interests.
It may take some time to arrange such a group. You may substitute henchies when you feel it is necessary. It helps to advertise in advance amongst your guildmates
In game
It is your duty as party leader and coordinater to be the most prepared and competent person out there at the task of making sure the group acts within shared expectations towards success. These are some of the tools you may use to ensure that.
Minimap pings and target calling
For important missions, be clear to everyone no one else uses target calls or draws on the minimap. That is reserved for important information. Only you or your designated lieutenants should be drawing or pinging on the minimap.
With the minimap, be sure to to explain all the important moves and directions you'll be taking. Explain in advance how to handle important specific encounters, such as when to retreat, what enemies are coming, and what to do when enemies teleport.
If there are patrols, explain where they are and how to handle them.
Lines and pings
Most people are familiar with the following:
Stop: Line back and forth perpindicular to the motion of the vector (headed direction) of the group. This means stop, head no further.
Rapid ping behind the group: This can mean retreat, or attention to a monster. Usually retreat.
If the team is not listening, repeatedly SHOUT in caps and repeated pings and lines what is necessary to do. With decent preperation, this should not be necessary, but it still may happen. Don't get sloppy, watch out for tactical changes and make sure the team addresses them as a group.
There are methods, and specific details to every mission and group, but this guide should serve you well as a basic means to getting a successful PuG.
In summary, prepare yourself with objective knowledge, select a good team while kicking out the chaff, and ensure everyone else is knowledgeable and acting toward the same overall strategic action. Assuming you can reign in all that, I salute you as a good field commander, and it would be more difficult to lose after so much preperation.