Fairly Random

After a week of nightly randomized delving, and the acquisition of a rather silly pet dog, I can say that there are definite patterns and curiosities emerging from the noise.

There are really just three kinds of groups:

1) The Steamroller - everyone is in really good gear, everyone knows the dungeon, and you proceed to roll through it with chainpulls and frightening efficiency, usually no one even bothers to say "hello" much less actually discuss what's going on. We're professionals, we're not here to make friends, give me my badges and get it done before my raid starts.

2) The Trickle-Down Terribad - maybe the DPS is good, but who can tell, the tank is horrible. I suppose it's likely that there are tanks out there noticing the same thing about healers, I just only really see this from the healer's perspective. When you have a bad tank (or healer) the whole run is just going to be unnecessarily complicated. He dashes out of heal range to chain-pull the next group while the party is looting and drinking, he isn't good at AoE threat, he is constantly getting caught by patrols, whatever the case may be, The role is vital, and being at least a little bit good at it is vital too. There's a tank shortage, so losing even these bad tanks would be a slowdown in play for the rest of us, but I can only hope that they're learning.

3) The Catastrophe - bad everything. I just try not to remember these runs. I have stuck some out, to the benefit of whoever gets all that repair gold we spend, because I feel really guilty about bailing on a group, but even then, there's groups that just need to die and 15 minutes of deserter is better than 15 minutes of corpse runs.

I suppose there's really a fourth kind of group - competent, but not remarkable, who are able to get through, friendly enough, and nothing worth complaining about, but they are so unremarkable and forgettable that I do just that.

I've decided that the worst instance to run with a random group is not Oculus. My experience thus far is that the people willing to stay in an Oculus group are people who know how to run Oculus. I've actually had some reasonably good experiences in that much-maligned little slice of scaley hell.

I'm still unsure which dungeon is the worst to pug. I've had a horrible experience in Old Kingdom, but I've only had that one pop up once, so the sample set is insufficient. Halls of Lightning has seen some of the worst in trick-down-terribad tanking displays on record, and I am thoroughly bored with the needlessly-long trash segments of Utgarde Keep. I do seem to get Halls of Stone an awful lot and Trial of the Champion almost never at all.

The random tool is also convinced that I am safe as houses as a healer in the new 5-man heroics. This is a marginal assumption at best. I did manage to squeak through the Forge of Souls with a really good supporting cast the one time I drew it, but Pit of Sauron has been a nightmare for me - I am frequently one and two-shot by trash and boss alike and the only time I completed it the party's over-geared Shaman had to pick up heals a couple of times when I was smacked into the dirt. I think I am about ready to just drop group on any new 5-man until I get some more gear sorted out, or unless I go with my guildies, who I trust to handle it.

Another unexpected twist to the delver's world this morning comes in the form of major nerfs to Ionar in HoL and Prophet Tharon’Ja in Drak'Theron. While running from Ionar's dissolves has long been a nuisance, they're hardly more difficult that so many other boss effects in the game and I've personally never seen anyone die to Tharon'Ja regardless of how many times we get shifted. When I think of bosses that I'd not weep over seeing nerfed, they don't really make the list, but hey, if that's one less hard phase to live through with a terrible group, huzzah!

So far, the new dungeon tool has to be put down as a success - for tanks and healers at any rate. We get groups fast, we get badges fast, and interest is still high. I don't relish the prospect of trying to wade through the queue as a pure dpser, though, which does not bode well for Barley's further gearing and adventures. I will be curious to watch the queue times evolve, especially as people get all of the badges they need and overall interest wanes in the late days of the patch pre-expansion. But for now, it's been great.