My little shammy hit 40 yesterday. At which point the Project began. You see, I decided I do want her to get to 80 before Cataclysm releases. But I’m not a fan of questing in Azeroth and Outland. So, I’ll dual spec, and PuG alot of the way through! Maybe even PvP! I can PvP as a healer. Just not as DPS. Yes, you read that correctly. I, Jess, hater of PuGs and PvP, have chosen to make use of them both in large quantities to level. So, after some speccing (thank you Stop) and trading in of honor points, I hopped in the Queue. About twenty minutes later, I’m healing my first dungeon, Uldaman. A place I have never been.
First, we all port in, only to see the tank…back his way out of the portal. You weren’t subtle by the way. You’re a BIG BLUE DRAENEI we saw you!! So we wait. We get another tank. I should have known it was bad when he had more X’s in his name than a spambot. We got Super Pally (can you feel the sarcasm?). He ran off while I was drinking. I let him die the third time. Which was funny, because the mobs all aggro on me, the hunter, and the shadow priest. Funny why? Because with a swap to my dps totem set…and some fast chain healing, we got the troggs dead without us dying. I rez the tank, and get “What happened?” I inform him he shouldn’t run off without the healer. The hunter at least showed some appreciation.
So what’s he do next? Takes off AGAIN. And now he’s pulling about four stone golems and a sundry of iron dwarves. It’s at this point, I realize, I cannot heal stupid! I should have made a dash to the doorway in order to self rez safely. My bad. It was a wipe. The tank then leaves, and the group falls apart. I take a break, head to Tanaris to get quests gathered.
I put myself back in the Queue while I did so. And a group popped. Back to Uldaman, with an awesome tank. No, really. He hardly took damage, he held aggro like a pro, he let the healer drink, and explained boss fights and reminded us to run to him if we GOT aggro. Toxicsushi…you’re a pro, and saved my opinion of pugging for the moment.
I do not miss lousy pugs. :<
I only hope that one day you end up with me in a pug for a dungeon. I never seem to catch a break when I’m tanking on my pally. I always get so much hate from someone (pull faster, pull more, why am I out threating you, etc). You seem like you’d be a swell pugger to run with.
I feel your healing pain with the crazy tanks. One question I usually have for the ansty tanks is, you see I buff you with druid goodness, wouldn’t it stand to reason that I would also take care of dps then perhaps need to refresh my mana before you pull the entire hallway. My druid is now 38 and exclusivly heals for my husbands pally tank. Makes it much easier to pair with someone you know.
Uldaman has one of the best Geektastic sequences, with the map room on the floor and the staff and headpiece you have to combine and place in the floor of the map room to open the door. As a huge Indiana Jones fan I *LOVE* that!
Otherwise, that place is a PITA, though not so much since they nerfed the crap out of it.
Pugging it can be quite painful with a dumbass tank, as you’ve found. Glad to hear you made it through finally. It’s been my experience that leveling using instances can be very hit or miss.. you either luck out and get people that are playing alts and are comfortable with the game, and their toon and KNOW how to play them (though this can work against you if they are the “I AM AMAZING” type that run ahead and do stupid stuff because they think they are the invincible), or you get newbs that just charge in or pull aggro.
My son had been leveling his druid that way, and it was really funny to listen to him FINALLY GET IT. He has put up with me griping about PUGs since forever, and now it’s his turn and I just laughed and laughed.