Newbie's First PUG: Some Thoughts

So as regular readers (I assume there are some of you out there) are aware, I started playing D&D Online a month or so ago with my roommate's encouragement, and ever since then I've been leveling up a few characters and exploring the virtual world of Eberron. My current main, a human cleric, hit level 5 last night (congrats to Jenaskha and her epic Cleric-fu) with the help of Jim's sorcerer (yay regular quest-buddy) and a few cool guys in a PUG (Pick-Up Group) I joined while I was waiting for Jim to get online.

Now, I admit it, I have never PUGged before out of fear of my newbishness shining through, but last night I decided to suck it up when a Bard by the name of Fuzzed popped up in general chat: 'LFM Kobold Assault Normal and Beyond'.

Now, Kobold Assault is at the same time one of my favorite and least favorite quests in Stormreach. It's a simple objective: slay 200 kobolds. Not something one could really do on their own at low levels, but if you bring a buddy or a hireling, it's easily accomplished.

Because of this, it also is one of the more popular XP farms. That and the loot isn't bad - it's where I picked up my first set of Full Plate when I first ran through it a few weeks ago. Thus, when I contacted Fuzzed and asked him what his group needed and found out all they needed was a healer, I figured, hell, why not? It was that or solo-quest the Waterworks, and that was getting old fast.

So I joined up with a group that feature a Bard, two Rogues, a Wizard and (I think) a Sorceress, and we ran through Kob Assault once on Normal and then once more on Hard, and I got to experience what it means to be the only healer in a group.

It's pretty brutal.

When I wasn't fighting off MOBs I was keeping a watchful eye on my party's health bars, running to find them and give them a CL or CM wounds (Cure Light, Cure Moderate) whenever they dipped to or below half their HP. It was daunting.

All in all though it went well. There was only one death in the entire two runs (the halfling rogue got completely zerged at one point), and the XP got me up to almost level 5, so it was a successful run.

That said, here is what newbie MMO player learned from her first PUG:

1. Being the only healer is HARD and requires a lot of attention
2. No-one can tell you're a newbie, so caution, rather than fear, should be felt
3. When the party splits, go with the smaller group - two against a mob of MOBs is better than one
4. Watching a human bard dance while stealthing = funniest thing ever (tangent: the dances in DDO are the lamest things EVER. True story).
5. As awesome as it was to game with cool new people, I prefer solo or duo-questing. Though that's because Jenaskha and Serenea (Jim's Sorceress) make an awesome team. That and it's a lot easier to focus on one person's healing besides your own as opposed to five other people.

Conclusion: Being the bandaid box in a PUG = hard.

Also, from what my friends have told me, being the only healer in a PUG is much much worse when playing WoW.

...

Note to self: when I finally play WoW, don't play a healer.

At least not for my first character. XD