Hello...whoooooo are you?

I read an interesting blog the other day. Karatheya over at Cold Comfort wrote a thought provoking article on how much we invest in the growth of other players. That starting me wondering.

The key point that I got from the article was simple. Investing in random pug players today may save us some time tomorrow.

There are several ways you can look at this.

1. His/Her point - They could be the recruits applying to your guilds in the future thus they need less work when they join then they would have if we didn't invest time to help them out a few weeks/months prior when we pugged with them.

2. They could be tank/healer/dps we find ourselves pugging with on a semi-regular basis.

3. There are only so many people you can place on your ignore list. And if we ignore every player that didn't live up to expectations....it would be a lonely, lonely place.

Pugging is a daily routine for Eto and I. We both like to do instances and like to raid. But as history, and previous blogs have shown, growing a guild isn't going so well. This leaves us needing to pug at least 3 dps every night when we do the daily heroic. Not to mention we pug for every Ulduar raid on a weekly basis.

Our Alliance toons have the benefit of not needing to pug. They are members, in good standings, of a well established, decent progression guild. This allows them to see the end content, heroics and events without ever having to pug for them.

Eto and I also tend to be the type of people that enjoy helping other players. We don't mind spending time talking gear, rotation, stats or strategy with another person that's trying to learn. But just as often as we find a player that wants help, we find just as many that don't.

So many puggers we run into really don't care that they are rolling on gear with the wrong stats for their character, or putting the wrong enchants/gems into that gear. Then they whine and complain because the other hunter/mage/warrior in the group has DPS that is twice as high as theirs and they just don't understand why. Thus, I'm sure, the reason they are pugging and not off raiding with their guild.

But for those few that do care, that really want to know why and what they can do to improve, taking the time to invest in them could save us all some time in the future.

Save you some time when they do eventually gear up and apply to your raiding guild and save me some time when they show up in my raid/heroic pug.

This has been the case with my 2 recent projects. The demonology warlock and the prot warrior. When I first met them both they were in the wrong type of gear, having issues with their gear and heading in the wrong direction. Both were new to instances, afraid of pugging because they were being ridiculed. But really, they just needed a little guidance.

I'm proud to say the little warlock previously under my wings is now pushing over 3,000 dps, as demo...that's saying ALOT. The warrior...well, he's now up to par to OT Ulduar and continuing to grow.

Either of the players are an asset to any group they join now. They are no longer a hindrance but an asset. So if you get them in your group, remember they once were the players you would have put on ignore and now they are the ones you want to have around when you need a good player to fill your pug spot.

Take a little time and help out those who need it. You will find, in the end, it benefits us all.