24hr Shutdown: Pugging Malygos 25

I started this post before Twitchie (the Gnome Warlock) had shown his face, so I tabled it until after the Twitchie Day(tm) saga had unfolded. Now that we're almost out of the 24hr Shutdown, and facing another couple of hours of Authentication Maintenance... this is as good a time as any to post it.

I pugged Malygos 25 today (27th April) on Twitchie (the Gnome Warlock) and it made me mad. Well a combination of mad and angry in amounts far exceeding what might be reasonable, even considering the circumstances. You see, you know going into a 25 man Malygos pug that there is potential for all kinds of issues, dramas and wiping.

From Twitchie's twittter:

Pugging Malygos 25 is like pulling teeth... stay tuned.

It fell apart. I don't get it. How do people actually do fights where they have NO idea of the core mechanic?

It's like walking into your pantry with a paper bag on your head, throwing random things at your oven, and licking the result off the floor.

THAT'S NOT WHAT I CALL DINNER.

Nevertheless, it has inspired a creative maelstrom in my mind about the very nature of pugging... and as a form of therapy I'll write about some of it here. So here it is, my intent, in writing to create some posts about pugging, both putting them together and participating... some tips on etiquette and communication... and finally addressing my major weakness: when to call it.

For those of you that missed the introduction post, my wife plays WoW and her main character is a resto Druid, Jondayla. Jondy doesn't like the swearing, and I like to freestyle swear. Jondy also doesn't have a particularly high tolerance for erm... let's call it "loud and angry".

However, Jondy does like to laugh (and she does like me).

So the challenge for me is to make my loud, angry freestyle swearing funny enough that the vulgarity : anger : volume : comedy ratio is over the threshold of acceptable, and the laughter produced is not nervous laughter (which I've recently learned is not remotely the same thing as regular laughter (I'm still learning the difference)).