Stepping out of my confort zone

There is some irony to the fact I play WoW.I tend to think of myself as a introvert with little need for social contact.Most people who know me just say I am a grumpy antisocial bastard.And yet I choose to spend an insane amount of time in a virtual world surrounded by random strangers.
Truth is, I just ignored the mutliplayer part of MMO.All my toons grew up in a very small guild (a whopping 3 people for most of it) and managed to level without ever pugging.If we needed to do an instance or group quest we just 2 or 3 manned it.Watching trade chat was the closest I ever came to the insanity you get with a group of anonymous strangers.Well last night I decided to change that.I loaded in a low level rogue I was messing around with and threw him at the mercy of the random dungeon tool.Turns out the anxious wait in the queue was the worst part.

For my very first foray into randoms I drew the Stockades.It turned out to be a surreal experience.We all loaded in and buffs popped up without so much as a g'day.Our bear tank immediately pulled the first pack and we set about mowing them down.This set the tone for the entire run.Our bear knew exactly how fast we could go and was totally aware of the mana needs of the group.All the dps had amazing situational awareness and not once did an add or runner cause problems.To top it off our healer never once let anyone come close to death.The thing that made the run eerie was the total silence.We were a group of strangers from 5 different servers and yet we ran this like we had been working together for ages.A silent Juggernaut that just rolled over everything and then disbanded without once saying a word.

Gnomeregan was next up.This party was talkative and excited to be here.No one really had a clue where we were going but no worries.After buffing up we made the pull and all hell broke loose.Our warrior tank grabbed his target and I immediately pulled aggro off him.The two warlocks each choose a different mob to attack and our healer face pulled a fourth.Let's just say it was a rather exciting first few seconds.Somehow we managed to pull through with only one fatality.After explaining to the locks about letting the tank do his job and a well deserved ribbing about me not letting him gain a bit of threat we set off again.I would like to report that things went smoothly after that but I can't.We got lost repeatedly.We had a few more large chaotic pulls.There was never a complete wipe but we did suffer casualties.And you know what.It was fun and exciting.We never once had a blow up.Each failure was met with laughter and not once did anyone toss blame around.I'm sure it would have irritated a lot of folks but it was just the kind of mayhem and madness I am used to.

If the last run represented everything I like about a group then my next trip into Gnomer showed all I despise.I zoned in to find them a few pulls into the instance.All I can surmise is they kicked someone or managed to piss them off enough to leave already.Judging from how they played I would assume the latter.Our pally tank had a rather annoying habit.He just wouldn't stay still.I don't mean he would make subtle movements to reposition a mob or grab a new one.I mean he would bounce back and forth all over the room, dragging the mob with him.I spent most of the run chasing my targets around.Next up were our twin mages.I knew we were in trouble with them when I noticed they were called Gindolf and Gundolf.These two fools had apparently only bothered to learn one spell.Blizzard.They would both open up with this the second our pally started his epileptic fit and when they pulled aggro would go hide next to the healer.Without fail one of the blizzards would proc frostbite and lock the mob within melee range of our poor druid.Ah the druid, our one saving grace.This poor thing worked her ass off trying to keep everyone upright.It was thanks to her alone that we never suffered a full wipe till the last room.And how do they repay her dedication after the wipe?They all lay dead on the floor waiting for her to run back in.I actually had to stealth all the way back to the entrance (vanish ftw) so I could try and escort her back in to rez them.After we both died twice trying to get back in the rest of the lazy bastards decided to release and run.I would have dropped group but I'll admit some morbid fascination in seeing how bad it could get.

So there you have it.I braved pugging for the first time and lived to tell the tale.Will I do it again?Probably.I find the whole thing rather enjoyable and slightly addicting.Besides it is a nice change from the endless questing.