DD rotation and health for PUGS?

red_bird · August 2019

Hi. I haven't run pugs before. I know they vary widely, but when you head into a pug for a dungeon you can't solo (or even can solo, but it would take forever), do you tend to go in with the same setup you would for groups you know? Or do you make room for a couple of the skills you might slot in vMA to be more survivable? Do you raise your health a little, slot a self heal like BoL, wear a different set, or make other adjustments in advance? Or do you go in focused on your best damage (the kind of setup you might see in an alcast dungeon/trial build, for one example) and then see if you need to adjust once you're in? Or no change regardless?

Thanks

Runefang · August 2019

All I do is make sure I can sustain with little to no orbs by running witchmothers and can survive by running a shield or self heal. I always have iceheart on me if I really need it.

eso_lytw8 · August 2019

healers have been nerfed so much there isn't much reason to use them so if you are PUGing don't expect the healer to actually be a healer. The que is much faster for healer so most DPS just que as healer and the group self heals and go on. Unfortunately this is the state of the game. I miss the days where you had a tank, 2 dps, and healer. You didn't worry about self healing the healers job was to keep you alive.

Sometimes you won't get a tank or even a DDer with a taunt. This can be fine in some places but generally its a recipe for disaster in a PUG.

So yes just add a self heal but beyond that keep the same setup, max dps.

red_bird · August 2019

Thanks to you both.

Just small tweaks then for sustain and a self heal. (I keep iceheart on hand like @Runefang , so that's easy to fall back on if need be.)

eso_lytw8 wrote: »

Sometimes you won't get a tank or even a DDer with a taunt. This can be fine in some places but generally its a recipe for disaster in a PUG.

Yikes, my OH is a tank, so I'm spoiled used to not having the boss's full attention.

idk · August 2019

I do not run pugs but I would certainly suggest having something to help keep you alive as the tank and healer and even the other dps may not be so great.

If you plan on doing vet dungeons and especially DLCs I would avoid going with pugs. 3 of us queued and the pug we got, a stam melee build, said they did not have an interrupt. I am pretty sure they teach the interrupt in the tutorial but that is what you can expect with pugs.

zvavi · August 2019

idk wrote: »

I do not run pugs but I would certainly suggest having something to help keep you alive as the tank and healer and even the other dps may not be so great.

If you plan on doing vet dungeons and especially DLCs I would avoid going with pugs. 3 of us queued and the pug we got, a stam melee build, said they did not have an interrupt. I am pretty sure they teach the interrupt in the tutorial but that is what you can expect with pugs.

To be fair with the desyncs, bashing doesn't always work xd

idk · August 2019

zvavi wrote: »

idk wrote: »

I do not run pugs but I would certainly suggest having something to help keep you alive as the tank and healer and even the other dps may not be so great.

If you plan on doing vet dungeons and especially DLCs I would avoid going with pugs. 3 of us queued and the pug we got, a stam melee build, said they did not have an interrupt. I am pretty sure they teach the interrupt in the tutorial but that is what you can expect with pugs.

To be fair with the desyncs, bashing doesn't always work xd

and that would be irrelevant since this occurred well before the desyncs. This guy was clueless.

Fiewiel · August 2019

I do run pugs as healer exclusively in dungeons. So no clue about trials yet.
You want around 17/18k life or 14k + resis/shields, basically enough life to not be a oneshot. Slot a heal on the backbar so if you eat a mechanic and youre still standing and heal isnt doing anything/out of range/only hots, backup and throw bol. Nether run around like a chicken, never stand in stupid. Always make sure that tank/heal is in range and never stand behind the heal, many heal-skills are forward based. So standing behind heals is a good way to die (sad that I have to mention this).
On dlc dungeons slot a gap close/(ranged) interrupt. Some mechanics need to be interrupted by bash or other ways (cradle of shadows etc.) Learn interrupting, seriously! Beside that just use common sense. If you see that you get picked by an add make sure that you can block/roll dodge. Normally npc-2handers are the worst enemies.
If you want to put 5-10 minutes in to learn most dungeons, check this guy out:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbRLey26i3alNB9_1N0V98A/videos?disable_polymer=1
His (older) dungeons guides are short and pregnant. Alcast and Xynode also do those but its most of the time 40 min which is too much for me. But they are actual.