So, I did my first PUG (pick up group) this evening with my Tempest of Set. It went pretty well.

In some games, getting a PUG can be a really painful event. There have been a number of times in previous games where having to rely on others was really painful. Stories about about how even one person not pulling their weight can ruin everyone else's experience.

What's interesting is that my character, currently a level 40ish Tempest of Set, is supposed to be a priests. Traditionally, priests in RPGs focus on healing. In online games, they are assumed to be an essential part of a group. In some cases, it can be really hard to play a priest solo. But, since AoC seems to support solo characters so strongly, I've been able to play my Tempest of Set with only the occasional brief group to share a quest spawn.

But, I had a number of quests for the Sanctum of the Burning Souls, so when I heard someone forming a group I offered to go along. It was a varied assortment of 5 other people. It took a bit for me to finally figure out how to get to the Sanctum, but once there the fighting started fast. Healing was interesting, since I didn't have to target individuals, just try to get them in the general area of the healing effect. Since I'm mostly soloing, I've built my character to do a lot of damage. Unfortunately, lots of high-damage AoE spells tend to generate a lot of thread, which made me popular with a few monsters if the tank didn't get aggro before I let loose.

On the other hand, people seemed to be focusing on going quickly through the instance. I had to catch up a few times as I tried to find some of the quest items I had to collect. I also had to grab the quest items when I could, since it seemed to be "grab what you can". Thankfully, it looks like there were plenty of quest items to be found in the instance.

Overall, it wasn't a bad experience. We'll see if that holds true at higher levels.