how to deal with badly specced and geared players when forming a pug?

[Deleted]

about a week ago, i was trying to form a pug for RS25. after about an hour, i gave up because half the people who whispered me were completely wrong enchanted, gemmed and even specced. apparently, on Kor'Gall EU, it's hard to find decent players.

a collection:
an arcane mage that skipped arcane empowerment and was completely ungemmed and unenchanted, and yelled at me for not inviting me
an unholy DK that was specced 0/20/51, used PvP gear and ignored me because i tried to explain to him that he didn't meet my (rather low) standards.
a ret paladin that was severely over the hit cap, was ungemmed and unenchanted, and was using a wrathful claymore. fortunately, he didn't make a scene and we left as friends.
a subtlety rogue using maces.
a blood DK using war token and TAJ who was dual wielding (i started to cry at this point).
an arms warrior DWing 2 quel'serrars.

the list goes on and on... out of about 20 players i inspected, i ended up with the following:

3 who were ignoring me.
6 who yelled at me.
5 who i could invite.
the rest understood that they weren't up to my standards.

is this just my server? or is this also prevalent on other servers? and how could i avoid things like this without joining a guild or server transfering?

[Faralia]

I feel your pain... I have a (currently) alt Mage that I'm gearing up to make my main, so naturally I run a lot of PuG ICCs and ToCs, but any time I start one up, most of the whispers I get are from extremely undergeared and under-knowledgable people. What I've found is that it's even worse in the summer, where more kids are online. I'm not supporting the typical kid stereotype either, I'm 15, and I know what I'm doing, so I know that there are kids out there that know what they're doing, the kids I'm talking about are those who are constantly trolled by their parents and/or don't care enough to make their toon meet standards. Point is, there will always be people like you mentioned, but if you search long enough you'll find a good group. You were great in the way you dealt with those "fails", those who responded negatively do just that: fail.

[Linwelina]

Dont pug

[Hils]

Best way you can deal with them is to be honest, if they are specced wrong, let them know the viability of a spec, let's say 0/1/70, isn't viable for end game PvE content.

I am on Thunderhorn EU, and our pugs really suck, most of the time they are diabolical. Undergeared, ungemmed, no enchants, poor specs, lack of awarenss, not knowing tactics, and so on and so fourth. Ive seen tanks try to tank Lady Deathwhisper whilst the mana shield is still up.

Ive seen tanks taunt on Saurfang when they have Rune of Blood because they can't stand other people having their aggro limelight.

DPS who pull 3k but insist they are worthy of 264 items.

Just be honest, and then put them on ignore.

[Pope]

Just take them anyway.
You will do them a favor and they will probably get the job done.

Yesterday I did OS 3D with a 3k dps DW DK who didn't even spec into ITT.

And after that I did Ruby sanctum as a very very crappy equipped healer.
But we killed the dragons, and that's all what counts.

[Nerraw]

Dont pug

Not everyone has a fancy guild you know.

[Irony]

60% are terrible, 20% are undergeared, 15% are average and 5% are the reason you still pug.

[Halicia]

stick with your standards, kick them, and if you feel like giving them a reason thats optional.

pugs or otherwise, most players wont alter their gameplay until they are expected to.

once pugleaders on your server start having some standards, the people joining will live up to them.

[Stannislaus]

You're the raidleader? Answer's simple: kick them. Then ignore them to make sure they don't waste your time in the future. Spoiled, entitled brats are the reason pugs have such a bad name. You will earn a lot of respect from the people who have put in the time making sure they are raid worthy by not letting those people step in the door with you.

[Sumanis]

Umm arcane empowerment is passive now so how did he pass it up completely?

[openair]

well the only way to completely pass up a talent would be to not put any talent points there, so thats my guess... lol

[Sumanis]

well the only way to completely pass up a talent would be to not put any talent points there, so thats my guess... lol

There is no talent point to put anywere for arcane empowerment it is a passive talent you automatically get being arcane.

[openair]

lol yes there is...
http://www.wowhead.com/spell=31583

7th tier, 0/3
http://www.wowhead.com/talent#o

[Adysux]

I was myself on your server befor.
I was not puging i was pvping. My friend plays there in a guild and from what he tell's me the server is prety bad , well his in a guild with 7/12 hc 25 progres that raids 4 days a week so idk if i can trust him :P.
Anyway nice pvp server it was at some point. I remember the first time i hit 1.8k it was there /cry <3.

OP: find a guild. Is to that hard if u are the kind of player that is aware about every class/spec mostly ppl like you are wanted. Stop puging take 2 hours of your life make a good application
I myself raid 2 days a week in my curent guild + rarely in the weekend's afternoon. I saw your armory and is sad that good player like you still pug.

Edit :

Also about the pug thing on my curent server ppl pug LK 10 hardmode ( sucefully o.o ) . I never joined one sadly but just as an idea is posibel .
Here all the good leaders inspect and that makes ppl improve.

[BagOfChips]

You're the raidleader? Answer's simple: kick them. Then ignore them to make sure they don't waste your time in the future. Spoiled, entitled brats are the reason pugs have such a bad name. You will earn a lot of respect from the people who have put in the time making sure they are raid worthy by not letting those people step in the door with you.

This just in: people who don't have a grasp on min/maxing are spoiled, entitled brats.

[Leetbeartank]

about a week ago, i was trying to form a pug for RS25.

Therein lies your mistake.

[Halicia]

Therein lies your mistake.

i think thats YOUR mistake.

if you run a pug properly you should be able to EXCEED the average guild progression on your server, because you arent handicapping yourself with guild 'restraints'. in general you wont be able to touch the top guild progression on your server with a pug, but you can be pretty damn close.

(I was in one of the first RS25 kills on my server, which happened to be a pug)

[evan_s]

I'd say it depends on what the situation is and how they are reacting. Sadly, many people are now used to out-gearing the content and ICC is now pretty trivialized by the 25% buff, so don't understand the need to perform well. There is a difference between being not being Min/maxed and having really bad or broken specs and poorly selected/setup gear.

If you have the time and they are willing to listen you can try educating them. I recently had a PUG on my DK where all the dps sucked. Had a Feral Druid and Hunter that were both 71 point wonders with all their points spent in 1 tree. The third dps was a Combat rogue, who's spec looked descent off-hand, but was using 2 daggers. We had one point where we had a slight pause, waiting for a patrol to hit someplace safe to pull them, so I asked if they were interested in some tips to improve their dps. Both of the 71 point wonders responded positively so both the healer and I gave them some tips on how to pick a better spec. They were from different servers, so I never bothered to see if they actually did respec but I like to think they managed to at least get the proper cookie cutter specs and should do better now.

Obviously, you may be way to busy sorting threw all the interested people to spend that time with someone but when you get the chance, try to educate them. Who knows. You might actually prompt them to improve themselves to the point where they are descent enough to be in your next raid.

As far as the gearing issues go, I think it's partly Gearscore and partly Blizzards fault. Adding those Hit trinkets with badges was fairly bad itemization in the first place but when combined with the basic GS score that doesn't account for hit caps and the fact that nothing in the blizzard interface ever tells you how much hit you need it is a recipe for people to be way over hit cap. You have to just know, somehow, that the spell hit cap is 17%, or the special hit cap is 8%, etc. People can't avoid bad gearing decisions, if they don't know it is a bad choice.

Long term, the best way to avoid this is to make liberal use of your friends list. If you invite someone and they perform well, add em to your friends list. I'd also suggest looking for friends of people in the raid instead of just spamming in LFG/Trade chat once you've got a few people. If you consistently lead good pugs you will end up with a growing list of skilled players on your friends list and they will want to bring their skilled friends in with them.

[Linwelina]

Not everyone has a fancy guild you know.

You dont really need to be in a "fancy" guild and clear icc and RS. Maybe a few Hardmodes
But i agree i could answer abit more politely.

[Deleted]

I tell them what their gear lacks. From their answer, I judge whether they are just unknowing or retarded.
If they are unknowing, I point them to the usual resources (EJ) and tell them to come back later.
If they are retarded, I remove them. If they insult me, I report them for spam and harassment.