Leading a Pickup Group

Many people consider pick-upgroups as a no-go, but with the right leadership you can often get things done. Of course there are some impossible cases but it's possible to kill some of the harder instance bosses (such as General Drakkisath) even with a very bad group. Harder bosses (such as the tier 0.5 bosses) are possible to PuG with a decent group (excluding Lord Valthalak, which still is difficult with a very good group).

Forming the group
Getting the best players to the group is an important key to success. Here are some tips on how to find the right people.

Start with checking your friends list and guild to see if anyone would like to join you in the dungeon.  It's always easier to find people if you start with more than one from the beginning. Some people simply don't want to join unless you already have a group (at least two people). Even if you don't find a friend, start writing in the LookingForGroup channel. The text should be something similar to ”LFM <instance>” at first. Make sure you don't spam the channel, that just gives most of the good players a bad impression and that might be a reason they don't join. Later, when you only need a few people it's generally better to use LF<how many members you need>M <instance>, need <classes> to find people faster. Also, ask if the other players in the group know someone who wants to join. If they want to be promoted to leader to invite, tell them that you'd rather take the names. By giving leader to someone else, you are giving up your control!

Sooner or later you will probably have someone who wants to join. Always shift-click on the person's name or /who <name> him to see his class, level and guild.

You should avoid inviting people matching any these conditions:

1. Characters more than 4 levels lower than the last boss unless it is a healer or the person is close to levelling (you can ask him/her).

Reason: The boss will be of red level to the person. He/she won't be much of use when he/she can't do much damage to the last boss (which usually is the hardest one).

1. Characters more than 8 levels higher than the last boss (or even less in the lowest level instances).

Reason: The instance won't be very fun when you have a person which is too high level since it completely removes the challenge with it.

1. People with names such as Legolazz, Supermage, Littelgnomie, Sexyelf etc. However, you should not rule him out if he is in a good guild or if he speaks english or whatever language is on your server well when you ask him some more questions.

Reason: Sure it prejudice to judge by a person's name, but it is just too often these people ruin a good group.

1. People who speaks like this: ”Cud i plzzz join ur grp?” ”plzzzzz” ”lol Y not?”

Reason: Same as above.

1. People in a guild you have had very bad experience with.

Reason: Good people tend to leave these guilds, at least I have never ever grouped with a good player from a certain guild on my server.

If it's one of the three last reasons, the best way is to say that you don't need his class or simply tell the truth. If people whisper you with ”plzzzz” or something similar after that just say no. If they still continue, tell them to stop begging and ignore them if needed.

I don't care too much about talent specs. Skill means a lot more and it's not like a shadow-priests can't heal. Asking the players what they think they are capable of is a good idea, maybe you can have a priest dps-ing, a druid tanking and a paladin healing

Also, make sure you are not trapped when creating a group. For instance, you can tell people more than two levels below last boss level to wait a little until you find a healer/tank/key and if you find a higher level of the same class who is not an idiot you could invite him instead. This could also be useful if you need a key but still don't have any healer or tank. It's not a good idea to invite another dpser without a key before you have healers and tanks because it's a lot harder to find a healer and tank with key than any class with key. It's not considered nice to kick people to make room for someone else.

Inside the instance
The first thing you do when the group is full is to tell everyone to move to the instance. Also ask them if they know the looting rules on your server (I've noticed it is different from server to server). If they don't know them, then simply explain to them. Avoid using abbreviations such as BoP (binds on pick up) because not everyone knows what they mean.

When everyone is inside the instance, you can begin. To ease things up you can use different marks on the enemies by right-clicking their portrait and choose an icon. For instance, you can tell people to always attack the skull, sheep the star and sap the cross.

If you notice the players suck, don't tell them that they're a bunch of f*@%1ng n00bs. Just explain to them what they are doing wrong and how they can improve. Some people are lost causes because they just don't listen. In the worst case scenario you'll have to kick them, but normally you can live with it.

If someone suggests a tactic other than your own plan, you should always listen to what the other players have to say. However, they often suggest plain stupid tactics and still want to do it their way. If that's the case tell them it could work but your tactic is better and explain why. Always make sure no one gets angry with you, because that causes players to be in a bad mood and the risk of people leaving will grow.

Remember that you can use the raid warning channel (/rw) if you are in a raid group for important messages. You can also promote the good players so they also call place marks and write in the raid warning channel.

Loot
Making sure all loot handouts are fair is a good way to avoid making people upset. Always remember healers also want dps-loot and feral druids want healing loot etc. But if someone wants an item which really has no use for that class (such as a hunter or druid wanting a weapon with chance on hit) you should tell them to pass and explain why it’s not good for them.

Also make sure that everyone respects class sets and armor classes (rogues should get leather items before hunters).

If someone ninja loots something it's generally because they don't understand the looting rules. Explain the looting rules again to them and if they keep ninjaing items you'll have to kick them. If they do it on purpose (you can normally decide on a case-by-case basis) then they should be kicked and placed on your ignore list.

Quitters
If someone leaves the group in the middle of the instance, the best thing is to try to find a new member as soon as possible with ”LF1M <instance>, need <classes>, already at <place inside instance>”. This is obviously also the case if you have to kick someone too.

If the person who leaves without a good reason, a good idea is to put them on some kind of blacklist (not ignore) and be very suspicious next time they want to join your group. Explain to them that they may only join if they can stay until you are done and give priority to other people if there are other people of the same class wanting to join.