8 Tips to Minimize Fail When Forming a PUG.

*work in progress, it started off being 10 tips. 

None of them include asking for ilevel!

"Patience is a virtue" and "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

The time you spend putting together a capable and solid pug will be returned ten fold when you're finally in there. Take a little extra time and not just grab the first person who responds out of trade. Getting things set up right from the get go will help eliviate many problems down the line. Save yourself and your raid a ton of frustration by following these simple steps when setting up your next pug.

1. Tab Out:
Look up all potential and unfamiliar pugs at wowarmory.com. This is an easy and informative resource for getting an idea about who you're dealing with. You can check their raid progression and even use the gear audit function to see if they even bothered to gem and chant. Don't know about specific class specs/gear set up? Ask someone who does to give them a quick look over.

Obvious signs of fail - no gems/chants, shamans/druids wearing cloth, 0 actual raid kills and waaaaay too many in Raid Finder.

2. Ask for a Commitment:
If you're planning a full clear then ask everyone if they have 2+ hours to get through Dragon Soul. An experienced group can easily blow through regular mode and still have that first flask ticking. If you think the group can handle some heroics ask if theyr'e going to freak out on the first or 2nd wipe and bail. When you clarify the situation for the raid and give an estimated time for it's comlpetion then it's on that one player who bounces before it's done.

3. Have a Raid Leader:
If you aren't up on every aspect of each encounter from the boss abilities to the tanking to the healing to the melee to the range... then get someone in there who is. If you know all this stuff but aren't good at marking and explaining mechanics or even talking in vent/mumble, then get someone who is. In a pug even experienced players are going to go about things differently and you need someone steering the ship and keeping everyone on the same page. Which brings me to...

4. Get Everyone in Vent/Mumble:
My rule is no Vent/Mumble, no invite. It takes way too much time typing out line after line of instruction at every pull. More so, most of what you type out will be forgotten once you do pull. Fact is, unless you are yelling "melee out" or "hit buttons" most players will fail at it.

5. Loot Rules:
Clearly state the loot rules at the beginning and be thorough. Hopefully are you familiar enough with the loot to know when to step in and say, "hey that item has hit and you're a resto druid so that's not main spec" and other such situations. PuGs will roll on anything and everything.

My rules for a mostly pug filled run.
- Main spec over Off spec
- 1 tier piece and 1 non tier peice per person (when rolling against the same players).
-  BoE's are Main spec then open roll, if taken for Main spec I ask them to equip right then.
-  Patterns are up for whoever in raid has that profession then open roll if nobody can use it. I check for that "glow" and "chime" that they learned it and ask for a link in their book.
- Essense of Destruction I like to gather up and offer at the end of raid to those players who didn't get any loot. It's a small consolation prize to go with those gems. That can be a pain so a simple /roll when one drops is simple enough. On that note, pocketing the Essence is a dick move unless half or more of the raid is made up of your guildies and then they better end up in the vault.

Link the drops in a raid warning /rw and mention them in vent such as...
[Sexy Love Mace of the Gerbil] MS Roll!
To help avoid confusion I will specify what kind of item is up for roll while linking it. "tank bracers", "agility leather, "healer cloth", etc...

Reserves are a touchy situation, but can be totally justifiable. If you find a tank in full tier and mostly 397s and he really just needs a ring or that damn shield off Blackhorn, then I say, hell ya. If it's one of those low drop rate trinkets that any of 4 bosses can drop then I say hell no. This is also where Vent/Mumble and communication comes in handy. You'd be suprised how giving and accomidating players can be when you're straight up with them. Yes, that hand of Morchok is a great Frost DK or Fury Warrior weap, but it's also the only viable tanking weapon in Dragon Soul until Souldrinker off Madness, which a Frost DK or Fury Warrior probably wants too. If you notice that you're going to be rolling on the same drops as other players then get some chatter going and see what can be worked out. Often in my pugs we bypass rolling altogether because we've already figured who gets what and people are cool with it.

6. Keep Things Moving:
This applies to any raid, but especially a pug. Nothing will grind and tire out a group of random players more than down time. In guild you know good or bad what time that raid is ending. In a pug you have no idea until you're there. Don't make it any longer than it has to be.

Dedicate a break time at the start if it's going to be a full clear to minimize the AFKs and Bios. If you're the tank or a healer make a dps the Loot Master so you can keep pulling trash after the boss dies. When things go bad and you're 2 dps and healer down call for an immediate wipe to get things moving again [CITATION NEEDED]. If you just failed on a fight and you see there's problems, don't just rush back into another attempt until you've identified the problem and figured out it's solution. Talking it over a for a couple minutes is a lot qucker than dying 4 mins into a fight and spending another 5+ getting ready for another pull.

7. Schedule to Finish:
It's a pug and the group is capable of finishing, but a few wipes caused things to run long and now people are getting tired and want to leave because it's been over 3 hours on a run YOU STATED AT THE BEGINNING that would only take 2 and half. Understandable. Try to find a time to get everyone back together to finish. In all honesty, this often doesn't work out, but it does enough to give it a go. It's kinda like that 4 am after party with all your new BFFs you've just met at the bar earlier and you make these glorious plans to get breakfast or "do lunch" the next day. You know it's probably not going to happen by you say it anyway. But sometimes it does and it's usually pretty good! Even if you only get half your original raid to log in the next day that's enough to get even more pugs to try and finish it out. There's a reason most of the best loot is at the end. I have a couple toons I wouldn't mind at all coming into a DS on Blackhorn or Spine with.

8.Provide a cauldron and feasts:
*This might be more effort and gold than you're willing to offer, but it does 2 key things. First it gives everyone flasks and food buffs for a stronger raid. 2nd, it demonstrates faith and commitment to the success of the raid right from the get go.

So there ya go, a handful of tips, suggestions to help create that winning PuG.