I presume you meant DPS gear? Regardless...one piece of gear might raises my eyebrows, but I'll deal with it. If we're talking 4, 5, or more pieces of DPS gear in a tank set, then EG is warning me and I'm correctly concerned.

There are always going to be elitist basterds who expect everyone they run with to be 100% perfectly geared - though they seem to be more prone to using gearscore then EG. You've already mentioned the tank in question had some DPS gear on..I'm going to guess that his enchants and/or gems weren't up to snuff, either. Personally, if I see someone in a tank or healer role with 40% or lower for gear (meaning they're wearing only 40% items appropriate for their role), I'm not saying a word, I'm just jetting out of there. I'd rather a deserter debuff then paying tons of gold to repair bills.

But yes, EG is a very good addon. But - it doesn't tell you how good the player is - just what you might be able to expect. Case in point - on Grim this morning I ran H: UP for my frost badges. The bulk of the group has ilvl 235 or better gear on - except the tank. The tank is showing at ilvl 190ish. But...they're gemmed, and enchanted. I adjusted my DPSing accordingly, laying back a little bit longer then I normally would have - and it all went fine. The tank, despite the lack of gear, was phenomenal, and we sailed through the dungeon with zero deaths.

Unless the tank had a number of bad enchants/gems/gears, Elitist Group wouldn't have been the reason for a group quit. That sounds more to me like someone who was expecting a quick run and was pissed off to find out it was going to be slow because the tank needed to get his groove back.

I'd encourage you to check out EG and see what it actually does before haphazardly blaming it for an LFG issue you encountered.

It seems that DKs and Hunters have the hardest time grasping how to play their characters - perhaps because these are the two presumably "easiest" characters to play? It boggles my mind how many level 80 DKs I see that are running around with one or more of their starter trinkets and/or their starter sigil still equipped. For the sigil especially, there's an easily acquired alternative in Grizzly Hills - regardless of their spec.

But yeah - I hope that when I talk to these players, and offer advice, that they see the good intentions and that it positively impacts their game play. I guess we'll never know though, unless one randomly stumbles across this blog and puts two and two together...

It's a slippery slope, no doubt. But I've found if they're vastly underperforming (and in heroics, I consider anyone under 1k dps as an automatic underperformer), that it's usually a case of them not knowing quite what to do with their character. These tend to be the 71 talent points in one tree, grabbing any piece of gear that the game tells them they can wear type. That's a generalization, yes, but these seem to be the folks who just don't know where to start.

In that case, a little bit of advice - particularly well worded and not condescending - can go a long way on improving not just their performance, but undoubtedly, their game experience.

Remember though that the list doesn't reflect gear that you could get in Ulduar, ToC, etc....and there are items in those raids that would place very high on the list.

I'll make an effort to get off my lazy cow-butt and do so.

Nah...can't get rid of me that easily. ;)

Indeed. Haven't been feeling well of late, and wanted to get all my ducks in a row before I started babbling. Soon enough...

You forgot the Vaseline!