An aside about the word and meaning of "social"
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Social experiences do not require any sort of verbal or text-based communication. Spending time with someone is a social interaction. That’s an aside to this conversation, and we could discuss community building and social activity in another thread, but whenever someone says something like, “Dungeons aren’t social. Nobody typed anything.” it simply signals that that person doesn’t understand what social means.
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It’s possible for a pug without the buff to win against a premade with the buff, but for sure there is a sizeable advantage to having the buff.
This is entirely on the individual. If you play a priest, refuse to heal, are level 22 and haven’t upgraded your gear since the starter zone, you’re doing a disservice to your team by queueing. Go spend some time getting your prebis, and keybind your heals, because you’re a healer.
As I stated above, a good flag carrier can make a massive difference to a match. So can a couple competent people going after an EFC that use CC and focus fire, and it is even possible to overcome the massive deficit of having cheaters/exploiters/quitters/throwers/dragmedowns on your team, though of course it is difficult.
I get what you’re saying, but I personally disagree, and 100% stand by this statement: