It’s not bad you can earn your way up it just takes time. It’s honestly needed with all the other things like LFR RDF and Cross realms. All things that also damage the overall health of the game and imho should be removed but that is a different topic entirely.
Pugging has always been this way. Random strangers have never been overly inclined to give a guy they’ll never see again a chance.
If I invite some dude with no experience to my key, by the time I realize he’s a potato, it’s too late, my key is ruined. So, no, I’m not gonna just “give a guy a chance” in any content that matters to me. I’m going to look for the person most likely to help my group succeed.
if you don’t want to be reduced to a number, join a guild. But, if you plan on doing actual progression raiding, expect your numbers to matter even then.
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Make friends, join a guild, be social. Its an mmo afterall.
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Nothing is stopping you from making your own groups, pushing your own keys and upgrading your IO score. Once you’re high enough, congrats, even the elitists will take you with them.
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On the internet, no one knows if you’re a potato, but I do like that we have addons which show the likelihood of any one person being a potato.
Here’s the thing: I don’t really disagree with you. The effect of random queuing systems on a game’s community isn’t a topic that’s been widely studied, but intuition suggests the community would begin to favor rapid completion of the task over enjoying the social aspect of the game. After all, why bother making friends with anyone when you can just hit the button again and get an entirely new set of N̶P̶C̶s̶ players to do your group with?
It’s really a fascinating topic, and one that I plan to make a large post about at some point in the future. The thing is, though, the LFG/LFR tools are much like Pandora’s Box. Once they’re out… they’re out. You can’t put them back in the box, and even if you could, it would be a really really bad idea. Why? Because virtually the entirety of modern day WoW hinges on random queuing as the vehicle through which players group together, and for some people, that’s the only way they’ll actually be able to experience group content.
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M+ would be a flop if Details wasn’t an addon (or similar dps meters) and raider io didn’t exist.
It would be so maddening when 95/100 runs were failures because that one guy didn’t know anything. At a certain point M+ turns into a game where one guy can ruin a key. I’ve ruined keys before. Everyone I have ever run with has ruined a key at some point. You build up contacts to run with not because they are perfect players but because they have a 95% good run rate (or something resembling that).
M+ would lose its appeal if you were forced to run with LFR quality players.
Guild and communities. Friends list. Discord servers. Don’t just be a random, meet people.
We need a tinder for wow or something?
Learn and grow with others, have a night of it. Find 4 people you like to play with and that’s your static.
420ilvl holy/ret/prot paladin looking for m+ friends, mist be 6ft tall and make 300k g a month. Send mounts for snapchat access 
Except that it doesn’t. You get WAY MORE than just a single number:
Lies. /flex
That is sort of the point, that doesn’t really happen organically as much anymore due to the reasons I mentioned in the original post. All these things contribute to the degrading of the organic nature of such social groups forming.
Yeah, you don’t ruin keys often at all. You’re the best DPS I know.
But we’ve both had some /flex moments.
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Life is what you make it. Be the leader to the sheep. Blah blah facebook inspirational posts.
Seriously, just communicate. Let the antisocial ones stay in pughell forever.
I think I ruin at least one key a week. And of course there’s plenty of times where it’s hard to assign blame. I swear as a melee dps if you don’t mesh with a tank’s style…your group is gonna have a bad time.
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Tidesage Council alone as MDPS…
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Eh, if it’s not raiderio then it’s item level, or gearscore, or the amount of purples you wear, or the achievement, etc. It’s just a way to filter out the best players to ensure success.
But you are giving unknown people a chance. That’s pretty much what pugs do. You’re just reducing your risk by inviting people who meet your criteria.
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RiO does nothing wrong and doesn’t hurt the community in any sort of way or fashion. Only people that hate it, don’t use it / have no use for it and want to be carried through harder content because it’s the gate key to them getting into other people’s keys instead of running their own and using their own key to push.
In simpleton terms: Only idiots hate RIO and ignore the good it does for higher keys or finding similar skilled allies.
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No it doesn’t. Also it’s because of it that “unknowns” get a chance. I pug all the time, if i have information that says I’m experienced i will get invited.
Just rejected a 450 ilvl player because he had a hidden io. Took the 439 player because his showed his experience.
I love this system!
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You don’t need it to be amazing, heck even if you do all base 7s you’ll get something like 400-700 io or something of every dungeon and then all 10s will net you a 1000. There’s also a lot of competition for dps ofc but don’t remember that there’s always like 5 groups and if you just apply to whatever you feel comfortable with it’ll build up.