On a game like World of Warcraft, there are many directions a player could take to advance his or her characters. From the person to whom Soloing is a daily joy through to the person who finds a partner for nearly every quest or every playing moment of the day, there's a wide variety of "player styles" in between.
We all come together in the form of a Pick Up Group, likely wishing to tackle a dungeon instance, but occasionally to tackle particularly difficult quests outside of dungeons (which happens a lot at level 70), and now our player styles have to mesh in some cohesive fashion so we can all accomplish what we came here to do.
What Is A Pick Up Group?
A Pick Up Group, also known as a "PUG" is likened to an impromptu game of soccer out on a field busy with kids - people playing in the same area who are interested in joining the game of soccer can band together in teams (with practical strangers) to play what cannot be played alone.
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In a dungeon PUG, players are around the same level and wish to find a group of people interested in entering the same dungeon they want, but unless they PUG regularly or bring a guildmate along, it's quite likely the people in their group are going to be complete strangers.
In a soccer game, specific positions need to be filled for the game to run smoothly: You need a goalie, you need defense and you need offense.
In a dungeon PUG, there are specific positions that need to be filled as well: Tank, Healer, and DPS. As players get more advanced, and certainly by Outland instances, DPS may also double with CC (crowd control) duties.
A tank can be one of many classes, but generally the most popular are Druid, Warrior and Paladin.
Only certain classes have a healing ability that works on others - Druid, Shaman, Priest and Paladin.
Most classes have the ability to specialize in a DPS (damage per second) style to their class, depending on how they spend their talent points, but the "pure" DPS classes (those that cannot really tank nor heal) are Hunter, Mage, Rogue and Warlock.
Crowd Control/CC is handled by a few different classes and for Mage in particular, makes the class a very valuable asset to the PUG: Mage can Polymorph (sheep) humanoids and beasts, Rogue can Sap humanoids and beasts, Hunter can use an Ice Trap, Priests can Mind Control humanoids and Shackle undead, and Warlock can seduce humanoids.
Assembling The Team
How a group is assembled can, right from the start, demonstrate quite clearly how the PUG is going to do.
Will the Leader take responsibility for filling out the group with its required parts? How many DPS have been invited into the group before a Tank or Healer has been secured? How many people in the party are waiting for a summon instead of making their way towards the instance?
Tip #1 For Joining A PUGNo matter what class you are, don't join a party of 3 DPS "just" looking for a tank and healer to complete their PUG - even if you're a Tank or a Healer.
One thing I've learned is that competent players learn how to make friends of Tanks and Healers and therefore their parties assemble quickly and get going without huge delays. Watch how long a "LF2M, tank and heals" group's requests go on - sometimes for more than an hour before they give up.
Learning From The Experience / Making Friends
If you have no friends to invite to your PUG to help make it a little smoother, you're at the mercy of the rest of the PUG'ing community for a little while, and this cannot be avoided.
What I'd suggest in order to improve your situation is to jump into some PUGs, see how they go, and keep track of what you learn so you can make use of it to make things run more smoothly in the future.
Start with considering downloading the Karma addon, which you can use to make notes on players you have partied with, and you can assign them a numerical value that reflects your opinion on whether you enjoyed partying with them or not as well. Next time you see them around, your notes will be there to remind you!
From there, PUG and pay attention to trying to PUG again with someone you enjoyed partying with in the past. Once you have a small core of friends you can turn to for a reliable playing experience, you'll find this core will grow more easily and your groups will form with less effort.
And always - make friends with Tanks and Healers! Bring extra mana or health potions and offer them up... bring buff food and offer it up... buff and offer water/food as a mage without having to be asked.
And if you don't mind tanking or healing - do it! You'll be well loved and sought after, and will need to carefully choose your friends list so you don't overdo it!