Purchasing achievements- a do or a don't?

As a constant pugger, I find acomplishing certain ahievements to be near impossible, if not downright completely impossible.
Usually the fault is not my own. I won't entirely pass blame- I have occasionally stood in fire a smidgen too long in an attempt to get off one more heal. But normally achievements are just out of reach due to one or more individuals in the pugs that I've joined.
Pugs are constantly unable to muster up the coordination required to accomplish many of the achievements available. At times, they're too uncoordinated to even kill simple bosses.

And so, with many simple achievements and their rewards unatainable for puggers like myself, I read through "achievement X for sale for X amount of gold" advertisements with a little longing.
Trust me, I wouldn't want to simpy afk out during fights and have my achievments handed to me. But at times, after constanty running with fail pugs, I would love to join a group that has mastered all fights, allowing me to participate and to feel as though I accomplished something during the run.
However some people do purchase achievements with the primary purpose of setting autofollow and leaving the computer, expecting to come back and have ther character suddenly be elite. Those people then hit the general population with outstanding gear but still lacking the ability to play the game.
People like that set a low precident for those of us who simply want to experience fights at the level of high end raiding guilds.

Contributing

In the ideal PUG, tanks will hold agro, healers will keep the entire group topped off, and dps will maximize their damage while not pulling agro. In the ideal PUG, all three classes will do those jobs without error while still following whatever strategy is required for each boss.

Unfortunately, as we all know, PUGs rarely ever run idealy. Instead, tanks will pull while not in tank spec or gear, healers will zone out on their Whack-A-Mole marathons and die while standing in fire, and dps will unfailingly refuse to allow the tanks to build sufficient agro before smashing their OMGWTFBBQDPS!1 macros.

While those errors are easily correctable, the parties at fault rarely accept responsibility. While failing to accept responsibility isn't so bad in and of itself, it makes them believe that whatever happened isn't their fault and so they also don't correct their actions appropiately, thus recreating the situation. In essence, they attempt to shut a door with their hand in the doorjamb and rather than moving their hand, they state there is some fault in the construction of the door and continue to attempt to shut it- All the time keeping their hand in the doorjamb.

This stubborn refusal to man up and adapt an improved playstyle constantly baffles me. It seems to me- you're more productive when you're steadily DPS-ing, rather than dead and staring at the floor while everyone else picks up the slack caused by your death. Likewise with healing and tanking. It's simply unacceptable to be so ignorant and cocky to believe that your doing two seconds of 10k dps is so "1337" that the group will forgive you for not contributing for the remainder of the 1-12 minute fight.

So PUGers- how about just doing your job and stop trying to /peenflex. Cause guess what? Nobody cares how big it is if you die every pull.

I'm too sexy for your vent

Too sexy for your vent, too sexy by far!



That seems to be the mindset of at least half the members of any pug. In a guild run, that nonsense just isn't acceptable- you'll quit your whining, join vent during the raid, and be happy about it. But pugs are different- they generally lack a solid hierachy, and certainly lack any disciplinary actions for members who refuse to conform.

Most of the non-comformists won't even bother giving an excuse. Occasionally, there is a legit reason for not joining vent- sometimes their computer is such a hot mess that it would burst into flame if it had to run wow and vent at the same time.

However, usually it's someone who is overly self richeous and entitled and simply can't be bothered to join vent because it's far too much work. They'll state "it's old content- we don't need vent," then wipe, and promptly start bitching that everyone else is a noob. Some mistakenly believe that their guild vent is more important than the vent of the group that they're with. Others still are watching TV and would hate for their show to be interrupted by somebody screeching for MORE DOTS.

/wrist

/wrist for wasting a week and a half farming heroic TOC for the heart trinket that drops from regular.

Carry me, please!

I prefer to join pugs where the guy advertising says something like "5.6 GS and achiev required". I know it's going to be a fairly easy run, I know most of the people are geared and experienced, at least to the raid leaders satisfaction. The run will go smoothly enough, with a couple errors due to laziness and will usually fall apart when people have to leave for guild raids or real life engagements.

However, every now and then, that's not the case.
Occasionally, I'll run into this kind of advertisement: "5.8GS and Frost wing achiev required. wtb kingslayer for H modes. Going 11/12"
I see that and I get real excited- finally, a run that will be more challenging than the weekly "naxx" badge farm. I send my info, get an invite and notice that about a quarter of the people in the run are from the same guild. Whatever- guild run that needed more people. But then I get to the instance and my heart sinks. Some of them, including the raid leader, barely have the minimum gear to be farming trash.

Now that- it just boggles my mind. I can understand not having the greatest gear and trying to get a run to improve that shortcoming, but to advertise requesting top notch players and put on a front that implies a truly epic run...
For shame.

Look Ma! No Hands!

(And I can still pull off the tank)

As a healer, I occasionally get annoyed when I watch bolts of various type of DPS smash into a mob or boss before the tank even has the opportunity to even run up and smash said critter with their weapon. And as heals, I usually just keep the offending dps class from dying as I watch them hop and run around as the tank chases after trying to regain threat.

As a tank, it's an entirely different situation. I've usually already burned one of my agro abilities as I run up to the critter and when I see that shiny bold of pure DPS pass me I have to run through the various options available to me, because I *know* whoever did it won't pause for me to build up some threat, and their early DPS will unleash the fury of anyone who was actually being kind enough to wait. Even worse than their blindingly swift ejaculation of dps all over my mob is the fact that they'll then run around the map screeching "save me, save me" but refusing to stand still and let me do so.

The frustration I feel from the realization that it's going to be one of "those" runs is quite near to the frustration any woman feels after it's over in less than thirty seconds.
DPS: it's not that common, it doesn't happen to everyone, and it *is* a big deal.
So sit back, take a deep breath, let the tank get agro, and concentrate on not pulling. The experience will be better for everyone because of it. Because lets face it- no matter how good you are, if you're dead after two seconds, you were not a contribution.

Motivation: You're doing it wrong.

So every now and then I run into a group that sucks. But it's a sneaky suckage- the run has all the signs of a good run: high GS, people with the achievement, the ability to down trash and the first few bosses without vent, etc.
THEN! There is a wipe. A single wipe. And after that wipe, complete chaos descends on the group. And not only does the group leader fail to control it, and to pump up and motivate the group to do better, but they join the chaos.
The result looks something like this: