User:Raine Valen/Musings/Unranked

I'm unranked. I've got no displayable title in HA.

It comes up often enough on this wiki that "HA is too hard to get groups in without rank, and it's a horrible, self-perpetuating cycle." Well, I'm going to call bullshit on that one. No, I'm not some PvP-elitist theorycrafting hypocrite; I'm the same as you lowly, unranked schlobs.
Well, almost the same.
I HA when I want to, and it's not a problem for me.
Now, before you say "Your friendslist is probably stacked, then!", I'm going to own up to that. In fact, I'm going to suggest that you do the same thing I do, in a few easy steps:

Step One: Add people to your friends list if they are good players.
They don't have to know you, they don't have to like you. Not when you add them, at any rate. But this is the first step to forming long-run successful groups. If your flist is empty, you're not getting past this step. But just adding people to your flist isn't going to make groups, you have to take it further than that.
Step Two: Talk to the good players on your flist.
I cannot emphasize this enough. Whether it's just a "Hey, what's up?" (you're going to get a "whoru?" back the first time, most likely) or a "Hey, I saw you in <wherever> the other day and I thought you were pretty good; I was wondering if you'd like to come HA with me and a couple of friends for a bit." (this one will get you anything ranging from "Sure" to "I'm busy ATM, but maybe later" to "wtf do i know u?"), but you have to talk to these people. As much as you may like to think that good PvPers are arrogant and don't give a shit who you are, the fact is that they are people.
Step Three: Form your own groups.
Don't randomway. Pick a build and run it. Stand in ID1 and ask for exactly what professions you need. Ping bars, ping Vent info. Make sure you're playing a bar that you're good with; no one's going to come back if they see you suck at what you're playing. And once you've got a team together and everyone's on Vent with their bars, enter the match.
I know, I'm oversimplifying. It can take 45 minutes to form up exactly the build you want (the first time; finding replacements if someone leaves is much faster). So spend the hour; if you want it, work for it.
Step Four: Tell people what to do, and ask people what to do.
The fact is, most people will do exactly what they're told. If you tell people how you want your build played, they will play it like that nine times out of ten. If you tell your ele to Rodgort's on spikes, they will Rodgort's on spikes. But if you aren't specific in your instructions, people will play bars the way they think they should be played, which may or may not be totally wrong.
If you don't know something, chances are someone else does. Asking for information doesn't make you look bad, it makes you look prepared. It's much better to ask "Who should run relics?" before you start than to get to a relic run and not know what the fuck to do.
Step Five: Kick bad people.
This step is the eating bees. No one likes being the ass who has to do it, but to be successful, you cannot carry bad players. Don't be a dick about it; something tactful like "Sorry, but you're not exactly the kind of ele I was looking for" works well enough. Also, give people a reason why they're being asked to leave; don't just kick people. "You were late on every spike" or "You landed like one Bull's that entire match" are valid reasons, and people understand that. However, I also advise giving second chances (second, not sixth); a player very well may be having an off game.
Step Six: Flist good people.
Eventually, you'll find that some players are better than others. Add the good ones, invite them in the future. Look familiar? Yep, that's right; this is step 2. See, this isn't a one-time thing, it's a process. You'll continue to build better and better groups like this, without having to worry about rank, etc.
Simple.

Congrats, you're HAing.