I'm an easy going player, for the most part, and do not complain much about how others wish to play. When I put PuGs together, I usually pick whoever is level appropriate unless the quest specifically calls for a skill: (ie INT rune, a bad trap, STR lever, etc.). Others spend some time putting together the perfect synergistic group, fine. I usually don't bother, as things usually work out just fine grabbing whomever.

However, several times this week, I've noticed groups restricting invites that are actually counter productive. For example, Reaver had 2 clerics, a few tanks, and 2 sorc (I was one of them). It seemed to take a while to fill, so I look at the LFM which said,, "Need DPS" and was restricting entry to barbs, rangers, fighters, and monks. I asked the guy, "Why do you need DPS in Reaver? As long as we have a tank and a cleric(s) to heal them, wouldn't the party be better off with casters?" Maybe a back up tank or two, fine, but to not allow another caster who wants in? I've seen several examples of this, lately.

I was in a shroud run, on a WF sorc, and the leader insisted on 1 caster to have an extra portal/fiend beater. While, this is doable, solo, it does get a bit hard unless someone else helps out with portal clean up (which no one did). WF casters sacrifice some SP, and Spell Penetration for all those HP. We ended up doing alright, but I ran out of sp with 4 portals left to pop, and part 4 still took 3 rounds (probably because there wasn't another sorc to help haste, elemental prot., FoD the gnolls, solid fog, enervate, buff everyone, Polar Ray, etc.). What was the point of this?

A minor, lowbee example, was a "Norm run" as advertised for Purge the Heretics, at level. The party had 3 people already, and every class was being accepted, except bard. Well, the leader was a bard, so I guess he figured 2 bards was just too much for this 5 minute quest.

The point of all this is to simply ask people to think a little before they are restricting classes to a group. I know the pure rogues out there have been dealing with this for years, type-classed as trap monkeys. This post is not intended to flame those who are putting up these LFMs. Rather, it is an attempt to let people know these restrictions are probably wasting time and may even result in a less suited group for a quest. If you don't know, ask the first few people who join. Very often someone more experienced can help you out.