Craig, that was one of my biggest concerns whent hey lowered the leveling requirements a few patches ago -- as well as making many quests that required multiple people suddenly soloable. My fear, and perhaps rightfully so given the waves of neophytes running amok, was that these people wouldn't have the basic mechanics of the game down, which you would normally learn in a group or going into instances with like-leveled individuals. Without that requirement, I've seen people who have quite literally almost never stepped foot into an instance suddenly capable of entering a heroic dungeon and yet not know what aggro is or how to crowd control or that different classes are often assigned other basic roles.

It's not a matter of being elitist. As I've pointed out in the past on this site, I am a frequent PuGer. 99.9% of my groups are found by selling myself in the LFG interface. And I'll join heroic groups with a tank in all greens despite the fact that I'm decked out in gear far surpassing the required level for the instance. Why?

1) I really like the challenge, and
2) I enjoy helping others.

If we don't take the opportunity to teach others the basic mechanics of the game and help them improve their performance, we don't have the right to lament about the lack of "good" tanks and "good" healers and "good" DPSers.

The old World of Warcraft adage is that gear doesn't make a good player. With how easy it is to acquire shiny blues and purples, we can honestly say that gear really isn't a deciding factor for groups, especially since soem greens can be better than blues, as sheepe noted.

I'd rather take a neophyte who is willing to listen and learn than a purple wielding asshat who thinks he's God's gift to the group and is just an epic fail.