Elder Scrolls Online

Yup, i got that. My sympathies and all

Now it has happened, I got kicked from a group for the first time and I really don't know why. I know I'm not the greatest DPS and my current char is a bit underperforming, so I queued with CP700+ for a random normal to practise a bit. Darkshade I, nice and easy. The rest of the group was under lvl 50, I think, which in itself shouldn't be much of a problem. I did 40-60% of the group's damage, not great for that level, but kick me for that? There weren't even any problems as far as I can tell. Perhaps because they were running like mad and I had trouble to keep up, but to go on with 3 or to find a replacement would have taken even longer and I wasn't even that much behind. Then right in the middle they vote to kick me. No communication whatsoever, which in other cases would be fine with me, as long as everything is going well.
Maybe I did something wrong and didn't notice, and then maybe some people are just weird.

On a related note, I once had a player in a vet dungeon, pug again, which I joined (on another char) as replacement for one of the two mysteriously absent DDs. Turned out they kept kicking the other DD and then 2 or 3 of the following replacements, without explanation. When I asked I got: "It's a DW StamBlade", "not enough health", "not enough stamina"... I honestly wonder why I wasn't kicked as well, though they did complain about my low DPS. The only reason I agreed to kick in the vote was because every time I declined, they immediately started another vote, and at some point I just gave up and wanted to be done with it, preferably without queuing for another 40 min.

there are some basic dummies you can buy with crowns. just go to any of your houses, open housing editor, browse, then switch to the purchase tab on top. alternatively you can buy schematics for some writ vouchers at the mediators' alas them crafting costs can be a tad on the ouchie side.

as for the rest, well... 'member them pugs will be pugs. not much you can do about. so don't let them get under your skin or ruin your fun. just go on about it merrily blacklisting/ignoring at will and with a light heart

If you want to buy dummies with gold you can just visit Tamriel Trade Centre - pick server/console you play on and pick, say, 'target skeleton, humanoid' and you should see a guild trader it is available on (availability depending on whether somebody bought it, but store uploads usually refresh frequently)

I can craft a normal and robust humanoid, but I'd need mats for that (namely animus stones, the rest I have in abundance).

Also, if you're not in endgame/trading guild with a guild hall where there's usually a dummy and don't mind having me on your friends list (PC, NA server) I can give you permissions to visit my primary house where there's at least one normal dummy.

Well if you want to belong to any half-decent guild and have any sort of substantial rank as a DPS, you still have to present your target dummy parse. Target dummy practice may be artificial, but removing all the noise and movement lets you acquire familiarity and muscle memory to perfect your rotation, which is very useful in otherwise hectic dungeons and trials. It will let you find your own rhythm or familiarize yourself with set procs or ability weave. Do you know how to light attack weave or animation cancel between abilities, for example? If not, best get that dummy.

Also, I'll be real here - PUGs, especially in normal dungeons, really won't prepare you for the jump in difficulty for vet dungeons and even less so for content harder than vanilla vet runs (main boss hard modes, especially in DLC dungeons, are nothing to sneer at). They can give you a foothold in familiarizing yourself with fights, but even then vet versions are usually way harder, as normal dungeons don't have as many mechanics or they do much less damage/won't one-shot you if you mess them up.

I, for example, can solo most normal dungeons myself (save those that have mechanics that prevent it). I don't need people to run with me - if I join normal PUGs it's usually so people have an opportunity to finish the content alongside me as I bolt forward and kill almost everything while doing 90% of group's damage and usually healing and tanking on top of that.

What are you going to learn from that?

My advice? Join a decent endgame guild. That's the best way to teach yourself running the group content. Guildies are usually more patient and willing to share knowledge or teach you mechanics or discuss things with you via chat or Discord channel. If you're serious about regularly running group content I can get you into two good guilds I'm a raider in that are owned by people I'm friends with. No guarantee that you're going to shoot through ranks or breeze through hardest content after you join, but so long as you engage with guildies it'll definitely give you a better shot at it than PUGging.

And this right here is why I never group, and never join a guild. I can do without that kind of shit. So what if I don't do the group content? That's up to me and it does nothing for me at all. Same with PvP.

I know there are and if that's what they like I have no problem with that I guess I'm just too set in my ways from playing SP RPG's. I like doing things at my own pace, and playing in a group is kind of counter to that more often than not.

This is one dog who's getting a bit old to learn new tricks  

eso indeed has plenty to offer to all sorts of players, play the way you like. don't let the bad stuff you hear deter you from (re)trying new things though. yep there are bad pugs, but there are good ones too and generally you can tell pretty quick, without having to invest much of your time (the only real commodity worth thinking of, that and the fun you get) whether it's worth staying. the same really goes for pvp, indeed it can be quite frustrating at times regardless whether you queue up solo or as a group, but can be also quite fun and satisfying at others. youmeet new folks some end up on your friendlists, or not. and generally people tend to get hot and bothered when things get, or are made, or perceived should we say...competitive but there's still plenty of folks who care as much for the fun of it all. oh, and there's all sorts of guilds too btw... there are highly competitive pvp/endgame/trading/etc guilds that are very clear about that and require their members meet and maintain expectaions or else... but there are plenty of relaxed, casual and social guilds. there's crafting, fishing, home decoration, roleplay of all the different kinds and all. sometimes some drama may unfurl somewhere and that's okay too because you still have a choice what to do about it when it happens.

I wouldn't even know how to join a specific type of guild even if I wanted to....

They are going to add Guild Finder in June's big Elsweyr-related patch. Not sure about the details yet.

As for now - you need to be sent an invite by GM or people with permission to invite (you can join up to 5 guilds). So you have to either know someone, read their advert post on forum and send them an in-game PM or whisper to them when they advertise their guild in zones.

If you'd like to join a trading guild you have the best chance to do that around popular spot/town in each zone. Fair warning - the bigger the guild/hotter the trading hub location the closer to 500 member cap those guilds are and the more demanding requirements to retain membership. My Wayrest-located trading guild requires either 50k sales or 20k deposit each week to guild bank - and most of that raised money goes to hiring a trading spot. Like... there's milllllions of in-game gold and sometimes a Game Of Thrones level of political maneuvering going on each week to hog these spaces - big trading in ESO is SRS BSNS, no joke 

Fortunately there are a lot more smaller traders with less stringent requirements - maybe activity each week or regularly updating your list of things to sell and so on, if even that. If you'd be interested in giving it a try I'd recommend travelling to moderate or smaller trading hubs and waiting for them to start advertising themselves in zone chat. A whisper with a message that you'd like to join should land you an invite in your notifications.

In case I have weeks when I don't do much aside from dailies I make so much money from daily crafting writs (done on most of my toons) alone I can afford the weekly fee or rake in money just from selling accumulated mats in the guild 

Yea, I was 200-240 ping last few weeks and I noticed it coming back to around 170-200 in last few days. They must be tweaking something in the background.