Should the dungeon finder should put people of similar gear levels together?

As it stands now, the Dungeon Finder tries to create groups whose members have varying levels of gear; it tries to put people who outgear heroics to a ludicrous degree and people who are just starting to gear up together, rather than separate the two. Of course, this frequently ends up with people who are new to level 80 being put with elitist a-holes who could never fathom doing heroics in non-epics, even though we all used to do that. Many people have claimed that the Dungeon Finder should instead put people of similar gear levels together; people who are new to heroics would be put together and people who outgear them would be put together. But is this system really in everyone's best interests, or are we ignoring the risks of such a system?

Let's first look at the benefits of grouping people with similar gear together. People who out-gear heroics would stand to gain a lot from this kind of system. Most people who run heroics these days know that finishing the heroic is a given; the only thing that changes with your group composition is how long it takes to do so. As such, having "under-geared" members in your group only slows you down, but rarely if ever prevents you from finishing the heroic. If the Dungeon Finder put über-geared people together, they would get to breeze right through heroics and get their daily emblems of frost without difficulty. Many of the "best run" stories I hear about heroics are stories of groups where everyone had amazing gear and the trash and bosses died really quickly, so I don't think many players would object to more of their runs being like that.

What about the players that are still gearing up? What do they stand to gain from a system like this? Quite a lot, actually. If a player is just starting heroics, they likely don't have much experience with groups or with their class in group play. Heroics are not just a place to get gear; they also serve as a training ground for people so they can better play their characters when they move into raids. Now, let me ask you something: What does a tank learn when a healer can heal him through all his mistakes and the DPS can survive the damage they take if they overaggro? What do DPS learn when the tank causes so much threat that they don't need to worry about aggro and the healer can heal them through damage they should be avoiding? What do healers learn when tanks barely take any damage and DPS don't need to be saved immediately when they take damage? As it stands now, the Dungeon Finder spoils newer players, allowing them to get gear without the necessary experience and lessons that once accompanied it. That would be different if those new players were put with other new players: they wouldn't be carried through the heroics, so they'd learn something from it, and they'd be spared the hateful tongues of those who think one needs ilevel 232 epics to run heroics.

There's also the issue of intimidation. When a healer can't heal a tank that is chain-pulling half the instance because healers can usually heal him through that or he can't heal the DPS because they are taking damage that they should be avoiding, it's likely to turn him off from heroics. When a tank can't hold aggro because DPS refuse to watch their threat and they then chastise him for it, it's likely to turn him off from heroics. If a DPS are continually kicked from groups because they are only putting out 1.5k DPS, it's likely to turn him off from heroics. However, if people who are gearing up through heroics are put together, these issues would vanish because the potential for their existence would be lost. A new tank cannot chain-pull half the instance; a new healer can not heal the DPS through their mistakes, so he won't be expected to; and a new DPS can't pull aggro off of a comparatively geared tank. In short, players that are gearing up through heroics stand to gain a lot by being put in groups with other people who are gearing up through heroics.

Also, if the Dungeon Finder put people of similar gear levels together, there would be more of a sense of progression in heroics. If a new player starts out in heroics with players who can carry him through it, the heroics are already easy for him, and he'll probably get bored pretty quickly. If, however, he first runs heroics with people like himself, heroics will be challenging for him like they were in the early days of Wrath of the Lich King. As his gear gets better, he'll be put with people with progressively better gear, so the difficulty of heroics will go down accordingly, rather than starting easy for him when he first steps inside of them. Under a system like this, getting gear would make heroics easier for the player, rather than making him less of a burden to his groups. It would be a form of positive progression, rather than negative progression.

Now that we've gone over the easy stuff (the benefits of this system), what would the drawbacks of such a system be? One drawback for the more geared players would the potential for the widespread impatience among better-geared players to get worse. After all, no system is perfect, and people who are just gearing up would at some point be put with elitists. If the more geared players got used to being in very speedy groups, the less-geared players would be even more abused than they are now when they are inevitably put with more geared players. Rudeness is already an issue in heroics, but a system like this gives it the potential to become even worse. Still, considering just how bad rudeness had gotten in spite of mixed groups, I don't think it could get much worse. Would people who are gearing up suffer any ill effects from this system? None that they don't already suffer; they'd just suffer them less frequently.

So, in the end, everyone benefits from the mixed-group system being abolished in favor of a system by which people are put in groups with people in similar gear. It seems that the newer players would benefit the most, which is ironic, considering that the mixed-group system was probably put in place to benefit them.