Having a hard time PUGing as a DPS and want to know how to stand out? Here's how to get noticed by tanks.

So I see a lot of posts around about life being difficult for DPS to pug Mythic+ dungeons. There's one on the front page right now, in fact.I'm not here to tell you to harden up, that it's not that bad. Because it is that bad. I know this because when I make a group as a tank for ANY Mythic+ keystone, I get a veritable flood of DPS applications almost immediately, and almost all of them are very well geared, regardless of the actual level of the keystone.The Reason.It's not uncommon to get a dozen 900+ applications for a +6. That's great for my group, but not so great for the 880 DPS who really need to be doing that 6.The big problem is that all of these DPS are essentially interchangeable and indistinguishable to me. I usually just take the first three DPS who apply. The 903 Hunter is interchangeable with the 907 Warlock who is interchangeable with the 901 Demon Hunter who is interchangeable with the 910 Rogue. Most of the success of the dungeon usually rests on me and the healer doing the right thing and hoping the DPS don't muck anything else up.Usually, the most common advice is "Make friends with a tank, or a healer, or both, and then run dungeons with them."Good advice, great in fact. But it doesn't really help you with HOW to do that. If you don't have a guild or group of friends to play with already, then you have to get into a group and hope that the tank or healer want to continue playing with you. Not always easy.The Solution.The problem is that more or less, DPS are indistinguishable from one another. So, you need to distinguish yourself.How do you do that?Use your class in ways that help the healer or tank and relieve some of the responsibility those roles carry for the success of the group.I've been a tank in WoW since 2008, and here are some examples of things good DPS do that I will remember, that sets them above and beyond the other DPS I group with. These are the guys who I will add to my battle.net tags and ask them to run dungeons before I even go to the Premade Group Finder. The important thing to remember is that you need to do these things without being asked. If I have to ask someone to do these, then effectively it has still remained my responsibility, instead of being able to free myself from worrying about it.Interrupting well;If a DPS player can interrupt competently, I immediately notice. A DPS who bails me out of a bad situation by holding their interrupt for the Champion's AOE fear on the Maw of Souls boat packs because I had to burn all my interrupts on the healers will get a lot of love from me. I have a weakaura which shows me whose interrupt cooldowns are available, and I have lost count of how often the AOE fear went off on those packs, pulling more mobs, while a DPS player had their interrupt available and ready to go.Helping control mobs;The DPS death knight who holds his death grip until BOTH Pelters have jumped in Neltharion's Lair, then runs to one of them and pulls the other towards it, grouping them up for stuns and cleave. (Instead of burning his death grip as soon as a single one jumps, pulling it back to him and achieving fuckall)The mage or shadowpriest who spellsteals/mass dispels the Demonic Ascension buff from the caster mobs in Arcway, preventing the transformation.The warrior who waits to use Shockwave on the cyclops monsters before the Tree boss in Darkheart Thicket, stunning them while they're casting instead of doing it prematurelyBlood Elves who use Arcane Torrent.Taurens who use War Stomp.The hunter who notices my interrupts are used, and uses Counter Shot to interrupt a stray caster and bring it into the pack to be killed.The shaman who notices that we've accidentally overpulled and bloodlusts to help clean it up so we don't wipe, without me having to quickly try to type "lust" in chat. (yes, it's better to "waste" lust/heroism on trash if it saves a wipe, especially on Fortified.)The rogue who knows how to sap and distract to allow the party to Shroud through the last trash pack on Darkheart ThicketThe druid who throws down a Typhoon to knock mobs out of Sanguine without taking ten seconds to realise it needs to be doneKnowing what mobs are kill targets without having to be babysat with marksSome mobs in trash packs are more dangerous than others. If I'm in a complete PUG, I'll usually put up skull marks on priority targets. However, sometimes I don't have time to reassign that marker once the target dies, and there's often more than one dangerous mob per pull. ElvUI allows you to see who is targeting a mob, and if I see a DPS player targeting the second priority target without me having to mark the skull again, that's pretty nice to see.Being friendly.This one kind of goes without saying, and it's not really limited to DPS players. Just be friendly. Say hello at the start of the group, make a joke here or there if you feel it's appropriate, and just generally talk nicely. Everyone appreciates a silent competent robot to a certain degree (certainly a lot better than a loudmouth idiot) but you're not likely to be invited for another run if you never said a word.the endso, that's one tank's advice for how you can make life a little bit easier on yourself when it comes to pugging and doing groups. This was targeted largely at 5mans, PUG raiding is a different beast and while some of this applies, lots of it does not.I am by no means an authority on this subject, I'm sure there are tanks out there who have different criteria, but for me personally, this is what I like to see.This is also by no means a guarantee. You could do all these things and not end up making friends with the tank and not getting to go on more runs. Maybe the tank doesn't want to make more friends, maybe he was just doing one quick run for the weekly and nothing else. But this is about maximising the chances.tl;dr - If you want to stand out from the other DPS that are playing this game, you need to do things that make you stand out. Merely doing high damage and staying alive isn't enough.