Fractal team
I got to level 45 with 25 AR, and could have gotten to 50 and beyond if the patch hadn’t put a stop to it. You can call me what you like, but the reality is that the AR barely helps in 40-49, you die at maw anyway, and I don’t have the good fortune to make enough money to dump 250e on another +5 from the back piece.
That said, of course you will run into scrubs now. There’s nothing that can stop it, because anyone from any level can join you. Just do a gear check and hope for the best if you’re going to pub it.
Get a guild, this game is just swarming with trashy players. The only solution would be to implement inspect option, but then again you will get jumped by those trashy players spitting, raging and calling you elitist, just by mentioning the “inspect option”- because they want you to carry them, so long as there is no inspect option they are safe and they know that they can slip into groups that will carry them.