Group Finder - Changes needed

Thunderchief · June 2014

I have had an increasingly difficult time finding groups to do the 4 man dungeons on my journey from 1 to 50.

1. As I completed each zone, the closer I would be to leveling past the group finders level range for the next zone. Knowing this, I started looking for dungeon groups that end at level 43 before I even entered The Rift. I knew the dungeon would be at the other end of the zone and I would level past 43 before I found the dungeon. I am not alone with this problem as there are others like myself that like to finish all the content in a zone before moving on to the next.

2. When I was within the correct level range to use group finder immediately it would find another DPS and the 2 of us would sit in a group for 2 hours until a tank or healer was found and then the last spot would be filled an hour later. It doesn't speak well for population balance in the game. Seems most of us are playing DPS characters.

3. A player in another faction was struggling to get a group formed. I offered to go along . Turns out we couldn't group together to do a dungeon that wasn't in our factions anyway. Are we breaking some sort of protocol if we quest to save our enemies from some great evil? Guess what? We do it for 2/3rds of the dungeons anyway.

Have the group finder find people of higher levels and from any factions. This should allow us to form groups faster. Also make tanks want to tank and healers to want to heal so that we can have more of them. This is an MMO and I want to play with other people. I don't want to run around solo questing all the time. That's what Skyrim is for.

NewBlacksmurf · June 2014

So the group finder works extremely well.

What you're describing is a lack of humans that play the game choosing to heal or tank. That is not something Zenimax needs to fix but something we can encourage OR YOU can become a tank or healer.

I currently play as a Templar and since level 14 I chose to heal.
Later I developed tanking so I'm able to fulfill all three roles.

Unless you're a night lads there isnt a real reason that you shouldn't play two roles if you intend on playing group dungeons.

Again, YOU can choose to resolve the experience that you and others are having.

Thunderchief · June 2014

I've been playing a DPS character since I started the game. It's taken a long time to get where I am now and I don't want to start over. I do use resto staff with mutagen in my second bar for backup heals but I don't feel it would be enough to heal a group in tough situations? Don't you need to be a Templar to effectively heal in group dungeons?

The bigger problem I feel is that now everyone seems to be rolling dps characters. People who have gotten to vet levels already are restarting characters that do aoe with destruction staffs.

Even if the classes somehow became balanced overnight the problem is still there with people being too high level for the dungeons by the time they get to them. I'm constantly seeing people trying to organise groups in zone chat. These are all people that are being excluded by the group finder.

The problem is also exacerbated by the requirement of having done the prior tier dungeon for Undaunted in order to progress to the next level. You can not do the skill point mission for Arx if you have not done Fungal and then Darkshade prior. So if you leveled up too fast and struggled to find a group for a dungeon tier you have to keep trying while leveling. Of course you can't find a group for lower level dungeons in higher zones so you have to keep going back and spamming zone chat. The whole system is messy.

I know a lot of people on the forums probably leveled past their first 50 levels in the early weeks after release when there were huge amounts of people surging through the game all trying to play their tank/healer/dps roles. I've heard stories about how you could simply walk through a public dungeon and never see any trash mobs because they all died instantly by hoards of players. I'm here to tell you that the situation is very different if you level up now.

I have a suspicion that many people are ignoring these dungeons so that they speed level to VR levels with the strategy of going back later for the skill points. I did the same thing with Spindleclutch and Banished Cells.

Tatuaje · June 2014

" When I was within the correct level range to use group finder immediately it would find another DPS and the 2 of us would sit in a group for 2 hours until a tank or healer was found and then the last spot would be filled an hour later. It doesn't speak well for population balance in the game. Seems most of us are playing DPS characters."

Hate to say it, but on this comment very old MMO news. As I used to say in LOTRO, you want an invite to the party play a tank, healer or a Cappy. DPS is "sexy" and everyone wants to do it. In GW1 healers were hired as Mercs they were so few and far between. I used to charge anywhere from 500 - 1500 gold a PUG run on my healer. Friends got the free discount.

While TESO seems to be trying to get away from the standard grouping, there will always be some need for an agro magnet, a healer, and DPS for the average group. In our guild of about 25 people I think there are only 2 dedicated healers and 2 dedicated tanks if that gives you any idea of the healer/tank to DPS ratio including all alts.

Edit: Spelling.... and I prolly still missed a few words.

NewBlacksmurf · June 2014

Thunderchief wrote: »

I've been playing a DPS character since I started the game. It's taken a long time to get where I am now and I don't want to start over. I do use resto staff with mutagen in my second bar for backup heals but I don't feel it would be enough to heal a group in tough situations? Don't you need to be a Templar to effectively heal in group dungeons?

No, anyone can help healing and SHOULD but your goal should be #1, keep everyone alive as a group regardless of your role.

-The issues that you raise are a direct result of people. People will do what they want to do and those choices will always have a direct cause/effect on others.

-Time, role, timing, association all create different results.
Here are some ideas:

-Find a small group of players that you can group with IN the world and assist one another, while doing so ask if they want to do a dungeon and if they have friends that will join.
-Adjust your character so that you can fulfill more than one role. (If you have a character that can only perform DPS, why would you assume others would have characters that can only tank or that can only heal very well?)
-Start the grouping tool while you're questing expecting a 30 min to 1 hour time-frame before a group forms.
-Join a few Guilds that are PvE based and see how those different guild play PvE, adjust accordingly.

Thunderchief · June 2014

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

-Start the grouping tool while you're questing expecting a 30 min to 1 hour time-frame before a group forms.

Lol you're dreaming. If it was that easy I wouldn't be complaining here. I was in a group with a tank and another dps for 3 hours looking for a healer. We were running around the Rift looking for skyshards and doing dolmens while waiting. Eventually it was late and I had to go to bed. The group never happened.

Another time I was in an almost full group and we were looking for a tank. One of the group members was offering a free werewolf bite to anyone who would come and tank the dungeon for us. He was asking for an hour and we had no takers.

So in one situation we had a tank and in the other we had a healer. Both of them are desirable roles but in both cases we couldn't fill a group either. What did these guys do wrong?

Guppet · June 2014

The changes are not need to the group finder itself. They need to change the xp awarded in dungeons, that may encourage more tanks and healers to level via dungeons. Currently there is no reward to being a dedicatd tank or healer when leveling.

They could possibly change the 2 dps 1 tank 1 healer to 3dps 1 healer. Thats perfectly doable for the pre VR dungeons.

Another issue is just plain numbers, this game doen not exactly encourage alts, so the pool of players for low level dungeons is now really small.

I tried leveling a new NB, with the intention of running all dungeons as healer. After many nights of queing during primetime, I had done 2 dongeons, both of which with no tank. So I just specced fully for DPS and gave up trying that.

Thunderchief · June 2014

Well the level range for the group finder should be increased because I did not enjoy not-leveling when I was nearly level 44 because I was scared I would no longer be able to use group finder. Just sitting around and spamming zone chat is not fun. In all it took 4 days of looking and 3 fail groups that quickly disbanded to get darkheart haven done and I wasn't the only member of the group who had been trying for a while.

Having the group finder search all factions increases the chances of a group forming.

I don't know why these changes should be resisted.