Group Finder still broken? Observations from trying to use it for the last few weeks

cynaes

I still have huge problems finding groups through group finder - it doesn't seem to matter whether I queue solo as a tank or healer, or in a small group of two as tank and healer.

Some things that I have noticed (but that could also be pure coincidence):

1) It is (way) more likely to get into a random group when searching during the day, as opposed to in the evening.
2) If I search a group after ~7 PM (CEST) I can be queued for 3 hours at a time and not find a single group (sometimes I try leaving and entering the group finder queue every 15 minutes, but that doesn't work either. I've done tried for at least 15 evenings during the last month or so (weekdays, weekends, holidays - nothing seems to improve the chances for finding a group)
3) I can (pretty reliably) find a group if I limit my search to specific dungeons (the choice of dungeons doesn't seem to matter though) - however, I'm losing out on the daily (XP) reward, which is one of the main reasons I'm trying to find a group in the first place.

Is there any chance that the group finder will be fixed in an update not too far into the future? To me it has been pretty much broken ever since it was supposedly fixed. And tbh, not being able to consistently get random groups is the main reason why I decide not to play ESO at all on many days.

wayfarerx

It is broken, ZOS is aware and we're supposed to be getting a forum post from the devs regarding what is wrong and when we can expect fixes. So until then we wait.

Pallio

/z 531 dps still lfg gold pledge

JKith

So sad,.. it was working great for me before the Hist patch update.... would get a group within a min or two... now completely broken

Synfaer

wayfarerx wrote: »

It is broken, ZOS is aware and we're supposed to be getting a forum post from the devs regarding what is wrong and when we can expect fixes. So until then we wait.

and wait....

redspecter23

Get 3 friends together. Have your group individually queue as tank/healer/dps/dps and watch for over an hour as nothing happens.

disintegr8

PS4 NA here and it hasn't worked since DB patch. Queuing solo any role or paired with a friend and all we do is wait. I read the comment about the forum post but....... (holds breath and dies).

jeremiah911

What ever happened to the forum post we were supposed to get from ZOS stating the dungeon finder issues and things being worked to address these issues? @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom

JKith

I don't say this often, but this is a Serious issue that needs to be addressed. Group Finder used to work, now it's completely broken and it needs attention. Like Emergency attention! @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom

We need a fix for this right away.

Stovahkiin

Yes we've had dozens of threads about this, the only reason we need more is because people occasionally get one dungeon pop and then run to the forums cheering, "It's fixed! It's fixed."

Zeni is aware that it's still broken, you'll get a fix when they understand how their game works and when they feel good and ready to fix it.

JKith

Group Finder worked for me today, Flawlessly! Just like old times...

I queued and in less than 1 min was in a random daily dungeon.
I grouped with someone grinding XP, and I didn't have to relog.

Could this actually be fixed?

Stovahkiin

JKith wrote: »

Group Finder worked for me today, Flawlessly! Just like old times...

I queued and in less than 1 min was in a random daily dungeon.
I grouped with someone grinding XP, and I didn't have to relog.

Could this actually be fixed?

Oh dear... It's nice to hear that it worked for you once, but please read my post above.

vyndral13preub18_ESO

I single queued as dps and had a group in under 5 minutes. There was a total of 7 people in it, which is a new personal best, but damnit i had a group. Until I got voted off the island and had to sit for 15.

cynaes

JKith wrote: »

Group Finder worked for me today, Flawlessly! Just like old times...

I queued and in less than 1 min was in a random daily dungeon.
I grouped with someone grinding XP, and I didn't have to relog.

Could this actually be fixed?

I actually think the main reason why this happens is the time of the day you try queueing. I've described this above. When queueing around lunchtime, I tend to find groups. When queueing in the evening, chances are extremely slim. At first sight, this could have to different explanations:

1) Group Finder breaks at some point during the day and only works again after some kind of recycle during the night.
2) Group Finder breaks if too many people try to use it at the same time.

No matter the reason, where I work (software development) this would be a high priority issue. It's not game breaking, but it's affecting the whole user base and partially rendering a whole system (= dungeons) pretty much useless for the average player.

The sad thing is: All the time they spend on finding a solution for this technical problem keeps them from solving the inherent design flaws, e.g. kicking of low level players right after the group was formed, because: I don't play with news. (note: I never had this problem myself, as I usually queue with cp characters, but I've been in quite a few groups where others tried to kick a non-cp player or had this happen to friends).

tl;dr fix group finder already!

Zamuro

i just queued and instantly got into a group, i think its working now, and its almost night, but if they want to win me as subscriber they will have to do more than bug fixes

SolarCat02

Last night it seemed to work perfectly, for the first time since Dark Brotherhood. This is on Xbox. I only tried queuing for random dungeons.

We had a group of three - two DPS and a healer. Around 8pm EST we queued for a random normal in the hope of boosting our healer to Undaunted 5, and about 2 minutes later the queue popped with a tank for the undaunted daily (which our tank had selected).

After the dungeon, I relogged to my healer to do a random daily on her for the xp boost, around 8:30pm. Queue popped almost immediately, for normal Blackheart Haven. This was a dungeon in progress, the group had gotten stuck on the boss with the harpies, that needs to be interrupted or she one-shots everyone but the tank. This group had no tank, just a 12k health magicka user who was replacing everyone else in the group one by one. (The replacement feature was taking less than a minute to find people, and they were all able to join the dungeon.) I decided to run it in spite of the false tank, since the only other person in chat was a competent Trials build stamplar killing time before his 9pm Sanctum run. I kept him alive and buffed, he killed everything, and we finished in time for his event.

Dungeon completed successfully, I decided to try my luck for another. 9pm EST queued for another random normal, this time popped immediately as well for Tempest Island... As DPS. Oops, forgot I had checked that option for a guild event Monday. This was a brand new group, we went through everything quickly and silently, nobody got kicked or lagged or anything, and life was good.

Time to prep for bed after that one, so I wasn't able to test any more. But I am hopeful!



I haven't tried it with veteran dungeons or specific dungeons, and it hasn't worked before last night, so this experience could certainly be a fluke. I am hoping, however, that it is a sign of good things to come. Hopefully!

Gargath

Personally I'd like this Group Finder to work in a more inteligent way, I mean if
- according to overall community we can do normal dungeons without tank or dedicated healer
- because everyone can have healing abilities which can help others
then why GF does not search for players using their actual slotted abilities, ie. if someone that is stamina templar plays with repentance he can play off-healer in normal dungeons, also if someone has Vigor slotted he also can be marked as off-healer.
In this way the grouping tool can find groups faster, without looking always for this tank+healer+2DD model for every group.

From the other hand I'd like the Group Finder to have stronger protections against players that queue for roles they cannot play, so when DD queue as tank and/or healer and dd just to increase the chances for grouping.
This already became ridiculous because when I ask guildies to participate in dungeon, sometimes they advise me about choosing all roles in queue "because everyone do so and it's nothing wrong". For me it's utterly unfair and childish and I never do it.



And - as shown on screenshot - I already had a pug with such blatant players yesterday, the group was awful but when I found these players have cheated the system I just didn't revive them when they died. Sorry, no way I play fair when others blatantly cheat me.

If just the GF tool could see who has what skills slotted, and if someone has no healing abilities slotted - he should be unable to queue as healer, also if someone has no tank abilities slotted - no way to queue as tank. Then if players find a group after queueing as tank/healer, they should be somehow forced by the system to play their roles they chosen for queue - should not be possible to change roles after queue or inside dungeon.
Just my thoughts, hope it would solve some actual issues.

Edit: Also one more issue, in this pug mentioned above it appeared that some of these players actually had healing abilities just not slotted, like one had BoL, they just didn't use them even when other players were close to die. This is somehow hard to understand how some players play in group but still alone, without caring about others. Another reason to implement a system tutorial for new players, explaining all the grouping issues and necessary attitudes for all ESO group activities.