ESO need a proper trial / group finder

Fhritz

I mean, something where you can choose what type of player you want, if you want to do a 4 man dungeon or a trial, or anything else, if you want to farm or to do a learning run, normal or vet, etc...And where people can search and choose manually.
The chat is fine, but with how ESO works (instances, zone chat, etc...) searching and finding a group is a pain as a casual. Yes we can join a guild to find group too, but actually i'm sure that some player don't do any group activities just because it's a mess !

colossalvoids

It would do if not an automated one like current dungeon finder. Otherwise certainly no.

Would be a way to unclutter zone chats and spread out people out of Crag which is already overpopulated most of the times with lead and resource farming, trial group forming, let alone people actually playing there.

Grandchamp1989

In my opinion I think a trial finder could work on this condition:

Normal Trial Finder - Open to everyone

Craglorn Veteran Trial Finder - Open to everyone CP160+

DLC Vet Trial Finder - Unlocks once you got the achievement for completing the specific DLC trial you que for. (Yes this means learning the mechs with your guild)

Is my idea popular? Likely no, but it's very realistic and I could see it work just fine.

This makes sure you que for a DLC trial with people who've done it before.

KilianDermoth

What about something room based like usual in old games. Just create a room, choose map and difficulty, title, description / tags and let people join. Press ready and start and let's go.

Maybe highlight (for example with colorcodes or little tags or even both) those rooms where friends (1. priority) and guild members participate (2. priority or even 5 different priorities).

Also it should still be possible to just invite people. And maybe a global LFG chat room?

Sengra

I've always wondered why they never added a proper lfg tool where you can advertise your group or browse through available groups. Really weird decision on their part when most MMOs have this (even console MMOs like FF14).

Facefister

Sengra wrote: »

I've always wondered why they never added a proper lfg tool where you can advertise your group or browse through available groups. Really weird decision on their part when most MMOs have this (even console MMOs like FF14).

Because the fake DDs would complain even harder.

hafgood

I have no issues with a trial finder but would hate to see any kind of gate keeping on it. The 2nd post suggests vet DLC trials only to those that have done them - how do you get the experience if you cannot use a tool such as this to get them?

And no, many players are not part of guilds and even where they are the guild may not be capable of clearing the content.

I do my trials outside of the guild system and my main guild would fail at all except the Craglorns. Yet I've done all on vet, and am working through hard modes.

So yes to finder, no to artificial gate keeping

TelvanniWizard

This is one of the most needed features imo

FeedbackOnly

Just bulletin board at this point would make me happy as a raid leader

Harvokaan

I vote no tbh as finder usually indicates it is for easier content that can be done with randoms. One of the reason dlc dungeons are nerfed is because of pugs who are not able to finish the dungeons with random group. Trials would probably be affected and erfed and it already is one of the last content left for vet players in the game.

KilianDermoth

Yeah a trial finder which is done like the actual dungeon finder, maybe.

But I disagree if it is dungeon like in older games (like I already described). It would be even nice if it would be extended to dungeons (not as replacement, as addition) so people could find other people who want to do hardmodesy achievement runs and such.

BlossomDead

Yes, please. I've been begging for vBRP runs in Craglorn for a while now. This is a much needed addition.

Trinket61

I think that the most positive change that ZOS could add to its VET /TRIAL group finder would be cp ranges
e.g
160- 800 , 801- 1200 , 1200+

I think that cp is an important indicator of not only a players experience and abilities but also a deeper knowledge of the instance and the mechanics.

Selecting a range would avoid that situation that i run into far too often , lowbie players join a random VET for purely selfish reasons and changes what could have been a instance of smooth cooperation and teamwork resulting in a smooth fun run of the content into a hellish grind where stupid rules.

Cause after three years of developing my account and my toons, my idea of having a evenings fun is dragging your lowbie through VET content right? suuuure

Thats why so many players would rather leave group and rejoin the queue , even if it means another 15 minute wait....

Sengra

FeedbackOnly wrote: »

Just bulletin board at this point would make me happy as a raid leader

An lfg tool is basically a bulletin board, just implemented as a menu. It is for premade groups not a dungeon browser where you get grouped automatically. I have a feeling some people here don't know what this can look like?

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Looking_For_Group

https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Party_Finder

I don't know how they deal with links here, so go look at it if you're interested. Note that this FF14 wiki is actually for consoles, so it can be done. Guess there's just a lot of options and filters there that you can just select instead of typing yourself but I've never tried it.

hafgood

Again no to a CP range. High CP does not make a player a good player, it just means they are good at grinding or have played a long time, a player with much lower CP who has mastered their rotation may well be a much superior player when it comes to things such as this.

So once again, no gatekeeping on a trial group finder, those low level CP players may be what gets you the clear......

Fhritz

Sengra wrote: »

FeedbackOnly wrote: »

Just bulletin board at this point would make me happy as a raid leader

An lfg tool is basically a bulletin board, just implemented as a menu. It is for premade groups not a dungeon browser where you get grouped automatically. I have a feeling some people here don't know what this can look like?

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Looking_For_Group

https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Party_Finder

I don't know how they deal with links here, so go look at it if you're interested. Note that this FF14 wiki is actually for consoles, so it can be done. Guess there's just a lot of options and filters there that you can just select instead of typing yourself but I've never tried it.

Yeah that's the idea, I think it'll be a great addition, and it can't bring bad thing (the same problem will still exist tho) i guess so it's a full win

KilianDermoth

But how often will you see a CP 160 who has mastered his rotation? Have proper gear? Know Game mechs? It's a unicorn.

While it is true that high CP player can be bad too, it's more rare.

Another point is that you need a decent amount of CP to reach your max potential. Even if you have masterwd your rotation you will probably do less damage than someone with at 1600 CP who hasn't perfected his rotation yet.

Also there are already CP breaking points which gatekeep people. You need CP 300 as far as I know to do DLC Vet dungeons.

I think it's ok to just increase that for Vet trials and maybe even for hard Vet DLC trials again. Not something unreasonable like CP 1600 but I think that CP 600 or something like this should be absolute bare minimum to do the most difficult trials (otherwise you will be missing plenty of potential even with a perfect rotationa).

Also since the increased CP leveling rate it should be easy and fast to reach that level even for people who don't grind the whole day.

Another gatekeeping which makes sense is that people only can participate Vet Trials if they even once have finished the normal version (Achievement). This ensures that they even have seen the trials once and aren't thrown in difficult content and have no clue what is going on at all.

Same for Hardmode runs, only after a successfull Vet run. Trifecta only after 2 of this have been already done: Speedrun, Hardmode, no death.

Fhritz

KilianDermoth wrote: »

But how often will you see a CP 160 who has mastered his rotation? Have proper gear? Know Game mechs? It's a unicorn.

While it is true that high CP player can be bad too, it's more rare.

Another point is that you need a decent amount of CP to reach your max potential. Even if you have masterwd your rotation you will probably do less damage than someone with at 1600 CP who hasn't perfected his rotation yet.

Also there are already CP breaking points which gatekeep people. You need CP 300 as far as I know to do DLC Vet dungeons.

I think it's ok to just increase that for Vet trials and maybe even for hard Vet DLC trials again. Not something unreasonable like CP 1600 but I think that CP 600 or something like this should be absolute bare minimum to do the most difficult trials (otherwise you will be missing plenty of potential even with a perfect rotationa).

Also since the increased CP leveling rate it should be easy and fast to reach that level even for people who don't grind the whole day.

Another gatekeeping which makes sense is that people only can participate Vet Trials if they even once have finished the normal version (Achievement). This ensures that they even have seen the trials once and aren't thrown in difficult content and have no clue what is going on at all.

Same for Hardmode runs, only after a successfull Vet run. Trifecta only after 2 of this have been already done: Speedrun, Hardmode, no death.

I think you missunderstood my proposal. I want something where you can request a group fully customisable, like a global board. It shouldn't work like an automatic group finder, even if at first this solution may be a great upgrade to begin with.

But I understand your point tho, and if ZoS decide to make an automatic finder at first, sure some requirement will be needed for some activities

KilianDermoth

Yeah I understand your proposal and I think that's the way to go.

But you still need a bare minimum of gatekeeping to increase successful runs. Nothing unreasonable, something which can be achieved by anyone easily like CP 600 or who goes for specific runs (like being able to do it on vet before you go for HM).

And I think that something like this makes sense even in a customizable global board, otherwise you will end up kicking people who won't be able to complete the run in most cases, hear theire complaints and discuss and so on, while new players will get kicked and become toxic about elite players because they gatekeep them even if they almost for sure won't be able to finish it.

But if it is just the rule the game itself sets, everyone understands and says: ok then I wait until I get CP 600 or, ok then I have to do vet before trying HM.

I think this would decrease disappointment / anger on both sides while giving the players a kind of goal, like achievements / levels (the thing what computer games are about) and slowly increasing difficulty instead of putting newbies directly to a trial boss at HM (like the last level in other games).

Everest_Lionheart

How does it work for trials that may only need one tank like vAA or trials that need a 3rd tank like vCR+1(2&3)? You have normal trials that can be solo healed as well. As for DPS how would it work for portal DPS in say Cloudrest, HOF and Sunspire or backyard in vMOL, boat in vKA?

How about for optimization? Say supports have to swap after grouping to get certain sets off another one of their toons or you end up with a group of 4EC/Brittle DPS. Now none of that matters much for normal, but it will for certain vet trials and for sure any group attempting hard modes wants the optimization to be there.

And let’s not even get into toxic raid leads. Imagine you have 4 raid leads bumping heads after a few boss wipes. I’ve seen enough of this in craglorn pugs, couldn’t imagine how bad things would get with a trial group finder.

Fhritz

Everest_Lionheart wrote: »

How does it work for trials that may only need one tank like vAA or trials that need a 3rd tank like vCR+1(2&3)? You have normal trials that can be solo healed as well. As for DPS how would it work for portal DPS in say Cloudrest, HOF and Sunspire or backyard in vMOL, boat in vKA?

How about for optimization? Say supports have to swap after grouping to get certain sets off another one of their toons or you end up with a group of 4EC/Brittle DPS. Now none of that matters much for normal, but it will for certain vet trials and for sure any group attempting hard modes wants the optimization to be there.

And let’s not even get into toxic raid leads. Imagine you have 4 raid leads bumping heads after a few boss wipes. I’ve seen enough of this in craglorn pugs, couldn’t imagine how bad things would get with a trial group finder.

As I've said before (and others too), A group finder like this should work like a board with manual demand and input, like in many other games. You just make an announcement on a globad board where you write what you need, which type of run you want etc....

Sure it'll not fix any "social" problem we have, but at least it'll make things easier and will eventually make people more interested in EndGame / group content, even if it's just PuG. And it shouldn't be mandatory, I mean optimised groups will still use guild chat, so it'll not change anything for the "true" endgame but it'll greatly improve the QoL of the more casual fanbase

hafgood

Anyone wanting to restrict on the basis of CP, because high CP players are better is going to get the train wreck they deserve. I know many high CP heavy attack specialists that wouldn't know a rotation if they fell over one.

High CP does not mean good player.

AlnilamE

KilianDermoth wrote: »

But how often will you see a CP 160 who has mastered his rotation? Have proper gear? Know Game mechs? It's a unicorn.

While it is true that high CP player can be bad too, it's more rare.

Honestly? I've run into experience MMO players in dungeons that were just starting ESO, and they sure as heck knew what they were doing, even at level 26 on their first character.

When that guy hit CP 160, he likely was better at the game than me.