Would you like a trial finder?

wookiefriseur · November 2022

Yes - for both vet/normal trials

Yes, but not with the current LFG tool. It automates too many steps that would make the grouping too inflexible.

The purpose should be to connect trial groups with potential party members.

They could use a UI similar to guild search, with activity filters. And instead of guilds it could show activity, current party size, required roles and a "request invite" button. It could even check for min CP and require certain achievements, because links can be faked.

Here is a quick mockup:

Of course people from the Craglorn Cartell will be against this, because they don't want their precious trading spots diminished. They are in the pockets of the Big Belkarth lobby.

ZOS can put an LFG billboard next to the guild billboard so people can still RP making trial groups in craglorn chat.

Jammy420 · November 2022

Yes - for normal trials only

Yes please, this was the main way I did operations ( trials ) in swtor, and it was fun, plus was a nice way to meet groups willing to group later for vet stuff.

Amottica · November 2022

No - for both vet/normal trials

Jammy420 wrote: »

Yes please, this was the main way I did operations ( trials ) in swtor, and it was fun, plus was a nice way to meet groups willing to group later for vet stuff.

In SWTOR, people formed groups before queueing so it was not a GF group. Rarely would they queue with a mostly filled group, but even then most of the group was pre-made. Completely random groups failed.

It has always been this way since they added raids and is still this way.

ForzaRammer · November 2022

Yes - for both vet/normal trials

I want it just for the lols, and watch how people will cry about being kicked due to low dps

Morgaledh · November 2022

I remember when Warcraft added in the raid finder. They tiered the rewards so that the finder drops were less powerful all around. If ESO added something like this, there would be screams, but it'd be the right thing to do. Then again, vets will tell you that raid finder ruined muh Warcraft, so someone will hate it no matter what.

Kaelthorn_Nightbloom · November 2022

Yes - for normal trials only

A Normal Trial Finder would be a huge quality of life upgrade and help with collecting sets and mythic leads. It also helps players learn the mechanics and is a stepping stone into more difficult Vet Trial content. Guilds can recruit players from Normal trials for their Vet progression.

Kappachi · November 2022

Yes - for both vet/normal trials

Morgaledh wrote: »

I remember when Warcraft added in the raid finder. They tiered the rewards so that the finder drops were less powerful all around. If ESO added something like this, there would be screams, but it'd be the right thing to do. Then again, vets will tell you that raid finder ruined muh Warcraft, so someone will hate it no matter what.

If randoms can accomplish the same as a guild group why should they be rewarded less? ESO is one of the most rewarding games so there should be no diminished rewards and we should have a fully functional trial AND group arena finder on the party menu alongside battlegrounds, tales of tribute, dungeon finder, etc.

Jeejee · November 2022

Yes - for both vet/normal trials

Yes pls it makes no sense there isn't a group finder for trials since there isn't even a LFG channel and everything is restricted to zone chat LOL

lardvader · November 2022

Yes - for normal trials only

Normal could work. I would rather they implemented it for arenas.... at least normal mode

Bobargus · November 2022

Yes - for both vet/normal trials

Yes, please. As a casual player, every time i buy a new chapter and play the game, i always feel like the trials are such wastes of resources and time, because i never find myself being able to find any group about them at all, let alone completing them.

BlueRaven · November 2022

No - for both vet/normal trials

I have been reading the comments and it seems the people for this have several different interpretations of what a group creator for trials entails.

I have seen people thinking it will be:

• A resource for group building. Groups will still be manually created by a group leader.

- An automatic group creator, similar to the dungeon finder we have now, but trial sized.

- An automatic group creator but for an easier version of the trial. Similar to lfr (from WoW) in difficulty.

Maybe the first one I can see. The second, seems like a train wreck waiting to happen, the third just seems like a resource drain.

(Honestly I am still unsure why people just don’t find a guild for this. I am in a two guilds that have traders, open (normal) trial groups, and no dues or other obligations other than just logging once every two weeks or so.)

I get why people don’t want to join guilds (kinda), but not wanting to join a guild but wanting to do large group content makes me scratch my head.

•••

Lastly to the WoW refugees here, trials in ESO are different here because there is no overland story that is only resolved in the trial. Unlike WoW which has major stories and themes that are concluded in raids. That kind of stuff does not happen here.

Maybe MoL in reapers, and maybe the Craglorn trials come closest, maybe. But they are definitely not required for the zones story.

So don’t feel you are missing out on a huge plot reveal by not doing them. They resonate with the zones story, but you are not getting an ending to the zone that you would not have seen by just doing the overland quests.

Ingenon · November 2022

Yes - for normal trials only

BlueRaven wrote: »

(Honestly I am still unsure why people just don’t find a guild for this. I am in a two guilds that have traders, open (normal) trial groups, and no dues or other obligations other than just logging once every two weeks or so.)

I also wonder why folks wanting to try normal trials do not just join a guild. I'm on PS/NA, and am a member of two guilds that have open (normal) trial sign-ups in Discord, with no dues, no gear requirements, no build requirements. I do trials with these folks weekly. Guild Finder works well in ESO in my opinion, and ZOS even promotes it with a zone quest in multiple zones.

Amottica · November 2022

No - for both vet/normal trials

BlueRaven wrote: »

I get why people don’t want to join guilds (kinda), but not wanting to join a guild but wanting to do large group content makes me scratch my head.

While I like the points you make across your entire post, this really sticks out to me. Wanting to do group content but not wanting to deal with groups truly makes no sense.

With the ability to join multiple guilds in ESO, it becomes easy to get into a raid. Heck, if in an active guild it is likely doing raids and there is no problem with asking. If the guild is not active then replace it with an active guild. Beyond this, it is also good to be part of the solution by forming the raid group. Someone has to do it and it is truly not that difficult.

Necrotech_Master · November 2022

Yes - for normal trials only

i think it would be ok for normal trials

im sure there would be fake role issues still, but it would be much more quick and apparent and most seasoned people know they cant tank a trial boss on normal without even a basic working tank set up lol

Baconlad · November 2022

No. Even for normal trials it wouldn't work. It just takes one butthole queuing as a tank that's a DPS.

I used to think it was terrible finding groups for trials. But my recent push to learn trials. It's not that bad, even on a smaller population server like console. Go to craglorn and state you are a DD LFG for any normal trial. It takes maybe ten minutes.

Sailor_Palutena · November 2022

Yes - for both vet/normal trials

Way better than staying in Craglorn waiting for an interesting call.

Kingsindarkness · November 2022

God no...the less they do for Trials the better.

RMW · November 2022

wookiefriseur wrote: »

Yes, but not with the current LFG tool. It automates too many steps that would make the grouping too inflexible.

The purpose should be to connect trial groups with potential party members.

They could use a UI similar to guild search, with activity filters. And instead of guilds it could show activity, current party size, required roles and a "request invite" button. It could even check for min CP and require certain achievements, because links can be faked.

Here is a quick mockup:

I was about to post that I would love for a trial finder but not with the current lfg system but you beat me to it. A trial finder with a better grouping system would be an awesome gain, also would help people try out the more social aspects of the game. Kudos for your idea!

davidtk · November 2022

Yes - for normal trials only

I dunno, ppl complain about fake tanks, fake heals and even fake dps... OMG even in Craglorn you can get fake roles in to the raid, whats the point whats the problem?
I doing vet trials with our guild group so normal trials with PUG only for... How to say, fun (no not rly)? Some trials have bad mechanic what will wipe group on normal but it can be explained on the place.
Let it be only for normal because it will be same as when you will be stuck at Crag and wait.

Jammy420 · November 2022

Yes - for normal trials only

Amottica wrote: »

Jammy420 wrote: »

Yes please, this was the main way I did operations ( trials ) in swtor, and it was fun, plus was a nice way to meet groups willing to group later for vet stuff.

In SWTOR, people formed groups before queueing so it was not a GF group. Rarely would they queue with a mostly filled group, but even then most of the group was pre-made. Completely random groups failed.

It has always been this way since they added raids and is still this way.

Of course your experience is the only experience that is representative of the community, excuse me, how could I be so silly as to offer up my positive experience with the ops finder. Which just so happened to gift me hundreds of hours of fun.

svendf · November 2022

Yes - for both vet/normal trials

See some mentioning fake roles. Sure it´s a problem if you wish to add a tool like this. Like ESO is right now you may as well pop in to a dungeon on your healer in the tank que, because you will get agro anyway and do the job for the fake tank.

So for your "tool" to work ZOS need to lock roles. They could do that for a trial finder, but will they ? Here is how I look at it. If they did go all the way, with a "trialfinder". There will probebly be a demand later on to do the same, with groupfinder.

People want to have control over their own free time and do content in their own pace. That´s where these kind of tools come in. Who wanna stay in que, in a guild, who have 10 healers anyway and wait for the time to come, when it´s your turn if you get lucky.

If they should go all way and release a trialfinder. Why not add Wb runs, lorebooks, all of it. Guilds aren´t the answer in all this, because it´s the same group running together, with some change here and there if people aren´t online.

ZOS claims to, want people to have more and easy access. Im sorry, what ? With what ? and how ?

Have a nice day
Peace out

tonyblack · November 2022

Yes - for both vet/normal trials

Tbh the most important thing about fake roles is: players don’t do it because they mean, clueless or toxic but because most of normal dungeons are so easy they don’t need healers or tanks at all. Game enticing such behavior even further by fastest transmute farm for pve with short queue for support. That’s why most of them leaving as soon as they see something harder than base game ones as they know they can’t handle dlcs, even though some of them shorter but with hard hitting bosses. Rarely i did see someone tried to fake tank in vet and if i did they also claimed that they believed this dungeon is too easy for needing a tank and i’d never encountered fake roles in vet dlcs when i tried to pug them. Inexperienced players? Yes, but not fake.

Sure there would be trolls or really ignorant players but most should know to not fake role in trials as those are more punishing for that than dungeons. And ending up blacklisted with tons of hate whispers while wasting own as well as everyone else’s time? Definitely not everyones cup of tea. I really doubt it would be common occurrence.

I also did some raids in SWTOR through group finder and everything went pretty smooth with everyone playing right roles and that is in casual mmo focused on story just as much if not more so than ESO.

SteamKitten01 · November 2022

Yes - for normal trials only

tonyblack wrote: »

Tbh the most important thing about fake roles is: players don’t do it because they mean, clueless or toxic but because most of normal dungeons are so easy they don’t need healers or tanks at all. Game enticing such behavior even further by fastest transmute farm for pve with short queue for support. That’s why most of them leaving as soon as they see something harder than base game ones as they know they can’t handle dlcs, even though some of them shorter but with hard hitting bosses. Rarely i did see someone tried to fake tank in vet and if i did they also claimed that they believed this dungeon is too easy for needing a tank and i’d never encountered fake roles in vet dlcs when i tried to pug them. Inexperienced players? Yes, but not fake..

Then you're lucky. I've run into fake tanks in vMHK, vCoS, vSCP and vBDV. Not to mention all the non-DLC vets that I've run into fake tanks in. They're always <25k HP, no taunt, and usually don't do much damage either. I've had players tell me that the group doesn't need a tank in X vet dungeon yet struggles to kill the first boss since people keep on getting one-shot. And don't get me started on fake healers in vDLC dungeons. Good luck healing through baneful with a dual wield "healer" whose only heal is vigor.

svendf · November 2022

Yes - for both vet/normal trials

Of cause fake roles are a problem right from the bottom up, execpt for some content. The most important question you have to ask ZOS is. Do they see it as a problem ? With an answer from ZOS you will have a pretty good get go.

It doesn´t matter how easy some conten is and, what roles are not needed. They do have to make some change, which could have an over all effect on the game.

This is a way of letting people getting acces - give them the tools needed and it could come, with a price. You would not like to end up, like in groupfinder. Would you ?

Peace out

CrashTest · November 2022

Yes - for both vet/normal trials

Yes or have zone chat across all instances for each zone to reach more players. Putting raids together or filling via zone chat takes longer since ZOS split Crag into diff instances.

As it is, I have to ask a friend who's usually in a different Crag instance than I'm in to lfg for me in her Crag instance, but when she's offline or in my instance, I'm stuck with access to only 1 Crag.

"Why don't you just join a guild???"
1) People who say this are obviously not regularly playing endgame bc if you were you'd know that guild trial rosters often fill with non guildies and being in a guild doesn't guarantee you a spot in raid.

2) Each run is limited to 12 people. If it's full, you're sore out of luck for that week (which is the usual raid schedule for most guilds).

3):The set time schedule for guild raid doesn't match your schedule.

"But fAke RoLeS!!!"
There are good suggestions here already to mitigate that such as having requirements which is no different than LFGing in zone chat and spamming all your guilds and friends to fill.

"Pugs are bad."
They can be for sure, but most aren't. I say this as someone who starts pug raids every day. 7 out of 10 go well, but ngl it's bc I know what I'm doing and know what the other roles should be doing, and I lead the raid as tank, but you can lead from any role. Contrary to popular belief, most pugs aren't morons; they're just inexperienced with the trial they're in, but they actually know how to play their roles, so they just need an explanation on mechs and will listen if you explain.

TL;DR if pugs scare you, just don't use it. A trial finder will have zero impact on you. But if you always put your own raids together or join one on your own schedule or you're just looking to fill, a trial finder would be a very useful tool.

AgaTheGreat · November 2022

No - for both vet/normal trials

No, because the normal eso player is average and most people don't want to be tied up in long runs.

Amottica · November 2022

No - for both vet/normal trials

CrashTest wrote: »

"Why don't you just join a guild???"
1) People who say this are obviously not regularly playing endgame bc if you were you'd know that guild trial rosters often fill with non guildies and being in a guild doesn't guarantee you a spot in raid.

Guild trial rosters fill with non-guildies pretty much if they cannot get someone from the guild. So this is a non-issue most of the time when their are people looking to go into the raid.

Same with it not being guaranteed a spot in the raid. If there are enough to form a second group then that will likely happen. Those that show interest can be brought into the raid the next time.

Even someone who plays ESO only from time to time will be best served via a guild run for people who are learning the game or are inexperienced in the raid as many guilds have such a group. Of course, I am speaking to open groups that are in many guilds. You get out of this what you put into it which is why random GF groups for raids are often very bad which is why adding such a feature is bad for business.

CrashTest · November 2022

Yes - for both vet/normal trials

Amottica wrote: »

CrashTest wrote: »

"Why don't you just join a guild???"
1) People who say this are obviously not regularly playing endgame bc if you were you'd know that guild trial rosters often fill with non guildies and being in a guild doesn't guarantee you a spot in raid.

Guild trial rosters fill with non-guildies pretty much if they cannot get someone from the guild. So this is a non-issue most of the time when their are people looking to go into the raid.

Same with it not being guaranteed a spot in the raid. If there are enough to form a second group then that will likely happen. Those that show interest can be brought into the raid the next time.

Yes, that's the whole point of a finder: to fill when needed and on your own schedule when you can't make guild raid time or don't get a spot. It's a useful tool for those who want to use it. If you're averse for any reason, just don't use it. It will not affect you.

Amottica wrote: »

You get out of this what you put into it which is why random GF groups for raids are often very bad which is why adding such a feature is bad for business.

What's your current experience with this? Sincere question bc I see this argument a lot, but in my experience, 7 out of 10 runs I lead are fine.

My experience is I run pug raids daily and I pull from guild, friends, Craglorn, and different zones. A trial finder or global chat across all instances of a specific zone would be super helpful for similar players.

edit to add: PC NA

redspecter23 · November 2022

No - for both vet/normal trials

If the question is whether I personally want this? The answer is no. I don't think it will work as the current group finder is a buggy mess, but even if we take that element out of the equation, you still have fake roles to deal with. Even if you take that element out of the equation, I think a better solution is an overall group listing menu that you can use for a variety of group activities. People can see your listing and potential requirements and apply to the group. Other games have something like this and it's infinitely better than going to one specific zone and asking in chat.

Vrienda · November 2022

Yes - for normal trials only

It’d be a mess but some trials just flat out never seem to be run (Morrowind’s one).

I’d rather see a story mode/solo version of the trial as I only care for the story. Loot isn’t even secondary.

The raid finder in WoW is one of the best features they added and ESO is even more built for that sorta thing as it lacks any form of server community.