Your experience with the group finder?

[RobertMcDonald]

Dual spec would have a lot as most classes have options to take another role.

 

One big different people forget between WoW and SWTOR is the 5 man vs 4 man group. I personally like the 4 man size better but for dps in SWTOR you will need 50% more tanks/healers queueing to handle the same number of DPS (3:1:1 ratio vs 2:1:1)

 

I've mentioned this as well and I would love to see what the actual ratios are on the live servers for DPS, tanks, and healers. Given that it clearly isn't 2:1:1, this is the biggest "problem" with the LFG tool. Bioware has to find some way to increase the number of tanks and healers.

[RobertMcDonald]

The only change I'd like is an NPC in the fleet/Ilum that gives you the option to return where you were questing. Right now you need to choose between questing and running flashpoints and it is limiting people from running them (especially while leveling).

 

The only problem with this would be that I don't want to needlessly load Alderaan or Hoth every single time my group wipes. (As it is, I'm still not keen on even loading the Fleet/Ilum on every wipe, but at least those load times are somewhat bearable, even if it is frustrating to load those areas only to immediately jump back through the instance portal.)

[Iggster]

Hello everyone.

 

Thanks for the all replies, I've had a good read on all your experiences whilst my sub was inactive.

 

I reactived it gain today and manged to get my first group. It was cademimu, I mentioned I'd never attempted the FP and asked if someone could call tactics if any. And the tank started explaining to me how my role was to keep him alive so he can tank the mobs so the dps could kill them. It made me chuckle, I guess he didn't understand what I said.

 

But then my pc crashed before the first boss, my graphics card is dying on me!

[MyTechie]

Some good posts here, so I thought I would throw in my 2 cents.

 

I'm a dungeon runner, that's it, that's all I do in MMO's..Dungeons/Flashpoints.

 

With that said,

- Some kind of gear lvl should be initiated. (When I hit lvl15 on my sage, I entered a Flashpoint my toon was clearly not ready to heal)

- Remove the "NEED / GREED" system, not sure how, but all it does is make some players complain and rant. Its not good for newbies getting started

- Remove the ability to see who won loot

- When the Flashpoint is done, place the player back to there original location when they entered.

- Look into cross server grouping. (Not sure if it works or not, lots of opinions on that)

-Convert heroics to Flashpoints, I find these far harder to heal then the Flashpoints themselves.

 

In short, the LFG is a good start.

 

[StDenton]

It seems that after the latest 1.3.2 patch yesterday LFG works lot slower then before.It seems that I couldn't find the group for a flashpoint even after 1h30min(Candemimu Taral V,role dps).Also queing solo for warzones took considerable longer then before.This all happened when server was with heavy population and with around 200 people on the Fleet.Now I'm not lvl 50,only lvl 34,but something was definitely not working as it should yesterday.

[Valkirus]

Except WoW jumped straight into x-server with their auto-queue lfg. Any previous iteration was horrible and no one used it. Rifts queue times were still fairly long even for tanks, at least back before I left.

 

Here, where tanks get instant queues while DPS gets an hour+, its all about the ratio. A ratio that, even if you were right, will only ever help some servers SLIGHTLY while hurting those with a healthier tank population.

 

Bioware needs to even that out by implementing dual spec like they should have done WITH the tool, or give greater prizes to those roles that are in short supply .... not jump on the cross server bandwagon.

 

I been playing Rift and have qued up as a tank using thier cross server LFG tool and the wait time was zero mins. As a dps the wait time is about 30 mins. I agree dual spec would help a lot with que times. Think about it....Rift and WoW both have one more dps slot to fill in a grp than TOR does. If anything the wait times should be shorter in TOR. The one issue is TOR's is not cross server.

[RedRapture]

So far I've found it useful, especially for flashpoints, however for world quests etc people just use general chat, which is fine but sometimes annoying when you find yourself stuck without a fourth person for an hour.

[RobertMcDonald]

Think about it....Rift and WoW both have one more dps slot to fill in a grp than TOR does. If anything the wait times should be shorter in TOR.

 

You have it completely backwards. The shortage is of tanks and healers, not DPS. DPSers make up less of a TOR group than a WoW group (and Rift?). TOR's queue times should be worse because TOR requires more tanks and healers per DPS.

[Sauska]

Other than constantly being kicked out of GF if a group has been formed while I'm in a conversation and click an option, it seems to work fine. Edited July 11, 2012 by Sauska

[Mallorik]

I been playing Rift and have qued up as a tank using thier cross server LFG tool and the wait time was zero mins. As a dps the wait time is about 30 mins. I agree dual spec would help a lot with que times. Think about it....Rift and WoW both have one more dps slot to fill in a grp than TOR does. If anything the wait times should be shorter in TOR. The one issue is TOR's is not cross server.

 

I was a tank in rift too, rift que times did go down to instant most of the time wwhen they went cross server. But the one less dps doesnt shorten que times it makes them longer, in wow or rift if you have 24 dps in the que you need 8 tanks and 8 healers for everyone to get a group, in Swtor you need 12 tanks and 12 healers for all the dps to get a group.

 

 

As far as the swtor lfg tool, its still working ok for me most of the time, i tank and usualy only run one fp every couple of days around prime time because lets face it, the incentives to run them suck.

 

Biggest problem ive had with fps is the same problem i had with pugs before the lfg tool, sentinels are annoying i guess its just the type of person that plays them, they all attack early, try to kil the elites first so i have to try to hold aggro with that while trying to keep aggro on all the strongs and normals the ADD sentinel should have killed first.

 

Seriously if one of you decent sents out there (if one exists) would make a post about what not to do in groups it would help alot.

[HeawiNobal]

Im DPS and it's normally about 30 mins if I have all the tier 1 HM FPs selected to get in one of them.

 

Ive been trying to run Lost Island for a while now and have waited for hours in group finder. One night after waiting for about 2 hours just for LI it finally found a group and our tank dropped as soon as we got inside the flashpoint. We queued back up and hung around for another hour and another tank never showed up.

Edited July 11, 2012 by HeawiNobal

[MasterKayote]

Im DPS and it's normally about 30 mins if I have all the tier 1 HM FPs selected to get in one of them.

 

Ive been trying to run Lost Island for a while now and have waited for hours in group finder. One night after waiting for about 2 hours just for LI it finally found a group and our tank dropped as soon as we got inside the flashpoint. We queued back up and hung around for another hour and another tank never showed up.

 

Lost Island HM is a huge PITA. I wouldnt put my tank through that place without at least having a known good healer backing me up. The second and last boss are very tough on the healers. If you get 2 Mercenaries as DPS ... forget it, youre not getting past the droid boss. Hell, the whole group needs to really be on their toes just for some of the trash IMO.

 

Its like a mini HM raid, IMO, which BW felt were too tough for PUGs.

Edited July 11, 2012 by MasterKayote

[AllisonBerryman]

Thanks for sharing your Group Finder experiences, everyone. This thread has some great feedback!

[DarthTHC]

It's really annoying when it lets people queue for roles for which they are not specced in gear that is obviously insufficient for the instance.

 

I recently queued as a healer for a hardmode flashpoint on my Sage who is geard in all slots ranging from Columi to Black Hole. It paired me with a TANK who was DPS SPEC and wearing CHAMPION GEAR. (This was not one of the tool's many "wrong icon" issues - the other 2 in the instance with me were Smugglers.)

 

There is no way the LFG tool should have let that tool click the Tank checkbox, ever, because he wasn't tank spec, nor should it let him into a hardmode in any role with that garbage gear on.

 

People are largely incapable of applying rational thought to what they should and shouldn't queue for based on their spec and gear. Because the tool lets them do it, you're going to see groups vote-kick players who make poor decisions like this. That will lead to those same players ranting and raving about "undeservedly" (LMAO) getting kicked from a group before the first pull, which will in turn lead to the "community degradation" that the foes of (X-)LFG like to theorize about.

 

The tool needs to perform the correct level of detection for everyone queueing to ensure they can only queue for content for which they are appropriately geared in roles for which they are properly specced.

Edited July 11, 2012 by DarthTHC

[lexiekaboom]

With every major balance they buff the ability for tank / dps classes to play as dps and nerf the crap out of the tank trees overall.

 

Add to that encounter design that makes playing a tank a horrible experience of ping-pong knock-backs and pulls with snares.

 

Is it any wonder not a lot of people play tanks? There is no "looking for" tool that is going to help you find the class that Bioware seems to have the end goal of punishing people for playing. We've all gone DPS, so we can look forward to patch notes with glee as we see which one of our already over powered abilities gets buffed, instead of dreading patch days for the nerfs we know are coming.

 

Why wouldn't we?

 

(and before anyone says it, no, there is no LF healer problem at all. My tank can hit the que button 24/7 and get instantly put in a group. The only reason you may end up waiting is if you que as a tank WITH A FRIEND, as 99% of the que is a group of 2 dps and 1 healer waiting for a solo tank.)

[Tarn_Sirun]

The reward of black hole comms for tanks and healers needs to be double that of dps, this will allow for more groups to fill instead of 100 dps in qeue

[Hardwear]

No problems working as intended.

[lexiekaboom]

The reward of black hole comms for tanks and healers needs to be double that of dps, this will allow for more groups to fill instead of 100 dps in qeue

 

It could be 10 times what it is, don't change the fact that no one wants to play a tank. At best you'll get DPS shadows and vanguards quing up as tanks and trying to do it in DPS gear; I don't think that's a better solution for anyone.

 

The solution is make it so it doesn't suck to tank. Stop the constant nerfs and get rid of the stupidly high amount of knock back, snares, and control effects tanks need to deal with.

[Cite]

At best you'll get DPS shadows and vanguards quing up as tanks and trying to do it in DPS gear; I don't think that's a better solution for anyone.

 

This, most definitely.

[DarthSabreth]

If you are a tank or heals its very very quick que pop. but DPS will wait a very long time. and to further complicate things dps will que up as heals or tanks which is kind of cruel because most groups will wipe esp if their gear is dps and non tanking gear.

[Tarn_Sirun]

It could be 10 times what it is, don't change the fact that no one wants to play a tank. At best you'll get DPS shadows and vanguards quing up as tanks and trying to do it in DPS gear; I don't think that's a better solution for anyone.

 

The solution is make it so it doesn't suck to tank. Stop the constant nerfs and get rid of the stupidly high amount of knock back, snares, and control effects tanks need to deal with.

 

tanking and healing are built for certain types of players. yes it is almost 100% pve to spec as a tank but that doesnt mean it isnt worth playing, if they allowed us to see even a general skill point allotment i.e. 31/5/0 etc... the groups could kick wanna be healers and wanna be tanks who are trying to get extra comms for no reason, but if they gave tanks and heals the double reward it would bring more players who used to play those types of roles back. for now, it just isnt worth the trouble.

[Maxkardinal]

Taking to long. Need to be cross server.

[thebigdoubleu]

There is no way the LFG tool should have let that tool click the Tank checkbox, ever, because he wasn't tank spec, nor should it let him into a hardmode in any role with that garbage gear on.

 

Angry much? Have you consider the possibility sometimes the LFG tool sticks people in roles they never clicked? It happened to me and a few guildies once when we decided to run SM EV/KP for some easy BH commendations. I'm tank spec, geared in mostly Rakata tank items, and I always have "tank" selected and "damage" unselected.

 

Guess what?

 

The LFG tool put me as a DPS Guardian. A Commando healer got placed as DPS as well, even though he's only chosen the healer role.

Edited July 11, 2012 by thebigdoubleu

[Melva]

tanking and healing are built for certain types of players. yes it is almost 100% pve to spec as a tank but that doesnt mean it isnt worth playing, if they allowed us to see even a general skill point allotment i.e. 31/5/0 etc... the groups could kick wanna be healers and wanna be tanks who are trying to get extra comms for no reason, but if they gave tanks and heals the double reward it would bring more players who used to play those types of roles back. for now, it just isnt worth the trouble.

 

To be fair, not all misqueued players are doing it intentionally. A guildmate and I sat and watched last night as the tool continually reticked his Healer box (he's DPS) and my DPS box (I'm a tank) despite both of us unticking the incorrect role boxes repeatedly.

 

As previous posters have said, the tool needs to determine role based on talent spec, and it needs to run a gear check. If I queue with my healer and end up with another Recruit-geared tank I'm going to scream.

[lexiekaboom]

tanking and healing are built for certain types of players. yes it is almost 100% pve to spec as a tank but that doesnt mean it isnt worth playing, if they allowed us to see even a general skill point allotment i.e. 31/5/0 etc... the groups could kick wanna be healers and wanna be tanks who are trying to get extra comms for no reason, but if they gave tanks and heals the double reward it would bring more players who used to play those types of roles back. for now, it just isnt worth the trouble.

 

I am that "certain type of player" as I've been playing "tanks" in MMO from a time before they were called tanks. It's the role I enjoy most, and the one I always go to day one.

 

SW:TOR is the only MMO where I've ever regretted it. I've started fights vs. 3 monsters only to have the first knock me into the second who knocks me back to the first, only to be pulled to the third. Every boss or fight mechanic revolves around movement, snares, PBAoE and scripted cool down use that makes me feel like I'm running a quick time event.

 

And I can see why; you strip that away and the combat system for tanks is about as interesting as it was in EQ1. You have 3 or 4 buttons to press total, and a bunch of skills you never use. Top that all off with constant nerfs and re-balancing, and you have the most unenjoyably tanking experience of any MMO out there.

 

Sure, I guess as a band-aid solution you could bribe me to tank more. Or you could just make it so I want to tank, which wouldn't be hard seeing that's what I want to do in the first place.