Group Finder Tool and Potential Improvements

The group finder tool in-game has been a relative success in terms of being an alternative to using external websites such as OpenRaid (from a long time ago) to form groups. It has been iterated on multiple times for the better but there are still some quick wins to make it even better to kerb community alternatives from needing to be developed (there are many discords built for this purpose and a bot in the works that I’m aware of right now to act as an alternative for group finder with more customisation just as an FYI).

Ultimately the group finder needs to be as useful as possible for both the leader and the applicant and in some areas external tools are a necessity in order to form the group that you want.

The latest patch did deliver some improvement to the group finder however the Goal function doesn’t fully work for me. You are not able to search by the Goal.

If I search for “Earn Conquest” this group does not appear.

This means that in order to find a group with a goal that aligns to me I have to scroll through everything :expressionless:

Raid

What can you see right now:

As the applicant:

• Group Name
• Leaders Name
• Numerical amounts of each role
• Bosses that have been killed

As the leader:

• Role + Class
• Name
• Item Level

What is missing useful information:

What is in the group: Right now if you want to see who is in the group an addon is required.

Base UI:

Premade Group Filter addon:

Raid Progress: You cannot see this information and it can be quite vital to form your group with a level of confidence that it will succeed.

As the Leader

Base UI:

Raider.io addon:

With just the base UI I’m not going to invite this person at all. It’s risk to forming my group to bring what can only be assumed to be a low geared, inexperienced player. With the addon enabled I can see that this person is an alt and has cleared Normal on it so they are attempting to gear it up and I can expect some level of competancy. The chances of them being invited rose significantly purely because this additional piece of information was available.

As the Applicant
Base UI:

I can see what bosses have been killed and the amounts of each role.

raider.io addon:

I’m now able to see the Raid progress of the leader on both the character they are on and their main. This allows me to make an informed decision as an applicant if this group can be capable of clearing the Raid and ultimately sign up to the group.

Mythic+

What can you see right now:


• Role + Class
• Name
• Item Level
• Total Rating


If you hover over a person you can get some more detailed information about the dungeon score as well.

What is missing useful information:

What is in the group: Right now if you want to see who is in the group an addon is required.


All i can see here is that there are 2 DPS in the group. I have no idea what i’m in for and if the comp is what I would want to play with.


With an addon, I’m able to see, ok, it’s a Shaman and a Paladin. I have no idea what type of Shaman, but it’s a definite improvement.

M+ score on alts: Right now you use the raider.io addon to get this information and it will show the progression from their main if the characters are linked on the website allowing people to play on alts easier.

To use the example cited in the What you can see right now section, this player signed up to my key. On the base UI I can see they have a very low score and haven’t done a single mists key. I’m pretty much not going to invite them based on this information.

However, with the raider.io addon installed I can clearly see this is an alt and they have 2.1k score on their main, so the risk of them compromising my key with a lack of prior experience is significantly minimised. I’m now likely to invite them.

• The highest completed run (if highest is a deplete): Right now if your highest completed key of that dungeon is a deplete, it will show up as your highest key.

This is a huge red flag to anyone creating a group as if their highest key is a deplete, you have no idea if they’ve even timed it. They could have bought a boost from a really bad boosting community. They could have been the one to cause the deplete. You have no idea. This information to the leader just means, don’t invite this person. They’re tainted. They’re bad goods.

However, if you were to look on raider.io you would see that this person has timed keys before and you’re now likely to invite them:

What Covenant they are: M+ has a large focus on Covenant selection to gain dungeon bonuses. Right now people write this in their note if its applicable for the dungeon, but it would be great to just have it in the base UI.

[Potential Improvement] Just to plug your key into the UI and have it fill out all of the required information. Would be a huge Quality of Life improvement for people who are listing groups.

PvP

What can you see right now:

• Role + Class
• Name
• PvP Item Level
• Current Rating both as the applicant and the leader.

What is missing useful information:

What is in the group: Right now if you want to see who is in the group an addon is required.

Base UI:

With Addon:

This is even more important for RBGs to see if the comp is something you want to play with. If you see 1x Tank, but then you sign up and see its a BDK. You’re probably not going to stick around.

Spec: For example, if a Shaman DPS is applying, the missing info I need is what Spec they are.

Maximum Historical Rating: Right now you use external tools to look this up such as check-pvp.fr knowing this information can help to inform your decision to bring them in as it could be they are just starting their journey this season and was very high rated previously.

Rating on alts: As with M+ score, this is important information to know for both parties as it can help inform your decision if you want to bring them or not. With M+ score it’s kind of safe to assume that if they’re high score on their main, they would do alright on their alt. For PvP a lot more nuanced knowledge is required so may not be fully useful but it’s helpful for sure. If they’re 3k Rating on their main, chances are they can play anything.

What Covenant they are: Knowing more about your potential partners leads to better success rates as you know ahead of time if you can synergise with them or not.

51 Likes

Why you gotta hit BDK like that!

overall great changes blizzard should really put in.

2 Likes

Great feedback overall.

The PvP stuff is great. I haven’t PvP’ed this season but did tons of RBGs in 9.0 (and other patches all the way back to MoP, off and on) Specifically,

Is a big thing. I would also like to have an account wide RBG wins achievement. My two primary RBG characters are my DK and hunter, but if I ever want to swap to Warlock for example, I won’t have the 75 or 150 wins achievements to link on that character, despite having over 300 wins on my account.

As for all the PvE stuff, I agree they are great changes, currently provided by an addon. While it probably should not be provided by an addon, the information is currently accessible through an addon.

I love this. If you start a group for M+ it should automatically fill in your key information, and let you change it if you plan to use another group members key, or reduce your key level before starting.

Additionally, I would like to see a slider added that indicates the key level. I’ve found a few times people putting the wrong level or no level in their title and it just adds to confusion.

1 Like

Would like someone to weigh in from an accessibility perspective of Class Colours being the only part used to identify a class for the PvE areas of the system.

I can imagine Monk/Hunter Demon Hunter/Warlock Rogue/Druid Mage/Shaman are very close to each other?

I don’t have any type of colorblindness but I think a simple adverbiation infront or behind the player’s name based on their spec could help everyone. Something like:

[WW] Monkplayer
Monkplayer [WW]

2 Likes

Would class icons be easier? Not every spec has a nice abbreviation like WW.

1 Like

You could probably have both since there’s plenty of empty space on the group finder.

Personally, if we were going to do both I would just do class and spec icons. Would look cleaner IMO and be less clutter; and then it’s also not language dependent if the abbreviations don’t translate well for other regions.

2 Likes

A few examples through some checkers.

The simple solution really is to have a class symbol available, or a spec icon with a mouseover for class to avoid bloat.

4 Likes

PvP:

Looks as though this was added in patch 9.2.

When looking at groups in group finder for PvP it now shows what spec they are :slight_smile:

Would be good to have this for Dungeons too for M+ groups?

2 Likes