Nearly Impossible to Find Groups Outside of Northrend

WoW Classic Wrath of the Lich King Classic Discussion
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It really is this bad.

I recently leveled a toon from 59-65 in Hellfire over the course of 3-4 days on Whitemane – a high-pop server. I had the LFG panel open, and hit refresh whenever I could, essentially every few minutes. Two or three times I found players to group with, but the groups disbanded before being filled, because finding players to fill the remaining spots was taking so long. At level 64 when I had finished literally every quest in the zone other than the three inside HR and BF, I found a level 80 to carry me through the two instances.

Is this experience really preferable over RDF, for Blizzard and for a majority of players? Is it really preferable to try and fail for hours to find a group, and eventually either give up and not experience the content, or have a higher-level character to faceroll over the content? Is it really preferable to have to stare at an interface panel and click refresh, rather than click a button to join a queue?

I’ll add that LFG didn’t help with finding groups for group quests either. Twice I encountered players at the quest objectives who were able to help me. For the remaining quests, finding a group took so long that eventually I out-leveled the objectives and was able to solo them. I understand that RDF wouldn’t help with this, but clearly the LFG panel is completely unhelpful for nearly anything outside of Northrend.

In the end, even if I had been able to find groups using the LFG tool, in what ways, exactly, would my experience have been improved over RDF? My server is so massive that there is close to a zero percent chance that I’d encounter any of the players I grouped with ever again. None of the partial-groups I joined and waited in, for extended periods of time, engaged in any of the conversation I tried to strike up. And I did try.

I really don’t see a single benefit of the LFG system over RDF for any content outside of Northrend. And the clear downside LFG is completely ineffective, rendering content completely inaccessible, in many cases, to PUGs.

Keep in mind, there were dozens of players leveling in HFP on my realm at any given time while I was there. The issue isn’t a lack of players. The issue is that using the LFG tool (and likely any tool that requires players to manually monitor an interface panel) detracts from the gameplay experience as a whole.

And to be clear: I’m not saying every single person will be completely unable to find groups for content outside of Northrend. But the fact that it’s possible to try and fail to find a group, to the extent that I have (on a high-pop server, at that), indicates that the LFG system clearly is not working.

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Sounds like a great opportunity to extend the WoW 18th anniversary event bonus XP to Classic to give some incentive for folks to level some alts! :slight_smile:

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The issue isn’t a lack of players. There were dozens of players online and leveling in HFP at any given time while I was there. The issue is that the LFG tool is ineffective, because looking for a group with the tool detracts from the gameplay experience as a whole.

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Last week, I ran 4 TBC dungeons on Whitemane. This week, I ran ST (Grob) and BRD (Whitemane)

“Nearly impossible”? Pfff, come on.

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I can’t even find groups for level 70-79 dungeons anymore on my alt.

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Its almost like the vast majority of people leveling alts understand that quest xp is faster and running a dungeon is a waste of time until you hit northrend.

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Dungeons do seem hard to find. Going AFK in a BG is where the XP is at.

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This is exactly the issue. When running a dungeon involves taking time away from questing and spending that time interacting with an interface panel, people who want to level quickly (and people whose experience is worsened by having to stare at an interface panel, which is basically everybody) have little or no reason to look for groups.

Killing bosses and other mobs in instances can actually be faster and more enjoyable than questing when the matchmaking aspect is handled automatically.

Critically, this is true even within Northrend. Currently, there is such a large number of players in Northrend, and the content is new and novel enough, that finding a group is quick enough for some people to find it worthwhile. Once the number of players leveling through Northrend dies down and the dungeons becomes less novel, we’ll see the same issue with LK dungeons.

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It takes as much effort to list yourself for a group as it would to join RDF. It doesn’t detract from the gameplay experience at all. List yourself, pop it up from time to time and invite people.

If there’s lots of people playing, reach out to them. Talk in general chat or whisper them directly. A bonus XP event would be a great way to bring people in, but if your server already has lots of people and you just don’t want to talk to them… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Listing yourself really does nothing for content outside of Northrend if you’re not a tank or a healer (which is most players). And the reason we have the LFG panel is because looking for a group in General or LFG chat is also ineffective. There’s a reason that the 3rd party Bulletin Board addon became so necessary. Spamming dozens of people with whispers asking them to group up, only to be ignored 90% of the time sucks.

I used these methods in TBCC, and it left me wanting to never run dungeons again. The motivation behind LFG is that the system we had in TBCC was simply untenable. If the LFG tool is so useless that your solution is to talk in General chat or spam whisper other players, then clearly the LFG tool does not work.

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Blizzard wants you to whisper those people and ask them if they want to do the dungeon and to form your groups manually. That’s the gameplay experience they want for Classic and adding RDF detracts from that gameplay experience as a whole.

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If this is the solution that Blizzard wants, why do we have LFG chat, which has been in the game since I started playing the game in 2007? Why have they given us two iterations of the LFG tool, the first of which was in the original version of TBC 15 years ago?

Even if what you said is true (which I contest), unless Blizzard is building the game solely for themselves to play, shouldn’t the game be built to be more enjoyable for players? The majority of payers clearly don’t like random whispers, or they wouldn’t use LFG chat. The And the majority of players clearly don’t like the spam of LFG chat, or they wouldn’t use tools like the LFG tool or the Bulletin Board addon.

It’s funny that over the past few months, the solution has moved from “Use the new tool Blizzard made” to “Just spam people with whispers if you want to join a group”. If this isn’t proof that the LFG tool has failed, I’m don’t know what could be.

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You have to check it from time to time and keep up on it. It can take a while, but for the most part you can just go on about your business.

Since so many people are questing though, I do wish Blizzard would make the dual spec unlock more accessible for lower level players or alts. While you can certainly tank or heal if you’re a dps role, it’s much harder and people are less inclined to do it. It would be nice to see dual spec either discounted if you buy a training book for an alt, or even a change in the cost structure. For example, there’s 71 talent points for level 80. What if you could purchase the first 41 points of your talent spec for 300g, then it was 200g for the next 10 points, 200g for the next 10 points, and 200g for the final 10 points.

Anyway, just the same as it was for me, you’ll eventually find a group if you’re active about it. It doesn’t take a lot of effort but you do have to stay on it. If you don’t want to do that, that’s fine, you have the option to quest. This will get you to end-game. You don’t have to do the dungeons.

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OP (one of many threads): I’m trying to level up via dungeons and this is kinda frustrating to have such difficulty finding a group.

Le 85 IQ Living Reddit Meme Poster: "HA WELL I DIDNT HAVE ANY TROUBLE AT ALL SO THERE MY UNFALSIFIABLE ANECDOTE PROVES UR CONCERNS R INVALID LOL LOL LOL I SAY"

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Contest it all you want, there is plenty of information (tweets/interviews) where they said just that so if living in denial gets you through the day then so be it.

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We should’ve had rdf from the start

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I gave you evidence to back up what I said. All you’ve provided is a vacuous claim and a vague reference to “information”.

It can take so long that you will literally outlevel the content before you can find a group. Which is exactly why this thread exists.

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Your anecdotal experience is not evidence.

Just one of the many times they have addressed this very issue.

And apparently enough of their player base is happy with no RDF that they don’t have any plans to implement.

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I’m referring to evidence that your claim, that “Blizzard wants you to whisper those people and ask them if they want to do the dungeon”, is false. What you say cannot be true, as Blizzard provides us with tools, back in 2007 with TBC, and even today in Classic, that help players form groups without having to spam whisper other players. This is not anecdotal evidence (although anecdotes ARE a form of evidence). This is a fact that anybody can plainly see is true.

Nonsense and pure speculation. All that is apparent is that RDF doesn’t exist today. The conclusion that enough players are happy with no RDF literally, by definition, is not apparent, because it can only be thought to be true through inductive reasoning.

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There are dramatically less players in classic than there were in original wotlk. The fact that you think you are going to have an automatic queue that works seamlessly at all hours of the day for dated content speaks volumes on your grasp of things.

If they gave you RDF you would be right back here on the forums the same day crying because it takes you more than an hour to get a group and it dropped you in Auchenai Crypts and your party broke up 10 minutes into the run.

we get it dude you hate everything and love to complain, have a banana sticker and thanks for coming.
:banana:

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