I fully understand their apprehension. The problem I have is it makes for an environment entirely unwelcoming to newer players, or people newer to raids.
I always try to put in my comment as I join that I read up on the raid. And I always watch a YT video on all the boss mechanics before I do a raid. But nobody seems to care or even believe me.
I don’t have an AotC to reference for SL because I came in late.
Just give the cat to LFR raiders, on the basis it was something the community voted on.
I totally understand, I just don’t know how it is fixable.
If a raid leader lists a group in group finder, and the following people apply:
Player A, Havoc Demon Hunter, ilvl 260
Player B, Havoc Demon Hunter, ilvl 275
What can be said by Player A to possibly make them choose the player that is 15 ilvl lower? Considering there is no way to prove knowledge of the fights outside of ilvl allowing for assumptions of highest level of content completed?
I suppose that’s a different matter than issues with the group finder. That is a technical choice. But, this isn’t new, considering that AotC grants a mount you can’t get in LFR (or normal, for that matter). The complaints aren’t new, and they are still largely social, but the slime cat makes it a bit worse.
I mean yeah. If you’re going to be undergeared and want top end cosmetics. You won’t get that being a dps lol.
Why is a community voted mount considered a “top end” cosmetic?
I mean its really not, but with how you’re acting that normal is impossible it might as well be for some of you.
Think about this one a little harder. You’ve said using a game feature that is not providing adequate service is not a technical issue. You’re so used to the way things are you can’t imagine they can be any different. The group finder is a nice tool, but its limitations are showing when people must sign up for a group currently in process rather than schedule one for a certain date and time.
I don’t know how making the group finder allow for sign ups to an event days in advance would change anything. You’d still end up with people not showing up, showing up late, etc. and still need to find extras. Again, it is still strangers signing up.
And I CAN imagine them being different, since I’ve been raiding since before group finder was even a thing. I started raiding before cross-realm was implemented. ToT was my first full raiding experience, and at the time, you had to sit in a city and wait for people saying they are looking for an extra player (which could take as long as waiting in group finder). That often meant someone leaving the raid, traveling to a city, and then spamming city chat until they got someone. Which, of course, was totally dependent upon server population size and time.
Not long after that, they instituted cross-realm grouping, and the third party add on OQ was created to be able to find cross-realm groups. It made finding groups a lot easier, and Blizzard eventually made it a base tool.
The group finder tool had the same impact that dungeon finder did: it sacrificed social interaction for expediency. Granted, you could still do it the old fashioned way, but the expediency is too much to ignore. When you could only group with your server, that’s how you got what the OP wants: when you start making it into groups, you start getting invited back because of your competency. The pool of applicants was smaller, but you were limited by your server’s raid activity. You also started to learn who to avoid. Now the pool of applicants is as big as the entire player base and you are just a number.
I just think its inescapable. Blizzard (well, OQ) made a tool that simplified and streamlined things, and we players have turned the social parts of the game into what it is now.
Not if you got some kind of black mark against you. From a deserter debuff for the duration of the raid you signed up for, to just a permanent “raids missed” tally.
Imagine what it was like before there was even a cross server friends list. There are friends from those days I still try to dig up and connect with. I found one just a few weeks ago by chance in a cross faction pug actually. There was a time we had to wait for people to make their own way to a dungeon or raid. Just because things are better than they were, doesn’t mean they can’t get any better than they are.
Right. And that is yet another technical issue to be solved. Knowing you have completed a +20 dungeon, doesn’t tell me how many dungeons you tanked and alt+f4ed. It should. This is where the technical meets the social.
Before the current tool, there was openraid and player made tools for cross server groups. This worked great and helped revitalize the pugging community for years. The group finder contributed to the downfall by being more convenient to use, but a less technically advanced tool.