Finding a group?

[wmtyrance]

Why does it always take me forever to find groups? I swear I ask politely and say my level and what side I'm looking for. People always talk about how group friendly the game is. Those xp boost are a waste of time. By time I find a group its worn off.

Edited September 23, 2020 by wmtyrance

[MTeague]

It is far faster to start a group, than to look for one already in progress needing a few more members.

 

I never post "lvl 32 Blueside Controller LFG" or "lvl 42 redside Widow LFG". 

 

When I feel like teaming, I'll usually spend a few minutes observing what groups are being advertised for, as I check the auction house.

If none are going on, I'll start a team.

 

 

[Lusiphur Malache]

Yeah you either have to put your own team together or make yourself more open to options for teams. Give redside a try or answer the call for a high level team or hang with low levels doing a posi run.

[Doomguide2005]

More or less as MTeague, usually I'll either be crafting, auction house or running a mission of my own while I watch what's going on in chat then join something.

 

Server, time of day, or which day in the week can all make a difference.  And add to those global friends as well as watch chat channels related to specific events such as task forces (which can very by server)

[Sir Myshkin]

I will say that I (personally) feel like the old style of casting your line out into broadcast or LFG is so easily dismissed even since Homecoming started up over a year ago. I’ve tried tossing out “AT level LFT” myself, especially during some peak times when folks are building teams, and nothing tends to come of it. The idea of grabbing those wayward souls is a bit lost.

 

As MTeague said, the dynamic of things has shifted to the point where people just sit idly by waiting for someone else to put the team together for them, which leaves people having to make a decision of being that one that finally says “Oky, Team LFM” or continue subserviently waiting. Some part of me wants there to be a Master Class tutorial on team building so people can feel more comfortable.

 

In recent weeks I have found myself starting up a specific nightly TF just to get a half hour to hour of play in each night without waiting around, and now there’s folks quite literally waiting for me to pop in next to the contact around that time frame, before I even log in.

 

In fact I’d probably be running one right now if my ISP hadn’t crashed 20 minutes ago.

 

Anyway, this is one of those things that you can fix yourself by simply making the team instead of waiting for it. Even if you’re low level and doing random contacts, people will join you and you might even be surprised to discover some of them are exempting down to tag along!

[gourdhead]

1 hour ago, wmtyrance said:

Why does it always take me forever to find groups? I swear I ask politely and say my level and what side I'm looking for. People always talk about how group friendly the game is. Those xp boost are a waste of time. By time I find a group its worn off.

Not really the point of your post, but you do know that you can stack 8 double xp powers, right? 

[wmtyrance]

Ok thanks for the replies and I did not know xp boost stacked. They go one after another?

[Sir Myshkin]

23 minutes ago, wmtyrance said:

Ok thanks for the replies and I did not know xp boost stacked. They go one after another?

Essentially you're buying time with the XP Booster, and you can purchase up to 8 hours of in-game time with them. You should be able to get all the way into 28-30 off casual play on that initial 8 hours stack. On a good scenario I've managed to get to 40 with a lot of high-paced teams and some Weekly TF extreme xp bonuses.

[LiquidBandage]

3 hours ago, wmtyrance said:

Why does it always take me forever to find groups? I swear I ask politely and say my level and what side I'm looking for. People always talk about how group friendly the game is. 

In order, I pay attention to:

- People that regularly run groups (Hamidon, MSR, Incarnates, etc)

- People on my Global List that coincidentally run/join teams on a regular basis

- People that speak up in Coalition chat or other designated chat channels

- Random people that ask for help with X content

- Random people that advertise running content in LFG/Broadcast (either missions, TF/SF, whatever specific thing they want to do)

- Random people that just say "lvl 23 Blaster LFG"

- Then I acknowledge then immediately dismiss people that ask to door sit on whatever AE farm that may or may not exist or be looking for people. 

 

I get what you are saying though. Sometimes you just want a group and you don't have anything specific in mind but you want to be part of a group. Be patient and wait for someone to advertise or become proactive and run a team. Sometimes just running Radio/Paper missions + Bank to unlock more contacts is helpful all on its own (and isn't a large time commitment). Often when you are running a team, it is hard to keep an eye on LFG chat (unless you setup specifically to do so) to catch the people that just say "lvl 23 Blaster LFG".

 

It is much more attractive to join/help when someone advertises "Talos mission team (27) looking for heroes to save the day". Or "I need help with this AV mission" gives a stronger starting point for forming a team. A simple "lvl 23 Blaster LFG" is a little more problematic because there might not be a group out there that is looking for more. There are most definitely plenty of people out there looking to join a team though.

[Johnny]

10 hours ago, wmtyrance said:

Why does it always take me forever to find groups? I swear I ask politely and say my level and what side I'm looking for. People always talk about how group friendly the game is. Those xp boost are a waste of time. By time I find a group its worn off.

Levelling happens so fast by teaming for mission arcs and task forces, I don't see why you need an xp boost. But as you say, you're having trouble getting into a group. Good advice in this thread, including forming your own groups. Here is a basic recruiting method:

 

1. Have 2-3 contacts that you're able to call, so that you have access to mission arcs. You generally want to have door missions ready, as opposed to head hunting.

Sometimes a door mission is followed by head hunting. Just have to deal with it.

 

2. In the Looking For Group channel, say something like, "LFM level X [blue/red/gold] missions...pst"

3. Whilst waiting for responses, do a search for players are either "Looking For Mission," "Looking For Any" or they haven't set their flag.

People forget to set their search flag, so it's generally okay to ask them, unless they're tagged as not interested.

 

4. Sort the search results by level, and look for people that are kinda in range, above or below, especially those that are LFM or LFA.

5. Basic need is for aggro-management, but aside from that, it doesn't matter who joins your team.

Tanks and masterminds are the best aggro management, though you might manage without; you'll need to learn as you go.

However the aggro management is done, ask the relevant person to "take point," so the team knows where to go. This will help avoid someone going solo and being wiped by the mobs.

 

6. Sometimes you'll be doing your first mission with 1-2 people, sometimes you'll have a full team.

Inbetween missions, state that you need a minute for recruiting, then repeat your recruiting steps. People will often need a couple minutes for levelling, or buying inspirations.

If the team has been doing a lot of missions, then suggest a ten-minute break for drinks, bio, etc.

Also ask the team whether any of their friends want to join. They'll appreciate being able to help out.

 

7. Over time, you'll find that the team is gelling well. At the bottom-right of your chat window, set your Notoriety to something like +2, or whatever helps make the mission challenging (i.e., mobs that con at least yellow, with oranges and red mixed in).

Sometimes, a "power-leveller" will talk about efficient levelling. Ignore them; they don't know what they're talking about, and it's your team.

You want a team that's having fun, and you'll lose track of the xp you're getting.

 

8. When you want to stop teaming, don't just pass the star to someone. Say something like, "I need to head off. Does anyone want the star? Otherwise, I'm dissolving the team."

This gives people an opportunity to decide whether they'd like to continue. It varies, but after doing a lot of missions, people will thank you, and voluntarily drop from the team.

Note that people actively dislike being assigned the star (i.e., too much pressure, not sure how to recruit, etc.).

 

Hope that helps.

Edited September 23, 2020 by Johnny
Added info

[MTeague]

There can be a bit of a confidence issue / feeling unsure of what the proper protocol is when you start a team.

The long and short of it?  There are no rules.  It's up to you, the team leader, to choose.

 

The best thing you can do, is advertise up front how it will work. 

 

If you plan to just go round-robin, doing one mission from each team member?  Advertise that.  "Mission Team LFM, taking turns whose missions"

If you plan to focus on just a particular story arc?  Advertise that.  Esp if the foes kick it up a notch:  "LFM for World Wide Red arc, Malta Malta and More Malta! Ends with a Kronos Titan!"

If you plan to do radio missions?  Advertise that "LFM for Brickstown Radio missions and Bank mission!"

 

Etc. If you set the expectation up front when you're advertising, no one's surprised, no one is "Oh but I thought were were gonna do" and no one will be all "OMG Malta? Screw this I'm outta here". If that was a deal-breaker for anyone, they just would not have joined.

 

Also, don't feel shy about calling it when you're done. 

By tradition, I always ask if someone else wants the star first, but I can count on one hand the number of times people took me up on that.

 

ex: 

I was doing Bricks Radio missions and the Bank Mission. We did 4 radio missions (I already had credit for one first), and then we did the Safeguard Mission. 

We wrecked face in the Safeguard, we got the Explore Badge and did some side missions.

The stated goals were achieved. I was done.

I asked if anyone wanted the star. No one did.  "Okay, thanks all!  good team!"  and I disbanded.

[DougGraves]

I just don't bother playing most of the day.  There is a window in the evening where finding a group is convenient.  I play during that time. 

 

You can pretty much always find a dfb.  And ITF's and other end game farming are done a lot.

[Frunobulax]

There are lots of groups going on, that's pretty much all I do.

 

Personally when I run groups I usually completely ignore people who are lfg in channel, and only rarely look at people who are using the lfg tool simply because I've tried in the past and often people don't want to do what I'm doing. 

 

Fair enough of course, I usually run tf's and there's lots of reasons people might not want to do a tf, but I don't feel like sending a bunch of tells to people who are selective about what they want to join, but have not made that fact known in their lfg message, that got old pretty quickly.

 

When I am lfm and I see somebody who is lfg who could join what I'm doing, I assume that if they wanted in, they'd send a tell and I'd just be bothering them to ask them if they want in.