Thread: A bit confused about group finder tool

I have soloed for the most part up to 22 but since I enjoy healing and i am a Minstrel i figured I would try out the group finder tool.

I tried queuing up as a healer and left all other parameters wide open. I didn't care what i ran just wanted to run something to try it out. Thing is.... nothing happened i just sat in queue for nigh on 2 hours.

Is there a trick to using this tool or is it something where as a Premium player i dont have access to all the instances .. or perhaps there just are not many instances at lvl 22?

Any thoughts? I figured as a healer i would be in a group in a flash as i was used to with another mmo.. I was surprised to be sitting around for 2 hours with no bites before i finally logged for the night

From my memory: at level 22 you'll have access to 2 instances (Great Barrows Maze and Thadur), 2 skirmishes (Gondamon and Tuckburough) at f2p.

At VIP/If you've bought everything you'll have access to 3 instances (Great Barrows Maze and Thadur, Inn of the Forsaken), and at least 3 skirmishes (Gond, Tuck, and the new one Mathradras or something like that).


So yeah, there aren't many instances to choose from. Furthermore, not many people use the instance finder. It is limited to server, and if no one is on on the server looking for someone to group with then you won't get any bites. Also, levels 1-30 go by really fast, so there just might not be a lot of people at that level range for you.

When it first came out, people thought it was so bad thta they took to creating a group first and THEN using the Finder only to pick a random skirmish/instance so that they got the bonuses from the finder.

Later, the devs 'fixed' the Finder but the players have not changed.

So if you want to find a group to run stuff with, first find the group and then use the Finder. It is normally useless to try to use it for the purpose it was intended for.

Nobody uses Instance Finder to form PUGs, that's your problem. Join channel GLFF (GlobalLFF, Unite etc.) and watch the groups being formed there, in addition to your local LFF channels as well. After you form a group through channels, THEN you use IF to get the bonus to mark gain. Try other way around and you can wait for 6 hours with no results even if you own all instances and have all sizes/roles selected.

Originally Posted by Jadowyn

So if you want to find a group to run stuff with, first find the group and then use the Finder. It is normally useless to try to use it for the purpose it was intended for.

If the intention had been to find a group with it, the incentive would be on being groupped with people in the queue, instead of on having it select a random instance.

Thanks for the info all. I had actually turned most of the spammy chat channels off i will have to flip em back on to get some groupage going.

Originally Posted by Jadowyn

So if you want to find a group to run stuff with, first find the group and then use the Finder. It is normally useless to try to use it for the purpose it was intended for.

Instance Finder was never intended to be a group finder.

Had Turbine wanted us to find groups with this tool, they would have started by calling it "Group Finder". When you entered the first screen it would have been people oriented. It would asked what role you wanted or presented you with a list of groups looking for members. The Finder would have rewarded you the highest bonus for entering the queue as a single character. The maximum bonus would occur when the Finder puts the entire group together from solo characters. You get no bonus for your instance selections.

Lets look at two different goals.

1. I want to get players to spread out and do different instances. I call it Instance Finder. I put in a 50% reward if the tool selects the Instance from all possible instances within a category. No bonus for having the tool complete the group. No bonus it you have a specific instance you want to do. That is what we have to today. It is an Instance Finder.

2. I want to help people from groups. I call it Group Finder. I put in a 50% bonus reward if the tool selects all the members from the pool of characters in the Group Finder pool. No bonus for having the tool select an Instance. You are not penalized if you select one and only one specific instance.

Our Instance Finder rewards us for building a skilled team first. Then invoke Instance Finder to select a random instance for our group to get the rewards. A Group Finder would reward us for picking one or more instances first. Then invoke Group Finder to fill all the spots on the team.

I can't speak for any one else. I hate Instance Finder. It is a tool looking for a problem to solve. I do not want the game software picking what content I do. I want to pick the content. I need help with getting team members when my buddies are busy or not around.

I really, really wish Turbine would port the DDO grouping tool over to LOTRO.
To this day that DDO grouper is still one of the best I've seen in an MMO, and since Turbine already owns the tech..... no licensing issues!

Originally Posted by Widmore

I really, really wish Turbine would port the DDO grouping tool over to LOTRO.
To this day that DDO grouper is still one of the best I've seen in an MMO, and since Turbine already owns the tech..... no licensing issues!

I don't play DDO, so I am not familiar with that tool. How is it better than what we have in LOTRO?

Originally Posted by Nickysmom

I don't play DDO, so I am not familiar with that tool. How is it better than what we have in LOTRO?

Hmmm, it's a little complex to describe in text without visuals, but a basic rundown would be something like this:

If you are forming a group, you can define the specific instance, the level range, and which classes you are looking for. In LOTRO it would probably also label the tier.

If you are looking for a group, the tool will show you which groups are looking for your class and level and which instances they are running, from the above tool.

So for example, if you were a group of 5/6 level 40-ish looking for a healer for Great Barrows, you could specify a level range of say 38-42 and the RK and minstral classes. If I then as an RK at level 40 did a search, your group would show up on the available list. If I was say a warden instead, it would not show up. Then I hit a join button, the group leader gets an info text that shows who I am and he can then either accept me, reject me, or PM me for more info.
Plus what's nice in DDO is that besides filtering available instances by your class and level, it can even filter out ones that you don't own the dungeon pack for, or are otherwise unavailable, like if they're quest gated, etc.

And also keep in mind this isn't through the chat box. This is a full scale window, with nice little icons and graphics and such.