I can't get a group !!!

Discussion in 'Time Locked Progression Servers' started by Lejaun, Jul 10, 2020.

  1. Lejaun Augur

    The one thing that has never changed in Everquest. There isn't anybody who can get a group. The call runs rampant in guild chat, on forums, in OOC and general chat. Nobody is able to find a group to level up, apparently. Rogue, cleric, shadow knight, it doesn't matter the class. Everyone has the same problem.

    Sorry, but I'm going to have to break it down for you. Getting a group takes work. It has always been that way in EQ and it hasn't changed. You can't simply put "LFG ON" and expect to get a group immediately all the time.

    You have to be proactive. You have to search out established groups and find out if they need another or someone is leaving soon. You have to advertise yourself. You have to move to different dungeons and XP places and change picks. You have to make allies with people with similar schedules.

    The calls for a group are everywhere. "34 Warrior looking for group!" "36 Druid looking for group!" "33 Ranger looking for group!" "35 Necromancer looking for group!" "37 Wizard looking for group!" "35 mage looking for group!"

    These poor souls. Why won't someone invite them? If only there was something that they could do.....

    Sometimes you have to make your own group. No, not just make a group that fills up the six slots. You need a place to fight at. You need action. You need to be doing something, not sitting around not taking leadership while everyone twiddles their thumbs. You have to be active, give the other members of the party a reason to want to be in a group with you.

    You don't want to make a new group? Hey, that's a respectable decision. Starting a group from scratch can be a pain and they sometimes never get going. It's easier and often better for XP to join a group already established. You are going to pay for that a lot of the time, however, don't forget. It may take you longer to find a group to join. Sometimes it may take you hours of actively searching.

    That's the way EQ is and was and always will be. It takes a bit of work sometimes.
    Gremin, Skuz, Duder and 1 other person like this.
  2. KimchiGoddess Augur

    Not to mention it's much much easier to bring people together in the current era than it was way back when. You'd actually have to run yourself to each XP zone and try to find a group there and move on if you had no luck.

    Now there are server wide chat channels and LFG tools to make it so much easier.
    Skuz likes this.
  3. Lumiens Augur

    Or you can just box, problem solved.
    modsiw likes this.
  4. Kiaro Augur

    We all know this doesn't happen more than once.

    Oh thank you great wise one for spelling it out for us.

    So to deconstruct the valid point of "Make your own". While group building is amazingly easy on fresh TLPs there will come a point where folks are going to diverge in what they want to do. Many people want to spend 2 hours sitting on their butt waiting for the Perfect camp to open up. Or don't want to do that camp of LDoN, or won't go anywhere but fire, or GE gate or nothing etc..

    Having been a GM or raidleader in the majority of my EQ playtime I have no issues forming my own groups, when that's a feasible thing to do. For a solid stretch I just could not find tanks for my XP groups between Luclin and LDoN, the solution - level my own box tank. But just trying to form them on my cleric, frequently I'd end up with 4 DPS, myself and no tanks for HOURS, advertising for one, asking in guild.

    I've come up with some crazy solutions to this in the past, I invited a necro 3 mages and a ranger with my cleric and we went and kited stuff in PoValor (yes the ranger tried tanking, I was oom every mob this way). I Had a beastlord tanking in AC, a shaman/druid/cleric root rot squad in CoD.

    The cry of "XYZ can't find groups" is misleading, I suppose I should say - Its extremely common for tanks to box healers, so as a healer, its hard to find a tank to form a group with. Thus 5 clerics sitting LFG with not a tank in sight.
  5. Lejaun Augur

    Tanks who box healers almost exclusively box shamans or druids. "Hey, you handle the DoTs and buffs or Slows, and I'll handle the healing."

    Same old EQ problem. Some people get groups no matter the class they play, others never get groups no matter the class they play.
  6. Pawtato Augur

    Too much work, I’d rather just put up the LFG and semi-afk.
    HoodenShuklak likes this.
  7. sirelothar New Member

    It's pretty easy if you make a group. People on MMOs are introverted and very few like to take any initiative so you end up with 4 groups worth of people who are LFG and none of them want to send invites to the others. I've been doing this on my SK all the way up to 50 and had very few problems.
    Skuz likes this.
  8. Remedial New Member

    I ran into this issue leveling up. Even trying to make groups as a DPS and asking for tanks and healers to start a group was challenging. I often got the "I'd rather wait for an established group / camp" response.
  9. Protagonist Tank


    I'll speak to this one. 9 out 10 times, when I get a "We're forming a group" invite that I accept, the group in question has no camp and plans to "just pick around and find something." Usually, they plan to do this in the most overcamped and overpopulated zones. 40 minutes later, when they find everything camped, they start dinking some camp significantly lower than reasonable for that range and almost immediately wipe because most of the group went afk 30 minutes ago. The group then falls apart and I'm back on /lfg with an hour wasted and a net loss of xp.

    Find an actual open camp and tell people "I'm at x, want to join me?" and you'll get accepts.
    HoodenShuklak and Chopsuey like this.
  10. dirgenoobforreal New Member

    I pretty much slapped on a LFG tag, went to the instance I wanted to play in /ooc LFG level class... and somehow magically managed to level a rogue, cleric and wizard to 50 without starting my own group on Aradune or without relying on a guild. Its amazing how stuff just happens to one guy and everyone else is left out in the dust.
  11. Megazen Elder

    The problem is, people aren't all the same. Some people really abhor the idea of being a group leader, and just don't have the personality for it. I'd wager a lot of those people tend to flock to fantasy escapist games like EQ.

    TLDR: You're missing an important point about your audience.
  12. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    ^This.

    That's pretty much how all of my groups started (excluding between '99 & '03 when I didn't box at all)

    I'd go find a zone, check for camps get set up in one & get to killing.

    Eventually someone notices I have dinged, made an aa achieve or some passer by happens up my camp or advertises LFG in OOC and asks to join, somtimes I actively seek out others to get them in my group sometimes I set up the LFG tool with what I am looking for.

    After the OW camping game moves to the progression "system" in SoD it gets a little more complicated to get others involved,they may not have the same progression stage as I do or they miss flags to enter the zone I am in - or I lack flags for the stuff they want to do so finding players with matching goals gets increasingly harder while the number of players is getting ever smaller.
    ForumBoss likes this.
  13. Nolrog Augur


    I agree with this. If you put up LFG and just sit there, then you'll probably never get a group. Even way back when, at level 12 or so, I would go sit in Paludal Caverns and periodically OOC that I'm LFG.

    Go to Unrest, Guk or whatever is there for your level saying you're looking. Or make your own group. Had a guild mate on an old old progression server would OOC, group LFG, have SK and pet and he would always get groups going.
    Skuz likes this.
  14. Bullsnooze Augur

    I think the easiest thing to do would be to make friends, get on a schedule, and plan out a solid leveling path.

    Make friends you say?
    If it's server launch you can advertise your cause and folks will certainly join you. If you're joining a guild then they probably have leveling group established. Also you only need 2-3 people (preferably the 'trinity') to start a group and you can pull in others as necessary. Use Discord to communicate and get everyone together.

    Get on a schedule you say?
    Make sure when finding a dedicated crew that everyone can commit to leveling a few hours on set days.

    Plan out a solid leveling path you say?
    Open up Google Sheets or Docs and plan out a leveling path based on level range. Then share it with the group and adjust as necessary. Depending on era, make sure to stay away from overcrowded zones like Guk! Also make sure to use your XP potions effectively too.

    My only advice for those that like to play a lot is that you shouldn't out level your groupmates no matter how tempting. For example I can remember a recruit out leveled his crew beyond the groupable to hit a DKP bonus. He went on to find a higher level group to play with, but was unsuccessful because there were no open spots. He then tried to create a new leveling group, but no one wanted to risk grouping with him because he might selfishly pull out again. At this point his original group filled his spot and thereafter caught up, passed him, and hit max level obtaining the bonus. Ultimately, he was forced to PUG and missed bonus.
  15. Grok Elder


    This sounds a lot like the "When I got the chain letter and didn't actually send $5 to each name on the list, and I just mailed it out with my name on it, I didn't receive any money back. But... when I actually sent $5 to every name on the list, THEN added my name and mailed it out... I started receiving hundreds of dollars!!!

    This is ridiculous. If that story is true, then that guy is just a bad player... it's easy to form groups, especially on week one. I had no issue pugging to 50 in a few days, nor did anyone else I encountered. The only issue leveling at release it the limited amount of mobs.
  16. Efr3 Journeyman

    one reason it can be hard to find a group is if you're on a multi box server. people don't need to group there. they can just make their own group. why was this ever allowed? on true box servers people are generally always ready to join a group. this is basically what strawberry was explaining on another thread. one of the problems with allowing multi boxers. it only destroys the game for everyone. be proud when you do it. after all, you're gonna get more xp that way. that's what really matters right?
  17. PeterPansicle Journeyman

    Think you missed the entire point of the OP, mate.
  18. Gremin Augur

    Find a better guild if yours isnt looking at you to group enough.
  19. Bullsnooze Augur


    Its a true story and I wouldn't call him bad player, but he/she was definitely selfish. The DKP bonus was set aggressively to weed out that sort of player. And, it worked. :)
  20. Glororhan New Member

    I think it's really about expectations. If you're willing to shoulder more work, you can certainly take the initiative to start up a group and find a camp. That will be objectively faster than sitting in lfg, but honestly it can be a bit of a chore, as you need to do a lot of initial coordination and usually are the "heart" of the group, keeping it going as people leave, managing loot, etc. It also helps if you are a key class, such as a cleric, tank, or enchanter since one of the more crucial roles is already filled.

    Alternatively, in my experience you probably will find a group eventually just sitting in lfg, especially later in the evening as people start signing off but not everyone is ready to call it a night and especially if you are a tank/healer/enchanter. But it might take a while. So you can solo xp, do random quest , or watch TV or whatever and probably within a couple of hours someone will reach out to you. Being lazy or just taking it easy is totally reasonable, but yeah you'll get annoyed if you sit around looking at your screen but doing nothing during this time. And I agree, just being in a zone can increase your odds of being picked up.

    On Mangler, I often still get pick up groups just having lfg on and doing random stuff on my mage or bard. Of course, I also will ask on guild or just pay attention to guild chat, as most folks ask their guild first when looking for reps. So between guild stuff and pugs, it's usually not super hard to get something going pretty quickly. And of course, when I have a couple friends on, such as a healer and dps, it's way easier to build a group by adding a tank and a couple more people.