Breakfast Topic: I get by without a little help from my friends
by Mike Schramm 
Feb 21st 2008 at 8:00AM
Lane is facing a problem I face quite a bit in World of Warcraft, and I bet you have, too: she needs a group but doesn't have one. I don't care how many friends you have or how awesome your guild is, there are just going to be some times in game where you have a quest to do, or you have something that needs to be done, and you don't have four other people to do it with.So how do you get things done? Me, I usually just sit in LFG while grinding or doing something else, and then just hope I get a group together eventually. But my Hunter has had to run Ramparts for a long time, and no one's jumped up to take me, so I may start offering incentives soon. You'd think the incentive to get some loot and have a good time in a group would be enough, but no -- if you're trying to do a quest that's months old in game and happen to be on your own on a server, you're often times out of luck.
So how do you get a group together when you don't have one? Do you ping the major cities and try to pull an expedition together? Do you just ignore the quest and go without? Or do you have to have a guild or friends on the same server to get certain things done? What do you do when you need a group, but just don't have one?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics, Instances
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Matias Varnum Feb 21st 2008 8:06AM
I have found that group-quest thend to pilu upp in my quest logg. So once in a while me anf 4 other guildies get together and since noone of uss has the same group quest we just take turn pucking one each. Thanks to this i have been able to clear out quite a few of those group-quests.
Tristi Feb 21st 2008 9:23AM
Which mod is it in the pic??
Thuglord Feb 21st 2008 8:06AM
I pull out the old "Polite whisper" its a nice add-on that helps u find a grp.
Alex Feb 21st 2008 8:22AM
Maybe it's just me, but I hate it when people just randomly whisper me out of the blue asking for me to tank an instance. They only people that I will do that too are either people on my friends list or guildies that I know well, otherwise, it's pretty rude.
Psychosis Feb 21st 2008 9:17AM
i never really liked that polite whisper mod, it makes it seems to me that the user doesn't want to put in the effort to be polite so uses a mod to do it for them
William Feb 21st 2008 9:26AM
@Alex
It's not rude to ask politely. And you can always just say "no" if you don't want to. People frequently ask me to heal their group and I normally wouldn't go out of my way to go track down a group, but since I am a needed commodity, it makes it more fun. And I've gotten some good loot/cash from helping out even when I don't "need" to do that particular instance. So I think polite whispers are okay. Just don't spam someone or give them a hard time if they can't do it.
William Feb 21st 2008 9:26AM
@Psychosis :
Agreed... a mod for it would send that impression. I don't mind helping people though who whisper and ask genuinely.
Vinna Feb 21st 2008 11:33AM
I too dislike the polite whisper mod. I just think of it as a bot and generally add those people who whisper me with it to ignore.
Calybos Feb 21st 2008 1:19PM
Well, it beats the random out-of-the-blue group invite, which is MUCH more rude and always gets an automatic Decline from me. Even if I'm currently looking for a group!
Raogrimm Feb 21st 2008 8:13AM
Well being a tank this may be something only a tank or healer can do, but I simply post in the LFG channel I'll tank any 70 instance in exchange for help with a group (elite) quest. Its worked for the most part, and I've been able to finish off all my group quests doing that.
Second option is just pay people, going rate is 12-24g, basically the cost of one or two dailys per person. Some will do a quest for free because they just want to help out, others will wish compensation for running half way across Outland for you. Either way, if you really want to check off a group quest the cost would be around 100g (or about 7-8 dailys).
Jon Feb 21st 2008 10:07AM
I've done this. Needed help in Shadowmoon. Started with the usual LFG for , and got no where. Jumped to a 25g/person bounty still no luck. Finally ended up paying 50g each.
darian Feb 21st 2008 2:17PM
I do not understand this mentality.
Most group quests only award 18-24g anyway, with maybe another 12g in the form of a vendorable blue. What is accomplished by paying twice what one earns?
If the gear's genuinely worthwhile for you (e.g. the second sight helms) I could potentially understand, but to just "check off a group quest" doesn't make sense to me.
LFD Feb 21st 2008 8:14AM
I'm having a lot of trouble lately finding groups for the early to mid Outland instances like SP/UB/MT. I guess being a ret pally doesn't help. My gear is really really good for my level (64) but that doesn't seem to make a lick of difference =/
Polynikes Feb 21st 2008 9:15AM
What server are you on? I always like bringing along a ret pally for the buffs and auras...besides having another emergency healer and another who can DI the healer is great.
John Feb 21st 2008 8:30AM
if it's a non-dungeon group quest, I just wait and try it when it's yellow, and if that's no good, I generally easily solo it when it's green, the xp should be the same either way. While levelling I stay out of instances unless a guildie's boosting me through it because, my xp per hour in a pug in an instance is too widely variable to be useful (in other words, people wiping the group kills my xp per hour). And finally all the pre-70 non-dungeon group quests I still had in my log at 70, which were all green or yellow I was able to easily solo, and the gold was good, so it likely wasn't so bad saving them to do after I hit max level.
Zemalf Feb 21st 2008 8:42AM
For quests. I plan ahead (using addons / previous knowledge), so when I know that group quest is coming soon: I continue questing/grinding and at the same time I post on general (in that zone) if anyone wants to join (and keep eye if someone asks for help for that q). If no answers, I put up LFG for that quest and post in LFG too. Then re-post on general. If still no help, I then either go try and solo it, or move on and doing continue other quests while still looking for the group. Most save group quests and do a bunch of them at once.
For instances (normal). I just PUG. I put myself up in LFG and continue whatever I was doing. Or I take initiative and start whispering the ones in LFG. If no group is up, I just try another time or ask friends / guildies to help.
If I end up in a group with good player or players, I friend them. This is needed for the next part (or future normal instances).
Heroics. I ask friends/guild or someone I know asks me to join, then we see if we get a group of 5 up and go. If not, we PUG the 4th and/or 5th, while still keeping an eye on friends/guilds. I never or rarely enter heroics in a group I don't know anyone in. It's just so much easier, faster and more fun to go with the ones you know and trust.
jaxson_bateman Feb 21st 2008 8:46AM
The only quests I really have any sort of trouble with are non-instance group quests. For example, right now I'm up to the step in the Consortium H-MT chain just before you go to MT, where you have to fight a suggested 5-man mob in BEM (apparently can be duo'd, and easily trio'd). For now, I'll just leave it. It's just a bit of cash. Eventually if I ever feel like doing it, I'll just mention to some of my guildees that I need it done, and sure enough we should get a group going.
As for instances, I find most of the normal mode level 70 ones are fairly easy to pug as an extremely well geared healer (T6 - that said, the last time I did a normal instance was months ago when I was finishing off my rep with the factions). For heroics, I refuse to pug as I've had too many bad experiences with tanks being overly squishy or not being able to hold adequate aggro - however, lots of guildees are into heroics when not raiding (especially with the anticipated 2.4 loot) so they also aren't a problem. They're even kind enough to do the places I like so that I'm able to stock up on some of the epic gems before the patch hits. And as we're T6 geared, they're an absolute breeze.
So, basically, to summarise...
Group Quests: Guild; rarely.
Normal Instances: PuG; generally via the LFG interface.
Heroic Instances: Guild; quite often.
Korek Feb 21st 2008 8:55AM
I know she said she's an undergeared feral, but that's fixable with some time and effort.
1. Clefthoof Chest, Legs, and Boots. Craftable.
2. Quest rewards - Some data mining at wowwiki or other sites will help.
3. S1 Epics for honor - Sure not everyone likes PvP, but a few weeks of grinning and bearing it will help. Finding one friend and doing the 2s arenas (reforming team as needed) can also net some decent gear. Feral tanks actually can gear from pvp, it isn't as good, but better than nothing.
4. AH has some decent stuff sometimes such as Braxxis' Staff of Slumber (nice pre-Earthwarden stick).
Basically, she can get geared up, and in the process of tanking (start on the non-heroic 70s stuff) can meet people and find a guild that will be there for her when she is ready to take on Heroic Sethekk.
Usu Feb 21st 2008 11:25AM
If you read the comments on her posting, apparently it's too much work to get geared up to a level where she could decently tank or dps a heroic instance. It's all about getting epic flight form without the effort.
As a tank, I have run too many undergeared / clueless guild members through heroics and I have really lost patience with it. They want heroic rewards / badges, they better put in some effort - I don't enjoy running yet another heroic where I out-dps the "dps".
feadin Feb 21st 2008 8:55AM
lol this is me alright... i tend to leave a lot of quests just cuz i get no groups... and that is why i made a blog for solo locks :P
http://warlocksguide.blogspot.com