The LFG system has been completely revamped.
Details were released the other day. It's supposed to be coming some time in
patch 3.3. You won't have to worry about not finding a tank or a healer as the LFG interface is supposed to draw from a pool of various servers. The idea of pulling players from other servers seems like a double edged sword. Sure you might be able to run into more people and more opportunities, but what happens if you run across a ninja or an unsavory player? I suppose it's reassuring to know that they're on a different server than you are.
But here's some other changes:
- Players can join as individuals, as a full group, or a partial group to look for additional party members.
- Groups using this tool will be able to teleport directly to the selected instance. Upon leaving the instance, players will be returned to their original location. If any party member needs to temporarily leave the instance for reagents or repairs, they will have the option to teleport back to the instance.
Personally I like the idea of not having to fly
all the way down to the Utgarde or Nexus instances. That's going to cut down on travel time for sure. Hopefully the players we'll be partying with will already be fully repaired and have enough reagents to last the run. It's nice to know that extra convenience has been added for the days where we forget. Are you looking forward to these new changes?
Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of
Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to the Arthas.
WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
Tags: daily-dungeon, dungeon, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, group, instance, lfg, party, patch-3.3, patch-3.3-changes, patch-3.3-wow, raid, world-of-warcraft-discussion, world-of-warcraft-hot-topics, world-of-warcraft-patch-3.3, world-of-warcraft-topics, wow-3.3-changes, wow-discussion, wow-hot-topics, wow-issues, wow-new-patch, wow-patch, wow-patch-3.3, wow-patch-news, wow-topics
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Oct 29th 2009 at 8:00AM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 9)
Josin Oct 29th 2009 8:04AM
I can't wait to see it in action! This could be Blizzard's most user-friendly addition ever, by the looks of it!
emsee Oct 29th 2009 8:37AM
User friendly, yes, but I'm not certain that it will be a good thing...
I fear that we well see even more one-wipe-I-quit group collapses. And considering that I have on occasion waited for PUGs so long that I forgot I was in LFG, I doubt that the deserter defuff will do much to dissuade people from quitting.
I hope that isn't the case. /cross fingers
Josin Oct 29th 2009 8:52AM
I think the increased rewards are a good incentive to stay. Also, this will be with cross-realm LFG, so I expect the LFG time to be reduced significantly.
I've already told my guild, "Sorry guys, but I'm PuGging in 3.3." I just can't turn down the increased rewards from a random group.
LilBanshee Oct 29th 2009 9:15AM
@Josin: You don't have to PUG to get those rewards. The rewards are for random dungeons, not random groups. You can join the random dungeon system alone, with a friend, or with a full group.
Skonged Oct 29th 2009 9:17AM
"but I'm not certain that it will be a good thing..."
Arn't you a ray of positive sunshine?
Oh btw I TOLD YOU SO!
ha!
Josin Oct 29th 2009 9:20AM
@LilBanshee
But the rewards go up with the greater number of random people you use. More badges, more gold, and a greater chance for the pet.
Lets me gear up faster, and funds my (not insubstatial) repair bills.
Anyone who raids and has decent gear should be all over this feature, IMO. Being well-geared will make your runs go much smoother, and boost the success rate of PuGs, which means more rewards for all involved, which gets more people geared, more people seeing content, and a happier playerbase overall.
Knyle2 Oct 29th 2009 9:29AM
LOVE IT! This is yet another Suggestion I have been making on the forums for god knows how long!
Cant wait till they finally build in a pally power too!
LilBanshee Oct 29th 2009 9:30AM
@Josin: "But the rewards go up with the greater number of random people you use. More badges, more gold, and a greater chance for the pet."
What? No they don't. Your group origins have nothing to do with the rewards. They follow a fixed reward structure: Your first random heroic of the day gives 2 emblems of frost; all subsequent random heroics give 2 emblems of triumph; your first random non-heroic (only) gives 2 emblems of triumph.
LilBanshee Oct 29th 2009 9:35AM
Oh you're talking about pugs for nonrandom dungeons... "Players who take part in groups who have one or more members who have been matched with them randomly from within the Dungeon System will receive extra rewards, up to and including the coveted Perky Pug non-combat pet. The more random players with whom one groups, the faster the pet can be obtained."
Yeah, they haven't really explained that one yet. We'll see what those extra rewards may be, other than the pet.
Josin Oct 29th 2009 9:37AM
From here: http://www.wow.com/2009/10/21/patch-3-3-ptr-new-lfg-interface/
"This money scales based on how much of your party is random and how much is premade. The less random your party is the lower the cash return."
I've been told that badge rewards scale as well, though that may be inaccurate.
Also, from the patch notes:
"Players who take part in groups who have one or more members who have been matched with them randomly from within the Dungeon System will receive extra rewards, up to and including the coveted Perky Pug non-combat pet. The more random players with whom one groups, the faster the pet can be obtained."
So badge rewards may not scale, but the rest of what I said is true.
LilBanshee Oct 29th 2009 9:38AM
Although I suppose random dungeons would count towards that pug too... at any rate, they haven't named any rewards other than a non-combat pet for pugging. Neat and all, but not a long-term motivation.
Skonged Oct 29th 2009 10:13AM
@Knyle2
I know what you mean. I have been making, along with others, a few suggestions over the last months that are finally making their way into the game.
Eternauta Oct 29th 2009 11:54AM
This new dungeon tool is excellent to help those who play in low pop realms to get groups easier, since now it's cross-realm like bg's.
YEAH!
Blarg Oct 29th 2009 2:02PM
@Josin Sorry, but I think you might be wrong on the gold part either. Check out the blue posts here: http://blue.mmo-champion.com/1/20677231801-say-no-to-crossrealm-instancing.html Looks like based on the neg feedback they are not looking to penalize pre-mades, and instead just incentivize complete randoms with Achievements and non-combat pets. But no final decision has been made on this issue.
Personally, I think the whole random v. pre-made groups debate is silly. Most of the time I grind emblems, I am usually with random groups and it is generally fine or wipes and ends quickly. I think cross-server will be the same, just shorter wait times for groups -- especially for us healers!
Vacasta Oct 29th 2009 1:22PM
@Josin & LilBanshee:
I think that was the most civil disagreement I've ever seen on WoW.com. Thanks for not letting that devolve into "STFU" comments (and the like). I actually learned something from both sides of your quasi debate.
Josin Oct 29th 2009 1:36PM
Well, that's because we were both right... from a certain point of view.
You're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.
Kaelara Oct 29th 2009 2:20PM
@Josin - Thankyou for that profound statement, Obiwan. ;)
Reps Oct 29th 2009 2:26PM
WARNING: LONG post
User friendly is not a concern for me, and personally, I won't be using the cross-server LFG or LF Raid systems at all.
The great benefits of realm-specific groups are
1.) You know who many of the "baddies" and "ninjas" on your server are, and know not to group with them.
2.) If somebody preforms poorly for the amount of gear they have, or have insufficient gear for the instance they are running (ie a dps half ilevel 258 greens plus a few blues with +stam gems), you can be sure not to group with them again (often is the case they are between the age of 10 and 14, and can't type properly), or you can chose not to invite them due to lack of gear. With this new system the group is random, and you have no control over who you group with (aside from your ignore list)
On top of that, on my server, 70% of the people are in T9, and those who aren't are at least in Ulduar level gear. Every once in a while running a heroic you'll get a person in blues. But people expect he has taken the time himself to learn his class, and isn't going to be the person sitting there doing 900dps on the first [actual] fight of Trial of the Champion. (There was no big neon sign that pointed out where I should go to learn my class mechanics, and I learned just fine. I don't see why anybody else can't do the same. Type a few strings of words in google and you'll find something.)
This is even more true for raiding. Maybe a Naxx 25, or EoE 10, or even Uld 25 run isn't a big deal. But when I go to PuG ToGC 10 because I missed my guild run, I want to make sure that
a.) The person has the gear, isn't a ninja, and has the talent
b.) I'm not pugging from a server where the farthest progressed guild is still trying to down Faction Champs on regular 25 man.
And if I get a good Resto Druid PuG during a raid who is looking for a guild, if that PuG happens to be on another server, there is a very slim chance of us being able to recruit him, even though we are in need of a resto druid. If that PuG IS from the same server, there is a very good chance we WILL be able to recruit him.
There are just too many disadvantages to using the LFG system to overcome the advantage of finding a tank more quickly.
And one problem with tanks is plain and simple:
When running 5 man content, the tank:others ratio is ALWAYS 1:4
When running 10 man content, the tank:others ratio is USUALLY 1:5
When running 25 man content, the tank:others ratio is USUALLY 1:7
Heroics often require twice as many tanks as raiding does. But if everybody running heroics aspires to be a raider, there will be an extreme lack of tanks. Coupled with all the other reasons people don't play tanks, there is an extreme lack of tanks.
One other issue I have with the new LFG system for heroics.
Say you are on server 'A', where there is 1 tank, 1 healer, and 8 dps looking for a Heroic Nexus group.
Server 'B' has 1 tank, 1 healer, and 8 dps looking for a Herioc Nexus group.
You hop into LFG, and you are now connected with server 'B'. You now have two tanks and two healers looking for a group. Great! My group should fill up twice as fast now, right? Wrong. You now also have 16 dps looking for a group. The new system has done nothing to fix the tank shortage.
Now say you are a dps on server 'A', where there is 1 tank, 1 healer, and 3 dps (you included) looking for a Heroic Nexus group.
On server 'B' there are 0 tanks, 1 healer, and 4 dps looking for a Heroic nexus group.
Server A and B are now combined, and there is 1 tank, 2 healers, and 7 dps. People are randomly chosen, and group is formed out of those people, which doesn't include you. Even though your server has a perfect ratio of tanks, healers, and dps, you are stuck there without a group because somebody from an unbalanced server was chosen over you. Of course this is great news if you are on server B, where you have 8 tanks on the entire realm. But this seems very unfair for server A, where most players made tank alts to compensate for the shortage of tanks, even though on server B people made no effort to balance out the roles.
For every group this system helps, where there may be 3 dps on one server and 1 tank and 1 healer on another who would not have otherwise had a group, there will be a case where there is 1 tank, 1 healer, and 3 dps on one server and 3 dps on another server, and the 3 dps on the first server will not get a group because the 3 from the second server took their place
The only effect I can see this new system having on groups is balance of roles between servers. Slower queues and slower runs for high population, high progression servers. Faster queues and faster runs for low population, low progression servers. This will not be like cross-server BGs. Battlegrounds simply need 40 random players of any roll to fill up a raid group as fast as possible, and making them cross-server fixed the problem of the LACK of people participating in them. There is no lack of players doing heroics, except for low population servers. This can only help low population realms, and hamper medium to high population realms.
Josin Oct 29th 2009 2:42PM
@ Reps
You could've just said "I don't like it or intend to use it."
There's always the LFG channel, if you want to find people just on your server.
crunk Oct 29th 2009 2:47PM
@Reps: tl;dr.
Anyways, the "One-Wipe-I-Quit" collapses, will happen. I had it happen a few times already on the ptr. Hell, the first time wasn't even a wipe. I was in HoL and we hadn't even hit the first boss, when the Tank just gets up and disbands the whole group, in the middle of a a trash pull.
Also from what I understand, the group searching is based on gear as well. So I imagine if you are already in all T9 or close to it, finding pugs for just 5 mans heroics will be in your favor. At least that's Blizzard's hopes.
I think this system will benefit alt leveling though. It will make it easier to go back and down some of that earlier content that I've skipped because I could never find a group doing it.
Yes there will be ninjas, and group quitters, maybe more so than normal. Hell I kind of already knew that though before even seeing it.