Finding a group-what a joke. (sorry for complaining.)

First of all, sorry for complaining, but I'm just so frustrated with all these missions...

When I first started playing GW, I was having a blast. Everything was going fine, I had no problems with monsters killing me in two seconds, and I didn't constantly need 1,000 more gold than I had. I bought all the armor I needed for the time without any problems.

But now...the group thing. I can see the diffrence between finding a group to do The Ruins of Sarmia and finding a group to do Thunderhead Keep...but this is just too much.

As most of you know, Thunderhead Keep is hard. NO, I don't care about you "professionals" who did it on your first try with the henchies in 30 minutes. The mission is hard. I don't mind the difficulty...if you could easily solo any mission as easy as you could solo the first mission when you're level 20, the game would be no fun.

But the group thing. I mean...what the hell. Tell me to get a guild-I have one. My guild members don't feel like helping me do this mission, it's hard enough to do the first time through, and I don't blame them for not helping me. I wouldn't help me.

I've attempted this mission who-knows how many times. I've had 2 monks, 2 trapper, a water elementalist, a fire elementalist, and two warriors (I'm a warrior). Everybody in the group was amazing, but we got a stroke of bad luck and ended up dieing.

So, we returned to the outpost, tried again, died again, and everybody said forget it. I belive I can do this mission. But there's one problem...

"W/Mo LFG for mission"

30 minues later..

"W/Mo LFG for mission"

45 minutes later...

"W/MO LOOKING FOR A GROUP TO DO THE FREAKIN MISSION!!!!"
"LF Monks"
"group looking for monks"
"need 2 monks to do the mission"
"experienced group looking for 2 monks only"

This is so stupid. I'm in there, for over an hour, saying "LFG". By the time I get ONE response, its a person forming a group. And guess what he says after I join? In the general channel:

"Group LF Monks"

For the next hour and a half, we'll have to PRAY that a monk comes in and joins us. ALMOST 3 HOURS. LOOKING FOR A FULL GROUP. THIS IS STUPID.

If you're not a monk, good luck looking for a group. If you are a monk, have fun doing the mission 10 times with a group that invited you just because you are a monk, and yell at you because they died.

I'm getting tired of this.

I believe there is a lfg thread on this forum, you could try posting there and schedual a time. Im sure people would be willing to help you even though you guild is not. My guild went through a seporate time for each person, its hard but possible if you work together.

I feel your pain. My main is a warrior/elementalist, and for some odd reason, I always die MORE with a PUG than I do with robots. When I get to where you are, if you still need assistance, as it sounds like you do, my guildies and I will help.

Top heavy offense can bulldoze through that mission, even with only having henchmen healers. Only real hard part comes into play towards the end swatting the mobs before they can rush the king.

Unfortunatly, this is one of the few instances where having a tank strategy doesnt help at all. A dual warrior group with two healers can complete the mission, but its far easier to do with a group overstacked with elementalists. My first time through the mission i thought it was difficult when i played it as a warrior. My subsequent runs through have used 4 or more elementalists filling in the remaining spots with whoever was available and just breezing through it. Yeah people can die that way, but that is what having a res is for and the important thing is killing the monsters before they can really injure the king.

Welcome to Grind Wars, make sure you only play a warrior/monk/elementarist.

i am a war/mo and i have trouble finding a group to do that mission.i feel your pain

I hear ya - get the same thing all the time, just cos it seems like since I'm not playing a monk/warrior/elementalist, I guess I'm surplus to requirements.

You have more patience than me though - If I can't get in a group in ~5 minutes I'll form my own group.
It usually fills up pretty quick with people who were in the same situation as me.

We had 3 necro's a mesmer and a ranger the other day, and since no monks were joining we just grabbed Alesia. Had an easier time with that mission than when I tried it with groups of warriors/monks/ele's.

Maybe one day people will remember that they have self-heals

Don't apologize for frustration. I feel your pain. I have a Me/Mo, W/Me, R/W and a Mo/E. The ONLY character that I have not had problems getting into a group with is...you guessed it...the Mo/E....and, truthfully, she's my least favorite character.

If you need a hand, you can always look me up and I will bring along my Me/Mo and get you through this rough spot.

IGN: Kalia Darkstar

It gets really old hearing that play off the game name. It's not original, funny, or for the most part, even accurate.

People turn this into a grind, it doesn't need to be in any way. I feel sorry that the original poster has trouble finding a group to play in, but if you make a character that is the same class as 30% of the rest of the people in the game, realize the market may be flooded with WaMos (and yes I have one). So many threads have been made about the difficulty of finding a good pickup group. Is the problem also that pugs don't talk? They don't strategise enough? They aren't patient enough?

Every pug I have been in has been good enough for the mission at hand. I wish there had been more talking some times, but it just leaves room for improvement.

Maybe it would work to be a little more original with your group requests? I know the LFG Ruins of Surmia need 2 monks gets pretty washed out in my eyes, so adding something different, either specific or even funny may help you out. And if you are waiting for 3 hours, maybe trying other districts?

And the henchies are totally out of the question?

Good luck with your continued attempts. If I get there when you are still there, I will certainly party up with you, and then you won't be looking for a monk anymore (until I am not good enough and get yelled at too much).

Matt

actually play anything but theese classes and just ignote those who only ask for them!
simplest way to seperate the stupid from the wise ones.

i agree with all of your post, except this part. yes, i realize W/Mo is a popular class, but do you really suggest i play as a class i'd completley hate to play as just because its not as popular? i had a w/r up until i could change, i didn't see many of those, but i didn't like being one.

But thanks for everybodys replies. i'm trying it one more time with this group, and if i don't finish it, i'll give up for a while and ask you guys to help. thanks

Forget all that nonsense. I'll form a group with you and help you. That mission is EASY, hehe, you just need competent people. We don't even need monks, thats right. The hardest part is the ending, hard because not many people are competent to manage that end, once you get three competent people, you've won, the rest are just there to deal damage.

It's not a secrect, but 99% of missions in the game can be done with henches and 100% of missions can be done without monks. Theres enough class specific heal/defense skills to compensate.

My hardest time finding a group was with a W/Mo.

I had an easier time finding a group as a N/Me and as a R/Mo. Everyone has a W/Mo or W/E, so no groups need them.

Some tricks to getting a group:
-After you reach the 8 people in a group stage, try joining existing groups when they have only 3-4 people. You’ll be more likely to be accepted.
-Try starting a group yourself. When you see someone say “LFG”, give him or her an invite.
-Don’t be afraid to take the hench-monks. I find that they’re on par with the average human monk, and it certainly beats waiting for hours to get a human monk.

I have never failed that mission. And ive done it with 3 diff chars so far. Helped my guild people do it a few times too. Its long, but not hard by any means. Maybe bad luck or something else.... You know about the using the catapults to kill the enemy before they even get inside dont ya?

Maybe ill hook up with you tonight to finnish it. If we fail i think its safe to say that having you on a team is like having two really really bad players.

I can play monk, war or el.

You know after that you go to Ring of Fire that is one quest and 3 missions ... if you think thats bad wait until you reach those missions.

Grab a few rangers for the mission... a couple trappers can make things fun!

Hmm... an all trapping group, now that would be interesting. Easy, perhaps, but interesting.

breathe in, hold for a count of 3, breathe out, hold of a count of 3.
breathe in, hold for a count of 3, breathe out, hold of a count of 3.
breathe in, hold for a count of 3, breathe out, hold of a count of 3.

I'll assume this is just your attitude for the moment. There's really only two reasons to join a guild; competitive and/or friendly gameplay. The former, I couldn't give two squirts about your personality, you could be the most obnoxious abrasive person I've ever met. Yet if we work well together in Tombs, if we have an intuitive understanding of each other's playstyle, welcome aboard, jerk! =)

The friendly aspect is exactly why your guild mates should come help you. And you should be not only willing but interested in helping them. If not, you're in the wrong guild. "I wouldn't help me" sounds a bit depressed because of the troubles you're having, but if you truly feel that way, just delete GW and give your account away. You'll be happier for it.

Waiting :45 for a pre-planned guild battle is even too much, waiting 2+ hours for a PuG PvE group? SIR! Drop the mouse! Drop it! Get up from your seat and take two steps back from the computer. DO IT. NOW.

Since you're asking for help... I'll state the overly obvious: Take control! Form your own group. Don't wait on human monks for PvE! GW is nice with them, to be sure, but even if you get a human one there's no guarantees on his ability. Or his willingness to stay, or his bitching. Hench don't quit, don't bitch, and are (if nothing else) predictibly stable in ability. (And they'll never try "extortion monk" tactics.)

If you take the prot and heal henchies with you, you should be more than fine. There is one wrinkle with using hench for Thunderhead, but it's not that bad - you can't use the ballistae after the first volley. If people run around, the hench get confused and run back and forth healing and protecting wildly. Stay at the King and defend as the bad guys come.

Or you could just grab henchman, who, in most circumstances, are better than the average PUG anyway, so long as you yourself as relatively competent. Lina in fact, is a damn treasure, except for an occasional preemptive Aegis. As someone said, even Thunderhead is readily accomplished with henchman as long as you camp Jalis

Or, if henchman aren't your thing, be proactive and grab all the other people in the district who are spamming and complaining about not being able to get groups. You'd be surprised what a little initiative on your part can yield.

I had no problems with my first character, did it on my first try. My second character though, took 4-5 tries, which with how long that mission is... blah.

I finally wound up doing it with a friend (a Me/Mo), me (a Ele/Ra), and the henchmen. We had very few problems, only once did it even get a little dicey. I have a theory that some... wonderful individuals... in PuGs try and get the bonus, which if your not set for it can mess you up pretty easily.

What you've got going against you is your "common" build (usually with a 13 year old at the steering wheel). You need to differentiate yourself; know your target market -- try rotating a few good advertisements.


Rockin' Hammer (infused Wa/Mo) looking to squash Mursaat
Elementalist and protect squishy healers from Jade armours.
I eat dwarfs for breakfast.

Hear! Hear! Reigning champion brawler (infused Wa/Mo) looking
for a serious dwarf hunting group. I'm just barely smarter than
Little Thom -- I know about aggro circles!

Me Warrior protect squishies. Eat dwarf. Hammer good. Called
Targets good. Aggro'd groups bad. Me resurrect fallen heros!


You've got to ask yourself who is your ideal target market. I'll tell you. It is a group that is already playing well together (usually 1/2 with guild members) that want to fill a few holes. You're primary competition is Stefan. Someone advertising "Wa/Mo" isn't clearly better than Stefan, but any of the above advertisements is. It doesn't matter what you say, only that you clearly demonstrate that you're a thoughtful, creative human that understands game play. Advertise well, and you will succeed.

Im going to laugh when i see this nearly word for word when bouncing through areas one day. I have seen similar before, and the guy was nearly worse than the shouter in frontier gate clogging up the local chat.

Someone will put these phrases into their farming bots

I have a female warrior and I find this advertising tactic works even better when you act a bit... suggestive. Like he said, remember your auidience... under-sexed computer nerds who play GW more than they see daylight.

I dont' get- can someone point out to me why Thunderhead is so hard? Its so simple:

Get 2 casters to man the cats. Everyone else stays in middle of field. When an enemy group begins to come into fort, have the caster on cats yell "Jades-East side" or something to the like. Then, everyone moves quickly to that side, someone calls targets, you quickly eliminate the enimies, and move back to center to repeat.

Anyways, about your complaining about not finding a group. The average group has 2 monks- that leaves 6 spaces for people who aren't monks. It shouldn't be a problem to find a group.

I totally agree.

Missions can only be done without monks if everyone knows what they're doing.

Good luck finding a PUG like that.

I can walk through Thunderhead with henchies now, I know it so well. At least, I can right up until I'm defending the king at the fort. Every time, I can't freaking kill that boss that comes, and just get overrun.

Replace that 99% with a 100%.

Too many people think the correct strategy here is to stay with the king at the end and let the monsters come to you.

Read YellowMarkers post--that's how you do Thunderhead.

BTW, I have a L20 Ele/?? (changes depending on my mood) and Mo/?? (changes depending on farming vs. grouping). PM me here for IGN.

Tee hee

I do the same, mine are;

Lonely Monk looking for a group, I can't hurt anything but I bake a mean bunch of cookies.
OR
Wanna play Doctors and Nurses, I am a monk looking for a group of willing patients
OR
Doc, Nurse, Phisiotherapist, Surgeon, Healer, Cleric, whatever you call me LFG

I know being a monk myself as my main makes it easy for a group but shouting this stuff gets you noticed much quicker than the teeni bopper Wa/Mo LFG Over and Over Over and Over Over and Over Over and Over Over and Over .............

Good lord I hate lame people who ask for groups like that, makes me want to get some uncooked spagetti, stab myself in the eye with it and then sweirl whatever is left into my brain with my fingers.

Anyways, get creative

Cheers

I also feel ya.... I haven't partied with real people that much, due to the fact that most people would rather run off and leave me in the dust while I'm sorting my inventory, IDing/salvaging stuff, or just plain resting after a tough battle.... Now I have had a few partners that had a tactical mind like mine; it made the zone so much more fun to explore, as we were outsmarting Charr at every turn... I don't use Teamspeak or any of that (IMHO) crap as it makes everything to convenient to just be able to call out directions, orders, etc.... Good tacticians should be able to devise a "shorthand" communication program (i.e. military hand communications)
As long as you have a good battle plan before zoning... everybody should be ok...oh, and BTW...always take Alesia...she has not failed me yet....

FYI.... YellowMarker sounds like a genius to me...

You whant a hard build to get a gruop with try N/R well untill people discovered I could use Well of power and sprit of winter then suddenly I'm everyones friend but I rember tring to beg people to join my gruop or let me in their's and I was always the first person kicked from a group for a warrior or a monk And the other thing I hate is people who ignore the fact that a intellgent person can use their secondry proffesion just as well as their primary. Thankfully my guild got formed and now a gruop is just a hollar away

I understand your pain as well. I did not have that much trouble as you with my W/Mo. I could find a group. Maybe it is changing since I haven't played him in three weeks or more.

Now that I have my Mo/Ele I have to turn down requests all the time. I'll have three invites going at once.

Today I actually had some fum with a group. They were spaming "Group of 5 high Level Players NEED a Friggin Monk.." I could not resist joining these guys. They were doing the mission and bonus for Riverside. I needed the Bonus. It was kinda funny. They were clueless on the bonus. We wiped out ONE Watchtower and they thought the bonus was done. I had to laugh and say..sorry many, many more to go. You are suppose to avoid the Mantle during this mission, they procceded to attack everything. We all died at least twice if not three times during this mission.

However for the most part they WAITED for me to recharge. That was worth it for me. Still there is no way to keep everyone alive. Hexes,Posion,etc. Thankfully at the last second before entering the mission I changed out my skills for "Smite Hex" & "Mend Aliment". That was a Godsend.

For some reason the Ele/Mo dropped. Dunno why could have been a Lag. She was fun to talk too during the mission and didn't seem to be upset about anything. So when she dropped I did my best on the Watchtowers with my decent "Firestorm" (Att 8 in Fire)

We ended up cleaning out the whole map. When it came time to "Run for the Bridge" There was nothing left to stop us.

It was a long mission. Took over an hour. However, I had fun with these guys. Others would have called them "stoopid n00bs". I think differently. They listened to each other and they all said OK when one would say..."Let the Monk recharge".

As I always say: "Communication is the Key"

I find it hilarious, that in the harder missions people randomly invite my Monk, without asking if I'm a Healer. I'm a Smiter, and I tank more then all the Warriors. ^.^ Fun!

use henchies

the one mission that you have to take crystals to 3 portals racing against the enemy team can be tough with henchmen.

Only when relying on hench healing, if there's more than 1 real human. Hench follow whoever is moving; if one person stops they converge on the moving person closest and if that stopped person is still inside the aggro radius of the moving person then they dance between them... sometimes not even bothering to heal / prot themselves much less others. (This has nothing to do with Thunderhead specifically; it's part of understanding combat with henchmen.)

Staying with the king at the end is pretty effective. I've done Thunderhead that way three times now, and never fought a group larger than four or so at the King. You're only in trouble if you get jammed up on the Monk boss long enough that more groups continue to flood in.

I personally have never done it that way. We always halved the group, one half at each gate. When things got messy (I.E. people running back and forth, jades getting through and causing mischief, etc.), we would just all run back to the king, and push back out to the gates. Worked very well.

Some people wait hours looking for two monks. My Thunderhead Keep group consisted of 6 necros and 2 rangers. Total time looking for party was like 10 minutes. We beat it first try, easily and quickly. When we finished, some of the same people were still looking for monks in the staging area

Originally Posted by IxChel

Rockin' Hammer (infused Wa/Mo) looking to squash Mursaat
Elementalist and protect squishy healers from Jade armours.
I eat dwarfs for breakfast.

Hear! Hear! Reigning champion brawler (infused Wa/Mo) looking
for a serious dwarf hunting group. I'm just barely smarter than
Little Thom -- I know about aggro circles!

Me Warrior protect squishies. Eat dwarf. Hammer good. Called
Targets good. Aggro'd groups bad. Me resurrect fallen heros!


I've done this. Mine generally go: "Step up, one and all! Need five more noble lads and ladies to go a-questing!"