Please Bioware: Add some incentive to get people to queue for Flashpoints.

This ^ This is me 100 times over. When I started my sorc healer (I was unguilded at the time) I did so for the pure fact that I wanted to heal and q as one so I could get into the fps. But it only took one flashpoint and 3 people haranging me on my crappiness that made me lose all confidence. Now, for me personally, it is a fear to heal for people because I no how horrible they can be to people new to the role. Yes, not all, but they are out there.

A while later after getting my sorc to 50 (before RoTHC) and somewhat geared, I'd found a great guild and they begged me to heal TFB as a last resort. I'm talking, 6 guys on vent all speaking over eachother, pleading endlessly. They all knew how I felt about healing, but this was my guild I loved these guys so I gave in. I'd dpsed TFB many times before, so I knew the op, but seeing it from a healers perspective changed me.

We'd spent about 2 hours doing this op and throughout the whole thing I was tense, shaking, sweating. I could barely talk during fights because I was so insanely focused on the health bars. When/if we wiped, I would silently berate myself for not being good enough (just like those flashpointers had mentioned way back when) or not getting heals off in time, not seeing an attack coming and being able to make up for it. At the end I was left physically drained. My mouth was aching as I hadn't realised I'd been clenching my jaw throughout the entire raid. I'd smoked over a dozen cigarettes with shaky hands. My restless leg syndrome had gone into overdrive. My heart was in my throat for 2 hours, and I hated it.

I'd put all that stress onto myself, despite my guildies saying it was ok. That was the last time I ever healed, even for the guild. They knew how I'd taken it, and after a laugh they promised not to put me in that position again. Why do that to yourself, over a game? Some can handle it, I no for sure I can't. I want to play and have fun, but the stress I put on myself or fear I cause to myself in that kind of role, just isn't worth it.

Either your Luck stat is very high or you don't pug. Some players expect fast pace from tanks so if you're not pulling next group as soon as previous group was cleared then Sentinel/Marauder/Sniper will take your place as tank. They try to find your weaknesses as a tank. You will get things like "Do you even know how to tank?" and "Noob" in chat and worst part of it is that they don't stop until you /leave. They don't even bother to kick you...

This has been a "problem" in every traditional MMO I've ever played. Incentives aren't going to change it. The simple fact is that dealing with bad groups is a bigger pain for tanks and healers than it is for DPS characters, so tanks/healers are more likely to only queue up with friends. I personally gave up long ago: I don't tank for a healer I don't know or heal for a tank I don't know anymore, period. If that means I don't do a flashpoint today, then I don't do a flashpoint today.

No in-game incentive can make up for not having fun. This isn't a game mechanics problem, it's just how human nature plays out.

IME, one source of frustration when tanking a FP is there is usually no communication to set strategy - people are "flashing" through, do not want to take time to type. Hey, I understand that. So there is no time to say "I am going to DeathFromAbove that group, jump to this other group, and harpoon that Elite into this group so you can AoE." By the time you type all that, someone else will have started the fight. It's just the nature of FPs.

So what can you do but go with the flow? It is usually not a wipe if a DPS starts a trash-mod fight, so I try to relax. That said, as another poster said, you usually put more pressure on yourself than the other players do.

OTOH, as a heals or DPS I find the lack of communication in a FP is no big deal. I will let the tank set the pace, CC things if I think there is need and not be surprised when someone immediately attacks the CCd mob because they didn't know it was going to be CC'd. When I am healing it is no different than an op: stay in healing range of the tank and as many DPS as possible, and heal people as needed.

Now, if the game had a built-in voice chat for FPs, that would change everything - maybe in a good way.
Do any MMOs run voice chat as part of the game?

Yes, exactly this. There is nothing Bioware could add in will give me an incentive to queue up for an instance because I've had far more negative experience than positive while healing for Pick Up Groups over the years. Having a queue at all encourages negative behavior because often no one will say a single word in group chat for the whole run, unless it's to complain about something you or someone else has done wrong. Forget it if you have never run the instance, no one will tell you what is expected of you until after you've done something wrong.

I don't think I'd want the tank to tell me their rotation before every fight. I can understand that creating frustration - as a tank, you know your pull strategy. Just execute it.

Before a boss fight, depending on difficulty when I tank I may share my pull strategy/pro tips for that specific fight during the opening monologue. That's about it. Otherwise, get on with it

It is actually the strongest argument for the root of your thread: DPS Queue time.

If one DPS played as a tank or Healer then that is -1DPS and +1Tank/Healer in the queue. But there are not that many people that play the game from all three angles anymore. We are seeing now an entire "generation" of DPS that only know how to DPS (or play the game in general) as it relates to TFPs.

Since we're comparing resumes, at 55 I have (pure tanks):
1x Jug, 1x Guardian, 1x Shadow, 1x Assassin and 1x Powertech (I also have a level 50 VG)
For dedicated Healers I have at 55:
1x Sorc, 1x Op 1x Commando and 1x Merc. (But I have a total of 4x Mercs at 55 and I change spec to suit the needs of the group - which means they are 98% of the time Healers).
I also have a Sent, Mara, Sling and Sniper at 55, but I never play these DPS role only toons.

So, while I don't have *every* tank and healer at 55, I feel like I have enough of a grasp on the situation to recommend to the average DPS player that they should roll a harder role if they want shorter times in the queue. Maybe do something to enhance the community and improve their experience rather than complain about their lot in life.

The "problems" you identify are not solvable by cross-server and/or any combination of your action items. Will it help? Who knows? Perhaps, to a point. But what incentive is there at 55 for a Tank to queue for any FP? Farming Iso-5?

Opening up cross-server queues *will* (without question) add to the pool of available DPS. The reality is, most tanks (and you should know this since you have them all) don't queue. If you target incentives at the "tank" population it *will* be abused by DPS in the same AC as the corresponding tank. Y0u still won't have actual tanks, you'll have a DPS that queued as a tank/DPS who is now getting more of a reward than say the sniper in your group simply because he has a tank tree assigned to him.

Next, cross-server queuing throws community accountability right out the window.
Ignore List: The ignore list on my tanks are a mile long because I consolidate them periodically. But how can I ignore someone on a different server to ensure that I never get GFd with them again? Can't be done.
Ninjas: With no community accountability Ninja'ing will skyrocket and you have no option to publicly shame them or again, ignore them.

The issues with the GF system, cannot be "fixed" by software designers. They are human issues. The GF itself isn't what keeps Tanks from queuing, it is the lunk-heads that you get grouped with.

SWG did.

It would be neat if they could bolster you *down* (reverse bolster?!) to a lower level. Say I wanted to run The Esseles with my lvl50 Guardian. Currently, I can't use GF to queue. But, if it bolstered me down, then I could.

Why not? They have a bolster mechanic in play for PvP. Tweak that, and incorporate it so a level 50 could use GF to queue for a level 20 FP.

WoW does, too. Never used it. I don't think most do.

There's no need for voice in flash points, and I'd much rather BioWare spend precious development resources creating new gameplay features and content than creating yet another voice chat client, too many of which exist already.