I haven't had much success with OP groupfinder. First it takes forever to pop, and when it finally starts, people leave if someone hasn't done the OP before or after the first wipe. And then no replacements can be found by the group finder (not even DPS ), then people get impatient and leave . Does hardly anyone use the OPs GF or only directly after the weekly reset?

 

Groups in chat require "equipment and experience", even for something like a 50 SM OPs (and equipment at least as high as drops there ). It's kind of intimidating...

 

In other games I have been in a few raid groups, but they often fall into one of 2 sorts.

 

The casuals, who don't get anything done, at least not within a reasonable time frame, because members don't show up / show up 30min late and go AFK all the time. They have lots of people who don't even try or are resistant to advice. They don't know what gear, spec, rotation to use and fail even with the easiest game mechanics after several tries.

 

The (semi-)hardcore, who are (too) strict about raid attendance, (3+ nights), require farming the best of the best equipment and buffs, which takes too much time and turns the game into a job. Often they are also very strict about people who don't play perfectly, and kick them out of the raid spot.

 

Add guild drama to all kinds of raid guilds, often about loot - it's not fun. :-/

 

There are probably raid guilds who are in between but it's not easy to find a good guild and I'm not even sure if I want to commit to regular times, at least not 3+ nights a week. Maybe that night I don't want to play SWTOR or rather play an alt... I'm more spontaneous.

 

BTW I hope the game content outside of raids will never be balanced around requiring raid gear, I'd like to be able to do dailies , special events and flashpoints in poor gear too. (would take way too much time farming gear with all alts anyway)

 

I'm curious about your experience with group finder raids and casual/semi casual raiding in SWTOR? (PUGs through chat or guilds)

You seem to think that all guilds that raid do so on a set schedule that must be adhered to and requires frequent attendance.... that 3+ nights a week comment is rather amusing.

 

I'm fairly sure most guilds, like ours quite often run random Ops for the hell of it, simply asking out in chat if anyone wants to come along.

 

Not to mention the possibly of simply holding a sub position on a Team... pick a team which has a schedule that you like and ask if you can be a sub... if they need you to fill, you get your fix, if they don't, you can go back to whatever.

 

And lastly, I personally run a PUG Ops night for our guild where it's pretty much first come first serve, although I do hold spots for certain people, usually those who don't get to raid regularly. So people know exactly when an Op will run (like a Team does), except there's no attendance requirement, you simply turn up if you want to run and if you don't, carry on with your own business. I'm sure our guild isn't the only one that does this, so it's just a matter of finding one that suits you.

I'm sure our guild isn't the only one that does this, so it's just a matter of finding one that suits you.

 

My guild does something similar. While being a RP guild, one of our officers drags us through level 55 operations once a week, operating on a first come, first served basis (though we do seem to have regulars) While we haven't completed a single HM operation (mainly because the first come first served system means we don't always have people with great gear) we get through the storymode content fairly easily, despite none of us being particularly hardcore raiders.

 

Another officer does level 50 operation runs every two weeks, usually on different nights, where people can just come along to see the operations if they haven't done them before, get the old vehicle missions out of the way or just have fun.

 

My point is that there are guilds out there which aren't hardcore by any stretch of the imagination which can still manage to complete operations (without taking forever either) and don't require you to be on every week as part of a fixed team. All you really need is someone who knows what they're doing to lead and a bunch of people who can listen to them and follow basic instructions.

 

Addition: And seriously, whenever I read about ops groups going really badly on these forums I can't help but remind myself that these are the same ops that a bunch of RPers clear on almost a weekly basis, despite sometimes having people who have never been there before...

Edited July 19, 2013 by I-Win-Button

raid with guild 1-2 times to learn the instance and then feel free to pug..i raid just casually since i don't have a lot of time, but i'm definetly geared and i know the content as a tank and as a healer..i won 3 rolls in a row on SnV with a pug so it works :-)

Nothing works with pickup groups(unless you are greatly overgeared for the instance). Try a guild. Edited July 20, 2013 by Karkais

My guild also does all kinds of Ops, most are for people signing up for them so if you have the time you can sign up. Only a few HM runs are restricted to people with gear. We actually drag L50's through L55 SM operations to get them exp and gear quickly very often. And we run at least 2x 16-man SM every week with a few highly overgeared people so it's very accessible. From what I gathered you just need to find a right guild.

. We actually drag L50's through L55 SM operations to get them exp and gear quickly very often..

 

outright lie, it's a lvl55 op.... u canteven get into tfb or SV unless you're 55

Well you may say what you want I levelled my gunslinger that way going into S&V 16-man just when he dinged L55. You can enter from L50 upwards. Granted you can't pick up quests and you don't do any damage until about L53. But L50+ heals can heal pretty well.

 

If you accuse someone of lie it rather strong word and I am not sure why would you do that.

No, you can't. It was fixed some time ago.

 

Ontopic: get a guild. A casual guild that does operations for fun. Group finder is a joke.

No, you can't. It was fixed some time ago.

 

Not sure how much time are you talking about , but (if you can take my word for it) I took this screenshot 10 days ago

 

Ontopic: get a guild. A casual guild that does operations for fun. Group finder is a joke.

More like a gamble.

Most of the time you'll have people telling awful stories but thing is noone bothers sharing their good experiences with group finder.

I've had good enough runs with pugs through group finder that I'm far from discouraged to keep doing it.

Edited July 20, 2013 by wainot-keel

No, you can't. It was fixed some time ago.

 

They didn't. They fixed people under L50 going into operations. It was very specifically mentioned in change log.

 

We run S&V SM on this Wednesday with a L50 shadow DPS and a L53 (I think scoundrel DPS).

Groups in chat require "equipment and experience", even for something like a 50 SM OPs (and equipment at least as high as drops there ). It's kind of intimidating...

 

lol, a bit unrelated, but i'll never forget a guy on fleet (couple of months ago) looking a rdps for ev nim. "very well geared". A guildie, a lvl 55 merc with a mix of 66s and 69s, whispered him. But he didnt make it. Raid leader turned him down because his gear was low :D:D

My first finished ops happened with GF, SM of EV, KP and EC. But since then, I gave up on using it because of the horrendous waiting times when the chance of fail remains quite high. I don't like any kind of schedule since I like to decide based on my mood when I log in what I want to do. The best thing IMO is joining the groups that are getting together through chat. If you do that on regular basis, you get to know likeminded people who do the same thing and it gets easier then. Edited July 20, 2013 by zzoorrzz

Casual semi-hardcore player here. I run with my guild or pugs just for fun, I don't use GF for ops, it does not work as intended. Many general chat groups will be patient to explain fights if you let them know ahead of time you don't know them. Get into a casual guild, there is plenty of them.

I don't understand why they don't do 16 mans for group finder. In my experience, they're a whole lot easier than 8 mans, and the balance issue of dps, healers and tanks is a bit better.

Causal raiding will get you "casually" geared. You get out of SWTOR what you put into it. Casual raiding will NEVER get you to the point of having full end game gear (underworld, or kell dragon gear at time of this posting). If that is what you are aiming for I have bad news for you.

They didn't. They fixed people under L50 going into operations. It was very specifically mentioned in change log.

aaah okay, i was wrong. Thank you for clearifying it

Causal raiding will get you "casually" geared. You get out of SWTOR what you put into it. Casual raiding will NEVER get you to the point of having full end game gear (underworld, or kell dragon gear at time of this posting). If that is what you are aiming for I have bad news for you.

 

Pretty much this, if all you care about is doing story mode ops every once in awhile, SWTOR is good for that, if you think you can just casually gear yourself to kell dragon level gear, that's incredibly unlikely to happen unless you get unbelievably lucky with a PUG

Causal raiding will get you "casually" geared. You get out of SWTOR what you put into it. Casual raiding will NEVER get you to the point of having full end game gear (underworld, or kell dragon gear at time of this posting). If that is what you are aiming for I have bad news for you.

 

Pretty much this, if all you care about is doing story mode ops every once in awhile, SWTOR is good for that, if you think you can just casually gear yourself to kell dragon level gear, that's incredibly unlikely to happen unless you get unbelievably lucky with a PUG

 

Translation : "Go playing with your childhood toys. Leave the real hard work for those who fit for it."

Firstly ^^, unnecessary.

 

If you are looking to casually raid, some of the comments above will certainly help.

 

To make a short summary of what I suggest:

 

1. Avoid Group Finder. Try to join 16man Sm OPs. If you are new to these OPs it is easier to learn with more support. Your mistakes are amplified in 8man OPs.

 

2. Join general chat on the fleet and either respond to someone advertising an OP run, or advertise yourself as wanting to go on a specific run. This usually gets you into a much better situation than group finder. (100% make the person clear of how knowledgeable you are with the OP and how your gear situation is. If you were to join my PUG run and say i know whats going on and you show up with very low gear and run around like a mad man on the first pull I would boot you no questions ask and find another replacement. BE HONEST AND WILLING TO LEARN AND I AM GLAD TO HELP!) <-- I think this holds true with many people

 

3. If you are truly going to occasionally PUG, but still want to attempt HM OP's I suggest having a headset of some sort and have VOIP available. As someone who is progressing through NiM, and occasionally PUGs a spot or two in my ALT run through HM OP's I am much more willing to take a moment, and explain the new mechanics to my PUG if I can talk to them and they are willing to listen and learn. (Teamspeak3, Mumble, Ventrilo)

 

If you are after the ultimate Comms that the group Finder provides than you will have to deal with all the Hell that comes with GF. But be aware that you would get MORE ultimate Comms from a 16man SM OP than using GF for an 8man SM OP. And the possibility of getting gear is exactly the same.

 

(Side note, make sure your OP leader makes it clear what the looting rules are. There is that chance you join a guild run full of a**holes that takes EVERYTHING.)

 

Hope this Helps!

^ Thanks for the advice, I didn't realize that 16Man OPs give more commendations than group finder, the same chance at gear (twice as many drops, twice as many people), and is easier (with 16 people it is less problematic if a newbie makes an occassional error) I'll try to join some chat PUGs then and start with the lvl 50 OPs.

Translation : "Go playing with your childhood toys. Leave the real hard work for those who fit for it."

 

that isnt what I said, I just said you can get yourself fairly well geared even with casual playing.

I've been casually raiding for 2 months from doing heavy raiding on highest end content before that.

 

A busy time of year for me and my evenings are not mine so I have to get what I can.

 

Basically you need to dial down expectations and get used to spending a lot of unplanned time on absolutely anything from waiting for members to trash to tactics to wipes to afks.

 

You want reliability you get in a guild that raids on a schedule you can join.

 

Doesn't need to be a guild which calls itself "hardcore" just one which has the substance to organise and complete raids of the level you want with minimal drama and timewasting.

 

Casual raiding when you don't have to is masochistic.

Edited July 24, 2013 by Gyronamics

well, yes and no....

 

Casual raidings works, if people actually know the mechanics of bosses (Operator IX for example).

 

Other thing to take a note of, DPS and HPS, to even have a chance at finishing HC Asation or Darvannis, you need to be able to do atleast 1900 - 2300 dps per DD = 69 gear.

 

As for NiM, no you cant clear NiM with a casual group for several reasons:

 

1) How well people know eachother ingame and how they move arround and the tactics that each dedicated raidgroup develop.

2) Dedicated raidgroups mainly consist of 72 geared players with 66 epic augments

 

And as a part of a dedicated raidgroup which is still working on NiM Asa and Darvannis, we have scheduled raids 3 - 4 times a week.