In other words, I just tried to Group-Finder/PuG my first Operation (Terror From Beyond, 8-man, normal mode)...

...

Aaaaand, it didn't go so well.

I said in Ops-chat, before anything else "Never done an Op., what should I know?"

And I was told, "Just kill ****." Well, OK, fine; I'm decently-if-not-optimally-geared, know my class/spec (Merc/Pyro in this case), understand basic tactics --IE, I'm DPS, not "Durr-Pee-Ess"-- and most of all, I LIKE killing **** (from range...best way to be sure!), sooo...off we go.

After one wipe on trash on the way to the first boss --someone aggro'ed a second pack of those worm-thingies, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't me--we make it to the Withering Horror. And wipe twice in a row.

You know what happens next:

People start dropping, we re-queue, wait. One of the remaining members says they need bio, "BRB" followed by dropping group a few minutes later

More people drop, until I'm the last one left, and then I get kicked from the phase.../Sigh.

So endeth my first time in an Op. I've GF-queued for the two that Group-Finder has in it before, but if/when I even got a pop at all, it would always dissolve with someone either declining or timing-out. Maybe that's telling, right there?

So, community, my questions here are:

1) Is it possible/worth it to even try and PuG the Group-Finder-available Ops.?

2) What do I do to move my game forward to the next level of progression? (I'm pretty much done with PvP, if anyone wonders --most of that community is just too self-deluded, clueless, and downright toxic for me to put up with anymore.)

3) Guilds: To be quite brutally frank, I've avoided those until now. Because, I'm sorry, but there's no graceful way to put this: Most guilds in MMOs are completely frigging useless, full of drama, immaturity, and self-important ego-cases, and I'm getting too old for that crap-- but it seems that I'll probably have to join one soon. Or, is it possible to progress at least a little into end-game without one?

4) Gear: I'm in about 50 : 50 69/72 (non set-bonussed) with Arki Ear + Implants and PvP Relics, non-augmented --ca. 29.9k HP, 27/24% ranged/tech crit, 76% Surge 95.5/105.5% Accuracy ranged/Tech. I know that Accuracy is a litlle low, but is what I got "good enough" for now?

So, yeah, TL/DR:

I want to move into Operations on a somewhat consistent basis, and these don't seem PuGgable, so what's next for me?

Thanks and cheers, all.

Just wait until you see people advertise on fleet for a group. Sometimes, ask if anyone is running any ops.

The GF for ops is really a hit or miss, it is better not to use it.

Read up on the operation on dulfy.net as people will probably not be patient enough to explain every little thing to you since these ops are so old (at least read operator IX and TFB for TFB and olaf the shadow, styrak for SnV). It's like a 10 minute read but will help you not screw up by not building the portable shield generator or not know what to do during the color phase, or missing the anomalies on TFB and attacking the TFB instead of tentacles.

For the new dread ops, definitely read up on them and watch the videos as even SM is pretty hard and easy to screw up.

And oh yeah, if you do EC hm, make sure to listen to everything the leader says. Read the guide 10 times, watch the video 20 times, and more importantly ... have fun

1) Is it possible to PUG endgame content? Sure, you can usually find some decent groups to match into and it just sounds like you had some bad luck. Maybe try looking at Fleet Spam as if it's like our Server, there are usually groups forming up for 16M content which, to put a little bluntly, can generally get away with being less mechanically coordinated and be carried through by a backbone of stronger players.

2) Read up on all the Operation encounters, watch the videos and make note of the mechanics. Also spend time reading about your Class, via the Class Forums and maybe the DPS Leaderboards thread... sometimes someone will come along with something slightly different and it'll be more to your playstyle / do more DPS. Parse away on a Dummy to see where you fall in terms of DPS and try see if there are areas you can improve. Ultimately it's just know the fights and know your class better and you'll eventually end up somewhere.

3) Guilds are definitely about finding one that suits your playstyle and tastes, ranging from the focused, structured guilds to the more casual, laid back types and anything in between. Don't be afraid to join one, run a little to see how they are and if it's not for you, politely gquit and keep searching.

Without a guild, your chances of doing the end-endgame content (NiM TFB/SnV, HM DF/DP) is rather small, but you should be quite easily sorted for the SM 55s just by Group Finder / Fleet / Oricon general chat and there are occasionally PUG Groups for HM TFB/SnV that might be worth going in for experience.

4) You look fine for all the SMs... it's not really so much about Gear as what you can do with it. I wouldn't be fussed about taking a 63 geared player into any SM Op if I knew they understood their class and obeyed mechanics. Conversely, I've been with some 72-geared people who don't seem to have any idea of what "ignore the boss, he's invulnerable right now" meant.

If you're looking for optimisations, you could probably drop some Crit into Power and then swap some of your Surge for Acc, but you seem to already be aware of this so your answer is yeah, you're alright for SMs and possibly HMs if the rest of the group is a little better geared.

My responses.

1. I think it's getting to the point where the people who are doing SM Ops through GF are largely the people who have never gone through the operation before, and are afraid to answer a LFM in general chat. A lot of people are moving away from 8-man SM Ops for a couple reasons.

a. 16-man SMs drop ultimate comms from each boss.

b. A lot of people run TFB/S+V SM on Tues-Weds just to the weekly boss, again for comms.

c. There are fights in 8man that require all 8 people to perform tasks, and if they don't know how, it will wipe the group forever (i.e Operator IX). In 16 man, if someone doesn't know how to do something, someone else will more than likely be able to take charge for them, and the other person (likely someone who hasn't done the Op before) can see how things work.

2. Collect comms. Do any quests that provide ultimate comms (SM Ops, TC, FP weekly etc.) and elite comms, to round out the 69s. Personally, I think responding to a LFM in general chat will likely get you a better group than GF will nowadays. If you see someone looking for more DPS for TFB SM weekly, jump on it, let the person know you haven't done it before, and see what happens. A lot of the time the people running and joining these groups will be experienced and just trying to get comms.

3. Guilds can be good or bad. I think if you hold a negative expectation towards them, you'll never find one you like. If you're open minded, you may stumble into a good fit. Yes there are a lot of children playing, but there are also a lot of young professionals. I stumbled into my guild during a GF LI run (back when it was hard). I was hesitant to commit due to my busy schedule, but found out that there were a lot more lawyers, grad students, doctors, professionals in the guild than no good snot-nosed kids.

I would never not invite someone to come on an Op if they are un-guilded, but I think it's popular for a lot of people to think "This person isn't in a guild, there must be a reason why, he's probably bad." So I think you may have to prove yourself a little bit more. It's just a silly stigma associated with being guild-less. Can you progress, absolutely. We've found replacements for our raid group that are guild-less and performed fantastically, and some of them joined the guild as a result.

4. Your gear is fine for SMs. I'd work on Basic comms/DF-DP Story quest for some Arkanian relics (unless you mean Obroan level PvP relics) and augments. If I see non-augmented gear on people (aside from relics/implants/earpiece) I think less of the person's ability. That's probably unfair. But, by not augmenting MH/OH/Head/Chest/Belt/Bracers/Pants/Boots you're shorting yourself of 256 main stat and 160 endurance. That is something you can work on to make yourself more appealing to people looking for fill-ins.

Hope this helps.

But to put it simply, if the group wipes at the first boss in TFB then it really is better for you to just leave. Even if they on the third try by some miracle manage to actually take out the first boss, if the group was so bad they had actually wiped few times even on the first boss, I can guarantee that they don't have any chance against any other bosses.

Even if half the group leaves and gets replaced by better players, even they will not be able to carry you all the way through if the other half of the bad group are still there.

The first boss in TFB is by far the easiest boss in all operations and does not require much tactics and even what little tactics there are can be mostly ignored, but the later bosses have more complex tactics where everyone in the group needs to know what to do.

Just find a better group. You might not get it with random group finder though.

1. If you want to stay away from guild: stay on the Fleet and wait for people that looking for more peeps to do weekly DF DP. they will only do 4 bosses but at least you will get some achievements and some 69 gear. with commendations from weeklies you will get Oriconian gear (78) which will help you get into more groups if people are picky.

2. I would recommend looking for guild. All you have to do is ask on the fleet that you are looking for a casual guild and hen someone answers, ask then do they do any OPS runs each week as you would like to become active radier. If they say yes, then join them. If you then decide its not for you (this guild) then apologies for taking up their time and gquit. Look for new one. If you are new to a guild and you gquit no one will hold that against you. At some point you will find a guild that will fit your style and expectations. Once you do few ops runs with a group you will probably feel more at home then ever before.

If you really want to have some challenge then HMs are they way to go, but to achieve this you will need to be part of in a guild.

Also if you are looking for groups to do OPSs with, look for GUILD RUNS ... this usualy means someone is one or two people short and want someone to fill in the space. if you do well you might end up on their friends list and get more inviates (including one to join their guild). After guild run just talk to raid leader and tell him that if they ever need DPS, you are more then happy to help.

Thanks for the replies and advice, all

Perusing the guild-recruitment sub-forums naow...