A Random Dungeon Finder Solution
There is no denying it, The Dungeon Finder tool has been a great way to find people to run dungeons with. It is a great way to farm [Emblem of Triumph] and get geared in a relatively short period of time. Great for making gold too! Perfect for casual players, and players still leveling up.
For players who have been 80 for awhile now, and are now enjoying the new dungeons and raids, will still have a reason to use the Random Dungeon Finder tool. Once a day, you can get 2 x [Emblem of Frost] from completing a Random Dungeon.
It is also a perfect chance for you to attempt some of those Heroic Dungeon Achievements you haven’t gotten around to getting yet. I know I just got the achievement for piloting the three different drakes in The Oculus. Funny how before this patch was released, I’ve only done that dungeon ONCE!
Ohh… I know why, I hate this place! Even with the recent nerf to this place, I still hate it. To make matters worst, this instance has popped up so many times, that I’ve stopped using the Random Dungeon tool after I’ve gotten my two Frost Emblems. In fact, I think I’m starting to hate The Nexus and The Old Kingdom too!
The increase amount of these instance groups are most likely due to players specifically queuing to get their Red and Green Winter Hats for the Winter Veil achievement. Damn you Winter Veil!!
I know I could just pick the specific Heroics I want to run, but really, I’m only in it for the 20g from doing it the Random way. The two extra emblems are just a little bonus. Plus I was getting my title and pet pug. He’s pretty damn cute!
So anyways, I was playing Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne recently. Playing a few one on one ladder matches, or doing a few 2v2s with my cousin when I realized that Blizzard should implement this random map selection system, to the random dungeon system too.
In WCIII, you are given 5 “thumbs down” you can use on some maps you don’t like. So out of around twenty maps, you pick 5 that you don’t like, your opponent selects 5 that he/she doesn’t like, and the system selects a mutual map for you to play on.
For the Random Dungeon Finder, Blizzard should give us maybe 2 “thumbs down” we can use (heck I’ll even take just 1) to pick dungeons that we do not want to run. Yes, I know this is “Random Dungeon” Finder, and not “Dungeons I Only Like” Finder, but it is only to eliminate one or two that I just dread going to.
For too many times already, I’ve been queued into The Oculus, ported in, only to find that the Tank, Healer, and a DPS has left the group. I then get auto queue for the instance again, and 3 new players pop in, only to also leave the group. Then I wait for the same thing to happen again and again.
Then it is just me and one other guy. That guy be queued in here to get the stupid hat, and I’m refusing to leave because I don’t want to have to wait 15 minutes before being able to queue again.
Don’t lie, you guys have had similar situations. This was just a random solution that popped in my head while playing WCIII, but I hope Blizzard does add something like this. Maybe set it up so that if so many players have left your group, you are given the option to opt out of the instance without suffering the 15 minute penalty. I don’t know… I’m just ranting.
Blah, I hate Oculus!
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Oculus.. what does that look like?
Gnomeaggedon´s last blog ..For Christmas, All I Want is to be a Gnome Mage
http://www.wowhead.com/?zone=4228
It is the one where you ride dragons around, and fight on them. Cool concept, but quickly gets annoying. I’d rather be DPSing with my Mage, rather than using a dragon.
I *Think* if you click ‘No’ to recruit fresh party members, you can leave without getting the deserter debuff. No help if you aren’t the party lead and the one who is just wants his hat of course…
I like that idea a lot. I am leveling my warrior with the dungeon tool and I have a hard time (read fail) tring to tank an instance 3 levels above me. I would love to exclude Ulduman at this point.
The WCIII system makes sense for PvP. You’re saying, I will meet you, other player, on a random battlefield to which we both have the right to exclude 5 choices. Both players recieve the same benefit by being able to avoid their most dreaded maps.
In any PvE scenario, a buff to the player is a nerf to the environment. You are rewarded gold and emblems for accpeting the challenge of saying, I will take on any 5 man dungeon that you throw at me. Allowing exclusion lowers the level of the challenge to the point where said reward may no longer be deserved.
I’m just saying this to play devil’s advocate. It does suck to get the same dungeon an inordinate number of times due to RNG or other people dropping out. Maybe if someone drops group then the rest of the group can get assigned to a new random choice once a replacement player is found. Or maybe Bliz’s algorithm isn’t balanced. A big factor could just be perception, since people that get 3 Ccculuses a day are a lot more likely to complain that people that get 3 VHs like your truly (hope I didn’t just jinx myself.)
Why not just buck up and do the instances we don’t like? The badges are colored the same and the gold works just as well. And the instances these days take less time than waiting for the debuff and another 10 minute wait for a group.
If you’re a tank or healer, the wait time is obviously not an issue, but that’s where having a conscience toward your fellow players comes in.
Eregos is now my most-killed 5-man boss and, like you, that’s not voluntary. I’m now only doing my single random daily for my bonus frost badges as a result, and once I’ve got all that I need (I also raid 10/25 ICC), I’m out.
Blizzard has already admitted they weight the system based on your gear (I get Occulus as my one and only random nearly every day since the system went live). It’s time to either redo that system or give us some limited number of opt-outs on other dungeons. Heck, I’ve had my pug dog for more than a week, and I still haven’t even SEEN most of the Northrend dungeons via the dungeon tool. But Oculus shows up day after day after day.
Ringo Flinthammer´s last blog ..I’ll be home for Winter Veil
The reason why these awful dungeons (Just turned 80 on my horde, I had HoS 15 times yesterday, I am not pleased) come up so frequent is that the people that are queued in leave, and its just a continuous chain of people leaving so the instance is never really getting done, its getting put back at the front of the queue. I don’t know about you but I would rather wait 15 minutes for the debuff than 30 or more for people to queue in and stay. Surprisingly I had Occ today, no one left and we even got the timed achievement, first time thats happened for me on any of my toons lol. I think they should implement some sort of selection for the random, that is a good idea Blizz will never conform to.
Also speaking of queuing, I got into a HoS run and immediately left since I did it a million times, I waited 15 minutes, and I queued again, zoned in….HoS and same people. So yeah.
lol I know what Oculus is… really I do.. one of my characters went there once.. I think…
Somehow I have missed the whole Random Dungeon = only Oculus thing.. touching wood…
I do have some I get without fail.. they have bored me out of the experience really…
Still, not as bad as tonight’s Ulduar 10 PuG…. I beat FL for them.. they couldn’t get past XT… we ended up (on 3rd attempt) with 2 tanks, 4 healers and 4 DPS… none of whom could crack 2.5k DPS.
I left in disgust (I give people, especially new folk giving it a try a go) after the 3rd wipe.. some people don’t get it.
Switched to Gnomeaggedon and he was the lowest DPS in Naxx at 3.5k… don’t know how those guys ever expected to clear Ulduar… ohh I forgot to mention.. they gear checked me.. Achievement checked me.. and wanted to do Hard Mode Uldar 10…
Ummmm.. give me Oculus
Gnomeaggedon´s last blog ..For Christmas, All I Want is to be a Gnome Mage
I agree there needs to be some limited control over the instances we can randomly stuck in. On my DPS toons, Oculus is the obvious justification, but when I’m playing on my tanks and healers I find another reason I want some capability to restrict what I’m thrown into. One of my tanking toons (a DK) I’m still learning how to tank. Oh I”m perfectly capable of handling a UK, VH, Nex level of Heroic, and a place like HoL, HoS, AN, or OK present challenges that are learning opportunities. But, while my gear “qualifies” me for HoR, I’m just not their skill-wise. Likewise, the Dungeon Finder has frequently sent my healers to ToC, FoS, PoS, and HoR when my gear was highly questionable and with my limited healing experience on those borderline to under-geared toons, I know I just don’t belong there.
At this point, on those toons I just queue up for specific dungeons to get experience. But that ends up making the wait longer and is surely depriving some people that just want to run a random of an extra tank or healer in the pool. I don’t want to be *that guy* tanking or healing that makes a random group a bad experience. I know what I am and am not capable of doing effectively, but the random tool’s gear thresholds are insufficient at making sure people aren’t in over their head.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the dungeon finder, it’s one of the best things Blizzard has introduced to the game. But, like everything man-made, it has room for improvement. Maybe offering an option that when you queue to tank or heal you can opt out of the harder dungeons like ToC and the ICC5’s? I fully realize, that any change has the chance to be abused and that there are plenty of players out there that over-estimate their ability and will still make bad experiences for others. But I think there are a lot of tanks and healers out there that either end up feeling bad when they let down a group in a place that they would’ve never chosen to go, knowing it was a bit beyond their ability, or that just don’t queue up because they fear being put in that situation…