group inviteFollow

I think it is extremely rude to invite someone to join a group without first talking to them. And to add to the insult when I decline they just ask again. If you can't give me a tell, type in say, or in OOC and ask if I am interested than you are certainly not worthy of my grouping with you. I had one little dwarf who after being rejected two times began to jump up and down to get my attention. What is this?

Is it just laziness? I know I am not the only person who really hates this. I refuse to join any groups that don't talk to me first. If I have ******* about this before I appologize. I just feel that it she be re-hashed and maybe somewhere along the line someone will get the picture.

I decline and then send them a tell to ask what for and hope they learn to communicate their desires to others before they get much older. I mean, even in real life you'll need to say something to people you want to hang with and not just hope they'll hang out with you just because you're there.

Trouble is, how can I possibly know if I even want to group with you if you don't talk to me and instead just toss out a blind invite.

I have no way of knowing what mobs you and the group are after or what quests you are all on unless you tell me...

Maybe you are all terrific players and I am missing out on a great group but I can see no point in buying a pig in a poke!

Drive-by invite to group? Include me out!

I could understand the dialogue less invite if I were LFG but that's not what happens. ArGH!!

Regarding the selective healers.

Many are gun shy without a main tank for good reasons.

Healers need a good tank to hold aggro.Example:Monks can't taunt.

Also,a healer can't heal eveyone in the group during combat,their power would be exhausted very fast.

Asking if group is full.They ask this because they know well the fact that while a tank is needed to hold aggro,DPS classes are needed to kill the mob and buff the group etc.

Don't be so harsh on the healers.

36 Ranger
25 Templar

Those healers are just trying to make lives easier for them and harder for others :)

Me personnally, if I'm playing a healer, I wouldn't go in a high interigation process when joining a party. I know from playing FFXI that sometimes you'll need to wait to have a full party going if you want to accomplish something. I'm glad this game allows completion of certain things w/o a full party with all key players (tank, DDs, healer). So if I'm in a party with just me and a scout, well, that fine too, I can heal myself. Just as long as the scout knows not to pull something if I have very little mana.

Now I havent played in a while but so I'm not sure about this but cant you put up you LFG flag and in the search window to find a group put in a comment on what kind of group you are looking for.

Your flag would still be displayed then and you would get random invites from on the run people yet it would not be the type of group you are looking for.

Correct me if I am mistaken on this.

I agree with you that people need to say why they want to invite you to a group, but that doesn't necessarily mean a huge interrigation process which puts the person inviting on the edge and thinking that the healer's a bit on the not so friendly side, and wondering if inviting this person would be a fun experience or not. I personally don't like partying with people who whine too much about nothing and dictate to me what spell order I should use for what occasion. I mean, I'll take suggestions on how to better myself when I play, but I don't like getting belittled through the process.

So to cap it off, when inviting people I usually ask if they're killing the same thing I am (are we on the same quest, what other similar quests we have?) Usually I do go for healers first and usually do tell them that I'm still trying to form a party and what their opinions are. Once formed I'd rather like to see people say "ok, that didn't work, let's try it some other way" than "<insert various combinations of curse words here>!?!?!!!1111 this sucks!!! I'm leaving!!!" if we get into a bad situation. I like my 3 strikes motto, if the group doesn't click the 3rd try (wipe) it's more than likely not gonna work.

Since my kids (2 and 3yo) are in constant agro range, I don't get to party much and preffer not to. I don't believe it's right to have the group waiting for me to take care of personal real life problems that may pop up out of the blue. So my LFG flag won't be up for the most part and I'm usually not going to be trying to put hours into getting the perfect party together. If I need to party to kill something I wait for people to do a /ooc description of what their party's intentions and ask if I could join. I tell the leader my situation with the kids and hope the party goes for the best.

Again, the key to group invites is communication, something I learned well while playing FFXI. If you're playing from a non-English place and found yourself on the English speaking servers, a message that says "I don't understand" is alright, atleast it's trying to communicate. Leaders have to communicate their intentions and maybe some instructions on how to pull something off (this is how it's gonna go down type of deal). Praises for good deeds are good, deminuative (sp?) hateful demoralizing comments are bad. We all want a good fun experience while partying. I'd rather see somebody pull off a Leroy Jenkins and laugh my a$$ off than feel worthless.

In just about any mmo i've ever played there is a learned elitism among healers. Since they are pretty much a required part of a group and can find parties rather easily, they are usually inclined to run the group and leave at the first sign things aren't going exactly the way they want. As with anything there are exceptions to the rule, but when inviting a healer it's generally a good idea to assume they think the group revolves around them, not the other way around. If this is the case, you're prepared for it. And if you happen across a healer who actually enjoys working WITH the group instead of making the group work for them, it's a pleasant surprise from what you expected. This aside, blind invites can be pretty annoying no matter what class you are, but a message as bare as "would you like to join our group?" is usually good enough for me.

Oh,my my,looks like I struck a nerve.

I stand by my statement.Monks can't taunt.

Any class can get aggro,generate hate.

I did my research in the field grouped with a monk many times and always ended up the same.

Dead group and a shard run.

Hmm seems like this thread has gone from 'Are drive-by group invites rude? Stop it' to 'Darn you fussy healers'.

In defense of healers [if you like the following, you should know that I play a healer, Caitiri. If you hate the following, I play ONLY an enchanter, Asphe. Thank you in advance for your self-imposed suspension of disbelief]

---------- Really long post. Go home now. ----------

Survey

Are there enough healers?

Document Type: General Survey

Author: Special Council Assisting Reduced Deaths, Department for Inquest Enquiries and Norrathian Organization for Newly Undead, Departed or Entombed.

Primary Audience: Fighter classes

Copyright Holder: The Overlord


Renown Guild Healer Availability Survey Results

Executive Summary

Negative reaction to low healer availability is increasing. As groups approach their preferred experience gain deadlines, a significant portion - over 36% - of groups simply break up due to the lack of sufficient healing capacity. Another 38% say they are actively seeking alternatives to full healers and doing without shamans, druids or clerics and relying on self-healing paladins and shadow knights. Desperate groups have even resorted to low healing tanks that attempt to avoid damage in the first place.

These are the results of the latest survey over a few dozen groups found in the Commonlands and Antonica regions, including adjoining dungeons.

Reactions from those polled indicate outrage and resentment over the perceived lack of healers. Particular ire is directed over groups with multiple healers. Dwarf Oneton Suup remarked that groups with multiple healers meant fewer active groups. "That's da way they likes it too! Bloody, greedy farmers are bribing the med slingers! There's bloody nothing left for us! Hoi chanter! Keep that mob mezzed whilst I talks to this nice lady!"

As a result, more and more groups are more willing to try alternatives. The classes most often cited by group leaders are paladins and shadow knights, due to the self-healing nature of the classes. Principal disadvantages include both the inability to revive the inevitable dead party members and the elevated level of testosterone induced behavior consistent with fighter classes.

As with the earlier survey, the high response rate from chat channels is a clear indication that Basic Low Availability of Healers is the prime issue in any prospective group leader's priorities.

Fully half of the survey respondents indicated that the frustration, foul-ups and frequency of deaths associated with BLAH would almost certainly delay their leveling. Ratonga Dumache Fur bemoaned the lengthy periods between the coveted dings. "I swears to give up cheese ifs I gets a healer nows!"

In an ominous portent of things to come: 38 percent of level 17 and below adventurers are seriously switching to rival Qeynos as a direct result of their displeasure over BLAH. This is a slight increase over the 36 percent of adventurers to this same question in the first poll last December.

Overall, the findings from this survey closely track with the responses from the survey six months ago. This is strong indication that adventurers are not just reacting out of emotion but will make decisions for pragmatic reasons such as time and definable entertainment needs. Rather, there is a clear trend that the anger and resentment towards what adventurers perceive as Freeport's worst BLAH rating over Qeynos.

Survey Highlights

Disclaimer: This is a self-selecting, totally biased survey undertaken to make fun of you and other adventurer’s behavior and their comments. The findings are not absolute and no one can predict with any certainty how any of us will act in the future. In short, you can't sue me. That said, the results of this latest survey track very closely with the results of December's survey carried out in Qeynos. The grass is NOT greener on the other side.

The Findings:

* Only 12 percent of adventurers say their groups have the necessary healing capacity to travel to more dangerous zones, compared with 41 percent of the respondents that say they lack the necessary healers to even survive where they are.
* Just over one-third or the respondents -- 36 percent -- say they have yet to determine whether or not they will remain or ditch their groups while the remaining 11 percent indicated they are still studying the matter and trying to find a healer sometime real soon.
* Approximately 37 percent of groups said they will not travel to other higher tier zones; while another 38 percent said they are seriously contemplating healer alternatives like multiple self-healing tanks.
* Nearly 80 percent of respondents said they had a negative view of BLAH. Only 1% had a positive reaction. The remaining 19 percent classified themselves as “unsure” and said they were reserving decision.
* 1% of all respondents are healers with a further 19% having a limited capability to self-heal.
* Only 22 percent of respondents said they had a healer experience in the past week. 45 percent said they had grouped with a healer in the past month and 24 percent had never seen a healer.
* The biggest areas of dissatisfaction identified by groups is concerning the tendency of healers to leave low performing groups.
* Some 12 percent of groups that have a healer or are in the midst of negotiating with a healer said their experience was a positive one; when spoken to with the healer not present, the percentage dropped to 1% another 32 percent gave a “fair” rating to the negotiating process.
* However, 51 percent of groups said their experience negotiating with healers was negative.
* Mean Time Between Dings continue to lengthen: only 13 percent of adventurers said they dinged every week, compared to 30 percent that dinged every fortnight. But a majority 57 percent of adventurers say they dinged only every four-to-six weeks.
* The level dings for non-healer classes are lagging even more: only 15 percent of non-healers ding every two weeks and only 23 percent of adventurers ding every month. By contrast, 50 percent of healers wait four-to-six minutes to find groups and 49 percent wait that long to transfer to a better group.
* Perhaps the most surprising and dismaying statistic is that nearly one year after Everquest 2 has gone live, 93 percent of adventurers do now know the difference between a shaman, druid or cleric.
* And in another indictment of healer behavior patterns: nearly half of the survey respondents - 49 percent described their healers as under equipped or using Apprentice I level spells while demanding first choice on all looted items. Only 16 percent said they were prepared for this kind of negotiation process.
* But of the remaining 37 percent of adventurers that have succeeded in recruiting a healer, an overwhelming 90 percent say their dingage will increase and 76 percent said their dings would increase anywhere from 20 percent to treble what they are experiencing previously.
* Over two-thirds of groups who have completed or begun the healer recruitment process reported that they did not experience any pressure from healers or healer brokers when voiced hesitancy about giving preferential healer treatment. Some six percent said they had been threatened with a boycott if they did not give in and 26 percent said healers have alluded to the possibility of a 'late' heal. However, it should be noted that a disturbingly disproportionate number of groups - including large guilds - had been threatened with the threat of 'late' heals unless they provided better healer incentives.

Conclusions and Recommendations

In summary, you need healers but WE don't need you!

If you are going to be an ***, at least quote the right person before you flame them. You even had a chance to fix it when you edited. *rolls eyes*

BTW, I agree with you, but man that was ridiculous.