Finding a Party

[RD2hypeD]

What do you do to join a party? Do you shout like a lunatic in town? Do you send a /tell to every party leader on your /search list?

Vote and make some comments! :)

[EverJams]

Well what I do for a party is first put my seek up. Then while waiting on that I start looking for the Mages and Bard and if I find those first I for a party myself.

[Sent]

I put my seek up. Then I check my firend's list. IF no one on the list is around I check who else is looking. If I see people that would make a good party I start my own. When you start your own you never have a problem finding teams hehe

-Sent

[RD2hypeD]

Remember guys, this is multiple choice.
You can choose more than one answer.

What I do is first put up my Seek Party flag, then I go to the EXP area, and I wander around and have people examine me while I go deeper into the area. Sometimes people send me a /tell, sometimes people just invite me.

Other times I look at my Friend's list, check out their levels and where they are using /search (i.e. /search all Playername), then I'd send them a /tell.

I also have a couple friends that I've had very good experiences with who try to get me whenever they can.

[I was a Red Mage level 14-20 for the above experiences.]

[Aacra]

Usually this isnt a problem for me since I'm a WHM so I have a HUGE friends list. but if I absolutely cant find a party turning my flag on, I'll usually go into town and say near the exit that I'm a WHM needing a party and thats when I get one.

[moonglo]

I sit around with my little "Seek Party" flag on until someone /tell's or invites me. Either way is fine, though I see most people find it rude to get an invite without any warning.

Sadly, I'm usually the leader most of the time no matter what I do. The position always seems to be handed to me. It's a stressful job, in my opinion...

[Chipmunk777]

for now, at my level 11 self, i'm tired of getting into stupid parties who don't know what the hell they are doing. Me, being the vulnerable little white mage, always ends up dying, trying to be nice and save their asses. so, for the moment, i'm being rather antisocial.. i've had some............. bad experiences.

so, i think im going to have to solo until i get to level 15-16 =\ which will be quite the drudgery..

[Thark601]

Originally posted by moonglo


Sadly, I'm usually the leader most of the time no matter what I do. The position always seems to be handed to me. It's a stressful job, in my opinion...

Then hand it off...
I love being party leader...
I'm better than most at finding the members we need and I can always deal with whatever situations come up...

I shout once in the xp area with my seek on...
Then i proceed to walk the area and send tells to the party leaders asking if they need anyone...

If all else fails and i'm tired of waiting I form my own.

[Zalius]

I usually set seek, then I walk around the zone use /sea all name on peopl ein pts and if their in the level range I usually use /say or /tell if I know the person to see if they have a spot open. But 85% of the time I just find people and start my own party, its usually faster than trying to get an invite. Then again sometimes I'll just sit there and play ps2 irl till I get a invite depends on my mood.

[Hadoken]

I usually sit with seek on but I also msg party leaders sometimes just to see if they could use anyone.

[Carbon]

I sit around with seek up.

Although a lot of people say "Make your own party with fellow seekers", I find this a stupid suggestion unless a WHM happens to be one of the seekers (very rare case, since a WHM with seek on gets nabbed in a matter of seconds).

Making your own party w/o a healer ends the possibility that you will get taken by an existing, established party, since your seek will no longer be up.

Partying with the 5 other WARs LFG sitting around you does not make a good party.

As for friend lists and linkshell...

Although at one point, we were all within a few levels of each other, its come to the point that few people in my FL or LS is within partyable range anymore.

[Kagi]

Back in those qufim days when I couldn't really move around out of jeuno (short of riding out on chocobo) I used to sit around other parties with seek on and wait until I got an invite. Now I usually put seek up and go do whatever I want, synthesize, gil farm, etc, until someone invites then I just grab a choco or airship and go over to where they want to meet. During peak hours I don't even have to turn seek on to get tells; most of the time I wasn't thinking about levelling until someone invites me and I decide to go just for the heck of it.

[Miriamel]

Being a white mage, I usually get invitations even before putting up my party hat.. ^^;

If I don't though, I just fish or do other stuff with my party hat up until someone invites me. It never takes long.

[moonglo]

Originally posted by Thark601


Then hand it off...
I love being party leader...


I did, but then that person either ends up leaving or hands it back to me. Oh well, I'm learning how to be a good leader anyway.

[RD2hypeD]

Yeah, same here.
Sometimes I even feel odd because someone in the party is demonstrating more experience than I am. I'm learning from then as we go along, though.:)

[TheImpKing]

Being a White Mage, I usually get invites without even looking for them. It's nice to know I'll always be wanted in a party.

Sometimes it gets too crazy though. If I dare put up my "Seek Party" flag, I make sure my "Sorry, I'm in a party already" macro is set for the umpteen late invites I cannot accept.

Sigh... If only there was more of me to go around. :) :)

[pierrot]

Being a WHM as well, it usually goes like this:
1 Declining a lot of invites without even being asked if i wanted to join
2 putting up seek flag and repeating step 1
3 writing my comment which usually just consists of EXP, "kazamu aru" and "amerikajin dewa nai" (which is actually true) and the usual small talk
4 repeating step 1 over and over again
5 getting annoyed that i can't watch anime or chat as i wait
6 getting my japanese PT an being happy

why is it that i only see japanese people using the comment function btw. ?
it's so simple to use and helpful but not-japanese usually use it.

oh and a good way of NOT getting invites all the time without getting a tell before is:
Don't sit arround in the lvl zones!
As most non-japanese obviously didn't fully comprehend the /sea function as to now, you usually don't get bothered that much...except for the usual /check

[RD2hypeD]

Yeah, I know your type. I've seen a tarutaru WHM/BLK at Selbina depressed about how many people were /tell'ing him asking to join their parties.

I only get a quarter the amount that you guys get... RDM/WHM is pretty okay I guess, hehe.

I bet you guys even get invitations while you are already IN parties rather than when you only have your seek-party flag on.

Now the macro to /tell the last guy who sent you a /tell... good idea. :cool:

[pierrot]

Originally posted by RD2hypeD
Yeah, I know your type. I've seen a tarutaru WHM/BLK at Selbina depressed about how many people were /tell'ing him asking to join their parties.

I only get a quarter the amount that you guys get... RDM/WHM is pretty okay I guess, hehe.

I bet you guys even get invitations while you are already IN parties rather than when you only have your seek-party flag on.

Now the macro to /tell the last guy who sent you a /tell... good idea. :cool:


No.

I'm not bothered at all by /tell, just can't stand an invite WITHOUT being asked before.

And yeah...people really don't understand the /sea /search or whatever window at all ^^
I don't get bothered by that either...just think it's weird people haven't figured that out by now.
Grey: NOT in PT
Green: IN PT
Yellow: PT Leader

And...I don't use a macro, I just use ctrl+r :p

[RD2hypeD]

^Read post before you.
My response was mainly to that, sorry.

[Savah]

So far, I was always asked to join in PTs even without a 'seeking flag' (because they couldn't find any WHMs ^^; ).

I wonder... is there some way to let people know that you don't want to join in PTs (without telling them personaly)?

[Carbon]

a lot of WHMs I know go into anonymous mode when not seeking PTs.

[Kurgan]

Typically, I sit around with my seek flag up if I'm looking for a party. Often, I'll be doing a /search to find other players looking for parties, as well, and I'll invite some. But now that I've partied with several good parties and have /befriend'ed some good players that are my level, I often watch for those people to be online in my region, and I'll /tell them to see if they're in a party or want to team up. Most of the players in my linkshell are still several levels ahead of me. Maybe when I catch up to them, I'll join my linkshell buddies. :biggrin:

[BDawg]

What's the XP Zone refered to in this thread?

[RD2hypeD]

Well, generally I talk about Valkurm Dunes because that is where the bulk of my levels in the teens came from. I might start getting xp at Qufim, but it's tougher finding a party there for the early 20s.

[Necrosaro]

When I was a black mage I would get tells all the time. If I was seeking or not. I got so many I could be picky. If people just invited me without asking first I would decline, I think it's rude to just blindly invite without asking first.

For now my Bard doesn't get many invites in Dunes, being only 11, so I join as soon as I'm invited. But higher level bards tell me they have to beat people away with a stick because they get so many invites, or go anon.

[midknight137]

"I send a /tell to party leaders asking if they would like to invite me."

umm so how do you tell if someone is a party leader??

[RD2hypeD]

midknight137, refer to pierrot's post earlier:

Originally posted by pierrot

Grey: NOT in PT
Green: IN PT
Yellow: PT Leader


Look for the yellow names when performing a /search. :)

[Glaenie]

I usually just put up my flag and sit somewhere moderately safe in the area I'm aiming to get a party in. Although, being a red mage, I usually get picked up pretty fast. ^^

But if it takes longer than 10 minutes or so, I'll start tracking down party leaders and asking them if they need another. :p

[RD2hypeD]

I had some experience getting a party in Qufim while being in the early 20s... it seems tough over there in Jeuno. Valkurm was great because it's where a lot of us learned how to contribute to a successful party... but now, it just seems more difficult. Anyone have this problem too?

[Blackflare]

I'm a ranger, and I seem to have the problem of getting myself made the leader all the time. Even when there's an actual "designated leader" I always end up leading everyone. Yesterday in Yhoator, I got invited to a party. However, it turned out they were all in kazham and coming out to yhoator. So i decided to wait there for them. 10 minutes later, and they're all scattered to hell and back. One by the outpost, one stuck in the south end of yhoater, and several had run off without chocos.

So it took us about an hour to run back / suicide and remeet at kazham. I ran back to lead then, and from then on they all looked to me for makign decisions. Also, they had a lvl 24 war / 9 blm in the party. Everyone else was 26-27. Not only is that a terrible level, and a terrible sub. But if you're gonna pick a something like that, at least keep your sub leveld, jeez. The leader wouldn't kick him, and after an hour of getting there, 30 min of getting everyone set up, we only played long enough to kill 3 mandragoras before everyone left.

</rant>

[Silverquick]

As a Red Mage I swear I feel like a white mage sometimes with the number of invites I get even if I don't put my party flag up.

For me just walking around town causes invites, usually at least one an hour despite my solo flag being up.

If I put my seek party flag up... wow, the barrage I get is massive. This doesn't include friends who are sending me tells wanting to get togather and group.

As a Red Mage, you have to buy loads of equipment and spells and they are an extreme moneysink to keep up on. So you have to go farming a lot just to keep up and that can be impossible sometimes when people keep sending you all these tempting invites to group. This doesn't even include working on the sub job.

Heck one guy even bought me spells at like 5k each just so I would stop farming and come group with them.

But then again I can see it at times because finding a Red Mage that is an actual Red Mage rather than a wannabe "Red Warrior" can be difficult.

[aszid]

well.... this is my experience

i started playing as a monk initially, and got that up to lvl 19. when i play as a monk, just setting my seek flag and waiting takes forever to get a party, even with war sub. i would quite often ask parties if they could use my services to get in.

when i bought my GF a copy of the game, i switched over to whm so that i could kinda lvl along with her. as it sits now, i'm a 18whm/9blm. usually i do seek for a party, and generally it takes me no longer than 5 minutes (at the most) before i get one or more invites. even when i'm in a party i still am continually asked to join other parties... when i'm in a party i ignore these requests... when i'm alone and logging out or something i do answer them not to be rude. but when i'm in the middle of healing my party and someone tries to get me to join their party, that's just rude on their part.

it seems i always end up with leadership, even though i never start parties though. quite often when pt leaders leave the party, they end up giving me leadership first ^^ i don't mind, the reason i don't make my own parties is cause i'm lazy, not cause i don't know how to lead ^^'

anyhow... i love parties. one of the greatest parts of the game. this is the first MMORPG that i've played that parties worked so well together.

[RD2hypeD]

Originally posted by Silverquick
As a Red Mage I swear I feel like a white mage sometimes with the number of invites I get even if I don't put my party flag up.
Yeah, I hear ya.



Originally posted by Silverquick
But then again I can see it at times because finding a Red Mage that is an actual Red Mage rather than a wannabe "Red Warrior" can be difficult.
I think the "Red Warrior" should be only for soloing. In a party, there usually is enough melee-types that the Red Mage is mostly a main/backup healer (in tough areas). I actually got a compliment from someone saying that it's nice to see a Red Mage who actually casts spells rather than just gets engulfed in the heat of slicing up the enemy. Personally, I engage in the battle and use my handy macros to cast while I'm fighting. I find it better that way so I can save some MP and just use my sword to dish out damage AFTER paralyzing/blinding/slowing the enemy.



Originally posted by Silverquick
anyhow... i love parties. one of the greatest parts of the game. this is the first MMORPG that i've played that parties worked so well together.
Tru dat. :thumbsup:

[reshi]

ooh i jus got the game! LOL!
it takes me a loooooooooooooooooooooooong time to get a PT. maybe it's cuz ima THF? i read sumwhere dat their no good until some level...sum1 help?

[Melantha]

I usually put my Seek Party flag up and if there are other people in the area looking for a party too I ask them if they want to start one up. I've only ever been asked to join a party once, the rest of the time me or a friend have started up our own party. I reckon if I were a warrior or a white mage I would have no trouble finding a group to join but because I'm a thief its difficult. I can't provoke to protect the mages and I don't deal a lot of damage. (I think that'll change once I start looking for parties now, having Sneak Attack and all). If you find yourself it that situation then set up your own party and they'll have no choice but to have you. ;) That was my solution, thieves become sought after level 15 in my opinion so I don't have to worry about it so much now.

[Dreakon]

I have never once been asked to be invited into a party no matter what class/level/location I was. I have /telled many people to ask if they wanted to start a group with me. Otherwise I just try and solo with my flag up until I find one, or continue /telling people.

[Silverquick]

Heh!

Well friend you really don't get into grouping much anyway until post 10th level. Because grouping isn't really advantageous at that level. So you don't find many no matter how hard you look.

[RD2hypeD]

Originally posted by Silverquick
Well friend you really don't get into grouping much anyway until post 10th level. Because grouping isn't really advantageous at that level. So you don't find many no matter how hard you look.

It might be good to party with people before level 10 for some jobs such as WHM and BLM though... I had trouble at around level 7 BLM without a party.

Now the REALLY early levels don't need much help.

[reshi]

i tink i might switch to war or whm cuz i cant find ne1 who want to PT wit me... wat do u guys think?

[BitHead0023]

I enjoy grouping, but have a low tolerance for bad ones and even less for sitting around waiting (it IS a game, after all). So, I'll typically just solo until I get an invite that sounds promising. (IE: any group that already has a WHM and provoker). I don't really mean to discriminate against the five-melee groups who want me to heal :rolleyes:, or leaders who contact me before they have anyone else lined up, but I just don't see the sense in standing around waiting for members 5 and 6 to arrive from the other side of the world when I could be making some slow, steady progress on my own.

I'll put up the Seek flag if I'm really jonesing for a group, but it's usually not necessary, being a RDM.

[RD2hypeD]

I'm leveling up my WHM job, currently at level 15 now with BLM sub.

Lots of people send me a /tell even if I have a party now... thing is, if I just join any party, I might end up with something lousy. I actually ask for names to make sure the party is right for me when they ask.

Yeah, I'm being picky now. :biggrin:

[Zorbaine]

I find that sending a tell to each leaders in town and the exp area (option 4 was it?) works most efficiently... Most are full, but I ask them to send me a tell if a spot opens. I find this approach to be fastest for getting into a *decent* party. Yes, it still takes forever to get one under an hour, and so... I started my whm.
*clap*

.zorbaine.

[RD2hypeD]

:confused:
Heh, there was a time when I shouted in Valkurm if anyone needed a WHM15/BLM7... only response I got was a /tell from a PT leader saying that his party MIGHT need me soon. I didn't get anything else for the next 10 minutes.

That was a first for me. :)

Oh well. Finding decent provokers is my problem now.

[FeralisCallidus]

Generally speaking, I put up seek flag in Jeuno. It doens't take long for me to get a barrage of invites, mostly from japanese-speakers... english/NA players don't quite understand Rangers yet, I guess. :confused:

[RD2hypeD]

I'm having a feeling that just being a WHM right now isn't one of the best things in terms of finding a party very quickly...

Sure people need white mages, but perhaps because the party is doing so horribly without one that with one, they can reduce the problems, but only for a bit.

I joined this party yesterday, 5 melees. The leader says the party was a good one. "Trust me" he said. I don't go by that, but I decided to give the party a shot because we were all around the same level (15). The leader is selfish, though, because he just wanted to level and leave. Well, because of that, he decides to get a Goblin Gambler (sheesh, at our level??). That's not the worst part. There was a Bogy nearby--AND WE KNEW THAT TOO. He still decides to pull the Gambler.

Death.

I do background checks now whenever people invite me. Wish I didn't have to. Thing is, once the bulk of the bad party goes, the enemies turn after me. I won't be able to survive a trip to zone out of the area.

Wish I could add "Good" before "Party" in the topic header. :p

[FeralisCallidus]

I'm having a feeling that just being a WHM right now isn't one of the best things in terms of finding a party very quickly...

Wtf? Whms get picked up the quickest (MAYBE bards). There is nothing to complain about. 50 invites is better than 0 (for my monk) any day.

[RD2hypeD]

Sorry, I meant that as in sure it's great to find a party, but a GOOD party, that's another story.

It might not be a very good thing that everyone wants you.

[cavill]

I just put ma flag up, sometimes i dont even need to have my flag up i just get invited lol

I got invited to a party the other day, we had 4 whm's a rdm and a warrior LOL suprisingly it wasnt that bad! That was when nobody was on and it was very hard to find a party.

[progenitor]

It would be nice if there was a better way to avertise what you want to party as.

A lot of times if I can't find a group right away as Blm/Whm, I will go farming as Blm/Thf.

Or I might level up Rdm or Smn a bit just soloing easy stuff.

It is kinda hard to find a party in the upper 30's when you are leveling a job in the mid teens.

-p

[Carbon]

It is kinda hard to find a party in the upper 30's when you are leveling a job in the mid teens.

Allowing the search results to display the levels of all the jobs you're willing to play would be nice.

i.e.

I have DRG at 51. Can't find a PT, so I want to level my Lv25 SAM or something.

Unfortunately, if I do that and a Lv51ish PT does start to form, I won't turn up in the results when the leader does a search for other Lv51s.

[cavill]

How do you search for parties to join? Is there a command to search for party leaders and how many are in there party or something?

[Tobold]

Originally posted by pierrot
Grey: NOT in PT
Green: IN PT
Yellow: PT Leader

Is there a way to /search for all party leaders? I know you can search for all people looking for a party with /sea all inv, but how would that work the other way round? If I do a simple /search, in dunes or Qufim I can easily get over 100 hits.

[Sinzer]

Allowing the search results to display the levels of all the jobs you're willing to play would be nice.

Use comments! If the PT leader doesn't read the comments then usually they will not be the greatest PT leader. I read all the comments inc JP before I start inviting players.

[RD2hypeD]

Hmm, comments...
Maybe I should start doing that too.

Then again, by the looks of things, a lot of people just look at people and invite them without a hint of observation.

[RD2hypeD]

It took me a while, but I finally found out how to search in other areas...

For example, in Qufim, to search for people in Port Jeuno who are WHM levels 23-25:
/search 23-25 whm portjeuno

And to find a Warrior levels 21-22 in Lower Jeuno:
/search 21-22 war lowjeuno

Need to use the location on the right column of the search results as an argument.

Yeah, I'm late. :D

Hope this helps people (who could use the info) perform more refined searches. :)


And a question: Is there an argument that filters the results to display only party leaders? What about people who have their Seek Party flag up?

[reshi]

wow, so many new ppl playin now!
i wunder how ebery1 iz diong getting a pt...

[obsidian]

I usually start my own parties or take over parties I do join. Not on purpose mind you, it just seems that way. However, I try to only start parties in areas I am familiar with. I hate group leaders who don't know what to do or where to go which seems to be quite a few of them.

From my experience, most group leaders are too flaky or hesitant. They need to take a stand on things and do it. I literally moved my group in dunes last night to five different areas because it seemed that as soon as we got to one it got overpopulated. We also got 2 full levels in 3 hours without a single death.

[James Ruglia]

Whenever I have the time I try to create the party. Leadership is not hard in this game but even with how simple it is, there are still alot of people who don't want to take the responsability/shouldn't be given social power.

But my leveling pattern/chacnes are mroe frequent short-timed bursts then 7-10 hour dayplays.

[Stormwalker]

With me, I generally put up my seek flag, write up a search comment that is relevant to whatever job I am playing (usually WHM or PLD if I am looking for a party), and wait. Most often, I hang out in Jeuno while waiting for a party, but when playing PLD a lot of times I'll go ahead and grab the airship out to Kazham. I've been really surprised by the amount of /tells I get as a PLD asking me to join parties. Of course, as a WHM I got lots of /tell spam, but I've found that I can use a lot of the same processes as a PLD that I did as WHM... when I get a tell asking me to join a party, I ask what jobs and levels they have. It's good to be able to be selective.

Of course, one of the RDM's in my LS has a search comment that looks like this:

@2700
If you want me to consider joining
your party you better ASK FIRST!

because of so many random invites without anyone even bothering to send a /tell first. Having experienced this in my WHM days, I nearly fell out of my chair laughing the first time I saw it.

[RD2hypeD]

I'm starting to level other jobs if I can't find a party...

Either that or seeing if I can grab 5 other people (from /search) who can work together and making my own party.

Other than that, I try only to level with my linkshell now since I have jobs across many levels.