Group finders are a godsend to people who have social anxiety.
I did something like 400 dungeon runs over the course of my 6-month ESO career. If I had to actually advertise myself on zone chat or approach someone who had put out an LFG call, I probably never would have done more than the 5 or 6 dungeons that one of my guilds invited me to.
One could just tell me to ‘get over it and learn to talk to people,’ but the fact stands that I provided good quality tanking and DPS to hundreds of groups, and I did it because I was able to do it on my terms instead of being forced to socially ‘put myself out there.’
If people feel extremely strongly about keeping the dungeon system the way it is, then I know I have little room to complain because I’m mostly a solo player anyway. But I do know I have a lot to offer to dungeon groups if a group finder tool is available, and I’m sure there are a lot of other players like me.
I really don’t think that people aren’t going to be elitist about gearscore etc. just because a dungeon finder doesn’t exist. If anything, I think people are going to be more elitist and choosy once enough of the playerbase has leveled up to the point of being able to regularly grind the high level dungeons.
If it takes so long to get a dungeon group together, then you want to make damn sure that you bring only the best and most dedicated people.
I really don’t understand why some people have this thing of ‘people who like dungeon finder tools are impatient’ and it’s like a judgment on their character. I’m incredibly patient when I have to be in the process of attaining a goal that I really want - but as it stands right now, the rewards from dungeons simply aren’t worth the time that you have to put in just to enter one.
ESO introduced a group finder. It has its good and bad points. They have a daily random you can run for an XP bonus. That helps players that need to fill groups to do so. The problem is there is a shortage of tanks so a damage dealer can be in queue for a good long while. Leads to a lot of fake tanks. I don’t use the random but do use the group finder when I want to run a specific dungeon and guild mates are not available. Works well for that though you can still get a fake tank. Why I like it is I can go about doing other things while I wait for the group to form. I usually work on some of the harder to get solo achievements while in queue. Using the group finder you don’t get to pick and choose who you are going to get. Could be a vet that could crush the content solo or could be a new player with no real idea about what they need to do. That causes problems as one might want to speed run while another wants to take their time with the story inside. Still nice to have when you want to run something and need people to do it even with the problems.
Players wanting a specific group skill wise still use zone chat to try and fill their group. I like porting in with ESO but it is a much bigger world than this game. I’ve not played enough here for an objective opinion on running everywhere to do things. So far when I have wanted to fast travel I have had the means to do so and a few times have been near cap. Maybe it will be a problem later, I don’t know.
Being able to port in when already in a group does save time for the entire group though. That way you don’t have other people standing around waiting while you are on your way.