It seams alot of people aren't understanding how public groups work, there used to how groups and raids worked in other games, and with rift being so different I see it causing alot of issues that could easily be resolved. I think details on how the public group works should be explained in the tutorial tips that pop up when your new.
Here's what I have discovered so far;
What people think:
1. People think by joining your group you have to share quest item drops, so they get less if someone joins
2. people think when it turns into a raid, quest monsters don't count or quest items don't drop.(like other MMOs)
3. People think public groups are just for rifts, not questing.
4. you get less XP for being in a group or raid.
What is true about public groups:
1. quest items and credit for quest mobs count whether your in a party or a raid from the public group feature.
2. if a quest item drops, it drops for all that are in the party and are on that quest. you don't :Share" quest loot like other MMOs
3. If someones killing a named mob for a quest and you join halfway through, you BOTH get credit and don't have to wait for re-spawn! (as long as you do damage to the mob)
4. if you don't want people to randomly join, set yourself to private
5. you can join someone killing a mob you need by clicking the button on the top of there target frame.
6. there no point to 15 people waiting for the same mob to spawn when you can ALL get credit!
8. you get BONUS XP for being in a group, leaving you with more XP than if you killed the mob solo.
9. there is no negative effects to having someone join your public group, that's why this feature is turned "on" automatically. Yeah if a green or epic item drops you all have to roll on it, but sitting there in a zone waiting for re-spawns for 10-15 min and fighting for the "chance" to get credit for it lowers the chance of you getting any green or better items period, the more you kill, the more stuff drops. The more you sit, the less stuff drops and the slower you level and get to BETTER loot. Simple logic.
I would think by now, after playing in beta, and several days of the head start, that people would have realized by now how public groups work, but they haven't. I first discovered how exactly it works by closing a rift in a rather large group and one of the nearby monsters got close and the raid killed it, I got credit for the kill for a quest, and 3 people looted the same quest item off the single mob.
Now this had happened many times in beta, since there is so many rifts so often in starting zones, yet whenever I try to "public group" with someone killing the same mobs for a quest when there is not a rift around they un-invite me.
I have tried many times explain to people how it works, and they just simply reply with "no nub, your stealing my quest items, public group is only for rifts" Even though several times after joining them but getting kicked after the mob dies, they can clearly see we both looted the same quest item from that one mob, yet they still insist it's "not true"
Rift seams to work around the public groups feature. In a zone with 15 spawns of quest monsters, there will be a fairly good, but low re-spawn rate, because people should be forming public groups I would think. It's not at all uncommon for 15 people to be standing in one small area waiting for the same 5-10 mobs to re-spawn for a quest, and I hover over there picture to see there all solo and it takes all of us 10x longer to complete the quest. If I try to join any of them, they all un-invite immediately.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I would think this is just a bunch of people not understanding how public groups work in the game. I assume everyone playing for the head start was in beta, so they have a basic understanding of the game so far, and I understand some people just want to play solo and not group for any reason. That being said, if they understood public groups properly, then why wouldn't they just mark themselves as private, invite only. Not having yourself set to private leads me to believe you don't understand what's going on.
I can understand that some people just got done a rift and forgot to mark themselves as private, that happens, but it's not just a few people, almost everyone I encounter is marked as public, and whenever I try to join them kick me, I even join several times in a row, and they still don't mark themselves.
I have tried since beta to explain how public groups work to people as I see the un-invite me when were killing the same mobs for a quest, and I almost always just get rude replies with the word "nub" in there and "that's not how it works"
I definitely think public groups should be better explained, whether it be in the tutorial or whatnot.
Quick XP info provided by ButchRabbit
I did some quick checking in game on the XP issue. Killing Bomani Shadowclaws in the first Deviant zone at lvl 7, and the person I grouped with was also lvl 7.
Solo, the XP was consistently 80.
Grouped, the XP was 111 (+31 group bonus). Some of the mobs (about 1 of 3) were 55 (+15 group bonus).
Those mobs that were only 55xp in group, after some quick re-reading of logs, appear to be mobs I never damaged. The 111xp mobs I did (as well as some healing for my groupmate).
This is sampled from roughly 10 mobs grouped and 10 mobs solo.
My conclusion is: That you can get more XP grouping than just flying solo. At the very least, if you do nothing in the group, you come out slightly behind on mob XP. Even not killing 1 of 3 mobs, I came out ahead.
Bookmarks