Suggestion
Add a new UI browser that will allow incomplete parties looking to enter a dungeon to advertise for more spots world-wide. These parties can/will consist of players world-wide, instead of being server based. Additionally, make dungeons similar to spvp servers, where players from different worlds can play in the same dungeon.
This browser would include information about what dungeon the party is aiming to enter and what type (story or explorable), the party size, as well as any other relevant information that can be used to sort or search (average party level, professions, etc).
What this accomplishes
Implementing this would make finding a dungeon group exponentially easier, and thus would increase dungeon activity among the playerbase. This lets players who are interested in running a certain dungeon find a group quickly, and groups trying to find just a few more people fill up effortlessly. By making dungeons world based, not server based, and having the browser be world-based, players should always be able to find a group no matter the time.
This also addresses groups trying to do less popular dungeons, such as SF or CoE, find enough people because, again the browser being world-based, there are bound to always be posts for those dungeons.
Additionally, this will also reduce the amount of spamming “lf2m xxx dungeon” in LA map chat.
Reasoning
I really like running dungeons, not just because it’s interesting content, but because it’s pretty much the only formal reason to form a party for PvE. However, many times when I want to play a specific dungeon or complete its story mode, no one wants to do it and I become stuck. It seems only the popular dungeons, like CoF, AC, and HotW are the only ones that you can get a party for without going excessively out of your way.
If I want to do SF story, or AC story, I go to the dungeon and find no one is there. So, I advertise in map chat for about 10 minutes, and get maybe 2 people if I’m lucky. Then, I head to LA, wait to get out of overflow, and then advertise in map chat for another 10-30 minutes just to get the remaining people. It’s doable, yes, but why does forming a party for less popular dungeons and story mode need to be so difficult?
If there was a world browser where I can just post my need for a party to do xxx dungeon in xxx mode, this issue would be solved. I can just post and be on my way, doing whatever while I eventually start getting party invites from people who want the same thing. Or, alternatively, I can just look in the browser list and find an existent group trying to do the same dungeon and join theirs.
This new feature would make party forming exponentially easier for team based PvE content and would make dungeons a lot more appealing to the average player. This also makes dungeon achievements (such as dungeon master) actually doable without having a core group of friends or a huge, active guild willing to do random dungeons.
I do realize that dungeon rewards are being worked on at the moment, but this is a feature that, in my opinion, would greatly improve the accessibility of the content, allow for more intense team-based content to be added, and increase the overall longevity of the game.
Arena-net, please consider this.
- Lokí