how dungeon finder connects groups?

[anishya]

As title might reveal, I am wondering how does the dungeon finder connect people that are in que? There has been this issue for quite long already, where person asks on global for some random healer to join random dungeon with the finder tool but when I do que, it doesnt connect me with the groups that are already in que, just missing healer- and i am solo quing, so how come? What is happening? I have found myself often wondering "yeah i guess i could que and help this one run" but then game is like "nope, let that group die"

Was having a conversation about this some time ago, and I say his thought about this isnt rare occurence to read- "trash game" and saw him log out after that. Dungeon finder had one job, but it doesnt do that very well and it is definetily putting off some people.

Intentional or not?

[ValacBoss]

Yeah, this is something a lot of people have noticed and complained about over the years. The dungeon finder doesn’t actually work like a simple “plug the missing role into an existing group” system. Instead, it tries to build a fresh group from scratch using players in the queue, and it prioritizes matching complete role setups as evenly as possible. That means if there’s already a half-finished group sitting in queue looking for a healer, and you queue solo as a healer, it doesn’t necessarily shove you right into that slot. Instead, the algorithm might be trying to build multiple balanced groups at once, and your character gets “reserved” for one of those new groups rather than filling the hole in the old one.

It feels counterintuitive, because logically you’d think “there’s a group missing exactly what I bring, why not slot me in instantly?” But most of these systems are designed to reduce overall queue times across the board, not just fix one group at a time. So sometimes the result looks dumb, a group sits half-finished forever, while new players get shuffled into brand new groups.

Is it intentional? Yeah, pretty much. Whether it’s good design is another question. A lot of people do exactly what you said, see someone begging in chat for a healer, jump in queue to help, then watch nothing happen. That’s frustrating, and it definitely drives some players away, because it feels like the tool is ignoring common sense.

If the developers wanted to fix it, they’d need to adjust the priority rules so that existing incomplete groups get filled before the system tries to assemble new ones. That would match player expectations much better, even if it made queue times for some roles a little longer in the background. Until then, you’ll just keep seeing those “LF healer, just queue pls” messages not actually work out the way people think they should.

[anishya]

Thank you for good answer first of all!
Sure makes sense, although in my opinion it would be lot better indeed if lone players hitting que would get put into half-finished groups faster..
Or I have just started to grow more impatient over time, perhaps so :D

oh well, back to que x)

[Obnoxious]

If it was like you wish it was, any DD queuing solo would never ever get into a group, since even two DDs grouped would be "closer to a full group" and get prioritized. The idea just might be that if you have three people, for example, you have better chances of recruiting the last one or two manually while you're in queue (if you make the effort, of course...) than someone who needs a whole group.