Too scared to communicate with anyone.

I'll admit that, to this day, I often times get a little anxious when queuing by myself for group content. It's really something that just requires a leap of faith. Keep in mind there are plenty of players out there in a similar boat as you, and plenty of people queuing for dungeons who are far from perfect players.

But dungeon content with matchmaking enabled is specifically designed around the assumption that the group, as a whole, won't be very well coordinated and will contain players of varying skill/experience levels. For that reason the dungeons are fairly forgiving.

If you want to get a feel for it by playing as DPS, I suggest reading the boss information for level-appropriate dungeons in your Dungeon Journal, being polite in group chat, putting your best effort into every fight, and sticking with the tank -- I'd recommend right-clicking on the tank's portrait and selecting "Set Focus," just so you can always see who/what the tank is targeting.

Virtually every time I step out of my shell (where I'm accustomed to running around the world doing things solo) and jumping into group content, I get sucked in and immediately want to queue again and again. I can tend to be a little shy/quiet in groups, but as long as I'm doing my job that's totally fine.

It feels very rewarding, and for all the horror stories you might read about terrible or mean groups, the reality is that the large majority of the dungeon clears you're a part of will go very smoothly.

In any event, it'd make me really happy to hear back from you that you've taken that leap of faith, and what your first experience was like. :)

Hi all.

This is probably going to sound ridiculous but as a relatively young player with social anxiety and a fear of being yelled at, I've yet to do a single dungeon run/raid with a group of people. Leveling is a grueling process because I have to rely solely on questing on all of my characters to progress, and even then I'm stuck with mediocre gear and a severe lack of knowledge.

I really want to queue for a random dungeon or raid to get gear that isn't just quest greens, if not just to see what it's like. But considering how low on experience with this sort of thing, I'm positive that I would mess up and get ridiculed.

I realize that I'll never get better if I don't try, but I'm not even sure if it's worth the risk anymore. Asking here might be sort of a long-shot, but does anyone have any advice? I apologize in advance for being such a child.

10/18/2012 06:59 PMPosted by Hirai

My social anxiety doesn't manifest in groups so much as it effects me when people want to be my friend or something.

^^^
This, so very much this.

I hate it when I'm questing solo and some random guy says "Hey, wanna group up for these?" and sends me an invite.

Okay, so... I don't have anything against the notion of helping, but yet... when I DO join up in a group... it screws with my Chi. It just... does. I have a particular method for doing things, and dang it if every single time I group up with some random person, they start doing the quests in a completely different order/way than I would and it feels so awkward. But yet, the person is nice and polite enough, I can't bring myself to say anything bad. I don't have anything against the person, I just...

It is just awkward. It feels weird doing quests n such with a total stranger.

I know exactly what you mean. If I'm queuing for group content I make sure I'm ready and my character is ready, so that the group has my full attention until the mission is accomplished.

But when I'm out in the world, I get really anxious about questing with others. I like to do things at my own pace, read quest/speech text, randomly decide to obsess about my inventory organization, find an amazing view to look upon in awe, refine my action bars/macros, determine I must take time to catch some fish, etc. I usually come to the conclusion that no one should be subjected to grouping with me in considerable doses, which is why I have to literally prepare myself mentally to hit any queue button! ;p

10/18/2012 07:00 PMPosted by Gesun

all the horror stories you might read about terrible or mean groups, the reality is that the large majority of the dungeon clears you're a part of will go very smoothly

not true at all

I thought about writing, "will probably go very smoothly," but there's already a big caveat in the sentence, in that "smooth" is open to interpretation. That said, it's certainly been my experience that most runs are smooth, anecdotal though that may be.

We can also review statistics on matchmade group success rates. Granted, statistics don't really reflect social behavior, but they do indicate most PvE groups randomly matched together complete the content.

And, with regard to behavior, I think it's at least safe to say that most people who queue for group content are more interested in succeeding than they are arguing with, or harassing, other players.