As information starts coming out on videos and fan sites, sanctioned by Bethesda, we're learning a lot. One of the things I find most disturbing is the revelation that grouping appears to be pointless. My wife and I always play through MMOs as a duo and we enjoy running through quests together and the efficiency of both of us getting credit for each other's contribution. But in ESO, if we are given a quest to find 4 Dwarven artifacts, collectively we will have to find 8 before we are both done with the quest. If we are given a quest to incapacitate a guard in order to open a lockbox carrying some quest item, we will have to incapacitate the guard twice, once for each of us. It also appears there are no mob locks, meaning that anyone can help kill a mob we are fighting, whether they are grouped with us or not.

So my wife and I could play through the entire game side by side, without being grouped at all, and have the same result as if we were grouped. So what, then, is the point to grouping?

You get credit for the kill even if someone else hits or kills it. Meaning you would still get loot from that mob and still get quest credit. So it really doesn't matter if someone else hits it unless you just want the enjoyment of fighting it alone or with your wife. Everyone that does significant damage to the mob gets their own loot table. That applies to quest items as well. So using your dwarven artifact scenario for example, both of you would find an artifact on the same mob so long as both of you participated in the fight.

That would also apply if you weren't in a group with her. You would be able to see her anywhere on the map, and you would have your own group chat channel. (not that you would need it with your wife if she were sitting next to you)

Groups are needed for dungeons and zone bosses. Not sure what additional perks there are for grouping, Basicly you get all the bonus's of grouping without having to be in a group. As long as you are working together. Look at it that way.

Edit: A few good things about groups that just occurred to me though are Synergies and the group UI. Synergies are very potent abilities that require a sequence of events that can only be activated by group members.

This is a bit annoying for me too to be honest.

That sounds a bit dumb... I sure hope they'll fix it, a group should be able to share objectives!

Tbh..I understand a little about the artifacts having to be collected separately, but when it comes to something like "rescuing NPC's" as a group, then something like that should be shared.

Im not sure how its actually working, but going by the videos, it would appear that the "rescue" type of situation would not be shared.

Although, when there are differences in whats shared & not shared as a group, it could get a little confusing for some players.

As I mentioned above, you share objectives whether you are in a group or not, so long as both of you participate in the fight. Everyone has their own loot table.

pickling up separate items yes it soooooooooooooo gamebreaking. ohh wait its not. everyone qit nit picking the game its amazing. tell me 1 game that doesn't have some flaws. atleast eso has small ones that don't break the game. and I played beta enough to know its AMAZING. like its a drop dead beautiful woman and im the guy that wants to play with it for hours

I hope they change this, it would be nice, but I would be content with group xp bonus, etc.

Yes, the grouping rules do need some work, I am quite surprised that they are as bad as they are currently.

That only works for objectives that are fights. And like you mention, you have to participate in the fight too. In a 4-man group I can see some monsters dying before one person has a chance to help kill it. Then wait for respawn? That seems akward.

Anyway, this is opinion based only on what I've seen and read, I'll wait till I get a chance to play in a group before forming my final opinion. But it certainly doesn't look too good.

Anyone who is in on the kill will get a drop.

One of the best ways to test out weapon combos and new powers, is to camp a spawn point and get in on the little boss kills. It may irritate or even please the spawn trigger but it does allow you to try different things on the same boss, making it easy to see what does and does not work and how they work together.

I wonder if the collection side of grouping is bugged due to beta? I've never known a mmo to do that off that top of my head.

I love this game and will be playing it. but this was without a doubt the area that needed the most improvement. and I made It known in my feedback and survey.

So the only problem in grouping is that

If I am with people playing there is no phasing in "dungeons" and also that I have to pick my own "apples" I can live with it

but don't get me wrong I agree grouping needs a little tweaking it's not broken but it needs tweaking so we get .f.e Quest cleared if all in the group get the needed "apples"

Phasing ... not bothered at least at the moment.

I'm not sure how this will work, but in WOW you both had to activate an objective, if you had to activate four objects both had to activate them but you could activate the same object, I think quest item drops was dropped for all in group so if you was grouped and both had quest, both got pelts from the bear. If you was not grouped only one pelt was dropped.

I'm don't remember how pick four object on ground worked.

I think this work pretty much the same in ESO. Something else would be strange. Worse case it you only share kills, each already got individual loot but ESO has few bring 10 bear pelt quests.

One benefit of grouping is that all get credit for all kills as long as you are in the area.

Collecting the same items I can live with, other games have done it, but if you have to wait for respawn and kill the same enemy for each person who has the quest would just bad design.

Note that this should not be an problem for instanced dungeons, public dungeons need an fast respawn rate so non grouped players can do them too.

Remember that an beta also has bugs, getting drop rates right is something who is hard to catch outside stress tests.

PVE definately needs the option to start any quest in a group of two or more players.

Sharing objectives in the group - sure why not.

But only if quest reward will be shared too. After all its not fair to reward group players twice

Solo player colect items, get 1 quest reward

4 players group colect items 4 times faster(time advantage reward) - get 4 quest reward.

Why exactly?

if anything they should get 1 quest reward for entire group

Grouping appears to be pointless - yeah, right. Try to buff somebody not in your group

I'm not so interested in getting my own loot since it appears there isn't a lot of loot anyway. And having to do twice as many quest objectives with my wife is a pain, but not a game breaker. But having to distract the same guard and wait for him to walk away before opening a lockbox, for each member of the group? C'mon, that's just not going to work. I expect that will change.

I wasn't aware of the synergies thing, that sounds exciting and certainly makes grouping worthwhile. But these other issues really should be addressed.

Not being able to pair up and jointly quest is a mistake I think. Friends and couples like to play the game together without being phased apart or forced to do the quests twice or have to interact twice with npc's. I know people who were very interested in Teso but are sticking with the game they are in purely because it does social questing.

grouping is for harder content

the normal single player quests are just that, single player.

and why would your quests be.. shared like that ? making quests shared like that makes them quests trivial imo. altho the incapacitating a guard thing could be shared, but the collectibles not.

Yeah, I always wondered why not a single mmo (to my knowledge) got this group questing right.

In eso though some quest-objectives actually are shared but some others sadly are not.

It was also my main critique in the survey, having said that there are some minor advantages to grouping though,

you get a small exp bonus (afaik) and I think the droprate is very very slightly increased?