How to use the LFG/LFM interface

Can't find a pick-up group for your toon's very first Deadmines run? Need help with Heroic Slave Pens to finally get your ? WoW's built in Looking For Group tool can help.

Many people have missed out on valuable instance runs because they do not understand the Looking For Group/Looking For More interface. The tool itself does a marvellous job, but it is so bone-headedly unintuitive that you would not know this until someone pointed it out to you with an. So, as a public service, please read this handy guide for using the Looking For Group/Looking For More interface.

Starting
To open the Looking For Group/Looking For More interface click on the appropriate icon on the icon bar or use the "I" key.

The big buttons that lead you to the Looking For Group and Looking For More tabs do exactly that; they do not change the behaviour of the tool. Just choose between the Looking For Group and Looking For More tab as needed.

Turn off Auto Join in the Looking For Group tab and Auto Add Members in the Looking For More tab. Having these options on would put you in a group or add members automatically, like meeting stones used to do. Real people do not like being matched with strangers, they want to see who is joining or who they are joining.

Looking For Group tab
Only bother with Looking For Group if you are really flexible about where you want to go and want to signal your availability for many different options. This is like posting "LFG Stratholme, Scholomance, Upper Blackrock Spire" in a chat window. If you are more focused, the Looking For More tab can provide greater flexibility than the Looking For Group tab when forming a group for one specific instance.

Looking For More tab
Regardless of whether you are forming a group or want to join an existing group, go to the Looking For More tab. Choose the type of instance you are after and the name, for example "Dungeon" and "Stratholme." The choices available on the list are fixed, based on your level and on the minimum and recommended levels for each instance. In other words, you cannot use the Looking For Group/Looking For More tool to advertise your top-level character for paid runs through Stockade — you can  to trawl the chat channel manually. Remember to watch the instance type as well, for example Lower Blackrock Spire is in Dungeons and Upper Blackrock Spire is in Raids.

Depending on how busy it is you will see a set of names listed. Those with crowns are leaders of partly formed groups, and those without crowns are individuals wanting to join a group for that instance. Hovering your mouse over a party leader shows you the names, classes, and levels of all the members so you know exactly what the group is like.

If you are looking for a group, find a group that suits you and message the leader for an invite. Alternatively you can build your own group by finding individuals that suit you and message them to offer them a place. If you are a group leader who is looking for more, bear in mind that some individuals on the list are just browsing, or waiting for their guildies to log on, so you will get turned down a lot - just be patient and keep looking.

Use the comment field to indicate something about yourself or the group. For example, a comment on an individual might be "Have T2 set, wanting item XYZ only." A comment on a group might be "Supreme Raiders + PuG, PuG get 10 DKP."

Talking to a player on the list is made easy by the Send Message button. Select a character on the list and click this button to start a whisper chat. It has the same effect as the  command, where &lt;name&gt; is the selected player.

The Group Invite button invites the selected player to join you in a group. It has the same effect as the  command, where &lt;name&gt; is the selected player.

Quitting
If you close the window, the tool will continue to advertise your Looking For Group or Looking For More status. If you do not want that (for Looking For Group mostly you will not, and for Looking For More mostly you will) turn your preferences back to "None" in all the appropriate fields before you close.

Limitations and workarounds
As useful as the LFG interface is, it does come with one inconvenience: if your character is a higher level than the level bracket of your desired instance (for example, if your level 36 character wants to join a Stockade run), you will not be able to select that instance from the list. One way to circumvent this is by selecting a dungeon from the drop-down menu (even if you do not want to attempt it at that moment in time) and adding "LFG (your desired dungeon)" in the comment bar. Also, you can check if other players currently looking for different dungeons have also listed your dungeon among their options. Finally, the interface still doesn't prevent you from spamming "LFG (dungeon)" in both LookingForGroup and Trade chat channels, so feel free to do so while waiting for your group to come together.