Save yourself a lot of headaches and find new friends with the best LFG sites out there.

You’ve conquered Level 40, fought tooth and nail to attain Light level 290. You are looking to raid, my friend, and the age-old issue of match-made raid (and indeed nightfall) teams is flagged anew. Instead of hitting the community forums to become the umpteenth person asking why oh why – we’ll briefly explain again anyhow – save the angst and hit one of these ‘Looking for Group’ links.

No Matchmaking for Nightfalls or Raids for a good reason!

Nightfall strikes and raids are the highest level activities available in Destiny. The majority of players need the support of a full team; be this three for the nightfall or six for the raid, to succeed. It’s how the missions have been constructed and balanced, especially for the raids that also require a lot of communication. The reason that there needs to be organisation, as opposed to randomly grouping players together, is you’re better off knowing individual experience levels, the collective appropriate gear, roughly the time folks have available to commit and what exactly it is you’re aiming to achieve. The day Bungie launches match-making for nightfalls and raids is the day they won’t be worth doing.

THE 100

Insta-clan! Well, that’s the theory and it seems to work. Mike LaPeter’s The100 is smart because it recognises the most common parameters that affect your involvement, working more like a dating site than standard LFG/LFM. Its secret sauce is the function that allows Guardians to schedule games in advance with as close to likeminded fireteams as possible. It’s all based on age, serious or casual and – the big one as far as we’re concerned – time zone. The age thing, almost all by itself, suggests lifestyle considerations that straightforward LFG/LFM doesn’t allude to. After submitting your info, you are added to a group of 100 players. It’s the next best thing to networking for real. The100 also runs a Division matchmaking service in partnership with VG247.

DestinyLFG.Net

This was the first, and remains the straightest-to-the-point service there is among the top LFG sites. After verifying your gamertag just choose your platform, region, preferred language and activity – from what looks to be everything that’s possible – from simple drop-down menus. You can then choose Looking for Group (tag along to somebody else’s team), Looking for Members (recruit a specified number to complete your own team) or hit All if you’re out on a limb. It’s as impersonal as can be until you start messaging the guys that have posted on there under your chosen criteria. But that’s the beauty of DestinyLFG.net, after that you stand or fall on interpersonal skills (or just skills).

DestinyLFG.com

In the days when Icebreaker was still awesome, Bungie community manager DeeJ interviewed newcomers DestinyLFG.com. Created by Brock Busby, a self proclaimed MMO enthusiast, the site makes the initial search more refined to prevent time wasted quizzing guys via PM. Brock explained: “My site gives people the ability to pick and choose a pre-made group: specific classes, levels, access to a mic, or any reason to achieve success. It lets Raid leaders strategize and pick the team they desire. The other positive is that my site keeps people honest and reputable. If I post my name or I build a group, people are more likely to play well, communicate and less likely to drop out.”

DestinyGAF

“DestinyGAF is a Destiny clan & group for GAF members, by GAF members. We are the start of what will become an evolving community for the Destiny series as a whole. This thread is for discussion of anything and everything DestinyGAF.” Born of the enduringly popular and insider-informed online gaming discussion, DestinyGAF requires that you sign up and are accepted as a member of NeoGaf, a process that can take a few weeks for approval. To remain a member you need to be on your best behaviour… don’t pretend to have knowledge that you don’t have, or attempt to derail discussions (even if they seem silly to you). If you can manage this, DestinyGAF is a 2100+ strong clan worth knowing.

Tracker Raid Finder

You may already have used Destiny Tracker for wayward Ghosts and missing Calcified Fragments, it’s so amazingly effective at this there’s barely any competition out there. We don’t mind at all how it spies on gamertag/PSN ID details to even know all this stuff. The site’s Raid Finder is not much more than a bulletin board, which you need to sign up to of course in order to post comments, but since you could argue that this site is everything that you could need under one roof, you might enjoy its rough and readiness. Unlike DestinyGAF, the moderating isn’t nearly as tight. You’ll basically browse a bunch of guys that are trying to get a job done right there and then. Honesty is the best policy.

Reddit Destiny

Reddit needs no introduction as the source of credible (or bust) information related to almost anything worth discussing. If you’re a Guardian who’s sinking untold hours into Destiny, and take pride in running the best strategies and investigating the rest just in case, r/Fireteams is likely for you. The upside is that you’ll get a sense of the team you’re tagging along with or trying to assemble via the posts of a ferociously attentive community. And while you’re waiting you can chip in on other threads such as an example in front of us right now: Destiny friends for my kids. The downside is that attempts to gather a group of people can easily get sidetracked and lost in the relentless cascade.

Good luck getting that raid team together, Guardian. The best thing really is to gather your friends together for the event, even if it might take a couple of weeks to organise at first. It’s like organising five-a-side or a great night out. Generally the Destiny community at large is good people though. Don’t be a dick, and you’ll be fine. Ignore this golden rule and you deserve to be on your own, innit.

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